Desiderio

I think I've made those. There was a box full of recipe cards at a joint I worked at that had Great Lakes Naval Training Station printed on it, and the brownie recipe had corn syrup in them. Wish I'd swiped it when I had the chance. ← Yes exactley , it was a box full of recipes cards from start to finish, they werent use them so I asked my manager if I could get them .I will look for them back home hopefully they still around .hehe small world eh

Jackal those baguettes looks nice and crispy on the outside with not so much crumb ( the way I love my bread ),thank you for posting the formula. I have one question for you , since you are the expert on shipping you starter .I am leaving for Italy in few days and I was wondering if I could bring some of the starter with me , put it inside a double ziplock bag inside something else and in my check in baggage.DO you think it is possible or the starter would suffer to much ?I can try to make a starter while I am there for my parents to keep I guess that might be the best option ( usually takes one week right?).

I coated the truffles last night, the were nice and firm ( I let sit the ganache overnight ) they coated ok .The falvor was nice , very intense, since was a test batch , I didnt do much for the flavor ,and next time I will try different chocoalte as well ( I am waiting for the Apamate el rey ).Anyway experiment not bad at all.

SOme sourdough this morning , it was time to bake something and have some real bread in the house.

I actually found long time ago , while working for the Navy in a restaurant, a recipe for brownies I really liked , I dont have it here I will look for it whan I go back home, but it did call for syrup , I didn have corn syrup at that time ( in Italy ) I made a sugar syrup and use that instead.Dont know if this will work the same.

Ohh thank you much for sharing you recipe ( I always feel honored when a pro share her/his recipes/formulas ) Thank you

Have you notice if the shelf life for those chocolates was lower?Just cause the aw in the chocolate?

I made a little batch of the water ganache ,but I didnt do 1:1 ,I used 1 part of water and 2 to 3 part of chocolate ( I mesure the first batch of chocolate I used , but then I added more as it was too liquid),after it cooled down a little was already able to roll some truffles, just to try, the ganache is down stairs and I will try later to roll some and dip them and see how they come, the flavor seems intense of course.

I personally played with the inverted sugar in the ganaches for a bit ,then I tryed the invertase, wich is the enzyme they use to make inverted sugar ,and does the same thing without adding sweetness.But I didnt notice much difference when I was using the inverted sugar , I do think, as Choux said, that in some ganaches it might give a better flavor.Now I am not using anything , I will make a rather big production next week and since they have to travel with me oversees I will probabily use some invertase.

I was trying to find the many thread we have on this argument , for now I founf only this maybe later if I have more time Ill look for more , but if you reserche the forum I am sure you will find many. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ates+shelf+life

Thank you Alana and John I will definately try , I dont use preservatives as well , I dont think artisanal chocolates needs them and they need to be consumed fresh ,so I will experiment with it a little , the earl grey sounds wonderfull I love the taste with chocolate. I will experimenting with coconut milk, just to see how it taste , texture and etc. This is part of the journey , trying , testing , making mistakes and succed ,its fun sometimes frustrating but its all good. Thank you

Dailey, I am not an expert on american cakes , but I can immagine trying to change a recipe for an order , not good . I have made the commissary carrot cake for my son's birthday thie year , following the thred an the best carrot cake http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=48658&hl= I have made it twice to see , the first time I made the recipe the way it is , and it was very right greasy if you want but was fine , the second time the one for the party I made it with the tweaking that Lorna ( Ling ) posted ( like you did butter and oil in combination ), the cake was much better texture not greasy and less sweet ( I did lower the sugar at my taste ), you might want to try this , but I am sure the cakes expert will come in to you rescue soon . Best of luck

I have to be honest I never tryed a water ganache , I saw on this forum that someone used this method but I never tryed ( maybe its time ). I was reading that "Melt" http://www.meltchocolates.com/kitchen.htm in London uses this typ of ganache in almost all their truffles /chocolates ,and I am intrigued by this . I know that they are two different things , but lately I was reading my CI best recipe baking illustrated book, my latest purchase, they were explaining the fact that a chocolate cake made with cocoa instead chocolate is actually moister and water is the best option to obtain a more chocolate intense flavor instead milk, like the difference between chocolate milk and a nice dark bittersweet, no challenge there right? So I think this might be a point in the water ganache side, water would make the chocolate flavor more intense right? I will give it a try , I would like to know if the proportion for a water based one would be the same as for a cream based one. Thank you Oh another thing , since is made out of water the aw would be higher right?and have a shorter shlf life?

Is not an ingredient though is a method.

Waiting for the experts ,I can tell you that some of them will tell you to make a starter only with flour and water, that you dont wnat to deal with fruit or anything else in you sourdough,it encourage the wrong bacteria etc etc. I have done a sourdough just out of rye flour and water , and its fine , easy to keep , I usually forget about it in the fridge for weeks and he still forgives me .But like I have said wati for the expert to come to your rescue and good luck.

The one I make uses more yolks than eggs first ( if not you get the egg taste),and the caramel is made with sugar , you really dont need the lemon , you can use a little bit of water if not to comfortable making dry caramel , and that works just fine,usually some of the caramel stays in the pan after you demold it , and thats normal.I dont think this recipe is the best to go for .

Today I made the frosting of Thankful Butterscotch cake , I didnt make the cake because I already made some yello cake, but the cake was a huge hit , that frosting is incredible , very very yummy.

Should have posted in the italian cooking forum

Oh my my , the altitude beat me up again!!!!I did the cookies , and as Lorna suggested I reduced the granulated sugar to 1/2 cup ,they are still to crispy and flat , I did raise the oven as ,baking for altitude suggested,but I believe I need to either lower the granulated sugar further and add some more flour like another 1/4 maybe?.I will retry and see what happen.Well thats the beauty of the challenge right?!

No experience, but interested as well .I am wondering if these cocoa paste are available to the public? And I am wondering if they are suitable to make "cioccolato di modica" wich is a rough chocolate made with the chocolate paste before it gets conchad( Sp ).Or probably they are alreayd refined but no sugar added so that would be interesting to try.I will to try to find something on the matter .Keep us posted. Thank you

You know it actually says that is a non stick pan, so maybe I should just butter it very thin with a brush or so?Aghh then I thought I had something written about bundt pan and chocolate cakes, and ofcourse its on the chocolate sour cream bundt cake recipe, its says how to treat it with a paste of cocoa powder and butter and brush like you guys said , arghhhhhhhhhhhhh hehe oh well , sometimes I am so eger to do something that I forget the logic part and I end up messing sometng , need to have more patient yup yup

Well once again thank you for posting these delicious recipes, sometimes I feel like taking taking and not giving anything back .Oh well its time to go back to my italian original recipes and post something new in exchange for your generosity and disponibilities ( ahhh I got lost with that one sorry sp?) guys Oh sorry I alwasy forget to put what I had after dinner.A nice piece of chocolate stout cake , almost made me drunk ,kidding ( but I could feel the beer big time.And few of my chocolates

Oh intresting , thank you for the link, I can ask the guy that owns the cafeteria at work to order me some . Thank you )

Ummm kinda naughty too , everyone follows the bride till she end up only in her victoria secrets and high hills,well maybe the groom can do that part hahahahaha wonderfull, why I havent tought of that for my dress??????

I have one of the double sphere molds, after you make it a couple of times you pick up some tricks to get a thin shell. You use chocolate at the high end of your working temperature, so it is a fluid as possible, a little less than half fill the round half, put the two sides together, band the crap out of it to distribute the chocolate, turn it around a couple of times as it cools. My biggest problem with it is the size, I like a nice small truffle (especially with a liquid centre) and the smallest sphere mold I can find is about an inch. So to get them smaller you have to buy premade, but then you can't control the chocolate they are made from. ← Kerry, I'm looking to make liquor filled chocolates, both hand dipped and molded. Which molds have you found easiest to use for this? Is the sphere mold referenced above a good one for the job? I saw a bottle mold somewhere on the net, but it is made from a cheap thin plastic. Does anyone produce a decent polycarbonate version? ← David , when I do the liquor filled I use an half phyramid , but any will do the trick , as Trishad said is the cristallization the important and tricky thing . Check this ones http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/c210023.2.html