RuthWells
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Posts posted by RuthWells
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The Cranberry Lime Galette -- one of my favorites -- was a big hit at Thanksgiving dinner. And, since I was baking during daytime for once, I got a few decent pictures!
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I'm looking for a good all-purpose chocolate to use in baking. Around here you can only get Hershey's or Nestles. I'll have to order online. I'm looking for a semi-sweet to use in cakes, brownies, frostings and ganache. Not too expensive as I'm not ready to raise prices right now. Mind you, my customers don't seem to mind the Hershey's and Nestles and there is only one other pastry shop that actually sells quality cakes and pastries within probably a 50 mile radius. I'd just like to step up my game, lol.
Ghiradelli is a nice all-purpose baking chocolate. If you want to buy in larger bulk and have the room to store it, go with a 5.5kg block of Callebaut or Guittard. I find good prices at Chocosphere.com.
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Hey, Nina, what a wonderful project! I did something similar over the summer, with a weekly bake sale to raise money for research for polycystic kidney disease, which has affected 3 generations of my family. This is a lovely tribute to your mother.
I don't have a lot of intelligence to offer re: pies per se, but in terms of doing production style baking in a home kitchen, I found that organization is key. My project spanned 2 months, and I did a huge bulk purchase of ingredients and pantry items at the beginning, which was really helpful. And you always wish for more counter space, so anything you can do to maximize that will be key (clearing under-used countertop appliances and the like). Splurge a little and buy yourself whatever small tool will be helpful -- a Roul'pat for rolling out crusts quickly, a few reuseable dough-shield-thingies so that the edges of your crusts don't burn, that kind of thing. Equipment makes a real difference when you are baking in such quantity.
My family raised $800 from the 8 weeks of bake sales, another $1000 from 2 yard sales, $2,200 from a benefit cabaret performance, and about $5,000 in direct donations for a whopping total in the $9,000 range. It was an inspiring and humbling experience, and I hope you have the same kind of experience!
Edited: Oops, I see I'm late to the party. The good wishes still stand!
(The baking and fundraising is chronicled at www.cookiesforacure.blogspot.com, for those interested.)
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With Thanksgiving here I am once again facing the prospect of watching my blind baked crusts meekly shrink off the sides of their pans until they form an amorphous mass of dough, destroying my decorative crimping efforts in the process.
I have tried reinforcing the dough by folding it under itself before crimping, overhanging the dough and adhering it to the outside of the pan, freezing the crust first, using pie weights or beans, etc.
Nothing works.
I need help - I'm getting tired of graham cracker crusts.
Can we assume that you're doing your best to not stretch the dough as you fill the pan? That is a killer, right there. How long are you chilling/resting the dough after filling the pan and before baking?
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Orange County, NJ? September-ish? My SIL was in that class.
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No shortening, but vegan margarine (not soy).
The gumpaste and rolled fondant is made with tylose, and instead of eggwhite I use linseed gel (linseed boiled, then strained, the water turns to gel).
Sif, your cakes are stunning. It's hard to believe you've only been at it for a year!
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I made the black-and-white banana cake yesterday. Dorie makes it as a loaf; I doubled the recipe and baked it in a turban pan. Delicious and moist, and just the right amount of rum.
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I find that the "after taste" of Splenda is best concealed in desserts that are primarily lemon-flavored. Good luck!
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I play a little at home with decorating cakes for a little hobby, and I've tried without much luck to make those chocolate planks you see standing up around the side of cakes.
I'm looking for some clues on how to make these nicely. The ones I have tried have ended up so thick I may as well have stuck a block of chocolate on the sides!
I don't really have any 'equipment' as such, which is probably part of the problem, but am willing to spend a little so that I can make these work.
I also wanted to make some long curls, like the cigarello's you can buy - but have had trouble getting the chocoalte to actually curl around - it crumbles and breaks.
Can anyone give me some clues on both of these two items?
Thanks
The difficulty with making curls has everything to do with temperature. After the chocolate is tempered and spread out on your surface, keep an eye on it until it begins to set up and then start testing. If your curls shatter, the chocolate is too cold. If it collapses and won't hold a curl, it's too warm.
As with most things, as you practice more you'll start to get a feel for it.
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Alright everyone...The Holiday baking season is upon us! I want to hear what recipes everyone is going to bust out to wow their friends and family this season. So don't be shy! Come on and let us have it...What recipe are you going to pull off for the Holidays ahead????
Happy Baking...
I have just started perusing my cookbooks for inspiration -- no lists yet! I will definitely be making Dorie Greenspan's cranberry lime galette again, and I hope to make some entremet (French multi-layered cakes) this year. Macarons for sure. Still musing.......
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I'm trolling for ideas for plain and perfect baking -- the equivalent of the Lorna Doone or the Cameo sandwich cookie. Simple, pared down, delicious.
My favorite is a cookie from King Arthur called the Vanilla Dream. It's all about the texture, which is achieved through baker's amonia.
I'm a big fan of shortbread for this category, too. There's a recipe in the Williams Sonoma collection (the first ones, the green covers) of cookies for a candied ginger chocolate shortbread, which is my favorite, but is pushing the envelope way out here.
Nick Malgieri's Hazelnut Brown Butter Financier comes to mind, too, although it also may not be plain enough.
If we pushed far enough into chocolate, there's a plain little chocolate cookie in Alice Medrich's Bittersweet that is just . . . plain, but chocolate. It's not quite the right flavor for me, but fits this bill.
I suppose these things are good with ice cream or sorbet . . .
Ideas?
Gail Gand's recipe for Langues de Chat. Dorie G's Old Fashioned Almond Cookies (from Paris Sweets).
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Here is a site with a few Panamanian dessert recipes.
Thanks, Marigene -- I'm getting a Wikipedia page defining HTTP with that link.
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As part of a class United Nations project, my sixth-grader needs to bring in a traditional Panamanian dessert next week. We were going to go with Tres Leches Cake, but I'm getting mixed information from my web research as to whether that is really representative of Panama. Plus, the rum in the soaking syrup might not be the best to inflict on the sixth-graders!
Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
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Dorie's chocolate oatmeal drops and her butterscotch pudding (with Glenlivet). Yum!
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David, on a related matter, did you make note of the ring sizes Chef Love was using for the entremet? My memory is 18cm and 20cm; does that sound right to you?
I recall Chef asking for the 180mm rings so I would say 18cm for the large rings and 3" for the smaller. I think the flexipans for the larger cakes were 16cm.
He remarked that the larger cakes at his shop were 9", so you can adjust it as you want as long as you make the outside ring slightly larger than the insides.
Cool, thanks. Did you get my PM?
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David, on a related matter, did you make note of the ring sizes Chef Love was using for the entremet? My memory is 18cm and 20cm; does that sound right to you?
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David asked me to fill in some photos of the raplette in action. This is how Chef Love finished off his joconde sheets before baking -- a nifty tool that spread the batter in a neat, even layer over the Silpats. Pictures speak louder than words.
A pause to reload the raplette mid-way through:
Placing the Silpats on the sheet pans. Nice to have extra hands helping.
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A few more thoughts on that list of questions -- the cakes were being layered with mousses and creams, so they picked up a lot of moisture from their surroundings. Soaking the layers really would have been unnecessary, and possibly overkill in a bad way.
Watching Alan glaze those cakes really was poetry in motion. I love the technique of raising the cake on a cake ring, rather than the traditional recommendation of using a cooling rack to support the cake. Less mess along the bottom edge of the cake.
Chef Love spoke of finding the "sweet spot" when doing one (and ONLY one) swipe across the top of the cake with your offset spatula -- you discover through repetition that you instinctively know how much pressure to apply to the spat. (Chef also commented at one point how critical it is to be using your own, familiar tool -- I believe he and Alan brought their own spatulas to the class.)
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How the time has flown! Congrats on the anniversary, Dorie.
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Must have been beginner's luck because the temper came out perfectly - I have tempered dark chocolate (a long time ago) but never milk before. Really really pleased, will post a piccie when I get a chance.
I love beginner's luck -- well done!
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Ruth, thanks a lot for that demo! Today I made it for the first time in my life and it turned out great. Though I had to use whisk all the time (the paddle just didn't work). The only thing that I don't understand - why my cream turned slightly gray when I added half of the butter?
I'm glad you had success, Anna! I am a huge devotee of this buttercream.
I'm not sure why your cream (I assume you mean the meringue) turned slightly gray when adding the butter. Are you using a new stand mixer? I have heard of situations where the new beaters can have some residue on them that can come off in the bowl, but that's the only thing I can think off.
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David, I'm so glad you posted -- you got MUCH better pictures than I did! The class was amazing, and I agree in recommending it (and Chef Love as an instructor) to anyone with passion for pastry.
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I don't have enough moulds to make all the chocolates in need in 1 go, but i only have use of hte digital probe for a couple of days. Can I temper a large batch and melt it as required without it going out of temper ?
Probably not. The window of temper is pretty small. If you can't keep your full chocolate mass in temper during your work session, you'll need to retemper as needed.
"Baking: From My Home to Yours" (Part 2)
in Pastry & Baking
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