lovkel

First off, I KNOW that foods that contain dairy cannot be safely canned/jarred for shelf storage at home, even with a pressure canner. I have no intentions of risking someone's health, so after I process my caramel/fudge sauce/etc, I keep them in the fridge. With that out of the way, I am still very curious about the temperature and pressures required to achieve a shelf stable jar. Obviously it can be done on an industrial scale. What if someone had a lab top autoclave? Would that generate enough temperature/pressure to kill the clostridium botulinum spores, but not destroy the food in the process? Thanks for sating my curiosity!

Background info - I am looking to start selling take-and-bake cookies at a local market. I plan on selling them frozen and in packages of six or twelve. My plans are to shape them into thick disks with parchment paper squares in between. I imagine that the customers will want to be able to reclose the package so they can cook only a few cookies at a time. My problem is packaging. I was thinking of using poly bags, but what size? What type? Are there better options that I am unaware of? Any suggestions here? I don't want to put down a chunk of money to buy packaging only for it to turn out to be utterly wrong. :-) Thanks!

annabelle - yep, like Biscoff spread. I was using oil because that is what is listed on the Biscoff spread ingredients list. Lisa Shock - I hadn't thought of a mortar and pestle. I only have a small one for spices though, so grinding may get a wee bit tedious. :-) I'll give it a shot, however. pastrygirl & annabelle - I thought about butter, but I didn't use it because was concerned about shelf stability. In the fridge that stuff I've made gets a bit too firm to spread easily, most likely due to the coconut oil I used. I've had a batch sitting on my counter for about a week now and I've noticed no separation of the oil. It has a decent enough spreadable texture, but it isn't as lusciously smooth/creamy/thick as the Biscoff spread. I am OK with some sandy texture, but I am looking for something less prominent than I presently have. I will have to try a few more batches and just let the processor run longer.

I have been experimenting with making my own cookie butter. I am looking for ideas to make the texture closer to that of the store-bought stuff, which has a texture similar to that of smooth peanut butter. My basic recipe was 4 oz speculoos cookies (that I made), 1-2oz oil (soybean and/or coconut), 1-3 T powdered sugar. Originally I ground the cookies in a food processor until they were about as fine as it could make them. After pulsing in the oil(s), the texture was pretty grainy. Next, I warmed a batch to make it fluid, then blended it in a blender until it was as fine as it could make it. This got me closer to the texture I was looking for, but not quite there. I was thinking of trying a grain mill, but then I'd have to buy a grain mill. :-) Any other ideas? Thanks!

I HAVE tried searching old posts, but I really haven't found what I am looking for. I am trying to find sources for decent chocolate that I can buy in bulk but won't cost a freaking fortune. The best I've found is Albert Uster (http://www.auiswiss.com/). I can buy 5 kg packages of couverture coins for about $45 (with free S&H if the order is over $195). Has anyone found any other sites that can compete with this? Bricks, coins, chips, etc doesn't matter all that much. For the most part, the chocolate goes into making cupcakes, frostings, and fillings. I got a great deal at Costco when they were selling 3lb packages of Ghirardelli chips for $10. I know this wasn't couverture chocolate, but it worked for my purposes. Thanks!

The seasonings sound close, but the dish that I seek is served hot out of a huge kettle. Oh, and it also has onions in it (forgot to mention that). But thanks for trying. You post did give me some more ideas for where to search, unfortunately to no avail. Thanks again.

Hello, I'm usually a lurker, but I have run across a problem that confounds me. Have any of you been to the Renaissance Faire, specifically the one in Wisconsin? I don't know if other faires have the same recipe, but they probably do. At any rate, they serve this bowl of garlic mushrooms that is HUGELY popular with my family and I would like to make something like it. I know it uses white button mushrooms and plenty of garlic and it has broth that is supposed to be soaked up with bread. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make this? I appreciate any ideas/help you can give. Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be giving them a try. I have made the Cake Mix Doctors Chocolate Cherry cake. It was tasty, but it made a wet dense cake. Also, it required 1 can of cherry filling per batch. At about $4.00 a can and a cake that needs to serve 260, well that's a bit more than I want to donate. I tried the to add Cherry pie filling to a white cake mix (following the recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor substituting white mix for chocolate). The flavor was O.K., but the texture was ... odd. It made a sort of rubbery cake. Not horrible, but not something to impress a crowd of people with.

I have been asked a friend's wedding cake and she wants the flavors to be cherry & chocolate cherry. I have NO good recipes for a cherry flavored cake. I tried the one posted on the recipe list here, but it didn't have a real noticeable cherry flavor. I've thought about doing a simple syrup splash with kijafa or kirsch (whichever I can find). But other than that, I am at a loss. Does anyone have any good recipes or ideas? If all else fails, I'll have to fall back on a cherry filling. I am sure she'll understand, but as a personal challenge I would like to do this. Thanks in advance for any help.

Where can I get molds like the ones pictured? Do they have a particular name? My molds are all flimsy things, and have too few cavities. Using the dental shaker thing is freakin' brilliant!

Where can I find recipes for pate de fruit? I google it, but only found 1 recipe from Food Network. Also, I heard them referred to as "lychee nuts" on a cartoon. That is probably not the most reliable source.

I was making a ganache filling for a cake that had one layer of banana and one layer of chocolate, so I decided to try for a banana ganache. Perhaps, not the most daring or striking flavor, but I had some overripe bananas. I pureed them and added to the ganache. To get a decent flavor strength I had to use about 2 medium bananas to a batch of ganache (about 10 oz choc). It was tasty, but still fairly mild in flavor. Having seen the last post about the peanut butter, I gave that a shot as well. Comeundone is right, you'd have to play with the proportions for your own taste and the chocolate used. The p.b. can overwhelm the chocolate. After that I figured, why not mix the banana ganache and the p.b. ganache? Turned out pretty good. Again, since the banana ganache wasn't particularly strong, I had to be careful with the p.b. ganache. Didn't Elvis like p.b. and bananas? Think his estate would mind if I tried marketing Elvis truffles? Probably.

I first heard of them here, and happened to find them at a local supermarket. They are about walnut sized fruit covered in a bumpy toughish red skin. They have an almond sized pit (which I assumed to be inedible ... but I don't really know). The fruit is translucent. Their flavor is apple/cherry like, but their texture is odd. My wife wasn't wrong when she said they felt like eyeballs. They are not really 'nuts' at all. I probably could have pureed them. Honestly, didn't think about that. Got caught up in the previous post about steeping with cream.

Thanks very much for the suggestions. I now have plenty to keep me occupied. I have never tried to make pate de fruit, much less put them in truffles. Can adequate recipes be found on the web? I had some lychee nuts and tried an infusion with cream. I probably would have had more success using a simple syrup infusion, but I only had enough nuts for one attempt. Boiled the cream, added some mashed lychee nut fruit (from about 4-5 nuts). Let it steep for a while (about 15 - 30 minutes). Reheated the cream and added to some El Rey Caoba (milk chocolate, 41%). Flavor was ... interesting. Did NOT taste like lychee nuts. The flavor was understated and different, not bad, but definately different. This attempt was for my wife, who likes the flavor of lychee nuts, but won't eat them. She says they feel like you're eating raw eyeballs. Not sure where she's eaten raw eyeballs ... Anyone else try this?

Not to distract from the main points of the thread, but this hits on a question I've always had. I really like using luster dusts on molded chocolates. I've never had a problem feeding it to my family (they don't pay and unlikely to sue ); however, I 've always been somewhat skittish in supplying it to paying customers. Is the stuff food grade? I've read somewhere that according to European standards its fine, but according to the American FDA its considered for decoration only. I'm also just starting out and would hate to be hammered by some overzealous bureaucrat.