[Cooking on a Big Green Egg]

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.

 

[Salad 2016 –]

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.

 

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

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.

 

[PLANNING: eGullet Chocolate and Confectionery Workshop 2023]

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

 

[Fried Chicken]

To add to the topic, a video about fried chicken from Pecking House in Brooklyn.

 

https://youtu.be/TzrMkN1kru0

 

[PLANNING: eGullet Chocolate and Confectionery Workshop 2023]

4 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

If the hotel cost is going to be $215/night plus tax - will that be a huge issue? Because it's looking like that might be the best we can do. 

I'll still attend.

[Confections! What did we make? (2017 – )]

Valentine's Day selection:

raspberry dark chocolate

milk chocolate ganache

passion fruit jelly & passion fruit ganache

 

 

 

[PLANNING: eGullet Chocolate and Confectionery Workshop 2023]

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

[Bon Appétit’s video series, On the Line]

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

 

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

6 hours ago, RWood said:

Quick birthday cake for my Aunt's 81st. They all love just white almond cake, so that's what they got. It was supposed to be multicolored, but I think some of my coloring has gone bad. So, just fuschia (what the bottle said) 🤷‍♀️

 

Looks beautiful! Happy Birthday to your aunt.

 

Which almond cake recipe do you use?

 

[Source for Candied Fruit]

1 hour ago, Jim D. said:

I am looking for sources for various candied fruits of high quality.  Nuts.com has them, but I have not tried their product.  I got some good orange peel from l'epicerie.com, but they have a limited vaiety.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

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.

[Richmond VA Restaurant Information]

7 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

This is my favorite bakery in Richmond.  We go as often as possible.  

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

[Sourdough Discard recipes, bakes, and cooks]

1 hour ago, lemniscate said:

I needed to feed my neglected starter, so I fed it and it woke up nicely.  I needed to make room in the jar and refeed it again.   The removed starter became a batch of thin pancakes/crepes (my pan technique is terrible, so the shapes were all over the place).  I love crepes with powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon.  The sourdough tang just adds a nice background flavor too.

 

I have a batch of sourdough potato bread dough slow rising in the fridge.  I hope it turns out, make bake it late today or tomorrow.  My breads have been very disappointing lately.

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.

[Richmond VA Restaurant Information]

Anyone try Sub Rosa Bakery?

This video of the bakery is making me consider a road trip. 
https://youtu.be/ZdzXMs8EKj8

 

 

 

@Kim Shook

[Using an egg incubator to hold chocolate in temper: has anyone tried this?]

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.

[Christmas Cookies Redux]

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. 

[A showcase for best butter]

4 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Thanks @curls - now I have to try to source some crazy artisanal French butter here in the Great White North....oy!

 

 

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. 

[A showcase for best butter]

Video about Bordier butter

https://youtu.be/b--l_0eMbo8

 

 

[Molding solid chocolate with inclusions]

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.

[Confections! What did we make? (2017 – )]

4 hours ago, Jim D. said:

 

I too use a food processor for making some of my nut pastes (haven't talked myself into a melanger...yet).  And I too don't mind the sugar crunch that a processor leaves.  I have started straining the ground caramel through a fine-meshed sieve that helps somewhat with that (minor) issue.

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.

[Confections! What did we make? (2017 – )]

@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.

[Confections! What did we make? (2017 – )]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

[Confections! What did we make? (2017 – )]

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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Current sales, deals, and bargains (Part 2)]

6 hours ago, lemniscate said:

Update to the previous Costco Creami Price.

 

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

[Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja 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.