Darienne

Oh my! Two wonderful pieces from JustinThyme...and welcome to eGullet...and PanaCan. Wonderful about left-over chocolate and similar goodies.

:laugh: I usually adjust for baking at 4500', but it's surprising how many folks don't. And if I don't, it really doesn't matter all that much. I'm not trying to sell the results.

Do you have a wide spread in humidity as we do in Ontario? Well, from 50% to 100%. Or are you like the Southwest...8% to 56%? (I probably have both sets of figures wrong. ) I know that when I make muffins in Moab and don't adjust for altitude (4,500 '), my muffins runneth over.

I think I need a simply-worded explanation for verniers. Speaking of "doohickeys" and "doodads" this time I made the Mocha Molasses Cake properly...is it good!!!...and then have turned most of it into cake doodads with the addition of much rum, butter, 54% chocolate, icing sugar and they are currently resting gently in the freezer. Half to go for the Dog Weekend and half for a (shudder) Tupperware Party I can't get out of (unless the hostess reads this post). Good luck with your own doohickeys. You'll be stunned at the lustful reaction they provoke.

The Angel Food cake mix is made and the crumb is truly awful for Cake Doodads. Too squishy. I didn't think it would be a suitable cake to make into balls and now that's it's done, it isn't. I'll go back and make the original cake I messed up the first time and use it: Dark Mocha Molasses Snacking Cake Recipe from Smitten Kitchen adapted by Always Order Dessert. http://www.alwaysorderdessert.com/2012/08/dark-mocha-molasses-snacking-cake.html. Found a note online that suggested freezing the formed balls before thawing and dipping. That sounds about right for me. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup Kahlua, for which I used Panama Jack, but I still don't feel confident about the storage part with a regular cake dipped in chocolate.

I wasn't actually 'thinking' of putting any liquor/liqueur into the mix, but just might do that in order to get them made sooner rather than later. Would half the amount of rum/liquor of the quintessential rum ball mean that they would keep half as long? Might add some Panama Jack (a Canadian fortified cream wine, tastes quite a lot like Bailey's, but a bit less sweet and a bit sharper and a LOT cheaper Less sweet than the American equivalents. Hmmm...half the alcohol content.) Thanks. As always.

Last week I ruined a wonderful chocolate cake...didn't hear the timer...and made cake balls/pops/truffles with the crumb, dipped in tempered 70% chocolate. An interesting first. They were delicious. Oh my. Gave them all away. Serious complaints were forthcoming from friends who are attending next weekend's Annual Dog Weekend. So, I found an old...not too old I hope...Angel Food Cake mix in the cupboard and will add some 52% chocolate to the resulting crumb and then dip the balls into tempered 70% chocolate again. Question: what would be the shelf life of the "Cake Doodads"? They'll be eaten Friday August 17 until they are gone. How early next week can I actually make them? (I need to make as much as I can ahead of time to accommodate my old and doddering bod.) Thanks.

Thanks so much for your reply RG. I was hoping to get your slant on this issue, seeing as my own knowledge is both new and slight. It was a shame that they did not have much in the way of bean recipes and that you weren't listed as a supplier of said. I really didn't notice the canned bean ingredient, but then my eye might have gone right over it. I did make the Sikil Pak and liked what I made, although I have no idea of what it should taste like.

Saveur's Aug/Sept 12 issue is wall-to-wall Mexican. A mixed bag for me. An index which I find unusable and almost nothing on beans that I could find. But then, a magazine is aimed somewhere in the middle by its very nature. Rancho Gordo is noted as a source for The Mexican Pantry which is nice. Haven't had any time to look in depth at the recipes but I did look at the one for Capirotada, one of my current obsessions. It notes that the bread pudding is a "traditional Lenten feast dish" and lists eggs as one of the ingredients. My own inexact knowledge of the dessert would say that eggs are not included in a Lenten dish. But then what do I know? Still I am looking forward to a close examination of the periodical at my next doctor's appointment. Am going to make Sikil P'ak for the Dog Weekend. Thanks to the eG member who alerted me to this issue.

Not sure where to post this last production. Made Always Order Dessert's Dark Mocha Molasses Snacking Cake adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Everyday Chocolate Cake. http://www.alwaysord...cking-cake.html and it was a bit of a disaster. Did not hear the timer go off and by the time I rescued the cake, it was 'oh so slightly' overdone...as in it had heavy crusts around all sides. Yes, it was a good book. So. What to do? I had read about these "Cake Balls" and decided that maybe I could make some with scratch ingredients. Started with the cake, added some homemade thrown together white icing. Then added some rum. Oops. My hand slipped. Then found some vanilla cookie crumbs from some other project which I never made. Then added some melted 62% chocolate for good luck. And so on. Until the texture was suitable. Rolled some balls, stuck cut-in-half skewers in them, dipped them in dark 70% tempered chocolate. Omigod. So delicious in a down home comfort sort of way. I love the contrast of the sweet innards with the very dark chocolate. Now to get rid of them before we eat them. Fortunately, those who make goodies never run out of neighbors willing to take said goodies off their hands.

Well put, sir.

In case there are any Canadians reading this: Ontario Walmarts carry a 400 g imported Belgian chocolate bar, $3.98 (CDN$), Waterbridge brand, 4 kinds I think, milk chocolate, 55% dark and 72%dark, one mixed with nuts(?). Hardly good couverture quality, but I use it for a variety of cooking purposes. Walmarts in the USA does not carry this chocolate bar, but I seem to recall seeing some kind of thick not too impressive plain chocolate bar on the shelves. In the USA I order Guittard from Bakers Cash & Carry in SLC but it's no better than your original quote.

Perhaps the Magic Bullet would do the trick. There might be some copycat appliances now which are less expensive even. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Bullet_%28appliance%29

Great idea!

Empanadas. I love 'em.

I agree that scrapple is disgusting. Friends from Delaware once brought it to a Dog Weekend and that's who ate it, under the table. Don't tell my friends, please. Square and grey is not food. But I love the 'burnies'. French Fry crispies are the best.

If you can't donate them...some places you can't...what about juicing them? Then you can freeze the juice and drink it forever. We did that last year, although it was from wonderful Mac and Northern Spy trees mixed. (sorry).

Made Brooke Dojny's Blueberry Snack Cake with Toasted Pecan Topping as agreed. http://food52.com/re...d_pecan_topping from Food52, but segued into muffins. Two errors (will the errors never end? ) : made 12 large muffins...should have made 14; used frozen blueberries...yes, but from frozen. Idiote. Delicious. Another round of muffins for the Annual Dog Weekend!

Thanks. Jay. I'll try that.

I don't think I can 'taste' the cornstarch in my ice creams. I can sometimes 'taste' eggs in homemade ice cream and don't like that. I am assuming that you are cooking the cornstarch thoroughly. (I never had cornstarch pudding before using cornstarch in ice creams.) Can others 'taste' the cornstarch? Am I lacking a cornstarch taste bud? Just insensitive to some tastes? Etc? I am curious about this. I use cornstarch in the base of almost all my ice creams. I can taste (perceive? not sure whether it is precisely taste) corn starch, at least if it's present in any significant amount, a sort metallic sensation on the tongue. It doesn't always bother me terribly, but I'd be just as happy if it wasn't there. I shall try it again. I have a couple of new batches of ice cream put away for the Dog Weekend. I normally am 'sensitive' to that metallicy taste in commercial products...tried DQ's Orange Julius and was so taken aback by the taste of 'metallic' in it. Not pleasant. Didn't drink it. Around an American quart of ice cream, with my regular recipe, has three tablespoons of cornstarch. Is that a lot?

I don't think I can 'taste' the cornstarch in my ice creams. I can sometimes 'taste' eggs in homemade ice cream and don't like that. I am assuming that you are cooking the cornstarch thoroughly. (I never had cornstarch pudding before using cornstarch in ice creams.) Can others 'taste' the cornstarch? Am I lacking a cornstarch taste bud? Just insensitive to some tastes? Etc? I am curious about this. I use cornstarch in the base of almost all my ice creams.

Incredible cake, jmacnaughtan, and welcome to eGullet. I'm curious about the source of the pressure to make this labor-intensive, time-consuming, etc, cake. Internal? External? Job-related?

Kerry's photo of her Brooke Dojny's Blueberry Snack Cake is eating a hole in my mind. I am going to try the recipe either as large muffins or small one person loaves. A new breakfast addition for the Dog Weekend.

Thanks Lynda. Yes, we have tried probably EVERYTHING available. It's not that the others, Empire included, are bad...it's just that the Balderson was terrific. You know...blah versus yippee! And we have many Empire outlets in our area. Thanks again.

Ditto from me. I think the word 'beauteous' is most appropriate here.