gfron1

re: just those sugar free chocolates with sorbitol My limited understanding of sorbitol is that it being an alcohol is not really better for most types of diabetes (if that is the issue). This is from the NIH website: Based on the feedback from our diabetic customers, we've stopped carrying sugar free chocolate, and they buy high percentage chocolate and enjoy in moderation.

Thanks Shelby. I must be rested because I set a date for another multi-course meal. I won't post about it in this topic since its not directly related to this event, but it seems as if I've created a monster (kind of liked the canned monster from the Bugs Bunny cartoon). 10/25.

HERE are some more pics of the creations. I love the entrement design of the American team. I look forward to seeing some recipes. I'm having fun dropping the comments at that link into a language translator. My favorite is: "therefore in fact this is the France that won, no?"

Yes, Jackal's course has made me a bread hero in my town! HERE Kerry's explanation of tempering (all hundred and seventy five times she's done it). How to cut cake HERE. Not to overmix my batters - life changing really.

Thanks. Normally I would use chapati flour, but its getting harder for me to buy. This is: 1 1/3 C. Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 1 C. AP Flour 3/4 t. Salt 2 T. Melted Ghee 2/3 C. Warm Water Combine dry, finger in the ghee then add the water and knead 10 min. Cover and rest for 1 hour. I melt extra ghee in a med hot skillet. Roll out my ping pong ball sized dough ball as thin as I can possibly get it. Mine are almost, right on the edge of, see thru. I set them in the hot skillet, take a soup spoon, pour a little extra ghee on the chapati, then move the bottom of my spoon in circles on the top of the chapati - just letting the weight of the spoon do the work - I don't put any pressure on it. Within seconds the chapati will start to blister and I keep making circles. When I see that its started to brown on the edges I flip and do the same on the other side. It only cooks about 45 seconds at most. I don't know what the key is, but I was taught that it was the spoon circles that make the difference. Hope it works!

The marbling idea started with the mirror glaze topic. I did a 2:1 white chocolate ganache using a Callebaut white. Once I made the ganache, I added a generous T. of corn syrup. Then I added 2 sheets of silver leaf gelatin. That was my base and it started to thicken quickly so I poured 2/3 of the glaze on the cake - you'll see that I dammed it with buttercream. Then I added just a few drops of red coloring to the remaining glaze, gave it a few swirls with my offset to create swirl not blend, and poured erratically over the original glaze. The fluidity of the glaze did the rest of the work. I really wanted to do a Tiffany Blue, but in my gut, I felt it should be red - maybe the birthday girl knows why.

...ummm...where's France?

Leftovers from an Indian cooking class that I taught yesterday...Aloo Gobi Paneer (homemade paneer) with fresh chapati.

This weekend I made a birthday cake for a 95th birthday. Its the first paid cake I've every done (I have actually accepted money once before, but I don't feel my decorating skills are good enough for me to call myself a professional cake decorator and so I just give them away). Since it was a 95th I didn't want to leave it to Wal-Mart to make a nasty cake for her. You can see that my piping skills need work, but they're actually much improved. I was going for art deco (to match her age), and my scrollwork ended up morphing into a bird on a branch in that style. A couple of interesting things (at least to me) about this cake. This is a half sheet using Julia Child's perfect genois recipe. I avoid cakes of this size because they always crash on me at my elevations (6K ft) but this one turned out perfectly. I filled it with sour cherry jam. Also, I was playing with white mirror glazes and ended up doing this marbled effect using white chocolate ganache, a bit of corn syrup and a few sheets of silver gelatin. Worked very well. Alberta was very happy

This trip is getting nearer. Any updates?

When I see agave to sugar conversions its more about the sweetness than baking function. I would convert to honey if the recipe taste allows, or I'd make a simple syrup to equal the liquid amount of the agave.

Can't wait for the book, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the website. I haven't been back to see if it was expanded since its original launch a few months back.

I'm definitely open to keep these going as long as there's interest. And like all events planned through eG, everyone is invited, so we would love to have you.

You wish there were a class...then offer one! I started offering chocolate Tasting workshops a few years ago, and I now have a flavor library of some 50-75 bars. You could do the same with couvertures, etc, and it will cultivate your customer base at the same time. I have yet to find someone from my workshops that still buys Hershey Single Origin or Lindt. They all go for the Cluizel, Patric, etc.. There are numerous "how to hold a chocolate tasting" guidelines on the web. Throw on your chef whites and you are automatically the expert. BTW, I charge $35 for mine and they last 90 minutes.

Having just asked a similar question HERE, I would suggest beets! You could do it less deeply than I did which would temper the beet flavor some, but it would be a nice flavor to go with hummus. My thought is that grey and purple will be very close to black.

While I'm by no means the standard by which you should set your compass, I am completely self-taught, and much of it here in eG. I now run my own restaurant and and push out the sandwiches, but I can also put out the 12-course tasting menus (see the topic on this past weekend's Silver City event). I believe that you can do it all without a degree or certificate, BUT, schooling, even by inexperienced instructors can't help but be useful. And the degree/certificate will never close a door to you, but in many cases will be the ticket in. Stick it out. Learn from outside sources. Bring those sources to your classes to supplement (I don't think challenge in the appropriate tone) the info. What you put in is what you'll get out. Good luck

That's right. The cocoa butter was purely functional. The original concept was to place a 10" glass straw into the glass vase and extract the liquids. In my trial run the straw chipped inside the vase, so I added cocoa butter to the bottom to create a bumper. But, after we added the bumper the safety risk was still too chancy, so we left the straw out.

Kerry Beal gave me the recipe, so with her permission I'll share it. I'll ask...

Chris and Andrea can answer better since they tasted it, but I wanted sour apple with a hint of chile and subtle bite of wasabi. I heard from my spouse that he didn't taste the chile, just felt it on his lips...that's fine with me too. Yeah, those were a blast! Our outdoing of each other did wear us down however

Here's my pate de fruit margarita mis en place: Minutes before I ran out the door from my cafe kitchen to the site (10 miles away), here are my stuffs - everything got numbered by course and labeled so I would have no confusion during service, especially with all of the tubs of juices and clarified juices...they started looking the same. You can also see at the top of the poster paper that I only had one course that I was still drawing out (earlier drafts had everything drawn) - that was the Tuna Tempura. That course really stumped me as to how to get the flame from the kitchen to the table. I ultimately trusted the knowledge of the group with my star servers - John, Mike and Cathy, and my sous, Alysha (all were rock stars that night!). They decided to light the flame at the table and have all servers work one table together for that specific course. And finally, did I mention that I had a cater for 240 wild strawberry macarons for the same night. Only about 60% were this pretty. The rest weren't...had to give a discount.

It turns out I do have a few pics. Here is my prep on the green chile nori. First I juiced one pound of roasted, skinned chiles: Added one egg white and a T of corn syrup (for flexibility), spread on my silpat as evenly as I could without leaving holes: And the final result: Very flexible, and mostly stable green chile nori. I thought it was beautiful.

And now you can see why I really wanted to consult with you - many techniques and flavor combinations that are right down your alley. Unfortunately, I just couldn't make the time to send you enough info to get the help.

HERE'S the final result. Tuna Tempura was the course and I ended up using chuchupate. After way too much tasting of bitters and bitter herbs, I re-routed the dish and headed for indigenous. Chuchupate was a nice herb, especially infused into honey. It's also called Osha. www.herbs2000.com describes it like this:

HERE it is.

The ginger was my breakfast today and the pistachio balls were my lunch on the trail - very addictive!