Darienne

I have been going back looking through every post I can find about putting crunchy bits: praline, feuilletine, etc, into other ingredients and retaining the crunch factor. The answer has been that only a butter ganache will do this. So, I have been experimenting with crushed pecan praline in cream...sog (as expected) cream cheese...sog ; and now the latest, butter...sog. I did not expect sog in butter. A butter ganache is supposed to preserve the crunch factor. My next step is to put the praline into chocolate only. It should stay crunchy? Yes? Also my next-door neighbor/landlady/friend says to me...'well, how do they keep the crunch in speciality ice creams?' I sure don't know. All comments and advice gratefully accepted. (Oh, I am working up to making a gianduja butter ganache and sandwiching it in between chocolate wafers, but in the meantime am fully occupied with playing Ice Cream Lady with my new Cuisinart toy.)

Two more for me. O Amazon! Where have you been all my life? Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop by Gail Damerow (just got a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker) La Dolce Vita: Enjoy life's sweet pleasures with 170 recipe for torte, biscotti, etc, etc, by Michele Sciciolone Both oldies, but goodies.

Wow! So much excellent and useful information in this topic now. And we all do like our ice cream (and chocolate) different. I found the Cuisinart premium Vanilla Bean recipe way too rich for my taste. And now I have made a Coconut Ice cream for my friend, which I found way too sweet and way too much coconut. Interesting. She and my DH both loved it. What I am really going towards is making frozen yoghurt which I prefer to ice cream anyway, and to date that's speaking only of the commercial stuff, both ice cream and yoghurt. The little Cuisinart booklet has some yoghurt recipes and I'll try them next. Has anyone any do's and don't' s specifically for frozen yoghurt that I should know about ahead of time? Thanks.

Hi Kerry, The gianduja in this recipe, is it a Wybauw recipe? Is it a ganache? I now have the disc molds and I have some Barry milk chocolate gianduja. Alas, I have no recipe for a gianduja ganache. I have had the Wybauw on ILL request for almost three weeks now with no result. They can get it: they got it for me before. Can you help me out in some way? Should I just make a simple gianduja ganache using heavy cream? It's so soft...what proportion would you suggest? Thanks, as always, Chocolate Doctor, She Who Knows Just About All.

Thanks. Learn, learn, learn....

Hi Alanamoana, Thanks very much for your explanation. I do realize that I overcooked the custard. Now. Had no idea. Almost everything I make, I make for the first time. An incredible level of novice. Funny, it is in one sense, one 'failure' after another as I learn how to make things. But then with the help of the good folks on this list, and an evergrowing selection of books, I am learning how to do it all. It's never too late. Thanks again.

Thanks for the answers to my questions.

Hi Tri2Cook, Were you able to make the gelato in your Cuisinart Ice Cream maker? I seem to recall reading in a gelato recipe that you needed a special gelato maker to make gelato. Thanks.

Looked this one up but couldn't find anything. My custard separated and I thought it might be because I had used previously frozen whipping cream...sorry it is true. So I wandered around Google trying to find an answer and came up with this: "Sometimes, in spite of every precaution, the custard separates." Fascinating. No possible precautions are listed and I am left wondering how to rectify my error. BTW, the ice cream was fantastic anyway.

Hi Tri2Cook, I'm not very experienced in looking up things on this list, and I could not find a thread marked "Frozen Desserts". Could you please give more specific directions, should they exist. I just 'came into' a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and have made one batch to date, Rich Vanilla. No crystals. Maybe beginner's luck. Next I am going for Coconut Ice Cream and then Peach (my neighbor has some fresh-frozen peaches and is salivating.) A whole new world opens up..... Edit: Could it be the thread: Francisco Migoya's Frozen Desserts ? Thanks

Today I made my very first ice cream ever in one of those Cuisinart Ice Cream makers which I came into just yesterday: Vanilla Bean, on the same page as the chocolate one made by Wannabechef. The ice cream was a great success although I feared it would not be. I used previously frozen whipping cream and the cooking custard separated in the pot. I used the hand mixer on it and hoped for the best. And the best it was. I am so grateful to have found this thread BEFORE I attempted the chocolate. I am going to enjoy this little machine and so will my DH.

Good one, but I have to tell you that my informant gets ksl.com in Utah!

I have never tried Amano chocolate although I have now read good things about them. They are based in Orem UT...we are now in Moab, UT...and speak of the great low humidity as a factor in their success. The humidity is terrific for confection making! A friend just sent me an article about Amano, that they have recently won awards for every bar they make at the Academy of Chocolate Awards in London! Good going, Amano and congratulations! (I have tried for the last few days, over and over , to post this news on 'Members News', but it will NOT recognize me.)

I have not only the Cake Bible but also the Pie and Pastry Bible, ordered in a greedy 'throw caution to the winds moment' last month. This morning, while waiting at the dentist's...FOR OVER AN HOUR...I dipped into the Cake book. It is wonderful! It explains so many things. I have fallen in love and shall wallow around in this book for months to come. Thanks for writing.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. There is much in it for a novice to ponder. Thanks.

I haven't tried to 'desalt' nuts, but I have skinned hazelnuts now in hot water and then recrisped them in the oven and it worked perfectly.

Thanks. Just received that book last week and have scarcely opened the cover yet. I will look up the information.

I think I will order the Corriher on ILL. Cookwise. Thanks for the information.

Good point, but I think that they are getting at something else which I don't understand. Thanks.

Good point!!!!

Am I correct in assuming that it would be a mistake to use caramelized cacao nibs in a brittle because they are already cooked and would therefore burn in the process? Greweling's Peanut Brittle calls for raw peanuts, with a variation of 'cocoa nibs' with no mention of raw, cooked or otherwise. Thanks edited for typos

It was serendipity. I recently halved a recipe and was not pleased with the resulting creation and wondered why. The very next day, I read in a fairly recent Bon Appetit (sorry, I did not note the date) in answer to a question re making a particular cake and halving the recipe, and then having it not work out properly: ‘...but it's not all that unusual. According to food scientist Shirley O. Corriher, you should technically be able to halve a cake recipe that is "balanced"- -one in which the weights of the components (flour, milk, fat, and so forth) are in a standard ratio.... ...a large cake needs a smaller proportion of leavening and a larger amount of liquid than a small cake. Using different sizes of cake pans with the same ratio of ingredients might produce different results. Dividing a recipe that isn't perfectly balanced can magnify any irregularities--even if they are intentional variations in the standard ratio.’ OK. First of all please, what is a ‘balanced’ or ‘standard’ ratio? What kind of cake would work that is not perfectly balanced? Are recipes often ‘unbalanced”? Any and all comments gratefully received in the quest.

Congratulations, KristenLea, and welcome to the wonderful world of candying everything you can lay your hands on .

Thanks for the supplier answers.

I was looking at the transfer sheets in the Tomric catalog. $40.00 for one set. Is there anywhere where you can buy a lesser amount to try them out? Or the same amount...$40...but a mixed package? I am such a novice that I can't bring myself to pay that much for something which I may not be able to use at all.