Patrick S

Trader Joes also seel Ghiradelli blocks for about $3/lb. You can also get the 10 lb block for $20. ← I occasionally find Ghirardelli semisweet chips on sale at $3 for 2(12oz) bags at Wal-Mart, and stock up on them for cookies and such. FWIW, I've only tried the E. Guittard milk 38% wafers and the L'Harmonie 64%. I actually thought the milk was fine, but I didn't like the taste of the L'Harmonie 64% and never bought it again.

The citrus bars are from the book Celebrate with Chocolate. They are flavored with lemon juice, orange zest, and lime zest. I deviated from the recipe by using the crust from CI's lemon bars, and leaving the lemon balm out of white chocolate cream cheese icing. These are my favorite as far as lemon/citrus bars go (these are lemon+), but let me warn you in advance that many people would probably find them too sweet. I also love the icing.

Sure. The recipe is from Sherry Yard's book, The Secrets of Baking. Well, sorta -- the recipe and the photo in the book portray two different assemblies, and I assembled according to the photo. From top to bottom you have a chocolate short dough, a whipped caramel cream made with Yard's caramel sauce, a chocolate glaze, and a vanilla tuile garnish.

I haven't done anything very new or exciting lately, just a few things for easter. Caramel Brownies Banana Cake with Vanilla Mousseline Buttercream Halsey Tart Citrus Bars with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

If you want your doughnuts extra cool, SB, you could add some crystalline polyol sweeteners to your powdered sugar doughnuts, since most of them apparently have a much greater negative heat of solution. According to this article, erythritol for instance has a negtive heat of solution (-42.9 cal per gram) that is 10 times greater than that of sucrose (-4.0 cal per gram). In order of descending negative heat of solution, there is xylitol (-36.6 cal per gram), mannitol (-28.9 cal per gram), sorbitol (-26.5 cal per gram), lactitol (-14.9 cal per gram), isomalt (-9.4 cal per gram) and maltitol (-5.5 cal per gram).

Cool. That's how ice packs work, right? Ammonium chloride dissolving in water is an endothermic reaction and reduces the temperature of the solution. I guess the only question is, is the dissolution of sucrose in water an endothermic reaction or not, and according to this source, it is indeed:

Interestingly enough, the most recent CI has a taste test (20 tasters, 18 brands) of vanilla ice creams which discusses, among other things, how mono- and diglyceride emuslifiers closely mimic the mouthfeel of egg yolk ice cream. In fact, the the top-rated ice cream, though it was reportedly praised for its "amazingly gooey, creamy texture" and "nice eggy mouthfeel," contained no eggs at all, and even beat out the ice creams that contained eggs but no mono- and diglyceride emuslifiers. In addition, the two top-rated vanilla ice creams contained several stabilizers --Carob Bean Gum, Guar Gum, and Carrageenan-- beating out several ice creams that did not contain them. The top scorer for texture (and second overall) contained yolks, emulsifiers, and stabilizers.

I take it that you are outraged that Blue Bunny's no-fat, no-sugar-added, vanilla ice cream is marketed to kids, I just don't see why -- or why we should be less outraged by sugar-rich, fat-rich, calorie-rich traditional ice cream. Also, could you explain your analogy between tobacco and fat-free, sugar-free ice cream? I don't get it. At first glance, I don't see any any ingredient on the list that poses any significant health risk.

Desiderio, please report back how well they handle your order. If they do right by you, my next order will be with them.

Sure, except for that minor bit about tobacco smoking, you know, killing millions of people with cancer, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Wow, they're much cheaper than chocosphere! Like 30% cheaper on the few items I checked. For instance, Assouline and Ting has 3kg Valrhona Guanaja Feves for $54.96. Chocosphere sells the same thing for $79.95.

Chocosphere.com has OK prices. Of the online vendors I've seen, there doesn't seem to be too much difference in pricing. Which is to say, its all pricey.

Neither maltitol or sorbitol are artificial sweeteners. Both are plant derivatives. ← Sorbitol and other polyols are certainly produced naturally, but I think some of the commerical stuff is actually synthesized. I think most sorbitol is actually produced by hydrogenating corn-derived glucose.

Polydextrose is a "byproduct of the petroleum and wood-pulp industry?!?" Do you have proof of this? ← And why would that matter anyway? ← It would matter because 1. The statement is false 2. The statement maligns polydextrose If Lee is going to slander one of my favorite sugar free confectionary/baking ingredients, I'm going to ask for proof of his outrageous claim. That's why it would matter. ← I think you misunderstood me. I was asking, why would it matter if it were true that polydextrose were in fact a byproduct of some industrial process? I don't see how that fact, assuming it is a fact, would or should prompt one to reconsider using it. In my mind, the important facts about polydextrose are its intrinsic properties -- how sweet it is, its nutritive value, how it affects texture and freezing, etc., not how it happens to be produced or what precursors it is produced from.

Polydextrose is a "byproduct of the petroleum and wood-pulp industry?!?" Do you have proof of this? ← And why would that matter anyway?

You weren't by any chance using a pasteurized liquid egg white were you? Some of them will whip up and look fine, but the foam is not very stable. Cream of tartar will make the foam a little more stable, so if you didn't use it, you may want to try that next time. I didn't think about it before, but the chilling and whipping would probably only help with mousses that have lots of cream in them, and wouldn't work with mousses based on egg white foam only.

The average temperature here in Nothern Minnesota is around 39 degrees, (277K), so while powdered sugar donuts are quite popular, (even though they have the inherent disadvantage if being easily lost in the snow), I don't think we have to worry quite yet? ← After performing some extensive thermodynamic calculations on my abacus, I have concluded that the risk of bringing the universe to absolute zero by means of eating powdered sugar doughnuts is somewhat less likely than I originally surmised. However, I would strongly advise against leaving the freezer door open too long.

I'm reminded of the South Park episode where Butters tries to flood the world using a garden hose. I for one applaud your willingness to take an active role in the evolution of the cosmos. Now, the average temperature of the universe is only 3K, which is 3 degrees celcius above absolute zero, which is -454 degrees F. So clearly, it would not take too many doughnuts to do the job, you diabolical genius.

Here's one hypothesis: powdered sugar, being a uniform mixture that quickly liquifies on the tongue, absorbs latent heat from the tongue, causing the perception of coolness. One definition of latent heat is "the heat released or absorbed by a substance during a phase change," for instance the change from a gas to a liquid, or, presumably, from a solid to a liquid. Here's an explanation from an article describing this phenomenon with cocoa butter: Obviously the statement that 70% of chocolate is cocoa butter applies only to some milk chocolates, not chocolate in general. Linkage

You can chill the mousse and then beat it, like a whipped ganache. It won't be nearly as light as it should have been, but it will be a little lighter.

I've also wondered about this, especially when watching cooking shows where they don't wash their hands (or lightly rinse their hands without soap) between touching raw meat and touching things like pepper grinders. Do the bacteria left on pepper grinders and other surfaces die when the moisture on the surface dries? ← It depends on the bacterium, among other things. Some will die within minutes, others can form semi-dormant spores that might remain viable for weeks or even longer.

The colors and shapes on the panna cotta plate are very nice.

Its true that the different enantiomers have different effects, but unfortunately the different enantiomers of thalidomide can be converted to each other in vivo, so even if you purify the thalidomide so that it only has the "D" or "L" form, it will still be a teratogen. As this profile for thalidomide says: FDA was well aware of this when they approved the drug for sale in the US, for the very first time, in 1998 (it was never available in the US prior to that). The drug as it exists today is still sold in a racemic form (equal parts "D" and "L" enantiomers), and that's why the drug is avilable only under extremely restrictive conditions (e.g. women prescribed the drug must be on redundant birth control, must have a pregnancy test before starting the drug, and must have weekly pregnancy tests for the first 4 weeks of treatment).

That's cool, I just want to be clear because there are actually a lot of myths about this drug -- thalidomide was never given a GRAS exemption by the FDA, and was never available in the US, even by prescription, until 1998. Any claims you might have read to the contrary are simply mistaken. The manufactuer's request to market the drug in the US in 1960 was denied by the FDA precisely because there was a lack of data on its teratogenicity.

Where did you hear that? Firstly, as I understand it GRAS exemptions are FDA exemptions for food additives and cosmetics only, and are never granted for pharmaceuticals like thalidomide, which are subject to very different regulatory requirements. Second, the FDA refused to approve sales of the drug in the US because there were no tests for teratogenicity (birth defects). It was FDA's demands for such data in the early 60's that more of less directly led to the discovery that the drug caused birth defects. So not only was the drug not considered GRAS, it was not approved for sale in the US even as a prescription drug. * Ironically, FDA did eventually approve thalidomide in 1998, under a restricted access system (e.g. no pregnant women), after it was found to be effective in treating some cancers.