tmriga

Now I'm going to have to go to the corner store tomorrow morning and do some comparison on them, with a large cup of coffee. Did the bride say which one she wanted? They have two types, the chocolate-chocolate-chocolate one, and the chocolate with a buttery off-white icing with twinkie filling. The latter is my favorite of the two. It's more like a cake brownie. The filling is like the Twinkie, but the icing is what makes it all come together. Theresa

Or how about bread sculpting, as shown in the French Professional Pastry Series books? That work is too awesome to believe it's made of bread. Theresa

Serious Eats has a thread on this in it's archives. Theresa

I'm not a CI member, so I cannot access the recipe. Is it a shortening-based crust? Why don't you try covering the edges of the crust during your pre-bake, instead of during the full bake? I use Martha's pate brisee recipe, and never have a problem with it. It's flaky, buttery, and bakes through, even on the bottom. Theresa

Land O'Lakes has a fabulous browned butter shortbread recipe on it's website. Theresa

I find IMBC to be entirely too much work for me. SMBC uses the same ingredients, and produces the same results, without the boiling of sugar. I agree that the recipe is extremely important. For instance, when someone asks me which recipe to use, I suggest Martha's recipe, then after they get the technique down, they should experiment with other recipes, or create one of their own. While I find her recipe too sweet for me, the online instructions are so clear that they're practically no-fail. The end result also depends upon the brand of butter you use. I had purchased an off-brand, because of a great price difference, and was very, very disappointed when I tasted it. It had that stick of butter after-taste, no matter how much flavoring I put in it. The only time I've experienced over-whipped MBC was at school. The stagiere, who was new and had no experience with buttercream, forgot he had a huge batch of SMBC in the 20 qt. By the time it got to us, it was so soft, due to heat of friction, that it was unuseable until refrigerated for a while. Theresa

I've been playing around with B&J's Chunky Monkey. I just can't seem to get the banana flavor right. I don't want to use an extract, so I tried a compound, by weight, according to the manufacturer; I just can't get the right intensity. I was thinking about trying icing fruit, which I use for flavoring my Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but that has some sugar in it. I don't want the sweetness to go overboard. My next attempt will include the trimmed whites of almost black bananas. My grand-niece's birthday is in 4 weeks, so I've also been prepping some Coquito ices, similar to a soft Italian Ice, but just like the old men used to sell from the cart, on the corner in my former neighborhood in the City. I can still hear them yell "Coquito!," and see all of us running to be first in line. A friend of mine finally gave up her precious recipe, which I've been asking for, for about 20 years. I made 2-1/2 gallons of it so far, in my big 6 qt. Rival, with at least another gallon to go. There will be about 100 people, and nobody around here makes it in the machine, so I've got a lock on a big line waiting. Theresa

Maltodextrin is made from cornstarch. Hence, any ice cream that lists maltodextrin in it's ingredients has a form of cornstarch in it. Theresa

Therefore, if flinting is your primary goal, it's better to use superfine sugar, rather than straight granulated. Since superfine has less air space between grains than granulated, does it have more sweetening power? And if so, then what would the exchange be to get the same sweetening power as say, 1 cup of sugar? Theresa

Thanks, all, for your responses. It seems to me that xanthan gum is finding new homes all the time. I'm already familiar with it in baking, to add the body and chewiness you mention in the ice cream. I'm going to go OT a little here, please bear with me. Do you know what temperature must xanthan gum be raised to, in order to activate it's properties? I am wondering if it could be used as a warm weather stabilizer for meringue-based buttercream frostings. I use the Swiss Meringue method, and take my whites to about 150 degrees F, and it might be worth spending a dozen eggs on a trial, if I can get a bit of guidance. If any of you can offer info or alternate suggestions, please feel free to PM me. Thanks in Advance - Theresa

Please teach me. I know that cornstarch is a thickener, but I thought it needed heat to activate. My questions are: 1 - When does the cornstarch go into the base, and 2 - How does it work without heat? Thanks! Theresa

Comparing the elimination rounds between the regular Top Chef program, and the Masters program, which format do you prefer so far? I'm more inclined to go with the regular Top Chef format. For me, this one has too much talking and not much of getting to watch the chefs during the elimination rounds. Although I admit, I do not miss the arguements that occurred between the contenders in Top Chef. Theresa

Bearbones11 Here are the reasons I can give you for the popularity of the brownie: Portability - no fork needed, no refrigeration needed; almost immediate satisfaction and sedation (yes, a brownie is almost as good as a Midol during PMS Week); versatility (brownie trifle, brownie alaska); and just the smell of them, especially right out of the oven. When the local ambulance corps has an event, they always ask me for a brownie donation. PaulRaphael - When I made my giant brownie, I told the hosts to cut it into 1"x2" slices, so as to not overwhelm the eater. I agree with you that a standard cut of 2"x2" would be too much at one time. Theresa Theresa

You can successfully double any brownie recipe to make it thicker, as long as you compensate for the thickness with time and temperature. Since I am primarily a baker, I tend to stick with cake for my sculpted and novelty projects. But when the request came for a cheeseburger cake, I used a huge, triple batter brownie in a parchment collared and lined 10X3-inch round pan. It was about 2 inches thick, and took what seemed to be forever to bake. I had to turn the temp down to 300 degrees, to keep the edges from burning before the center was done. But when it was cut, it was exactly as a brownie should be - ever so slightly crisp on the edges, moist and chewy inside. The crinkled top had just the right bit of snap to it. For scratch, it's Betty Crocker recipe - only a few ingredients, no leavening, butter for the fat content. I use Guittard or Ghirardelli chocolates, exclusively. Instead of nuts, I add a half-cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate, or a quarter cup of chocolate syrup, just to make it even more fudgy. If you use the syrup, you have to bake longer to account for the extra liquid. When I'm in a hurry, the boxed mix I turn to is Ghirardelli. Theresa

Chefmaster brand makes natural food colors, for use in candy and icing. I have not seen any for airbrush or edible images, as yet. There's a company in Australia, named Overseal Natural Ingredients, that has developed a line of natural food colors. They recently had a teleconference on their products. Theresa

I was referring to shipping to where you are from Malaysia. My friend is a cake decorator who has custom cutters made for high-end decorators here in the US, and has several resources there. If there's something in SE Asia related to cake decorating supplies, she's the one I would ask. Is shipping also that expensive to you from Australia? Theresa

If you can get lace molds that cheap, send them to me! They run about $20-40 USD. I have a friend from Malaysia who gets cutters there really inexpensively. She will be heading there in October to spend the winter. I'll ask her to check around and see what's available. Would the shipping be less from there than from other countries? Theresa

The framing looks great. I bought a chocolate mold of an oval frame that I use for fondant or gumpaste plaques. I decorate the plaque, drop in at the center of the cake, border the cake edges, and it's done. Theresa

And now that we're waxing on the finale, who's your pick to win this gig? Theresa

I wish I were closer, so I could give you some help with this project. I've had a pagoda cake design in my head for a couple of years now, but never had the opportunity to execute the project. Too bad they didn't provide you with a picture from a higher level, so you could see what type of tilework was used on the pagoda. I am interested in seeing how you plan to assemble this for delivery. Good luck! Theresa

I know you've already found your solution, but for future reference, I'm up here in Allentown, and I pay next to nothing for my unique ingredients by shopping in corner markets. Where else can you get a pound of blanched ground almonds for 6 bucks, but in the Arabic stores? I use it to make almond paste and marzipan. It's a little bit of work, but so much cheaper than buying it already made. Theresa

Ok, so I'm not Jewish, but there are plenty of Jews in my family - all of them eat Chinese food voraciously. My Uncle Harvey used to sit down with my Dad and eat ribs almost non-stop. The contest ended when the first one got indigestion. But every other Sunday, after church at Saint Brigid's, we would head to New Garden Chinese Restaurant, on Avenue B, somewhere between 8th street and 3rd. I just remember it was on our way home. My grandmother knew the owner, servers, and chefs, all by first name, and they all knew ours. Alternately, on the off Sundays, we would head down Houston street to Katz's, for corned beef on club bread. We preferred the club to rye, because the rye would turn to mush from the steam emanating off the meat. I have to admit, our palates had it good when we lived there. I'm in PA now, and you can't get good Chinese food here since Joe died (the owner of my former fave Chinese restaurant, NYC quality), and the Jewish foods, well, since 7th Street Deli closed, the local idea of hot corned beef is to heat it on the flattop until it is crispy. It tasted like jerky gone wild, so I send it back, and never returned to that restaurant again. It's a good thing I taught myself how to cook a corned beef in the New York City style. Now, if I could only find club bread here.... Theresa

When I started experimenting with pies, I used what the recipe said to use. I found that I do not like using flour, as some recipes call for, because the taste never quite cooks out. I switched to cornstarch, and now use that exclusively. I've had success using it every time. If I have a recipe that calls for flour as a thickener, I use half as much cornstarch. I mix the cornstarch in with the sugar and spices, then pour the powder mixture over the fruit, stir well, and immediately pour it into the shell (scraping the bowl well, to get every bit of mixture) dot with butter, cover, pierce for steam, and bake. Theresa

Sleeved filling? Yuck! Too many ingredients, not enough fruit. Check your PM's. Theresa

There was a heated debate about this product on another forum, over the ingredients, which do not include real chocolate, but candy melts. Theresa