nightscotsman

I have been looking for the same thing for a Macintosh, with no luck at all. Anyone else on a Mac that uses this type of software? ← I have also been looking and found something interesting today. Check out MacGourmet ← I'm on Mac too, and when I upgraded to a new iBook recently I tried out a lot of different freeware, shareware, and commercial demos before settling on one that seems to work best for me: Yum!. Great interface, features and stability, and very simple to use. It's free to download and try, and if you like it you can choose how much you want to pay.

I agree that this is THE book to have on ice cream for professionals. We used similar formulas in school and got excellent, consistent results. Also, by understanding how the fat, sugar, sweetening power, non-fat solids and water interact and ballance to control texture and flavor you can easily create new flavors without a lot of trial and error. It should also tell you how emulsifiers and stabilizers can improve texture, mouthfeel and storage stability. I know, many people are wary of so called "additives" commonly called stablizers, but most of these are actually derived from natural sources such as seaweed - as natural as white sugar, which an extremely processed and refined product. I don't own the book myself yet (it is expensive), but I've had a good look through and it came highly recommended by Jacquy Pfeiffer.

Sushi for lunch is a little tricky since most of the high-end Strip places are only open for dinner. You might have to head off the strip to a locals place. By the way, since the last time this thread came up I've eaten at Shibuya and was very impressed. The best meal I've had in Vegas since I moved here.

I'm very intrigued by this recipe and I would like to try it out soon. I notice that the finished example you show looks deep fried. Do you have a photo of what they look like baked? Also, what temperature and times to you usually bake them at?

For a really quick pumpkin pastry cream (especially if you already have pastry cream in the cooler ), you could just whisk some pumpkin puree and spices into vanilla pastry cream to taste (I'd try 200 g pumpkin to 800 g pastry cream), and maybe lighten with a little whipped cream (200 g per kilo is a nice ratio).

You could also order it - well, pre-oreder it - from Amazon Canada here. $204.00 Canadian, or about $175 US, and probably cheaper shipping than from Europe. Pretty steep if you don't read French.

I actually reduced the oil to compensate for adding the butter and maintain about the same fat content. Sour cream has less water than an equivelant volume of buttermilk, so that would have to taken into consideration, as well as possibly reducing the amount of fat elsewhere in the recipe. I gave my modfied recipe to one of my coworkers who teaches a pastry class at a local community college. She had her students make the recipe and reported that everyone loved the cake. She also said there was quite a bit of difference in the texture of the baked cake when a student whipped the eggs to a good foam before adding the dry ingredients. When the eggs weren't whipped the mix had to be whisked longer and more vigorously after adding the dry ingredients to remove the lumps - this tended to make the cake heavier with a denser crumb. Both versions were good, just different.

Some members here have experimented with using agar agar to replace gelatine in marshmallows. You can read about there efforts here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...358&hl=homemade Yeah, it a long (long) thread, but what you're looking for will probably be nearer the end (newer posts).

Cool! Here's the book on Amazon: Chocolate Obsession

I made the Double Chocolate cake again with some minor changes to enhance the flavor: - reduced oil to 1/2 cup (I made sure to use corn oil this time, since I think there was an "off" flavor from the canola oil I used in the first batch) - added 1/2 cup butter to be melted with chocolate - dissolved cocoa with hot coffee when added to chocolate - upped the vanilla to 2 teaspoons - since I was making a half batch and didn't want to mess with 1/2 an egg, I just used two whole eggs, so the full recipe would be 4 eggs The result - tasted side by side I think the test with the changes has a better, more rounded chocolate flavor and maybe slightly moister, though still not too heavy. It's a keeper for me. I still really like the Woolley cake recipe too. I think each will be good for different situations. And I also sprayed and lined the pan bottom with parchment - no sticking. By the way, I used Hershey's regular cocoa in all my tests for this thread. I'm sure they would all be better with a higher grade cocoa, but it's cheap and literally all I can find in the grocery stores here in Vegas without paying the outrageous markup at Williams Sonoma or special ordering online. We used to use Cocao Barry Extra Brut at work, but recently changed brands for some reason. I think the new brand is Schokinag and I haven't tasted any of our recipes that use it lately to see if there's a difference.

Oh, I do hope they find (or manufacture) a true Bridezilla to play the client...

Count me in as another vote for RLB's truffle torte from the Cake Bible. I also agree with Wendy that it does need something - another flavor, texture, component - to keep it from becoming boring after a few bites.

When I visited Japan on vacation a few years ago I loved Takayama. Please, please be sure not to miss the tiny Inro Museum. It was by far my favorite museum during the trip. I stayed at a place called Ryokan Sumioshi recommended by the Frommer's Guidebook at was exactly as described. It's small and very old fashioned (even slightly funky/worn), the staff are increadibly friendly, it has a lovely location on the river, and the rates are ridiculously low considering they include an excellent breakfast and dinner served in your room.

I tried the Double Chocolate Layer Cake recipe this morning and I can report that the texture, crumb and moistness are excellent - just what I've been looking for. The crumb is more open, but not as crumbly as the Wooley cake. However, I still think the Wooley cake has much better flavor. I might try the Double Chocolate again replacing some of the oil with melted butter and see what that does. I also might try disolving the cocoa in the hot coffee with the chocolate to release more flavor.

We spray tartlet shells with cocoa butter. Spraying gives a very, very thin coat so you don't really taste it, but effectively moisture proofs.

I'm surprised I've actually not heard of this book before - sounds great! On the wish list now. Amazon link to Classic Home Desserts : A Treasury of Heirloom and Contemporary Recipes from Around the World by Richard Sax

Nope, not open yet. I don't know when they are scheduled to open, but there are still quite a few positions still not filled according to the listings. By the way, there will be two restaurants: the more "casual" L'Atelier and the seriously upscale Robuchon at the Mansion (not sure if that's the final name).

Maybe you could try replacing the almond meal in a financier recipe with coconut? Grinding the coconut in a food processor would give you a finer cake texture, unless you want the flakes to be noticeable.

I don't believe increasing the acidity of the mixture will have any effect on the freezing point. The only two ways I know of changing the freezing point are changing the sweetness level (notice I didn't say the amount of sugar, since there are several sugar types that can be used, such as glucose, sucrose and invert sugar, each with it's own sweetening power), or adding alcohol.

US $10.40 at http://www.dr.ca - click on "Pastry Molds/Rings/Shapes" on the left, then "Other Steel Molds". Scroll down to "3 -Bordelais". They also offer the aluminum version for only $3.96, though I think the copper is worth it if you really like cannele and can afford them.

Well, of course you could get a fabulous breakfast at Jean Philippe Patisserie in Bellagio. Freshly baked croissants, danish, etc. and made-to-order sweet or savory crepes. The only drawback is the limited seating for dining in. I also personally think the Bellagio buffet is the best on the strip.

This book sounded interesting, so I just placed an order. While I'm waiting for it to show up, I thought I would try the 6-Minute Microwave Cake as printed in the Houston Chronicle article. I made a few changes based on what I had at home at the time - I used walnut meal instead of almond, canola oil instead of olive, and left out the almond extract and dried cherries. I used a shallow 8" souffle dish with straight sides to bake it and the cake seemed to be done after about 5-1/2 minutes on high in my small microwave. The cake had very little rise, which makes me wonder if there was an error in the Chronicle's version since they list no leavening. The texture of my finished product is very moist, dense and chewy - kind of a cross between a chocolate financier and a fudge brownie. Like most cakes made with oil rather than butter, it initially seemed a little greasy, but that mostly went away after I let it sit for a couple hours. The flavor is very good - rich and deeply chocolate (I used Pernigotti dutched cocoa and a 59% belgian chocolate from Trader Joe's). I could see making it again when I wanted a quick chocolate snack, though I would call it a brownie rather than a "cake". Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Sorbitol is mostly used to enhance keeping qualities, so leaving it out shouldn't affect the flavor or texture of the finished product. If you really want to use it, try looking at Whole Foods. Mycryo butter is just cocoa butter that has been processed cryogenically to a powdered form. Unless you are using it in a recipe to set a mousse, you can safely sub regular cocoa butter. Inverted sugar is NOT the same as corn syrup and I'm afraid subbing the two won't work. Inverted sugar is much sweeter and has emulsifying properties corn syrup or glucose don't have. You can substitute honey, but only if the honey flavor would actually work with your other ingredients. Honey is a naturally inverted sugar, but commercial invert sugar (such as Trimoline) have no flavor other than sweet.

Flo Braker is a pastry Goddess. Her book is way, way more reliable than Gail's. I can enthusiastically second the Art of Petits Fours recommendation. Very professional and worth the price. A little older book that is also good and professional, though smaller and less expensive is Pascal Brunstein's Plaisir de Petits Fours. In English and French. JB Prince has it here.

That "funnel thing" is usually called a sauce gun. Unfortunately, they tend to be very expensive, but worth it in time savings and accuracy working a in high volume situation. JB Prince has several models here.