Takhisis

The NY Times recently published this recipe for Yuzu chiffon cake. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/magazine/13Food-t-002.html I've also had yuzu jam, so I suppose you could use it like lemon juice for curds. It is more tart though than lemon juice with a slight bitterness at the end. Also, Japanese Ponzu sauce is usually some mixture of shoyu (soy sauce) and yuzu juice so you could look for recipes calling for ponzu and try making your own. Hope this helps! Michelle

Have you tried any mochi cakes? These are a type of japanese cake made with sweet rice flour (mochiko). I've included a few links below, the brownie mochi cake is definitely very good and the texture is somewhat like a genoise. --Michelle http://eats.pinjing.net/2010/04/05/mochi-brownie-two-bites/ http://foodlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/03/matcha-mochi-cupcakes-happy-st-patricks.html http://www.tinyurbankitchen.com/2010/02/red-bean-mochi-loaf.html

Pierre Herme has the best hot chocolate ever, and there are no fancy ingredients just cocoa, chocolate, & milk. Hope you like them, Michelle Chocolat Chaud From It Must've Been Something I Ate , by Jeffrey Steingarten (adapted from Pierre Hermé). Ingredients: 2-1/4 cups whole milk 1/4 cup bottled still water 1/4 cup (generous) superfine granulated sugar 1 100-gm bar (3-1/2 ounces) dark bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1/4 cup (1 ounce or 28 gm) cocoa powder, loosely packed Instructions: In a 2-quart saucepan, stir together the milk, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the chopped chocolate and the cocoa and bring to a boil again, whisking until the chocolate and cocoa are dissolved and the mixture has thickened. Reduce the heat to very low. Blend for 5 minutes with an immersion mixer or whirl the hot chocolate in a standard blender for half a minute, until thick and foamy. Yield: Four 6-ounce cups of hot chocolate. Note: I use a dark chocolate containing close to 70 percent cocoa, though Lindt bittersweet also works just fine. The Mayans and the Aztecs considered the froth the best part. Today, five minutes with an immersion mixer or a blender accomplishes what a half hour of beating did long ago. Here's one for caramelized cinnamon hot chocolate. http://onebigkitchen.com/?p=155 Here are a bunch of other variations from Chowhound.com http://www.chow.com/stories/10895

I would say 2 1/2 cookies per person. So 400 total cookies if they are the normal size cookies. I wouldn't stress about doing too many varieties though. You seem to have a pretty good balance of chocolate, plain, & "healthy" with the three varieties you listed. I would plan on 200 brownies, 100 sugar, and 100 oatmeal since most people are going to go straight for the chocolate in my experience. If you can, decorate your platters with some fresh berries for color and that will even it out for those who may just want a little something sweet but not a cookie. You could also go the route of decorating the platters with some caramels or similar small candies for the same purpose. I hope it goes well for you. --Michelle

ok, it's a random thought but it's happened to me before. With a hand mixer if you don't put the beaters in the correct sides (usually one has a bar at the top and the other doesn't ) and they go on specific sides of the mixer. The mixer will run with them in either way but you don't get any volume if they're not in the right sides. As I said I had the same problem and couldn't figure out why my egg whites wouldn't whip. Hope this helps, Michelle

There are a few things you could try. The first is a technique used to make brioche rise more. You mix your dough and do most of the kneading before you add in the butter. If you do this I wouldn't melt the butter first though. Just add it in small chunks. It gives the gluten a chance to develop more and your bread will rise better. The butter makes the gluten strands too slippery and they can't develop a good structure. Looking at the recipe I would add one more step. After the bulk ferment, fold the dough in half into itself a few times and set aside to rise for another hour. This distributes the yeast and contributes to a better rise. Adding more liquid to the dough will make the bread have a more open texture but it will be harder to work with. There are a few discussions on this board about dough hydration. You can try baking at a lower temp, 350 might keep more moisture in the bread making it softer. Adding more butter might help too. Sorry I can't be more specific. --Michelle

Does anyone have any tips for using the stoneware shortbread pans? I've used them with mixed results, the shortbread doesn't seem to fully bake for me in them. I was expecting it to come out more like a sable cookie but that wasn't what was happening at all. thanks, Michelle

First time I used mine I didn't spray them and my muffins stuck. Plus without a pan for support they ran over the edges or ended up really funny shaped. So, now I put the silicups inside a muffin tin and spray them with the pam w/flour baking spray. Works perfectly and they practically fall out of the silicups. I have other silicone pans (round cake pan and loaf pans) but I haven't had a chance to use them. Note: Muffins do not seem to rise as high and get a little darker on the bottom but come out much moister. Also, I really like the idea of not having to peel off all those paper wrappers. --Michelle

So the book I bought when I purchased my ice cream maker was The Ultimate Ice Cream Book : Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More (Paperback) I know the title is a bit off putting with the "ultimate" in there but it really is a pretty good book. While looking for the exact title I also noticed that Ben and Jerry's also has a cookbook out for home made icecream....interesting...

So, In my efforts to duplicate the starbucks sugar cookies I came up with this recipe. It makes quite a lot and the dough is pretty tasty too. I had to quadruple the icing recipe though. It's a pourable icing so once you put it on it spreads out a bit. I would say to maybe use this as a base for flavor and the main colors and then use the royal for the design details. Thick Cut-Outs Submitted by: Margo Rated: 4 out of 5 by 31 members Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 10 Minutes Ready In: 1 Hour 20 Minutes Yields: 75 servings "A big batch of big thick sugar cookies. These are THE big soft sugar cookies you have been looking for. Frost them while warm and sprinkle with colored sugar." INGREDIENTS: 6 egg yolks 4 eggs 2 cups butter, softened 2 1/8 cups white sugar 7 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract DIRECTIONS: 1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Cover dough and chill for at least one hour. 2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place 2 inches apart on to the prepared baking sheets. 3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Pourable Icing 1 bag (2#) powdered sugar 3Tb milk 1/4 c white corn syrup Use corn syrup to adjust consistency. It will appear very paste like but after you put it on it softenes and spreads out. I advise testing it as you add corn syrup. This icing will dry to a hard shiny icing.

So I have a few recipes that I er *cough* borrowed from a french bakery patisserie I worked at. Although I have never used the type of oven you're talking about the instructions include directions for the bake temp/time/damper settings. The other thing is that I'm a bit of a bread geek who has recently started the same kind of job you have for the hotel/restaurant I work for. I have previous baking experience but I'm by no means an expert. I've read somewhere, possibly on this board, that steam is only really effective for the first 10 minutes of bake time. There are alternatives to using the steam jet on your oven if you haven't figured it out yet. I'm working with convection ovens at work and they're not making my life any easier. I would happily kill for a pizza oven which I think makes the best bread. Anyway, you can either put a heavy duty pan (cast iron or a roasting pan is best) into the oven and preheat it with the oven to 450 or your high initial temp. When the oven reaches temp dump in enough ice water so that you get steam for about the first ten minutes. If you use too much just remove the pan after 10 minutes. The other alternative that we did in school was to use a squeeze bottle full of water (probably about 16oz or so) and spray that onto the floor of the oven right before you close the door. Do not open the door for at least 10 minutes or you'll release all your steam. After that you have a choice you can lower the temp in three stages (for baguettes it's like 450/ 10 min 425/ 15-20 minutes and then 400 for 10 minutes). This mimics the "falling oven" as a wood fired oven would normally lose temp after inserting bread. It also keeps your crust from steaming as the moisture inside evaporates. The other option is to just open the oven door and let the bread sit in the oven for 10 min before you take it out. Hope this helps, Takhisis