Patrick S

Granted I'm only one person, but I personally haven't found this to be the case. I always use Splenda for coffee and tea, and actually prefer it to sugar. I never bake with Splenda, but I've always thought it works great in drinks.

Looks like roasted chicken is having a run here. We also had roasted a chicken a few nights ago. Marinated in a balsamic vinaigrette and lemon juice for about 5 hours, using a recipe from Giada de Laurentis. It was really great, especially considering how little work it took.

Holy hostility, Batman. ← Well that sure clarifies things, Robin. I don't know how you managed to mispercieve my honest question as being hostile. I was genuinely baffled by what you wrote (it is obvious why someone would use Splenda), but have no hostility towards you. Let me prove it by wishing you nothing but bear hugs and butterfly kisses, and artfully deploying a smilie or two.

What is it about using Splenda that you don't understand? Splenda has no calories (excect that in the bulking agent), no carbs (ditto), and no effect on blood glucose. If your goal is to reduce intake of calories or carbs, or reducing the effect of sweet foods on blood sugar, then subbing Splenda for sugar obviously would put you "further ahead. Granted your baked good is still going to have an effect on blood sugar and its still going to have carbs, but the effect will be smaller and the amount of carbs lower, and that in itself provides a seemingly obvious rationale. You're not really suggesting that two baked goods, identical in all respects except that one is made with Splenda instead of sugar, are going to have identical effects on blood glucose, are you?

I've made that tart twice, and both times it was gobbled up quite greedily by everyone who tried it. If you're liable to put off by desserts that are too rich, I would have tried something other than the Nutella tart, which after all is basically a ganache-tart, just about as rich as a dessert can get. I'd venture to say that if the Nutella tart had so little appeal for you, you'll probably find little in the book that will appeal to you.

Not that it matters for the purposes of this discussion, but Salmonella doesn't always have to pass through the shell to end up inside the eggs. If the bacterium is present in the ovaries, it can become incorporated into the egg before the shell ever forms.

Looks like you are a tart-Jedi (or should that be tart-titan?), JeAnneS. I like the look of the pear tart. Did you use a tart dough instead of puff pastry for the tart tatin?

Do you have a source for that? The research I've seen indicates that there is no difference in incidence of Salmonella infection between conventional poultry and organic/free range poultry. For instance: "Free-Range" Chicken—No Guarantee It's Free of Salmonella

Depending on where you live. They are not available where I live.

The chance of something like salmonellosis (GI infection by Salmonella) is real, but very small. Use the freshest eggs you can, and wash them before you crack them, and beyond that I wouldn't worry.

There is a date/oatmeal bar recipe on Epicurious that I've been wanting to try. User ratings for the recipe are fairly positive. Click.

I'm resurrecting this thread because this lemon cheesecake is one of the most satisfying lemon desserts I've had in a long time. The recipe is from Cook's Illustrated. Yum!

I made the truffles yesterday, using Callebaut Java (which is quite 'caramelly') and Callebaut 70/30, and I must say, I find them to sweet for my taste. It may be being a 'continental' or maybe just a bit strange, but I find a lot af american or american adjusted recipes too sweet (of course, Herme is french, so there goes that line of argument....) - anyway.... For my next batch, I'll try without the milk chocolate, and with a very bitter chocolate (whatever I can get my hands on). Anybody tried making these with all dark choc and if so, which make and which result? Thanks ← Mette, Just to follow up, I've since made the caramel ganache with all bittersweet, and it was still delicious, and still sweet enough for someone like me who prefers a sweeter chocolate taste. You could probably even increase the butter or cream a little, and swap in some unsweetened chocolate for the bittersweet.

Congrats, Alinka! Your tart looks delicious.

Ah, an early idea for Cook-Off XIII.

By this do you mean you soak the gelatin in just water and puree and add banana just before adding the hot sugar? ← Yes. Add the 4 packs gelatin to 1/2C water. Get your syrup started. As your syrup gets close to temp, puree the banana and add it to the gelatin, then mix in the syrup.

Dictionary.com gives both pronunciations, but I almost always hear it spoken by with the emphasis on the first syllable.

Hmm. I never considered that! Actually there are mites (8-legged animals related to ticks) on our bodies in several places. I guess the mites make us all animal mass-murderers! Probably you can't even walk around in your garden without crushing soil organisms, like nematodes. BTW, I'm knocking anyone here, I just never considered the lowly mites before. EDIT to add juicy detail. Mites of the species demodex folliculorum inhabit our eyelash roots, and there may be as many as 25 per root, chomping away on your skin.

Naive question, perhaps, but why would the use of bone necessarily make anything non-organic? ← It wouldn't, at least according to USDA standards of what constitutes a 'certified' organic product.

I have been experimenting with macaroons again. I'm trying to determine what ratio of dried whites to water makes the best replacement for day-old whites. My assumption is that the difference between whites left out for a day and those straight from the fridge is the relative water content, and that you can get the same thing using powdered whites and water. So, the ratio on my can of Just Whites is 2T powder to 6T water to give 3 large whites. I tried reducing the water to 5T, and the resulting batter was just a slight bit too thin, giving a fairly flat cookie. So tonight I tried again, reducing the water to 3T. This time, the batter was very thick, too thick, about like cookie dough. So, I added a little more water to the batter, about 1.5T, and worked it in. This gave a batter that is juuuust about perfect. The batter spreads out, but it is just thick enough that the top of the macaroons retain a teensy spike on top from piping them. I'm getting ready to bake them, so we'll see how they turn out. I'm thinking that the golden ratio is somewhere between 4.5-5T water to 2T powder. Anyways, a little more tweaking, and I think I'll have a precise recipe that gives the right consistency. Another tip, if you want a domical macaroon, you want to pipe a cone or volcanoe shape. Start with your tip maybe 1/4" from the paper, then lift it a bit as you pipe. If your batter if the right consistency, gravity will cause it to settle into a dome. If you pipe with your tip too close to the paper, you will never get a dome.

Geologists have a term for rocks with no visible crystals --aphanitic. Obsidian is a good example. Rocks with visible crystals, for example granite with clearly visible quartz and feldspar, is said to be phaneritic. Smithy, I don't have any suggestions, but as a geology buff I'd be interested to hear about whatever you come up with.

I hate to be a skeptic, but you hear this all too frequently in mergers. ← Sure you hear this all the time. But quite frequently, it turns out to be true, with nothing really changing except the names of the owners. What will happen in this case, time will tell, and I don't pretend to know in advance. Some things I hope do change though, like SB's cocoa powder, which is (IMHO) horrible, and overpriced as well (costing even more than imported Valrhona, and several times more than Hershey's dutched, which I actually think is a better product). PS: Never apologize for being a skeptic! The world is in terribly short supply of them right now!

Are you using commercial (pasturized) purees, or using fresh fruit to make your own puree? That might make a difference. I heard on another board that pineapple and papaya have the same enzyme that mango does (the gelatin-killing one) but I haven't done any independent research. ← I've never used a commercial puree, not because I dislike them, just because they are not readily available to me. I have never made mango or papaya puree though, so my experience might not be relevant here. I would try chiantiglace's suggestion -- I don't see how it could hurt. Maybe you have mango with exceptionally high levels of the enzyme?

hi from what i know mango puree does not need to be boil the acidity does not affect the gelation. ← chiantiglace is referring to the protein-degrading enzymes papain or bromelain, rather than the acidity of the puree. If acidity were to blame, lemon mousse would never set. Theoretically these enzymes could prevent gelatin from setting, yet I don't know if that is actually the case, as most recipes do not have a step for boiling the puree? EDIT: I was too hasty. Actually, there are some recipes that specify to bring the puree to a boil.

I haven't made Mango mousse, but I've made mousses with lots of other fruit purees, and never needed to boil first. There are a few gelatin-based Mango mousse recipes on the web (e.g., this one), and none that I saw specify to boil the puree.