Becca Porter
-
Posts
276 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Becca Porter
-
-
I have been cooking out of this book regularly since I got it. I have loved everything, however last night I made the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart and I had to come post. It was out of this world! I used a 53% chocolate because my husband likes things a little sweeter. The textures and taste were incredible. I will be making this very often.
Thank you so much Dorie. You deserve the Beard nom and win...
-
I am making the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut cake today. I do not have any brandy for the soak plus I do not usually like liqueury soaks. I thought I would sub the caramel syrup soak from Pierre Herme's Pave cake. Any thoughts?
-
Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook Slab pie. I actually baked it today, it is fantastic!
-
Oh man! I made the Cardamom Crumb cake yesterday, I finished the last piece for breakfast this morning. I have been kind of obsessed with cardamom lately, so I was excited. It was so interesting and delicious. The combo of strong orange, mild cardamom, and a background of espresso was perfect. The crumb topping was fantastic, the cake was just mildly sweet, so the topping really set it off .
I ate almost the whole thing myself.
Has anyone tried the pecan pie?
-
[Moderator note: This is part of an extended topic that became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it into shorter segments; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Homemade Marshmallows: Recipes & Tips (Part 1)]
I just made the most beautiful marshmallows. I made peppermint marshmallows with peppermint oil. I swirled in red food coloring. After about 18 hours I cut the marshmallows into squares. Then I microwaved a bar of Lindt 70%. I stopped before it melted and stirred until smooth. I dipped the top into the chocolate. I sprinkled a little crushed peppermints on top.
For the first time ever my chocolate stayed in temper. They are gorgeous, I wish I had a picture to post. They are also incredibly delicious. I made MS marshmallow recipe. It is smaller than the recipe here. So that 1/8 teaspoon oil was pretty strong. I stopped when it tasted great. Yum! -
I also saw the show. She does have a lovely personality. I enjoyed it.
-
I actually used the wonderful Just Cherries. I have found that they do not have the waxy taste I associate with most dried cherries. They also do not need plumping.
-
That demo is great K8. I have made a strudel once before, with the recipe in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. Your demo makes me make another.
The other day I made the greatest apple pie. It was the Cardamom Apple pie with Tart Dried Cherries from Apple Pie Perfect. If I wanted to turn it into a strudel, what would I do? Here are the ingredients, what would I add or omit?
8 cups sliced Granny Smith Apples
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon
3/4 cup dried tart cherries
1 1/2 tablespoons AP flour
1 teaspoon cardamom
Thanks!
-
Well I have tried it a few times. Using seed method from various authors. I use my trusty thermopen as well. I will go through all the steps very carefully. Then I will test a little on a knife blade, think it is in temper, but then once all my product (usually caramel apples) are dipped, they slowly start blooming.
This last time at Halloween, the knife I tested never bloomed. Just the apples and turtles I made. It was heartbreaking. I think I have given up for a while.
-
That is a great help, Kerry. Thank you. I cannot wait to try it.
If I didn't want to temper chocolate (Or for some reason couldn't even though I have tried everything
.), what would you suggest adding to the chocolate to coat marshmallows, so it will set at room temp? -
I am craving some caramel covered homemade marshmallows. That darn Food Network show gets me everytime. Has anyone done this? What caramel recipe do you use? What is the method that is used. Please help, I am dying here
. -
I made the Cranberry Upside Downer last night. You can add my praise to everyone else's. I wasn't sure I'd like the combo of strong cinnamon and cranberries. I loved the whole thing. The cake was tender and soft, with a few delicious crispy edges. Then the topping was sweet/tart and crunchy from the nuts. I ate three pieces last night after my huge mexican meal, and I am about to go eat another piece for breakfast.
Btw, I prefer it when it is almost cool. It gives the cake a little more texture.
-
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231669
Here is my favorite steam cake. It is probably more British than Chinese though. It is so buttery and good.
-
I ordered the ceylon cinnamon from Penzey's while cooking through Rick Bayless's cookbooks. I quickly realized that I really do not like it. I love cassia cinnamon, but just cannot stand ceylon. I was hoping I would develope a taste for it, but so far it is not happening. Disappointing.
-
Jean, I do nut have an answer to your question but.....
Today I am making the paves. I found the required pans at a HEB in Texas. I was shocked considering they didn't have them at Der Kuchen Laden in Fredricksburg. I also was able to get all the required Valrhona chocolates and apricots. I also found the potato starch. I love Texas!
I am about to put them together. I cannot wait to taste them. I will try to post a picture later this week.
-
I made the Linzer Cookies and the Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake. I made both with my Cordon Rose Raspberry Conserve from the Cake Bible. The cookies were eaten before we went to bed that night. They were beautiful and delicious.
For the glaze on the cake I only had bittersweet chocolate. I wished I had used semisweet like Dorie listed in the recipe. It just needed that little bit of sweetness. However, I loved it. The cake and jam were great and the glazes consistency was lovely.
-
"Food people' are often raised in families who appreciate good food and inherit the appreciation or they grow up in homes with with no appreciation and rebel.
I agree with this statement, I rebelled. I am interested in the answer to this as well.
-
Okay, so I was cleaning out my baking cabinet and I found an 8 ounce piece of El Ray white chocolate that I had forgotten about. I went on that Chocolate Guild site that was posted this week, and found out that it is a prized white chocolate.
Anyway so I made the Quintuple Chocolate Brownies. I used Lindt bittersweet and milk. I love their milk.
Oh my goodness! These are as delicious as they look. They are really fudgy. I used walnuts, because I was saving my roasted peanuts. Yum. I usually do not like white chocolate, because it is so sweet. The El Ray actually tasted like something though. Really good. Certainly a keeper.
-
If you hold a stick of softened butter it should bend easily but still be cool enough to hold it shape. What is the recommended temp? I think it is 70 degrees. That would be a good way to see the proper consistency.
-
I made the Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt cakes last night. They were so beautiful. My only problem was the glaze. I used Lindt bittersweet, I melted it in the microwave. I pulled it when it still had some unmelted chunks. I stirred until smooth, it was liquid and perfect, when I added the corn syrup it thickened up to a stiff frosting consistency. I spread it on. It wasn't pretty but it tasted great. Anyone know why?
What temp was the corn syrup when you added it? The choc was likely warmer than the syrup, and I'm guessing the syrup "shocked" the chocolate into cooling down significantly; hence the thicker consistency. Next time, you might try adding the corn syrup during the melting process so that you've got a consistent temp throughout.
Well actually before this batch I accidentally added the corn syrup before microwaving and it seized. For the second batch the corn syrup was room temp.
I'm not sure why that is. A lot of chocolate glaze recipes have you melt the corn syrup and chocolate together, though I always use a hot water bath or a double boiler. Maybe the corn syrup promotes the scorching of chocolate when you use the microwave method. What I would have done in your situation, when the glaze turned stiff, is put it in the hot water bath, try to bring it up to 100F or so, and see if you can get it thin again. If that didn't work, I would add a little hot cream.
Yeah, I thought about doing that but since it wasn't for company I didn't bother. It was just wierd the way it happened. Thanks
. -
I made the Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt cakes last night. They were so beautiful. My only problem was the glaze. I used Lindt bittersweet, I melted it in the microwave. I pulled it when it still had some unmelted chunks. I stirred until smooth, it was liquid and perfect, when I added the corn syrup it thickened up to a stiff frosting consistency. I spread it on. It wasn't pretty but it tasted great. Anyone know why?
What temp was the corn syrup when you added it? The choc was likely warmer than the syrup, and I'm guessing the syrup "shocked" the chocolate into cooling down significantly; hence the thicker consistency. Next time, you might try adding the corn syrup during the melting process so that you've got a consistent temp throughout.
Well actually before this batch I accidentally added the corn syrup before microwaving and it seized. For the second batch the corn syrup was room temp.
-
I made the Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt cakes last night. They were so beautiful. My only problem was the glaze. I used Lindt bittersweet, I melted it in the microwave. I pulled it when it still had some unmelted chunks. I stirred until smooth, it was liquid and perfect, when I added the corn syrup it thickened up to a stiff frosting consistency. I spread it on. It wasn't pretty but it tasted great. Anyone know why?
I knew it was a hit when I heard my husband exclaiming from across the house. He doesn't really like bittersweet chocolate, (although he loved the Worldpeace cookies), so this milk chocolate cake was right up his alley. He also loved the walnuts. Very nice!
-
Well I am a few days late reporting, but I loved the Lemon Cream Tart. That lemon cream really is fantastic. I am really glad to have the recipe. No pictures I am afraid. I am now really looking foward to Christmas because I am making the orange cream tart with blood oranges.
This morning I made the Lemon Poppy Seeds muffins and the Coffee Break muffins. I am not of fan of cupcake disguised as muffins. Cake-like texture and supersweet is not a muffin. Dorie, yours are muffins! With their lovely holey muffin texture, and just sweet enough. I was a little worried about the Lemon/Poppy Seed ones, thought they might be cakey, but no. Perfect. The batter seemed really dry too, but they turned out great. I will be making these often.
My sister was looking through it this morning and has made me promise to make that chocolate cake topped with peanuts, that Patrick pictured upthread, for Halloween. I can't wait.
-
Dorie,
I have a few thoughts and I was hoping maybe you could shed some light on the situation. I having a baking stone on the rack that I leave there all the time. I just bake everything on it. The brownies were no exception. However, I suppose the stone could have been cold (not enough preheating), hence not enough cooking on the bottom.
Ian
Ian, I am not Dorie, but I have found that if I leave my stone in all the time that it does block things from baking properly. Mostly, because you do not generally preheat your oven for an hour when baking cookies and brownies, but also because recipes were not developed for use on a stone. A properly preheated stone would do for brownies some of what it does for pizza. That intense bottom heat is not good for everything.
Anyway, just my opinion and what I gathered from my own experience.
"Baking: From My Home to Yours" (Part 2)
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I am honored to be able to help
.