sugarbuzz

I've been using this for about 12 years now. Never heard it referred to as a "ganache" though. We just call it chocolate water. The way I do it is I melt my chocolate & add hot water until I get the thickness & consistency I want. I use it for cake glazes mostly. As for the shelf life..I've stored this for up to 10 days at room temp in the kitchen without any mold or spoilage. I do have a recipe for a chocoalte mousse using this method & adding whipped cream to it. No gelatin is needed & it sets up completely firm. I use it for cake fillings.

http://www.starchefs.com/events/studio/tec...uez/index.shtml

The Cake Book by Tish Boyle has some good recipes in it. Pretty much anything I've made from any of her books turns out.

Apples go well with orange/cardamom combo. Orange cardamom cake petit four with a caramel filling, Apple i.c make an apple ice cream bombe,maybe a maple chiffon cake base.. serve with a riesling reduction

If it is only going up a few inches in size than no..I don't alter it. I'll double a recipe & make cupcakes with the leftover batter.

I just made an Apricot galette with a pistachio paste filling & topped it with blackberry ice cream. It sold out for lunch. I also made recently with blackberries.. Nectarine & blackberry crisp with lemon buttermilk ice cream Blackberry upside down cake with mango coulis & a scoop of lime frozen yogurt

A burger place is not surprising as he is a huge fan of In Out burgers...I remember reading about this in some foodie mag a few months ago.

When I make ginger truffles I'll steep the ginger w/ the cream..but then I'll sneak a small piece of candied ginger in the center of the truffle.

I know exactly what these are. I used to make them for a bakery in Chicago. Mocha,passionfruit,vanilla,mango..etc Crisp on the outside and almost a cotton candy like texture on the inside. It was always the last thing I would make because they have to sit in a warm oven all night. So I had to wait until the bake was done for the day & the oven had cooled off almost completely. It was a simple meringue with a lot of powdered sugar folded in & then a fruit compound was added. I'll have to dig out my old recipe book & see if I still have the recipe.

hmm.. I just made some vanilla star anise ice cream for my pear clafouti..maybe I'll try pairing it with a rhubarb galette.

I like Truffles, Candies & Confections by Carole Bloom also. It's nice for a novice because she explains about types of chocolate,tools to buy, how to temper..etc. Alot of interesting truffle recipes..and the brittle recipe is very good.

I remember my mom would make that icebox cake with graham crackers.

I just remembered this cake that my mom still makes & that everyone still anticipates is her pistachio cake. Which is a white cake mix with Jello brand pistachio pudding. She bakes it in a tube pan & it is the most hideous looking lime green color but man is it ever so good. I forgot about the Good Humor bars..the chocolate crunch ones were my favorite.

I grew up in Chicago..right smack in the city. I remember sno-cones, Italian ice, soft serve ice cream from the ice cream truck, Dolly Madison cupcakes,snowballs,ho-ho's..etc.. My granny was a terrific baker(which is why I'm now in the pastry biz). I'd come home from school to find her making donuts & funnelcakes,churros,fritters. My mom was a box cake maker..anything from a box was her preference. Remember pudding in a cloud? All those jello & pudding based desserts. I just remembered this old candy/ice cream shop around the corner from where I grew up..He'd serve sherbert..homemade and all kinds of flavors. But I would get the rainbow one all the time. Served in those little flimsy paper cups where you could push it through to the top to get every last lick.

I'm just going to take pics at the tasting. I was up late last night & was just too tired. I'm kinda iffy about my malt cake. It tastes good but it's just different. It's ricotta based..made like a souffle. It's very spongy & it kind of melts in your mouth. An acquired taste I guess..we'll see how they like it.

I'm currently working on 3 desserts for a tasting tomorrow. I'll post some pics later on as I would love some feedback on them. here's what I'm doing: fresh raspberry & fig jam crostata w/ chestnut honey ice cream chocolate malt cake with banana ice cream,choc-peanut butter sauce & peanut brittle Apple upside down cake with caramel mascarpone & riesling sabayon possibly a basque cake with some almond cream sauce as a back up.

I would use the cake crumbs for finishing the sides of chocolate cakes..especially if I couldn't get the sides smooth. It looks nice on a glazed cake as well.

I used to have a subscription a few years ago but cancelled after I only got one magazine the whole year. Turns out they were sending my magazine to the wrong address. Even though I had called and complained & verified that they had my right address..I still never got another magazine. I eventually got my $$ back after numerous calls.

I made Becca's cake again last night with the cream & I also doubled the vanilla. It's such a great recipe. I'm serving that tonight with some strawberry ice cream I made for my daughter's sleep over tonight. I do however really like the lemon version I made. I substitued creme fraiche in the first batch & then I made it with some thinned out sour cream. I used the 5 egg & 2 yolk recipe, used 3/4 c. sour cream & 1/4 cup cream,omitted the vanilla & used lemon juice & added the finely chopped zest of 3 lemons. It just cuts through all that sugar really nicely. It's still a bit sweet but the lemon flavor really comes through. Topeed with a lemon glaze it is just killer. I served that with some mango ice cream for my girls & that is what they want all the time now. Thanks to Becca for sharing this recipe. I've become a pound cake making fool the last few weeks.

Two things make cheesecake crack..overbaking it & not loosening the cake from the sides of the pan when you take it out of the oven. I myself prefer not to use flour or starch in cheesecake..it makes it taste gummy. Simplicity is best. I also prefer sour cream to using cream. A water bath is not always necessary.. Most NY style cheescakes do not use them. I prefer this method because you get that nice brown crust, it's firm on the outside yet smooth & creamy in the middle. You bake it at a high temp for 10 minutes & then a lower temp for 1 hr-90 minutes. I also use cake pans instead of springform pans. I got so tired of losing the springform bottoms or having them get warped. I'm making one today..maybe I'll document it & post pics later.

Did you sift the flour 3 times?

That sounds like a Maurice Lenell cookie. Anyone who's grown up in Chicago knows who they are. They have a cookie that is a sugar cookie but with toasted coconut in it. It doesn't have a name on their site..they just sell by the tin. I remember my dad would take us to the factory to get a bag of "rejects" for like 2 bucks. Go to this site & look at the background pic. the coconut one is in the middle row all the way to the right. Is that similar to the one you had? ML cookie

Here's the marble version of Becca's recipe. It was very dense but still very moist. I added 1/2 c. scharffenberger cocoa & 1 1/2 oz melted unswtnd chocolate..also Scharffenberger. I started with only the cocoa but the batter tasted a bit too sweet so I added the unsweetenend chocolate to cut it a bit.

The cakes came out great. Moist & light. The lemon & creme fraiche give it a nice tang. I'm sure some thinned out sour cream can be substituted. I put a lemon glaze on it as well. My kids ate almost a whole loaf by themselves. I used the smaller pans & they came out damn near perfect. I'm going to try a marble version today and the girls definitely want more lemon. I might use yogurt in place of the creme fraiche to see how that turns out.

After viewing this thread I decided to make Becca's recipe. But after putting the baby to sleep I realized I used all the cream for ice cream a few days ago & didn't want to wake him. So I substituted some coconut creme fraiche I had leftover from a dessert I made over the weekend. I did thin it out with some coconut milk & I added the zest of 3 lemons. I'll let you know how it turns out. I also used smaller loaf pans..7x3 I think they are.