Franci

Anybody already talked about the Crispy Crunchy Mochi Rice Nuggets? My kids love them! Me too...

I will report back and let you know. Thanks!

I'll try swiss meringue with freeze dried fruit powder? Jeanne, thanks. I don't like very much the taste of margarine in general, maybe there are brands better than others? Any preference? Thanks

I tried to avoid cupcakes as much as I could. But having a girl in kindergarten doesn't help I do not like the most of the cupcakes that are brought to school. My daughter and many kids just eat the frosting an don't even touch the cupcake. I have in mind some good tasting icings but one kid in class has a severe dairy allergy. Can you help out with a recipe for icing that doesn't involve dairy, which doesn't taste pure sugar (or shortening)? I have a recipe that I could use for the cupcakes that is made with oil and orange juice that is very moist and I like, not sure about the top. Maybe just a royal icing?

Daughter's birthday is approaching and I am thinking about something not too complicated...I like the idea of very cute little rolls 10g of dough

Shell of puff pastry, very thin layer of sponge soaked in simple syrup flavored with limoncello, pastry cream and cubed soaked sponge cake.

Today is the first galette des rois of the season...I made some mini galettes and a bigger one. It's the recipe from Mercotte website including the puff pastry. I found my new favourite recipe

@Kerry Beal that sticky toffee pudding looks so go! It's since I left London that I've not had one... Looking for time to make it!

It is mostly gone. We have some of the roof and the base left. But it's so good that my kids keep snacking on it. It's not the classical American gingerbread house, it's a British recipe with golden syrup and butter, no eggs and just some ground ginger.

Also this year, gingerbread house with the kids

@Wholemeal Crank if you go inside the Milan's Cathedral, for examples, she says it's 1:350 . It was about 13 pounds of short pastry and 140 hours of work!

I know these houses are not gingerbread houses but I am so impressed with the work or this pastry chef and architect that I had to share. Click This year I'll make my traditional house for my son and for my daughter, since I'm not sure her teacher wants a gingerbread house for her class, I'll make a smaller short pastry house.

@kayb of course and thank you @Porthos!

@JoNorvelleWalker At a certain point I'll start working on it. Not yet the right time for it. Maybe after the holidays I can send you a couple samples and to Shelby as well :-)))

Thank you, guys! Hopefully more articles to come :-)

There is a commercial Italian product by Findus that is called "sofficini". I've happened to have a Brazilian/Japanese friend that introduced me to these fried pastries and wow, I've found the commercial sofficini. These things are coated with breadcrumb but maybe not your case, you can still try it. And pate a choux in fried doughs are a classic all around, in spanish croquettas or also in the French pomme dauphine (that is made with pureed potatoes and pate a choux). I've two recipes tried with my Brazilian friend: Risoles 120 g flour 200 g milk 1 tablespoon butter pinch of salt Mix everything on the stove until a ball forms and it's no more sticky. Let it cool before rolling with some flour. For the coxinha I've this Coxinha ½ liter milk 250 g flour 25 g butter a pinch of salt 1/2 cube chicken buillon My notes here say to boil the milk with the buillon and butter and drop the flour at once. Cook as before. I've done multiple times the risoles but only once the coxinhas As an Italian, I can tell you that besides the commercial product I'm talking about I don't think this is very much used method, and also here is a guessing. Good luck. I'm not sure it's what you are looking for but surely it makes a tasty dough.

Just a thought. Have you tried dough used for Brazilian rissoles or coxihnas? No egg in there and the dough is previously cooked like a panade.

Just the other day, my son came back from school and was telling me that some kids brought to school cotton candy for a birthday. His words were: it was the most disgusting grape ever!

In the South of Italy, there are no fresh beets to be found. The only option, my Northerner mom had to eat beets, was cooked under vacuum. I grew up despising beets until I had fresh ones. In many vegetables markets in the North of Italy you can find wood oven roasted beets (also onions are sold like that), they are big, tender and flavorful. To me, except some occasions, those are better than all the sous vide, CSO, pcooked, oven roasted beets I've cooked.

This is basically how Italians do their "pasta frolla" in general (there is long classification of kinds of short pastries) and it's also how I was thought pate sucree while I was a student at the French Culinary Institute. It's funny how what the italian call a sablee is totally different

For this one, I was trying to replicate the very famous cake from Biscottificio Mattei in Prato (the most famous biscotti or cantuccini for the Italians) and so I came up with these numbers 130 g yolks (just because I've always extra yolks) 70 g egg whites (you can adjust this proportion a bit but use at least 80 g yolks) 150 g sugar (divided, keep some for the whites) 150 g butter (softened) vanilla/lemon oil 170 g cake flour pinch of salt bakers ammonia (the tip of a knife, but most recipes use a very small amount of baking powder and many others included the Artusi, none) almond and optional pine nuts for the topping Whip the yolks with the sugar, add little by little the soft and cold butter, then alternate the flour with the meringue without deflating it

Very nice, I'll make it again with a larger pan to have more of the crunchy topping

torta mantovana that, despite the name, is a specialty from Prato in Tuscany. We are going to cut it later

I admit, I only read a couple recipes of MH. I met her once, she was visiting the French Culinary when I was a student and we talked about the food of my region. Well, I was perplex. I think not having a language barrier makes life much simpler. Going back on track, I think the books I've cooked the most have been the one from Jennifer McLagan. She knows her stuff, never found her condescending, her recipes are truly tested and I like them a lot. I don't enjoy complicated foods but very straightforward good food. And I love offals, fats and bones and bitter flavors! And I also cooked tons from Repailles from Stéphane Reynaud. I love his humor. But I was living on the French Riviera. It's very difficult (as people noticed in the reviews on Amazon) to make his recipes out of France. I challenge anybody in North America to cook pied et paquets To be honest, also many of the recipe of Jennifer McLagan are a bit difficult here in the States. And when I have time to kill, I enjoy some of Ottolenghi things, not all of it but a lot of interesting things.