gfron1

KrazedMom, I know the info you're looking for is somewhere in the topic. It seems to me it was discussed last fall. If one of the confections people don't jump in with an answer, start reading backwards (and note to self, get going on the Marshmallow index in your free time)

I did a search to see if there was the info you're asking about already in the forums and unfortunately its spread everywhere. So, here are some topics that you can read that have the info. My only subtantative comment is that every task has a different chocolate for me. Each percentage and flavor profile get different uses. Ultimately its a matter of taste and exploration - the funnest job you'll ever have HERE'S the 'favorite couverture' topic HERE'S an older one on specifically Callebaut couverture HERE'S the topic on tempering chocolate HERE'S the Chocolates with a Showroom Finish topic which has all sorts of comments about brands HERE'S a topic on where to buy your bulk chocolate HERE'S a topic from another beginner HERE'S a topic specifically about working with Callebaut

It's been my best selling dessert this week, over tiramisu, lemon macarons, CCCs & brownies. I always do my part for the waistlines of Silver City.

I liked my springform, but in StL we always use a pyrex 9x9.

HERE'S and lengthy topic on the bullet, but I haven't seen that oven yet. I just looked it up and I wouldn't buy it unless I was in a dorm room or in a small Japanese apartment. But that's just me and I'm cheap and into big!

And... Larry, you're as bad as me! How does it all taste - inquiring minds do want to know.

I've become aware lately that acidic teas make me neasueas in the morning, as does really bad coffee (Folgers). And clearly I haven't had anything to drink yet this morning, my first read of your comment was that she drank possum! So what is postum anyway? BTW, I just spent a week with my mom and brother and neither drinks anything in the morning, unless someone else is. Instead, my mom works crossword puzzles with a glass of OJ. My brother has a glass of water with his blood pressure meds. And while I was with them, I had a water with my danish, followed by a juice if we had it.

But as of tonight, the word is either jalepeno or cilantro. Time will tell and the food PIs keep working the clues.

I made a St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake - OMG - delicious, decadent, and good for my cardiologist! I wrote a step-by-step in the Heartland Cooking & Baking forum HERE since its a local specialty.

Over in THIS POST about mid-way down, you'll see a gooey butter cake that I bought on my recent trip to St. Louis. As far as I can tell, these are exclusive to St. Louis, and growing up I only had them for breakfast, although they are better suited for dessert. Asking my mom for a recipe, I was provided this classic from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 1972. Make the Dough Mix 1/4 C. Sugar with 1/4 C. Shortening and 1/4 t. Salt. Add 1 egg and mix in a mixer for 1 minute or until combined. Dissolve 1 pkt of yeast with 1/2 C. warm milk. Add 2 1/2 C. Flour to dough mixture, then add the milk/yeast and 1 T. Vanilla. Mix 3 minutes with a dough hook and you'll have this: Let it sit covered for 1 hour. Make the Filling Combine 2 1/2 C. Sugar, 1 C. Softened Butter and a pinch of salt. Add 1 egg and 1/4 C. Light Corn Syrup. Mix thoroughly and stop when incorporated. Divide the dough in two pieces. Roll out or press each into 9x9 well-buttered pan, taking the dough half way up the sides. Fill each with half of the gooey butter. No need to make it pretty, it won't last, but I did anyway. Bake in a pre-heated 375F oven for 30 minutes. Here's mine at 15 minutes. Obviously I'll need to make an altitude adjustment on my next batch. And here's the final after it set and cooled. Enjoy!

I was asked today if Calcium powder (used in a sugar-free jam recipe) is the same as Calcium Chloride. My first reaction was not, but then I started thinking about the gelling properties. Anyone know?

From The Pastry Chef's Companion:

Sounds like an interesting book. And as for the backstory...that'll have to wait for another essay

Run, don't walk, to the brand spanking new Friar Tucks in Crestwood (9053 Watson). They boast 4000 wines, 600 beers and every spirit imagineable! Here are a few I bought for tonight:

Pille - your experience was similar to mine. Niche is certainly one of the better restaurants in St. Louis, and one that I would highly recommend. Like some of my previous comments about StL dining, however, its charging big boy prices without backing it up with a big boy experience. And you are absolutely correct that with an on-site pastry chef, I certainly would have offered a bread service. We passed on the cheese options which were minimal at best (Stilton, Maytag, St. Andre). Enough of the negative, here's the positive: We had the Chef's Tasting Menu with Wine Pairings. That started with a glass of Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco followed by "Parsnip consomme, bacon, grapefruit, brown butter foam." This was the weakest of the courses. The bacon and grapefruit were sodium alginate caviar and were over cooked (over chemically processed?). But it was a nice flavor combination albeit a bit non-distinctive. Next was a glass of Josef Ehmoser Gruner Veltiner, 2006 and "Fried brandade, arugula, egg and ramps." Salt cod and potatoes formed into a cake and fried, an over easy egg with sauted vegetables. This dish received mixed reviews. I enjoyed it, the other two did not so much. One said it was too fishy, the other too potatoey. I like it just fine. I would however, have fixed the presentation by poaching the egg or at least cooking the egg in a way that it did connect with the other eggs, leaving torn edges. For the price - make my egg pretty, please. The pours were full glass which (I hang my head in shame as I type this) were too much. I would rather they had dropped the pours to 1/2 glass (along with the price). It was difficult to keep up with the amount of liquor being thrown in front of me. But ploughing ahead (as I was getting ploughed) we had M. Chapoutier Cotes du Rhone, 2006 with "Reuben - rye gnocchi, pickled mustard seeds & horseradish." This was the one dish that I wanted to emulate. The rye gnocchi had an outstanding taste, the mustard seeds were great texture, and the meat - corned pig tongue - while an odd choice for a rueben - was superb. This really tasted exactly like a rueben and was very playful. Again, mixed reviews from the table as some thought it was too strong, and the gnocchi to mushy. I disagree - gnocci is what it is and chef did a good job on these, and yes, ruebens are strong flavored. An off-menu palate cleanser was then brought to us (good choice and the only one we received) which was a carrot lime sorbet. I can't wait to get home to throw lime in my carrot cake frosting - this was a very, very good taste. Another full pour of Torii Mor Pinot Noir, 2006 served with "Lamb, rhubarb, hummus & white chocolate." This was, in my opinion, the only innovative course. I had not seen white chocolate used in hummus before and it really worked well. We argued for quite some time about whether a dark or milk chocolate might have been better, but I don't think so. White chocolate has a roundness, and yet a flavor snap that brown/real chocolate just don't have. The lamb chops were prepared properly and the rhubarb sauce added a nice twang. I believe the foam was a fresh garlic foam, but I can't remember. Finally was the dessert - the course that I cared most about. Noble One Botrytis Semillon, 2005 (a wine I had never had before) with "Coconut kulfi, passion fruit glazed pineapple, granola." First, I find kulfis to be lazy/convenient desserts. I made one recently in my ice cream class because I knew I wouldn't have time to make enough ice creams for the participants, but the tradeoff to convenience is texture. Kulfis are hard. In my restaurant universe, I would have zapped the kulfi in the microwave for 10 seconds on power 1 and softened it just a bit. Other than that, it was a wonderful dessert. Kulfi creaminess with an intense coconut flavor, paired well with the slight acidity and zing from the pineapple. The tasting menu cost $65 and the wine $35. This was the least expensive of the tasting menus that I have done, but as far as quality and innovation, it was proportionate. That said, it was a very good meal and one I would do again.

Today we started off at Soulard Farmer's Market. Its interesting that I lived the first 18 years of life in StL and had never been to the farmer's market. Being a Wednesday, half of the booths were closed, but it was still fun to see the old building. One odd/interesting site was a meat shop. Notice the great meat selection, then look at the sign in the bottom right of the window Next we drove around in anticipation of lunch. We decided to push Mango to tomorrow. Instead we opted for some rooftop dining at Vin de Set. I had a Mojito and French Mediterranean Salad (Confit, goat cheese, curry dressing). All of our lunches were good, but could all use a bit more freshness. My mango was straight out of a jar and flavorless. But, look at the mound of confit! It was very good. We turned down a dessert tray in anticipation of an afternoon of sweets. Our first sweet stop was at The Chocolate Bar which was closed. Its more a night spot, so we probably won't have a chance to get back. But, next door is a coffee shop that is known for having 64 varieties of St. Louis' signature sweet - Gooey Butter Cake. Today they had a half dozen varieties. We had a traditional, a blueberry, white chocolate raspberry and a few others that just got lost in the over-indulgefest. Our dinner tonight is at Niche and their pastry chef also runs a little pastry shop next door - Veruca. We stopped by and bought their candy bar and a red velvet cake. A good food day so far...Niche in just a bit!

Last night we went to Aya Sofia and today we're going to Mango for lunch and Niche for dinner. I was pretty disappointed in Aya Sofia. Having heard all of the positive feedback about AS and seeing their wall of reviews when you walk in the entrance, I expected it to be an outstanding meal. Having the meal that I had be in so much contrast to the reviews may be the reason that no one is offering suggestions for dining in StL. Local expectations are formed by experiences and if the experiences are just average, then anyone above average gets the highest rating. Just a theory I'm working on. Here are the reviews from their website: So, I did enjoy my dinner, don't get me wrong, but this was Turkish food - its a cheap meal! For drinks we had Domaine de la Janesse (Grenache, Syrah), Cotes du Rhone 2003 and an Argentinian Chardonnay. Neither was exceptional, but both were adequate. We opted away from the entrees and filled up on their extensive "small plate" and mezze options. 1. Two orders of beet and goat cheese. This was our favorite dish of the night. The beets were fine but the goat cheese really was exceptional. ($7) 2. Next was Aya Sofia Meze Plate [humus (pureed chickpeas), sigara boregi (fried feta cheese), sarma (stuffed grape leaves), and tabuli (parsley salad)] ($19) 3. Anatolian Meze Plate [feta and goat cheeses with Mediterranean olives, sliced tomatoes, and cucumbers] $9 4. Bohca [seasoned ground beef, onions, and pine nuts baked in a flaky filo crust] ($6) This was very good We had a couple of other things but nothing that I remember. It was all fine. the dolmas were really good. We also like the humus - good flavor and texture. My gripe is price to quality did not match. You have a sense of what we paid, and if you dropped each item's price by about 1/3 then you're more aligned with reality. For dessert we had the special which was a Mocha Mousse. This was an embarrassment. I have no doubt that it was a powdered custard mix with instant coffee added topped with canned whipped cream. Finally, we had the wrong server. A young Bulgarian woman was all work and showed no personality. Contrary to this negative review, we were in a great mood - it was a family reunion of sorts, and our sense was that she just wanted us out. The other server seemed to be having a much better time with her tables. Okay - with this nasty write-up you would think that I didn't enjoy my meal. I did. But, for what we paid, and for all the write-ups, its just an average Turkish restaurant. Please do go, but go with lower expectations.

And Charles, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that great little pastry shop next door to Queen M? Small selection but good quality on what they had.

Welcome Kreed! Glad to have you on board. Nice looking stich! I made this for a friend's birthday. The base is one of the recipes from the flourless almond cake topic, topped in lemon bavarois, topped with lemon cream and fresh blueberries. Patrick A made the lady fingers for me.

I'll trade you the answer for your mixer! (Mine has been dead for 2 weeks and counting) Simply rolled them like a cinnamon roll, plopped them in muffin tins and let them proof. Thanks

Thanks for that info Stephanie.

There are quite a few topics on goat: The main one Mine about local foods goat The classic on goat head Goat offal That said, I've gone through two goats now and found that they are often high in fat and low in meat. Go for the roasts to get the most bang for the buck. I just did RIBS the other night and loved them.

I'm not sure what Aiden will do but for me these are great suggestions. And thanks Brad for the specifics - I'll see what the cowboy and cowgirl are willing to do.

Try drying longer (depends greatly on your humidity). The point of the drying is to form a skin which then lifts (or traps in the steam and causes lift). Don't listen to my unscientific explanation however - there are many more knowledgeable voices in the first topic. But take it longer and see what happens. Also, start playing with the type of meringue. I use Syrup & Tang's Italian meringue recipe and have good skins and feet.

Going back to Thai - a basic pantry isn't even needed. For example (from my memory), here's what I bought for the class: $3.75: 3 cans of coconut milk @ $1.25 each $1.25: 1 can of Maesri curry $1.00: Bunch of lemon grass $1.00: Knob of overpriced galangal $1.00: Bunch of cilantro $4.00: Protein (tofu or chicken) $3.50: Rice $2.50: Dried thai peppers (not necessary, I could have used New Mexican chiles) $2.75: Fish sauce Stock & shrooms - were in my pantry already $1.95: Noodles for Pad Thai $1.95: Salad roll wrappers Various veggies - all were leftovers These are estimates from memory and I'm sure I'm missing an item or two but this definitely covered the Tom ka gai, Pad Thai and sticky rice dessert. So while I'm not really disagreeing, I think Thai (moreso than Indian) can be done without much of an existing pantry, and can be very fresh, very tasty and very fast. But it takes education and exposure. HERE'S my blog entry on the class.