K8memphis

One of the recipes in the Shotts book for banana truffles has you make caramel shards. You process it food processor. After adding to truffles it give a caramel taste but the moist seems soften it. I made this & you don't have any sense that the shards were in the truffle. ← But you could taste it in there?

Question for you, a coupla questions actually. How many people are you expecting? This is an indoor reception I hope. Have you made a wedding cake before? I know you are a pastry chef, but we all have our areas of expertise. Do you have a dedicated* place to store your sugar baby for several days during 'delivery'? *Free from fresh cut onions and pickle relish?

Far beyond absolutely amazing. Caulifower clouds and all. The air balloons! The underwater scene!

But seriously, you want to do it in such a way that it does not stress you out. Getting married is time consuming and a lot of energy goes into the event. (So be sure to eat well and rest properly too.) But you want to plan the cake to the letter and crumb so it can be a controlled thing and not freak anyone out.

We've been married for 29 years and I made my wedding cake...so it all depends on how you look at it if it's bad luck or not. Edited to say: I just read this to my husband and he said, "Yeah."

Well my only observation for you is that often commercial ovens need commercial hook ups. Most often you cannot just install them into residential outlets that are already in place. So you would want to clear that with all the powers that be. That your home is rated properly for the extra energy coming into it and going into the oven. That the commercial hookups can be installed if they are needed. Another factor is that commercial equipment (in America anyway) is built to go under the fire hoods and chemical sprinkler systems. So those are some areas I would consider before purchasing. But the closest I've gotten to Europe it that my kids have been there. So that's what I know about trying to do that in America. Fwiw. I'm excited about your new dishwasher!!! And a new oven and stainless steel table tops sound aweseme too. Edited to say: I have two commercial ovens, gass and electric that have never been hooked up in my home due to zoning issues. They attract clutter like magnets as well as have become handsome dust collectors.

This is a bit of preaching to the proverbial choir but there's a new study that speaks to the carbs beget carb cravings dealie we've been discussing. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080118/hl_nm/diets_dc That's the link and here's the gist of it. So there's a study being published that supports the carbs begat carbs dealie that we knew was true all along.

That's a very interesting formula and I've printed if off for a later date. My only comment is to add the vanilla after everything cools off. The flavor will about cook away if you boil it three minutes in the first go 'round there. And I think I would tweak some other areas when I make this but the vanilla is the only biggie. But this looks very promising. (I made some Guinness brownies because our little Chef-boy is visiting with us. So guess what I had 3 of for breakfast??!! (#%$@) Talk about begatting. Y'know carbs can begat carbs all day but sugar is a dang black hole you can't find your way back out of...wonder how many are left...) Edited to say: But no, I mean I'm being very conservative here. I'm only eating the top half with the white chocolate frosting.

I love stuff like this. Meatball tires and wheels are a great idea. So the following is just pure brainstorming--cafeteria style take it or leave it--just put in an idea and a quarter and all this pops out... Sometimes when I do stuff like this I just do a nice logo that would sit on top of a pasta salad or something. Like at work I did the company logo out of a tomato I think and I know I've used peppers to carve logos. So what I'm thinking here is to umm, find a nice eggplant and carve a tire shape out of the end of it--it's so nice & dark and is kind of tire-ish as is. You could take a knife and score it around to mimic tire treads. You could use pretzels for the spokes or umm a sculpted fried potato for the rim or You could use the ends of cucumbers instead of an eggplant too. Checkered flag would be cool. Again I'd go with the leftover eggplant and maybe the inside of the cukes to do the flag. Y'know, any two things cubed and one of them being white would mimic a checkered flag. I think in pastry and I keep wanting to say licorice but you are talking savory. So I'm trying to keep the language barrier in mind and stay savory. But you gotta know how utterly beautiful doughnuts would be on this. Or or or bagels! Take a half a bagel and lightly score it like you'd score a ham in both directions even just toast it ever so carefully and you'd have some great tires. I mean some stuff could be eaten and some stuff is just for decor. I think I would call the meatballs the spectators (no offense I mean the food). I was trying to think of what is dotted at a car race--I was thinking about the lines on the tracks but no, all the little spectator heads are like so many meatballs floating in the crock pot. You could do a bang up job with eyeballs and hats and...I mean I'm just purely brainstorming. Meatball tires is a great idea. But does celery float? If you could cut long strips of celery and have that be the bleachers and line up the meatballs in the crock pot in between the celery strips...like just for presentation... No no no I got it!!! Pate choux!!! Pate choux is the bombshabomb for stuff like this. Umm, just pipe tires and bake 'em. You can use them for making spectator (meatball) sandwiches!!! It's all savory. Just don't put sugar in the pate choux. I wonder if you could get the tire treads to bake in. For meat tires, I'd do flat skinny hamburgers with a hole . While you may now be sorry you asked, there it is.

Y'know a suggestion I have is to play with that visual texture texture texture. Anybody can dip, ie dunk a waffle in choco and that's way cool. But how about just pipe dots of chocolate into the bottom of the grooves for a great contrast. How about pipe choco on the top of the criss cross of the waffle and put stuff in the holes. Like fruit or mousse or nothing even or umm, candied nuts or fruit rind. Oooh, umm y'know how a waffle can have the little dots of batter sticking out around it like stubby wheel spokes, those would be cool dipped. So would those be considered firm or waffling thoughts?

What about less gooey napoleons? The ones I've been around have been rather heavy and gloppy gooey but maybe a more tamed down verison? Maybe kinda high maintenance item though. But a brick pastry thought nonetheless. But what about a carmel sandwich cookie. There's a recipe in Regan Daley's In the Sweet Kitchen I've been wanting to make. I could email it to yah. I love mini anything. I would make some minis.

Y'know. HBK, this is such an issue. We KNOW we feel better, we look better, we sleep better, we think better, but that resistance is futile tractor beam lock onto sugar especially and the crack cocaine lure of carbs is just effin remarkable, insurmountable sometimes. I mean I've gone many months over a year 'being good' and then dot dot dot Why why why why why why why? Is not that thought so intriguing? We are all around better better better for eating the way we flat out know is right for us and yet oddly squared (oddly x oddly) we don't do it. Intrigue of intrigues

It's a little easier to swallow (<gulp> pun intended knowing that for one thing the idea originated in a foreign country, Nigeria. Well her idea for it to happen here. I mean my father-in-law did work in Nigeria and I was always flat amazed at the incredible differences in the cultures. And secondly that she does get a sculpture out of it. I like the idea of it not being dismantled but that it is the topper that can be kept forever. The life-sizedness is a little daunting to me, but the explanation really helped. Oh and the pictures of the reception, they looked over posed I think that's why the bride & groom look so wide eyed and startled a bit. It's like the photos were snapped right when they were too tired to hold the original pose any longer. I recognize it because that's when the majority of photos of me get snapped. I do not know why there's orange rick rack down the side of the cake trimming the veil. The orange rick rack is not working for me. I'm sure there's a good reason though. But again I'm glad she got what she wanted. So did he get a life size topper too? Or may be just his sculpture?

Well good. I'm glad the confusion was cleared up. You had mentioned adding more batter as in a second or third batch and I think I see what you mean and I agree with the explanation. So then are your first pancakes runts? It would seem so if your heat is under 300 degrees? I was reading up on pancaking and though I haven't tried it, someone mentioned using beer as a substitute for the liquid. Which sounds like a very very good idea.

First attempt ? First smashing success, wipe the green with envy drool off the keyboard. Wowzers. How you gonna follow that one up. Whe-ew. Fanny, that close up is killer! Tri2Cook, umm, candied olives? Could you, without revealing state secrets, talk about those a bit? Edited to add>> Tri2, I found your description Wow again.

I mean I'm glad the bride got what she's dreamed of all her life. The bridal cake is an illumination of the bride. I just like the cake to be more abstract. Of course abstract is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

Eew Eew Eew. While it's superb workmanship it is nonetheless every bit of odd. I think a nice oil portrait would have been more appropriate or even a non-edible sculpture. It's chilling I'm sure to eat the bride at the reception, watch her get decapitated. As well as having her stare out at you every time you open the freezer like Katie said.

There's so much untapped power in controlling your food intake for a while. This 3-day diet also balances your hydration which is how it comes to improve your skin and guts. As it's the start of the year and folks are thinking healthier in general at this time, I thought I'd toss that bone out there. No extra charge.

Wow wonderful story!! All of it. Especially the cancer free part. The pie sale. That alone is beyond tremendous. Plus a bakery/coffee shop wow wow wow. And a recipe too, what a heart! Multiplied Congratulations. <clapping hands, raised high Westward>

Non clarified butter burns at about 250 which is too low to cook pancakes. Clarified butter burns at about 400 degrees which is pretty hot for pancakes. I mean if your butter is burning, the temp was too low to begin with or it's obviously too high at over 400 degrees. With a steady flame the surface heat increases on any empty pan. It will eventually warp it. If the temperature of the pan remained constant it would be cycling off and on like an electric skillet for example. I could not walk away from my empty pre-heated cast iron griddle for five minutes and not have ill-cooked or burnt pancakes when I returned. I don't use butter to cook pancakes. The batter makes all the difference in controlling the heat and mastering the art of making pancakes over a non-cycling heat source.

Ok one packet of dry yeast is one quarter of an ounce US. Stick of oleo would be four ounces.

A stick of oleo is a half cup US measure. Butter or shortening can be used in place of oleo. The issue is that butter contains water and oleo and shortening do not contain water so you be the judge. There's aleady a lot of liquid in there. The amount of yeast in my dry packet is closer to two teaspoons rather than a full tablespoon which is three teaspoons. I always thought it was a full tablespoon but I just measured it. This looks a lot like a kuchen I used to make tons of. Please let us know how it turns out.

Hell, eat the bacon throw the eggs away. That really is cool but...

There's no equilibrium without pancake batter. The only way to get equilibrium is to put something in the pan. The pan will continue to climb in temperature if nothing is put in the pan unless you turn the fire down. That's why kitchens burn down when pans are left on the stove. The temperature climbs, does not level out without something to cook. Y'know how you've seen water boil in a paper cup in science class. A lit candle is burning wax not the wick. Without the wax the wick would go poof in a second.

Over the years I've never been able to prove that seemingly reasonable hypothesis. For me it seems I need to offer up one sacrificial cake to properly season the surface. A small price to pay for great cakes to follow. Because when you overheat enough to maintain temperature when the first cold cake batter hits, you've nuked your fat. No? Or the teflon starts smoking. <choke> It is a mini-pas de deux of the pan cooling and heating and cooling and heating pour moi. The batter cools, the pancakes bake, get flipped, are removed from the pan and if your heat is right the pan quickly overheats here if you don't douse it with the next batch of cool batter. I mean once you hit the sweet spot you can't be diddling around. You gotta keep the batter flowing or the heat goes off kilter and you've overheated the pan and interupted the whole cosmic flow. Besides that's where the magic happens, where you can brown the devil out of each side and ramp up that crispy sweetness but still cook it through retaining all the fragrant steamy moisture inside. This is not a simple thing at all. Ok, like if you make all silver dollar size pancakes, that might work, but not regular size. And silver dollar size are not user friendly. Far too much flipping.