John DePaula

I think that I'd be inclined to reduce the orange juice and sugar to a thick syrup before adding to the ganache; otherwise, you may have too much liquid. Please let us know what you decide and how it turns out! Good luck.

How about King Arthur Flour - Cocoa DeZaan Natural (Item # 1628)?

One of my favorite things to eat... POMMES SARLADAISE (potatoes - from Sarlat (south west France) 800 grams new potatoes 200 grams cepes (or button mushrooms) 3 garlic cloves crushed bunch of parsley, chopped 5 soup spoons duck or goose fat salt and pepper 1. Peel and slice the potatoes into 1/4-inch slices. 2. Lightly fry the mushrooms in a pan with 1 teas of fat. Remove from pan and set aside. Melt the rest of the fat in a heavy based pan. Once hot add potatoes and cook for 10 minutes turning them often. 3. Add salt, pepper, garlic and parsley. Lower the heat, cover the pan and continue cooking for 20 minutes, continuing to turn the potatoes regularly. 4. Add the mushrooms, cook a further 10 minutes, and continue to turn the potatoes. Once cooked, the potatoes should be golden. I sometimes leave out the mushrooms.

i need a good technical book. i'm trying not to use invert sugar, changes the flavor of my ganaches completly. do you think invert sugar is absolutly necesarry? ← I thought invert sugar was inherently sort of flavorless. ← Ditto.

Oh My Gawd! That's a lot of work!!! very beautiful Can I ask how long it took you to make all of that?

That's really nice packaging, Vanessa.

Do tell, Chiantiglace! How do you temper in such high temperatures! I'm intrigued, what kind of chocolate do you use? ← Paraffin + Brown Food Coloring?

If your room temp is too high, the chocolate will take too long to set and can go out of temper. Try popping the centers into the refrigerator just until set. Don't try to do all of them at once or the first ones may sit too long. HTH

Eeewwwww! We don't EVEN have a good emoticon for this...

Wow, they're much cheaper than chocosphere! Like 30% cheaper on the few items I checked. For instance, Assouline and Ting has 3kg Valrhona Guanaja Feves for $54.96. Chocosphere sells the same thing for $79.95. ← I can't find their chocolate products or chocolate prices on their site. Am I missing something obvious or did they remove it? ← Here's a link straight to the good stuff: Bitter-Sweet Chocolates-Chocolate Amer

Doughs, Batters, and Meringues (French Professional Pastry Series) Also in this series: Creams, Confections, and Finished Desserts Petits Fours, Chocolate, Frozen Desserts, and Sugar Work I 2nd the recommendation for Baking with Julia

Vanessa, This isn't a temperer; rather, it's a melter which, of course, is an important step in tempering. But it's not automatic.

Try Tope là Restaurant 104 North Cate Street, Hammond, LA 70401, 985-542-7600

What about some little chocolate mice - could be very cute and memorable.

Mmmm... that sounds delicious. Thanks for adding this technique. I will look for a recipe for kaya!

I was wondering about the quantity and this gives me a place to start. Thanks a lot!

They do not have colourless pandan extract though. What they sell are invariably allied with the ugliest kelly green on the planet. Even worse are the ones blended with artificial coconut flavour. Natural infusion, if you can get hold of fresh blades, gives the best fragrance, in my experience. Also great for panna cotta and other congealed desserts. ← It looks like fresh will be the best alternative all the way around since I require an all natural product and it looks like the online sources have artificial ingredients. Thanks for your help!

Wow, I didn't know that about drying the leaves. Thanks!

Yes, thanks. I've tried to find it locally but everyone has stopped carrying it. If anyone knows of an online source, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

I would like to make an infusion for a ganache using fresh Pandan (Screwpine) leaves. The leaves are vibrant and fresh, but the scent of pandan is quite mild, almost undetectable, in fact. Should I leave the pandan out to ripen and develop flavor, as you would for a banana? To make the ganache, as I see it there are two possibilities: 1) Boil the cream, add the chopped leaves and steep like tea. 2) Dry the leaves in a slow oven or dehydrator, boil the cream and steep like tea. Does anyone have some related experience? Could you recommend the best method? Thanks

I don't try to temper the cocoa butter (I don't think you can temper cocoa butter, per se) and have had no problems.

If you mean the Coke sold year round (made with corn syrup) in the little glass bottles is better than the year round Coke in cans, I'd agree. If you mean the corn syrup Coke in little glass bottles is better than the K for P sugar coke in cans, I disagree. The sugar Coke, to me, is always better than the corn syrup Coke.=R= - Consider yourself lucky to find the Coke in six-pack cans. I've never seen it the D.C./Baltimore area in anything except VERY inconvenient 2 liter bottles. I have seen it in New York and also in Pittsburgh, but for whatever reason, Coke chooses to not distribute the cans in the D.C. area Thanks, Kevin ← No No No! What I meant was that the coke sold in glass bottles is better than that sold in plastic and cans. And that coke made with cane sugar is way WAY better than that made with high fructose corn syrup! Hope this clears up my position on the matter.

Hi Elaine, You are referring to Maggyfleur. I have a set of them, and they are alot of fun to work with. They are also good to dip into cooking sugar to make sugar flowers. They are very expensive, but will last a lifetime and make a very impressive end result. I was super lucky to find mine on Ebay, but they go for about $350 - $400 USD. Magyfleur On this site you can purchase them by piece if you want, so it makes them much more accessible. ← Try this link, instead: Magyfleur at Bakedeco.com

In Darth Vader voice: "Impressive. MOST Impressive."

The stuff they make now with high fructose corn syrup is NOTHING like what I remember from my youth. But I disagree with you about one thing, =R=: The coke sold in the little small glass bottles is WAY better than what's sold in cans! (And I mean that in the nicest way.) Of course, a 6-pack is 10 times more expensive than a 6-pack of cans. Maybe they don't want the word to get out? You've inspired me to run out and get some KfP coke while it's still available! Thanks!