Patrick S

These weren't dots though - it was actual looking, creamy ice cream. Jason ← Right, I understand that. The dots are similar to what you describe only in that they are frozen with liquid nitrogen.

There was an article in July 2003 Popular Science about using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream. The author describes his experience with the process: Behold the smooth, sweet powers of liquid N

A company called Dippin' Dots here in KY, USA does something similar. They spray droplets of ice cream base into liquid nitrogen which freezes the droplets into little ice cream bbs. I tried some dots several years ago, and they were quite good.

Sure, I'd be interested. Since IR thermometers are expensive as far as tools go, I want to buy one that is going to last. In general, though, I think there's just something inherently desirable about being able to take the temp of your ganache with a laser beam. I look forward to standing over 3 pounds of warm ganache and saying: 'Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?,' as I blast it with my infrared death-ray.

Seth and Richard, once again your creations look lovely. Hopefully after the holidays I can jump back in here!

Raspberries and Chambord does sound really good. Of the three types I've made so far, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla, the strawberry version with puree was by far the best tasting. So I imagine the raspberry would be similarly good. I have some framboise already, so I'd probably use that instead of Chambord. I still have lavender leaves to try too when I get around to it. Rickster: I've only made marshmallows using egg whites one time, but for what its worth, my results were not very good. It was a recipe for cocoa marshmallows from Marcel Desaulnier's Celebrate With Chocolate. It was a slightly bigger hassle, because you had to use your mixer bowl for the whites, a double boiler for gelatin+espresso+liquer, and a pot for the sugar+corn syrup (whereas nightscotsman's method uses only a mixer bowl and a pot for the syrup). When I added the syrup to the whites, they got super-sticky and started climbing up the beater. And the end result just was not that good. Like I said, this is the one and only time I made marshmallows using whites, but it was definitely more effort for less return.

I've never used a candy thermometer. I use a digital -- the kind with the probe attached to a long metal band, used for monitoring the internal temp of meat cooking in the oven. Its always worked fine, but then I have no way of verifying its accuracy above 212F (I know its accurate at 212, because it reads 212 when water begins to boil). I've thought about buying one of those nifty infrared thermometers, which on the low end cost about US $50-75. Anyone use/recommend this type of thermometer?

I suppose it's a Charlotte that I want to make then. I made a bunch of ladyfingers the other night, so I got that covered. I made about 4 dozen fingers and used the excess to make a little disc. However, I ate the little disc as soon as it came out of the over, so I'll have to make a couple of 10" discs to fit in the springform pan I'll be using. For whatever reason, I do think I would prefer a border of some kind. Thanks for the advice on the topping! That sounds simple, and exactly what I'm looking for. Simple syrup+gelatin+strawberry coulis. I guess I could reserve some of the syrup and coulis to brush on the ladyfingers (I'm paranoid they'll be too dry, even though I wrapped and froze them right after I baked them).

I'd like to make a strawberry mousse cake for Christmas this year. I've seen some recipes I like, but I'm curious if anyone has a recipe they particularly like and would like to share, or just some general advice on fruity mousses and mousse cakes. Would ladyfingers work well as a base and a border, or should I go the extra trouble to make a sponge cake base? If the latter, what kind of cake would go well? I'd like to have a pretty strawberry gelee on top, like you see on so many raspberry mousse cakes. Any advice on that? Will the acidity of the lemon juice, added to the strawberries, mess up the mousse? Can I freeze the finished mousse cake for a few days, or is this something that should be made the same day it is served? Any tips, pointers, warnings or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Chocolate macaroons filled with semisweet ganache or peanut butter buttercream.

I vote for the Pave. I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't use 8x4 pans in the place of 7.5x3.5. I'd put a bit more than half of your batter in the 8x4. The only thing I will do differently next time I make it is use more of the caramel soaking syrup. I probably only used half of the syrup I made because I was afraid of making the cocoa cake mushy, but the cake turned out not at all mushy and I wish I had used even more for a bigger caramel taste in the cake.

The hydrogenation process does require hydrogen gas being passed through vegetable oils under high pressure at moderately high temperatures in the presence of a metal catalyst, such as nickel. This page has some interesting info on the technology used in oil hydrogenation.

Thanks Andiesenji and Wendy for explaining transfers. Now I'm really curious if any stores in my area sell cocoa butter. Question: what is the best way to color cocoa butter? Would standard gel colors work, or do you need something else?

It would be very easy to refute CI by doing you own experiment demonstrating a difference in leavening depending on cocoa type using some other recipe. This would refute the null hypothesis, which in this case is the hypothesis that there no difference between natural and dutched cocoa with respect to leavening. All CI is saying is that their tests, such as they are, fail to rule out the null hypothesis. I don't think that is so 'irresponsible.' If you are indeed angry, maybe you can suggest to CI a better recipe, one which will definitively prove the need for one type of cocoa for proper leavening?

Actually, in the most recent addition on dutched cocoa, they tested two recipes, one of which specifically called for dutched (the devil's food) and one of which specifically called for natural (pudding cake). In neither case did they note any difference in leavening, and in both cases they judged the dutched as producing a better taste. As you say, they did not include the recipes in the article itself, but I'd assume that they are devil's food and pudding cakes from past issues of CI. From the article:

I can't speak for aidensnd, but I'm pretty sure that's what he/she's asking about. I'm curious too. Do you just 'paint' your design with cocoa butter onto an acetate strip? Or use a stencil and spray cocoa butter? Or both?

Another intesting result of the CI taste testing is that the Hershey's cocoa was ranked #2 in both the dutched and natural categories, and in both cases beat out much more expensive cocoas. For instance, Hershey's dutched beat out Droste, Skokinag and Valrhona, and was ranked second only to Callebaut cocoa (which doesnt surprise me, since I think Callebaut chocolate is awesome). The Hershey's cocoa costs about 40% less than the Callebaut. Among the natural cocoas, Hershey's beat out Ghiradelli and Scharffen Berger, and was second to Mercken's, which is about the same price (~US$6 per LB). This doesn't surprise me either, since I have been relatively disappointed with both Ghiradelli and Scharffen Berger. EDIT TO ADD: And to reiterate what JospehB pointed out, the dutched was preferred in every one of the taste tests, which included hot cocoa, shortbread, pudding cake, and devil's food cake.

Seth G, of course your caramels look gorgeous. LemonCurd, yours look gorgeous as well. Thanks so much for the compliment. I usually am not able to unload everything I make, but I try. I take some to work with me to give away (my supervisor is a chocoholic, which works out well for me), and on saturday's I usually have a big lunch with my wife's family. I freeze what I can.

Actually, the photos I posted the other night, using incandescent light, make the caramels look lighter in color than they appear to the eye. I took a few more shots this morning under natural light, at least as much as is available on this overcast day, and the color is darker. Also, I did not use Valrhona chocolate (I rarely do). I used what I had around the kitchen, which was my last 3ozs of Scharffen Berger 70%, and 1oz of Guittard L'Harmonie 64%, so my caramel would indeed have a slightly lower concentration of cocoa solids than if I'd used all 70% chocolate. I think next time it may be better to add the zest right at the end. As you cook the caramel, you get a wonderful smell of lemon in the kitchen, but that means the lemon oils are aerosolizing or whatever and leaving the caramel. Maybe if you add it right at the end the loss of lemon oil would be much less.

I believe it was 8" but I'm not sure that it wasn't 9".

Nice looking marshmallows, Teepee.

As promised, here are some pictures of the chocolate-lemon caramels. They are very soft and very chocolatey. The lemon is nearly impossible to discern.

Yeah, that's liquid bandage, and its great stuff.

The great stuff just keeps coming! I have another picture of some Nutella tartlets I made a few months ago. I hadn't posted them before because, frankly, they were really plain-jane and not done with any devotion or attention to detail. But I'll just post them anyway, just for the hell of it. I used the normal recipe, but made three 4.5" tarts instead of one 9" tart. Earlier tonight I made the chocolate-lemon caramels (I've been working with caramel a lot lately). Its cooling right now. I was skeptical of using lemon, but I tried a little bit of the caramel cooled on a spoon and the taste was very good. The lemon taste is quite subtle, and works well. So this may be another example of me going into a recipe skeptical and being converted to a true believer in the end. I'll post pics of the caramels tomorrow, or as soon as I can.

Definitely, you should always use antibiotic ointment to prevent a wound from getting infected. The exception being if you're going to use a liquid bandage. In that case, you should just wash and dry the wound and then apply the liquid bandage.