Sugarella

Yes, use gels.

Absolutely.

I know it's $12 there but once you add in the (usually incorrectly calculated by most stores - ie:inflated) exchange rate, then once you add on the (usually incorrectly calculated by most stores - ie:inflated) shipping charges, then you add on the "special" shipping charges by the shipping company to "present your order to customs" (ie: drop it off same as they'd drop the package off anywhere else) , then you add on the Canadian duty tax because you didn't buy the product domestically even though it's not even available domestically ("duty", incidentally, also being a euphemism for "shit") ...then it winds up being $46, which, in my opinion, is just too much to pay for a pound of powdered sugar, no matter how nice and rubbery it is.

That is a cool product. If I were making any money on my cakes I might be tempted to make the investment, but as an amateur, I can't see it. ← Sugarveil confectionery mix.... all it is is royal icing with a wee bit of maltodextrin and xantham gum mixed in for the added rubberiness. Not worh the money in my opinion. A friend in the US sent me some because it would've cost me upwards of $46 to import a bag of the stuff up here. I like it a lot, but it's not worth buying all the time, I think. I'm still trying to come up with the right proportions they used so I can use something similar ... but I can't post it anyways because the formula has a patent pending.

I think this is a terrific idea! Keeps people from chugging their expensive wine before they drive home, don't you think?

Yeah. I checked the USDA nutrient database, and they have a couple of entries giving values of about 0.17-0.30g lipids per 100g of Capsicum annuum, which means they are about 99.83 to 99.7% fat-free. So, they are fat-free for all practical purposes. Olives are like 10-15% lipids. ← Of course peppers have no fat....why ddn't I think of this before posting? Ok....just assume I'm a drunk and go about your business.....

Oh....well in that case then just add about 3 or 4 Tbsp. of an oiled extract to a royal recipe....one calling for about 2 lbs of sugar.... it won't dry as rock hard because of the oil (but will solidify) and you can flavour it any way you like. And don't forget this won't be at all like royal icing flowers because the pipework on the cake will be so thin to begin with, then you'll be diluting it slightly with water for the embroidery effect as well. It'll be paper thin by the time you're done.

K8: That long conical tip you linked to ..... that's for filling choux or eclairs. You actually insert the tip into the pastry to fill them. The rest..... not what Patrick was looking for. Not big enough. Patrick: I have only once seen a tip over 1" diameter at the head.... and it was plastic. And it was on TV. And damn! if I haven't been able to locate the source, either. I've previously done web searches for exactly what you're looking for and never found them.... I expect they must exist but no luck so far. Your way (and subsequently my way) of piping with the cut bags is more tidy and clean in the long run anyways. ...But do let me know if you find them..... Edited to add: That last one K8 linked to by wilton, # 789....I have it and it's about 1 1/4 inches across but unfortunately they don't make a plain round that big..... I checked....

Recently, I was reminded of a little culinary adventure I had about a deacde ago while staying with a gracious old neighbour for a few weeks while I was between apartments. I'll preface the story by stating I'd already been there a week and had reminded her twice that she was fresh out of vegetable oil; olive, canola, or otherwise. So we've established there's no oil in the house...... While I was very busy doing something else in another area of the house, the smoke detector kept going on and off from her kitchen, which she'd curse and bang with what I presumed was a broomhandle, from the familiar sounding wooden thuds hitting the ceiling and resonating throughout her little house. The house thickly filled with smoke, and I could hear a very distinct loud sizzling going on in there. Knowing she was previously a trained chef I figured she had everything under control. And not being quite the foodie then that I am today, sadly, I paid little attention at the time. After the smoke cleared, I ventured into the kitchen to inquire about the commotion. I noticed an entire bushel of red bell peppers she'd gathered from her garden, previously on display on the countertop, was now a smallish shrivelled charcoal heap in the wastebasket. "What were you doing?", I asked. "Oh...." , and with a nonchalant flip of her hand.... " I made oil." Did you read that people!?! SHE MADE OIL. Ok.... now I know how olive oil is made.... a hydraulic press exerts thousands of pounds on helpless ripe olives until their oil squirts out. Big girl that she was, my elderly neighbour could no where near have possessed the physical strength required to get oil out of bell peppers. So, I ask you.... is it possible.... with very high heat and a bit of elbow grease, to press oil out of a fresh veggie!? Or was she pulling my leg, and simply infused some regular vegetable oil with the peppers by scorching them in already-existing-oil? (The bell pepper oil, by the way, all 3 cups or so of it, was absolutely DELICIOUS!)

Danlepard's test is the right one......but I agree with Wendy that if it's too old to remember, throw it out.

Two words: Whole and Sale! Sorry couldn't resist that one.... Sorry I can't help with prices especially for someone in the states, but I ditto Patrick's recommendation of Callebaut. Bernard makes a terrific chocolate that's reasonably priced (possibly because it's made up here??) ....I'm actually surprised I haven't seen Callebaut mentioned more often on eG ... a great chocolate...especially for everyday use or experimenting. Now back to Wendy..... Ok.... I get what you're saying but why would bleached flour be your preference in some cases? I'm actually trying to figure this out because to the best of my knowledge I've never used it.... not in the past decade I've been doing this for customers anyways. Bleach in flour then into pastries in my mind conjures up a taste of something equivalent to wonder bread.... which I have eaten once in my life and didn't enjoy the sweetness of.... most likely because I am just not used to it. My cakes and pastries lean on the side of being extremely mild on sweetness but not fatty, just full of flavour. So, so far I've been happy with all of my results (about 80% of recipes original now, after tinkering) .... but with Sweetside mentioning it holds moisture and affects flavour now I'm wondering if bleached flour is something I should actually be exploring. What do you think? If it ain't broke don't fix it? Or I should really explore everything if I truly want to develop my own taste and style?

Traditionally it's done with royal - for a reason. The royal holds its shape while wet so you can brush at it and smudge it the way you like.... it's also easily removable off the fondant if you make mistakes so you can start over in spots. A fat based buttercream wouldn't allow for that, nor would it smudge in quite the right way; it would smear instead. What is it about royal that gives you the icks, other than that it's just sugar? (ick right there!) Is it the egg whites, the taste, what? You can use meringue powder for safer royal, and you can add all kinds of flavourings too. For this application, it's ok to add oil based extracts such as almond or hazelnut, which really do wonders for the taste. Other than that, the only thing I can suggest is to actually make a pipable icing out of your fondant.... some people use this for drop strings, etc. I've tried it and it's a pain in the butt to use for strings but you can pipe it nicely. It takes a LOT of trial and error to get it to the right consistency though. Put a small amount of fondant into the food processor with just a dash of water and puree it.... you want it to appear the same consistency as floodable royal icing, if you know what that means to look for. Sorry I never measured the amounts when I did it to give you a guideline. (And I won't be doing it again either.... not worth the work for similar results to royal, really.) You may need to adjust more water or add more fondant and keep going..... But then after you've got it about right, you'll need to push it through a very fine mesh strainer to remove any particles or you won't be able to pipe it, and that straining is time consuming. After that's done, you can pipe it just like royal, provided you got it the right formula. Personally, I'd stick with the royal for this because it'll be a lot less work, and really, royal and fondant have the same primary ingredient so have the same taste. And royal by its very nature is just easier to pipe, and easier to smudge with water after. But brush embroidery is FUN!!!..... you'll be hooked on it in no time. I wish more customers would order it from me.

Thanks for that. I know this is waaaaay beyond 101 but the thread seems to have gone that way. My fault probably! But I'll continue this here anyways.... So, Sweetside, I must ask.... did you mean bleached with benzoyl peroxide or did you mean hydrogen perozide!? I've always assumed flour was bleached with chlorine, which is why I've always used unbleached. But if it's done with h.p. then that's not so bad. I do know a bleached flour tastes different than unbleached..... is the tradeoff of taste worth it to get that moister crumb? Now you've got me wondering if I should try all these recipes again with bleached flour.... I wonder, what are the trained p.c.'s using? Edited to add: Rethinking this, I suppose a new thread is in order.....

Aw CRAP. I paid $130 for mine at a wholesale restaurant supply several years ago, and that was with my discount too. Thanks for the links.... I'm going to need another one eventually.

Ditto, but a lot of people can't put out the investment for a scale. Personally, I'd recommend anyone put a scale ahead of a stand mixer on their list of must-haves. (But DON'T buy one of those cheapo walmart ones or something....a good scale will run you about $130) Maybe someone should start a thread on scales and recommended brands or where the bargains are...... ***** Question for Wendy or anyone else about the bleached flours though.... did I read somewhere that heavily bleached white flour actually has its proteins broken down by the bleaching process, or am I imagining that?? I personally use unbleached for everything but then I don't make chiffon or sponge cakes very often..... would there be an advantage to using this type of flour for these? Or for anything else for that matter?

I dunno....are you eating them out of a can? Canned stuff is always disgusting...fresh is better. My vote is for brussel sprouts. They are just WRONG! Bitter pgymy cabbages. Or... in the words of my then-8-year-old sister..... "They taste like fart."

I very much enjoyed reading your account; thank you for sharing. Everyone seems to have such a fondness, respect and admiration for this lady. Sadly, we don't get to see Sara's shows up here, so I've never seen her in action. So... even though FTV has ditched her, hopefully she'll show up in other places where I can watch.

He doesn't wear the chef's whites under his suit jacket. He wears a dress shirt under the jacket like normal, then while the band is playing he removes the jacket and puts on the chef's whites over the dress shirt, then adds a waist apron. He even has an assistant to help him tie it in front. Am I the only one who's ever seen this!?

Beauty food and healthy food are synonymous. Foods that do the body good generally keep us good looking and/or looking and feeling younger. Regardless, any restaurant deliberately promoting good nutrition is doing a good job, in my opinion. Case in point, I deliberately eat plenty of foods rich in essential fatty acids because it has a beautifying affect on the skin, among other physical effects not appropriate for this forum. I'm 33 but still get mistaken for a teenager often, because I still have that youngish glow in my face.

I see your point but Kraft is not writing cookbooks for kids. These are intended for adults. And if they eliminate using words like saute which is a common cooking word, how will anybody learn what they mean?? You have to see a word in context to understand it.

I agree with all of what you've said except this point. You could not, for example, rewrite all of the text in an entire cookbook without changing any of the recipes and claim the entire work as your own. Obviously you've just copied the book and paraphrased in that case. But that's besides the point for John DePaula's example; he's only dealing with one recipe in this case. My point to him was that, because he had changed at least one ingredient, the recipe is no longer Pierre Herme's; therefore by default it's his. Can we use an exact ingredient list and write our own directions to avoid copyright infringement? Of course, that's the law. Can we claim it as our recipe? No, it's still the same recipe as in the book; it's still so-and-so's recipe. Is there any legal fallout for claiming it as our recipe? No.....

Maybe you're pregnant.

I thought the average IQ was about 112? Regardless, IQ is determined in 4 seperate quadrants: mathematics, linguistics, visual-spatial analytics, and logic. And just because someone may have very high math or language skills does not mean they have any common sense, or vice versa. And IQ, of course, is malleable and can be increased with continued learning, and can be decreased by mental stagnation. But this is irrelevant. The potential or assumed IQ of an average recipe reader should not be considered when creating said recipe. The entire point is, if a person opens a book or magazine with the intent to follow a written recipe, that means they want to LEARN. We cannot just start eliminating words from our everyday vocabulary because some people might not know what the words mean already.

Seriously though, one major point this article doesn't bring up is the fact that the ability to decipher a recipe, the ability to double or triple volume measures, the ability to apply common sense and logic while working through the directions of a recipe, are all components of full literacy. Literacy is defined not only as reading and writing, but as having the ability to decipher maps, schedules, and directions and well, among many many other things. So by dumbing down the directions, Kraft is just compounding the problem. What's wrong with "Dredge the chicken in flour until coated,", and "Sauté over medium heat and stir" ??

So it's your recipe. So long as you change at least one ingredient, or the amount of an ingredient, and of course all of the directions are your own writing and there's no plagiarism, it's now your recipe.