John DePaula

Tonka Beans are the primary source of coumarin - a toxic blood thinner used in rat poison. Some articles suggest that the amounts used in desserts are too little to be dangerous. So perhaps is you just eat a small amount of rat poison, you'd be ok? As delicious as it is, I'll stick with something else thank-you-very-much! Ref: FDA Article listing about Tonka/Coumarin

This might help: Western Sicily,where to Eat?

I really like Lavazza and Segafreddo. Also, take a look at Torrefazione.

Thanks, Terrasanct! Unfortunately, I do not currently have a brick-and-mortar storefront; however, I do sell online as well as supply chocolates to some local Portland businesses. If you're coming to PDX, you should make a point to stop by Cacao just south of Burnside at SW 13th (across the street from Whole Foods). They're probably the best chocolate destination in Portland and have a great selection of chocolates (including yours truly) and chocolate bars. Plus the owners, Jesse and Aubrey, are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. They can help guide you in your selections. Do try the Theo Chocolate(s) as well - they make chocolate bars as well as chocolate bonbons. Come to think of it, Cacao may also do shipping. If it isn't too late, give them a call...

I wish that DePaula Confections in Portland could help you out but we just returned from vacation and won't be re-stocked until next week. How about Recchiuti in San Francisco.

So why would corn syrup be important here? Is it that the sugar needs to be a liquid? My wife has an Omnivore's Dilemma/everything's -made-of-corn problem with corn syrup, so she's wondering about potential substitutes. What differences do you see when using the higher-end chocolates and cocoa powders? We live in a semi-rural area, so getting Valrhona or the like means a long drive and a startling price tag -- not very conducive to satisfying a spontaneous craving. ← I’m back home now and can add more info now. The recipe below is just about perfect. The corn syrup will add extra body and thickness to sauces; also, it’s an anti-crystallizing agent, keeping sauces from becoming grainy. The chocolate you use is of utmost importance. I like Valrhona Guanaja (70% cocoa) and their Gastronomie Cocoa Powder which you can mail-order at various online retailers, including Chocosphere. Here’s the recipe Classic Hot Fudge by David Lebovitz in ‘The Perfect Scoop’ : 3/4 c (180 ml) heavy cream 1/4 c (60 g) packed dark brown sugar 1/4 c (25 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder 1/2 c (125 ml) light corn syrup 6 oz. (170 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped 1 T. (15 g) salted butter 1/2 t. vanilla extract Mix 1st four ingredients in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir often. Boil for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and add chocolate and butter. Stir until smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Reheat gently in microwave or on stovetop.

Fig Preserves with Candied Lemon Peel Fresh Fruit Tart - Pate Brisee + Creme Patissiere + Fresh Sliced Figs + Apricot Glaze nappage Fig Roasted Chicken (Recipe Here->Blossom Vinegar's Fig Roasted Chicken) Note: The recipe omits 1/4c water, which is needed). If you're using fresh figs, adding them toward the end would be better.

I think that David said that different machines have different levels of 'overrun' i.e. incorporate different amounts of air. My machine always makes less than the recipe's indicated amount and it sounds like yours makes more.

You might be able to gently warm using a hair dryer if the transfer doesn't take... though this might be an iffy proposition.

There's a recipe for Hot Fudge Sauce in David Lebovitz' book The Perfect Scoop; I think it's great! Unfortunately, I'm traveling right now and don't have it in front of me. The recipe you've posted above doesn't look very good, I'm afraid. Flour??? I don't think so. And there's no Glucose (or corn syrup) in your recipe. Also, I'd recommend to use Valrhona or Pernigotti cocoa powder. Someone else here may have access to the Lebovitz recipe. ETA: Here's a recipe that'll get you in the ballpark. It's not the one that I was looking for but looks pretty simple and good. Lean Chocolate Sauce by David Lebovitz on Winston-Salem Journal

You're quite welcome. You know, this raises an issue that really bugs me. You see these guys on TV who are telling people Hey, just run out to the hardware store and pick up this and that and make chocolate with it! Isn't it pretty!!!! But you know, it's really NOT safe. I think it's our obligation, as cooks and confectioners, to be extra cautious when dealing with the health of our clients.

John, Thank you so much for the step by step. Between this and help from Rob I've now got the picture broken down into 5 screens. You guys have saved me hours of struggle and reading. My next thing is to change all the colours to black for the screens themselves. So far my attempts to get the correct clicks for this have been unsucessfull. I'd appreciate any help you could give me for this. ← That'd be Step 7 above... The nice thing about having all of your info in one file is that now, you can change the black masks to their individual single tone color; that is to say, replace the range of colors in the orange layer with just orange. Then turn layers on one by one to get a preview of what you'll come out with at the end. does that make sense? Also, because you saved the selection outlines, you can easily adjust the outlines without having to reselect everything manually again.

Kerry, The way I’d approach this task is as follows: 1) Load Pollack image 2) If you think that you want 5 screens (e.g. orange, black, green, red, yellow), then duplicate the Background layer (Layer | Duplicate…) 5 times, giving each layer a descriptive name e.g. black or green or orange… (The Background layer is one that will not change so that your original image data isn’t altered, and you always have it available. ) 3) Once your duplicate layers are created, you can simply click the little eye symbol in the Layers palette to turn off visibility of that layer. 4) So let’s start with the Orange layer. (The process will be identical for each of the 5 colors.) Turn off visibility for all layers except the Orange layer, and click on it to make sure that you’re working in that layer (it’ll turn blue). Using the Magic Wand tool, select an orange swath. Play around with the Tolerance setting and/or use Shift-Click (to add areas to the selection) or Alt-Click (to subtract areas) or use menu (Select | Similar) to modify the selection. You can also use other selection tools to add/subtract to the current selection. (If you’re on mac, you can use the Option key?). 5) Once you have a selection you like, use menu (Select | Save Selection…) to store the selection, giving this New Channel a name of, say, ‘Orange.’ Later, when you’re done, you can then choose menu (Select | Load Selection…) to reselect that region. When you have selections for each layer saved, you can then menu (Select | Load Selection…) choosing Operation ‘Add to Selection’ radiobutton. This will be a way to verify that you haven’t left anything out of your 5 layers. 6) Choose menu (Select | Inverse). Hit Delete key. Now you just have orange remaining for the Orange layer. 7) Now, menu (Select | Inverse). Then, menu (Fill…) with black (choosing foreground or background as appropriate). You’re done with that layer. 8) Save. Repeat Steps 4-8 for each of the remaining colors. When you want to print the Orange layer mask, turn off visibility for all other layers and print. You can play around with menu (Select | Feather) to soften the selection.

Ha! Found it: Spattering Chocolate? ← That is the one, funny I just found that one last night looking through every Jackson Pollock on the internet and figured it looked a lot like the one I recalled. Isn't it gorgeous. But I realize there are a lot of colours and textures in there, so it's probably a bit complex to try next. So for my next project I need something sort of like that but with maybe 3 colours only. I'm just trying to make sense of a book I bought called Photoshop 7.0 for screen printers. I need to learn how to take a picture and drop out each colour so I can print screens for each colour. I'm totally at bottom end of the learning curve on this one. ← Kerry, I'm not a Photoshop pro... but you might try using the Magic Wand tool to select a color you want, with the Contiguous checkbox unchecked. Then, depending on the Tolerance you've selected, you can pick Select | Similar from the menu. Then Select | Inverse, then Delete. This should eliminate all but one color. HTH

Ha! Found it: Spattering Chocolate?

Clever! I'm dying to try a new recipe, but I've still got three containers in the freezer. There IS a limit to how much ice cream a single woman needs in her freezer at any given time. This brings up something I've been wondering about anyway – how long do homemade ice creams keep fresh? ← That’s a good question and I’m not exactly sure of the right answer. I think that because these recipes don’t use any stabilizers, they’re meant to be eaten fairly quickly. Surely they’ll last several weeks; however, the texture may degrade over time becoming more grainy. Loved that scene in the Albert Brooks / Debbie Reynolds movie Mother when she offers her son some ice cream and he complains that it has gone bad. No it’s still good under the protective covering of ice, she replies. Too funny! ← Since this is relevant, I thought I'd repost here. On David's site, he talks about shelf-life of ice cream. I'm sure he's talking about commercially made ice creams since the ones in his book do not use stabilizers, etc. Apparently, you can melt and re-churn sorbets, sherbets and Philadelphia-style ice creams if they get too icy. Read about it here: How Long Does Ice Cream Last?

I've been halving them, and they seem to work just fine (as long as the ingredients look like they can be halved - ie- it might be difficult with one that calls for 5 eggs, vs 4). So far, the malted milk is my favourite - by far (and that's really saying something, because they've all been delicious). Although the chocolate raspberry was a very close second. Next up - ginger, and chocolate mint. ← Halving should be fine. If you consider that 1 egg ~= 50g, then a recipe that calls for 5 eggs needs about 250g egg; half of that is 125g. For purposes of making these recipes for home use, I don't think that a little more or a little less egg will be a showstopper. In other words, for your 5 egg example 3 would probably be fine.

I think that 500g should be more than enough for an 8" tart, which is what I usually make. (Bo Friberg recommends 625g for a 10" tart.) Of course, any puff that you have left over can be used for a variety of smaller projects or frozen.

Almost as much fun as wrapping caramels...

I think that this is her blog: foodbeam: pâtisserie & sweetness

I haven’t seen a thread specifically about this book, so I thought I’d start one. The book has so many recipes that I want to make. It’s especially strong on the tapas theme – small plates with intense flavor. Recently I made the Portuguese Salt Cod Fritters. The flavor is wonderful; as good as any I’ve had at restaurants. However, I am having a little bit of a problem: they are very delicate and just barely hold together in the pan, with some breaking up as I remove them. My question is this: can I adjust the recipe next time by adding more egg to the mixture? Will that make them a bit firmer so that they won’t break up?

Wow... sounds like he's a "keeper!"

I'm bad at this too!! Even with the old fill the crust with beans method, my crust shrinks. I think I will just have to put in some more time practicing, as some have suggested. I guess there are worse kinds of "homework" to have! Seriously, though, baking a good pie is one of those things that is much harder than it looks. ← You do need to let your dough rest before rolling out and filling the pan. You can let it rest afterwards in the 'frigo before baking, too.

Often you will need to protect the top of the pie (or at least the rim) with foil since it will cook faster than the bottom. I like to bake pies on a circular blue-steel pan like they use in France. Very effective.

Ok, got it. Beet Sugar .NE. Cane Sugar So... If I want to replicate a recipe that was based on beet sugar, can I make some simple changes to convert the recipe to use cane sugar? We were using beet sugar in France and the recipe for caramels came out wonderfully. Therefore, I should be able to use the "superior" cane sugar to get the same result, yes? Should I cook it to a higher temperature? Cook it more slowly?