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cmflick

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    Old Saybrook, CT

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  1. Where do you get thin boiling starch? Thanks.
  2. Do you think your recipe for a peanut butter center would work with cookie butter, aka Biscoff, as well? I've tried using Biscoff to make a filling with chocolate and it always breaks. Too much oil, I think.
  3. Checked this AM and saw that the L'Epicierie web site is up and running again. Glad to see them back. I've bought a lot from them in the past.
  4. Thanks for posting all the photos and the progress of your trip. It's been a great experience for all of us!
  5. I've used the Greweling recipe that calls for tabling in the past, but stirred with the paddle at speed 3 in my KitchenAid. Seemed to work fine.
  6. I always had problems like this with my Rev2 until I started using the longer tempering process. I think that it's called temper 2 where the chocolate is taken down to about 85F and then brought back up to 88.7. When I used temper 1, I always got swirls and had trouble releasing from molds.
  7. Thanks for the link. A lot of good information there.
  8. Does anyone have experience with the Wolf steam convection oven? As part of a kitchen remodel we're considering getting one and I'm wondering how well it works, especially for bread baking (it has a bread setting). Any input on performance of the oven would be appreciated.
  9. Thanks for the response, Kerry. Have you used citric acid with centers containing cream? I know that you can curdle milk with citric acid to make queso fresco.
  10. Kerry, how much weight of ganache are you using to make 250 centers? I want to try using citric acid, but want to make a lot less centers. Also, when do you add the citric acid?
  11. No you aren't. I set it between 95 and 110 to warm the cocoa butter, then once it's warm, pull it out and shake it up to create the beta crystals you are looking for, and it doesn't take long for the temp to drop to the ideal temp you want. You just temp it like you would chocolate to make sure it's where you want it to be, and for airbrushing, it actually have it slightly warm (I generally don't temp it) because it tempers when it goes through the airbrush as long as it's not too hot, which at 95 degrees, the little that it cools before it gets airbrushed seems to work just perfectly for me. Thanks Ruth for putting up the link for the dehydrator. I use the dough proofer that King Arthur Flour sells to melt colored cocoa butters. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/bread-proofer It can be set between 70F and 120F. I set it at 93F, put the colored cocoa butters in over night and by morning they're mostly melted. Just takes some shaking and/or a couple of seconds in the microwave to finish the job. Works great for air brushing.
  12. To continue a saga that I was telling earlier this year about failed macarons and problems with baking on parchment paper vs. silpat (see my posts between #120 and about #153 above). Basically, the problem was that the meringue collapsed before it set while baking and I ended up with what I would call sliders, i.e., the top of the macaron slid off the foot. After I thought that I had solved my problems by going over to using all silpats, I discovered though I had fewer failures, there were still many. After consulting with various people that I had taken pastry courses with, I was advised that either my oven had too many hot spots and was not baking consistently or my meringue was too strong. After countless failed batches, baking at various temperatures from 275F up to 350F, I finally decided that oven temperature was not my problem. To make a very long story short, I think that the problem was that the meringue was too strong and this was a result of how I age my egg whites. Basically, I think that the egg whites were "too" aged. I always buy eggs when they are on sale, separate the whites and yolks and freeze them separately. When my problems began, I had switched to letting the whites thaw and age at room temperature for 2-3 days, covered only with cheesecloth. Prior to that time I had thawed and aged egg whites in the refrigerator for 5 days covered with plastic wrap which I had punctured a couple of times with a knife. After I reverted to aging egg whites in the refrigerator, every batch of macarons has been perfect (no more sliders). I'm thinking that the fellow who told me that my meringue was too strong may have been right and that it was a result of how I aged my egg whites. Anyway, after over a year of not being able to make decent macarons, I am very glad to be back to consistently good ones! I haven't gone back to testing silpats vs. parchment paper again, but I have been baking on silpats and teflon sheets and both work very well.
  13. I've had the power go out for 6 days twice over the last 2 years and my sourdough starter has been fine after sitting at room temperature during the power outage. I just fed the starter regularly for a couple of days then returned it to the refrigerator.
  14. Can you share recipes for your hibiscus caramel, hibiscus PDF and hibiscus ganache? Hibiscus is one of my favorite flavors.
  15. Here is the link to my recipe: PaulaQ's French Macarons...w/video demonstration Well, for some reason I can't put a link on here. Recipe is on my site, www.paulaq.com > macaron book....scroll down for the link. Nice job on the video. The amount of detail is excellent. Will your book describe what didn't work in your trials? Sometimes that's just as important as what does work, i.e., what to avoid doing!
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