JSkilling

They are dark on my screen as well so we'll just have to imagine them as pale as the WS ones.... Did you just use extract to flavor the batch? And then did you swirl the color in after you put them in the pan or while they were on their final spin in the mixer?

I'm coming the conclusion that these will likely need to be molded with smaller sections of marshmallow. How about even in a mini muffin tin? Another way might be to just layer the caramel and marshmallow and cut or roll. You know those sort of spiral caramel candies with a swath of something white in the middle. I bet if you used thin layers you could then roll them up like a roulade and slice. Not the same look but they'd be pretty. I don't know about the lavendar but the passionfruit puree ones I made today were a hit.

I haven't done this before, so I imagine I'll be doing some experimentation with the caramel before I get it right. I'm thinking maybe freeze the marshmallows first to firm them. I'll at least try to cover/dip them with warm caramel, but if that doesn't work (if the warmth mushifies the marshmallows), I'll cool the caramel first, cut it out into squares and then stretch the squares by hand into a sheet that I can wrap around the marshmallows. ← Here's a picture from WS catalogue that shows marshmallow enrobed in caramel. http://ww2.williams-sonoma.com/cat/pip.cfm...79493&cmsrc=sch

I have not made the raspberry tart on page 97 of the Chocolate book but I have made the ganache separately and find it quite nice. It's rich and molten when barely baked and when chilled it's very creamy and truffle like. I almost like it better cold since it's so smooth. This ganache is the same recipe used in the Desserts book (don't have the book in front of me) for the molten cake with an avocado and something sauce with bananas and for a chocolate banana tart made much like the raspberry one. I made it with the habanero chile slice but really if you are going to give it a chile hit it needs to be more like the whole thing, unless my chiles were just not hot enough. I love that heat coming through the chocolate with the caramelized bananas...

I'll make these next ( but if you are a 4 1/2 yo twin girl in my house you call them "mocha mellies.") The vanilla ones were superb and especially good on a wooden skewer and lightly toasted over the stove and then stuffed into your mouth. Yum... Also good dipped in chocolate. I saw a recipe for 5 spice powder marshamallows and thought those would be a nice combination this time of year. In the new Williams Sonoma catalogue they feature a lot of homemade marshmallow products. I liked the looks of the peppermint swirl and bet those would be very good - very pretty with the pink and white swirl pattern.

I'm in the same food chemistry is fun camp but in the end I abandoned low carb baking because I felt the results were a pale comparison to the real thing. And if I'm just substituting one "evil" ingredient for another the compromise seems to be too great. But then, I don't have to moderate sugar for my health and have the luxury of choice. If I were a severe diabetic I might not be so quick to dismiss it as something is better than nothing in many cases. That said... This sounds like an ingredient that is used more for mass production to get the most $$ out of set of ingredients as opposed to the best product. If you don't need shelf life or to extend your production costs then simply bake your ingredients, eat and enjoy. My personal experience with vital wheat gluten and wpi are that the results are too glutinous for my tastes (so I just buy something that someone else made better ). I think many of the manufacturers are using whole wheat combinations with this to get a better texture. You'll have fun experimenting, though!

I had to paint chargers gold last year so I just painted the bottom side of a clear plate and let that show through. I actually brought the gold all the way up around the beveled edge of the plate. That way no gold paint had to touch my food as the top of the plate was left alone - and thus, food grade. I'm not at all sure how your clear supports look but you can see if it will work. Josette

How about this then: stacked... tortes, that is Sort of bond like.... As a heterosexual female, I get it and think it's quirky and fun.

You have to think through how that name is going to be used: business cards, web site, internet address, invoices, press ads, answering the telephone. Take some of these ideas and practice answering the phone with "Katie takes the cake, may I help you". "KatieKate, may I help you". How hard is it to enunciate the syllables and can the other person understand what you are staying. Say it really fast like a teenager answering your phone is going to do! Marry your logo design with your name to create a brand, which will have a distinctive design feel. Do you want it to be elegant or whimsical? Depending on how you see yourself presented you might have different ideas about names. You can also search for domain name registrations to see if the various ideas you have are available for use. For $35 per year, you can reserve your name so even if you don't do anything with it, you've retained the rights to it, especially if you create something very unique and brand specific. The lowercase one word is very distinctive, so with a fun tag line it would work well. You have something easy to say but you'd have more to play with in print. Using cake... as the example: cake... because life's short

Mark918, I'm a Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude FRENCH major and took maybe one potato math class in college (one potato, two potato) so who knew I'd need geometry to figure out cheesecake and algebra to get my sorbets to have the correct finished level of sugar!! And the scary thing is I just used your formula to figure out the finished volume of the next size down ring, 2.75 x 1.75 and understood it all. Scary.... Thanks so much for taking the time to figure that out for me. And the answer is... the 3" ring will yield too much for one dessert at 6.8 ounces but the 2.75" ring (w/ a 1/4" crust and filled to the top) will yield a 4.94 ounce dessert- more in line with what I'll need to serve. So I guess to figure out how much one recipe for an 8" x 2.5" cheesecake will yield in fluid ounces I can do the same thing? Then I'd know how many rings I can fill and work out the nutritional info in my software from there.... Based on a quick calculation it looks like I'd get 14 individual ring servings out of that pan, which is actually 2 more than I'd cut in slices and it will still look like a nice size dessert and present well as an individual, plated dessert. Now I'll need to figure out my labor on this and how much longer it will take me to do crusts 14 times vs 1. Pouring batter into the molds is certainly not the time factor in this. Who has time to bake anything!! I'm crunching numbers.... I better do this again in the morning and double check my math. Josette

Oh, that's it! I think that might just be the perfect size and with these I can make a crust in the bottom, pour in the batter and bake them. Do you know how many ounces each mold holds? I need to figure out yield on a recipe and make sure that this won't actually be too big a serving for my restaurant. Everything I do is nutrition controlled and I'm trying to keep desserts in a certain range.

Saw your place on Rachel Ray last night. Swanky!! I loved the gardens and the interiors were just gorgeous. Bet the food's good too!

Um, do Girl Scout Thin Mints count?

So is the difference that you have to freeze to get out of the flexipans or can they pop out just chilled? Do you have a preference for either way? It sounds like a bit more work to put them in the muffin liners and then have to tear away and torch. I plan to glaze them as you do once they are put together and pop them back into the fridge. And on a size question... Are you making them like a two bite size or more like an individual dessert size? Thanks for educating me! Josette

I need to find a production pan for mini cheesecakes and I want them round. I like straight sides and easy release so when I saw this one I thought I'd be able to find something at JBPrince, Bakedeco, Design & Realisation but no luck. http://www.goldaskitchen.com/merchant.ihtm...id=10328&step=4 I've generally done this in the small springforms but now will need to get them to more of a petit four size. Would it just be better to use a fleximold and pop them out when they are chilled? They'll have a crust so I want to be able to keep them intact. Thanks!

Thanks! I do offset the square layers in the muffin size tins both for the nice effect and for the ease of the square use. But I found in the minis that the shape was less finished so I was going with the round. Thanks for the experience on the 4 layers as best, which is what I've thought for my other fillings but just not for the apple pie with caramel in it. I'm afraid that one without a little more weight will just break in two when someone picks it up. But I'm going to try it again with the 4 layers, in a tight round shape really packed into the tin. I'd hate to have to make some with 4 layers, some with more, figure out which is which, use the right one every time. Yeah, like that will happen... I did find a nougat cutter. Not cheap... You are the best!

I had four layers with an apple pie filling and they weren't quite sturdy enough so that's why I'm going to boost them up a bit - but probably just another layer. I guess I'll need a little room for the filling! A can is a great idea. I used the bottom of a larger tart pan and just cut around it before and found it worked fine with the knife but I figured a straight cutter that I could just work by rote would be easier. I'll try both!

So can I veer off topic but ask for how to help?? I need to make 8 zillion phyllo dough mini tartlets. I think I'll need 5 or six layers of phyllo so my thought is to layer the sheets, spray and sugar each and then use a small fluted circle cutter to go all the way through the layers, leaving me with a stack to put in each of the mini muffin tins. But my first problem is the cutter I have is a cute scalloped edge but doesn't seem to be sharp enough. Is there some brand I can look at that will give me a cleaner cut? Or is there a better method that will reduce my time each week as I do these? Whatever I make I'll just freeze and use as needed. Second issue is what to bake them in. Rigid mini muffin tins or flexible pans like these http://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=1478 Thanks! Josette

Can you tell me more about the immersion blender and what it does for this process? Just moving the chocolate around so it cools more and faster?

The easiest way to measure this is to turn the sugar measurement into tablespoons and then multiply by .15 So it's: 20 x.15 = 3 tablespoons Or cheater math: 10% of 20 is 2. 20% is 4. So 15% is 3.