DianaB

Yet another pain de mie, so pleased with this recipe, much quicker to do than other breads I make. I realsise it wouldn't suit those that use only natural levain but this hybrid really has a wonderful taste and gives just the texture we want for everyday sandwiches.

Thanks again gfron1, you seem to be able to read my mind in respect of your latest advice. The idea of reducing the pectin was indeed to achieve a slightly less firm product but I'll stop cooking at 105c next time. Also I'll ensure I have tartaric acid to hand, it's easy enough to find. We usually have apples in the house but I'm guessing something tart like a bramley might be better than our normal Pink Lady. We have a couple of apple trees and I have stacks of purée cooked unsweetened and frozen last autumn. I have 1kg passion fruit purée (90% passion fruit, 10% sugar), that might be the base of my next attempt.

After following @gfron1's kind advice I now have a first batch of Blackcurrant pâte de fruit. They set very well and it was easy to cut the pieces with a large knife. I hit a problem with the final stage, I was certain that I had a jar of tartaric acid but when I went to get it I found that in fact it is cream of tartar. A little research told me that the cream of tartar isn't a substitute and since I don't have time to go out in search of the proper thing today I resorted to sugar with grated lemon zest. I will certainly order tartaric acid for the next batch. The pâte tastes fine, I think another time I would want to reduce the sugar just a little, also the pectin if the latter can be reduced without losing setting capacity. Perhaps I scaled wrongly when adapting quantities given to account for the additional 40g purée. As I said yesterday I should have followed the recipe to the letter and used a bread pan as a mould. I would then have produced cubes instead of slabs but I am quite happy with my first slabs! Many thanks again to @gfron1 for the time taken to set out such an excellent guide for someone with limited home cooking skills, also to others who kindly gave advice about sourcing the right pectin. I am well aware that I failed to produce equally sized pieces, more care needed next time!

Would you you advise on what the flavour(s) are for those of us that can only dream of tasting your beautiful creations?

You clearly have a good understanding of our arrangements at home! The pâte is sitting at room temp but arranged specifically so that we won't find paw prints on it in the morning... Not directly covered but (I hope) inaccessible to felines. What do you use to cut the pâte? I'm guessing a warmed knife might do the job?

Its looking good but I'm going to resist cutting it until the morning. I'm keeping it at room temperature, assuming that's right and no need to refrigerate? Thanks so much for all your help with this!

First attempt now setting. I had 240g Blackcurrant purée after processing the currants with sugar and water and straining as @gfron1 advised and so scaled the other ingredients accordingly. The pectin/sugar mix dissolved nicely with no clumps, as did the sugar added later. I over estimated the quantity of the cooked mass when it was still in the pan so the eventual squares will be quite fine as a result but I don't think that will be a problem. The pâte is already setting nicely, it was quite viscous from the pan and now, two hours on, it seems to be firming nicely.

Welcome @serenityh, Looking forward to learning more about your cooking through the forum. For me one of eGullet's strengths is the diversity of cuisines the members bring and share. Hope you find some new things that inspire you, I'm sure many of us will enjoy your contributions.

@chefmd Saw your earlier post about the beautiful red,pot and was fascinated to see what you would produce from it. I will admit that on sight of your first photo above, showing the unbaked dough in the pot, I was surprised. I think perhaps I need to look at that first picture on a decent screen to really understand what you have in the pot before baking. The second image shows a beautiful loaf, for me it looks to have ideal crust and crumb. Have you made a similar recipe in a cast iron pot (Dutch oven?). I note the new device has holes in the lid but that you baked your loaf in a steam oven, do you think that the steam produced by the oven compensated for moisture lost through the lid vents? I ask because the only way I can get a crust like your's is to bake in a pre-heated cast iron pot with an unvented lid. I think I first came across the technique in the Forkish book you refer to above and it revolutionised my bread making. For me it was worth the cover price for that baking technique alone! Your pictures, also those of @DianaM have really given me inspiration this morning. Of course there are numerous other wonderful bread images earlier in the thread! This is a topic I enjoy reading almost daily, thanks to all who contribute.

Yellow pectin arrived yesterday so pâte de fruit à la gfron1 will be attempted today or tomorrow. All fingers are crossed. I've been married for over 30 years but only as a result of the discussion with my husband over this thread have I discovered that he likes these. Much of my chocolate or patisserie creations are given to neighbours because we are both people who only have to be in the same room as such to pile on weight. As this will be a small first batch the neighbour might not get a taste (if indeed I manage to produce something edible...).

Sorry for the delay in answering this, I guess we are in quite different time zones. Apologies also for my poor explanation earlier. What I wanted to say was that we can't use the raised beds for potatoes this year. The bags will sit on concrete. Those we bought from Amazon already have drainage holes but we punched holes into the 'home made' varsity. We will plant a bag or two every four weeks through to September. As there are only 2 mouths to feed that will see us through until Christmas hopefully. I'm no expert on imperial measures and haven't looked up what 20 pounds might be in kilo's but our commercial bags are around 40cm across and 80cm high. Supermarket bags are wider but shallower. The bigger bags mentioned above would no doubt be fine if you have space to house them. Hope this is clearer!

Welcome Dario, Very much looking forward to your contributions on the forum, also to learning more about your research.

Potatoes in bags certainly work well for us, having used each of our raised beds for potatoes in recent years they will all be in bags this year. Amazon (and no doubt others) sell bags specifically for the task but we have had equal success with the 'bags for life' distributed here by supermarkets. They are made from woven plastic and are slightly larger than the official Amazon variety. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Potato-Planter-Vegetable-Greenhouse-drainage/dp/B014T7BB5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1463673124&sr=1-1&keywords=potato+growing+sacks Both variety of bags can be used over and over, spent compost gets added to the raised beds between batches We simply fill the bags to around one third height and plant 3 or 4 seed potatoes just under the surface. As the plants begin to grow we add compost to make sure the eventual potatoes are protected from light. Around 12 weeks later, simply pull out a handful of potatoes as needed. We had potatoes from bags in this way right through to the end of December last year. Although you might not have loads at any one time there are only two of us so the system is ideal. We have grown Charlotte, Ratte and Royal Kidney this way. Because the supermarket bags have a slightly larger interior we plant 5 seed potatoes at a go. I heard a radio programme recently where the discussion was on carrots grown in bags. Our soil is extremely heavy in the raised beds so we plan to try this technique for carrots this year using a sandy compost mix.

Yellow pectin found and ordered, hoping it will be here for the end of the week so I can have a first attempt. For others in Eorope this company sells a good range of things for patisserie, chocolate making etc: http://www.souschef.co.uk

This is absolutely brilliant and thanks so much for taking the time to set it all out. We have Amazon Prime (free next day delivery) so will search out yellow pectin, if not from there I know of other suppliers to try in the UK. Hopefully if I can get that I'll be making a first attempt at the end of the week. Blackcurrant is one of my favourite fruits, we grow a small quantity here in North Yorkshire so it seems entirely appropriate that these form the base of my first attempt. Will report back in due course!

Many thanks for your detailed advice gfron1. I don't have a recipe, this is something I probably wouldn't have attempted if I hadn't seen the discussion above but I do like eating pâte de fruits and they might well make a nice gift in place of chocolates from time to time. I know very little about pectin. I understand it needs to be mixed with sugar to prevent clumping, then into a cold liquid that is heated to whatever temp depending on the final product. I bought the NH on the recommendation of someone at Speciality Ingrdients, a U.K. firm that has numerous things for 'modernist' cooks (I'm not one, for now I'm enjoying learning bits and pieces here on eGullet but that's it), the person advising said it was the best pectin available. So, I have the blackcurrants and the other stuff listed above. I think the Thermapen is reasonably reliable, just need to convince myself it's doable and get started! Thanks again for your kind advice.

I have never made pâte de fruits although I have enjoyed eating them from time to time. I have read most of this thread and installed the Boiron app mentioned above. The Yummily recipe also cited above is no longer available. I would like to have a go at making these, preferably without a great deal of investment due to the amount of stuff I have already accumulated for other cookery projects and very limited storage space. In my cupboards I have: Cream of tartar Certo liquid apple pectin Xantham extra fine powder NH pectin powder Sugar in various forms sheets of gelatin, also powdered, I've never had any success with the powdered. glucose but only about 100g bought in raspberry coulis that claims to include 42% raspberry juice, 18 % raspberries, and 7% raspberry purée! sugar! glucose! lemon juice cornflour and water make up the rest. entire bottle is 250ml 350g frozen morello cherries. Small amount (perhaps 200g) frozen blackcurrants from the garden smaller amount blackcurrant coulis Any amount of cooked but unsweetened apple from the garden. indeterminate amount frozen mango pulp, probably around 250g, not cooked, I froze it to save throwing fruit away. i have a Thermopen and a different probe thermometer, also a single induction hot plate, I note earlier in the thread there was reference to using induction as a good way to control temperature in this process. Our usual hob is gas. I have a scale that can measure very small quantities, also nice little cellophane bags that would look really good filled with the finished product..... I can test for ph. Given the above as a starting point, what would you suggest as a first attempt? It would be good to have pâte de fruits to give as small gifts in place of chocolates during the warmer months when chocolate can be difficult to transport. I am not a professional cook so small quantity based suggestions would be really welcome. I know I can scale if necessary but at times a recipe for a large quantity doesn't translate too well when significantly scaled down. Thanks in advance to anyone who has time to help me with this project.

Our vegetable garden is minuscule compared to many here. Also we have had major building works earlier in the year, combined with an indifferent Spring means that so far we have little to show. Building work was completed on Thursday, the cold and wet period has stopped for a while and we had a little time yesterday to make some progress: The end of last year's leeks and the first of this year's salads that have been waiting in the greenhouse until work was finished; Strawberries, those at the front had been turfed out during the works. Tonight they have picked up and I'm sure they will soon regain their strength, they are Gariguettes. The most flavoursome strawberries I have ever known( An olive tree that came from Aldi a couple of years ago and a miniature cherry just acquired; Repotted bay bay next to the cherry, limited space means lots of things in pots. We also planted a second batch of potatoes in bags, great to be able to pull out a handful as needed. We are growing Royal Kidney as the results were beautiful last year. Tomatoes etc will have to be found as plants, too late to grow from seed this year. We stick with cherry varieties that mature fast and crop abundantly. I found some some seeds from the sunflowers we grew last year and they were also planted yesterday but in the greenhouse to get them started. Usually we have grown courgettes but we still have a load in the freezer from last year so I'm wondering if butternut squash might grow here instead this year. To be researched. We are a 2 person household (and 2 cats but they have no interest in vegetables) so we aim for small but continuous crops.

Great topic Rotuts,. I have learnt loads from watching cooking shows and admit to perhaps watching more than I should. Wandering away from techniques the first things that came to mind when I read your topic was ingredients I wouldn't have tried but for seeing them on TV shows: tonka beans and butternut squash are examples, I doubt I would have tried either if I hadn't seen them over and over on cooking programmes. Piment d'espelette is another. I doubt I would have made fresh pasta if I hadn't seen how easy the process is on a cooking show. i'm sure I will think of numerous other examples with time!

Last night's sandwich bread.

Thanks so much for sharing for those of us not able to join you. Really looking forward to sharing this weekend from afar.

One way to get a perfectly flat surface on a cake is to reverse it after baking so that the bottom becomes the top. I've done this when constructing Opera cakes, so that the eventual top chocolate layer is level. Also with the Valrhona version of a Sachertorte that has a chocolate glaze. With that I discovered the first time that, as gfron1 says above. Every slight blemish is visible once the glaze is applied.

Definitely nowhere near the tropics here but like Liushou I've never stored soy sauce in the fridge, nor Maggi liquid seasoning. I have never refrigerated things like commercial ketchup, or 'brown' sauce (this may be a UK only product?). I keep commercial mayo refrigerated because I want it at that temperature to use, I would always refrigerate home made mayo or tomato sauce. It is many years since I refrigerated eggs, save when they are no longer in their shells.. All my unrefrigerated condiments are stored in a coolish cupboard without light. I do realise that some of these items aren't condiments, apologies if some of this is not strictly on topic. Hope this might help, it will be interesting to read other comments.

Lamb is probably my favourite meat and we are lucky in having a farm shop very close to home where the meat is local and the lamb in whatever form is wonderful. Tonight will be souris d'agneau as detailed by Chef Simon: http://chefsimon.lemonde.fr/gourmets/chef-simon/recettes/souris-d-agneau-confites-a-l-ail Just in in the oven, cooking is 2h30. Jersey Royal potatoes also from the farm shop (but guessing not that local) to go with the lamb. Jersey Royals seem to be at their peak in flavour just now, the season is short so plan to make the most of it.

Simplicity here today. My first attempt at pistachio ameretti. These took only minutes to make based on a recipe from the cestmafournee blog: http://www.cestmafournee.com/2016/04/les-amaretti-moelleux-la-pistache.html#more I added the tiniest amount of green colouring, my pistachio paste is home made and the biscuits wouldn't have had the colour of those on the blog without a little help. Having read that people had struggled to shape the individual pieces I just put the entire mix into a piping bag, cut the end and they came out nicely. I sprinkled them with a little icing sugar before baking. They are delicious. 12 quickly became 10.