Anna Skigin

Tri2Cook Thank you again so much. People like you do make our world better. I do have methyl cellulose and will look for Xanthan . Thanks for offering to send me some of each but I live in Israel and it's a little bit too far away from you. it was so kind of you to think of sending it.

Tri2Cook Oh my God! You did that for me???? I'm so impressed! Thank you very much!!! just one little question. Or even two 1. What is methylcellulose? is it CMC used in cake decorating? 2 what's xanthan And again-thank you soooo much!

Thanks a lot. THat really helped

I'm looking for a recepie of plain sponge without sugar. I mean-it should be without any sweetener at all for some mushroom roulade.. Can anyone help?

After reading this topic I feel I'll be able to bake a nice pie at last. You guys are so helpful! One more question: what kind of pan it's better to use? I have a silicone one and I'm not happy with it at all

No, my mixer is not new. I think that maybe that happened because halfway through adding butter my cream got very thin (I was sure I spoiled it), it looked like buttermilk. Then I changed the paddle for a baloon whisk and it saved the situation - but it may be the reason of the colour problem. Anyway thanks to you I made it! I'm sure next time it will be perfect! Thanks a lot!

Ruth, thanks a lot for that demo! Today I made it for the first time in my life and it turned out great. Though I had to use whisk all the time (the paddle just didn't work). The only thing that I don't understand - why my cream turned slightly gray when I added half of the butter?

Though the link doesn't work I think I know what you're talking about. Jhanna is not a bakery. Jhanna is a very nice young lady who makes her cakes at home, as far as I know. If you want I can write to her and invite to visit this forum.

Ok, I see now. I have to work with an air conditioner on, make dry caramel just before serving. Thanks everybody!

Thanks everyone for your advice.

Vanessa, I don't know what a dry caramel is.

Thanks, Rona, you're very supportive. And helpful. I had to give up making merengue because of humidity and now I see that caramel is also out of my list . At least while we live here.

I'm not sure why I'm supposed to be familiar with "that cake" exactly, but if you're attempting to produce a sparse brittle as depicted in "that photo" then yes, moisture is definitely going to be a problem for you. Not sure I'd want a mouthful of gum-slicing, tooth-cracking shrapnel in a cake anyway, so it may actually be beneficial to soften it up a bit. ← Your post sounds as if I offended you. I'm so sorry. But the problem is that English is not my native language and I didn't practice for a long time. Please excuse me. I posted the picture just to show the nuts in order to explane what I tried to make. I'm really sorry if I didn't sound polite. What I wanted in that cake are nuts in caramel. Before you eat the cake you take a piece of crunchy caramel and after that there's soft muss. I thought the contrast would be interesting.

nduran, Actually I made that cake. Do you see now what I mean ? And no, I don't live in Huston, I live in Israel. alanamoana, thanks for your advise.

I tried to make caramelized nuts. Everything went OK but in about an hour my caramel got sticky at room temperature. Nuts were warm and dry. I have some leftovers of these caramel and now it got so soft that I can't even lift it from the baking sheet. Is it the quality of the sugar? Or air humidity?

Thanks everybody for help! now I know what to buy and read

Thank you, that will help. I'm not an absolute begginer, I really read much and bake a lot. I've found that Alton Brown's book you're talking about. He looks funny I hope his book is also not boring

heyjude, I'm sorry, I thought she has a talkshow on TV . Is she a real baker with educaktion?

pastryelf, thank you! I already have Rose Levy Beranbaum "Cake Bible" and I like her style so I'll definely buy that Pie and Pastry Bible. By the way, I was recommended to buy The Professional Pastry Chef (by Bo Friberg) and I asked my husband to give it to me as a bday present.

Not bread , certainly. I think "classic euro-style pastries" - that's what I like to learn. Though, as I said, I like to learn new stuff so a book or two on American-stile baking would always be interesting. As about the style of books- this time I want somthing that's written not by a housewife who's good at baking, but smth by a real pro,so I guess that would be text-like instructions.

I LOVE baking. And I love to learn. So now I want to combine these two things and start learning to bake. The problem is I can't take any course (2 small kids) so I deciced to start with reading proper books. With all the explanations and step-by-step instructions. Can you help me to choose books?

Miriam, wanted to thank you for the recepie! Today my daughter is "ima Shabbat" so I baked your challah for the kindergarden. It was fun! Thanks a lot!

Thank you, Miriam! Next week my parents-in-law want to come for Shabbat, and I'll defenitely try that recipe.

Miriam Kresh, can you please give the recipe of your challah?

Swisskaese, I took my challah recipe from "Sheshet" , which is Israely book and they don't suggest using bread flour there.