nightscotsman

According Amazon, the book won't be out until October. I love her stuff and agree that Fran's chocolates are world class. Nicely ballanced, smooth fillings will impecable coatings - very French in style. Have to check out the book when it hits the stands.

Welcome yellowmnm81! The obvious thing that comes to mind is cheesecake - but I'm sure you've thought of that already. You could do carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, or I'm sure there are bar cookie recipes out there that use it too. What do you like to make - cakes, cookies, pies, tarts? Are you thinking large, multiple serving items, or small individual things? You might also want to check out this previous thread discussing options for a "baked goods stall": click.

right, fully baked shell, since it's only in the oven for a few minutes. To moisture proof the tart shell, you can brush the inside with egg wash when it's done and browned, then put it back in the oven for a minute to just dry the egg. The shell should be room temp and the curd warm when you pour it in. If you want to add a meringue topping, we piped on Italian meringue when the tart was cold and browned it with a blow torch.

Neil, when one is using non fat dry milk powder, that's giving you richness too, correct? Well, the milk powder enhances body and acts as an additional stablizer by adding milk solids without adding more water. Since it's non-fat, I don't think it actually adds "richness". The trick to getting an ice cream with good mouth-feel that's not too sweet and doesn't coat your mouth in fat is to carefully ballance the water, fat, solids, and sweetening power of all the ingredients in the recipe. The above recipe was developed by a group of scientists and pastry chefs working together to optimize all of these variables. It produces a very smooth, clean and rich tasting product. Egg yolk works as an emulsifier in ice cream because there is a lot of lecithin in the yolks. I don't think the protein in egg whites would work as a stablizer because they also add a lot of water which would tend to make the finished product icy. Corn syrup is basically glucose, so you could use that, but you would have to recalculate the water content to allow for it's liquid form. You could also use a smaller amount of powdered dextrose which might be easier to find. Trimoline is very different from glucose and corn syrup. glucose has a lower sweetening power than sucrose (white sugar), while trimoline is higher. By controling the sweetening power of the mix you can control the freezing point and how soft and scoopable the finished product will be. Trimoline also has an emulsifying ability that glucose doesn't have. If you use yolks and Trimoline in the recipe you can probably get away without using the monostearate. Adding lecithin would also work, but unlike monostearate, lecithin had a distinctive flavor which may give your ice cream an off taste.

Vanilla Ice Cream 1036 g milk 70 g non-fat milk powder 2 vanilla beans 203 g sugar 56 g glucose powder 37 g invert sugar (such as Trimoline) 372 g cream (35% fat) 56 g egg yolk 6 g ice cream stabilizer 5 g monostearate (an emulsifier) The stablilizer and monostearate aren't required, but will improve and help maintain a smooth texture longer.

For comparison's sake, I thought I would post the lemon curd recipe we made in school. I remember it being very good, very tart, and firm enough to be sliceable after a brief bake in a tart shell. I haven't tried it side-by-side with other recipes yet, so I can't promote it as the "best ever". FPS Lemon Curd 300 g whole eggs 110 g sugar 175 g lemon juice grated zest of 3 lemons 45 g butter 1/2 g salt Mix eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest. Add butter and cook over water bath unil very thick. Strain (yes, strain out the zest) then hand blend. If making a tart, put into sweet dough tart shell while still warm and bake for a few minutes until curd is just set. This recipe makes enough for about 1-1/2 8" tarts.

That's 8% butterfat when using egg yolks, which most commercial ice cream manufacturers don't use. The total fat content is closer to 11%. Trust me, it won't taste like ice milk.

According to the formulas we used in school, the ideal butterfat content in an ice cream made with egg yolks is 8% of the total weight. The percent of yolks should be 3%. If you are using a flavoring that adds fat, such as chocolate or nut pastes, then you will need to take the added fat into account and consider using an emulsifier instead of yolks for cleaner flavor.

It's called "The Patisserie of Pierre Herme" and is in both English (with less than crystal clear translation) and French. JB Prince has it here.

Gee, what a novel concept. Thanks for the heads up - I'll have to check out the issue.

Mischief sounds really good! I will have to go find some lime vodka and give it a try. I don't have even the slightest hope of getting my hands on the Charbay stuff locally, though. Believe it or not, the liquor stores here in Vegas are the most pathetic I've come across. I swear it took me weeks just to find a place that sold any brand of casis - and the one I found was Hiram Walker.

Neil, I've tried this twice and all I end up with is goop. Too much liquid? Not enough gelatin? What are your thoughts? Cheers, I made these this week and they turned out perfectly! How much water did you use total? I admit I had to read the recipe and variation directions over a few times - and this is what I came up with (and I figure I must have done it correctly, cuz they turned out ;) The strawberry recipe calls for 1/2 cup strawberry puree and 1 1/4 cups water total - 1/2 cup with the puree and 3/4 cup with the sugar. For the chocolate, it should be 1/2 cup cocoa and 1 1/2 cups water total- 3/4 cup with the cocoa and 3/4 cup with the sugar. Yep, that's correct. Sorry the directions were confusing. I'll try to edit the recipe so it's more clear.

Wendy - I totally agree about the whipping of eggs and sugar before cooking. Completely wasted effort since adding liquid and cooking will remove all the air you worked so hard to incorporate. I'm surprised you bring your curd to a full boil. You don't find you get a curdled, grainy texture? Also, if you wanted to bake it in a tart shell I'm afraid it wouldn't set up properly since the eggs had already been cooked as far as they could go.

I think it would work fine for other leafy herbs, though I haven't tried it.

Cool - thanks for the link. Like I said, I hadn't heard of her before, but the book looks intersting. I'll have to check it out.

I don't have a biscuit recipe to offer you, but I would advise not to keep away from buttermilk if it's just for the taste. Usually baking recipes that call for it also include baking soda and or baking powder which neutralizes most of the acid, so things with buttermilk generally don't come out tasting sour. However, because it's so high in acid, butter milk works well to tenderize the gluten in flour, so you end up with lighter results.

Yep, 7 hours no breaks. We are certainly allowed them and the people who smoke do take them, but I'd have a hard time standing up again after sitting down. I'd rather just keep moving. I think the longest I've worked without an actual sit down break was 13 hours at Charlie Trotter's. It didn't seem that bad at the time, but I wasn't doing it week after week.

Steve - I'm not familiar with Cindy Mushnet so I went over to Amazon to see what she's done, but a search on her name brings up nothing. Could you let us know what book you are referring to?

Just thought I would put in my two cents on ice cream flavors with pecan pie. Personally I would steer clear of caramel-based flavors (too similar to the filling flavor) and head more toward the contrasting and complimentary. Think about what goes with pecans - peaches, bourbon, bananas, coffee, pineapple... And don't underestimate the power of perfectly done vanilla.

Yeah, that sounds about right. They are really good, but I think I like the traditional better myself. And they are actually Frederic Bau's recipe.

Melted chocolate won't work since the fat will keep the mixture from whipping. However, I've made them successfully with cocoa. I used 1/2 cup of cocoa, 3/4 cup water and a teaspoon of vanilla in place of the puree and water in the recipe. The mashmallows tasted almost fudgy.

Maybe they didn't or COULDN'T do it anymore.....and that's why you and the other guy got hired. I'm betting that before you came on board, there was a burned out pastry cook throwing his apron on the floor and exclaiming....."I quit!" Annie Oh yeah, I heard there were several. The term "dropping like flies" was used. It's a great place to work, but there are high expectations.

The packages aren't large - I'm guessing one lb? - and I think the price was less than $3. I'll check next time I go back.

I've actually had the best results with a recipe halfway between Paula Wolfert's and Nancy Silverton's. I like the crust and slight rise of Nancy's, but Paula's has a really creamy interior. So basically it's Nancy's recipe using a slightly smaller amount of cake flour instead of AP.

I just got home from Trader Joes where I saw that they now carry almond and hazelnut meal. It's "natural" - meaning the nuts aren't blanched - but it looks fine enough for most baking needs.