SweetSide

Stop telling my secrets.....! First item done -- easiest one to come up with. And, ya know, modelling chocolate is made out of chocolate and corn syrup.... Bwah haa haa -- I got in your head before you did!

Bwah haha!! The river of ideas will freaking sweep you under the current!! By the way, don't miss the one I gave you just above your last post ← Saw that one, and I am seriously considering going to buy one of those pans -- my husband is going to KILL me if I buy another pan. Set me afloat in that riger of idas in them and free up like 2 rooms of the house.

Corn is out of season, unfortunately. But, I'm going to give it a go, mostly for the sake of giving it a go, with IQF corn. I know it is not going to have the same flavor as fresh, and if it were not for the challenge, I would only make it at peak season. Oooh, now more ideas are popping into my head, and I'm going to have to rethink my path. Oh heck, perhaps I should cook my way into oblivion with every corn idea I (or anyone here) can think of and put it together at the end !

I think I'm on a roll here and much thanks to Jackal10 for saying corn liquor... I've got my five kernels: syrup meal flour creamed fresh and liquor also add in starch, whole fresh, and cob extraction. Jack Daniels caramel sauce is goooood, and I'm not a Jack Daniels drinker. Now I just have to come up with a plating arrangement for these five desserts, and get them all made. The biggest thing I've learned is that there is so much that you can do with corn! Stretching my envelope here... I'm not a plated dessert person, so now I need to get these five desserts on a plate. Too many? I need to represent the five kernels, so I can't eliminate them, but I feel like if I combine one or two, then I'm losing my theme here. Yes? No? Anyone got any food for thought....

This is the part that I'm thinking....

I'm not sure it will be 5 desserts, but I want 5 corn components which reflect the 5 themes. The theme part is having a hard time forming at the moment. Autumnal beauty -- good Indian brothers -- easy Love of family -- have an idea But, how to differentiate love of each other from love of family? And what about freedom? Stretching here at the moment. PS -- love you signature line....

In true eG form, you guys have been most helpful in sparking my imagination. So far, I am leaning toward 5 corn components -- may not be five individual desserts, but 5 different corn forms, each representing the kernels. Self imposed is that I also want it to invoke in your mind the feeling of New England and fall. Having lived here for more than half my life, the autumn is why I stay. I'm really digging the corn ice cream and the corn soup (thanks milady). Indian pudding can't be forgotten either. Coming to mind also is cranberries and pears and pumpkin. Everyone thinks popcorn when they think Native Americans, but a little trivia is that the Pilgrims did not yet have popcorn. I'm leaning away from that unless I can think of something out of the ordinary to do with it. Definitely cranberries for some color somewhere... K8, is your candy clay recipe out there somewhere.....

Just driving home, I was thinking of the corn ice cream. Never had it, but I've had other "different" flavors, so corn certainly didn't fall out of the realm. And, yes, the last time I checked, I am a female...

Yes, please! I've not come up with any definitive things that I'll be doing yet, but that sounds like a good complement to many.

Accepted with vigor -- this has excellent room for interpretation well beyond using the actual corn in the dessert, and as you said, so very appropriate for Thanksgiving! K8, I don't believe you know this about me, the the story of the Pilgrims is as pertinent to me as Southern Tea was for you. I am also into genealogy, and on my mother's side I am descended from Francis Cooke of the Mayflower. So, if your corn story is true my family sat at that table all those years ago sharing that corn. There is no way I can do the five kernels of corn as anything but how they are represented in the story: Autumn beauty Love for each other Family's love Indian brothers Freedom Let your thoughts roll!

A quick google search led me here - http://www.baking911.com/decorating/cakes_...am.htm#meringue ← Ah, but it doesn't say WHY the Italian is more stable. I guess that's my question, and it likely goes back to why is an Italian meringue (the base) more stable than a Swiss meringue (again, just the base, w/o the butter). Is it temperature or is it the timing of adding the sugar (later rather than sooner)? Or is it the cooked structure of the sugar itself?

Well done K8! I absolutely love the caviar, and you are so going to have to give me instructions on how you did that! I don't think any other form of tea would have been as good in my mind. You couldn't have fit more Southern hospitality on a plate if you tried.

No, you had it right the first time -- Swiss is much softer than Italian, in my experience. Many bakers prefer the Swiss method because it heats the egg whites more thoroughly than the Italian method. ← Hmm, I can't say I really noticed the texture difference. Maybe that difference is lost because of the temp I cook it to. Most older recipes only say 120F, but I always go to 160F -- back to that salmonella thing. When would you notice the difference in "set". When it's warm out? Or at a normal room temp? Or in the fridge? Calling all food scientists -- or just those in the know....

Patrick, I want to lick the screen!! Your photo montage is gorgeous. I love financier, and I have Sherry's recipe for the gingerbread one. On my list for the holidays to try....

This I learned is school -- true almond flour is the crush of what is left after the almond oil extraction. Almond meal is just the pulverized whole almond. I've never seen true almond flour in a grocery store. Bob's Red Mill is labeled as Almond Meal/Flour.

I think this is more along the lines of what you are looking for: Gourmet Sleuth I've used it quite a lot and compared to my own volume weight conversions (where I actually fill a cup with sugar then weigh it, etc.) -- very accurate.

JeanneCake, your ratios are 1.38 : 1 for sugar to whites and 2.36 : 1 for butter to sugar. You have much less sugar than the 2:1 ratio, so it is no wonder yours is less sweet. I'm all about the ratios, so I can make any size batch on the fly. And in your example above, if you use 12 oz whites, 24 oz sugar, you can use up to 72 oz butter because the butter can be up to 3 times the sugar (you used whites). I always relate everything to the whites in my head for some reason. Question of my own -- why the different ratio of butter in Swiss versus Italian. I cook my Swiss to 160F for salmonella reasons, and don't use Italian because of theories that it really doesn't cook to a high enough temperature for long enough to kill salmonella. That aside, I have taken Italian recipes and made them using a Swiss method and haven't really noticed that they weren't good. Granted, no side by side comparison was done...

This we do, when the cake is of a manageable size to sample, and yes, the money does come back for sure. Thanks!

I'll have to look this one up for sure -- I remember coming across something like this a while ago, but I was not in the "cake crumb business" then. Thanks!

Thanks JeanneCake -- I have Bo's book and will look that up! Cheesecake crusts I do already (didn't mention that one). Portable trifles also sound good. Thanks GlorifiedRice, that also sounds good, but read on in the next paragraph... For others with ideas, I should add that this is a bakery setting, where I need to be able to put the items in either a cold or dry case. So things like the deep fried fruit with ice cream won't work for my particular situation.

I'm here to show my ignorance... But, I'm new at this professional stuff, and here is where I go to learn, and learn I need to do! I'm looking for saleable ways of using cake scraps for my bakery. Now, I've heard of cake balls, but have never made one and would love to have some recipes for them. I currently dry some scraps for crumbs for trim and garnish, but other than that, I'm throwing money in the trash. Thoughts, ideas, recipes -- for cake balls or any other things you do. Thanks eG'ers!

I use the same (Bob's Red Mill) at home, but used much finer at school, and I can tell the difference in the product. So now, I buy the Bob's but still grind it with my sugar to make it finer.

I'm interested in the replies of other, but if the ingredient is not self-leveling (liquid), I use the dry measure cup, pack it on in and scrape the top. So, since the pumpkin will not level on its own, I vote for dry measure....

Regular Wilton pastes -- no. But, Wilton does have oil based colors for candy making. Ususally found in the same aisle as the regular colors.

I have a disdain for silicone pans for general things. I've used only a few and was never happy with them. The best results I've had was for molding demispheres of mousse or baby savarin rings of sorbet. And those were in Demarle pans that didn't "smell funny". I do love my Silpat though.... Dinstuhl cashew crunch story or no...