Patrick S

The vast majority of bacteria will be killed at temperatures well below boiling, but boiling would pretty much insure sterilization. To illustrate, when milk is heated to 161.5F for 15 seconds, there is a 5-log reduction in micro-organisms in the milk (ie only 0.00001 of the microrganisms remain). However, even though the risk of bacterial infection is pretty much eliminated by boiling, some bacteria, like some types of Staphylococcus, can produce protein toxins which are themselves heat-stable and are not inactivated by boiling.

I dont know how things are in France, but in the US food items have to be sold with certain labelling information. So, for instance, if you buy a large box of cupcakes or something, each one individual package will contain a disclaimer saying something like Perhaps the warning on your jar of praline is the same thing. I doubt it has anything to do with the toxicological properties of praline paste. Maybe the dosage refers to a recommended concentration for the product in a recipe -- in other words, add the praline to the rest of the ingredients at a ratio of 12/100.

I used a very thin, very sharp, very cheap chefs knife. I cut the bars up after they were well-chilled, and I wiped the blade clean between cuts.

My guesses --and these are just guesses -- is that 1) the honey provided more food for the Lactobacilli in the yogurt (these bacteria metabolize sugars), which then produced more lactic acid, or 2) that the pineapple enzymes denatured some of the milk proteins in the yogurt -- in some cases, enzymes can break down proteins which are not themselves bitter, into proteins fragments which do in fact taste bitter.

Yes, that's exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. Thank you!

Sugar and shelf-stable trans fats, unfortunately. ← Is that what gives the peanut butter cookies its texture? ← Actually, the smooth creamy texture of commercial peanut butters is more a product of the very fine particle size to which the peanuts are ground, and the emulsifiers that are added to it. Regarding the presence of trans-fats in commercial peanut butter, the quantitites are so low as to be physiologically insignificant. According to the USDA's Agricultural Research Service: Link In passing, it should also be noted that butter and cream contain natural trans-fat (created by microbial hydrogenation in vivo) in easily detectable quantities. As I recall, the contration of trans-fats in milkfat is around several percent -- orders of magnitude higher than the concentration in peanut butter.

Celery. Dill and fennel seeds.

Great job all around, K8, but I like the cookies the best!

When I made these, I noticed that the wells started to puff back out as the cookies were baked. So about 2/3 of the way through baking, using a the oiled bottom of metal teaspoon, I gently tapped down the middle of the cookies, to reform the well. That allowed me to fit a lot more jam in the cookie than I would have been able to otherwise.

I'll be suprised if this works well -- hopefully only a small layer underneath will melt, but I can't imagine that you wont get a fair amount of melting. I do think that method will work much better than the blowtorch method. If you had some hemisphere fleximolds, you could make little half-sphere shaped caramel "caps" which you could press onto the top of the scoops right before service. Either way, please let us know how it works out!

Psst . . . hey buddy, meet me behind the welding shop with your money, and I'll help you score some liquid nitrogen. . .

You mean, you have to cook your eggs before using them as an ingredient in baked goods? Federal law bans the interstate sale of unpasteurized milk. Some states ban the intrastate sale of unpasteurized milk, and some don't. However, if you are using milk as an ingredient in baked good, the ingredient is no longer sold "raw." In most cases I imagine the baked goods will achieve temperatures during baking that pasteurize the milk. So I wonder if the federal and state laws apply to use of raw milk as an ingredient in baked goods, or just to the sale of raw milk itself. ← I thought about that. Since you're essentially pasteurizing the milk and eggs during cooking, what risk is there? ← Essentially none, so far as I can tell. You'd have to direct that question to the raw milk advocates, since I am also unclear what the benefits would be. Well, I'm not sure what the environmental benefits of using raw milk would be, except perhaps that you are skipping one pasteurization, which would save energy. As to how taste would be affected, that's another question for raw milk advocates.

You mean, you have to cook your eggs before using them as an ingredient in baked goods? Federal law bans the interstate sale of unpasteurized milk. Some states ban the intrastate sale of unpasteurized milk, and some don't. However, if you are using milk as an ingredient in baked good, the ingredient is no longer sold "raw." In most cases I imagine the baked goods will achieve temperatures during baking that pasteurize the milk. So I wonder if the federal and state laws apply to use of raw milk as an ingredient in baked goods, or just to the sale of raw milk itself.

Hello, Dorie, and thanks so much for participating in this eGullet conversation! Having worked from your cookbooks for several years, and having such a good time doing so, its truly an honor to have you here. I have a question that is closely related to some of those that have already been asked. One of the things that has struck me is the enormous influence and widespread adoption of French patisserie (and French cuisine in general) around the world. As an American who has spent a lot of time in France and worked with some great French chefs, do you have any thoughts, insights, generalizations or anecdotes you'd like to share as to why France seems to have had such a salient impact on the 'global culinary culture'?

Is the custard cooked in the pumpkin? Those pumpkins don't look baked, whats the deal? ← The custard is cooked in a 13x9 dish, and spooned into the pumpkins while still hot.

Thanks gfron! It was pretty good. Of the components, I like the gingerbread financier best. Thanks, Chihiran! I just used canned pumpkin. That's so kind of you. Thanks!

Here's something I've been wanting to try for a while -- Sherry Yard's pumpkin creme brulee and gingerbread financier jack-o-lanterns. You hollow out tiny (3-4") pumpkins, put a gingerbread financier disc inside, glaze it with apple caramel glaze, fill with pumpkin creme brulee, and top with burnt sugar. Flickr images: #1 #2

Actually, the only commercial almond flour I use (Bob's Red Mill) doesn't seem all that fine, and I can definitely make finer almond flour at home using the food processor, just grinding, scraping down, grinding, scraping down. . . repeatedly.

I debated about the same thing when I made this a couple of days ago. I settled on the measuring cups I use for dry ingredients & the cake was perfect. pat w. ← I would agree to use the dry measuring cups if you're not weighing, simply because you can scoop it in and level off the top, which you can't do with most liquid measuring cups.

1C pumpkin weighs 244 grams, so if you have scale, use that.

No of course not, and that's one reason why I would find such reviews, based on a small number of trials, to be pretty much completely worthless from a cookbook-buyer's perspective. Especially if the cookbook in question has, say, hundreds of recipes. I mean, I'm still discovering recipes I love in cookbooks that I've had for 5 years, so, no, I would tend not to give much weight to reviews based on a couple of recipes tried over a couple of weeks. But that's just me, and other people are certainly entitled to make their own judgements however they see fit.

That's too bad, coconutlime. I hope you have better luck with any recipes you might try in the future. Personally, I have tried somewhere in the neighborhood of ten recipes from the book, and there was only one that I didnt care for (the tartest lemon tart), and several that I loved and will definitely make again (applesauce bars, vanilla pound cake and caramel peanut brownie cake, in particular).

I did make the brrrr-ownies and they were okay. A little sticky-chewy and hard to cut but fairly tasty. I am just surprised to hear of some much excitment over the book when I have been so underwhelmed. I wasn't even going to try another recipe but I had received the cookbook to review from the publishers and thought I owed it another try. ← And you were going to do a review on the basis of trying two recipes? ← Well, sure. Two recipes out of like 230 is a sufficient sample from which to make an overall judgement, right?

When I made them, they were indeed very soft and moist, but still sturdy enough to pick and and eat out of hand.

Welcome to eGullet, sugarsugar! This may be a stupid question, but did you try whisking the clumps into the batter? I mean, when beans are exceptionally moist, and you split them and scape out the beans, the beans come out all stuck together in pea-sized clumps, and you have to use a whisk to break up the clumps and evenly distribute the beans in the batter.