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jumanggy

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Everything posted by jumanggy

  1. Thanks, junehl! Actually? Assembling's no problem. Making joconde's scary at first but turned out okay. The most annoying part's grinding your own almonds-- spent an hour on it-- but if I had access to fresh almond flour, it's a breeze
  2. patris, those look perfect! Too bad about the butter. The description, with the sea salt caramel's makin me drool now (ignoring the butter detail). I would love to be able to make them but blanched almonds really clean out my wallet. Case in point: Made an Opera cake for my birthday and served it to my friends with dinner (recipe from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan). Thought I'd push whatever baking skills I acquired in the last few months since I graduated to the limit (okay, I'm sure this isn't the hardest thing on the menu... but my pans and utensils aren't that many! I used a frakkin blender to grind those blasted almonds!). As you can see one of the joconde's noticeably thicker. I must live on a slope or something (or too blind to even out the batter in one direction). Also, my pans were not as large as stated in the recipe, so ++ thicker. Sorry to those who think glacage looks cheap, but I've never tried it before, and I really love how it looks, since my ganache smoothing skills leave a lot to be desired. Thank God some of my friends actually loved the glacage's taste! I got the recipe from CakeChef (same as gfron1, I think, following his instructions on temperatures-- but I did it from start to finish in the microwave). (Asking you guys now what to do with extra glacage, beside eat it like a cocoa jelly)
  3. AFAIK Wilton (and probably other manufacturers) offers a "spaghetti" tip specifically for this purpose. Tip #235 here: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.c...DF027EB4874EBF7
  4. Dorie's tart dough is a pâte brisée, if I'm not mistaken. She specifically states in the book that the freezing is so that you don't have to bother with blind-baking. I am guessing the foil is to prevent the bottom from browning too quickly. I haven't had a problem with the sides collapsing BUT I do have a tendency to make the sides thicker and denser (I tamp it in, I don't roll it out due to the heat here), which is not as great when you have to cut through it.
  5. Hi Paul, In Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie recommends freezing the crust solid and baking with foil on top, then removing the foil for the last few minutes of baking, pushing anything that's puffed up down with a spoon. It's worked fairly well for me (the spoon didn't really do much, but I didn't need to prick it with a fork either as there's minimal puffing). The aluminum saucepan lid idea sounds good, but wouldn't it still be slightly domed anyway?
  6. I tried the Linzer Tart, and I swapped the ground almonds in the crust for the same volume of Valrhona cocoa. It was only 2-1/2 tablespoons and we never have almond meal here, so I improvised that. Even if I had the appropriate-sized tart pan (3/4 inch high), rolling out the dough to slightly less than 1/4 inch turned out a very small crust. I had to roll it to half that thickness, so as you can imagine I had an even bigger problem transferring it to the tart pan. Also, since I'm in the Philippines, as you roll the dough it exponentially becomes softer! Really hard to work with. I should have used my head blind baking it-- I misinterpreted the instructions and used a parchment circle to cover only the bottom of the crust and filled it with rice. Naturally, when I removed the blind bakers, there was rice stuck everywhere on the inside of the crust and I had to flick them all away with the point of a knife. When I unmolded the tart, I was hoping the ganache and sticky jam would keep all the insides together, but naturally a little bit of the edge of the crust came away on one of the sides. Nothing major and I didn't photograph that part obviously In any case, the crust was still pleasantly crumbly and the combination truffle + jam was quite luscious. I described it as "like eating a Valentine's box of chocolates."
  7. Thank you Pat, that sounds wonderful! I love that the passion fruit glaze has a gradient of yellow to orange... looks smashing. Ruth, thank you so much! Tri2cook, hmmmmm maybe we can trade whatever photography skills I have for your dessert wizardry, how's that? Hahaha, thanks very much PS I saw your fishing post in the Art of the Dessert thread--- Oh my God, you are such a liar! Whatever really! This is the Linzer Tart from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé, with added Valrhona cocoa in the crust. I had a few problems with the crust that I'm going to share in the special CDBPH thread
  8. Rob, thanks! I really appreciate it. You had no scales or measuring cups? I think the fact that it's just overgelatinized is no big deal! I am loving the description-- but I haven't yet reached gfron levels of adventure to use celery in dessert! (and to want to make it stronger!) PJM, that is fantastic! (hmm mousses popular at this thread today..)
  9. Hilary, those gingerbread tiles look so elegant. I want a special rolling pin!! I didn't make a lot of desserts but here they are: Religieuses Framboises: Key Lime Bars and Lemon Squares:
  10. Wow. I'm really surprised! Granted, there may be huge regional differences, but I found Popeye's chicken to be overwhelmingly salty. Could not pick up any other flavors. The breading was a little hard. The chicken meat was tender, though, and the size of the pieces huge for the most part. Popeye's in the Philippines has shut down for a while now. I did love their jambalaya. KFC does have a tendency to be greasy and the chicken pieces tiny, but they do know how to work that black pepper! I don't care much for the (other) sides of either. Here in the Philippines, all McDonald's outlets sell fried chicken (Fried Chicken McDo) for more than a decade now. It's been through a lot of recipe overhauls but it is a perennial favorite, more commonly ordered than burgers and chicken nuggets (and McSpaghetti, another Philippine McDonald's offering). They went through a black-peppery phase and I thought that was their best. Now it's just okay. All fast food chains here offer fried chicken (Wendy's, Jollibee for those familiar, A&W when they were still open), except for Burger King.
  11. The threads go by so quickly, I thought I'd bump this one (instead of the dessert thread) with my early contribution: Thick and Chewy Gingerbread Cookies from Cook's Illustrated.
  12. Rob: That's weird. Was the cake actually 12" tall in the book? (Though a lot of them don't have pictures....) I guess you were more successful in getting the cake to rise (I'm not sure how things work in high altitudes.) Regardless, it looks incredibly decadent
  13. Jayejo: I would never have been able to tell that those were the only perfect macarons, heh. They look great I made Banoffee pie a few weeks ago. And I just realized I haven't made another dessert in a while (too many people giving desserts as gifts, grr!!!).
  14. Great thickness (thinness?) on the dough, Rob! I've been aching to make strudel but I've been distracted by desserts gifted to me, again. Apricots aren't available here so I'll go a classic route, but sour cream in the dough sounds like an excellent idea, for extra tenderness and flavor.
  15. There's something worse-- I don't frequent Starbucks so I haven't seen this, but my friends were hysterical about people who just have empty cups (I'm not sure if they had hot water with them or if they had to ask), then load them up on the "condiment" counter with chocolate, creamer, and sugar for an absolutely free "hot chocolate." Yeesh!
  16. I've become a fan of Pushing Daisies too-- check out the Television Without Pity forums for fans chiming in on the food of PD (they even share recipes-- and someone wrote in a Gruyere and Pear pie). http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/in...0entry9137405
  17. (Torte?) When I peeked at the book, the cake was covered instead in fondant, so I've been dying to see the original version. It looks and sounds terrific!
  18. Beautiful. I'm so jealous. I've seen tiny pineapple in unusual colors, but if I'm not mistaken they were just used for ornamental purposes. (Though I suppose it wouldn't have hurt to taste one.)
  19. Maybe they ought to have a separate case of ketchup packets without a helpful little cut to get the opening going. At least moochers will have to deal with a little frustration for each packet they get. Maybe they'll even lose a tooth gnawing through one! The trainees can get a little out of hand. One wouldn't give me a spoon when I asked for one for my float (sorry if that's not the proper way to eat a float, but that's how I roll). The worst I could manage was an exasperated "FINE" with an eye-roll. Didn't call the manager or anything (pushover!)
  20. That's beautiful, Sif. It looks so expensive, like the kind of decadent cake one would serve to Italian aristocracy.
  21. I'd use the 9x9 square, then multiply the values in the recipe by 1.5. You can then divide it into 2 and cut each 4.5x9" "loaf" as before of course, keeping a close eye on the doneness, and using 2 foil/parchment overhangs on the sides to compensate for the lack of a removable bottom (cool in the pan then chill, then take out). Edit: I meant COMPENSATE, not overcompensate... Ew, a Freudian slip.
  22. Hi Jeff, andiesenji once posted a recipe for cajeta: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=881663 I've only just become interested in making something like it, so I've no idea if it's worth doing yourself (haven't tried)... Good luck!
  23. jumanggy

    Baking 101

    Thanks for the answer, Rob! Yeah, I was referring to an assembled dessert. I was thinking if I didn't have cardboard under it, I might end up with a hand-sized hole in my cake (if I push the cake up from the ring) or make a hand-shaped indentation on top (if I pull the ring up out of the cake). But the freezing/ acetate makes absolute sense now, thanks. If I do wreck my sides, I guess that's my cue to learn to temper chocolate/ use transfer sheets and hide everything! (Now all we need do is worry about the freezing of the individual components, like meringue (heh), or mousses, creams, and custards.) Thanks again!
  24. jumanggy

    Cooking Myths

    Oh, f---! I'm sure there are a lot here in the Philippines, but only one sticks in my mind-- you're not supposed to sing while cooking, or you'll marry someone ugly. Hey, at least you get married, geez. Peter, maybe we need to get the Mythbusters on that. I'd feel a little witchy trying to crack animal teeth in a pot! Avumede, that's right about the oxygen. Maybe it has more to do with the hot water pipes or something.
  25. Thanks, Kim! The frosting for the lemon cake is 7-minute frosting. I dream of the day I can whip cream to such stiff peaks. The hearts are candy sprinkles, probably designed for cupcakes (sold to me repacked for a measly $1, which is probably frowned upon by the wholesaler, but it's kind of clever): it's "cheating," but so risk-free and much, much easier than using red frosting and a heart decorating tip. And it's cute! That's the first time I've heard of streusel inside a top crust. So decadent and over-the-top, I love it. (I've never had a caramel apple pie.)
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