Darienne
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Posts posted by Darienne
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Made the Cheesecake Ice cream. Very nice, but never going to be my favorite. DH loved it, but then he likes more sugar in things than I do. As it was cooling, I added more lemon zest and even some lemon juice, but it was still too sweet for me. Added some deeply toasted (aka almost burnt) slivered almonds and that helped a lot. But still... The Orange-Szechwan Pepper is my favorite to date.
Made the Candied Cherries. Didn't really care for them. Maybe I did something wrong. But maybe I just don't like candied cherries. I loathe Maraschino cherries.
The DH loved the cherries and he likes Maraschinos also. Perhaps it has a lot to do with childhood eating patterns. Ed's Mom was French Canadian and only the French Canadians could love Sugar Pie. My Mother didn't bake and I had very little sugar as a child and can't even eat a Butter tart. Ed ate sugar or syrup on his French toast...and I had salt. Curious.
So onto the next. I am very curious about the Rice Gelato.
I wonder if the sweetness content in the recipes is aimed primarily at the American taste bud? Any thoughts on this?
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The fridge may or may not have humidity controls, these are sometimes labeled as 'energy saving mode off' or condensation settings. That said, the minute you pull something out, condensation may form because of the humidity in your air, like a glass of ice water. So, I'd avoid the fridge.
Dessicant packets are a lifesaver here. If the pops had been wrapped as they were made, then sealed in a tub with dessicant, it may have saved the day. (assuming you use less corn syrup next time!) You can buy these packs, you can also save them whenever you get them in things, and refreshen them by baking on very low for about an hour to dry them out. (store in an airtight container) These are those little white packets that come with new shoes, luggage, etc.
With humidity that high, I don't think I'd trust making them in advance. Stores are only able to keep them because they have AC, and the accompanying low humidity.
As for dusting sugar, almost any is probably fine, but avoid the types with cornstarch like regular powdered sugar. Superfine should be good. You can make your own superfine, colored or not, in a blender or food processor, just run it for a while with the lid on very tightly.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
All good information. I loved the bit about the desiccant packages. I have never saved one, but now I will.
In the end, I simply sifted a couple of cups of fruit sugar into a bowl and dipped each pop into it and then immediately popped them into their little bags and tied them off. Then into an airtight container and into the cellar for storage. I'll poke around and see if I can fine a desiccant package....oh, vitamin bottles also have them.
Thanks again.
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My kitchen is a galley type so we can't have a eating table in it, but we eat at the table in the sun room. It has on it: salt, pepper, soy sauce, napkins, one hot pad...and every thing my DH leaves on it on his way by either to or from his workshop.
We also eat on the living room coffee table which has a small fake Navajo rug ...who can afford real?... and a fascinating collection of rocks, arrowheads, fossils, baskets, ceramic bits and bobs, magnets...which our dog hates... I just went to look at it and it would take too long to tell all. Suffice it to say, it is the repository for my other obsessions in life.
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In defense of slow cookers: I have never actually 'cooked' something in one, but are they just the things for candying fruits and peels.
Also when you have a huge gang, they are good for keeping things warm...like hot and sour soup in the Chinese feast.
What IS useless is having 39 speed settings on blenders and hand mixers. My best blender which lasted for years had two speeds: ON and OFF. Worked for me.
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I currently have a container of very sticky unwrapped hard tack lollipops in my life.
Story: Confectionery partner, Barb, and I made some lollipops a week ago for an upcoming charity event. We made them in the microwave, using the LorAnn recipe which calls for 1 part sugar and ½ part corn syrup. Now I see that this is a VERY high proportion of corn syrup, no doubt to accommodate the microwave method. I never got around to wrapping them…simply stuck them in a plastic container and last night I unveiled them. Oops. Sticky lollies. Some stuck to each other. Some just tacky. Quite tacky.
This is my first experience making lollipops in the Ontario summer. I will not use the LorAnn recipe again.
Kerry’s Class 101 now gives me the answer as to why these lollipops are sticky:
- too high a proportion of doctor to sugar
- too humid a temperature (summer in Ontario)
- not wrapped immediately in cello and/or airtight container
Questions:
- would the lollipops have remained viable if I had wrapped them immediately? or would they be sticky in their bags anyway?
- can you put hard tack in the fridge? (I seem to think no, but then what do I know?) Perhaps storing them in the cellar would have helped…cooler, dehumidifier going, etc. I keep my couverture in the cellar for those reason. We do not have A/C in our old farmhouse.
LorAnn’s recipe suggests dusting the pops in powdered sugar to keep them from sticking. I tried powdered sugar this morning on one…disastrous and unappealing results. Then I tried colored dusting sugars…a bit coarse in texture. Well, this was much better, except that the color in the sugar seems to have disappeared one hour later, although the sugar is still not dissolved. I also tried finely ground sugar…fruit sugar. Results also fine. I will sugar them and wrap them all this morning. 90% humidity today.
More questions(sorry):
- which would be better in an experienced maker’s estimation…colored sugar? colored sugar ground more finely? finely ground white sugar? ??
- in the winter or in low humidity (Moab, UT), you can make the lollipops way ahead of time. In our Ontario summer, should we have made them only days ahead of time instead?
All advice gratefully received.
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The refractometer at Lee Valley goes up to 40 Brix. In this method you need to go to 75 Brix.
As always, thanks.
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David L. gives a recipe for blood orange granita using the juice only. I have made his incredible Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream using the zest only from Navel Oranges...where we live we are pretty limited to one or two varieties of orange at a time.
I can't see why you can't take pretty much any orange ice cream recipe and substitute blood orange zest or blood orange juice for any other orange. I don't know if there is an ice cream recipe that uses orange pulp. Something else to research...
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Thanks for the cryovac information.
So much information...so little time.
I think I'll go for the fastest method this time. I have underway, David L's Cheesecake Ice Cream and I'll just chop up the cherries...we have now eaten most of them...and put them into the ice cream.
Then I'll buy a huge whack and do one of the S L O W methods.
Thanks again, all.
( I don't know what Kerry means:
but then I haven't read the technical paper thoroughly. If I can't figure it out, I'll get back. Thanks.)Not sure the refractometer at Lee Valley goes high enough for this purpose. -
Jane: Thanks for pointing out that the recipe was there. Got it!
Andie: As usual, you have such good information to pass on!!! A Brix metre is $75.00 at Lee Valley and it's out of my snack bracket right now, but I'll read all the downloads before carrying on.
Sethro: I have no idea of what it means to 'cryovac the pitted cherries' and I guess that the cvap is a convection oven?
Thanks all.
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David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop, gives a recipe for candied cherries. It's pretty darned quick, the cooking and candying part taking less than an hour. The problem is that the candied cherries are good only for up to two weeks in the fridge.
I did Kumquats by the slower method and they were good for a few months in the fridge. They all ended up in ice cream.
Would it be useful to use Andie's technique of putting the pitted cherries into a simple syrup using the crock pot method similar to candying ginger? Or perhaps the microwave method?
It appears that Lindacakes never reported back how her cherries turned out in 2007. Has anyone else candied cherries?
I am not trying to make maraschino cherries. I think the chopped up cherries will end up in ice cream.
(I really need to start a thread called 'Candied Anything which can be Candied'. It would be very useful.
)Whoops. Did not read the subheading. This is MY kind of topic!
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I just laughed
reading this topic, especially about the Bailey's on cereal.I love to melt some dark chocolate, add a little Grand Marnier or Chambord, dump some homemade granola into it and then just eat it with a spoon, hot or cold. An after supper dessert. DH thinks I'm crazy.
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Latest update from the front lines...
I had two meetings today worth noticing:
So, it looks like we're in business provided that the cost isn't prohibitive. I'll continue to keep everyone posted as I learn more.
Good work, O fearless leader!
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I recently made the cinnamon, tea, and coffee ice creams for the first time, and the cheesecake ice cream again.
The cheesecake is great because it's ridiculously easy, you don't have to make a custard, and you can blend/churn/serve in the same evening without any chill time between blending and churning. Everything's already cold. I made it before dinner and served it after. I love his recipe for peanut butter for the same reason.
This all sounds very good...but I just might have to make the cheesecake ice cream very soon. In fact, I have some cream cheese on hand for something I didn't make last week and it might just go into some ice cream immediately.
This book is just wonderful. David Lebovitz: I think I love you.
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Is there no one else out there making ice cream in this ice cream time of year?
Because I am making the rounds of the chiro and massage therapist almost daily...don't ask...I take Mr. Lebovitz with me to read in the waiting rooms. Found a recipe for Lemon-Buttermilk Sherbet. Remembering that there was almost a full litre of buttermilk sitting in the fridge from a sour cream event from a couple of weeks ago, I decided that the Lemon Sherbet was my next project.
Now, I don't like the taste of buttermilk, and I didn't like the resulting sherbet all that much because for me the buttermilk taste came shining through. DH liked it which stunned me because he doesn't like sherbet or buttermilk. Who knew?
Then I added some toasted walnuts to the sherbet. Aha! Now even I liked it. I can't think of a suitable word to describe the taste of walnuts, toasted or not,...a sort of non-sweet taste, mealy?, earthy?...someone help me...but the contrast made the sherbet perfectly delicious...IMHO.
Next projects: the Fleur de Lait and the Leche Merengada.
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After my heady success with a modified Orange-Szechwan Pepper ice cream, I am ready to go for the Fleur de Lait, mostly because it is so unusual, made with cornstarch.
I see that mukki announced that s/he had Fleur de Lait cooling in the fridge, 9 April 2008, but s/he never reported back. Has anyone else tried this ice cream and if so, how was it? And do you suppose that one might feel free to add some extra bits to it? Well, I am going to make it straight the first time...and then add 'stuff'.
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For me the 80% bar is the best. In the chocolate forums, CC gets tossed all over the place and typically the discussion ends with, "you just don't get it." CC uses a process that results in a much less refined outcome than what we expect, but when you sample the bar v. eat the bar, the texture, flavor profile and even the dare I say it, bouquet are extremely refined and complex. My favorite part of CC bars is when I snip the silver foil and that first whiff of perfume is released. I can live on that smell for a good hour.
Sorry, guys, but I just can't find 'C.C.' anywhere in the last two pages of this thread. Please, for the uninitiated amongst us...
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hocolate bark with applewood smoked bacon and smoked almonds in it, and it's always a huge hit. So don't diss the bacon!
You're right. I've never tried bacon in chocolate. I might just love it. I had never tried pepper in ice cream either and that was delicious.
Thank you all for so many interesting answers. There stretches out before me a long list of things to try. This has truly been a wonderful year, culinarily speaking.
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I wasn't trying to discourage you from trying, I was just trying to taste it in my head and was having a hard time with it.
No worries.
I have never had anything 'mojito' except by my own hand and so have no sense of what exactly it should taste like. The information on the subject of the mojito on the web is so varied...wildly...that I decided to go at it more conservatively first. David Lebovitz has a mojito flavored ice. Maybe I'll try that next instead. Thanks. I'll get back to the mojito flavored ganache later.
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Hmmmm....alright. I'll wait until I can buy some white chocolate to do the mojito ganache. And thanks so much for all the good information.
There are other things I can do in the interim...
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That sounds really wonderful, D. I'll have to make that one soon.
By the `way, while you're waiting for your copy to arrive, you can find several DL recipes online...
DH came home and we tried the ice cream together. I think I could have been more heavy handed on the orange zest even and am not sure about using that 3rd TBSP of pepper. The pepper creeps up on you and stays a l-o-n-g time.
I should admit...it could make a big difference...that I used a Philadelphia base for the ice cream instead of the DL custard one. I usually do in my ice creams. We find them rich enough and one of our sons cannot tolerate eggs at all.
All in all, it was incredible and like nothing I have ever tasted before in a cold dessert.
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What about tweaking the Dark and Stormies from Greweling? Replace the dark rum with light, and the ginger with mint (and keep the lime) and you're basically there.
I just realized I am confused a tad by your answer. You say '(and keep the lime)' in the Dark & Stormies. There is no lime in Greweling's recipe. Do mean to add lime while substituting the mint and lighter rum or to leave the lime out?
I don't have any white chocolate. I hardly ever use it at all so I am going to use 54% dark I guess and see what happens.
Please let me know your idea about the lime juice. Thanks.
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I certainly cannot compete with that incredible cake made by dystopiandreamgirl, but I did make traditional Chinese almond cookies, a chocolate layer cake with raspberry jam filling and raspberry-flavored chocolate icing for a friends' barbecue tomorrow and David Lebovitz' Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream.
Tomorrow I am going to make Alton Brown's Moo-less Chocolate pie again, this time with Frangelico, for the year end Pot Luck Lunch of the No Name group (a fiber group of guild refugees which has no name, no executive, no constitution, no fees, no rules, no schedule which to our collective amazement has been running for over 5 years now.)
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I love developing recipes with unusual flavours. Every so often I will do something unique. From a business perspective I make bonbons that will appeal to the masses. If I have a flavour that is an acquired taste it will sit for a long time before it finds a palate to reside in!! I typically make what will sell. I am most thrilled when I can do bizarre flavour combos!
Ah...c'mon...tell us one...
but nothing with bacon in it, please.
Candying Cherries
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Made D Lobovitz's Candied Cherries to try out the recipe. DH loved them...I did not. They were OK, but then I don't have DH's sweet tooth. I hate Maraschino cherries...and come to think of it, cherries are far from my favorite fruit.
Added them to the 'Cheesecake Ice Cream' which was a mistake in my estimation. It was all too sweet for me. I added some extra lemon zest, some lemon juice, and some very toasted almond slivers. The almonds helped.
Gotta try it all... But I think I'll pass on candying cherries. Candying works best for me on substances which are not sweet in their natural form. I think...