SweetSide

I think you are on to something there with the cream puffs. The pastry cream filling, with its abundance of milk/cream, is the perfect base for infusing flavors. Then if you whip it together with some -- balance here mind you -- lemon cream you get the lemon tea base. I'm also liking the idea of a gelatin something with the tea and lemon. You say candied lemon may be obvious, but aren't the only components of Southern Sweet Tea, from chiantiglace's and your descriptions above, tea and sweet and lemon? And of course, comfort. To cut that sweetness, you'll want a foil that is tangy or tart like lemon or cream cheese. From a flavor pairing chart I have, here is a listing for Black Tea: almond, anise, apples, Armagnac, brandy (hmm, Southern Comfort...), brown sugar, caramel, cardamom, chestnut, cinnamon, cream, dark chcolate, dates, dried figs, ginger, hazelnuts, honey, lemon, maple syrup, mint, nut liqueurs, nutmeg, oats, oranges, pears, PECANS, prunes, raisins, sweet wine, vanilla, walnuts, whiskey Southern Comfort and pecans -- a foil to your sweet creamy tea?

For those of us born and bred Yankees -- can you please define Southern Sweet Tea... I, in my ignorance of many things Southern, thought it was just iced tea with lots of sugar in it... Just trying to grasp how using Southern Sweet Tea in a dessert will be different than just using tea in the dessert, which as a tea lover, I think is a most excellent idea. Bring it on K8!

I too made the Maple-Cornmeal Biscuits mainly because there is no counter room when my husband cooks for me to roll out a biscuit. Delicious -- light and delicate, and very reminiscent of cornbread. Nice strong flavor. And, I only use Grade B syrup in cooking, so the maple came through just strong enough without being overpowering.

what's wrong with cutting square biscuits? this way, you don't have to re-roll your dough and you get appreciably less scrap. most kitchens have a knife or pizza wheel, right? i'm sure purists everywhere are cringing... ← Hey, The Baker's Catalogue (KA Flour) sells square biscuit cutters for those who have too much money to spend to cut their own squares by hand (which I think would be faster anyway). Or triangles -- after all, what is a scone but a sweet biscuit in disguise....

As above, and what andiesenji wrote, I do this as well, but with a different technique for round pans. Can't remember where I learned it, but... With a round pan, as it sits on the counter., I spin each one in place with a flick of the wrist, much like throwing a frisbee. Centrifugal force spins the batter to the outside of the pan. Obviously it doesn't work with a square pan. For those I use the "smoosh" method with whatever tool is handy -- spatula, bench knife, fingers.

Why don't they set in convection in a water bath? I baked once in a convection with water, and they did not set. I figured I screwed something up somewhere along the line. But if what you say is true, I now know the problem with that batch.

My only thought was to shave the chocolate (if you have a block) using a microplane to get a superfine shave. Then sprinkle it on the bottom of the (par?) baked shell and pop it in the oven for just a few minutes. The superfine shavings will (should) melt faster leaving a thin chocolate layer. But, I've never tried this. As for the actual painting, after picking up too many crumbs, I drizzled the bottom then sort of gingerly spread the drizzles around. IMO, the coating I ended up with was too thick.

I'd like to hear about the painting of the graham cracker crust by you or any others who have done it. I've done it once and found that the "paint" did not spread easily over the crumbs. I had a lot of "pick up". So, if there is an easy way to do it that I don't know about, please post. The chocolate pumpkin tart sounds delicious!

Very creative. And not on your life would you get me to eat any part of that! I wonder what the "bones" are...

On another board, Rebecca Sutterby said she spent 400 hours on her cake!!! Stunning -- the cake and the number of hours....

^ No, Miriam, and I thought of that afterward. I was wondering if it would affect the chemical balance of the recipe, but if not, I should make that a habit when I'm using little to no sugar with the whites. I haven't played with this recipe again -- got sidetracked as it always seems -- but did have success with all the mentioned tricks and tips with another recipe. And, for chefpeon, started using my hand to fold no matter the size of the batch, and it goes way quicker and more efficiently. Thanks everyone!

Gives new meaning to the phrase "mon petite choux"...

I grease pans that need it with a thin coat of butter or shortening (I rub it on with a paper towel). Then I dust with flour for yellow/white cakes or cocoa powder for chocolate cakes, and I make sure I bang the flour out of the pan so it is a thin coating. From the picture it looks like yours was just too thick. Mine is almost transparent. Also, I've seen those pans in the store (haven't used them) and they are non-stick. While you may still need to grease it, using a spray won't work -- the spray beads up giving you areas where the flour will stick and bare areas -- thus the freckled look. I gave up on sprays.

Sometimes a divorce is much better than living in a toxic environment. If going to work doesn't make you happy inside (despite underlying aggravations, frustrations, f-ups, politics, etc.) really happy inside, then it's time to go to a different work environment. Only you can decide when the right moment is -- after fits and starts and contemplation and vacillating between yes and no -- but if you've reached that right point, go, don't look back, and find your new gig. Best of Luck!

Umm, yeah, I went to that anal retentive class too -- that's exactly what I do...

Again thanks -- this was a bigger batch, and I didn't have as shallow a pan (we're short, 'nuther story) as a usually use. So I think the consensus is that I have "fat globules". Thanks everyone for the help -- as usual. And as much as I use a pastry cream made with milk and butter for my own use, I don't have a lot of say about the one we use at work. I will enthusiastically suggest a change, but.... Tan319 -- any chance you can post or pm me that Roux brothers recipe?

Another resource is Toba Garrett's new book Professional Cake Decorating. Can be found at ecookbooks.com for $39. New release, and it covers many aspects of cake decorating -- including so much stuff beyond what you would get from a Wilton course. Another cake decorator's website, not as big as Cake Central, is SugarBuzz. Very friendly and welcoming, and I have learned soooooo much there about decorating. Not that there aren't superbly talented decorators here at eGullet -- thanks to BKeith, I can ice a square better than a round!

The above is true for me as well, although sometimes I have been out of milk and used ALL cream and it still came out fine, albeit a little thick. Here's one thing I found out....... when cream is really really close to being "off", it will go grainy on you. The few times I have given my cream a whiff and decided it was ok today, but might be bad by tomorrow and used it, I have gotten grainy ganache, broken sauces and grainy pastry cream. So now, if it's not off, but close, I don't use it. I learned my lesson there. ← I am a fanatic date checker on cartons -- been burned too many times at the grocery store -- and I did check the date on the cream that I used. Now, I know you can't live and die by that date, but the date was 10/11, and as you know, cream usually has a long date. So this was close, and I don't know how temperature abused this particular carton of cream was to speed things along. And as for the thick part -- yes, this is intentionally thick pastry cream. Thicker than I personally care for, but it works well for our cake fillings. This may be it, but I'm still interested in hearing other ideas if there are any.

Looking for some problem solving here.... I made pastry cream yesterday using the same recipe I've been using for a while: Bring to a boil: 2Q cream 2Q half and half 14 oz sugar Temper into: 40 egg yolks 8 whole eggs 14 oz sugar 6 oz sifted cornstarch Strain tempered mixture back into pot and return to heat. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Pour into shallow pan. Cover with plastic wrap on surface. Refrigerate. It was fine when poured into the shallow pan. Today, it is grainy on the tongue and when you initially rub it between your fingers in its cold state (its been in the fridge, 38F). Feels like sand. But, as you rub it, the grainy-ness goes away. If I smeared some on the inside of a steel bowl, flipped the bowl over, ran it under hot water, grainy-ness went away. Left some sitting on a spatula until room temp, and again, no longer grainy on the tongue. I'm thinking the grains are some kind of frost or sugar crystals, but I really haven't a clue. If my eggs were curdled, then the warmth wouldn't make the texture change, would it? Any idea what went wrong or what's going on? Thanks! (in advance -- you guys always steer me in the right direction....)

Today I made the Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters -- very good. I like cookies with a lot of flavor, and these have it. I also want to try subbing out the chocolate chips and putting in salty peanuts as a peanut butter cookie. Mmmm. I must say, my daughter is enjoying picking out treats for herself....

Depends on your pans. Some pans that are 9" are 9" at the top and have slanted sides, making the bottom smaller. Professional pans generally have straight sides. For my 8" pans, I have liners that are 7 7/8" that fit just perfectly. Another thought, are you sure you didn't buy 8 7/8" circles -- someone at work bought all the wrong sizes because they were looking only at the whole number. Until we run out, we now have to trim all our circles....

Now see, I'm with the others that scoop and level is the same as dip and sweep. What you describe I would call spoon in and level as it is called that in several of my cookbooks. Ninth circle of hell, here we come. Let's all just go get scales!!!!!

If you add them too quickly, the egg doesn't get absorbed/worked into the rest of the batter properly. Then your batter/dough breaks and ends up looking curdled or chunky. Sometimes it will come together, sometimes not. And if it does come together, it can be at the risk of ruining the recipe due to over mixing.

Made the World Peace Cookies yesterday... No pictures as they are gone already. We may not have world peace, but we have household peace. Great cookie!

Cook from frozen. The will obviously take a little longer, but no other adjustments.