Mary Elizabeth
-
Posts
72 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Mary Elizabeth
-
-
kermie:
This time I used cold brewed coffee. It had a milder coffee taste.
Peter: I think caffeine stays the same. The cold brew was a 100:25 water to coffee brew, used directly in the jelly without diluting. It tastes mild, the web sites say less acids, but packs a buzz.
-
emmalish and Kerry--Thank you for responding! I used a mol d'art to do a "controlled melt" with Guittard 72% wafers. I set the mol d'art at 30C and nothing happened for 24 hours, so I set it at 33C and nothing happened for 8 hours, so I set it at 40C and after 2 hours they were thickly melted as you see. They never melted thin. When I took the bowl out to cool, it hardened out of temper. I don't understand how it got out of temper if it never got warm enough to melt thin. In fact, there were always bits of unmelted wafers in there.
Kerry--The centers were room temp, they had been out air drying since I started the chocolate melting. I'm glad to hear that is common to leak, you're right it leaked at the thin spots. Re: streaky, you're right, I didn't stir once I started dipping. That caused the streaking, and did it cause the loss of temper as well?
Your comments are very helpful. Thank you!
-
The set up:
The good one:
Streaky, leaky and bubbles:
I've been lurking on the confectionary threads for awhile and I want to thank the egullet chocolate posters, espcially Kerry Beal for all her generous and valuable advice and Chris Hennes for the cake leveler idea.
Any advice on the above enrobed marzipane is welcome!
-
Helenjp--Thank you for the detailed gelling ideas! Thanks for the "mocha blend" suggestion.
Kermie--I did put kalua in but didn't mention it in the recipe. The liqueur has alot of sugar, so I need to reduce the sugar when I use it.
Peter--I agree that delicious fresh brewed coffee is not always good in food. I have tried several methods of making ice cream with fresh brewed coffee, but instant espresso tastes better to me in ice cream. We drink Starbucks black roast, and it tastes great, but was unbearable in the jelly. The Peets Columbian I used for the jelly was tasteless as a beverage, but perfect in the jelly. The coffee flavor stayed the same after incorporating the whipped cream.
-
Shinju--Sorry about my confusing sentence. I tried to be brief and I was confusing.
I baked the collapsed cake in a loaf pan lined with greased parchment, then after 7 minutes in the oven, I disturbed the surface, as suggested in an internet recipe. The point of this, I guess, was to limit the rise and keep the crumb tight and keep the cake from collapsing in the middle. As you see it collapsed all over and became very dense. So I baked the same recipe a second time like a typical foam cake, using an ungreased loaf pan, and inverting it after baking. I got the flat top I wanted, but the castella I see in stores has a finer crumb.
The two cakes in the picture are the same recipe and same size pan. The collapsed one was too gummy to eat. The tall one was good. I use Pichot Ong's recipe, which has a good taste. I used the genoise method to foam the eggs in the cakes in the picture. For the cake at the top of this thread I got a finer crumb when I made the Ong recipe with a separate foam method.
I'm glad you mentioned the pullman pan, because that was going to be my next experiment. An internet recipe mentioned filling the loaf pan to the top and weighting the top down with a sheet pan once it browned. But I have a nice pullman pan I want to try.
You also mention the darker crust, which I like. The castella I see in stores has a dark brown crust than I am unable to get--I even tried malt powder, which another internet recipe suggested, but that didn't help.
Thank you so much for the suggestion of the pullman pan. If you remember anything else--like, did they bake it the full time with the top on, or did they have the top off at the beginning or the end? did the fill the batter to the top of the pan or half way?--let me know.
-
mkayahara and Melange--I made the jelly and bavarian with columbian beans, light roast, medium grind, added extra water, and it was perfect. Thank you for your help!
-
Thank you sanrensho! Someone in the coffee forum had some good suggestions to use Columbian beans, light roast, large grind. It made a milder coffee. Thanks for responding to my post.
-
Castella Collapse Syndrome:
SuzySushi and Kuma--Seven minutes into baking, I ran a chop stick zigzig across the top of the soon to be collapsed castella. I decided to skip the fancy techniques and just bake it in ungreased pan and invert, like a typical foam cake, which gave me the flat top I wanted.
That you very much for responding to my request!
-
First, I took the professional program at Michel Suas' San Francisco Baking Institute. My classmates and I baked most of the recipes in Advanced Bread and Pastries, and I can tell you they all work. Which is more than I can say about any other cookbook I own.
Second, dougal, you seem like a valuable, intelligent person, but you need someone to tell you that that was a rant, not constructive to anyone or anything.
-
mkayahara and Melange--Thank you for responding! I have a french press, and I'll follow your suggestions about beans and adding water to weaken the strength. I don't know coffee, so you have been very helpful.
-
I'm trying to make this coffee geletin and creme, and the coffee flavor is too harsh. I am using a Pasquini espresso machine and Starbucks/Costco beans, fresh ground. Is there a way to make strong coffee that is smoother, more suitable for a dessert like this? Maybe instant coffee/espresso?
-
bibbotson--Thank you for that fabulous reply!
-
Kimshook--Thank you! Pandora is Italian and sometimes referred to as a cake. It is a brioche type yeast bread with even more butter, sugar and eggs than French brioche. It is similar to the Italian yeast bread Panetone, except Panetone uses more yolks or only yolks while Pandoro uses whole eggs. When toasted the crust is very short and shatters when you bite, while all that butter in the crumb melts to a satin smooth texture.
-
Artisanbaker--don't you need the water in the buttter to turn to steam to provide the lift in laminated doughs? Do the French who use beurre sec do something additional to get the lift between layers? Or am I overestimating the importance of the water in butter?
-
Several egullet threads have mentioned jellied coffee and coffee bavarian. I made this coffee jelly, and took part of it to fold with whipped cream to make the bavarian cream. The recipe I made up was this.
for the jelly:
coffee, 500g
sugar, 60g
gelatin, 10g
for the bavarian:
whipped cream at 50% of jelly
The gelatin worked out fine at 2% of the liquid. The whipped cream was OK at 50% of the jelly. However, the coffee taste was too harsh. I used 4 double espressos from a Pasquini espresso machine with Starbucks/Costco beans, fresh ground. I'm thinking instant espresso powder or trablit would be a less bitter coffee taste. I'm wondering if anyone makes coffee jelly/bavarian, and what they use for coffee.
-
Dystopiandreamgirl--That's really elegant!
-
SuzySushi and Kuma--Thank you so much for replying. I'm amazed that strangers can be so helpful. I'll definately incorporate your advice and post a pic when I get it right.
Kuma--One internet recipe said to disturb the surface of the castella several times as it begins to bake, popping any bubbles. That advice is similar to your stirring suggestion, to get the dense crumb that distinguishes it from a typical sponge.
-
I tried to make Pichot Ong's honey castella twice, and it sank in the middle. I have seen 5 recipes on the web and one says to beat low 15 minutes, fill pan to top, then weigh it down (like pain de mie?) after the top browns. This would result in a tight crumb sponge, I'm guessing. Is this correct? I'm going to try one more time, this time not greasing the pan and inverting it to cool, like a chiffon. But I was wondering if anyone had first hand experience of honey castella.
-
Pichet Ong's Honey Castella:
I sinks in the middle. I made half his recipe, used his genoise method, put it in an 8" round cake, ungreased for traction, and it sank. I tried again with a separate foam method with a really stiff french meringue, put it in a greased 5x10" loaf, and it sank also. Any suggestions on how to get a level cake?
-
milgwimper--I love glorified rice. Is glorified rice a midwestern thing? Here's my basic recipe:
rice, sushi or jasmine: 1C/200g raw
cook and chill
Pichet Ong's carmelized pineapple
one pineapple: chop into 1/4 inch
sugar: 1/3 C/ 66g
vanilla bean
simmer all 1 hour, chill
cream: 1 pint
confectioners sugar: 1/4+ C/ 30g+
whip stiff
fold together, will be soupy but stiffens as it chills
-
gfron--I agree. Also: toasted, with butter and jam, and strong coffee.
-
Rosle stainless steel containers are sold at www.cookswares.com, under "kitchen containers." The people here are very nice to deal with. They will special order anything.
-
Biagio Settepani's pandoro from Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking:
-
Chefpeon--Thank you for the unfortunate cakes link!
Confections! (2006-2012)
in Pastry & Baking
Posted · Edited by Mary Elizabeth (log)
Thank you all for the great advice on working with the mol d'art. Somewhere I saw a post that high percentage chocolate is difficult to work with, and that they used chocolate in the 50% range. Does anyone think the Guittard 72% is a problem?
Lior--very gracious of you to ask my advice. I got the cute swirl because I was using a loop, not a fork, and when I set the dipped center on the parchment, I dragged the loop out, pulling alot of chocolate with it. I had to get rid of the chocolate, so I pulled it along the side of the piece and dumped it on top as if with a piping bag, where you pull away with a "@." Which left me with a thin, leaky bottom.