gfron1

Having just taken Melissa Coppel's ganache formulation class I'm looking forward to sharing that info. If you're like me you usually start with someone else's formula and substitute ingredients not knowing the impact on shelf life or consistency. Now I have all the formulas. I'll be making my own from scratch recipe next week.

They did call it arroz con gandules, and it tasted correct (I've had many Puerto Rican friends in the past). And I debated if I wanted maduros or tostones, but my sweet tooth won out like always.

I'm off into the woods for the weekend, but when I get back I want to put the time into doing this correctly. There is absolutely no way of doing this in a profitable situation, but for show I'll put a couple of hours into a single mold. I'll demo it when I get back for folks.

The only time I think to look at the package is if I run into troubles. Otherwise I just follow the rules.

Everything that we did in Melissa Coppel's workshop this week belongs in this thread, but here's one that I felt was particularly stunning in its simplicity:

My on-the-cheap trip is over. First night was Chengdu Taste - absolutely fantastic. I met a Chinese friend the next night and he was impressed that I ate there, said, very authentic and mostly Chinese people eat there. I saw so many things on the menu that I haven't seen before. I ordered the Beef with Crispy Rice: The next morning I was craving a burrito so bad and ended up at Tacos el Compita: Dinner that night was Puerto Rico Express: and my last night was Dakao for Bahn mi: Capped off with a cucumber mango drink from Zero Degrees: Dakao certainly was the cheapest meal at $3.75 ($5 with drink and tax). Chengdu was the best thing I ate and the most expensive at $20 including a pot of tea.

It is a crazy amount of work and only for show, not production. Her assistant told me that they made 200 for an event and it took the two of them hours to do the work. I spent 30 minutes on just 10 cavities and they turned out mediocre at best.

I'm at a Coppel workshop right now and I asked her to show me her pinstripe technique. Here's hers: I was limited by colors and time but I know what needs to be done now. Here's mine: Just the left row. I didn't have time to do the rest.

That's what I did, but there still seemed to be some give due to the elasticity.

Was this inspired by the Durrells of Corfu? The episode that featured the kumquat liquor sure peeked my interest.

That's what I did and it worked, but for my dome molds (not half spheres) the suction was so great i was afraid that they were going to pull out. They didn't but there was some give.

I had Raku when it first opened but couldn't get to the sweets, so I'll try this time. Also, Suzuya was my favorite of the non-chocolate pastry shops on my last visit, so I completely agree.

I run my drywall blade over the top of my mold folded into the top (v. cutting into) and that levels them down for me. Where I run into issues if I try to rap out airbubbles in the filling.

Passion fruit bonbons for a private event coming up. I love and hate this mold. Pops out so easily...but pops out too easily when I go to back the bonbon.

Here are the recommendations from my Facebook friends:

No, its on my current menu with an Indian spiced dish featuring dokhla...playing off of a few thoughts starting with the fact that dokhla is often breakfast...hence espresso....then I fill skin with housemade sheeps yogurt...but its a lunch dish.

He would certainly be easy to work with. We've chatted many times. As long as wedding season doesn't tie him down. The question would be how best to use his knowledge.

The right has no wash at all. The left is the thinned wash. The regular wash (recipe above) was even worse. I'm playing with fillings so I made a lotus paste from scratch as the base of all of them. Some are plain. Some have an espresso candied kumquat in the center. Some are match green tea. One is a white chocolate ganache inside of the lotus. None have the salty yolk because no one in my circles seems to like it.

Here are my final cakes and they show the difference between un egg washed and a thinned eggwash.

You just gave me a heart attack! HERE You're looking at the guest instructor section. This is a Melissa class.

Contrary to my post from last year...those sucked. I found a new recipe this year and made some trial runs and it worked great (posted below). I have two questions for experienced makers. First what is the trick to making the bottom uniformly thin (the end that you close up when its pressed in the mold)? And second, this seems so simple, but the egg wash also seems too viscous and ruins the detail of the mold. I'm going to thin out my wash with water to see if that helps, but wondering if there's a trick with that.

But its also others who've taken classes. I know I'm doing a Melissa class next week. That's one of the funs of this event is we come together once and year and share what we've learned.

I created (so I probably still have) a database of sponsors from the last Vegas workshop. Maybe I can share the old one with you and others to get it updated.

In the past we had a file of contacts. Hopefully that still exists. The companies all know us and it should be part of their regular offerings. @Kerry Beal @chocolat - does someone have that file?

We do all sorts of lacto-ferments using our whey because we make our own yogurt and ricotta. It finds its whey into all sorts of sauces, pasta cooked in it, pastries...use as water for many items to add some flavor.