Darienne

So ...now I have a lovely bunch of candied kumquats, some deflated, some not. Besides eating them straight out...no one told me about the pits ...what else can I do with them? I looked in the recipe section. No recipes. Thanks.

Bee-oo-ti-ful. I am almost drooling on the keyboard. And the glaceed lemon peel on top...exquisite. I just bought my first ever Meyer lemons in Albuquerque and am on my way with the candied peel. The lemon innards are in the fridge waiting for just this kind of inspiration. Wonderful!!!

Hello Claypot. Don't worry about your books. Three years is nothing. We unpacked books after 12 years of sitting in boxes in our drive shed and they were fine. I really thought they would end up in the trash bin.

Thanks, but it's a bit too far, both from Ontario...our home...and from Moab UT where we are now for the next three wonderful sunshine filled months! Have a good party. We will just have to eat chocolate in Moab. (Brought some with me and am ordering some more today.)

What WE could ask for is a personal invitation to join you.

The Dollarama I went to also had the 62% and 70% ← I'd like to try them both. If we hit Sarnia on the way across the border, I'll look for the local $rama. Thanks.

Thanks for that piece of information.

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...

Thanks. So much to learn, so wonderful learning it. Glad to know another piece of information about chocolate shine.

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?

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.

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

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)

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!

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

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. 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. 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....

I have been following this thread with envy. I haven't seen a Seville orange in our area for two years now.

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.

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.

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?

Canadian cream regulations: =============== 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.

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 )

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.

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.

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.