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CSY

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Posts posted by CSY

  1. Hi rustem,

    I was reading the newspaper the other day, and there was an article by a well known home cook, ms fong, she said that you need to "process" your wok after you bring it back from the store, otherwise the stick problem will happen, and then,this problem will stick with you.

    Good news is, she said you can still fix it. I forgot the details though, will give you updates later.

    For non-stick effect, "use just water to clean it. Very important."----ms fong.

  2. I just mixed a batch of gianduja gelato which will get frozen and stracciatella'd tomorrow.  It smells absolutely divine, like a melted Baci.  It just seemed wrong to toss out all those lovely toasted, ground hazelnuts once they were done steeping.  Is there any reason not to keep at least some of them in there, or have they been spent at this point?  I even considered toasting some more and adding them in once the mixture is frozen, but wanted to stick to the recipe this first time around.  Has anyone left in the hazelnuts and, if so, how'd it turn out?  :huh:

    hi Lisa,

    Tips fr. Pamela:

    Gelati(hazelnut)

  3. hi Steve,

    Liquid nitrogen maybe? Or is that not practical...

    The deposit on a tank would seem a bit impractical??? :unsure:

    hi tan319,

    I know. I just can't get it off my mind(b/c of the many diff. flavors you could creat w/ LN). But somehow intimidated by the safety issues.

    If, Steve could get a uni lab to agree to produce in their lab, then shift the product back to shop...what do you think?

  4. Hi Tiny and Judec,

    I tried again, different fruit(Yuzu), different tool(no zester this time, box-grater as I don't have a microplane with me. Very careful, avoiding any possible pith, skinniest translucent zest only). Still bitter, tho. not as intensely so as the oranges.

    The zest is for the juice, guess I cannot blanch them..

  5. Hi,

    I read that citrus zest, when mixed with the juices, gives a strong and more than one-dimensional taste. It worked perfectly with lemons(same procedure as below). So this time I used orange:

    1. Zest the orange with a zester(I tried my best not to include any pith)

    2. Juice the orange and add juice to the zest

    3. Sieve and serve

    I tried two infusion times: “5 hours then serve” and “sieve and serve immediately”. Smells wonderful yet both taste quite bitter(the 5H version much more so) .

    Any ideas why?

    TIA~

  6. Hi Rob-

    I’m very intrigued by your “steeping flavor in fat, then add less water” suggestion. Only concern is that since the add-in flavors are in liquid-form themselves, will the mixture ever freeze up well if I intend to turn it into sorbet/ice cream? (An un-altered CM would freeze well and be all creamy without stirring at all, a mixed-then-reduced CM would freeze creamy but with ice crystals. ).

    I once reduced a 200ml CM to 50ml by cooking, very very mouth-coatingly rich…can’t say it’s a good or bad thing. I then added liquid to it, and whipped. The coconut fat curdles into little bits. I tasted it. Flavorless white chocolate…

    Hi Tri2Cook-

    The CM powder I found has other additives, I wonder if that would alter the tastes much…

    Yes, when cooked alone to concentrate(and later add to the CM), coconut water would caramelize and turned into a brownish color, doesn’t taste freshly-sweet anymore, just a matured-sweet.

    Hi pastrygirl-

    Tea, when soaked in just-boiled water, release a much stronger flavor than when soaked in cold liquid(don’t have proof though). Or maybe an overnight soak-in would help?

    Hi KKLL00b-

    Whippable coconut heavy cream? Like in a cake, or ice cream even? How did it taste and what’s the texture like(e.g. would it be mouth-coating)?

    Btw, I tried the filtering method and it didn’t work out. There were tiny coconut fats clinging to the filter wall, but still most of the CM soaked right through.

  7. How about just removing whatever volume of liquid you want to add from the coconut milk? 150ml coconut milk + 50 ml liquid = 200ml... no cooking required.

    hi Tri2Cook-

    For a 200ml can coconut milk, I want to add some other flavoring liquid to it, then reduce the total volume by evaporation/dripping. The end result should be as thick/dense as the original 200ml coconut milk. Else the coconut flavor might not be as intense.

    I always wonder why exactly canned stuff aren't as fresh-tasting as the freshly-prepared ones?

  8. hi sanrensho & gap-

    i'm trying to make a base that combines coconut milk and extra liquid(fruit juice/tea), and maintains/approximates the original volume and density(200ml).

    I've noticed that: If you freeze coconut milk and thaw it, it seperates/curdles, and turn into "water+little fat solids". So...so far it seems cooking is the only way out. Still, I'm interested to find out whether there's a no-cook method...

    hi Lior-

    Cracking open a coconut then grating it is a major challenge itself...a can of good-quality coconut milk seems to be the answer...can't compete with the freshness though.

  9. Hi! I have a 200ml-can of coconut milk. I want to mix it with other liquid(fruit juice/tea), then reduce it to the original volume(i.e. 200ml). I tried boiling it over med-low heat, it worked, but: 1.Requires lots of stirring; 2.Seems to loose some of the "freshness"(?); 3.It's quite difficult to tell when to stop cooking(I have to constantly stop and measure) and pull it off heat.

    I'm wondering if there's any other way to do it(e.g. a no-cook method)? Maybe "coffee filter and natural dripping"? Any ideas?

  10. I didn't have time to read through everyone's responses, so I'm not sure if this has been mentioned or not.  Your toffee is getting sticky because it isn't coated in chocolate to protect it from the moisture in the air.  If you want to make uncoated toffee pieces and store them, then you need to put it in an air-tight container with some dessicant.

    Hi Naes, I did store those in airtight containers before, after several days, pieces seem to melt a bit and begin to stick to each other. I have no idea how they will look like when they've been sent through postal: will they still seem yummy or will one simply look ruin the recipient's appetite? I read somewhere that you should keep toffee in plastic containers and never in metal ones or ziploc bags else they stick. I will get the dessicant however.

  11. I couldn't have said it better myself. 

    That being said I use an allclad 8 quart for some things and an old lagostina professional for others.  It's a clad pot as well, thick enough to prevent burning, allow me to use a higher heat and avoid having to stir all the time. 

    I have a new 4 1/2 quart meyer induction compatible pot that I picked up at Tuesday Morning while I was in Hershey.  It has what appears to be an aluminum disk on the bottom, covered in stainless so it can be used on an induction element.  I'm interested to see if it is large enough to make a batch of something like chewy caramel with out boiling over.  I want a pot that has a smaller surface area than the 8 quart allclad.

    So get that heavier pot and try turning up the heat to medium and see how it goes. 

    As far as a thermometer - I tend to use the pyrex digital, they are fairly reliable at the lower chocolate tempering temperature and when the calibration goes off a bit, then I use them for candy.  A non digital glass candy thermometer would work just fine, but it has a tendency to get in the way when you stir and therefore you sometimes get a bit of burnt stuff behind it.

    Kerry, I want to say thanks for a long time for all the kind suggestions you've been giving me yet got distracted...by other candy recipes that keep popping up during online research. Shame. I understand you have to be focused if you want to make good candy and one at a time really is the way to go.

    I don't have very good control over this sticky issue yet, I therefore sometimes use cracker crumbs/almond dust to cover/absorb the moisture. But that shouldn't be the right attitude with proper candy-making.

  12. ... using a regular saucepan, not a heavy-bottom one...

    Please let me say something about saucepans.

    When you're boiling sugar, for me, the ideal is something with copper in the base. I believe it works like this: copper conducts heat best, then aluminium, then cast iron. What that means is that you can get even heat right over the base of the saucepan with only ~2mm thickness of copper. To get the same with aluminium, you need ~6mm thickness (in the sizes we're talking about in cookware).

    When you switch off the heat, the base continues to release the heat it is holding. (The sides of the pot do, too: particularly with cast iron pots ('All Clad' too)). Typically in saucepans copper will cool (pass on the heat) quickest, then aluminium, then iron. With sugar, ideally you want to be able to stop quickly - so, you want copper.

    This doesn't mean you need mega-expensive all-copper kit. Stainless steel with a copper-disk bottom (of sufficient thickness: 1.8mm or 2mm ?) will be fine. In inexpensive stuff, Cuisinart's stainless copper-bottomed stuff, for example, is perfectly practical.

    Any thinner base will result in 'hot spots' as you experienced: fine for boiling water, not so good for sugar. Yes, you can compensate by stirring but agitation affects crystallisation, and who wants to be tied to the saucepan anyway ?

    Thanks Blether for the guidance. I will now remember this: a copper pot is essential for candy making.

    I intend to get an IH stove because of the heat issue. It's not fun to stand for a long time in front of a gas stove when you're cooking candy. Yet sales person said you can only use iron-based cooking with the IH stoves, and she particularly mentioned that copper/anything non-iron-based won't work.

  13. I followed Night’s recipe and made both vanilla and mango versions. There're still things that I couldn't figure out...

    1. Is it possible to cut the sweetness? They seemed TOO sweet. I later tried cut sugar volume by 1/2, mixture didn’t “puff up” much and becomes super rubbery. Now I’m thinking about lowering sugar volume and add same amount of corn starch directly in the syrup, or is that crazy? Rocky Mountain Marshmallows(www.marshmallowusa.com) has the right kind of sweetness for me. Ingredients shown on their package label are similar to Night’s recipe, with addition of dextrose, stabilizer and food color (Blue 1 in a white marshmallow?). Btw, what's the function of Salt in this recipe? Flavor enhancer? Stablizer?

    2. After 24 hours of resting, when cut open, the marshmallows are still quite humid inside. More obvious after sealed in a Ziploc for several days, tiny “steam” on the bag. How to tell when the marshmallow is DRY enough before dusting with the corn starch? (Like with brownies, you could stick a fork and pull out to check..)

    3. Using medium/low whipping speed(with whipping time increased), will that make a difference to the marshmallows? Mine are described as paste-y, not very marshmallow-y. I still need to find out what happened.

    As you can't really cut the sweetness, as marshmallows are basically sugar, you have to cut it to balance it. If you add lemon juice or citric acid, you will cut the sweetness and it'll balance out. I've used up to 3 or so tablespoons in one of Neil's recipe, I think it was for mango as well. It also depends on the mango that you are using. Some puree is not as sweet as others.

    As for the steaming in the bag, I understand what you mean, I had that too and since have started to put them in tupperware, where they will have sufficient air circulation and not start to sweat. Also, don't pack them in there, leave them some room to breathe.

    I think you should mix them on the highest speed to ensure you whip in the most air possible. Good luck!

    Thanks Tweety! I will try the lemon juice to see how that works.

    I asked abt. lowering the sugar as I noticed there's quite a diff. on sweetness between store bought and homemade MM. I can chow down many a piece of storebought MM but with the homemade, though i love the tenderness, two is max. And that's where the thought of adding corn starch to the syrup came from.

    I wonder if anyone knows how Michael Recchiuti makes his MM?

  14. I followed Night’s recipe and made both vanilla and mango versions. There're still things that I couldn't figure out...

    1. Is it possible to cut the sweetness? They seemed TOO sweet. I later tried cut sugar volume by 1/2, mixture didn’t “puff up” much and becomes super rubbery. Now I’m thinking about lowering sugar volume and add same amount of corn starch directly in the syrup, or is that crazy? Rocky Mountain Marshmallows(www.marshmallowusa.com) has the right kind of sweetness for me. Ingredients shown on their package label are similar to Night’s recipe, with addition of dextrose, stabilizer and food color (Blue 1 in a white marshmallow?). Btw, what's the function of Salt in this recipe? Flavor enhancer? Stablizer?

    2. After 24 hours of resting, when cut open, the marshmallows are still quite humid inside. More obvious after sealed in a Ziploc for several days, tiny “steam” on the bag. How to tell when the marshmallow is DRY enough before dusting with the corn starch? (Like with brownies, you could stick a fork and pull out to check..)

    3. Using medium/low whipping speed(with whipping time increased), will that make a difference to the marshmallows? Mine are described as paste-y, not very marshmallow-y. I still need to find out what happened.

  15. Sounds like a couple of things to try - first use your thermometer.  There is a huge range of results you might get when you test your crack stages in water depending on water temperature, experince with the technique etc, so you will probably benefit from the consistancy of the thermometer initially.  The same ingedients will have very different structures depending on the temp to which they are cooked. 

    Do you have a heavy pot or access to one?  That will allow you to cook a bit faster which will minimize the inversion.  And you won't have to obsess as much with the stirring.

    This candy can still crystallize in spite of the glucose, what makes it's texture is the way it cystallizes.  It does change over the days after you cook it.  I actually did some experiments that we talked about somewhere, where I added some fine sugar after cooking to encourage crystals of a nice small size. 

    With the 'tiny sweats' you can wipe off, do they evaporate and feel crystalline, or remain greasy after a couple of hours?

    The cocoa powder works great for getting the chocolate to stick.  I've never seen the advice anywhere either, just something I figured out - hey I'm in inventor!!!

    Kerry,

    I will be using digital thermometer then! I did read once that they could be more than 10 degrees off when temp>212F, guess that’s part of the reason why I didn’t use it before. I have two of these, the old one is actually brand new, just that I noted a 12F discrepancy when the water temp actually hit 212F, which got me to buy a new one immediately after. Are mercury ones much better and stable?

    Do you mean with a heavy-bottom saucepan, I should turn the heat up to medium-high instead of extremely low? I’ll try to control myself not to stir as much when the mixture comes to a boil.

    Shame I couldn’t really tell(for now) what grainy or recrystallization is like, I’m now eG-ting your thread mentioned. Recrystallization seems like a plague that everyone try to avoid. Yet when you don’t know about it, you don’t worry about it, even your pot is yelling right this moment “I’m crystallizing! I’m crystallizing!” That’s the benefit of being candy-illiterate.

    About the “tiny sweats”, I need to break up some new pieces and see if they would be “dried” or “greasy” in a few hours. My memory says “greasy” though…but I could be wrong, so I will test and find out. And I’m thinking maybe the cocoa powder would be a fix-it-all…Ahhh, it’s not right for me to think like that…

  16. Question for you - How quickly did you boil the candy initially?  Long slow boils cause more sugar inversion, inverted sugar is hygroscopic (attracts water) and will make your candy sticky.

    The loss of shine and change in texture makes me wonder if the sugar has crystallized, when you break the candy what does the texture look like?  (Hard question I know)

    Kerry,

    For fear of separation, I boiled the candy over extremely low heat on the gas stove, using a regular saucepan, not a heavy-bottom one. Stir like a mad man all the way through(Some say stir, some say don’t. So one time I tried not-stir, and the toffee was heated unevenly: one spot got caramelized before the rest of the pot is done. I stick to the “mad stir” method after this one incident. I figure by adding corn syrup, won’t matter stir or not, as recrystallization won’t happen if I add corn syrup once the cane sugar came to a boil. Am I right on that one?)

    Can I say your second question is really really difficult…I wish I had the camera right next to me! So, I grab a piece of candy, and break it open to check out the inside, this is the best I could describe it: a little bit moist. I think I could see some very tiny “sweats” on it(don’t know if it’s oil or water). I then wipe it with a kitchen towel to see if this could “soak up” the “moist” and give the toffee a “dry” look. Nope, same olde English toffee.

  17. Kerry Beal's eGCI class on toffee might help answer some of your questions.

    Thanks for the link! I’ve been reading on Kerry’s version and noticed that she uses cocoa powder to dust the toffee’s oily surface. This is one step not mentioned in any other recipe, maybe that could have made the difference? Yet, candies like Enstrom’s, they aren’t fully enrobed and have butter-naked sides that are open to the air. I still couldn’t figure this out.

    Also, last night, I made yet a new batch, this time using more icy water for the test. The candy is HARD and CHEWY. I mean, those are two totally different quality(hard crack and soft crack stages from what I read)and aren’t suppose to happen in the same piece of candy, no?

  18. I made this on a "butter:sugar=1:1" base.

    I didn't use the candy thermometer, as I don't seem to manage too well to cook and read at the same time. Instead, I did the cold water test(use tab water, not icy cold water though). As soon as the drop-in-the-water gives a "snap", pull the saucepan off the heat and poured onto the buttered/oiled cookie sheet.(I have a new digital probe thermometer, haven't test its accuracy yet.)

    Slice the candy when cooled off a bit, to give an easy break later.When candy completely cooled, it seemed quite nice, only leaves a oily stain on your fingers when picking up, but they don't stick to each other. When you bite into them, it's also an OK snap, don't stick to your teeth when you chew.

    Then, I wrap the candy in aluminum foil and put in airtight container. I want to see for how long they can keep before I go forward with a bigger batch. (For that reason, I made the candy "naked", without the chocolate and nut layer, so it's easier to identify any future changes to the candy.)

    Now it's day 3, I checked the candy: sticky. :wacko:

    -the pieces lost their glossy shiny shell(same like when you leave a store bought candy out in the open, not very appetite-arousing to look-at)

    -sticky to the touch and begins to glue with each other

    -when you bite, not that much of a "snap" any more and they stick to your teeth(considering they're already foil-wrapped)

    My original plan was to make the candy(with the choc and almond), pack in tins and send out, now seems this can't be done with this sticky problem. Why's that happening? Is it because I didn't use the candy thermometer and didn't cook it long enough? Or do professional candy people have some special things done to their English Toffee?

    Candy gurus out there, can you tell me how to fix this?

    Btw, my toffee tastes nothing like those Almond Roca in the pin canister, more on the buttery side. Shall I cut down on the butter used as well?

  19. Escry, John, Steve:

    Thank You all for your guidance~

    I will give kiwi one more try (at puree:sugar=2:1 w/o pectin), just to see if there's any beginners' luck to make this thing work(fat chance i know), but for research, it's worth the efforts(for me i mean).

    And now i understand refractometer is essential, that way i don't have to guess.

    When this is tackled, i will experiment on the Wine Jelly recommended, see how sweet that one is.

    I think you can only find what you are looking for, so another must-do is to sample those ready-made top PDFs, like Ricchiuti's, or one by your PDF-house's.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    P.s. On pectin, just in case anyone would be interested, there're people out there making their own liquid apple pectin from raw apples. You can google that.

  20. first try on pates de fruits: sampled a small serving while still warm, %$#@*sweet!

    ingredients:

    500g apple puree(not adding apple peel/seeds);

    500g sugar;

    bring to boil over medium-low heat, stir always.

    then, do the jelly test: put a drop of the cooked puree on a frozen plate->freeze it for a minute->the drop's pliable and not sticky, ready to pour out to set.

    (Powder pectin is temporarily not an option for me as it's hard to locate in local market. This 1:1 recipe is used by quite some food bloggers through an online search.)

    anyone knows if it's possible to cut the sugar by 1/2 and still jellify perfectly without any extra ingredients? Now the sugar totally overpowers the apple. Just sweetness. Didn't taste any fruit in it. And i was planning for Kiwi if this apple thing worked, since apple are said to be most pectin-packed.

    (p.s. the pot used to cook up the puree is very difficult to clean, same like hard-syrup-stiking. Have to boil some water to resolve the dried sugar. Does this mean the puree is also overcooked?)

    Merci d'avance!

  21. Steve, if you just want to WRITE with the pastry bag, then there's one easy way out.

    It takes only a piece of paper, your melted chocolate, and a spoon.

    1. Fold the paper round-and-round to form an (icecream shape) cone. So one side is with a small hole, the other side is wide open. We all eat icecream and know what a cone looks like so I assume this won't be a problem~

    2. With a spoon, carefully pour in(to the cone) spoonful after spoonful of melted chocolate.

    3. Then, gently fold down the open end, just for easy holding and no-tilting-out-of-chocolate.

    4. Write whatever you want on your cake. Just remember: don't squeeze the paper bag, let the melted chocolated slowly drifted down by itself.

    Voila! (This is the least intimidating version of pastry bag so far...)

    If only someone would put up a DEMO of how real(non-plastic) pastry bags are installed and used to pipe out those danish cookies. Those are real pros to me...

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