Tri2Cook

Not fearful at all, just trying to figure out which of the books I have would be most appropriate for this event.

Disclaimer: I'm not a chocolate expert. That said, I've used properly stored chocolate over a year old for personal baking as long as it passed the sniff and taste tests... and not only the unsweetend stuff. Tasting unsweetened chocolate isn't the horrible experience you may be picturing, especially if you eat a lot of darker chocolates anyway, but you could mix a little sugar and some water, heat it and pour it over the chocolate then mix it up good. That will add some sweetness without adding things that will mask the taste. If it still tastes good that way, it will taste good in the recipe. If you're really worried, taste it a couple days before you want to bake. If you don't spend a night on the throne, you'll be fine.

Sounds fun, I'm in. Just out of curiosity, what qualifies as her books for something like this? Do the "...with Master Chefs" and "Baking with..." books qualify despite really just being collections of recipes from other chefs? If not, the only other Julia book I have is Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I suppose I could find something in there to do. Might even be a better tribute since I've never done anything from it. It just seemed like one of those books every collection should have. Anyway, I'm probably over-complicating this but I definitely want to do it.

I'm curious about them as well. Not so much about the chocolate version but tastykakes in general. There must be something about them that makes them stand out. Michael Laiskonis has two plated dessert recipes on his blog that incorporate them. One using peanut butter tastykakes to make a malted peanut tastykake ice cream (which is plated with peanut butter powder, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, lemon confit, roasted salted peanuts, maldon sea salt, and dark chocolate rectangles) and one using vanilla cream tastykakes to make a tastykake cream and a tastykake tuile (which are plated with coconut sorbet, citrus biscuit and vanilla star anise infused pineapple juice). I'd never heard of them before seeing those recipes and I've definitely never seen them so I haven't been able to try the recipes.

I don't have any helpful information for your friend. For me personally, I think it would depend how not "really well in years" I felt. I think if I'd gone my entire life with it and it didn't appear it was going to kill me or cause any severe problems I would probably just work out some kind of moderation deal with myself to try to keep feeling unwell to a minimum. Of course, I'm not a doctor and I tend to be a bit of a risk-taker with myself so I wouldn't tell anyone else that's the way to go.

Very nice! The blueberries are running a little late this year here but it's looking like it's going to be great in about another week or so. I went out scouting today and picked 2 gallons but it took a lot longer than normal. Most are just starting to ripen or still green.

I guess I was thinking in a different direction. Bread never crossed my mind as part of it. I was picturing more of a plated desserts type of thing. I'm not sure I'd want to watch even my favorite pastry chefs in a bread competition. I like to make it, love to eat it, but I think watching it as a competition show would be right up there with watching paint dry. Maybe worse since there wouldn't be the fumes to take your mind off the boredom. Doing restaurant style plated desserts allows for all the twists and difficulties of the challenges that are thrown at them in the regular version of the show.

I've wondered that as well. It always shows them rushing to beat the clock together and then the food is served consecutively. I'd like to think they have a way of compensating for that little problem that we're not allowed to see. If not, it will completely change my outlook on the show. I'd hate to do a perfect souffle and then find out it would be 20 minutes before anyone was going to see/eat it.

Well there you go. I can't argue with the man who created them. I have the recipe he shared, I don't remember where I got it (Star Chefs maybe?), and it instructs to extrude it straight into a 165f bath. I've done shrimp blocks before and always poached them in the bag, they've never felt set enough to remove and slice before poaching to me. Hopefully someone else will chime in, I haven't used it for noodles or sheets in a while. I mainly use it for construction projects now. I'd definitely start by breaking out the scale next time though.

...and Michael Laiskonis and Johnny Iuzzini and Alex Stupak and Sam Mason...

Probably too much to ask but it would be cool to see some sort of "Top" series based on pastry.

When Wiley does the shrimp noodles, he extrudes them into a 165f water bath. It is a paste until it hits the heated water where it immediately firms into "noodles". I think to do what you're trying to do you will have to make sure the sheets are well sealed (preferably vac packed but some careful wrapping should be ok) and poach them before slicing.

We revised the points system of our little game to match the number of competitors during these finals. As a result, the point value of winning a round will drop as competitors are eliminated. That made this one valuable. The inner fanboy wanted me to go with Chef Keller or, maybe, Chef Bayless. My head told me to go with Chef Lo based on what I saw during her first win. I listened to my head. I finally got another one right... and nobody else was close. Narrowed the gap a bit this week. Art seems like a really cool person but it kinda depresses me that an undercooked lamburger with hard boiled egg beat Suzanne's dish... even if it wasn't as hot as it should have been. Of course I didn't have the benefit of tasting them so I'm not a reliable witness.

#%$@ that looks tasty!

I realize you weren't being insulting but, just out of curiosity, why would using the correct name for something be considered "mouthing off"? "Hydrocolloids" is simply a name for a category of ingredients, no different than "sweeteners". It's just a word used to refer to a wide range of ingredients that serve a common purpose.

Viewed strictly as a shelf life issue, no. It's probably not worth it for small, quickly consumed batches. There are other benefits though... body, mouthfeel, resistance to thermal shock (temp changes from going in and out of the freezer), air retention (overrun), ice crystal control (size), preventing moisture migration, fat stabilization (preventing butter chunks during churning) and probably many more that I'm forgetting without my notes. Whether or not it's worth it really depends on whether or not you're happy with the results you get without it.

The components in frozen desserts fit within ranges expressed as a percentage of the total base by weight. For example total milkfat = xx% - yy%, not just "it should be xx%". This applies to stabilizers and emulsifiers just as much as any other ingredient. So seeing varying amounts of a given ingredient (cornstarch in this case) for a similar amount of base is entirely possible without straying outside of an optimal range. I'd try the recipe as written the first time and make notes on any adjustments you find necessary for your taste for the next time.

Note to pilot: cheap, delicious, beautiful... pick two.

Nice source... wish there was something like that in Canada. The only one I know of here is a wholesaler who does much larger minimums than I can work with.

Only relates to one particular area but... Francisco Migoya - Frozen Desserts ...as a book to make use of and refer to regularly, I've enjoyed this one even more than the Alinea book.

What RWood said... and you can also puree them with a bit of water and use it to get a nice brown butter flavor without the fat.

And just to get maximum harvest for your effort, add some dry milk powder to the butter and let it brown too. When you seive off the butter you'll have some nice brown butter solids to play with.

There's nothing mysterious about it, just think of it in terms of varieties. If you grow Brandywine, San Marzano and Green Zebra tomatoes they're all tomatoes but each has it's own individual characteristics and will be best suited for a particular purpose. Sometimes combining a couple of varieties gives you the results you want, say a mix of Sungold and Black cherry tomatoes to get the sweet and tart thing happening. The three carrageenan types produce different gel strengths and serve different purposes depending on application. Kappa is firm and brittle gelling, especially in the presence of potassium. Iota is soft and elastic gelling with it's strongest gel forming in the presence of calcium. They both require heat for proper hydration. Lambda is cold soluble but can be used in heated applications as well. It's very-soft/non gelling.

For working with most hydrocolloids, a scale that goes down to a hundredth of a gram is well worth the $50 - $60 you can get them for. Unless you do huge batch sizes, you'll be dealing in those sorts of numbers quite often.

Darienne: Since you're in the mood to play... guar = good stabilizer, better in combination with carrageenan or carrageenan + LBG LBG = decent stabilizer alone, good in combination with carrageenan or carrageenan + guar xanthan = good emulsifier/stabilizer for ice cream, excess can cause chewiness... best results used in combination with LBG and guar carrageenan = kappa + iota for low fat bases, lambda for full fat bases sodium alginate = good ice cream stabilizer gelatin = good general-purpose stabilizer... not vegetarian like the others which may or may not be an issue CMC = good stabilizer for low fat bases agar = decent stabilizer for low fat bases... least ideal of those on this list ...and you can go into all kinds of experimenting with various combinations until you find the one that makes you happy. Xanthan : LBG : Guar at 1 : 1.25 : 1.25 is a good starting place for ice cream.