Patrick S

C. As Kerry said, you'll need to heat the sugar to about 310F, which is the hard-crack stage. If you go much lower than that (290-300F), it will be too soft. If you go much higher than that (beyond ~320F), the sugar will begin to caramelize, which will change the color and taste.

The chilled chocolate cream does firm up very quickly, so you should whip it by hand and pay close attention if you want it to be soft.

The recipe I used would probably be too thin for a tart filling, but if you increased the rice, or decreased the liquid, or thickened with eggs, I'm sure it would work fine. The recipe I used was as follows (from memory): 1/2C arborio rice 1/2C sugar 1C milk 1/2C cream 14oz can of coconut milk 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped large strips of zest from one orange Combine everything. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, and continue simmering for 20-35 minutes, until the rice remains just a little al dente.

Everything looks great! Love the semifreddo in the tuile, Ruth. Last night I had coconut vanilla rice pudding.

Its about the consistency of peanut butter, probably slightly too firm to spread on a cake at room temperature.

Cool. The cakes look very attractive in mini savarin shapes.

No problem. I weigh out my yolks and whites in disposable cups. If I need 8.5 yolks, I put in 9, and then take some out. ← What do you think of this product, and would you think it would work in this cake? It is available at Whole Food Markets, so I wouldn't haveto mail order From their website: Goya.com Fruit Pulps In several delicious tropical varieties like Passion Fruit, Papaya, Mango and Tamarind, these frozen fruit pulps are 100% natural, low in fat, high in Vitamin C, and cholesterol free. Used in smoothies and frozen desserts, Goya Fruit Pulps are the key ingredient in tropical treats. And now Fruit Pulps are available in convenient packages with four individually-wrapped, single-use servings. ← I've never used Goya fruit pulps, but I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work fine. If they are already sweetened, you might want to adjust the sugar in the gelee recipe according. I used a sweetened puree, so I left out all of the granulated sugar. Just adjust it to taste.

Actually, a quick Google search shows at least some reports of copper poisoning resulting from consuming acidic foods/drinks from copper vessels. For example, here is a report of 15 kids becoming ill after drinking a lime drink that had been left in an old copper vessel overnight. The drink was tested and found to have 300 mg/L concentration of copper, a very high concentration at which a relatively small drink would be sufficient to cause symptoms of copper poisoning. Granted this is an extreme case (very acidic drink, held for a long period in the vessel), but my point is simply that, contrary to what you say above, there are in fact at least some reports of copper poisoning related directly to the (improper) use of copper vessels.

Yes, acidic ingredients would remove the most copper and therefore be most likely to reach a toxic concentration of copper. Though IIRC, most dairy products have a near-neutral pH.

FYI-- Between Ghirardelli and regular Hershey's, I would definitely choose Hershey's. Ghirardelli doesn't taste good at all! Just my opinion, of course.

I don't know where you live, but the darkest cocoa I've ever seen is Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, and that is very widely available at supermarkets in the US. It is a dutched, or alkalized cocoa, and to me it tastes an awful lot like Oreo cookies. Personally I prefer dutched cocoa, but this variety is actually over-dutched, and makes for cakes that look almost black. Hershey's first version of dutch cocoa -- Hershey's European Style cocoa, was actually much better. ← Again, about Vahlrona..ave u ever tried? It seems so dark for me..is it the same dark? ← Yes, I've used Valrhona cocoa, and personally I find it way over-priced (as opposed to their chocolates, which I do think are worth the price). In terms of color, Valrhona is typical for dutched cocoas. The Hershey's Special Dark is actually much darker than the Valrhona cocoa, because it is "over-dutched," which is I understand it enhances the browning of the cocoa when it is roasted.

I don't know where you live, but the darkest cocoa I've ever seen is Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, and that is very widely available at supermarkets in the US. It is a dutched, or alkalized cocoa, and to me it tastes an awful lot like Oreo cookies. Personally I prefer dutched cocoa, but this variety is actually over-dutched, and makes for cakes that look almost black. Hershey's first version of dutch cocoa -- Hershey's European Style cocoa, was actually much better.

Thanks, Sarah!

I know, I know . . . you said you were looking for something other than bread pudding and french toast, but the Boysenberry Brioche Bread Pudding ala Heather Ho, in Sherry Yard's Secrets of Baking, looks so smokin' good I have to at least mention it.

I've never found a recipe that I loved. One that I thought was pretty good has turned out badly the last several times I ve made it. I've tried fresh strawberries, frozen strawberries, Boyjian strawberry flavoring, and highly-reduced puree, and nothing gave me the pronounced flavor I wanted. The best solution IMHO I is using a white cake with macerated strawberries and reducing the liquid from the macerated strawberries with some Kirsch, ala CI's strawberry cream cake.

No problem. I weigh out my yolks and whites in disposable cups. If I need 8.5 yolks, I put in 9, and then take some out.

I see. In that case, Hershey's Special Dark is not dark chocolate at all -- it lists milk, milk fat, and lactose as ingredients. Suprise, suprise. Maybe that's why Hershey's descibes it as a "less sweet" chocolate instead of a "dark chocolate." ETA: FWIW, according to this article, there is no FDA standard of identity for dark chocolate. So while most chocophiles might consider that dark chocolate means any chocolate without milk, that doesn't appear to be a universally understood definition. Certainly in my own every day experience, a lot of people seem to think that "dark" means "less sweet" or "higher cacao," irrespecive of milk content.

There is also no official definition of "dark chocolate," though it is often used as a synonym for bittersweet chocolate, except by Hershey's, who make a dark chocolate that is about 50% sugar.

This is what was posted in the chocolate cake thread: ← Yes, that's the Pave ganache. The recipe for the caramel truffles is as follows: 1C, 250g heavy cream 10oz, 285g bittersweet chocolate, chopped 6oz, 170g milk chocolate, chopped 1C, 200g sugar 2.5T, 40g unsalted butter, room temp cocoa, for dusting Put the chocolate in a bowl large enough to hold everything Bring the cream to a boil in saucepan, or the microwave Caramelize the sugar. NOTE: the recipe calls for you to dry caramelize the sugar a little at a time. That's the quickest way, but I always mix the sugar with a little water and caramelize it that way. Add the butter. Add the cream, in a stream, as you stir. Be very careful to avoid a steam burn! Wear an oven mit or something. Keep stirring over low heat until the caramel is smooth with no lumps. Pour 1/3 of the caramel onto the chocolate. Stir "in ever-widening concentric circles" (p.164) until smooth. Add 1/2 remaining caramel. Stir until smooth. Add last bit of caramel. Stir until smooth. This recipe make my favorite truffles. They are quite sweet by most people's standards, but I think its perfect. If you want it less sweet though, you can change the ratio of bitter to milk chocolate.

Looks great, Elie! Gfron, I definitely have to try that recipe. Sounds really interesting.

There are two caramel ganache recipes in the book, one for truffles and one for the Pave. The ganache for the Pave is not pourable, if you make it according to the recipe in the book. The truffle ganache is like a typical ganache.

You mean, water from the water bath came through the foil? That would definitely sog up the crust, unless your springform actually forms a water-proof seal (none of mine do). I double wrap with large heavy-duty foil, and that always keeps the water out.

This is an interesting subject. To answer your question, I would assume they are publishing them for the home baker or cook. If a bakery was to sell them under their name, then that would open up the door for liability. A bakery could sell them under "Jacque Pepin's creme caramel" title on their menu and that would be fine, crediting the chef/author. ← That could be tricky, because if you sell a product called "Jacque Pepin's creme caramel," you might actually end up infringing on a trademark, just like if you tried to sell a beer called Sam Adams or open up a lingerie store called Victor's Secret. But as far as I can tell, from everything I've read, there is no legal reason why you could not do what McDuff is saying -- selling goods made from published recipes. Selling a recipe taken verbatim from a cookbook (i.e. the specific literary expression) or using a trademark is a different matter.

A recipe, in the sense of a set of ingredients and procedures for producing a certain food product, I don't think is or can be protected under any intellectual property laws in the US. The specific literary expression of a recipe is of course protected -- you can't simply copy and republish a published recipe. ETA: What I'm saying is that if one of chefpeon's coworkers knows the recipe by heart and wants to continue to produce it, I don't think chefpeon has any legal way to prevent that.

Sounds like your colleagues are too incompetent to make your recipes correctly without you anyway. Personally, I'm all for sharing, but that's a decision you have to make. If your employers were mean-spirited or spiteful or dishonest with you, I might by inclined to take my recipes with me. If its just a matter of incompatible philosophies and goals, I would be inclined to share them. Either way, good luck. With your talent, I don't think you'll need much of that, but it never hurts.