Patrick S
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Since Elie added his macaron photo to the thread, I'll add mine too, even though I already posted it to another thread. I've tried three kinds thus far, the Herme recipe for chocolate like Elie's, a strawberry version with strawberry-flavored pastry cream, and a lemon version with lemon buttercream.
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Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.
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Yes, polydextrose does not have the same effect on blood glucose that sugar has, and in that respect is like splenda. EDIT: Adding link to Jie et al, 200, a research article that appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. This article studied the effect of polydextrose consumption in 120 volunteers, and basically shows that polydextrose is treated like fiber by the body -- and that it has basically no effect on blood glucose.
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R Washburn -- I sure haven't tried the Plasir Sucre, but I can assure you that I have salivated every time I've passed the photo in the book! Question: In both of the Herme 'Desserts' books, the sweet tart shells in all of the photographs are uniformly browned, to a shade like that of dark brown sugar. I've used the sweet tart dough recipe several times, and I like it very much, but I never get that dark of a sucree crust. Mine are much lighter in color, even if I cook them longer than the max time in the recipe. Same for those I've seen posted to this thread. Can anyone tell me how to make sucree shells that look like those in the book? Use egg wash? Bake longer? Sprinkle holy water on the stove while the shells are cooking?
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Splenda granular is maltodextrin and sucralose. Maltodextrin is made from corn starch, and I think its only function is as a "bulking agent." I think it is added just so that sweetness per unit volume is the equivalent to sugar.
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They look great, jgarner! Macarons are my favorite as far as cookies go. If you are able to share it, Id be interested in the recipe you used. I'd also be interested in what you bake them on, and how you remove them. Keep us updated on the versions you try -- I'm still looking for something as delicious as the chocolate with ganache filling in Greenspan/Herme's book.
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I just use canola spray when butter is called for, or Baker's Secret when buttering and flouring is called for. Literally 5 seconds and the pan is ready.
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Since precision in language is always a virtue, I say never apologize for picking nits. And at any rate, the book itself calls it Lemon Cream rather than lemon curd. On the other hand, lemon cream grades into lemon curd, is made basically the same way and with the same ingredients, so that there is no real dividing line between the two things as far as I can tell. I don't think that it would be inaccurate to refer to the lemon cream as 'an exceptionally creamy lemon curd.'
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Tonight, I made the chocolate-lemon madeleines. They're easy to make, and pretty tasty too. This time I actually used Valrhona cocoa, and I think it is quite good. The recipe advises to to let the batter sit overnight in the fridge in order to form a good "hump," or at least 1 hour if you are impatient. I let my batter sit in the fridge about 2 hours before baking, and still got good humpage.
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Over the next couple of weeks I plan on trying several different lemon pound cake recipes, and probably some other lemon desserts as well. I'll post some pictures to this thread, as well as my comments on them. I am also very interested in how other egulleteers like to use lemons in desserts, what everyone else's favorites are. The first thing I made is the Lemon Pound Cake from America's Taste Kitchen. This cake is very good. Next up, I intend to try Sherry Yard's pound cake, which is very similar but includes buttermilk.
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The Lemon Poundcake in the "Tea Time" episode of America's Test Kitchen (season 4) is delicious and easy. It is the poundcake recipe I had been wishing for all my life. We couldn't stop eating it in my house. You need to register on the site, but it's free. Tea Time (Lemon Poundcake) ← I hope no one will mind if I derail this thread a little to discuss lemon pound cakes, but I made this cake tonight. I have three lemon pound cake recipes I want to tryover the next week or so -- the one you posted, one with buttermilk from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking, and a sour cream lemon pound cake recipe I found on the web. I haven't eaten a slice yet, but I''ll post my impression when I do. Thanks for posting the link to the recipe.
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That sounds very interesting! Thank you for sharing this idea.
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A lemon cream/strawberry napoleon sounds really good. On the other hand, I'm also thinking Herme's lemon tart sounds good too, with is just a sucree shell filled with the lemon cream and covered with a fruity clear glaze. On the third hand, I have some phyllo left over from the last time I made baklava, and phyllo cups or purses with lemon cream and strawberries sounds really good too. . . The lemon cream seemed to set pretty quickly. The photo was taken maybe 2 hours after I put the lemon cream in the fridge, and was already pretty firm at that point. Yes, and I'm sure that is one of the reasons for the exquisite creaminess of the caramel ganache in the pave recipe as well. I'd gladly spend the extra 10-15 minutes waiting for the cream to cool and whipping with the immersion blender to get such a tasty finished product.
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Good job, yellowmnm81. Looks great. Try a slice cooled in the fridge too. I like it best that way.
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I'm not making anything from CDBPH this weekend, but I have made something from the earlier Herme/Greenspan 'Desserts' book - Herme's Lemon Cream. This can be used as filling for Herme's lemon tart, or as a middle stratum between chocolate cakes in Herme's Riviera. This is easily the creamiest and most delicious lemon 'curd' I've ever had. Its lighter in color because it has so much butter, and because it is whipped with an immersion blender to finish. I could really just eat this stuff all by itself, something I cant say about any other lemon 'curd.' I've been tasked with making "something lemon" for my father on his upcoming 60th birthday, and I don't know yet what I'll prepare, but this will be a part of it.
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Fear and Loaving In Las Vegas Wild at Hearth Bravehearth Bread Over Heels HellBraiser (ok, thats not exactly a bread book title. . . )
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Yeah, I guess you're right. My cakes arent really bundt cakes. Handily, though, I did make the banana cake as true mini-bundts last month! And I now, restrospectively, dedicate them to H. David Dalquist. This bundt's for you, David.
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Thanks, Safran! If you were here, I'd give you one to eat and two to take home with you.
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Here's my tribute to H. David Dalquist -- banana mini-bundts cooked in my new NordicWare pan.
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Kneadful Things
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I didnt take any photos or anything, but I made the 'classic hot chocolate' from the book. I made it because saturday I was listening to National Public Radio, and this fellow was talking about how 'real' hot chocolate should be made with chocolate and cocoa, or chocolate only, but not with cocoa only. It occurred to me then that I had never actually made hot chocolate with chocolate, so I picked up a bar of Le Noir Gastronomie and made some. Man was it good. Maybe its the heat or something, but the flavor seems twice as intense in the hot chocolate as opposed to just eating out of hand, plus it seems to accentuate more of the 'exotic' wine/coffee/nutty tastes in good chocolate. If you're like me and have only had mass produced cocoa hot chocolate, try it with some high quality bittersweet.
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I have more panettone than I know what to do with too. Last night I went to the store I bought my first panettone at, a Meijer's store in Louisville. In december, they had the 2.2lb Maina Gran Panettone for $6. I checked back just to see if they were on sale, and they were - 50% off. But here's the thing - I go to the check-out and scan it, and its not $3, its $1.50! This is the very same panettone that Amazon 'gourmet' sells for $15! The box has an expiration date sometine in June, so I bought 4 of them. Of course I will give some away as gifts. Maybe. Looks like my new year's diet might have to wait!
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Thanks for pointing that out, Swisskaese.
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No, a mousse would not by definition have to contain cream, though some mousses do. Most definitions of mousse define it as a foamy textured dish based either on eggs and/or cream. I would consider a bavaroise of whipped cream set with gelatin to be a particular type of mousse, but still a mousse. Traditionally though I think the foaminess of mousse comes from whipped egg whites. I dont know how to define souffle, but Ive always thought of it as a baked dish.
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On my lunch break today, I went to the little Italian shop and found mini-panettone on sale for $1 a piece. As I was heading back to work, gobbling my mini-panettone, I noticed that the ingredients lists wheat flour. That makes my wonder how much of the textural differences between what I buy and what I make are due to the different flour type? Does wheat flour make for a softer, lighter bread?
