curls

November chocolate selection. Dark chocolate with the following fillings: coffee ganache, caramel, fig preserves & port ganache.

Baked some brownies today. Had some leftover raspberry ganache that I added to the base recipe, very happy with how they turned out. Nice fudgy brownie with a hint of raspberry.

As Kerry has said, "none of us get out of this alive" but I was hoping to see Anna back posting on eGullet. I have enjoyed so many of Anna's posts and it was wonderful to meet her when she was helping Kerry with the eGullet Chocolate Workshops. Thank you Kerry for the links, I plan to go down those rabbit holes to enjoy and remember all the stories that the two of you have shared with us. My condolences to Anna's family and friends. She was an amazing woman and the world will not be the same without her.

Cool to see him using the same melanger that many of us have gotten from Premier. Interesting flavors and some information on recipe development. @Kerry Beal while their chocolate looks well tempered, they could probably use an EZ Temper to help with their workflow. 🙂 https://youtu.be/E2g-QZG4Vbg?si=pyK4eF2uxU1LTluj

Charelston and Petit Louis Bistro are both Cindy Wolf restaurants. There are a few more restaurants in her restaurant group https://foremanwolf.com/properties/. I haven't has a chance to go but know that her restaurants always get great reviews. I would recommend Bo Brooks for crabs - a wonderful crab house in the Inner Harbor but they closed earlier this year. Harbor Place in the Inner Harbor is not what it once was -- in fact, the mall is a ghost town now, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ground-lease-move-is-step-to-revitalize-harborplace/vi-AA1a4ndA?ocid=socialshare If you like trains, the B & O Railroad Museum is a must see. https://www.borail.org/

What flavor of ice cream was this? Do you know how they make the design on the cone? Is the cone flavored too? It looks intriguing and delicious!

Thank you. I ordered the one that I linked to above for $215.

Still haven't had time to open up my broken CSO but found another one at a great price. Still hoping my original CSO can be repaired and then it will be my spare. This company in Canada has CSO's available at approximately $215 USD / $280 CDN - https://www.homecoffeesolutions.com/products/cuisinart-combo-steam-convection-oven-cso-300n1c?_pos=1&_sid=bb587864b&_ss=r

If you set up some watches on ebay you may be able to get a used chocolate melter for $200 - $300. Also look at restaurant auctions.

Yes, I'm hoping it is something easy to fix. Will see if my husband can take it apart and find the problem. In the meantime I'll do some internet searching.

I bought it in 2019. Until today, it has been perfect. Yes, a lot of folks on eGullet like to have backups of their favorite appliances.

Thank you Shelby. I did check Amazon and was happy to see that they are still available. If my CSO is really dead, I need to decide if I replace it with another CSO or get another brand of steam oven or combi oven. Definitely more available now than when the CSO first came out. I don’t like the software issues that I keep hearing about for the Anova precision oven — costs so much more too.

My CSO died today at the start of baking bread. The bread is fine, moved to the oven which was preheated sine I move my bread after it has steamed so the top of the loaf doesn’t burn. The oven lights and clock don’t come on, it doesn’t produce heat or steam. 😞 The electrical outlet is working. Has anyone else had this problem? I’m hoping that my CSO can be fixed. Sadly, I did not purchase a spare CSO.

@BeeZee I understand not wanting to buy them for so much more than previous seasons. I have that issue with zucchini. Some years I grow zucchini but when I don't, I am unwilling to spend more than 79 cents a pound for it (and I haven't seen it for that price in years). Not enough squash growers in the neighborhood because no one is dropping of bags of squash & zucchini in my car or on my porch. 🙂

Interesting, cherries are on sale in Northern Virginia. I’ve been getting nice ones from Wegmans and Whole Foods for 3 per pound.

Anova Chamber Vacuum Sealer, on sale now for $260 with free shipping — probably US only. https://anovaculinary.com/products/anova-precision-chamber-vacuum-sealer?utm_campaign=CVAC

Anova Chamber Vacuum Sealer, on sale now for $260 with free shipping — probably US only. https://anovaculinary.com/products/anova-precision-chamber-vacuum-sealer?utm_campaign=CVAC

https://youtu.be/i3IvXgAMDoI Casa Enrique, Michelin Star Mexican restaurant. Looks delicious. Has anyone eaten here?

Suggestions for your improvements... - pastry cream instead of vanilla pudding - chocolate glaze instead of cake frosting - reading this choux paste topic, https://forums.egullet.org/topic/74731-pichet-ongs-pate-choux/ - reading Chef Eddy's eclair post, https://chefeddy.com/2010/03/choux-paste/

When I have the egg bite molds double stacked, I use a chopstick to raise one side, grab it with a potholder, and then repeat the process for the second side. Coat hangers would probably work quite well.

The recipe is on Ann_T's blog... https://thibeaultstable.com/2009/06/10/almond-cake-from-albufeira-portugal/

I use the IP egg bites mold with this recipe from Instant Pot - https://recipes.instantpot.com/recipe/fluffy-egg-bites/. Instead of using foil to cover the molds, I use the cover that comes with the IP egg bit mold. I have two molds and I stack them on their trivet and cook per the recipe -- steam for 8 minutes, wait 10 minutes, release pressure. I mix all of the egg custard ingredients in a blender. IP has a few recipes that use their egg bites mold: https://recipes.instantpot.com/?coursefilter=&cuisinefilter=&dietfilter=&search=egg+bites&bsearch=Search. The corndog minis look like fun! https://recipes.instantpot.com/recipe/corndog-minis/

If this isn’t the right place for this post, please move it. Found this interesting video about tea and dim sum in Hong Kong.

A video about Guittard chocolate. https://youtu.be/onTNl8V4Soc

Not sure yet which chocolate I will use with the pistachio but I’ll be experimenting with thIs batch of pistachio praline and will report back. Interesting that you add dried fruit to your pdf. I haven’t done that but am very happy with the shelf life on my pdfs. I do boil down the fruit purée to about half to concentrate it and eliminate some water.