Patrick S

Thanks for the tip, Samuel. I'll try it that way next time, though I have to admit that I did not find the crisped edges of the baked prosciutto to be at all disagreeable.

I've had a hard time finding 00 flour anywhere in my area, but I always have plenty of cake flour on hand, so I'll try a cake/AP flour mix and see how that goes. Samuel, you must have had quite a few guests! And how lucky they were. I made another pizza tonight, basically the same as last night, except I used prosciutto instead of pepperoni, and used a bit less sauce.

Thanks, Ted! The pics I post are actually reduced about 85% from the originals. The originals are about 2mb in size, and you can see the small-scale structure really well in those. I could probably blow them up to 11x8" and they'd still look good. For the fun of it, here is a detail from the middle of that last pic, from the middle of the piece on the fork.

Great work Alberto, Grub, Tracy, Jackal, Tepee, and Jason Perlow! I've been checking this thread every day, absorbing the sagely pizza wisdom, knowing that I'd have to make pizza this weekend. Clearly I'm the amateur here, but I'm in pizza ecstacy right now, having just finished a couple of slices of my pie. I know I've probably committed a few faux pas along the way (cooked the sauce, probably used too much topping), but here it is nonetheless. Topped this fresh mozza and some parmesan, caramelized onions, and pepperoni. Baked at 500F on a small stone for 10 minutes. At 4 minutes left, I turned off the oven and turned the broiler on low. Lucky me, I have everything I need to make another one tomorrow! Cheers!

Your pictures look fine, and the tart looks delicious. Good job, and welcome!

Thanks Elie (and Dorie, Seth, Richard and John)! I actually used a big tip, I think it was 1/2", for the tips. I just adjust the speed at which I move the bag to get the sticks as thin or thick as I want. The texture I think is the strong suit on this dessert. When you put it together, you have the ultracrispy discs contrasting with the soft and light mousse. But once the mousse set and the whole thing freezes and then thaws, the mousse gets firm and the meringue gets soft and a little chewy, and very little of the contrast remains. I like that. The taste is good too, but I'll say that I don't think that a little more sweetness would hurt. But then I tend to prefer a little more sweetness in most things chocolate. As an aside, does anybody else think that slightly over-baked cocoa powder tastes like coffee? I've noticed this several times now when I make meringues. Typically Ill have a few stray little pieces that end up overbaked, and they taste very much like coffee.

Kristin, what a coincidence. I broke my off part of my left calcaneus on the 11th. Because of the location of the fracture, on the lateral margin of my foot, and its type (avulsion), I didn't have to have a cast, only a velcro post-op 'shoe' and crutches. My problem hasn't been so much standing with all my weight on my right leg as it is keeping my left foot somewhat elevated to keep the swelling down. If I stood up too long, it would feel like my foot was goung to explode from the swelling. I'm sure I looked a bit odd with my left leg propped way up on the table doing prep, but it worked. I also borrowed this seat-on-wheels thingy that has a bicycle type seat wheels that allows me to move around the kitchen. As far as quick cooking goes, I do lots of stuff involving various pseudo-random combinations of tortillas, sandwhich steaks, onions, cheese, salsa, salad mix -- quesadillas, burritos and so on. You can make something very quick, plus you can do it all in one pan so you don't have to spend much time dishwashing.

My guess is that he was trying to make a chocolate balloon by using the balloon as a mold.

Ok, the Concorde is finished, and I've tried a slice and taken some pictures. I ended up making another batch of meringue for sticks to put on the outside. I used less cocoa and powdered sugar, and powdered the outside with cocoa, trying to better duplicate the pic in the book. I ended up just pressing the sticks vertically onto the sides. I think that was a mistake. It doesn't look right to me. The cake was frozen for about 24 hours, and that did indeed soften the meringue discs, which I thought was good.

Nice work, Candy!

I noticed the same thing, and I'm pretty sure I didn't overbake mine. The picture in the books looks like lemon pound cake topped with lemon curd. I find it hard to believe that you can get the dessert in the picture from the recipe in the book. Following the recipe, the pudding cakes looked like this (before unmolding): I've also tried the vanilla ice cream, creamy caramel sauce, apple caramel glaze, creme brulee, mile-high apple pie, lemon bars, honey blossom madeleines, banana cake, lemon and blackberry-lime curds, and pannettone from the book. The ice cream, caramel sauce, creme brulee, and apple glaze are great. The apple pie was good, but too runny. The rest were just ok. I didn't like the blackberry-lime curd at all.

I made the discs last night. My problem was that after I piped the discs, I had only enough meringue left to pipe maybe 10" worth of sticks. Probably, I made the discs too thick. I suppose I'll make some more meringue to make sticks. Also, I note that the sticks in the photograph in the book are different from the sticks that result from the recipe. The sticks in the photo are much lighter in color, are much more cylindrical in shape, and have been powdered with cocoa. So, I'm thinking I'll make another batch of meringue sticks using less cocoa and sugar, so I can get them to look like the ones in the book. The final texture of the meringues was, like the last batch, shatteringly crisp. I tried a stick of meringue at the end of the baking time, and it had a slightly chewy center, which I liked. But after the end of hte drying in the oven, they were ultracrispy. I kinda liked the chewy center, so next time I might skip the post-baking cool-down in the oven.

If I recall correctly, all the recipes give both volumes and weights. EDIT: Oops! Sorry, I didn't answer your question, Mette! Luckily Seth is paying attention.

Thawed whites function just like fresh whites. They whip just like fresh whites. Just be sure you bring them up to room temp or a little higher for maximum volume, just as you would for fresh whites.

If you use parchment in the bottom, and butter or baker's spray the sides, and invert the first cake quickly onto a cake circle or cooling rack, you should be just fine. I almost never let a cake sit in the pan longer than a few minutes after it comes out of the oven.

You beat me to the Concorde, Elie! Good job! Now that you've given it your endorsement, I'm definitely going to do this soon.

I really hope someone takes up the challenge for the white cake. I'll try out the recipe, do a blind test with 10 or so people at work against Betty Crocker supermoist white cake mix, and post the results on the white cake thread.

I don't know all the magic ingredients that cake mixes can include, but I think some of the most important ones are the emulsifiers like soy lechithin, polysorbate 60, propylene glycol monoesters, polyglycerol esters, etc. I think that it is compounds like these that give the mix cakes that texture qualities that a lot of people like. It would be really interesting to get some of these compounds to experiment with, see how they affect texture, perception of moistness and so on. EDIT to add link to overview of the use of emulsifiers and stabilizers in food products.

It took me a few minutes to find, but here's another thread with lemon cake ideas: When life hands you lemons. . .

Here's a thread devoted to lemon chiffon: Lemon Chiffon Cake, seeking great recipe for it.

I highly recommend the lemon glow chiffon cake from The Cake Bible. I always double the amount of zest and juice, and serve it with lemon cream. I've tried a lot of lemon cake recipes, and this is probably my favorite. The Cooks Illustrated lemon pound cake, doused with lemon syrup, is also very good and very quick.

Rather than start a new thread for my question, I'll ask it here: Can anyone recommend a good banana flavor agent that I can buy in semi-small quantities? I don't care if its powder, oil or alcohol based, or if its natural or artificial, only whether it gives a good banana flavor with no off-tastes. PS -- was looking at Dreidoppel compunds, which come recommended, but have to buy in larger quantities. Might buy this anyway, but wanted to check it anyone knows where to get smaller quantities of flavor compound.

All of which are chemicals or groups of chemicals. All cakes are made out of chemicals. Definitely, $6.99 is ridiculous for a box of cake mix. But then, I think most "organic" products are ridiculously overpriced as well.

Honestly, I really don't think its a matter of 'fear' as much as it is a matter of getting a fair-to-good cake (depending on the type) in the oven in a couple of minutes with a minimal amount of clean-up. I agree that in general scratch is superior, but boxes definitely have their place, certainly when convenience is a priority. Right, and that's exactly what a lot of people want in a cake.

I always bake from scratch, but I don't knock all the box mixes necessarily. Some of them are hard to beat, and of course have the advantage of being super-quick to get into the oven. I always bake from scratch because I want to have the feeling that I'm creating some alchemical magic with my ingredients, and change things up each time in order to come up with something better.