kitwilliams

Thank you, Dan, for that terrific explanation (except I would have liked it if you had divulged the name of the town to which you were referring! I suppose I can narrow it down to somewhere in the UK?!!) And this supports my pet peeve as, like Wendy, no one ever explained the puff pastry process as Dan did above! Once again, aaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhh!

The minute I saw Dan's name as the last poster, I knew this thread might be getting even more interesting!!! With regard to adding flour to the beurrage, could someone (Dan?) please explain why this is done? It seems to me that it would be defeating the whole purpose: I would think adding flour would absorb the water in the butter, creating less steam and, therefore, less rise in your final product. I never add flour to my beurrage, for croissant or puff pastry as 1) I'm lazy; and 2) I feel it is indeed an unnecessary step for I get beautiful results in my croissants and puff pastry items. I'd be very interested in hearing other opinions and why you do what you do! This is the perfect example of one of my pet peeves: being told to do something a certain way yet not receiving an explanation as to why I should do it that particular way. aaaaarrrrrrggggghhhh.

A veterinarian? All kidding aside, the French manage to package duck and goose fat...is there any chance they've figured out a way to package the blood? Here in the States, Normandy butters are, of course, too pricey. I use Plugra (American made but with the higher fat content found in European butters) and I love it, but would love to have the cultured flavor found in Normandy butters. Do you think this might have been part of the difference you found in the Baker & Spice puff pastry...perhaps they are simply using a sweet cream butter and not a cultured butter?

That duck tourte is a thing of beauty, Moby! Once the weather cools down, I'm going to take a stab at it. And terrific demo. What kind of butter do you find easiest to work with/best flavor for your puff pastry?

What's the weather like? Is it still too warm for dishes such as Bangers & Mash or Toad in the Hole? Mmmmm. Mushy peas. Parsnip Pie, which has made parsnip lovers of everyone I've ever fed it to, is posted on recipe gullet. It's a great side dish. Salmon and Leeks. Cauliflower Cheese. Meringues with cream or ice cream or fruit is something I always love. But a steamed Sticky Toffee Pudding would be my favorite dessert. With custard sauce as well as the toffee sauce! Or Rhubarb Crumble. Pimm's before lunch. Port after!

passionfruit curd and peach tart. it was lovely to look at, too. one of these days i'll get that digital camera. now i have to go post on the "what's for breakfast" thread because i had it for breakfast too!

Terrific cake, Wendy. Terrific EVERYTHING to all who've posted photos here! With a red dragon like that and the name "Dylan", he's got to be Welsh! Iechyd da !!!

Did I dream it or is this true: that in France, croissants are not curved if they are all-butter, crescent shaped only if they contain at least a percentage of some other fat? For what it's worth, I don't do the crescent shape.

May I retract my last post? My darling friends just brought me a bagful of passionfruit. They are yellow and nothing like the dark, purply-brownish fruits with which I'm familiar. Opened one up to find a kind of fluffy, white, dry membrane with a bunch of small, dark red seed pods. Not much taste, no juice, oh-so-disappointing! So, I've learned that all passionfruit are not created equal. Did a lot of googling and found this. So, Marlena, don't come over to my house for passionfruit. And Chris...do you have one of the varieties of purple passionfruit? Still hopeful...

Thanks for the offers, Chris and Michelle, but, oddly enough, I took some of my not quite complete passionfruit curd to a friend who I knew would enjoy it. I explained to him that it wasn't perfect, as it should have some fresh pulp stirred into it. He started laughing and told me they have a humongous passionfruit crop right now! I had no idea! So I've found my local source, almost in my own backyard! Thanks for the offers...Michelle, if there had been an airline ticket involved, I might have taken you up on your offer! Thanks again! edited to ask: Marlena: are you in southern California??? If so, I might be willing to share!

Thanks to both mjc and neil! Finally! I have copper on the way! I use Paula Wolfert's recipe and I look forward to seeing how much better they will undoubtedly be when baked in copper.

ooh, Patrick! your last shot looks more my style: dark and crispy, dense, chewy crust. your previous ones would have been too pale for my taste. as for variations, well, i'm a stickler for tradition! so my question is about copper molds. i'm ready to invest. who currently has the best price (i've looked at matfer, bridge, and pastrychef.com)? i should've bought them a few years ago when they were $12 each! Now they're upwards of $18 (just looked at one website where they were $45!!!). and are there various manufactuerers? if so, who makes the best? any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

Well, it's not like I'm going to die if I don't have it but I truly am in need of fresh passionfruit. Now. I know they are out there, perhaps not in abundance, but they are around. Point me in the right direction, if you can! Thanks.

add me to the list of hopefuls looking for some, shall we say, new ideas? reminds me of a dinner party i gave when living in London. I was at the sink, peeling potatoes. A friend told me that women through the ages have always been very vulnerable in that position. that was also the evening i learned that the brits do not associate the word "toss" with salad... and to continue, it was AFTER that dinner of red beans & rice and a well "tossed" salad that one of my guests told me that as much as he loved the dinner, he'd never eat red beans and rice again. when asked why, he said, "My bum was in TATTERS!" ahhhh. i miss london... so to make this post legal (if johnsmith's intent is NOT what most of us assumed it to be and my post is totally off-topic), yes...go for Larousse!

"Fool". I've always used jams and preserves when making fools which can be easily substituted in the recipes linked. Also, substituting yogurt for part of the cream adds a nice tang to your fool!

I can't emphasize enough how fabulous the insulin pump is. I've had Type I for twenty-five years now and have had a pump for the last twelve years. Just got the latest edition from MiniMed/Medtronic, called the Paradigm. Each pump has better functions than the last and this one is absolutely terrific. It has a companion glucose meter which "talks" to the pump: when you test your blood sugar, the meter sends a signal to the pump and your blood glucose level shows up on the screen of the pump. You then tell it how many grams of carbs you're about to eat and the pump calculates how much insulin you need to cover it. That's the simple version of what it does... I will write more later, but it would be so great to see both Suzi's daughter and husband starting on and learning the pump together. You have no idea how it frees up your life. It works on regular insulin alone, no long-acting, which eliminates the peaking of insulin at certain times and the need to eat at those times. With regular insulin, you can even skip meals (not good for kids to know about but convenient for adults most certainly!). Must log off now, but if anyone wants to speak to me further about this, I'm always happy to share pump information. It makes life with this disease much more normal.

Carnitas tacos at a divey little cafe by the mercado on Gage Avenue near Alameda in South LA. I was driving a friend to the Mini Cooper dealership to pick up his yellow convertible mini. very fun. but lunch beforehand was delicious with moist, tender and very flavorful carnitas tacos...just enough pork fat to create a drip on my chin.

terrasanct: you can use any slightly rich white bread dough. this is one i've used (with a few minor changes and my own streusel recipe, which i prefer) from Mennonite Foods & Folkways from South Russia, by Norma Jost Voth. bread and fruit, simple and good. Yeasted Plaut 1/2 cup whole milk 1/2 cup cream 2 oz/58g butter 3-1/2 oz/100g sugar 1/2 tsp salt 1 Tbsp/14g active dry yeast 1 tsp sugar 1/4 cup lukewarm water 1 egg 3-3/4 to 4 cups/590g bread flour Heat milk, cream butter, sugar and salt until sugar is dissolved. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast and the 1 tsp sugar in the warm water. Set aside until active and bubbly. Beat your egg in the mixing bowl. Add both the yeast and the lukewarm milk mixture to egg. Add about 3 cups of the flour and mix with paddle for five minutes. Add more flour as needed until dough is no longer sticky. Switch to dough hook (or knead by hand) for five to eight minutes. Place in greased bowl, cover with plastic and leave to rise in warm spot for one and a half hours. Roll dough out to fit a 1/2 sheet pan (or can be split in 3 and put each piece in a 9" round cake pan). Cover and let rise for half an hour. Lay your sliced fruit in rows, overlapping as you go. Cover with: Streusel 3 oz butter 3/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup flour Mix together until crumbly and sprinkle evenly over fruit. You can add a little cinnamon or nutmeg or any spice that will complement whatever fruit you are using. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 35-40 minutes for the large plaut, 30 minutes if baking in three round tins. I also love rhubarb plaut and plum plaut or pluot plaut (say THAT fast three times!), and it's so nice when the seasons change...apples, sour cherries, pears... A more dessert-like plaut is made on a pastry crust or sometimes on a biscuit-like dough. Edited to say don't slice your fruit too thin...you want a good ratio of fruit to bread.

peach ice cream or, if no ice cream freezer, peach milkshakes. two crust, baked peach pie. only dessert? how about breakfast? peach plaut. it is a mennonite pastry. basically a slightly rich yeast dough, rolled flat onto a sheet pan. cover with overlapping sliced peaches, drizzle with a little heavy cream, top with a streusel topping and bake. i just five minutes ago had a bowl of sliced peaches with Jersey Cream Yogurt from Trader Joe's. delicious.

for work, i like my heavy-duty, stainless steel Vollrath bowls. i'm with lancastermike and others who appreciate their versatility. for eggs at home, i like my old TG Green creamware pudding basins which i've picked up all over the UK. teeny tiny to huge sizes. they're so beautiful. i have pyrex too, however the s/s is satisfactory for work and the pudding basins satisfy my aesthetic needs as well as my feeling that i really should have been born about one hundred and fifty years ago and done all my baking/cooking with big, crockery bowls and wooden spoons! i wish i could use them at work, however the caterers who use my space on the weekends tend to think that my ingredients and equipment are there for their personal use so i prefer to keep them safe at home.

Sounds like this should belong on the "eGullet Calendar and Events Policy revisited" thread.

hopefully, hershey will buy larger quantities of the same high quality beans scharffen berger utilizes at a lower price and the quality remains the same but prices go down! outrageously optimistic? me?

Best filling I ever made for a wedding cake was a passionfruit mousse. They're still talking about it. I can't recommend that flavor enough. Go for it! (You've probably received more advice and opinions than you wanted!)

Thanks, jackal, for clarifying that for me...I can't remember if someone misinformed me or if I simply assumed wrong!

I'm of a mind with the TEA people. Bara Brith (Welsh for "speckled bread") is a wonderful fruit bread (there are both non- and yeasted varieties and it is similar to all the English fruit breads as well as the Irish Barm Brack) and I have a hard time keeping myself from drinking the sweet, cold, fruity tea after soaking dried tart cherries, currants, apricots and raisins overnight. It is, after all, needed as the liquid in the bread.