sanrensho

Just to append my comments above, the Gordon Ramsay book Just Desserts might also work for you as it contains a lot of recipes for cremes, parfait, mousse, and bavarois. Not a lot of cake and no buttercream recipes though. Good luck!

Yes, it is a pear brandy, I believe. I have young kids so I usually leave out the liqueur, it won't have a big effect on the recipe. I don't have a recipe off-hand for pastry cream (all my notes are elsewhere) but you should be able to find one online. Maybe someone here can suggest one. However, you're right, the filling would tend to ooze out a bit unless you created a "dam" with buttercream around the edges. EDITED TO ADD: I'm currently using Gordon Ramsay's recipe for creme patisserie from Just Desserts. His recipe is not too sweet, which I like. One book that you should be able to easily find at a library is The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It contains a recipe for "Fruit Cloud Cream," which is stabilized whipped cream w/fruit puree. It also has a bavarian (bavarois) cream recipe which you can adapt by adding fruit puree to taste. I also recommend this book because it has good and detailed (foolproof) buttercream recipes. Many here swear by her Mousseline buttercream, which you could easily adapt to make a strawberry BC by adding puree. It sounds like you did not like the buttercream recipe you tried, but I promise you that this recipe is neither heavy nor does it obviously taste of butter. There are many options for fruit mousse so I would try a few and see what you like.

Brilliant deductive powers, Kirstin! I would never have thought of that. Using that font, my four-year old would probably read that as (ichi)kora.

Kristin, maybe you could append the thread title to include "Nira." That would avoid confusion when somebody does a search in the future.

Amen to that! I've always thought that the All Raisin biscuits were superb. Just the right amount of (natural) sweetness and the chewiness is the best.

Definitely not. An allergy is a sensitivity to an antigen (Oxford definition: "Med. Altered reactivity of the body towards an antigen; esp. hypersensitivity towards a particular foreign substance such as a type of food, pollen, or micro-organism.") So how is that different from being sensitive to certain foods? Also, allergies have different degrees of consequences, whether life-threatening or mild. That's like saying, does it belittle those with serious life-threatening allergies when someone says they have a less serious allergy?

Yet another option would be to make a strawberry pastry cream lightened with whipped cream. Of the three options that I mentioned, the strawberry whipped cream can easily be spread as a topping. The bavarois would need to be set in a mold (you could use a springform for this purpose) to use as a topping, either inverted or regular side up. Or you could even mold a bavarois disc separately to place on top.

Simplest way would be to make a strawberry whipped cream by adding pureed strawberries. Adding gelatin to the whipped cream will give it more stability for storage or building up layers. Or you could make a strawberry bavarois. (Look for a bavarois recipe and sub with strawberry puree, added to taste.) EDITED TO CORRECT SPELLING

I was never much of a drinker, but there are some major advantages. Less calories from alcohol means a higher ratio of desserts for my overall calorie intake! I always try to make up for those lost calories with extra portions of dessert.

Hey, I resemble that comment. Seriously, though, it is sometimes more socially convenient to tell somebody that you're allergic to something and leave it at that. In my case, a bad case of campylobacter one fateful day in Morocco left me with the inability to digest any significant amount of alcohol. I've landed in the hospital a few times because of it. (A sip of wine and, more importantly, a bit of alcohol in dessert is fine however. Heh heh.) In most social situations, it is often just easier for me to tell people I'm allergic to alcohol, rather than to go into a long spiel about my clinical history with campylobacter and alcohol. Oh, and I happen to be one of the least pickiest people when it comes to not eating certain foods. I can also see how it might be more polite and convenient to say you're allergic to something than to refuse something from a host. Although I personally prefer to be honest and blunt in such situations.

I think that the simplest explanation is most likely, if you know what I mean. Interesting to read about the Austrian/Hungarian crepe tortes, I wasn't aware of them. Megan, it's too bad that they are so publicity shy, I was going to request a photo blog!

Correction duly noted! Sorry if I offended anyone. The CEO sounded a bit coy to me in his response, when in fact a milles crepes is probably familiar to anyone who has grown up or spent time in Japan (just like baumkuchen). It would not surprise me at all if it were first done in France and took off in Japan. Either way, it is French inspired. I'd be interested in knowing if you find anything in your research. BTW, do you happen to know if the pastry chefs at Lady M are Japanese?

If you have access to a Japanese grocery, you might look for a product called Bolo. These little balls will quickly melt in your mouth, so they are infant-safe. They do make infant-specific versions. They are quite popular among Japanese as an infant snack food. You might also find non-Japanese equivalents made in China, Korea, etc., although I have no experience with them. Here's a photo: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%BB%E5%...:Tamagobolo.JPG Bolo for infants (there are other brands as well): http://a1978.g.akamai.net/f/1978/9072/120d.../W111780H_L.jpg

Interesting read. The writer should have done her homework, though. The inspiration for the Lady M mille crepes obviously comes via Japan, where the exact same dessert is widely available. (The owner of Lady M is Japanese.) I look forward to a review of the gateau au chocolat.

Thank you for the write-up, WhiteTruffleGirl. I will definitely be trying the CI recipe in the coming weeks.

Thanks for the input. I'm pretty happy with the Ikea butcher block I'm using now, so I'm not that motivated to switch at the moment. I can see some of the advantages of this board, but it is clear to me that this board is much stiffer than what I'm using now. I'm familiar with wood composites so this doesn't surprise me. For now, I'll use it for limited duty until I get more experience with its qualities as a cutting surface. Yours and the comments of others have at least encouraged me to give this board a try.

Thanks for all the opinions. Using the link that Octaveman provided, I found some comments about the Epicurean board, which suggest that they are a little too stiff and hard on knives: http://www.foodieforums.com/vbulletin/show...light=epicurean http://www.foodieforums.com/vbulletin/show...light=epicurean However, the low maintenance factor is attractive, so I will use this board for chopping chocolate and other jobs that tend to stain my regular wood board. For now, I will stick to using my dullest knives on this particular board, rather than my main knives. Thanks for the help everyone!

Thank you for the reply. Does this mean that the average home cook in France would make their chantilly with 30% fat cream? Somehow, I expected that French home cooks would be using a higher percentage cream than we typically get here (33% in Canada).

I'm curious, what answers did they give you? Except for gram measurements for baking, I always see "hon" used for rosemary.

We just received an Epicurean cutting board from a well-meaning friend. This is made from a wood composite. My first tendency is too believe that this board is far too stiff and unforgiving for my motley collection of mostly consumer-grade (read: not expensive) Japanese knives. Right now, our main cutting surface is the large, heavy Ikea "butcher block" cutting board. We're perfectly happy using that combined with some plastic surfaces for the messier jobs. Is the Epicurean board going to dull my knives? Should I discreetly "put it away" in some dark place where other family members can't find it and accidentally use it?

No suggestion on the cookie crumbs, but I've taken cake scraps and placed them between layers of flavored whipped cream in glasses. It turns out much like a tiramisu if you're using a very light cake. (EDITED TO ADD) I suppose this isn't helpful for a pro application like yours (doh).

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, my local Superstore doesn't carry the pistachios.

You wouldn't have had a problem selling that in Japan. Black sesame desserts are everywhere, and not just traditional Japanese sweets. I have to mention this. One of our local Chinese supermarket chains (T&T) sells a black sesame bread. The flavour is quite good, but they must be using a very, very cheap source for their black sesame seeds. Every couple of slices, you will get a piece that has some grit/sand in it. The sensation when that happens is awful beyond words. Oddly, I've never experienced this problem with other products made using black sesame.

Out of curiosity, what is the fat content for the above? Do they come in different fat percentages?

Klary, at this rate, you could write your own book and it would easily be more informative than anything out there!