miladyinsanity

Waterbath. I've only made it twice, so I'm not yet ready to do it without. I shall attempt this again.

It's not terribly hard to make if you have fresh coconut milk, eggs, sugar and a double boiler--plus a few hours of stirring. There's another, less time-consuming method, whereby you mix up the ingredients, then steam the entire pot, but my mom the expert says that you'll get a lumpy texture that way. You can make pandan and caramel variations. Yours is brown, so it's the latter. ← Great, May...I knew that the Singapore/Malaysia contingent would be all over this. Any chance you've got a full recipe laying about that you can share? For the uninitiated, I'll post some very porny fotos of it tomorrow. G'night... ← If you really really want one...you'll have to wait until the next time she makes it and hopefully, I'll be around to badger her into weighing stuff. My mother, sadly, belongs to the school of not weighing anything (unless she's baking) while I belong to the super-anal school of weighing or otherwise measuring everything--we don't cook together, thank goodness. Also, the rind on the sugar might be dried palm or banana leaves. It's not wood, I don't think.

It's not terribly hard to make if you have fresh coconut milk, eggs, sugar and a double boiler--plus a few hours of stirring. There's another, less time-consuming method, whereby you mix up the ingredients, then steam the entire pot, but my mom the expert says that you'll get a lumpy texture that way. You can make pandan and caramel variations. Yours is brown, so it's the latter.

Maybe you could use paneer for this application, in keeping with the Indian theme. Although I don't think it would melt like other cheeses. ← Yeah, that's what I worry about. In stew and things, it usually holds its shape pretty well. Any knows of a good melting Indian cheese? ← Maybe yogurt cheese could be a substitute?

I think it's the oxalic acid, which will denature during the cooking process. A few other types of tubers also have it. Eating it raw will give you belly cramps and might send you off to the hospital for a visit. I'm really liking this blog!

Dorie Greenspan's Swedish Visiting cake. I skip the lemon and almonds because nobody wants them except me (and I try not to eat entire sticks of butter too often), but I figure it's not too difficult to add a pinch of cinnamon or some other spice. Easy and doesn't involve whipping anything.

But you didn't heat it up again, right? Instead of spring onions, deep fried shallots are a great addition too!

If you beat the eggs really well before you add the other ingredients, that will help. Your eggs should be beaten as if you used an immersion blender and the curd will come out nice and smooth. ← Or, beat the eggs with the sugar before adding the other ingredients. This makes for a more viscous mixture, which helps the egg whites get evenly dispersed. Thinking literally about it, of course, you actually want the egg whites to coagulate to some extent -- that's what forms the gel that makes a curd thicken and become a curd, as opposed to a sauce. You just want the egg to be evenly dispersed before it coagulates, and control the degree to which coagulation occurs. ← That's what I've been doing, actually, but I still got a lot of coagulated egg whites (not curd)--at least, it seemed a lot to me, since it was only the second time that I've made lemon curd. Which was why I asked. ← Have you tried the Fine Cooking lemon curd recipe? You beat the eggs and sugar with the butter, then cook. I haven't had any problem with coagulation when lemon curd is made this way. ← I made this recipe, and I felt it was too liquid. Maybe I didn't cook enough? If you beat the eggs really well before you add the other ingredients, that will help. Your eggs should be beaten as if you used an immersion blender and the curd will come out nice and smooth. ← Or, beat the eggs with the sugar before adding the other ingredients. This makes for a more viscous mixture, which helps the egg whites get evenly dispersed. Thinking literally about it, of course, you actually want the egg whites to coagulate to some extent -- that's what forms the gel that makes a curd thicken and become a curd, as opposed to a sauce. You just want the egg to be evenly dispersed before it coagulates, and control the degree to which coagulation occurs. ← That's what I've been doing, actually, but I still got a lot of coagulated egg whites (not curd)--at least, it seemed a lot to me, since it was only the second time that I've made lemon curd. Which was why I asked. ← Hmm. What temperature are you cooking your curd to? ← I have no idea. My thermometer doesn't take temps below 190F. Note to self: Why didn't you look more closely at it before you bought it?

i couldn't agree more! ← Me too! My aunt and uncle always says that they'll take the stems and I'll take the florets--because I'm the little princess--and I don't get it because I think the stems are the good parts. This must mean that most of the general population thinks that the florets are the good parts.

Interesting. My family makes a similar dish, minus the vinegar, but we serve it hot, though amongst the younger generation (meaning me and my cousins), we'll have it at room temp too. My mother would be shocked if I stuck it in the fridge first.

If you beat the eggs really well before you add the other ingredients, that will help. Your eggs should be beaten as if you used an immersion blender and the curd will come out nice and smooth. ← Or, beat the eggs with the sugar before adding the other ingredients. This makes for a more viscous mixture, which helps the egg whites get evenly dispersed. Thinking literally about it, of course, you actually want the egg whites to coagulate to some extent -- that's what forms the gel that makes a curd thicken and become a curd, as opposed to a sauce. You just want the egg to be evenly dispersed before it coagulates, and control the degree to which coagulation occurs. ← That's what I've been doing, actually, but I still got a lot of coagulated egg whites (not curd)--at least, it seemed a lot to me, since it was only the second time that I've made lemon curd. Which was why I asked.

If you beat the eggs really well before you add the other ingredients, that will help. Your eggs should be beaten as if you used an immersion blender and the curd will come out nice and smooth. ← Great! I'll try this again next week.

Can somebody point me to a meringue recipe for meringues that are Big and have Chewy centers?

I'll try that. Thanks!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the mention of RLB. Her genoise recipe is an horror--I made it three times, and I almost swore off making genoise because I couldn't get it right. But I like her buttercream recipes, and her yellow cake (all-butter yellow downy cake or something like that) is pretty good.

Interesting. I always thought that more eggs--or at least more egg whites--gets you a chewier cookie, and that less eggs would get you a crumblier one--like shortbread.

Thanks, Merstar! I'll try this recipe next. Sugar Plum, I bet you'd be interested in this recipe. It's just half cup butter to 2.25 cups flour.

If you're going to frost it, I wouldn't sprinkle the pan or the top of the cake with sugar. I might cut down the sugar a little too--I think I used only 3/4 cup, not 1 cup.

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. ← Great, thanks!

I'm looking at the Torres recipe. Can someone give me a vague idea of how much puff pastry I need for that recipe? Preferably in weight, since I'm making my own puff--I decided this would be a good time to try Hermes's Inside-Out puff. I'm seriously thinking of making mini ones, because it ups the puff to filling ratio.

I love the Swedish Visiting Cake. I thought I was reading the recipe wrong when I saw that there were no leavening agents...but it's fabulous. I see myself making this in the middle of the night when I WANT cake but haven't any in the house. I've only made it once, but I swear I already have the recipe memorized.

I'm not a pastry genius, but I think equal amounts of pastry and bread flour would get you a flour with a slightly higher protein content than most all-purpose flours. Sugar Plum, would you please PM me Dorie's recipe? I made the Unbelievably Good Chocolate Chunk Cookies again, and whilst I achieved the right texture this time minus the greasiness of my first attempt, I think they are horrifyingly sweet. Any ideas on how to fix this? PS My little brother wants me to make the cookies again minus the chocolate.

Fanny-- Wow! Thanks for sharing with us, especially the photos! When you are paying attention to how PH make canneles, I'm curious about what they use to line the molds before pouring in the batter. Wolfert swears by a mixture of oil and beeswax, but I have a hard time believing they do this in a busy pastry shop. What does PH use? ← I'm not Fanny, but I remember a pc who mentioned on her eG foodblog that she had to oil/grease them every day before use. And no matter what you use to grease the moulds, wouldn't it still be the same thing?

Corn ice cream isn't bad, and purple yam (though I think it's more purple food coloring than anything else) and red bean are quite nice. I'd try sweet potato ice cream. I think it'd be quite nice.

Sometimes cones are appropriate. I had a mess of folks over on the 4th of July, including a lot of kids. I can't think of anything more quintessential than watching a bunch of kids, standing on the driveway, sparkler in one hand, cone in the other -- ice cream dripping down their arms. Plus, it was a lot of bowls I didn't have to put in the dishwasher, nor did I have to comb the lawn before I mowed to recover any errant spoons! I really like the crunch of the cone with the ice cream! ← True that. I did go through a period of buying those wafers they serve with ice cream and eating them like biscuits. It's just I think I find them too sweet now, especially with ice cream, and I cannot stand cake cones.