teonzo

A good reason to stop sleeping and produce 200 a day. Teo

Lavender flowers are a troubling b**ch. They vary a lot from producer to producer and with time, you can't standardize your recipe because you will get different results each time, so you need to base everything on your taste memory. When infusing them the risk of getting a bitter result is really high. If the infusion temperature is over 70°C then you are pretty screwed. If you try cold infusion then you are screwed too, at least in my experience. I don't know the chemical reasons, I never researched which aromatic molecules are involved. I think you get the best results between 50°C and 60°C, leaving the flowers for few minutes and tasting constantly, then straining. Don't press too much, or you will start getting a bitter infusion. The third problem is that they absorb a lot of liquids, they have a huge surface area and fats tend to remain attached to them. So the amount of liquids that are lost during the infusion vary a lot from time to time. And it's impossible to have an idea of how much water was lost and how much fat was lost, even this ratio varies a lot. So unless you have access to a lab you will be left with a blind guess on what to add to get back to your desired amount and you will risk to throw your recipe off balance. This is a major trouble especially when making a ganache for a chocolate bonbon. In the past years I switched to essential oil for lavender. Much much easier to use and even a cleaner taste. Beware it's really strong, a single drop goes a long way. You can use the leaves of the lavender plant as well, they have a licorice-like taste. Use them as you use rosemary. At least this is my experience with the local variety of lavender, can't say about the one that is in your hands. Teo

I missed the replies back then. There are other ways to get the flavor of fragile herbs like mint and basil. You can include them in the mix without recurring to infusing. With a pacojet it's pretty easy, you prepare your ice-cream base, let it cool, add the herbs, pour in the pacojet canisters and freeze. The machine will grind them ultrafinely when you will pacotize your frozen base and you'll get the true taste of the herbs because the herbs are there whole. Without a pacojet you can quickly blanch the herbs to avoid oxidation troubles, then add some cold water (preferably with a bit of acid) and grind them to get a puree. You need a powerful blender like a Vitamix or a Thermomix to get a really fine puree. When you have the puree you just add it to the ice-cream base after chilling it (and before churning). Of course if you use this puree method then you need to re-balance your ice-cream recipe since you are adding water and some solids, but you already know this. You can prepare a good quantity of this puree during the hot season and freeze it, so you can make the ice-cream the rest of the year. With sturdier herbs (rosemary, thyme, savory...) I would keep going with the infusion method. Teo

I would say the best thing is going with the classic recipe without altering it to make it softer. Soft nougat holds its shape and is relatively easy to cut. If you aim for something softer then you move towards marshmallow territory, so you risk ending up with something that gets compressed during cutting and sticks to the knife, creating a nightmare. The thing I would change is the dimension of the inclusions, I would use ground nuts instead of whole, to be able to roll it thinner. Whatever you choose I hope you will post a detailed resume, as you did in the past. Teo

Do you really think TV producers would let something like that being aired if it was not wanted? They are there to say "cut and redo" when such things happen out of script. Teo

Seems like the "student's coffee" is a thing only in Italy. When a student wants to stay awake to study then he makes a coffee's coffee. You brew a coffee (with a moka, as common in the homes here), then put that coffee in the moka instead of water and brew a new coffee. This the coffee square. If you repeat this again then it becomes a coffee cube. I've seen someone going quadruple. People say that the result has much more caffeine and is much more effective. Can't say, I'm not a coffee drinker. For sure the student's coffee can be described as a coffee iteration in the literal sense of the term. But don't let liuzhou drink it. Teo

My name is Biggus Teus. Biggus Teus

This and the double butter are just pre-made marketing strategies to give more oomph to a fading celebrity. Well done marketing strategies. Teo

So, if you make a coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, then use the resulting liquid instead of water to make a new coffee, you drink it, someone says you made a coffee iteration, then you become more dangerous than the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog? Teo

I think that Tuber magnatum is using "Next" for "Eleven Madison Park: The Next Chapter", while you are meaning "Next" as the restaurant in Chicago by Achatz and Kokonas. No print versions of the few Next Restaurant (Chicago) books unfortunately. They even stopped making the digital ones, which is a pity in both cases. Teo

The standard for croissant dough is 3 three-folds (letter-folds). With laminated doughs usually you give a three-fold (roll the dough, then fold like a letter to get 3 layers of the original dough) or a four-fold (roll the dough, then fold to get 4 layers of the original dough). Most bakers use 3 three-folds, for a final of 27 layers (3*3*3). In the past years some people went lower giving 2 folds (3*3 or 3*4). Going 4 folds is not recommended. The refrigeration step is done to relax the gluten structure and to allow the butter to get colder, since during the rolling/folding it gets warmer. 30 minutes is the standard recommendation in all recipes, not knowing what fridge people are using. About temperature, your goal is for the dough to reach about 8-10°C. If you go lower the butter becomes hard and it causes troubles, like you experienced. If it remains warmer, then the butter becomes too soft and you risk the toothpaste effect. Always put the dough in the warmer side of your fridge, if you put in the colder side then the exterior of the dough will become much colder than the interior. Many times 30 minutes is too much. For the gluten to relax 15 minutes are more than enough, after that it's just a matter for the dough to get cold enough. So it's better to check the dough after 15 minutes and then decide what to do. Checking the temperature is a good guide, but it's better to check the dough pliability with your hands. You should have enough experience to do so. Teo

The use of "unctuous" comes from all the French chefs that relocated in English speaking countries. They were used to the French term "onctueuse", which means "creamy / silky" and is really positive when referred to food. Similar sound, different meaning. Teo

I would say to go with the first, then decide. About the second one, from what I know there are contents that are exclusive to the limited edition and contents that are exclusive to the unlimited edition. There is more stuff in the limited edition, otherwise people who bought it would feel screwed, but they added unreleased contents in the unlimited edition so people who bought the limited will feel the need to buy the unlimited too. This is what I've been said, I never had both editions in my hand to make a comparison. Teo

Didn't know about his winning at the game show, now I need to search on youtube. Kudos to him for his generosity. I read his biography and saying he is honest is an understatement. Teo

You can use a tool for slicing hot dogs / wurst sausages, all pizzerias have one to speed up the cutting process. This is the first result via google. They work well for dates, dried figs and other similar stuff. Teo

Try giving a look to the world of dehydrators. In which case you need to put your sourdough in a closed box, then put the box in the dehydrator. Teo

Compliments for your good will! I would say the best thing is asking her what she would like to eat. Vegan is just a generic description, every person has likes and dislikes. Try placing yourself in her boots: you are facing such health troubles, a neighbour comes with a food gift, you don't like it. What do you do? Do you say so, or do you say "thanks" and accept it? Almost everyone will say thanks, which is the polite thing to do. And which is what people facing those troubles do, because they have no energies to do otherwise. In those cases people need the most positivity possible. If they receive something they do not like, then it will cause negativity in them, first because that's something they do no like, second because they can't refuse. This not to say you are doing something wrong trying to give her some food, it's an admirable choice. What I want to point out is that to choose what to prepare it's better to ask her directly, not here. Say something like "I know you are facing a hard time, and I want to be of help during this fight and give you some strength, I would like to prepare some food for you, can you tell me please what you would like to receive?". Then try to accomodate her tastes 100% and try giving her some strength. Teo

I suppose that at this stage you know how to temper chocolate and check if it is tempered or not. If you are making multiple molds then the answer could be this: you did not stir the bowl after emptying the excess chocolate from the previous molds. After pouring chocolate in the mold it starts crystallizing quicker than when it's in the bowl, mainly due to the drop in temperature becoming in contact with the mold. Then you let it rest for a bit of time before emptying the excess, so it crystallizes even further. Result: the excess chocolate that gets poured back in the bowl has many more crystals than the chocolate that was left in the bowl. If you don't stir it, then with your next ladle you risk picking a part of chocolate that has few crystals (the one that was always left in the bowl) and a part of chocolate that has lots of crystals (the excess that went back in the bowl). Some cavities will be filled with the one with few crystals, these will contract normally; others will be filled with chocolate with lots of crystals, these will not contract much. The volume contraction is given by the crystallization: the more cocoa butter changes from non-crystallized to crystallized, the more contraction. If you start with chocolate with lots of crystals, then the contraction will be really small. The one in your last photo has 2 different stages: shiny chocolate (the one which was always in the bowl) that contracted, non-shiny (the one that fell as excess) that contracted really few. Solution: stir the chocolate in the bowl (just a couple rounds) before each time you pick up a ladle. Teo

You should switch from 100 g cream to 75 g. If a ratio works for dark chocolate then you can bet it won't work for white. To rescue the bonbons you can't cap, try spraying chocolate (the one you use for the shells) until you have a barrier thick enough to avoid troubles. Teo

The recipe you want to recreate has definetely an error in it, most probably it's due to the conversion from metric to imperial. All professionals use metric measures for the ease of it, and they make much bigger batches. So when they are asked to give a recipe for the home users they need to scale down the quantities and convert to imperial. Seems like an error escape through those 2 passages, or they did not scale down the baking powder quantity, or they made an error during the conversion. If the 50:1 ratio would call for just over 2 teaspoons, then I would suggest to use 2 1/2 teaspoons. According to google a tablespoon should be about 3 teaspoons, I would not go over that amount. Teo

I would suggest using the same chocolate for the shells and the bottom. Dark chocolate contracts more than milk chocolate because it has more cocoa butter. Teo

As I read the title before opening the thread, I thought "I'm definetely going to rant about this": but you preceded me, so I saved some time. I subscribe every single word, except it's my #1 not #9. Teo

Definetely too high, the flour / baking powder ratio should be around 50:1. One of the many reasons why it's better going metric. Teo

Thanks for talking about this book, I thought it was geared towards the home cooks so I was overlooking it. Another similar book has been published recently: "Toques in Black" by Battman. On one side it's nice to see black chefs and female chefs being noticed at last, but on the other hand they should appear together with all the other ones, not confined on their own. Teo

So dog meat restaurant is just the official name for an under cover brothel? What's the use for the rubber mallet? I've never been in direct touch with an alligator, but I suppose its skin/scales/whatever should be pretty hard. Definetely this. And we should be ashamed, considering all the tons of good food that went to waste in the past decades. Teo