isomer

I use the tiniest pinch in vinaigrettes. Keeps them from separating. I recently read in Cook's Illustrated that they use a small amount of mayo for the same effect.

Any chance you have a link for that? I can't find it. thanks

That is a thing of beauty. Thanks for sharing (and inspiring!)

It's the sound of saying the letter "N". Maddle-"N"

I borrowed Daniel Leader's book "Local Bread" from the library, and I made the multigrain Quintessential French Sourdough (Pain au Levain Multigrain). I'm waiting for them to cool...and very anxious for a taste!

Whew, it's been a long time since I posted something here. Today I had my first tangible success with a whole-grain bread! The recipe I used is from a Jeff Basom. I found the recipe online here. This is a bit of a departure for me, because I am normally all about the weights and reproducibility. None the less, It seems to have worked out ok. The dough is made with 2 cups (I know! cups!) of whole grains (I used a mixture of brown rice, barley and moong dal), and I sprinkled the top with Kalonji seeds instead of using the glaze he recommends in the recipe. This recipe is definitely a keeper. The only think I will change for next time is to use a higher oven temperature than 350. The crust doesn't get that nice foxy brown color before the inside is up to 210F. Anyway, here are the two loafs I made:

I make the same sauce, as well. I only differ by finishing it with a drizzle of nice olive oil.

There is a great post on on fooducation.org that explains why chocolate seizes with a little bit of water, and becomes smooth again with a lot of water. I can't speak for anyone else (except, perhapse, for melissaH) but I found this really fascinating.

Melissa, you are rocking the house!!!

Well, it's been forever since I've posted here. I got a pasta maker attachment as a gift this weekend, so I made some fresh pasta. This is basil and cracked black pepper fettuccini. Going to actually make dinner with it tomorrow. I should have waited, but...

That sounds really interesting. How do you ensure even dispersal of the leavening agent if you leave it out until the end? Do you mix it with the liquid, and then combine with the mix and other dry ingredients right before baking?

That's really neat, tmriga. I went looking around, and they all seem to call for a shelf stable vegetable shortening. Do you think you can substitute butter, if you refrigerate the mix?

I wonder if a different strainer would work better? Those ones have a lot of wires for the cocoa butter to negotiate. What was the actual technique they used with the strainer? ← Kerry, they were trying to get a stipple effect similar to what we were doing using David's airbrush. The brushes they were using were quite small and soft, which probably didn't help.

Steve, you can definitely count me in for next year! ejw50: They seemed to have trouble with the strainer. It wasn't giving the kind of effect they were after. Using a toothbrush worked pretty well, though.

MilissaH: i don't know what people did with the other transfer sheets. I saw lots of people sticking home-made frog stencils onto dipped chocolates, though Lior: Thanks. And thanks for sending all those treats. I had a good time trying to read the labels (I was able to read "kit kat" and "halva", but not much else. It's been a long time). jturn00: As Kerry said, the icewine filling was a mixture of icewine and neutral glaze, mixed to taste. I'm afraid that I didn't get it cool enough, because those were the causalties when I unmolded my first batch. The caps all broke off. The curry coconut (or Madras) filling is very good. We made it with bought curry powder. If it were to do again, I'd toast up a fresh mixture of Mughal garam masala (green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper). It would definitely be worth doing again.

What a fantastic conference! This was so much more than I imagined it would be. It was really nice to meet and work with all of you, and make some new friends. Kerry, thank you so much for putting this conference together. Here are some photos. First the chocolates: These are filled with either caramel, raspberry butter ganache or icewine. The fillings were a group effort between Mike (what's your eG id, Mike?), MelissaH and myself. These are the first chocolates I ever made, so there were many causalties. These are the survivors: These are stenciled and filled with curry-coconut ganache. Many thanks to John DePaula, whjo gently and expertly guided me to success on this batch: Mike, MelissaH and I made these orange chocolates, which Mike enrobed: Matthew Kayahara (mkayahara) gave me this one, which I think might have the curry-coconut filling as well: Art and Wilma from Chocolate FX brought these lovely enrobed berries and nuts for us to try: The very talented Steve Lebowits gave me these beauties which he made, and brought to the course to share with us: Here is Kerry Beal showing us how to silkscreen, with MellissaH looking on: I think this is Mike piping filling into his shells: And finally, here are some shots of Brian Donaghy from Tomric giving us an "introduction to chocolate" demonstration:

When I'm baking, I use coffee filters for weighing ingredients. Works great, and keeps the dishes to a minimum.

That is truly incredible. People never cease to amaze me...

I know less than nothing about cakes or cake decorating, so I'm kinda hoping you'll teach us n00bs.

Since I've had quite a few compliments on my food photography, I thought I'd write a little post on what my studio setup looks like. Firstly, I have to credit strobist.com for their instructions on how to set up a $10 macro photo studio. Here is a photo of a Parisian apple tart that I made (from Dorie Greenspan's book, which you own and use, right?): And here's the studio set up for that photo: As you can see, this is not an expensive setup. I cut the sides and top out of the cardboard box and lined it with white tissue paper. That works as sort of a light diffuser. Then I used a piece of bristol board to make the seamless background. I have a white one I use sometimes, too. The lights are these little cheap things from Ikea. I've since switched to using some uber powerful halogen work lights from Home Depot. They're $14 each. And as you can see, I'm using a run of the mill point and shoot camera with an inexpensive tripod. Full instructions on the Strobist website linked above. Sometimes I don't even bother with the light box. I just use one halogen light on one side (or sunlight, if it's a nice day), and hold a sheet of paper on the other side of the plate as a reflector. That works nicely too. I hope this convinces you that you don't need to spend all kinds of money on expensive gear to take food photos, and of course I hope it inspires you to post more pictures of your food!

kim shook: Those look really, really good. No bake, huh? I think I may give 'em a try gfron1: I am in awe and envious of the super clean edge on that cake!!!! Ever get anywhere with the upside down bowl cake?

Totally agree on the lemon bars! I have started using Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Tart Dough for the crust, which I like quite a bit better than the CI crust. A couple of times now I've even gotten a bit fancy and done it as a lemon tart instead of as bars:

I've made the Braised Shallot Confit from Molly Steven's All About Braising a few times. They have the same character as balsamic glazed shallots but are quite a bit less sweet. Brown the shallots in butter, then add some cognac and flambées them for a minute. When there is nothing but a glaze left, add dry red wine and some thyme to the shallots, and cook covered on low heat for 45 minutes until very soft. Finish by reducing what liquid is left to a glaze, and adding more fresh thyme.

That's been on my "to try" list for a while now. You've got the recipe right. Here's the link: Flatbottomed Pearls. I'll try to give it a whirl and let you know if it works for me. Just a thought.... maybe try it again with the calcium gluconate. Maybe your milk powder doesn't have enough free calcium to drive the reaction forward?

I second the thermometer recommendation. To keep from opening the oven too much, I use a remote probe thermometers like this. After the bread is half way done, I turn it 180 degrees, and shove the probe thermometer into the middle of the load (i try to go in through the side to spare a hole in the top). Then it's just a matter of waiting until the internal temp hits 205-210. If you write down the oven temperature, and use the same formula each time (and make the same weight bread), you can just go by time after you nail it. Hope this helps.