Darienne
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Posts posted by Darienne
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I've been trying to get ahold of Chocovision for almost a week. Left two messages with no return call. I'll try again tomorrow, but just curious if anyone's been in touch. Unfortunately the bowl is not spinning on my 3210. There's no tension on the spinning thing, so I think something's wrong on the inside. Just in time for Easter!
Hi, Cheripie,
I was in contact with Chocovision a couple of weeks ago. It was hard to get anyone to call me back and I just kept on phoning until I got someone. I think they were short-handed or someone was sick or something. Can't really recall.
They were very helpful, especially a young man named Matthew Demoto.
Just keep calling and don't give a thought to the fact that no one has gotten back. I seem to recall that Mr. Demoto said he had hundreds of call backs to make at one point.
Good luck.
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I have the Cuisinart electric wok, from Amazon, and I LOVE it! It draws 1800 watts (!) and cooks super fast. It heats up in no time. One might need a dedicated outlet for it (I rewired my kitchen ages ago and everything like the micro and wok have their own breaker). DO NOT believe that all electric woks are the same! This Cuisinart is over the top. The only, and I really mean only, complaint is that the non-stick coating (over the stainless) is not super durable. But then I am very aggressive and others might find it OK. It could also have benifitted from an additional long handle on the side, for scooping the food directly into dish without use of a hand scoop.
I would buy another of this model wok YESTERDAY if i needed it! It DOES heat uip enough to sear or do anything a regular wok does!
Ray
Thanks for the information. I'll look it up on Amazon.
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An electric wok simply cannot supply the BTU's(heat) needed to cook with a wok, you end up stewing, rather than frying. Even with 15K BTU/hr burners on my Viking, its really not enough heat but I make do.
You certainly can use the gas burner on your BBQ.-Dick
Many thanks
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I've been making these power bars which a modification of someone's recommendation from my Keeping weight on in the kitchen thread. At first they didn't sell, but when I changed the name from Power Bars to Gourmet Rice Krispie treats, they fly off the shelf. I like the recipe because it is infinitely adaptable to the seasons.
Your recipe looks great and I am going to try it. DH and I do long road trips back and forth between Utah and East Central Ontario and I am always looking for things to eat which are yummy enough to preclude buying cr*p in desparation and still healthy enough to warrant eating them.
OK. What are liquor chestnuts? I can find chestnut liquor, but not liquor chestnuts. I suppose you could substitute what? for them.
Thanks.
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If your cream has too little fat to whip, you can melt a little unsalted butter, then whisk in the cream, chill, then whip. RLB has directions in the Cake Bible. For the 25% cream I have here, I add about 40 grams butter to 1 cup cream, and that whips.
I have experienced frozen cream (38% fat) that would not whip, even tried heating it to melt the fat globules then chilling it again, but no dice. Some cartons got frozen but some didn't, so unfortunately I don't know which will whip and which won't. At least it is still good for ice cream.
Thanks for that information, PastryGirl.
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Hello slkinsey: they were the same square footage but I didn't pick them up. I'll try that tomorrow.
Hello Chris: what do you usually pay for it? Ballpark figure... Was it just overpriced at Kroger's?
Thanks.
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I just learned yesterday of this wonderful non-stick, quick release aluminum foil. Found two kinds today in the local Kroger's (that's it). Kroger's brand cost about $2.50 and the Reynold's was well over $6.00. I bought neither.
Thought I'd ask first.
Is the Kroger's just useless? Is the Reynolds over-priced? -
Hello Matt,
Good try, but no go.
The cream is in a pink bottle and the whipping cream is in a sort of purple. And Ambra. I buy the whipping cream always from the same company and it's the best one in Utah. Cream of Weber. The purest, fewest ingredients, lack of multisyllabic junk, freshest, etc.
ps. Used the not whipping cream plus the actually whipped new cream with some sour cream which I made using whipping cream all in some ice cream today: banana pineapple.
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I just want to re-emphasize the answers from alanamoana and chiantiglace.....they are right on the money.
You don't have to have a clean cold mixer bowl to whip cream. In fact I will whip up buttercream and then once I scrape the bowl out I will whip cream in the same bowl, no problems. The issue of having a clean bowl only applies to the whipping of egg whites.
Chianti's point of not having enough butterfat in the cream is right on. Even though the label may say 32 percent butterfat, there may or may not be that amount in that particular container. For instance, my cream containers say, "MINIMUM 40 percent butterfat", so that means my half gal. of cream may have even 42%. It all depends on the batch and lot at the dairy. In the hundreds of gallons of cream I have whipped in my day, it's true, some batches DID NOT whip. I knew it was a butterfat problem and got immediate credit and replacement on my product.
It's also true that warming cream and letting it get cold again should not affect the whipability of it. I've scalded cream many times and used the refrigerated leftovers for whipping cream. No problems.
And I would like to thank you and all the others who helped me with this problem. The knowledge of the folks on this forum and the incredible generosity of the sharing of that knowledge is simply amazing.
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A thing of beauty is a joy forever. A small portion of today's output.
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Get the carbonised steel or cast iron wok and season it well: I always do mine over extremely high heat that reduces the oil to a black goo that bakes on the wok -- this is the non-stick surface that is so prized in wok cookery. It is likely to go against your instincts but black is the best. After doing this, do not ever wash it with soap and make sure you re-season it similarly to how you would treat cast iron cookware.
To season, heat to very high then put a thin layer of oil in. Be careful about this as the oil will ignite readily if it goes anywhere near the flame. Let the oil bake in and then repeat several times until the surface is black.
I have the carbonized steel wok at home although I have not used it for a long time. Shall re-season it when we get home.
In the meantime, can someone please answer my question as to why I should not use the barbecue, especially as it has a separate burner on one end.
Thanks.
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I sugar mine so the pieces won't stick together when stored. I like to use the coarser-grained sugar and in fact purchase the "Azucar" label at my local Mexican supermarket because it is much more granular than regular C&H granulated sugar.
I do the same with my candied ginger that I do in very large batches - 10 to 15 pounds at a time.
Aha! I have not tried coarse sugar yet but will.
Today I dipped the results of a few batches of candying: ginger, lemon and oranges. Ginger because I was trying to make ginger spread and failed and had all this ginger. Lemons because they were so cheap one week and then I had all this juice and all those peels. And oranges because we go through oranges like crazy. I found this recipe for the old time Montreal orange Julep that I had as a kid. Modified it, of course, and now have all these lovely orange peels just begging to be candied.
So now I have enough dipped peels to open a very little store. Very little. For a couple of hours only.
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I store mine in the syrup in the fridge. A couple of days before I need them (usually to dip in chocolate) I take them out, put them on a rack to dry. I don't bother to sugar them unless I plan to use them as a garnish.
In syrup in the fridge they tend to last indefinitely.
I haven't kept any of mine yet long enough for this to be a consideration, but I will no doubt follow Kerry's plan.
However, I have dredged mine in baker's sugar lightly, very lightly, even though I am dipping them all in chocolate. It's been fine so far.
None has lasted more than a week...all eaten, every one
...or given away at this point. -
I had the same problem with a "brand new KA handmixer"
The old one had a much faster speed than the new one.
I called KA and asked why the new one had lower rpm than the old one...
got questionable answers. but after I said it would not work they said You should try the whisk beater. (its a single whisk beater rather than two individual beaters). I said "I don't have one" lady said, give me your address and we will send you one. It was No charge, and it works perfectly on cream and egg whites etc.
As usual, KA customer service , which is, in my humble opinion, the worlds best, came thru again....(no I don't work for them , I just have lots of their stuff and they are amazing , at least for me..)
Bud
My KA handmixer came with a balloon whisk. Glad you received one for free.
I now have the new whipping cream. Alas! I have no use for it for days.
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The one thing I was raised making at my Mother's knee was salad dressing, so I have never been able to understand why people buy it in bottles. For one thing, most of it is full of sugar.
Italian dressing especially, which we used to call French dressing, oil & vinega...I use lemon juice because I cannot cope with vinegar... takes only a few seconds to make even with its additions, and so why on earth would someone buy it premade?
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DH has just entered the fray and wants to know about the stainless woks by Cuisinart and others? Do any have aluminum bottoms? Are they useful?
Thanks.
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DON'T.-Dick
Great, but why?
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For wok cooking, electric just doesn't cut it. Look, a proper Kwali range has gas jets, not only aimed at the bottom of the wok, but the sides too, heat is almost the same on the sides as the bottom. This basically doubles your cooking surface, which is why wok cooking is so fast.
With electric, you'll only get heat on the bottom.
Now, how about getting one of those outdoor propane gas stoves. You see them at CDN Tire and Costco sometimes called Turkey fryers or camp stoves, single burner jobbies, albeit with close to 60,000 BTU's, and they put out some serious heat. A wok will fit on it, and I wouldn't worry about all that piping in of gas and ventilation and stuff in your home--Wok outside!
What about a barbecue outfit? We have one of those outside.
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Please note that your qoute from on food and cooking says "for best results", not for, "if you don't do this it won't work at all".
The cream didn't have enough butterfat. end of discussion. Stop talking about putting the beaters in correctly, or using foaming agents or a cream siphon or aging and temperature changes. I can make whip cream for you with a spatula, mind you it would take much longer than with a whisk and I would have to keep refrigerating it, but still it is possible.
What aerates the cream is the proteins and what makes it happen is the fat. After agitating the cream enough the proteins get pushed apart and the fat starts to find partner molecules to buddy up with. Once enough fat has come together in thousands of larger particle pieces they are able to lock air within the fat globules. the proteins help the fat sit tight long enough for this to happen. Eventually enough air has been incoprorated that it is a homogenous mix and the air can be distributed evenly through the cream giving you whipped cream.
there is not enough fat, the company botched the batch, go get some more.
I think I like this answer best of all. Makes my life simpler. I'll get back with what the store/company says and does.Thanks, Chiantiglace
***Just phoned the store and the manageress says to get right down there and she'll replace the cream. Yay team! and thanks to all.
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OK. Another tangent.
Lacking an ISI gas whipper and some gelatine, is there any other way that the situation could have been retrieved?
Or, to put it another way, how could one 'whip' cream that doesn't want to whip?
Could one mix in a little beaten egg-white? What could one do to 'stabilise' the foam with things that might be to hand?
I am no expert, but I thought that gelatine was simply a stabilizer and not to be used until the cream was already whipped.
I don't have an ISI gas whipper although I shall begin to think about getting one. Thanks for the help.
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Just to complicate matters a bit more...
I know there can be seasonal variation with milk used for making froth for coffees. This is due to variances in fat, protein, and mineral concentrations. In your neck of the woods, they are likely to use grain feed during winter and then change to pasture feed in spring, leading to large variances in composition.
What you may have had is cream that had poorer properties for whipping than normal because of seasonal variances. Add to this the leaving in the car episode, which would accentuate the effect, and hence floppy whip.
Thanks Nickrey, that is a new consideration for me. I must go and taste it straight and see how it stacks up to the usual taste as I recall it.
I just came up with another possibility.
This cream could have been inadvertently frozen before I received it on the truck, in the store cases.... That would do it. I had ordered this cream over a week ago and apparently the dairy shorted the order. Then it unexpectedly arrived to my confusion. Could there have been some problem of that nature. I know that you can't whip pre-frozen cream.
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This is the only whipped cream recipe that I use:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Extraordinary_Home...ed_Cream_Recipe
I once used a different one from a cookbook and it practically fell. I have never had a problem with this recipe, though!
Thanks for your input. Interesting link.
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I think if I learn one more thing today, my brain will burst for sure.
Not to mention my DH who said...'don't tell me that you actually told everyone what you did? ' So the half-whipped cream went back into the bottle and will do nicely for ganache or something else.
And I'll buy another bottle of Cream of Weber Whipping cream and see what happens, and then follow up on this thread.
Thanks for the additional information. I knew about egg whites and cleanliness and somehow thought it was true of whipping cream...which makes no sense when I think about it, because it is fat you are trying to avoid with whipping the egg whites.
And if Alanamoana could heat the cream and then cool it and beat it satisfactorily ...it means the mystery remains unsolved.
The cream I used is, of course, of a slightly lower fat content than the specialty heavy creams which the professional chefs use, but it has always worked before. Fascinating.
I cannot believe the sheer weight of the stuff I have learned since joining this Forum in August. After a lifetime of avoiding cooking as much as possible, I am almost drowning in a sea of information and new experiences.
Make some anyway! We all want to know what happens!
Candy Conversation Hearts
in Pastry & Baking
Posted · Edited by Darienne (log)
Everyone has seen those little sugar pastel-colored hearts with silly sayings on them...'love ya', 'be mine'...in the grocery stores. Yes, they taste awful
, but children love them and this is about children.
I made a batch of this candy in February, colored and flavored it in 4 sections, rolled and cut it into largish shapes, allowed it to dry 2 days...it takes at least a day to dry out...made Royal icing in several colors, bagged it and sent it all to the Multicultural Center in Moab for the little Hispanic children who are learning English. They had a ball decorating the shapes and I only wish that I had photos.
These little kids have so little, in a land of so much, and it is really something to watch their joy.
Now I am going to make some pastel colored little critters and a bunch of chocolate eggs for the Easter season.
The recipe is from About Candy.com by Elizabeth LaBau. It contains a little bit of the following: gelatin, corn syrup, 1/2 cup of water and 2 lbs of icing sugar which you mix in cup by cup. My Black & Decker hand mixer died two weeks ago and I fear greatly using my brand new KA handmixer. I have arranged with the local Seniors' Center to use their stand mixer. OK so far.
Questions:
* how long might this candy keep in a covered container without going bad in some way? I suspect for half of forever. The recipe says to store in an airtight container at room temperature, but gives no time frame. I would like to get this job done as soon as possible. (I'll make the icing at the last minute.)
* What if I made the stuff, cut it, dried it and put it in the freezer? Would this change the composition of the stuff at all? I suspect not, but then I have learned so many things that I was wrong about in the last few months...like about the whipping of heavy cream.
This candy is wonderful for children.
If you had two days, you could have the children basically make it with supervision one day and then decorate it the second day.