Desiderio

Beautiful demo! Thank you so much for taking the time to do it. It is so much better to see than just read! I excited to bake more today, I got an inexpensive nice Dutch oven and I am ready to try it. I am going to use a week old dough and the other few days with the formula you posted, next ill yet your new formula. Thank you again this is fun, I also started to make some cheeses, with good bread you need good cheese and I can't get neither here!!

I waited two days before baking my first loaf, I used the recipe form the thread, I really liked the bread was nice, crumb open enough, even not big holes, crust nice and crunchy, much better than what I expected. The only thing, I didn't get to much rise or oven spring, I am wondering because of the heat, I didn't let the stone for a full hour, and I used the hot water in the bottom of the oven, usually when I bake sourdough I use either spray couple of time or ice cubes, I had the feeling it gave me a bigger oven spring, but that might be just a coincidence, reading the discussion on steam. Anyway very nice and amazing results, I did ordered the book, I made another batch with the formula Heartsurgeon posted, thank you. I will keep working on that rise.

well its time for bread! I didnt get the book yet but I am planning on order it tomorrow! I have not baked bread in a while and I am starting my sour dough as well ( I like complicate my life :-P ) but this thread got me and I followed the basic recipe posted earlier and made a batch tonight, I will be waiting for at least 2 days, and then try the refigeration method to form the loaf then refigerated and bake it right out of the fridge. This is going to be fun!!

I would use chocolate. Either chocolate chips or if you slab some dark chocolate and cut tiny circles (ovals). I remember a watermelon sorbet, that used chocolate chips to mime the seeds, taste good too.

What kind of trouble do you have at high altitude? I live in Colorado ( not nearly as high are you ) and I have to admit that I tryed to adjust some temperatures but then I went back to the regular since I didnt find that was helping. Now if you google high altitude candy making etc, they will tell you that you should lower 2 F/ 1C per 1000 ft of altitude, so that would make it like 18F/9C less than what you usually cook at sea level, umm I guess you could try. Good luck

Ahh I can't believe I missed this post! I have some catching up to do. But first of all thank you Rob for sharing this fun and funky thread! I specially enjoyed the article about the flaming pop tarts! Hilarious! I love how creative minds get together in this forum and create so many wonderful and fun things. I am at work right now and reading all this post make me want to run home and start making some crazy Rob tarts! Oh my I have a tin of 100% Italian hazelnut paste, making chocolate and hazelnut tart yummy! I am assuming I would use the same recipe and add cocoa powder and adjust with the flour amount right? I might try this weekend. Thank you this is fun!

Thank you thank you Kerry!!

Ok talking of refractoters, I have check eBay a bit but I am not sure those are ok for higher temp/brix? 0 to 32% shouldn't they go higher to work with sugar syrups etc. Just making sure which one do you guys suggest? Thank you

I have never use the ready to spray color cocoa butter, so I don't know how it works, I don't know if you ever work with coloring molds, but you want to make sure that your chocolate is in temper ofcourse and that the room temperature is not too hot, the only time I had problem with the color stick into thhe molds was when the room was too hot and the chocolate even if in temper, took too long to set into the molds.

I was researching for an online source of the Absolu Cristal and I found it for about 65, is that an ok price? You could get the other brand at L'epicerie for cheaper but I confronted the ingredients and they aren't exactly the same, and also the description for the absolu cristal does mention usage for bon bons chocolates etc. and how to use it. So I guess its better go with the Valrhona?

At the pastry shop where I do chocolates, the pastry chef uses his croissant dough recipe and he uses creme englaise. So yes, you can use creme englaise. He was taught this in France when he went for training. ← Thank you much for the info! I will try next time and post the results.

I was wondering, my favorite recipe for cinnarolls uses vanilla pudding, I have to say that is the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had and that I was about to give up making cinnamon rolls right before I found this recipe. The question is, could I make a vanilla custard ( creme englaise) and use it instead of the vanilla pudding, the reason is to make it completely from scratch without the use of processed ingredients. I will probably give it a try next time and I will post the results, but I figured maybe someone knows the answer already.

The flavor is not as strong of Gianduja in the cookies, but it gives a nice nutty flavor.

I would love to join you guys for the next one. May could be tricky for me as well though.

I think I have found my ultimate favorite chocolate chip cookie. I ued Alton Brown ( the chewy one ) reduced the butter to 1 1/2 sticks and replaced with about 1/4 cup ( maybe more ) of hazelnut paste ( pure hazelnut buter ), I use little more flour for the altitude, and use a variety of chocolate chips, I have used also mini M&M for my son. I made a big batch scoop them, froze them and then bag them, so I can bake a couple at the time. I will post the pic when I bake some. They are nice and chewy and pretty thick, I bake them frozen.

Could you link to the one you use? ← I can post it when I get home for sure.

To make imprint into the starch you could use those little bottles like gummy bears but in bottle shapes, get a stick and attach all the bottles to form a line evenly spaced out, this way you can make a printing mold and make lots of imprint fast. I think one of the important thing when making stach molds is that the starch needs to be dry!! In Italy confectioners call that kind of starch Cipria, wich means face powder you know the one that they used to use while back to cover their face with LOL. Anyway this cipria is made baking the starch on low heat in the oven for many hours untill is light dry and slightly pinkish, thats way the name also, I have never made this because is time consuming but once you have the setting you should be able to do it pretty fast. Good luck

Just to answer the question about Pralines, in Italy and I think Europe in general with the word praline we mean a type of chocolate. In Italy in particular a praline is a cut chocolate, the type you will cut with a gitar or knife and dip in chocolate, it is also referred to a chocolate made with crunchy additions etc. Truffles are those irregular shape rolled and dipped in chocolate.

I used to invert them directly on parchment since I have started making chocolates. Lately I don't know why (but again this is a weird time for some reason!) I am having such a hard time to achieve a nice clean closing for the chocolates and was driving me crazy, when I saw the pics of the demo I realized that when you dry the molds on the side you don't get that collar around and while it might seems to help with seal it actually doesn't, at least for me. The clean and thin collar allowed me to fill up the molds and close them with a nice smooth top if that make sense, with the thicker collar it always left a little bit of the collar showing thru the closing, I might have to take a pic to explain this. Putting the molds on their side doesn't create a problem with the thickness of the shell, I was very pleased with the result. Now I am up for another conference, I was very sad not to be able to be there, hopefully business will take off and it will allow me to take more classes as well. I am happy that we are kinda keeping the conference going on this thread! Thank you again, after mother's day I am going to go thru the entire thread to study it! I love you guys.

I love tres leches, a while back I started a research for a good recipe and easy to make. I did it for my son's 1st BDay. I like mine with whip cream instead of the meringue. The recipe I use the most its really easy, uses self raise flour, wich I had and didn't know what to do with it. Found on the internet of course. But I think I am going to try the one posted here. Thank you for resuming this post!

I second or third or fourth the marshmallows, I made marshmallow lollipops for Valentine's and they sold very fast before anything else. Good luck

Do you think you need the pane degli angeli lievito specifically? That's the levening agent we use most in Italy and I have been using regular baking powder since I moved to the States, with the same recipes and nothing has change, I am just wondering why have to use something imported and hard to find while is can be subs for sometg we have available here. Just my experience. Actually I have friends back there that were looking for baking powder without the vanilline.

Ok first of all thank you for sharing all of these with us! I haven't got chance to read everything yet, but I do have a question about mold and shells, I have noticed Brian from tomric placing the molds on their side to dry, is this a technique all of you are using? I have just tried this and realized that bottom closing come out much cleaner and neater that the way I was doing before. I use that technique for hollow molds but never used for molds or shells I was going to fill, if that make sense. I really like it and I will be using that from now on. Thank you for showing it, I guess some things need to be seen directly with a master to learn, I can't wait to get into a professional class one of these days!

I love this topic expecially now that is time for another show for me as well. The input on the free samples really helps, I have such hard time to decide what to sample and how, I think I always over do it. So I have decided to do somethin different this time. I think I am going to make a slabbed ganache of one or two flavors, cut it really small and served it with toothpicks, this way I can plan better and I don't have to waste all those paper cups. I also have noticed last year that the first night when we got the scary crowd of free samplers, they didn't buy as much as the second day, where the crowd was more relaxed and they bought more. Reading your experiences helps a lot understanding that all that sampling isn't good.

I have to admit I haven't use a thermometer in a long time to temper chocolate. The way I temper my chocolate is just by feeling, smell and appearance I guess. I have noticed when I get used to a certain type of chocolate then I have to relearn all of the above when I switch. I envy people that can actually explain what they do and how, for me I am kinda of a chocolate savage! LOL, things just work for me my way, but I think that may be the way it works for eveybody more or less.