Trishiad
-
Posts
544 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Trishiad
-
-
I often do a roasted veggie lasagna but since you're already serving a more traditional meaty lasagna I'd lean toward the butternut with sage bechamel. It would make both the carnivores and the veggies happy and create a nice variety.
Don't forget some nutmeg.
oooh and a nice salad with some spiced pecans....
-
My Whole foods in California has them, maybe yours does too?
-
A friend of mine got the Safeway bakery to print one for her. I don't know how much it cost her but it was cute
-
I went to a party recently where the caterer served what was essentially twice baked red potatoes. they were cut in half and stood like little cups on the tray. The "filling" seemed to be potato, cream, goat cheese and a little bacon with chives on top. So tasty.
-
Somewhere I read (was it here) that you should use chocolate thinned with an oil like almond or hazelnut.
-
I had to take a day to come back to this 'cause you guys were freaking me out a little. I didn't realize I was opening such a large can of worms. I will check into some of the wines suggested and will try to avoid using the word Port in the candy description. So, fortified wine would be an appropriate description?
-
Is that like Champagne only coming from France so what we make here is sparkling wine? What is the wine we call port?
-
I'd like to make a bonbon using a local port and some local chocolate. I need a port that will go nicely with a rather fruity bittersweet chocolate. Any ideas?
I'd love to use this as an excuse to wander the valleys tasting but sadly don't have the time.
-
I had a ginger ganache filled heart and a burnt caramel bon bon as my starter followed by a triple-chocolate cookie, a whoopie pie with candied orange and a milk chocolate malted drink for dessert.
My mom is sick and couldn't make it for the birthday dinner. My birthday has been bumped to next week when we'll likely dine in Sebastopol at Lucy's or at Pignoli in Occidental. Thanks for the help though. Next year I celebrate on my birthday, by myself if I have to!
-
I just got home from a demo class given by Michael Recchiuti and Fran Gage. They're doing a little tour to promote their new book "Chocolate Obsession". Not only was it a great presentation but I bought the book and it's fabulous. Because my focus is on candies rather than pastries I found it better than Fran Bigelow or Cantal Cody's books. The book has a recipe for just about everything in his shop. Rose Caramel, Tarragon and Grapefruit Truffle, Burnt Caramel ganache, plus some really yummy triple-chocolate cookies. The book is just under 200 pages and most of it is recipes.
Michael and Fran are both so personable and compliment each other well in the classroom. For only $50 I learned a number of things I didn't know (don't use fresh herbs for infusions because of water content. Instead, dry your own) and saw that even someone who makes thousands of bonbons a day still makes mistakes and has strange things happen. He told a story about racks of chocolates going bad all of a sudden for no apparent reason until they realized that a bread baker had moved in upstairs and there was a tremendous amount of yeast in the air. They had to install a special air filtration system.
I often have a stragler or two when inverting my molds and find myself whacking the inverted mold on the counter while my son covers his ears. Michael did the same thing today. He even crushed one with the mold just like I do!
If they are in your area you may want to check out their class. Or pick up the book if you have a chance.
-
Those pictures just look like trays of danish to me. what's the diff?
-
I liked your risotto idea. I was thinking Spanish tapas might be nice and kinda fun. A Spanish theme has so many options and is all fairly simple but seems elaborate. Easy to pick up a good Spanish wine too.
-
Okay, I'm already having a bad day and you guys are killin' me!
I saw someone use some kind of back massager during one of the competitions on foodtv but can't seem to find one that lays flat.
-
Did I mention it's MY birthday? There will be no train town, no feeding goats, no teeny-tiny ferris wheel.
The red grape sounds a heck of a lot better than Mary's. Is pizza my best bet?
-
Okay, I thought you were kidding McDuff but I did find a "vibratory case cleaner". Not so cheap though at $60 and needing some modification to hold molds flat.
anybody else?
-
I'll be in Sonoma on Saturday for a demo class taught by Michael Recchuiti (he has just published his first book). I've been too busy to celebrate my birthday this week and thought Saturday would be a good time for the whole family. I'd like something nice but not too expensive and doable with my 3 year old son and my 9 year old brother (I've a crazy mother!). Any ideas?
-
I just got the cutest candy bar molds with my logo on them. Unfortunately, they are very detailed and sort of shallow so whacking them on the counter doesn't seem to be the best way to release bubbles. I don't want to paint the chocolate in. I do want to vibrate the bubbles out. Any ideas for a make-shift vibrating table or somewhere to buy one for less than $50?
-
You know, sometimes my son (3 years old) asks to go out for sushi, often he begs to go to the Bouchon Bakery, and today he asked for a Filet-O-Fish. Is it SOOOOOO bad to eat junkie food once in a while? Must we constantly look down our noses at anyone who dares eat at Chilli's? Sometimes it's about keeping your bloodsugar levels up and not cleaning the kitchen. Sometimes it's about eating somewhere that easily pleases everyone. Everything in moderation, right?
-
Doesn't it all balance out? I've never catered or attended a wedding where there was a cake shortage. I imagine there are just as many people who decline the cake as there are people who enjoy seconds. I was at a wedding on Saturday where the slices were tiny and there was a ton of cake leftover. It was an angel food with buttercream and fresh berries. I had a total of 4 bites of angel food cake (2 from each layer) and 2 raspberries and easily 8 bites of frosting. Come to think of it, this has happened at many of the weddings I've attended.
-
We always cut circles. If you cut like it's a rectangle you get yucky slices that are all frosting.
-
I used to work for a caterer. We did hundreds of weddings from every budget. We never took the cake to another room for slicing. I thinks it's kinda weird unless the plates are getting some elaborate garnish. Most of the pastry chefs delivered their cakes with a diagram and/or some verbal direction. If they say their portions are generous, slice accordingly. I think if you're going to go to the trouble of placing plates on trays for moving you should just deliver a slice to each guest at the table. If they don't eat it so what. The bride and groom will be off on their honeymoon, not home eating leftovers from their wedding. When we didn't deliver the cake we left a server at the cake station until the guests had all come up for a slice. Before leaving the station the server sliced 5-10 pieces and left them plated on the table for straglers or seconds.
Don't sweat it, slicing a wedding cake really is simple. It's taking care of the bride that's the challenge. My caterer once removed a rattlesnake from under the wedding canopy! Must please the bride.
-
I'm not sure it would demo very well. You either do it by temperature or by look and feel. Unfortunately, that look and feel won't photograph well. But maybe.
-
I make AB's chocolate chips cookies from his book. That recipe calls for melting the butter too, I think. I'm not so good at following rules and always cream the butter with the sugar. These cookies don't seem to mind. They are the perfect shape and the raw dough is kinda flaky. They are by far my fav.
Is it a fluke that I have good results even though I'm a creamer???
-
I have to admit something: Long before I knew anything about chocolate I liked to eat it (duh!), I liked to dip things into it, I liked to give such things as gifts. I had no idea chocolate needed to be tempered. I melted it in a "bain marie" (big pot of water and big stainless bowl), probably the bowl touched the water. I didn't use a thermometer, I just melted it until it was done. I never burned any chocolate and about 80% of the time the chocolate dipped items were quite lovely. Sometimes they had ugly white streaks (bloom, duh!) and it took a few years of Christmas dipping for me to bother finding out why.
My point is that it is possible to melt it just enough. It's not ideal and is really a crapshoot, but it can be done. Seeding is easier than it sounds but it does take some getting used to. For perfect chocolates a lot of things come into play, type of chocolate, proper tempering (some are more tempermental than others), room temp, temp of center, the weather......
Try it if you wanna learn a new skill, you'll be glad you did. Or try it and roll many of your just-dipped truffles into some cocoa or nuts or sugar or nibs......If you tempered well your truffles will have a nice snap to them. If you didn't quite make it happen the coating will cover any visible signs of bloom.
"Chocolate Obsession"
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I never refrigerate my caramels and they're quite soft. I do, however, avoid slicing them in a kitchen warmer than about 75 degrees. If I must slice them on a warm day I work quickly to dip as soon as I slice. In fact, Recchuiti's caramels are a bit more firm than mine and should be a little difficult to slice and hold their shape well.
You may want to check your thermometer as 1 or 2 degrees will make a difference here. Also, I too have noticed that sugar hardens differently based on how quickly it's melted. We touched on this in some previous thread (can't remember when or why).
I would mix that salt in a quickly as your little paws can stir and dump it into a pan pronto to keep the salt incorporated. There's not a huge crunch to his caramels, it's kind of subtle I think. Plus you get crunch from the garnish.
I am not lucky enough to have a big a** copper pot and haven't had any trouble. Not that I'd turn one down....