Mary Elizabeth

Kerry--Obviously the Grewling book is encyclopedic and a must-have. But it has a formality that precludes advice such as hitting the used utensils with a heat gun. I would buy your book. Then I could get rid of all these print-outs I made of your egullet advice.

Kerry--you should put your chocolate tips into a book. The big glossy books don't go into the nitty gritty of chocolate work, just the glamour.

I can add to the egg question. When I do a recipe, I look through all my books and list their ratios to see what overall patterns turn up. For "sable breton" I have 9 recipes--San Francisco Baking Institute, S. Glazier, Herme, Galloyer, LaRousse Des Desserts, LaRousse, Professional French Pastry Series (2), Healy--6 call for yolk, 3 call for egg, all using eggs. Unfortunately, I didn't note methods. Just now taking a quick look, the Professional French Pastry Series recognizes 1. pate a foncer, always with sablage method; 2. pate sucree, either the sablage or the creaming method; and 3. pate sablee, usually the sablage method. The PFPS describes sablage as coating the flour with fat before adding the liquids; creaming as mixing liquids with fat, then adding the flour. The LaRousse des Desserts, Herme, recognizes 1. pate brisee aka pate a foncer, with yolk, with a creaming method; 2. pate brisee, without egg, with a creaming method; 3. pate sablee with a sablage method; 4. pate sucree with a creaming method. Beyond methods of the order in which you add the ingredients, the pate brisee is mixed using the heel of the hand to smear the dough until homogenized. The pate sablee is worked with the fingertips until mixed but not too well mixed.The pate a foncer and pate sucree are just mixed with a wooden spoon or spatula to well incorporated. Lebowits--I enjoyed responding to your question--it got me thinking more clearly about these doughs.

Chocolate pains au chocolat

I made this soft almond ice cream from Paco Torrreblanca. The recipe called for cremodan stabilizer. I used cobasan (E420 glucose, E450b emulgator). Can someone tell me what cremodan is?

Judiu--Thanks for noticing! I worked on that. I use dried blueberries, hydrate them with a little cassis and apple juice, then thicken any juice left over with cornstarch. Here is an apple turnover where the filling was too wet. Some of the already eaten apple turnovers look like what you described, that big gap. I think that gap comes from wet filling turning to steam and simultaneously raising the puff while depleting the filling, creating the gap.

Liddell and Weir chestnut ice cream with Ducasse "milk jam" same with Liddell and Weir fudge sauce blueberry turnover

I went to the AA Bakery in San Francisco and took these photos. Tepee inspired me to get some small molds: And here's where I got the molds:

sheetz--I moved to SF in '78 and lived on Filbert 2 blocks from Grant, and I thought the red bean cakes at Eastern Bakery then were delicious. They are the "remembered ideal" cakes I tried to recreate above. hzrt8w--I will definately try AA Bakery next time.

I love red bean moon cakes and have enjoyed this thread. Tepee, your mooncakes are beautiful. I have lived in SF for 30 years, and I started getting moon cakes at Eastern Bakery, but I got some there this past year and they were inedible. Anyone know why the change? I'm glad someone helped me figure out how to make my own, disaster preparedness. This mold came from the Wok Shop in SF.

torakris--Thank you! I loved cold brewed coffee in the jelly. I wouldn't use anything else in the future. The ratios I gave at the top of the thread are good, except you can reduce the sugar by half with the milder cold brew.

sanrensho--Those were great links! Thanks.

jumanggy--I greased my parchment liner, which led to the very collapsed castella at the top of the thread. sanrenso--You mention that the foam is 40-50% -- (is that a volume to weight ratio?) -- and that that is a thick foam, not a weak foam as I had suggested. That is a very important point. The cakes are light, with alot of air incorporated; it is just that the air bubbles are small and even, so that it looks like a tight crumb. The thread "Tiger skin roulade" has a picture of another type of sponge with small, regular bubbles. I wonder how they get bubbles like that? I skimmed through Mcgee's "egg foam" section, but I couldn't find anything that addressed that issue. I have seen cookbooks say to beat slow-medium to get a small bubble/stable foam. I wonder if they use some emulsifier to get that fine grain, or if it is beating technique.

jumanggy--You did a nice job. That cake looks great. Mine sunk more in the middle when I tried half the recipe in an 8" round cake pan. My technique, without doubt. Did you put a parchment collar around the sides of the pan? Nice photos, as usual.

sanrensho--zarame is beautiful. That's a great technique. shinju--OK, I am really impressed. That top crust especially is right on the mark. It has a smoothe surface and is distinct from the cake. When you're done tweaking, will you tell us how you did it? You really did a terrific job! And no, that cake from Nijiya was not very good, due to storage problems probably.