choux

Snickerdoodles

She is talking about just plain old caramelized sugar, which can be used for making spun sugar or cages, like she says. If you try making spun sugar with a dark caramel it will be soft ans won't hold its shape. It's when you add another liquid to the caramel that you need to cook it higher to drive off the water to make it firmer. You can make caramel candies made from light caramel and from dark caramel, it just depends on when you add the cream to stop the caramelizaton process. Then you cook that mix to the desired firmness.

Anna, I think where some of your confusion is coming from is that 'caramel' can refer to 2 different things. There is caramel as in just plain caramelized sugar, nothing else added. This is when it will be firmer at lower temps, probably about 300-320* degrees vs dark caramel at 350* or so. (please don't quote me on the temps, I'm just using examples). Then there is caramel the confection, which would usually have butter and cream added. This is usually cooked to 240-250 degress. How high you take it will determine how much water is boiled off and therefore how firm the final candy will be. So, when I make candy caramels for dipped chocolates I would caramelize white sugar to about 330* or so(I just go by colour), then add cream which cools it off and adds a lot of water. Then it gets cooked some more to cook off the water to 243*(my preference) and poured out. It would probably make more sense if there was more than one word to describe the process!

Kerry, I have the triangular mold from Chef Rubber and it makes about 1" triangles. It is long, 15" with 4 channels. It's a little flimsy, definitely not as firm as polycarbonate molds. I've only tried it a couple of times, it is really hard to cut slices, they kept crumbling. I need to experiment with it more.

Well it arrived today, I've been eyeing it on Amazon since September and it was finally released. Lots of info inside, a good introduction to ingredients and flavour pairings. A bunch of recipes that I'm dying to try. Strawberry Balsamic Truffle anyone? Not much info on technique, or should I say new techniques for decorating chocolates. One bone to pick: Bacterial contamination does not equal mould! He says a couple of times that if you contaminate your ganache with bacteria, you'll get mould. 2 different things in my book. I forgot to give the thumbs up for including ounce and gram measures in the book. It makes things so much easier!

The Shotts book has been released, it's already been shipped to me by Amazon.com. I should get it soon, and will let everyone know.

I think there might be part of another problem here as well. I have found that fruity ganaches tend to leak like that. I'm not 100% sure why, but my theory is that the fruit starts to ferment and expand. Since I started using trimoline in my raspberry truffles, it doesn't happen anymore. I think that since there is more sugar, it helps prevent the spoilage and leakage problem.

Maybe try freezing it? It works to get wax off of things so why not plastic?

I'm in need of a new pair of kitchen clogs, any idea where to get them? I've previously gotten them from that Swedish store on 4th, but am looking for something else. I've heard people like Dansko, where can I find those in the big city?

I so wish I could find frozen pearl onions, too. I hate peeling those little suckers. What is everyone paying? I find them pretty expensive for a tiny box, usually over $3.

I don't know about the hotel pans, they look about the same size, but I haven't really had the time or need to check it out. Next time I head to the city to the restaurant supply store I will pick one up.

I use RLB for my conversions too, but one I have noticed wrong is her peanut butter weight in the Pie&Pastry Bible. It should be 8 oz instead of 16.

I have a mol d'art but I bought it from Qzina, so I don't have any advice about buying from them directly. I do love my melter, it holds temper for a long time. I have the 6kg one. You will have to experiment with it, I find my thermostat is a little picky. To hold chocolate, I leave it at 34-35, any hotter and it seems to be way too hot, and any lower and it gets cold fast. I'm trying to say that mine has a narrow point where I find it workable, and the temp is higher than what I thought it would be. I think every thermostat will have its own sweet spot and you'll have to find yours.

What was different with the outcome? I had assumed that the different names were just brand names for the same product.

I usually split it into 'bricks' along the lines on top and then double-wrap it in plastic wrap and then store at room temperature. I find gianduja really picks up odours and can taste stale pretty fast. But it does last a long time, I've had some wrapped for well over a year and it is fine.

I just took a class with JPW at the Notter school. He had copies of the new book in English which I picked up but have not studied yet. Dan ← Please let us know if it is worth picking up!

Dorie I'm getting wafers!!! And they taste and look like pure butter to me. Puffy I guess isn't the right word. Somewhat mounded, perhaps. I don't have trouble with other cookies, but chocolate chips are my downfall do you think my butter is too warm before beating? Or should I try more flour? ←

I'd say that Recchuiti definitely uses invert sugar because every ganache recipe in his book has it. I use it, it does make the ganaches a bit sweeter, but I also find it makes the chocolate taste more intense. My Manjari truffles taste way better to me than another chocolatier that I've tasted that doesn't use invert sugar. If the other chocolate wasn't specifically labelled 'Manjari' I wouln't have picked out the flavour. I can't comment on the other chocolatiers that you mentioned because they won't ship to Canada.

I don't have a compressor, just use canned air. I guess that makes a difference in the clouds! I find red is the worst, I'm wiping it off the counters and blowing it out of my nose for days!

Have you ever seen anyone doing detail work with an airbrush onto bonbons? I'd love to see it if you have a link.

What kind of airbrush do you have? I use a Badger and I definitely can't make fine lines. I don't usually get a huge cloud of cocoa butter, so maybe you can try to adjust the flow.

Dorie, I want to make the Devil's Food White Out Cake for Saturday and I have a question about the directions for the frosting. It says to boil the syrup to 242 and the start beating the egg whites. In the next paragraph, it says to beat the egg whites and boil the syrup to 235. Am I correct in assuming that it is meant to say start beating whites at 235, and add syrup to whites when it reaches 242? It does sort of say that, but awkwardly, so I wanted to double check. Thanks.

I made the Brown Sugar Bundt cake last night and it is sooooo good. I used pears and raisins, and no ground nuts. My pears were pretty juicy, so they ended up sinking a bit, but it didn't make one bit of difference to how yummy it tasted. Next up: Snickery Squares.

Check out Caplanduval.com. They have sales on periodically, and they are located in Canada (Montreal), so there are no nasty duty surprises.

Wow, I'm surprised it was there, Amazon doesn't show it being available until November 1. I wonder how Costco has it already?