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cmflick

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Posts posted by cmflick

  1. Thanks for the help and suggestions! I found a modified recipe online at ecolechocolat that doesn't require the marble slab tempering so will try that to see if it works! Thanks also for pointing me towards the coconut fat discussion, I found that the jar I have is not 100% solid, in fact when you press it with your finger it does give away to semi-liquid.

    Thanks again!

    Ruth

    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.

    • Like 1
  2. So I. Using a Chocovision mini rev to temper my chocolate and it's driving me crazy because it doesn't seem to be in temper. For instance I did a batch the other day that was 80% of a 72% dark couverture and 20% of a 56% dark couverture. When the machine said it was tempered my thermometer showed about 88 degrees ( I have one of those point with a laser thermometers) so with it made about 8 bars and they all had swirl marks on the back but 4 had that Carmel color swirl to them.

    How can some from the same batch look like it's in temper and others not?

    Thanks!

    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.

  3. 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.

  4. Probably about 10 grams a center.  When I'm making a smaller batch I have these little measuring spoons that read pinch etc - I use the one that says pinch.

     

    I would add it with the liquid.

    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.

  5. I use about 1/2 tsp (not sure of the gram weight) for a recipe that makes 250 centres.

    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?

  6. On the Cabela's site, I read that the Excalibur dehydrator has "a thermostat adjustable from 95° to 155°F." 95F. is warmer than I would want cocoa butter to be. Am I missing something about this product?

    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.

  7. 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.

    • Like 1
  8. The power went out at my house while I was on vacation and, setting aside the hundreds of dollars in frozen meats, sauces etc that I had to throw out, what about my starter? It was sitting in a lukewarm fridge for about 5 days....is it even worth trying to revive? Or should I just toss the whole thing in favor of a new one?

    Thanks!

    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.

  9. Very very nice! Where did you get that recipe? Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

    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!
  10. Where do you guys buy your commercial passion fruit puree from? I've looked before, and most places the shipping prices are extremely high...

    I use Goya or Andino's Food (from Ecuador) from the local hispanic market. I think that there is a brand called La Fe as well, but I don't have any of them right now. All seem fine to me. I can't afford the shipping on other purees. The down side is that there is not as wide a range of purees as with something like Boiron. Most of what I use is passionfruit and mango. Fruits that are available seasonally, I make my own purees and freeze them.

  11. I've made passionfruit/mango ganache using the recipe from William Curley's Chocolate Couture book several times and had no problem with the flavor fading. The passionfruit flavor is strong. Actually, I can't taste the mango. I've had the chocolates around for 2-3 weeks and the flavor has not seemed to change. I used commercial passionfruit and mango purees.

  12. What are you paying for the silicone stuff - I get it from a restaurant supply or Costco type places. I think it works out to about 10 cents a sheet.

    I bought flat half sheet pan size from King Arthur Flour for $19.99 for 100 sheets plus $8 shipping. The quilon coated stuff I bought from a restaurant supply place for $50 for 2000 half sheet pan size. I thought it was a real deal. The best deal that I could find online was about $100 for 1000 full sheet pan size silicone treated parchments (same place sells quilon treated parchment for about 1/2 the price). I like the flat sheets for making macarons as I can't seem to ever get the curl out of the stuff on a roll.

    So, the King Arthur brand was working for you then??? I tempted fate and lost today, using a new parchment too. I've been using Reynold's rolled parchment. I'll try King Arthur's if that is what you have been using. Please let me know. Thanks!

    Your macaron problem looks exactly like mine! I was using King Arthur Flour parchment and it did work for me. If you shop from King Arthur before Feb. 7, the half sheets of parchment are on sale 10% off and with free shipping. I would get some, but I just invested in more silpats. I decided that I like baking macarons on the silpats better.

    Thanks! I'm going to test my silpats today or tomorrow.

    FYI: I am in the midst of baking some Guam cookies today on the new parchment I bought. Using the exact recipe, the Guam cookies also had a tough time coming off of the new parchment I bought. I threw out a whole tray of macs yesterday because they stuck to that new paper! Be careful if you use your new (bad) parchment; they may not work that well for other baked goodies.

    Good to know about other things not working on the new (bad) parchment. I've been using mine primarily to set already baked things on, like lining up the macaron shells for filling, since I discovered the problems. Now that you mention it, though, I made a sacher torte in December and the parchment paper stuck to the bottom. I never had that happen before, but I wasn't into parchment differences at the time, so I didn't make the connection with the new (bad) parchment.

    Can you tell if your parchment is quilon or silicone treated? I'm curious as to whether this is a quilon problem or just something about the quality of the parchment. I don't think that I'll buy any more batches of flat parchment sheets unless I can get samples to try out!

  13. What are you paying for the silicone stuff - I get it from a restaurant supply or Costco type places. I think it works out to about 10 cents a sheet.

    I bought flat half sheet pan size from King Arthur Flour for $19.99 for 100 sheets plus $8 shipping. The quilon coated stuff I bought from a restaurant supply place for $50 for 2000 half sheet pan size. I thought it was a real deal. The best deal that I could find online was about $100 for 1000 full sheet pan size silicone treated parchments (same place sells quilon treated parchment for about 1/2 the price). I like the flat sheets for making macarons as I can't seem to ever get the curl out of the stuff on a roll.

    So, the King Arthur brand was working for you then??? I tempted fate and lost today, using a new parchment too. I've been using Reynold's rolled parchment. I'll try King Arthur's if that is what you have been using. Please let me know. Thanks!

    Your macaron problem looks exactly like mine! I was using King Arthur Flour parchment and it did work for me. If you shop from King Arthur before Feb. 7, the half sheets of parchment are on sale 10% off and with free shipping. I would get some, but I just invested in more silpats. I decided that I like baking macarons on the silpats better.

  14. Today was the day for the great parchment types and silpat comparison experiment. I had a single batch of macaron batter that was piped onto quilon treated parchment, silicone treated parchment or a silpat. All of the macarons were baked at the same temperature for the same amount of time. The color differences of the macarons in the photo are really due to poor photography technique. They all looked about the same. I think that the results in the attached photo are pretty obvious. The macarons baked on the quilon treated parchment "slid" and were a mess. Both the silicone treated parchment and silpat baked ones were fine. I actually think that the feet on the silpat were a little nicer. They tended not to spread out from the shell as much as those baked on silicone treated parchment.

    I must admit that I can't say that all quilon treated parchment would give this result, but this particular batch certainly does not work for macarons.

    With enough other things to worry about when making macarons, who would have thought that the parchment would have such a big effect?

    Now I guess that I'll have to find something to do with my 2000 sheets of quilon treated parchment which I bought primarily for making macarons! I'm thinking origami.

    Parchment Comparison.jpg

  15. What are you paying for the silicone stuff - I get it from a restaurant supply or Costco type places. I think it works out to about 10 cents a sheet.

    I bought flat half sheet pan size from King Arthur Flour for $19.99 for 100 sheets plus $8 shipping. The quilon coated stuff I bought from a restaurant supply place for $50 for 2000 half sheet pan size. I thought it was a real deal. The best deal that I could find online was about $100 for 1000 full sheet pan size silicone treated parchments (same place sells quilon treated parchment for about 1/2 the price). I like the flat sheets for making macarons as I can't seem to ever get the curl out of the stuff on a roll.

  16. Spoke with one of the pastry instructors at Niagara College today - he's right into the science of baking. He says that there can be a huge difference in parchment in terms of the silicone and that some even contain paraffin - both things which can cause items to 'slip' on the surface.

    And here I thought that parchment paper was parchment paper. After a lot of googling today I learned that there is silicone treated parchment paper and quilon treated parchment paper. Quilon is a chromium and fatty acid complex based treatment that is used to make the parchment nonstick. Anyway, my old batch of paper was definitely silicone treated and the new parchment is labeled as quilon treated. Quilon treated paper is about 1/2 the price of silicone treated paper as far as I can tell, which explains why I could buy about 2000 sheets for about 2 1/2 times what I paid for 100 sheets of silicone treated paper! I think that next time I make macarons I'll use my quilon treated paper side by side with some Reynolds parchment paper off the roll. Some people say that Reynolds paper is silicone treated, but I sure can't find that information coming from Reynolds anwhere on the web!

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