MightyD

yaayyy!!! i have a recipe from regan daley that i've been meaning to try ... it promises to be dark and moist with an "almost-burnt caramel and spice flavour" - sounds yummy! so far, i'm most intrigued by the baking with julia recipe as well as the guiness stout recipe. what do you think?

anyone interested?

to get smooth edges on a square cake, i usually use a plastic bench scraper - works perfectly every time!

i've tried pierre herme's mousse recipes (from the patisserie book) and while the recipes were great, they were not exactly what i was looking for. spent pretty much an entire day making different mousses and i think i'm close to what i want - i borrowed an idea from pierre herme's lemon cream recipe where he "poaches" whole eggs with sugar and lemon juice over a bain-marie. i substituted the lemon juice for fruit puree, played with the sugar a bit, and added some gelatin - cooled the whole thing down over an ice bath, then folded in whipped cream. it is still very distinguishable as a mousse but the mouthfeel is so much nicer - not so puffy and fluffy!! and since the recipe uses whole eggs, the mousse does not end up tasting "eggy" if only egg yolks were used. will be playing with other flavor combinations soon - really wanted to get a base recipe down and i think i'm close to it. so you're saying i could freeze even fresh fruit in my mousses (cakes too maybe?) and it's ok? i've seen it in the professional european books but have always been told that the fruit would weep and turn to mush.

by "cream topping", do you mean the mousse part of the dessert?

hmmm .... sounds interesting .... do you think that it would work if i simply substituted the whipped egg whites with sabayon? that sounds really, really good ... less fluffy and puffy

no, i love fruit but just don't like the texture of gelatin-stabilized-mousses - tastes like fruity marshmallow puffs (which i REALLY don't like ...) i've always wanted to put chunks o' fruit in the fruit mousse but upon freezing and thawing, won't the fruit just turn to mush? i currently work out of my home kitchen and do get quite a few orders for mousses - am planning to open my own place soon but still lots of work to be done!! i do own a few professional books but i still don't know what constitutes a good mousse recipe since they all feel the same to me - puffy. if i could find some way turn the pierre herme lemon cream recipe into a mousse .... smooth and creamy and mmmmmm .... do you think that would be too rich? would a cremeux work?

what's the best type of mousse preparation to use for mousse cakes? bavarians, mousse with italian meringue, etc etc - specifically fruit mousses. i am so not a fruit mousse kind of gal but it is so popular that i need to add it to my repertoire. and for the life of me, i can't tell what kind of mousse preparation makes people weak in the knees since they all taste pretty blah to me!

i've never liked the taste of stabilizer/gelatin in my whipped cream. what i do is to simply whip the cream well and leave it in the fridge - it actually keeps for a few hours. if it does deflate, a few turns of the whisk brings it right back.

← no, didn't go there. but if you try Gandhi, try the butter chicken roti - go for spicy if you dare - makes me sweat like a hog but it is SOOOOO worth it.

i lived in vancouver for 6 months earlier this year and for the life of me, could not find any good indian food. you should try Gandhi (on Queen just east of Bathurst) - they have the BEST rotis i've ever eaten (and i've eaten quite a bit!). if you're a foodie, you should go to Kensington Market and try Big Fat Burrito - really tasty and HUGE burritos. forget the japanese restaurants here in toronto - vancouver's way better

you can find ancho chili powder in the latin stores around kensington too - i believe they are slightly cheaper.

big chinese cleaver. slippery chicken. emergency room.

choux, do you find that the end result is better than regular puff?

how is it compared to regular puff pastry?

yeah, i think they generally do contain sugar but am not sure about the butter bit.

can nut pastes (almond, hazelnut) be substituted with nut butters?

has anyone tried the danish recipe from RLB's pie and pastry bible? she claims to have an authentic danish pastry dough recipe which she got from a trip to denmark. i've tried it before and it is definitely one of the best pastries i've ever eaten - although they all disappeared pretty much as soon as they came out of the oven and IMHO, ANY pastry warm from the oven is the best!

hi pastryboy, i ran it through a search engine and found that the following places sell them - but i understand that their use in food has been banned in the US since the 50s as it has been suspected to be poisonous and carcinogenic? www.herbco.com www.oldtimeherbs.com

yeah, thought about using a nut crust but is not very cost-efficient for me right now. so far, i'm kinda leaning towards the cocoa butter thing - am trying to keep the flavors as pure as possible except when i'm actually making chocolate tarts! drewman - do you pop the tart shells back into the oven after egg-washing them? do they leave a noticeable "skin"?

i wonder if melted cocoa butter would work ... kinda like chocolate but without the strong choc flavor. has anyone tried this?

is there any other way of keeping a tart shell crisp other than brushing melted chocolate on the bottom? how about a thin layer of clear glaze - would that work?

easiest way would be with silicone shells - it just peels right off

chefpeon, the proportions you gave for baker's grease - are they in volume or weight?

so the cake stays perfectly moist without squeezing (ie doesn't get soggy) after days? my recipe (which i got from one of Maida Heatter's books) tastes SOOO good but gets SOOOO soggy. makes me sad to have to look for another recipe - although the Frog Commissary recipe looks very promising ....