Lisa Shock

I use the recipe from Professional Baking, my old P&B school textbook. I use cake flour, butter and buttermilk. The big thing to me is technique. I cut in the hard/cold butter, leaving chunks in the dry mixture then add the buttermilk. I then lightly roll the dough out and fold it over and repeat few times. I learned this in school, but my mother also did it. The visible chunks of butter along with the folding creates flaky layers, almost as if it were a roughly laminated dough. Of course, you must use a cutter to portion these out, and you need to use a swift up and down motion (no twisting!) to keep the layers from sticking together.

I started an experimental batch of chocolate liqueur today. I will post updates as they happen. The chocolate used was Chocovic's unique origin Ocumare Criollo 71% bar. I live near a Trader Joe's, and it's the best of what I could get my hands on fast. If I'd had any Callebaut I would have used it. I saved the unused portion of the bar for comparison tasting with the liqueur later on. The cane sugar that has been appearing at my local hispanic foods market looks light in the package, but cooks up fairly dark in appearance. It has a rich flavor without the molasses overtones of a brown sugar. I've been using it because it seems closer to the sugar available in the 1800s, I just mixed and drank my way through Imbibe!, and I like the taste. Of course, substituting regular white sugar would be fine. The chargond comes looking like pebbles, it needs to be ground to dissolve quickly. Here's the procedure I used (at home, extra tips for home users): Ingredients now 20 grams bitter chocolate 1 pint Everclear later 1 lb raw cane sugar/sugar 1 cup water 1 tablespoon gum arabic (I buy it marked "edible gum chargond" at the local Asian market) Tools ceramic bowl coarse microplane 35000 series with 35057 attachment to protect fingers non-metal spatula non-reactive, airtight container (I used a pint canning jar) Final container, non-reactive, quart sized I refrigerated the chocolate overnight. An hour before starting I checked the thermostat to make sure it was at 72 degrees, and put my bowl out to make certain it was cool. I grated the chocolate into the bowl then used the spatula to move the resulting powder into the pint canning jar. I topped it off with Everclear, then used the spatula to stir a few times to ensure that there were no air pockets under the chocolate. I closed the jar tightly and placed in a cool spot away from light. I'll check the flavor/aroma every couple of days. This could take up to 30 days to work. Once the alcohol is infused, I'll make what my husband has dubbed 'complex syrup.' Grind the chargond finely (or use powdered gum arabic) and add to the sugar and water in a small high-sided saucepan. Allow to come to a boil, skim the impurities and cool. It may be useful to double the recipe and have some to use for mixing unrelated cocktails later. I keep a bottle of this syrup around for general home bartending. I usually mix equal parts infusion and 'complex syrup', but this can be adjusted to taste. The infusion portion alone (of my other liqueur experiments) has proven to be very useful in making all sorts of patisserie items. Anyway, more later!

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out!

I started making floral liqueurs in the 1980s when I first read the Toklas book. My biggest mistake once involved using flowers from the florist. Since they keep the flowers in water that has been treated with a chemical preservative, well, I wound up with crystals of preservative in the bottom of my bottle. Now, I only use flowers I know were raised organically and not treated, usually from someone's garden. (of course, I live in Phoenix, so we don't have many beloved flowers like violets, I make special trips for those) I have used vodka in the past, but I currently prefer Everclear. I make two basic types of liqueur: one juice-based, one infused. For juice-based, like quince, I run the fruit through my juicer and add a dash of vitamin C crystals to preserve color. I then mix with simple syrup to taste, then add an amount equaling the fruit/syrup mixture of Everclear. For infused liqueurs, like yuzu where I use peel not juice, I steep the item (peels, petals, pods, etc.) in Everclear for 3-30 days, checking every other day to see how things are going. As someone stated above, the ingredients can vary wildly in the amount of time needed to get all the goodness out. Once the Everclear is well infused, I remove the infusing item, strain if needed, and add simple syrup to taste. I generally use equal parts simple syrup and infusion, your tastes may vary. I have never tried chocolate. I will try soon and post some results.

What about cooking the cake in a sheet pan and cutting it with a round cutter? That's how we made them in pastry school...

There's a chance that your mixture won't set up properly. One function of milk when paired with acid in a cake is to form proteins that set up as solids in the finished cake. You may wish to add some NFMS or powdered milk to your dry ingredients to help keep it stable. You'll probably also need to look at reducing the amount of sugar, since nectar contains a lot more sugar than milk. Extra sugar tastes good, but can lead to odd unstable results like collapse into a crispy cookie-like mass.

This sounds like an interesting project. I'd like to suggest Old Fashioned oats, I like the texture better. Of course, I usually use crunchy peanut butter so that the final cookie has nut chunks in it, as well...

My hubby won't eat any yellow food and doesn't want it around. He claims that yellow is the color things turn when they are starting to rot. He will however, eat corn. He says "it isn't yellow, it's golden." This can make cooking a bit challenging at my house; no golden delicious apples, no yukon gold potatoes, no yellow split peas, no yellow tomatoes, no parsnips, no wax beans, and, curries had better be brownish, green, or red.

Silly me, I just found this thread! It looks like you really are doing your community a great service, and will probably help countless others by posting your experiences online. Anyway, I cook once a month for a small group of seniors, so I can sympathize a bit. I am lucky that my group is small, so I can usually modify things to their personal tastes. One dish they (and my parents, I'm in my 40's so, my parents are, um, older) like is navy bean soup and various variants like dry lima bean stew. These were budget dishes from their Depression-era childhoods and bring back memories. The good news is that they are nutritious and also easy on the wallet. -Although better served in the winter, not in August. And, I don't know if this sort of dish was ever common in Canada. I saw the baked beans early in the thread, and this triggered memories of my dad (who rarely admitted to being able to do any cooking beyond grilling) spending an afternoon lovingly sorting through and rinsing dry beans, finding the spices, frying fatback, assembling a huge pot of ingredients, then tending it every half-hour til dinner time. Of course, my younger brother and I hated the beans and ate the biscuits and salad mom made to go with the beans. So, they were rarely served. Dad got his way with this dinner maybe 4 times a year.

I have to agree that WATER is the best option, followed by making your own and freezing it -and possibly vacuum sealing it as well. I heartily agree with Ruhlman on the topic of canned stock/broth being inferior to water.

That's what my first thought was, but I was under the impression that the Tunnel of Fudge cake was pretty gooey inside. Shows you how much experience I have with the Tunnel of Fudge cake. ← TOF cake is goey inside, but it could be tweaked to not be that way very easily. All of this really just relates to the chemistry of cake making, in particular the ratios of sugar to flour and fats. (plus whatever starches and binders are in the canned icing products) And, I think, the overall quantities are more important to the final cake than what got mixed up first and then added to what. -Thus the modern TOF cake recipe with a seemingly normal mixing procedure, but an extraordinary amount of sugar and fat. I really don't think there's any magic in making the icing first -if you're baking from scratch. The adding commercial icing to the boxed cake mix started with a ploy to use more product for a contest and then the idea spread after Ms. Helfrich won the Bake-Off. I remember reading about her and her idea in several magazines at the time of her win. I also wouldn't doubt that makers of the canned icing probably ran tests on it as an additive for their boxed mixes, in order to sell more product. What could be better? People would start using a can of icing in the cake and a second one on top of the cake, thus doubling sales!

This was the trick developed by 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off winner Ella Rita Helfrich when she developed the Tunnel of Fudge Cake. Her original recipe used a boxed icing mix in with the other ingredients. Pillsbury no longer makes the icing mix, so most of the recipes for this cake that you see online are modified to replicate the icing mix.

Along the lines of using cakes that do not need icing, how about a display of cakes made with those fancy bundt molds that look like castles and cathedrals and such? You could make an impressive display of cakes made as pound cake in various flavors: vanilla, chocolate chip, orange, raspberry, lemon, coffee. My personal favorite unfrosted cake is RLB's Chocolate Domingo cake from the Cake Bible. You can make the cakes in advance at your leisure, freeze them, and then just take to the event. From your description, they will be thawed out in an hour or so. To increase the available space, look for cake stands with bases small enough to fit within the hole in a cake, and have cake around the base as well as on cakes stands. Fresh flowers and lemon leaves could help with the decor. Pitchers of sauces could be served alongside: anglaise, raspberry coulis, caramel, etc. The sauces need to stay cool, but can be served in pint pitchers that you display in bowls of ice.

Are you making the juice yourself or buying it? If you are buying it, you may want to have it checked. There have been problems with imported juices being adulterated and containing little or no pomegranate juice. Some experts believe that more pomegranate juice is being sold than orchards are capable growing. Here's a link to a Nurse's Blog entry on the topic.

Yes I wondered about that. I'll have to figure out what to watch for on the bottle. Of course it raises the question of what wine goes with falafel? ← Unfortunately, most wine labels don't mention if they are vegan/vegetarian. There are some lists of vegan wines online. Also a winery's website will tell you about their wines. Barring that, an employee at a wine store should be able to guide you. All of the major wine distributors now indicate which wines are vegan in their wholesale lists and catalogs, and it's a fairly common request nowadays.

I always add a couple tablespoons of vinegar to the water before adding the potatoes which I cube in advance. The vinegar keeps them very clean and crisp looking, while cooking perfectly. -And, yes, I use a waxy potato like the red ones, and I peel them to avoid the dangerous and often bitter glycoalkaloids. One variation I like is to take some: peeled and diced potatoes as many as you want/need (waxy type, not flaky bakers) regular sour cream (enough to cover your potatoes) (do NOT substitute lowfat sour cream!) curry powder or wet curry spice mix like Patak's (amount varies by type and your taste) sugar (a dash to a tablespoon to balance the curry powder) sliced/julienne raw carrot sliced/julienne raw celery Mix the sour cream and curry powder and let is sit for a half hour -enough time to peel, dice, and cook the potatoes. Slice/julienne your carrot and celery. While the potatoes are sitting in a colander cooling, taste the sour cream and see if it has enough curry goodness for you. Add more curry powder if needed and add a little sugar to taste. When the potatoes are cool put potatoes, carrots and celery in a big bowl and fold together carefully. Sorry that this isn't much of a recipe, but there are a lot of variables involved.

If you serve wine, make sure it's vegan. They are out there, but you have to look carefully.

Thanks! I guess it makes sandwiches that sliced tomatoes fit nicely on....

LeeLee has opened a second location on the SW corner of Cactus and 75th Avenue in Peoria. This location is larger than the original, has a large liquor department, a cafe, and, a full-service restaurant. Not only does this location have more & different foods, the aisles are wider so it's easier to navigate.

Does anyone know what THIS eBay item is? Is it really a cake mold?

Looks like Pastry's Best has suspended publication, apparently they are seeking a buyer.

I have a question about the oranges themselves. I currently live in Phoenix, AZ, but I haven't lived here all of my life. There are 'decorative' orange trees all over town, and I have been told to avoid the fruit. I even recall seeing something on the tv news about some kids who tried to eat some and had to go to the hospital because the oranges burned their lips and throats. Are these 'decorative' oranges Sevilles, or a similar type? How can I tell? If I process these into marmalade or use the skins to make liqueur, will they still be dangerous? I've been looking, but can't find a real guide to identification online.

Ok, I know I'm jumping into the conversation kind of late here, but, I've watched every season of this show and I always wonder just how much the challenges have to do with actually starring in a show? I have a friend who produces and occasionally acts as second/third cameraman for tv commercials (and some industrial videos), and all he does is laugh at how badly produced the FTV shows are. Much of the time, they seem to be emphasizing doing entere segments, from ad break to ad break, without stopping. As if they need to get all 11.5 minutes on film without mistakes because it's too expensive for multiple takes, or, (sarcastic gasp of horror here) too expensive to have cuts and mini-scenes. Face it, they can't be using movie-quality film, I'd be surprized to find out that they still film in hi-8 (the 80-s and 90s standard for tv news and some sitcoms) -digital must be cheap by now. I did a few voiceovers for my friend, when the real actors were too hung over to come in to work, and I know a little bit about tv production. If you make a small pause at the end of sentences or certain phrases, it's no big deal to re-do segments. You usually get good enough that it doesn't happen often, but no one pushes you to plow on for 11 minutes. I was often asked for other takes, just to hear some different interpretations of the script, not because what I had done was bad. If these guys can do it, FTV should be able to as well. Anyway, the challenges seem pretty far removed from the actual business of making a show. And, some people's experience seems weak for them to springboard into being on-screen instructors. Oh wait, this is the network propping up Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee. I guess anyone with a big smile or bustline can be a host as long as they shill for processed food packers. I mean, there are hundreds of culinary school instructors out there, and not one has gotten a show on FTV...I wonder why...

Thanks!

I am shopping for a new stove, and must have electric because there is no gas service in my area, and my hubby refuses to set an LP account just for the stove. A salesman at a fairly high end chain store, one that stocks Wolf and Viking, told me that cast iron and copper cookware can scratch ceramic cooktops, leading to their breakage. Two years ago, I got a wonderful set of copper pans, and I have a lifetime's collection of cast iron I love. Anyway, I noticed that most of the better electric stoves had ceramic tops. The coil stoves didn't have features like hidden oven elements or 2-oven configurations. Am I destined to have a cheap coil-top in my future?