gfron1

Which white chocolate are you using?

I had leftover batter that I used again last night. Of course it fell b/c the rising had already happened in storage, but the taste was just as good. The texture...well, if a bowl of good grits made love to a parfait dish of fresh cooked pudding, and honeymooned in a warm hot tub for the evening...that would be the texture. As for the cubes v. shaving. I thought about shaving and grating, both of which I thought would make the mind think of a savory dish. The cubes were less than a 1/4" square, and I thought it played better on the rounded ramekin.

Both. As she said in her interview, she wanted it to be primarily weight, but the publisher mixed it up. In general, the things that could easily be cups were cups, and the others are weight, and sometimes you get both.

I wanted to mention that Ann has joined the Society, and is ready to share her insights/experiences/tips with anyone baking from this book on questions specific to the book.

Okay, I try to keep my deep dark secrets until the official unveiling, but maybe I can facilitate this conversation if I tell you exactly what I'm going for. I'm going to do an overthetop Indian meal (think chicken tandoori cannoli shape filled with basmati mousse). For dessert, one of the three things I want to do - and the very last that I would serve - is a total rip off of something I had at Alinea. It will look like a chicklet in shape and size, but basically be a very thin flavored rice paper filled with powder reformed into the chicklet shape. The idea is that the paper will dissolve leaving this explosion of powdered chocolate mint flavor in your mouth - an after dinner mint. So, malt is definitely not what I'm going for - the texture of the maltball is. It can't be moist. And I'm intrigued by the meringue idea unless it wouldn't be dry enough. Maybe I can spread the meringue thinly so it gets super dry.

A while back I thought I read somewhere that you can make a starter from juniper berries. Now that I'm ready to get going, I've searched and searched but haven't found any reference to this method/recipe. Has anyone heard of this?

I'm not familiar with the phrase 'honeycomb' as its being used (in the US it means overly sweet cereal marketed by a bee), but as I've looked at some sites through google, I think that may be one route to get to what I'm looking for.

Tonight following a huge mound of baby back ribs we had Sweet Corn Brulee, and at the recipes suggestion I topped it with a not too sharp aged Irish cheddar. Amernick says this dessert is "as good as anything I've ever eaten." I think I agree.

FULL DISCLOSURE ALERT I own a high end kitchen store and totally agree with Melkor that these are lifestyle stores. And I think their prices are poor except their sales because they stick with manufacturer recommended pricing. On many items, we're all committed to the same price as per our purchasing agreements. Every major city, most medium sized communities and some small towns (like mine) get to have a mom and pop (or pop and pop) shop that can truly give focused service, knows their products, and can be patient with you as you learn. Plus, as I like to remind our customers, more of their money stays in town being returned to our charitable causes, versus going to who knows where corporate headquarters.

Think McVities no chocolate! only not quite as yummy Actually there are recipes all over the internet for homemade versions if you want it to be more authentic. Edited to add: I don't remember if graham flour is in digestives, but it is key to "graham" crackers... But, again the similarities are there.

Hmmm...this is hard to explain. I don't want the taste at all. In fact, I'm going for chocolate mint for my taste. The texture of a malt ball is very different from say, pixie sticks. Its closer to astronaut ice cream (if that reference has meaning). Its like a freeze dried product in its texture. Now, this won't make it sound appetizing, but think floral foam. I want to be able to finely chop the floral foam/astronaut ice cream into a course powder and reform it into something else. I know this is totally a goofy request, but geez, I can't stop my mind from thinking of stuff like this.

I was also thinking maybe the dry (v. chewy) nougats - which may be in your confectionary 101. Again, ultimately I'm going to powderize the result anyway, so what it becomes is less important than what it will become (you know what I mean )

In From Here You Can't See Paris (which is a super book for foodies BTW), I vaguely recall the chef steaming them or braising them stuffed with smoked trout mousse.

I want to make a candy that has the texture of a malt ball, but will have a different flavor. Ultimately, I am going to chop up what is made to get the powder...any ideas?

It seems to me that the ramekin is not the primary problem. The melted ice cream and browning bananas are the issue. It feels like it all needs a bit of lift. Can you freeze the ice cream in a pastry mold (maybe square) and layer the fruit on top of the ice cream. The other thought that I'm having may not work, but an italian meringue piped into the shape of a container, then filled with the fruit.

Thanks for reporting back...but what!...no pictures of the octupuss in the blanket?

After her comment, it moved way up my 'to make' list! Here it is: Strudel dough with sour cream Filling: golden raisins, dark raisins, currants, cranberries, apricot preserves, walnuts, cinnamon The books says to serve with manchego and champagne grapes (something tells me she just cuts a chunk off and gobbles) And thanks for the comment on the review.

Caramel Nut Cake from The Art of the Dessert You can see other creations from the book here.

Caramel Nut Cake I need to work on my ganache coating, and I burnt my nuts...rough day! But, this is again super. In fact, I'm kind of sick to my stomach right now because I ate so much of the caramel sauce and caramel buttercream - both were absolutely super.

Indian markets often have coconut fat.

Hemingway, Welcome to the forum - with an outstanding post like this we look forward to your wealth of knowledge. Cheers, Rob

Here's my thought on the pictures...I love pictures because they're inspirational, but 1/3 of the book are straightforward recipes like the fried custard and waffles and ice cream. The rest of the book are desserts made up of components that we're all familiar with. So even as I'm creating the desserts, since I'm using familiar components (genoise, buttercream frosting, custards, etc), I'm going to assemble them however I'm most inclined. None of the desserts above had pics and they turned out yummy enough for me to eat. So don't let that stop you when the book comes in - its well worth it.

Not that New Mexicans corner the market on Mexican foods, but many people forget that we're part of the United States So with that ragtag claim to pseudo authority aside, I only microwave tortillas when I'm desparate. Even in stacks, if they aren't eaten relatively quickly they start to get that radiation stiffness that's only appropriate for Catholic communion wafers. My preferred method is to slap those suckers on top of whatever I've been cooking to keep the food hot and warm the tortillas (basically steaming them) while I'm slurping down the margharita. So...use them as a lid...my final answer.

The custard is sitting in a chocolate sauce which was my pre-lunch warm-up today!

Having just reviewed The Art of the Dessert, now we can start posting our creations from this fantastic book. I started with three, and have a couple more coming this weekend. The first thing I made was the Peach Souffle Tartlets with Ginger Peach Ice Cream Its been hot here in the high dessert, so I wanted to start with anything that included ice cream. The ginger peach ice cream was really outstanding. I wish I had riper peaches for a more pronounced flavor, but it was good nonetheless. The tartlets had a splash of Grand Marnier combined with lime and peach - great combination! I also really liked the pastry crust recipe for this one - very delicate. ===== Next, I made the Sour Cream Waffles with Avocado Ice Cream. Again, I was wanting something a bit cooler to counter our heat. I had trouble getting my waffles to rise and crisp which I think was a function of my waffle iron. The taste of the waffles was absolutely wonderful and became our breakfast the next morning. The ice cream was as creamy as you would expect and tasted nothing like guacamole (thank goodness!). ===== The last dessert was terribly mis-seasoned: Fried Mocha Custard Squares. I wanted to try things from the book that I normally would not have made, so I asked my spouse to pick a few. He made a long list, but neglected to tell me that some were for making in the fall...this was one of them. An espresso laced, cornstarch-based custard chilled, cut into squares, rolled in croissant crumbs and butter fried. I think that says it all. It was very good, and very not light and summery