SweetSide

I have both books as well as the CIA book Anthony has. I find the Friberg books have more varying components, and I flip through often getting different ideas. The Gisslen book is the book I used in school and I find it has more instructional information. The CIA book I have found to have the best recipes overall. So, I use them in tandem. However, if you can only have one (is that possible??? these are like potato chips for me...) I would also pick the CIA book.

No Kidding -- great work Patrick!

Sorry about the fire. I've used the J&N as well -- I can get it here in Stop & Shop. But, I'm a sucker and when I can get the limes themselves, I like them better. Did you know they fit perfectly in a garlic press for squeezing...? Thanks! I found a couple other recipes also. One with eggs just like a traditional key lime pie, so I'll have to see which one I'll try. Mmmm, pie

Is this it? CLICK Or similar?

Ooooh oooh oooh... "used to have"?! His second favorite dessert is key lime pie. Digging the pretzel bit. Any chance it's still around (the recipe that is..) Not much time for me to be tinkering, but we're on to something good here...

My husband is a HUGE margarita fan. He has requested a margarita dessert for Cinco de Mayo. In the past I have made a margarita semifreddo, a white chocolate margarita mousse, and a margarita mouse cake. While he would take any of the above again, I'm looking for a new idea with the margarita theme. Not just plain "lime" either -- must be the whole shebang -- tequila too. Cheese(cake) is out -- only profanity can describe what he thinks of cheese. Any ideas? Thanks!

I've never had this work right. There is a mousse recipe that I've tried several times that calls for cool whipped cream to be folded into warm chocolate, and each time I've ended up with small bits of chocolate that don't get worked into the mixture. Vigorously working in a small portion of the cream first seemed to help, but I still ended up with bits of chocolate in the mousse. The same recipe called for folding in some pate a bombe after the cream. But I found that it comes together much better if the pate a bombe is folded into the chocolate first, and then the whipped cream. ← Ditto. I have a "chocolate chip" semifreddo my family loves... This one they have me make "wrong" on purpose now.

Can you expound? What are the differences in the technique versus getting the meringues that are light and crispy all the way through?

Thanks Ted and alanamoana! And after reading this, I do know that I have "broken" and ice cream in school. And our poor machine was in the situation you are in -- several us doing our formulas each churning several quarts in the course of night. Wasn't keeping up with the cooling and we were spinning them for much longer than normal periods. And I like the reverse "tea cozy" method on cooling. Don't know why I didn't think of that. I do already chill down the mix in the freezer and it helps. But on those 95 degree days, it can still be hard. Not sure if the cooled Cuisinart ranks high enough on my toy list at the moment though.... Thanks again!

Wow, thanks for the recipe Mike. I have seen another recipe where you add liquid whites where it wasn't expected. Can't recall where exactly, but it was recently, and it was for a baked nut meringue. Which, a macaron is, essentially. Also, to note the obvious for many, but in typing you said to cook at 325 celcius and I'm sure you meant 325F. Likely a translation typo from the French -- that would be 617F, a little too hot for a macaron I think! Those pups would dry out fast! I don't have convection, and am not well versed on translation. Would you say that 350F would be right for a regular oven, or should I use 375F? Thanks!

What is overchurning -- that is, how do you know you've overchurned the ice cream? At home I only have a small Cuisinart where you put the bowl in the freezer. Is it possible to overchurn in one of these machines? I mostly make ice cream in the summer (without air conditioning in the house), and when it is really hot, sometimes the ice cream won't freeze beyond a VERY soft serve because the bowl loses its chill to fast. Any advice for these situations? Other than buying a second bowl to switch to.... Thanks!

Eeks - I'll do my best since I used a few recipes and kept modifying, but here we go: The pistachio disk was this recipe. But then I modified it a bit by nearly doubling the pistachios because I wanted it to be more crumbly than pastey. Very nice taste and fun to work with on the flower. The mango curd: 1 C. Sugar 2 T. Orange zest - I would use lime or lemon next time 4 L Eggs 3/4 C. orange juice 10.5 oz unsalted butter at room temp, cut into tablespoon sized pieces 1. Boil water in pan big enough to set a mixing bowl in without the water touching. 2. Rub sugar and zest together until fragrant 3. Whisk eggs into sugar and then add the juice. 4. Place the mixing bowl in the double boiler and whisk constantly until the cream thickens and reaches 180 F. Its done when the whisk leaves tracks (180 F). 5. Immediately pull the cream from the heat and strain into bowl, rest until it cools to 140 F. 6. Add butter in blender. After all the butter is incorporated, continue blending for 3-4 min. 7. When a bit cooler add some disolved gelatin if you want to mold it (Pierre Herme fans will recognize that this is a modification of his lemon recipe). I then lined my dessert forms with transfer paper, cut the paste into disks and lined the bottom. Poured in the curd and chilled overnight. Very simple, pretty quick, really delicious. ← Beautiful dessert and sounds delish! But, and I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this... Ummm, very simple except... How do you make a Mango Curd from Orange Juice?

I've never been to Paris, and I've never seen them quite like that before. What was their texture -- crispy and light like the smaller ones? Were they just meringue, or were they on a base? If so, there are lots of recipes. I have several and I know others here have many as well.

Start at 400F with the beans for 15 minutes. (Don't forget to line the crust with foil before the beans -- I've seen someone bake the beans right into the crust = NOT GOOD) Then, remove the foil and the beans, drop the oven to 375F and bake 10 - 12 minutes more for a partially baked crust and 15 - 17 minutes more for a fully baked crust. Partially bake if you're going to put the filled pie back in the oven. Fully bake if you are going to fill it with something that won't go in the oven (mmm, chocolate cream pie...)

Personally, for the two diners situation, if I am with a female friend, I sit face to face. If with my husband, on the 4 sided table we sit adjacent sides, if one side is a booth, we sit opposite each other. I read a study on this once and there was an overwhelming difference between female preferences and male preferences. In most situations where conversation would take place, the females prefer to face their counterpart and the males prefer to be to the side of their counterpart. Don't recall the details, but it was interesting reading!

Is it perfectly clear and shiny, or is one or both sides slightly rough? ← it is perfecly clear on both sides ,on the package it says "wet media film specially treated on both sides to sccept paint, markers airbrush, without bleeding crawling or chpping" dura-lar the acetate alternative ← I wouldn't use it. It may not be food safe, and the treatment that is preventing the chipping is also preventing the cocoa butter from releasing.

Is it perfectly clear and shiny, or is one or both sides slightly rough?

Off topic... but I went to school in Syracuse also. We only had Price Chopper and their free samples. We were filling up because we didn't have meal plans or money...

Yes, I've used these soft ones in school also. These we did use for making glazes for cakes. Forgot about that. Sometimes school is a blur -- you do everything only once or twice and move on....

I understood this was not "the letter", but when coming to a group, any group, for advice, be clear, be concise, and watch how you come across. I gave my example of how we changed the curriculum at my school and a word of advice on the side. It may not have been what you were looking for, but your appearance (how you present yourself) is everything.

The same was true at my -- albeit unknown -- school where I did only pastry and baking. In my class, we (easily) convinced our instructor that we should work in the Cafe. Our project was to indiviually define a restaurant food style (say, pick an Italian restaurant setting) and design a desser menu. There were parameter -- one fruit, one chocolate, one custard style, and I forget the rest. Desserts had to be complete -- differing textures, play on flavors, you know the drill. Then we each presented our 5 desserts to a team of chefs (savory and pastry), and they voted on those that would be served in the Cafe. We then ran Cafe service for the weekend. Had to work with FOH staff, prep, plate, etc. In my (limited) perspective it's tough on restaurant work. Around here, much of it is brought in and simply plated. I can think of only 2 restaurant groups in my area that have a pastry chef, and the one chef for the group provides desserts for all restaurants in the group. On an aside, when preparing the letter, PLEASE check spelling and proper word usage. It does make a difference. For instance, if I review a resume presented to me for hire and I find spelling or word usage errors (your when it should be you're) it goes in the garbage heap.

Also in the above mentioned website and here as wellCLICK, it lists the drug effects of licorice root. Due to personal health reasons, I know that I should not eat anything made from real licorice roots. Can only have those that are flavored "like" licorice. If you go the root way, read up on the warnings.

Patrick, what I know to be Pate a Glacer is "dipping chocolate" or "coating chocolate", not a glaze in itself. It's hard like chocolate. You would use it -- and we used it in school -- for decorations and trims and the like when we didn't want to temper chocolate or the chocolate would be in conditions that were warmer. Think chocolate with the cocoa butter substituted by tropical oils that are solid at room temperature. Use like chocolate, only doesn't have the same mouthfeel and creaminess of chocolate.

Panda licorice chews may work also then. Those beat the Crows (gummy thimble ones you're thinking of), and these use real licorice. Black too. Eeeww on the actual cough drop thought though. I think many of them have menthol in them.

And, since I've seen this come up in another thread, since it will work like a pastry cloth (which I'm more acquainted with), rub the flour into the cloth well -- get it so that it's between the fibers. And don't wash it unless absolutely necessary, like seasoning a pan.