Patrick S

DEHA is not classified as a human carcinogen by OSHA, the U.S. National Toxicology Program, or the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which are the main agencies that classify chemicals according to their carcinogenic potential. DEHA is approved by the FDA for use in food contact applications and is considered safe in those applications. According to the EPA, DEHA: Link

As I understand it, the only thing microwave frequency radiation is going to do is heat tissue up. And that's not going to happen to tissue outside of the microwave unless 1) the microwave's shielding is defective or broken, and 2) the target tissue is very close to microwave leak.

This is an El Rey white chocolate mousse with warm, thickened passion fruit sauce on top. The mousse recipe is from Sherry Yard, and is egg and cream-based. The sauce is simply sweetened passion fruit puree thickened with a little cornstarch. The picture is a wee bit overexposed.

Sherry Yard says her creamy caramel sauce will keep refrigerated for up to 1 month, and I've kept it that long.

Is there even such a thing as jarred or frozen pastry cream? Pastry cream is not hard to do, but if you are determined to do as little cooking as possible, you can make pastry cream out of vanilla instant pudding mix. I don't know if that will be firm enough to stay put in you mille crepes though. There is also such a thing as instant pastry cream mix, though I've never used it.

I realize that the levels of anandamide in chocolate are, for all practical purposes, physiologically insignificant. What makes it presence suprising is that anandamide and the cannabinoid system is found only animals, and not in any plant. Plants don't have the cannabinoid receptors that anandamide acts upon in animals, so it seems out of place. ← I seems out of place until we think of who cultivates, transports, and propagates seeds; animals. Plants make themselves attractive, or we select those that are, to continue their propagation. I think there's a book out with that theme, The Botany of Desire? ← Sure, but that still leaves the question: why would Theobroma cacao, apparently uniquely among the plant kingdom, produce anandamide? Even Cannabis sativa itself, which produces dozens of different cannabinoids, does not produce anandamide. And aside from that, my understanding is that the concentration of anandamide is, for all practical purposes, too low to be physiologically significant. If that is truly the case, then the function of anandamide can not be to make the plant appealing to animals. OTOH, I suppose its possible that the anandamide concentration, while too low to affect humans or most other animals, is sufficient to affect some anandamide super-sensitive species involved in scattering/distributing/propagating Theobroma cacao.

i see, then it wouldn't be good for a ganache then. if you use a smaller amount, will it stay solid? ← Sote - i use it in ganache all the time w/out it causing a significant texture change. that could, of course, be due to the fact taht the ganache rarely sits around for more than a week 8-) ← that's great to hear. my only other concern is if it's safe? are there any harsh chemicals in it? ← Invertase is a natural enzyme whose only action (so far as we know) is to break down sucrose into fructose and glucose (which happens to all the sucrose you ingest anyway). It is naturally present in honey, and I'm not aware of any health risks at all associated with its use.

I realize that the levels of anandamide in chocolate are, for all practical purposes, physiologically insignificant. What makes it presence suprising is that anandamide and the cannabinoid system is found only animals, and not in any plant. Plants don't have the cannabinoid receptors that anandamide acts upon in animals, so it seems out of place.

That's interesting, Sebastian -- I never knew that chocolate contained anandamide!

Unfortunately, all the good stuff in hemp is in the trichomes of the plant. The medicinally good stuff, anyway.

it's difficult,because it needs it for shelf life, but i hate how it changes the flavor. ← In that case, can you simply start with a less sweet chocolate so that the end result is less sweet?

Invert sugar is actually sweeter than regular sucrose, because of the free fructose.

Hmm, I didn't realize there were people who actually enjoy eating hemp seeds!

if i were to use the juice, does it specify how much? ← You mean the passionfruit recipe? The recipe calls for 1/3C juice. ← patrick, i tried the recipe tonight. any idea if it calls for unsweetend juice? the only thing I could find was sweetened juice, that is actually 25% fruit juice. it didn't come out very well. ← The recipe calls for "passion fruit juice" without specifying sweet or unsweet. Was the ganache too thin?

Water will definitely prevent (or slow) caramelization. I would dry the strawberries first and try to caramelize over the skin rather than a cut surface. Another option is to caramelize the strawberries the way you would bananas -- combine sugar and some butter over very high heat, add the strawberries when the sugar starts to caramelize, and then take them back out with a fork. Be careful though because working over high heat you can easily burn the caramel.

if i were to use the juice, does it specify how much? ← You mean the passionfruit recipe? The recipe calls for 1/3C juice.

Ah, I see.

I haven't measured them, but I think they are about 2" at the bottom and about 3" at the top. They are very thin and light. As for myself, I prefer regular sweet tart shells to all the chocolate doughs I've tried, so that's what I would use again next time.

Definitely tedious and time-consuming, at least compared to just making one big tart or pie, but its not so bad once you get For some of them I cut out circles of dough, pressed them into the tins, pressed out the sides and bottoms to as consistent a thickness as I could, and then trim the excess dough from the top using a knife. If the cut surface looked course, I would just tap it with my finger to smooth it out. For others I just took a lump of cool dough and pressed it into the tins. Of course, the more I did, the more I could kind of feel for the right dough thickness with my fingertips, and the more consistent they came out. For blind-baking weights, I used two pennies stacked on top of a quarter, wrapped in foil to look like big Hershey's kisses (that makes them easier to add and remove from the tart tin). So, I would press the dough into the tins, refrigerate for a little bit, bake for several minutes, then add the weights (I found that if I added the weights at the beginning, they tend to get stuck in the dough), then finished baking.

They all turned out pretty good, but if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be the chocolate-caramel tart. I love the combination of fudgy ganache, chewy caramel, and crispy sweet tart dough. ← Yeah, these really caught my eye as well. I jotted down the idea and need to try it sometime soon. Did you use your favorite caramel from Sherry Yard by any chance? (They all look really beautiful; I just was particularly intrigued by the flavors in the chocolate tart.) ← That probably would work well, but instead I used a very simple caramel recipe a bit firmer than a sauce: 4T water 2T corn syrup 1C sugar 1T butter 4T cream Combine water, sugar and corn syrup. Caramelize. Remove from heat. Add butter. Stir in cream, being very careful to avoid steam burns.

I've had the same problem with other mousse recipes. I don't have the book in front of me, but I am assuming the recipe has you incorporate the cool cream into the warm chocolate, and then a pate a bombe into the chocolate+cream. However, I have found that if you fold the pate a bombe into the chocolate first, and then the whipped cream, it seems to come together far better. ← You are right Patrick. The first thing we are asked to incorporate into the chocolate is a little whipped cream. What is Pate A Bombe??? I'm assuming you mean the custard right? I will try incorporating that into the chocolate first next time around. Honestly though my wife and I are very happy with this treat of a dessert, the chocolate "chips" are not a problem. Now, if I was making chocolate mousse then they would be. ← Pate a bombe is the whipped mixture of hot syrup and yolks. I'm sure the chips are not problem -- just another layer of texture. I just wanted to give you an FYI because I had experienced the same thing you describe.

It depends on what you mean by "high." I mean, they certainly are not safe to use, say, on the grill or under a broiler. What Ziploc's site says is that:

I've had the same problem with other mousse recipes. I don't have the book in front of me, but I am assuming the recipe has you incorporate the cool cream into the warm chocolate, and then a pate a bombe into the chocolate+cream. However, I have found that if you fold the pate a bombe into the chocolate first, and then the whipped cream, it seems to come together far better.

They all turned out pretty good, but if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be the chocolate-caramel tart. I love the combination of fudgy ganache, chewy caramel, and crispy sweet tart dough.

I've been doing a bunch of bite-sized desserts using my little tart pans. Actually I don't know if they are supposed to be tart pans or petite brioche pans, but they work fine as tart pans regardless. Little financiers: Lemon cream tartlets: Milk chocolate ganache tarts with dark caramel and a sprinkle of sea salt: Mini lemon meringue pies: