Darienne
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Posts posted by Darienne
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This news is very disconcerting, coming as it does, on top of that other curious fact, that the Dollarama stores in Ontario...no price of anything is more than one dollar...is selling Scharrfen Berger chocolate bars for $1. They normally retail for $5 USD. The 82% dark and the 41% milk.
I actually phoned the Berkeley outlet a few days ago and spoke to a young woman there who was astounded that the bars were selling for $1. They don't even make a profit on $1 she said (if I understood correctly).
The bars are distributed by a Canadian outfit based in BC. Others on the 'Fine Chocolate' thread answered my questions about the low price with suggestions of past due dates...nope...or buyout of some bankruptcy somewhere. Strange...
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Properly tempered chocolate will be glossy on dipped items - but you can only get shine by molding against a smooth surface as you discovered with your dipper.
Thanks.
So much to learn, so wonderful learning it. Glad to know another piece of information about chocolate shine.
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A question about chocolate shine.
Partner Barbara and I have never made chocolates with that intense shine which the rest of you seem to get. Until this past weekend, we have not owned any polycarbonate molds.
Today, I was dipping candied ginger (thanks, forever, Andie
) into dark chocolate, plus using a stainless dipper to fill a few lollipops for friends. The dipped ginger has some shine, snap, all that good stuff...but no real SHINE! Then, when I was chipping out the remaining hardened chocolate from the inside of the dipper, I noticed that the shell of the chocolate which touched the steel was incredibly SHINY!
So, dipped things will get only so shiny, you need molds (which Barbara has just purchased from the inimitable Kerry Beal over the weekend) to get the SHINE! Non-porous surfaces I guess.
Why? Please. Something about air?
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Thank you all for the excellent information.
Kerry, please. American flour contains more / less protein? So this makes what kind of difference in baking what?
Next time in Sobeys I'll get Western dairy.
Perhaps I have never used beet sugar at all....
(still not getting any notification of this thread although still noted as receiving said)
Canadian tends to have higher protein content - which results in more gluten as I understand it - which probably also explains why RLB cake recipes were always tough and dry for me.
Thanks, as always.
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Five more to add. Went Amazon wild a couple of nights ago.
They are all confirmed as on the way, so I guess they can count."Truffles, Candies, and Confections: Techniques and Recipes for Candymaking"
Carole Bloom;
"Chocolate Obsession: Confections and Treats to Create and Savor"
Michael Recchiuti
"The Pie and Pastry Bible"
Rose Levy Beranbaum
"The Cake Bible"
Rose Levy Beranbaum
"Chocolate Epiphany: Exceptional Cookies, Cakes, and Confections for Everyone"
Francois Payard
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Thank you all for the excellent information.
Kerry, please. American flour contains more / less protein? So this makes what kind of difference in baking what?
Next time in Sobeys I'll get Western dairy.
Perhaps I have never used beet sugar at all....
(still not getting any notification of this thread although still noted as receiving said)
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The real reason I opened this thread this morning was to ask:
What IS the difference between American and Canadian flour? My DH thought that maybe most Canadian flour might be made from Durham wheat, a wheat specially devised to grow in our colder growing climate....but he then said he had no idea if any of that was correct. I have no idea.
Can anyone answer this question? I admit I haven't gone to Google about it. Trying to pack....
The other issue is sugar: I have written elsewhere about Canadian sugar, how it never states what it is...beet or cane...and how the prevalent thinking is that, if it doesn't say 'cane', then it is beet.
This morning I went to the Redpath website. We have always purchased Redpath. It's there, right in the center of it all. Canadian. Everywhere. In profusion.
Aha! I said. Their website doesn't say what's in their sugar.
But then I went to the FAQs and guess what? Right there is print and I am pasting it in:All of our products are made from pure cane sugar.
I have mud on my face. Or rather, cane sugar.
My apologies, Redpath! -
Western sour cream is the best thing to come along for a long time. I will go out of my way to find a store that sells it. I finally convinced the manager at Sobeys to stock it. They were stocking other Western products so I knew they could get it.
Thanks Marlene,
We are off to Utah in a couple of days so I cannot check our local Sobeys but will do so when we return. For sure!
ps 1 (We live 35 minutes from the city and are not planning to go in unless obliged to)
ps 2 And I'll check on the cream cheese also
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Obviously you have all the regs at your finger tips.
No, I had previously looked it up. I don't care for the taste (actually, its more of a mouth feel thing...) of the stabilizers in the common whipping cream. I was curious as to the regs and looked them up.
I blithely bought a container of whipped cream and was horrified to taste it and found it sweet without my help.Ahhhh ... a "container of whipped cream" is a very different beast then "whipping cream" (or, as the reg calls it, cream for whipping). The latter falls under fairly strict dairy regulations; the former, being a more "finished" product, probably does not fall under the dairy regulations and can contain anything food safe. Might depend on exact wording on the container.
I have not been able to buy sour cream in Canada which tastes remotely like sour cream should.Try Western, it seems to be better then most. It has quite a bit more flavour. Also, make sure you buy full fat; the lighter stuff tastes funny. My g/f is from Romania and is horrified by what most call sour cream here; she says the Western stuff is passable. Tis true though, good sour cream is hard to come by. Yogurt too, though the balkan stuff is pretty good.
Sorry that I did not get back to you. For some reason I am not receiving any notification from this thread although I am noted as doing so.
* When I said a container of whipped cream...I meant to say simply a waxed cardboard type container of whipping cream...the 'stuff' to make whipped cream. It was not any kind of finished product at all.
* Is Western a Canadian product and if so, perhaps they don't sell it in Eastern Canadian, my region. We always use full fat dairy ...I keep typing products...ingredients and we do use the balkan yoghurt only.
Thanks for all the input. I'll check back later and not wait for notification....
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I have been following this thread with envy. I haven't seen a Seville orange in our area for two years now.
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egg noodles w/ cottage cheese( small curd) and a Tbls of sour cream. A little salt and lots of fresh cracked pepper. I think this is a Jewish thing as I've never seen anybody other than Jews eat it.
My mom made this for me all the time when I was younger. Lots of cottage cheese mixed with buttered noodles and salt. Sometimes sour cream and poppy seeds are added. I thought it was a Hungarian thing. It is my go to comfort food when I am sick or hungover. My partner can't stand the sight of it. She thinks it's gross. Thanks for sharing. Nice to know I'm not alone.
My Mother's parents were Polish Jews and the dish at their house which I loved as a kid was torn up fresh Pumpernickel (you just can't get REAL pumpernickel anywhere), slathered with cottage cheese, sour cream (ditto for sour cream), salt & pepper. My mouth is watering as I type these words.
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I've read that ginger is good for treating motion sickness in dogs (and people), so maybe it's time to travel!
Strange you should mention that...we leave for Moab UT, our home away from home, on Saturday. Weather willing. It's a bit of a drive. Still our dogs have never been carsick. They are great travelers.
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There is a new (and very sneaky) ginger lover among us.
I had just finished putting out a new batch of candied ginger to dry, when I heard a strange sound from the kitchen. There was our female dog, up on her hind legs, snarfing down pieces of ginger as fast as she could.
Needless to say, I was astounded. This ginger is fairly gingery, and while I could understand eating one piece, eating about 15 pieces leaves me amazed. I was so taken aback that I didn't even scold her.
She doesn't usually sneak food and I am very careful about meat, cheese, butter, etc. Who knew about ginger?
But will she get sick from so much of an unaccustomed snack?
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One horrible Canadian dairy fact is the inclusion of sugar in cream and whipping cream products. Whoops I said products...I mean in the actual dairy carton.
Canadian cream regulations:
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Cream
a) shall be the fatty liquid prepared from milk by separating the milk constituents in such a manner as to increase the milk fat content; and
(b) may contain
(i) a pH adjusting agent,
(ii) a stabilizing agent, and
(iii) in the case of cream for whipping that has been heat-treated above 100°C, the following ingredients and food additives:
( A ) skim milk powder in an amount not exceeding 0.25 per cent,
( B ) glucose solids in an amount not exceeding 0.1 per cent,
( C ) calcium sulphate in an amount not exceeding 0.005 per cent,
( D ) xanthan gum in an amount not exceeding 0.02 per cent, and
( E ) microcrystalline cellulose in an amount not exceeding 0.2 per cent.
===========================
So, if it does contain sugar in the form of glucose, it is less then 0.1 per cent. It can be difficult to obtain whipping cream that is not ultra pasteurized with stabilizers; there are some organic ones available which are *extremely* expensive.
Obviously you have all the regs at your finger tips. We now buy all our dairy products which we can from a regional dairy and and their whipping cream contains no glucose solids at all. The standard whipping creams all contain glucose in some form or other.
A few years ago, in a former life in which I hadn't had whipping cream or desserts of any kind for some years, we decided to have an old stand-by for our anniversary. Homemade scones, with strawberries and whipped cream. I blithely bought a container of whipped cream and was horrified to taste it and found it sweet without my help. That was the start of learning about what had happened to dairy products whilst I slept.
I have not been able to buy sour cream in Canada which tastes remotely like sour cream should. The Utah dairy's sour cream borders on acceptable. Their cream contains only cream. Their whipping cream is lovely. I don't know why, but I accept and am grateful for it.
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Funny.
I didn't even know that this topic was up and functioning. My computer crashed while I was composing it and I thought it was lost in the mists of time forever.One horrible Canadian dairy fact is the inclusion of sugar in cream and whipping cream products. Whoops I said products...I mean in the actual dairy carton.
And I too like the butter in sticks. So handy for measuring.
Also American and Canadian labelling practices are different. The States is far more strict about their labelling requirements. And this new law, concerning country of origin, evidently does not apply to Canada.
Still....when I wanted to buy dark chocolate couverture in Utah, they would sell it to me only in a case and imported from France. The man said he could not guarantee to be able to sell the rest. This love of Americans for milk chocolate.....???????
(that smilie means I don't like it, except when it's Gianduja ) -
I saw these for sale, then checked out a few reviews and decided against it - seemed like a good idea, but not enough labor savings. Then I got my mom a SideSwipe Blade for her mixer for her birthday, and ended up with it myself since she gave me the wrong size information. Really nice in that it directs the scrapings down into the bowl, so you really are saved from stopping to scrape. Some of the reviews on Amazon.com seem to concur that it's a superior solution.
Thanks, DCP. That's what I needed to read...a personal connection. I think I'll order them when we are back in the USA. One for me and one for a friend with a KA.
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As I mentioned upstream - I found the Scharffen Berger too acidic for my taste. I wonder if making a ganache with coconut cream in place of the cream might work. Just wondering about the pH of various ingredients that might help mellow out the acidity and make the ganache more palatable. I've always found that a wine like Banyuls or something like Kirschwasser or Cherry Brandy mellows a ganache quite nicely.
I'll bet it would be really nice to enrobe chunks of sponge toffee - they are fairly basic pH wise once you've added the bicarb.
I just might try that sponge toffee enrobing. I have a photo of my first try at making sponge toffee. It climbed over the pan and tried to engulf the kitchen. I laughed so hard watching its supertoffee attempt. Amazing.
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I told my friend that no one uses even 70% chocolate in ganaches usually, let alone 82%. ???? As she says to me...what can I tell you? ????
All the percentage does is tell you how much sugar is in the chocolate. Thus an 82% cocoa is approximately 18% sugar. A 70% cocoa is 30% sugar, and a 50% cocoa is 50% sugar. So if you are making a ganache, you can always simply add more sugar.
The flavor you taste is due to the beans and how they were roasted and conched -- not so much the percentage.
I had ganache filled truffles this last week at one of the nations leading restaurants last week made from our 70% Jembrana. It was absolutely incredible. So it isn't the percentage so much as how the ganache is prepared and more importantly what cocoa beans were used to make the chocolate, how they were roasted, how they were conched -- all decisions on the chocolate maker's part. It isn't the sugar -- you can always add that when you make the ganache. For a ganache, there is no difference between the chocolate maker adding the sugar or you adding the sugar (provided it all dissolves).
-Art
Thank you for that explanation. It makes this situation really clear for me for the first time.
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Not having tasted it .... It probably has to do with the beans that Scharffen Berger used as well as how they roasted them. I doubt that there is anything that anyone can do.
-Art
We did a taste test in a manner of speaking. I liked the chocolate alone, although it would never be a favorite and I don't think I would want to eat all that much. DH liked it paired with something sweet. Other friends thought it tasted like cocoa. Period.
I agree that probably nothing can be done. It's 82% chocolate. Some will like it. Most won't, no matter what you do to it or with it. I just thought I'd ask.
I told my friend that no one uses even 70% chocolate in ganaches usually, let alone 82%. ???? As she says to me...what can I tell you? ????
Thanks for trying.
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Answers please.
A friend (and no, it is not me in disguise) tried to make a ganache out of the Scharffen Berger 82% chocolate and it tastes too cocoa-ish for her purposes.
She told me she has added sugar, butter, corn syrup and even icing sugar and it still tastes way too cocoa-ish.
Short of tossing it out, has anyone any idea of what she might do to alter this problem? I thought she might add sweetened coconut...but I don't know if it would make any difference really.
Another learning lesson...
(aha, I see the purpose of the little post icons...)
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Two years ago we were invited to a Chinese New Year feast. What I remember best of all were the red divided containers full of candies of all kinds and the one I liked best...the hosts did not know its name...was a chewy light-colored candy with a very distinct sesame oil flavor.
There were no sesame seeds involved. It was not crunchy. A chewy candy flavored with sesame oil...a very strange candy flavor to a westerner.
Can anyone help me with a name or recipe for this candy. The owner of our local Chinese market could not help me at all.
Thanks and Happy New Year.
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Something really sweet like a coconut center, candied ginger.
Strange you should mention candied ginger just as I have a large crock pot full of ginger on the go...
Also...could I mix the 82% with a lower percentage dark chocolate...say 56%...and temper them both together, thus getting...???...a surprise?
Thanks.
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[The other thing that can cause them to be sold for cheap is if a store or chain that carried Scharffen Berger closed down. All that excess inventory gets resold to chains such as the one you describe. So it may have nothing at all to do with the quality of the product or closeness to an expiration date but may have something to do with where one of Scharffen Berger's vendors is financially. In either case, I'd grab what you can.
-Art
Thanks. Duly grabbed. My friend went to her local Dollarama and they were already gone.
Next question: what would anyone dip in 82% chocolate????
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prasantrin's post:
FWIW, flour in the US is different from flour in Canada, period. That's probably one of the reasons you're not getting good results. If you head down to the US in the near future, I would suggest picking up some flour there (particularly whatever flours Shirley suggests using), and trying the recipes again. You'll probably see a difference in the final product.
I found this answer from presantrin very interesting. I did not know that American flour would differ from Canadian.
However, living as we do in both Canada (outside Peterborough, ON, 100,000 environs)and the US (Moab, UT, 5,000), I have found the following...this may pertain to Utah only, or even just Moab only...
* cane sugar comes in regular large bags in Moab, both white and brown. In Peterborough, it comes in tiny expensive bags. Also little Moab carries more speciality baking sugars than we have in Peterborough.
* American butter tastes different from Ontario butter. Less salt I think.
* baked goods in Moab are much sweeter than in Peterborough. Noticed this first when buying a angel food cake in an emergency. Was astounded at the sweetness thereof.
* it's easier to find dairy products in Moab without endless 'non-dairy' additions. For instance, Cream of Weber cream contains:...cream! I have never seen anything like this in Peterborough.
A local LCBO (liquor board) staff told me that items, like Bailey's Irish Cream, have a different formula when made for Ontario and the States.
I wonder how many items there are available which might have a significant difference in outcomes in cooking and baking. ???
Stand Mixers 2002 – 2011
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Thanks for that piece of information.