curls

Goodness, not often that I get to follow my own post with a gap of several months! I know people have been using their kamado cookers but have been posting in other threads. It was time to smoke another batch of cheese. Today I have mozzarella, monterey jack, cheddar, and gouda cheese cold smoking on the kamado Joe. Planning to smoke them for 1 1/2 hours.

Israeli salad with the addition of chickpeas and feta. Please excuse the mess, photo taken of the salad right after mixing. This went to work for an office party / potluck.

All of you have posted great version of this cake and I could not resist. Baked the jam swirled cake from "Snacking Cakes" by Yossy Arefi. I used some of my homemade peach jam for this recipe.

For any that are interested, we have an index to access information about our previous workshops...

To add to the topic, a video about fried chicken from Pecking House in Brooklyn. https://youtu.be/TzrMkN1kru0

I'll still attend.

Valentine's Day selection: raspberry dark chocolate milk chocolate ganache passion fruit jelly & passion fruit ganache

Thrilled that we are having a workshop this year!!! I'll be there.

I’ve been enjoying this series of videos from Bon Appétit where they film the behind the scenes prep and cooking at various restaurants. Has anyone else seen these? https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKtIunYVkv_Qzb47KYxPxtmaOB5T1M8HH

Looks beautiful! Happy Birthday to your aunt. Which almond cake recipe do you use?

Albert Uster has candied / glace fruits. Have you given them a try? I also use Agrimontana and Amifruit. I just check which suppliers carry those two brands. I like the quality of all three -- order is usually based on availability and cost.

Kim, I had seen your posts about the bakery a few times. Didn’t know if you had seen the video.

Sorry to hear that you aren’t happy with how your breads have been turning out. Any ideas why? Want to share more information and let us attempt to troubleshoot? The pancakes/crepes you made with your sourdough discard sound quite yummy.

Anyone try Sub Rosa Bakery? This video of the bakery is making me consider a road trip. https://youtu.be/ZdzXMs8EKj8 @Kim Shook

I don't see why it wouldn't work. Quite a few of the chocolatiers use a dehydrator to keep their cocoa butter & airbrushes warm. It is all a question of what equipment you have lying around and what temperature it can accurately hold.

I'm hoping to have time to bake some cookies. If I do, I'll probably bake almond spritz and chocolate chip. Would like to bake one more for a nice trio but haven't figured out the third cookie type to bake -- maybe mandelbrot.

Ha! That's what I was thinking too. Not sure if it is available in the DC area but I can mail order it from Murray's.

Video about Bordier butter https://youtu.be/b--l_0eMbo8

I use a shaker table and add my inclusions while I am shaking my chocolate filled moulds. All my inclusions are safely "glued" to the chocolate bar and don't come out when I release the bars from the moulds. Also, I agree with @pastrygirl on having two pretty sides to my chocolate bars - mould design side and inclusions side. Maybe figure out how many bars you have to sell to pay for your new moulds. Also, discounts for purchasing larger quantities of moulds, and the time savings of more moulds / fewer batches.

For my hazelnut piece, I like the additional sugar crunch. No room in my shop for a melanger, perhaps there will be one day. Definitely a longer process if you use a melanger.

@Jim D. no melanger, the hazelnut praline was made with a food processor. The caramelized sugar still has a bit of crunch… can’t make the paste super smooth via food processor but previously I bought Trablit hazelnut paste and my paste is smoother than theirs. My bonbon also includes a whole hazelnut, so it is a piece with multiple textures. Yes, I tried the method of roasting nuts & caramelizing sugar as separate processes. So far I like this method better than the traditional one. Nice to get more precise roasting of nuts & cooking the sugar to a specific temperature. Next batch I plan to increase the hazelnuts going from 50/50 to 60/40. May also roast the nuts a bit longer.

Bonbon flavors for November are fig preserves with a port ganache, coffee ganache, and hazelnut in chocolate hazelnut paste. Also dark chocolate bars with candied orange peel.

Making some hazelnut bon bons for my November selection and needed some more hazelnut praline. Decided not to order it this time but to make my own. I'm quite happy with the results! Unless I need a ton of hazelnut praline, I'll keep making it myself. Some process photos:

Maybe it's time to buy a backup creami! 😉

Froze some of my homemade peach pie filling and spun it on the sorbet setting. It turned out great and much more creamy and tasty than I was expecting. May not make any more pies with the remaining quarts of filling… they might all become peach sorbet.