RuthWells

I have the burnt sugar ice cream base in my fridge and am planning to churn it tonight -- will report back! And I have made Dorie's marshmellow, but I didn't have great results -- I do better with non-egg-white marshmellows (I'm sure it's a character flaw of some kind).

I disagree. I only make them French-style (no bain marie), and I don't leave my egg whites uncovered. I am usually using older (frozen) whites, but I don't leave them out to lose water content, and I have a 99% success rate (the 1% failure is usually because I knock out too little air from the final batter).

Many thanks for typing this out, Lior!

Hm, thanks, all. Lior, I would be interested in those proportions, thanks!

I picked up a gorgeous container of candied ginger at the market last week, and am cogitating on a while chocolate ginger ganache truffle center. Has anyone tried this and have proportions to share?

Beautiful variety!

Oooh, thanks for the links. And your cake is gorgeous!

Yum, great suggestions, all. Hubby is a big fan of creme brulee, so I may give that a try...

Thanks, Kayakado -- subbing the powder for some of the flour is exactly the guidance I needed!

For my birthday, my hubby bought me some matcha powder to play with. Where shall I start?......

If this link works, it will bring you to the review of the Norman Love course that David J., another eGulleter, was kind enough to post. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=107956&hl=

I took Norman Love's "Entremets, Petits Gateaux & Chocolate Decor" class back in fall 2007 and LOVED it. I'm not a pro, either, just a very enthusiastic amateur. I spoke with Chef Love before registering to get a sense of whether it would be a good fit. It was challenging, but not too challenging. That said, I think a lot depends on the instructor. (The facility and staff are of course amazing.)

I find that lemon added to anything with Splenda cuts the Splenda aftertaste pretty handily -- you might want to consider a lemon angel cake.

Gorgeous! Where did you get the mold?

Holy frick. Gorgeous.

Pouting harder, over here!

Well, I'm going to pout a bit -- I just ordered a huge quantity of chocolate from El Rey and didn't get any extras. <pout>!

Unfreaking believable.

And El Rey is running a great special -- 11lbs of a discs of a single chocolate for $66 with free shipping until May 1. http://sales.chocolateselrey.com/-strse-Wh.../Categories.bok

The Silpats were clean, yes. I'm going to chalk it up to a full moon, as the subsequent batch later that same evening were perfect. !!!!!!!!

I have been making macarons for a few years now, and have been making LOTS of macarons lately for my new baking business, and what occurred tonight is a first for me. When baking off my trays tonight, I'm getting meringue cookies (no glossy hard top, no foot) instead of macaron shells. I baked off several dozen earlier today with no problems, so I don't think it's an issue of the weather -- but it's been dry. The texture of the (freshly made) batter was as usual, as was my oven temp. The formula is one I've used many times before, with success. I weigh my ingredients carefully. What the heck did I do wrong, and how can I prevent it from happening again?!

If you chose to make Ina's recipe to sell, I'd go with the generic version of the sweetened condensed milk. Not sure where you live, but wal*mart, target and most grocery stores have a generic version. Its about 1dollar per can cheaper. ← The generic at my market was actually more expensive than the discounted Eagle Brand. I'll have to check my Target next time I'm there.

I've just been testing coconut macaroon recipes for a cafe I bake for. Cali is right, Ina Garten's recipe is fabulous! When looking around though I noticed almost the same recipe on www.marthastewart.com except that it called for twice as much coconut. When I mixed up Ina's recipe I could see that it was going to spread too much so I added another 50% coconut and these still spread a little but not enough to worry about. I used a blue disher, I think it's 2 oz and I got about 15 cookies. The sweetened condensed milk makes them more expensive for retailing but the difference in texture is worth it. ← One little question, CB -- with the 2oz disher, what was the (rough) diameter of the cookies? ← Without measuring I'd say about 2-1/4". I'll measure after I feed the kids dinner and change this number if I'm wrong. ← Ok, it is a 2 oz disher. The baked cookie is about 2-3/4" diameter and 1-1/4" tall. ← Thanks!

The sweetened condensed milk makes them more expensive for retailing but the difference in texture is worth it. ← Sweetened condensed milk is expensive in Canada. About 3 bucks or more per can( for Eagle Brand). In the US, Ruth can get the Target or Walmart or other store brand for about 1.30 a can. ← I spent $2.50 per 14 oz can of Eagle Brand at our market yesterday, and that was a slightly discounted price.

I've just been testing coconut macaroon recipes for a cafe I bake for. Cali is right, Ina Garten's recipe is fabulous! When looking around though I noticed almost the same recipe on www.marthastewart.com except that it called for twice as much coconut. When I mixed up Ina's recipe I could see that it was going to spread too much so I added another 50% coconut and these still spread a little but not enough to worry about. I used a blue disher, I think it's 2 oz and I got about 15 cookies. The sweetened condensed milk makes them more expensive for retailing but the difference in texture is worth it. ← One little question, CB -- with the 2oz disher, what was the (rough) diameter of the cookies?