Kerry Beal
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Posts posted by Kerry Beal
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14 hours ago, Rajala said:
I have that book, but I didn't read it too much as it used your American units - if I'm not mistaken. 😀
Let's revisit and see what I can learn from it. My main issue with only reading etc is that I believe I do everything right, and the sugar still crystallize at times. Like I made this raspberry caramel, to use for my special take on a Snickers, and the sugar crystallized after like a week. Whhhhhhyyy? Yeah, I probably messed up.
Was there glucose in the recipe?
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14 hours ago, Jim D. said:
This is a tall order. From reading your Instagram posts, I know more or less what you mean by "understand things on a high level." I don't have the information you seek, but do have a couple of ideas: I am sure @Chocolot (or someone who is familiar with her work) will point out her classic book, Candymaking. I would consider her an expert in caramel. Second idea is Jean-Marie Auboine in Las Vegas. In one of the eGullet workshops I witnessed his making of an amazing caramel with all sort of ingredients one doesn't usually associate with the making of caramel (isomalt, lecithin, sorbitol, to name a few) And his addition of cocoa butter to caramel was quite surprising--and has proved useful in my otherwise too-fluid caramel recipes. Thinking of caramel as an emulsion akin to the making of a ganache was also a game-changer, this idea from @teonzo. Mark Heim is another expert in all things confectionery. I suspect @Kerry Beal will be, as usual, your best source for who can provide what you seek.
Everything I know about caramel I learned from @Chocolot
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1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
No, but I ate all of it. Scaling a can of mango sounds messy.
Little crampons and carabiners I'd say.
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On 6/28/2025 at 9:52 AM, liuzhou said:
Today, Muhammara and Pita Bread
Did you make the Muhammara?
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On 6/23/2025 at 7:32 PM, ElsieD said:
I will never again remove a pot from the oven from under the broiler, where it has been busy boiling for 6 minutes without an oven glove.
I bet I will!
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Grainless granola seems to be available from a variety of vendors - TJ's has a nice one. Avoids the oxymoron issue. Purchased for someone who has IBS and needs to avoid the wheat (but not the gluten) - but I notice the ingredients include inulin which may just mean that it's not going to be suitable.
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4 hours ago, ElsieD said:
Do you have the Appetizer one? I used to have it but I don't anymore. I think it had a recipe for asparagus in a puff pastry sort of thing. I had hoped that the book I mentioned above might have it but it doesn't. But I also think the Appetizer book they have in this one is not the same as the covers are different. The version I had (where do these disappear to?) had a pinkish color.
Isn't it in the one you just got?
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4 hours ago, GRiker said:
Thanks for sharing again! It's on my list.
So you kept the pan you would pour on hot in the oven until you needed it. Any other tips for making?
Yes - but I suspect if I had just put the hot pan on the granite for a bit, then put the parchment on it - it would have worked.
Actually did mis en place which is unusual for me! Added a bit of water to the soda. Kept the PB hot in the microwave - may have had 3 or 4 X 30 second bursts. Left the pot on the hot element while I added the soda, vanilla and PB.
Corrected the recipe to add the butter just before peanuts.
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Finally got around to making the Soft Peanut Brittle from the workshop
Lots of planning ahead to make it easier - I put a sheet pan in the oven and when it was finished cooking poured it out onto a piece of parchment on the back of the sheet pan so everything stayed warm much longer than usual. Got out the caramel marker that I've had for years and used only a couple of times and marked it while still warm - probably didn't need to be quite that warm as I had to go back over it a second time as the lines collapsed.
After dinner tonight I headed down the the chocolate room and drizzled the decent pieces with dark milk chocolate and made a bark from the not so decent pieces.
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My recipe grinds up Simple Pleasures Social Tea biscuits - soaks them in the mold with some espresso powder/marsala/mocca compound
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1 hour ago, ElsieD said:
Has anyone purchased the latest iteration of the Creami?
No - but I have noticed it a Costco and in the ads that Ninja keeps e-mailing me.
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11 hours ago, Dr. Teeth said:
Word ‘cloche’ pops into my head
Yup - first word that I came up with too!
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9 hours ago, Pete Fred said:
I saw an interesting technique for baked custard from a blogger based on an Ottolenghi/Goh recipe, so I went to the source. You make a stovetop custard and then bake it in a screaming hot oven until blackened and curdled; this monstrosity gets blitzed with a stick blender until smooth, then chilled to firm up a little.
I ended up with this...
Straight from the blitzing it had the texture of pastry cream. I baked the custard longer than indicated because I like that burnt milk flavour, so mine set up quite firm and ganache-like in the fridge, which made it rocher-able...
Good Lord! it was delicious, like a grown-up dulce de leche, or a smooth version of the skin from a baked rice pudding or flan Parisien.
I'll have to try it with a softer set at some point.
Incidentally, I made the meringue brittle element of the Ottolenghi recipe a few months ago but didn't think to make the custard. I can definitely see how this take on 'affogato' would work.
Did you make it with the bay leaves?
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Current state - gotta break down that duck and make some duck fat - and find a home for the pork loin. It was purchased for an eggfest I'm pretty sure and I don't see doing one of those again.
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20 cubic feet I believe
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It made a batch of ice overnight so I guess it just needed to get coldness up to a certain level before it started (or perhaps I finally whacked the right button!
I'm to throw away the first couple of batches of ice - but it worked out well this morning because I boiled some eggs and had the throw away ice to cool them.
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Just now, rotuts said:
hopefully that new freezer is frost free .
Ive had that same problem w the old ( 30 Y ) one for years.
It is indeed - I had 3 criteria - large, frost free and glass shelves so the baskets would always be removable.
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7 hours ago, gfweb said:
What's with all that frost in the old freezer?
Old. Not frost free.
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1 hour ago, Dave the Cook said:
I am sure I won't be alone in nominating TJ's Unexpected Cheddar as a go-to for several of us.
Agreed!
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Last Thursday - a couple of days after returning from Austin for the chocolate workshop - hubby mentioned the fridge seemed to be leaking so he'd turned off the water to it.
It became clear that it wasn't a water problem - it was an everything thawing in the freezer problem. So before I could head out to work - I was furiously reorganizing everything into the two other fridges that I have downstairs - one - my all fridge fridge in my chocolate room and the other one that we gained when we moved into the house 25 years ago. Lost some stuff from the freezer, but was able to retain most of the fridge items (gave me a good chance to actually clean the thing!).
Good Shepherd had some small fridges left over from the new outdoor shelter they put together - so tucked one of those in the car to put upstairs for the essentials like butter and milk. So for a week now I have been going over the the defunct fridge, opening the door - swearing a bit - then going over the the other side of the island to the little fridge to get out the milk for my tea.
There's a little undercounter freezer in the chocolate room - it could hold a couple of items only - there's the freezer above the old (but clearly reliable) fridge - which could hold a few more items - and then there is the over 30 year old upright Woods freezer that I have been waiting for hubby to finish grouting the basement floor - so I could replace. It hasn't been opened in at least 6 months because there is so much ice in it that nothing could go in or out. The last time I opened it - I feared I wouldn't be able to close it again. It is, of course, not frost free and has freon running through the actual wire shelves. Everything in there was in wire baskets that had long since glued themselves to the wire shelves with thick ice.
Hubby moved it over close to the sump pump yesterday so I could clean it out before the exchange which was scheduled for today.
Two days ago - hubby said - "the microwave won't thaw my bagel". Dead in the water! That was an easy replacement - a trip to Costco to pick one up. Of course they didn't have any of the stainless ones anywhere to be seen (except the demo one which they weren't prepared to sell me) - so I had to head out after dinner to another costco where there were many available on the shelf.
The defunct fridge was an LG - 12 years old. Needed one of the same size to fit in. Meant I ended up with one a bit fancier than I really needed but that was the only way I was going to get one in short order.
Let the games begin! Heat guns, pinch bar, huge screwdriver, mallet, chunk of rebar
Things to be given the deep six. Shrimps, scallops, red peppers, puff pastry and some stocks.
Got the lab to bring me a few of these for the overnighting.
What was in there you ask? A whole bunch of nuts - whole and ground - pepperoni (the good stuff they can't sell anymore because it's commercial and doesn't have the labelling the government insists on), a variety of pork - fresh and cured, some lamb shanks, a lamb shoulder, 4 beautiful marrow bones cut lengthwise, a whole duck, a pork loin, a variety of chicken - some thighs, some boneless breast, some stock, meat sauce for pasta, whole bunch of activa meat glue (probably non functional but who knows), variety of beef including 2 Wegman's corned beef. There was also a very large bag of raspberries which I brought up last night and gave a quick cook - put them through the food mill today to make puree to flavour kefir.
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Freed and ready to use in the new freezer which has glass shelves - that was the selling point.
Look at all that glorious space!
I swear the new fridge was completely held together with tape - this pic was of the second pile I removed. I'm sure a year from now I'm going to find some tape or plastic cover somewhere on the thing.
No picture closed but was comparing the shelf placement to the picture I'd taken of the defunct fridge.
This is the one though - apparently it can make big round ice spheres - too bad I've moved on from my craft cocktail phase (just no fun without Anna).
So far can't get this to start making ice - that will be a job for tomorrow - and trying to defeat the child lock on the microwave unsuccessfully.
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Saw this the other day in my travels.
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14 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:
This video popped up in my YouTube feed the other day. While she doesn’t taste ALL the TJ cheeses (some of my go-tos are missing), I’m seriously impressed at her ability to taste so many cheeses while wearing very bright red lipstick 💋
I thought she was fair in evaluating the flavored cheeses that weren’t to her taste. I don’t really love cheeses with added flavors either. And I like all of her top picks.
As far as convincing me to try a TJ's cheese that I haven’t already tried, that might be the goat cheese with herbs. The basic Silver Goat chèvre is my go-to from TJ's and I avoid the flavored stuff.
I was a little surprised that she deemed the TJ's full fat ricotta gritty and, honestly, on her insistence that ricotta be “full fat” since the original Italian stuff that we rarely, if ever, see here is made from whey. Whatever. I make a full fat ricotta-like stuff from the recipe in Bestia that's very creamy and delicious but I find the TJs stuff better than any supermarket option I’ve tried.
What are your go-tos that are missing?
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49 minutes ago, BrianKosterChocolates said:
I'm looking into using that exact melanger, which I own at home, for my business. However, being in Wisconsin rather than California, I'm sure the equipment standards are different.
I asked our health inspector about that particular melanger and the commercial (professional) machines that DCM offers with a reply to contact the WI Food Equipment Committee about seeing if it can be used. I'd hate to be required to buy a $1,400 when I already have a $450 one that another pastry chef is using (albeit in a different state), or get in trouble for having non-commercial equipment.
I'm wondering what other people's experience is on the use of that particular "home" melanger in a commercial kitchen versus the "professional" series.
Better to seek forgiveness than permission.
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Caramel courses - any suggestions?
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
And they do use imperial measurements!