minas6907

You know, thats real funny you mention the seasoning coming off with the eggs. All the pans I have are Matfer, and have never regretted it. When I went to Yosemite this last June, I planned some meals with another family, and one morning I did a batch of scrambled eggs in my pan, which they stick too, and when I was cleaning the pan, the season started coming off in considerable amounts. I was always puzzled why that happened. I didnt think too much of it, I just reseasoned the pan when I got home and its fine, but that was the only time I cooked eggs in the carbon steel pans (with the exception of sauteing some potatoes and mixing eggs into it which gave me no problems) Otherwise, I have a single Teflon coated pan only for eggs, everything else in the kitchen in made in the matfer pans. I guess the scrambled eggs things wasnt an isolated issue, but the pans get hold in the heat too much for something as delicate as eggs. I'd just have a separate pan for eggs.

Glad it came out well, now I want to make it! Try to post the pics if you can, I'm able to find pics of alot of Greweling confections, but cant seem to find a finished version of this one. Sometimes the upload feature lags for me too, but I eventually get it going. Glad you liked it.

I just got a bottle of dried dill a long time back, was not impressed with it, and have used it seldom since, obviously what you have would be of much better quality, who knows how long it was sitting in the jar before I bought it.

Pm sent. The pictures online dont looks too great, basically like a brittle with a bunch of seeds mixed in, which is basically what it is. lizztwozee, I'm sure the recipe from Chocolates and Confections will produce something great, but I wouldnt be too quick to assume it will turn out like the one at your bakery, theres a whole lot of little variables that can be changed with candy, producing different results. Just give the recipe a try and experiment by making small changes with things you dont like.

I suppose alot of it can be just your own personal preference. Like you mentioned basil, if you think the dried tastes fine in whatever your doing, then thats good, but the dried and fresh herbs are totally different. I dont think fresh basil resembles dried basil at all. I guess whats stumping me is what you say 'acceptable,' because you can get any herb in a dried form, it just depends on your personal taste. Personally, I really hate dried rosemary, especially if its on meat. It just doesn't taste very nice and feel like I'm eating bark. I dont mind dried thyme, usually I'll infuse a vinaigrette with it and strain it, but fresh thyme is always better, in my opinion. Dried oregano seems to be something I use more then fresh, I enjoy the taste, but sometimes it can get overused. Then there's other things like mint, dried mint tastes nothing like fresh mint, if you were to infuse both in cream for a custard or ice cream, they would taste noticeably different, I'll always prefer fresh mint for everything. Then there's dill weed, which tastes like absolutely nothing, it sure looks pretty mixed into something like a chicken or potato salad, but doesn't seem to contribute much to flavor, fresh dill tastes nothing like its dried counterpart. I think theres just some things your going to have to try, everyone's opinion will be different, I think if it wasn't 'acceptable' to many, it wouldnt be on the store shelf. And leftover fresh basil should never be a problem, could put it on your eggs, grilled cheese, make a pesto with it and perhaps add some cilantro, add it to fresh pasta/bread dough, use stems for an infused oil and make a vinaigrette with it, etc. Hope that helps and its not just me ranting.

Theres a recipe for this in Chocolates and Confections, "Bird Food." Let me know if you want the formula, I can pm it to you.

I helped made Mariah Carey's 40 clove of roasted garlic chicken a few years ago.

I'd always just make a basil oil

Why not "The Art of the Chocolatier"?

How do you make a chocolate extract?

Thats why its possible to make yummy hot chocolate. It would be a different story if you put a half oz of milk into a mass of chocolate.

Am I the only one who thought that video was rather corny? They had the same 'chef' twice through out telling us how easy/healthy/natural/clean/convenient the aqua chef is.

After cultivating a starter for 2 and a half weeks, I got some time to try out the 15 page tartine bread recipe. At first it was sort of confusing because everything was written in long paragraphs, but the process is basically no different then most recipes. I followed his directions and was very suprised by the outcome, by far the best loaf I have made! I didnt use a combo cooker, but found that the medium sized black steel pans will fit nicely into the oven without the top pans handle being too long. Pleasantly suprised with my first attempt at a bread thats leavened with only natural yeast.

I'd just stop using the slate and pick up some quarry tiles

Do you normally get those large humps like that?

I would just keep it thawed, there's nothing thats going to go wrong with it.

Yep, 2nd dry towels. Oven mitts are not very manly, its difficult to scream at the wait staff when your wearing mittens.

Ok, well it seems I'm getting this. I'm getting better at shaping, and baking the 80% hydration dough on the first day seemed to preform well. Maybe I can keep it longer in the fridge, but so far it hasnt yielded good results. I did a test, I made a baguette on a sheet pan after it came out of the fridge, the I made a batard on my cast iron pan after shaping, resting, proofing, and the difference was noticeable. No blond spots on the batard, I think I'm finally getting this down. Its definitely not as easy as boiling sugar, dough can be picky :-) I'll keep messing around, but I'm getting the hang of it! Heres some pics

Hey, thanks everyone for your responses. I do think I need to work on shaping the loaf, and I have always been using steam in a piece of hot cast iron. I think an issue for me is also the fermentation time. I've been messing around with the cold fermentation thing for a little while, and it seems that after 1 day in the fridge, the bread bakes up really nicely, where as any longer there is a noticeable difference is the way it springs up. Makes me sort of uneasy because Reinhart claims that most of the doughs in Artisan Bread Every Day has a four day window of being in the fridge, but I dont see how the dough would bake on first day would be the same as waiting 3 more days for it to ferment, the loaves would come out different. Maybe I'm wrong, but the dough does continue to rise in the fridge. Question though. So I have a dough thats been fermenting in the fridge, do I pull it out, let it come to room temp, them shape it and proof? Or do I pull it out, shape while its cold, and wait for it to come to tempature before putting it in the oven? The loaves above, in the first three pictures were a little cool before they went in the oven, but they did grow in size, I was afraid of over proofing. Any pointers with regard to the proper procedure of cold dough? Thanks! :-)

Hey Everyone In the past weeks, I've sort of rekindled my interest in bread baking. Having a copy of Bread Bakers Apprentice, I made the Pain a l'Ancienne, which came out wonderfully. I'm still working on the one actually, there have been times where the loaves come out picture perfect, the scores open up, the baguette browns evenly and is crisp, they look like they belong in a small cafe in the France. Then there are other times where they come out sort of flat, and the scores are barley visible. Anyways, I think I'm narrowing that one down. But my question here is about the Lean Bread recipe from "Artisan Breads Every Day." Hopefully, I dont get too wordy, but I sort of like this recipe for a few reasons. Firstly, in the recipe from this book for French Bread with (I think) 66% hydration, it came out waaaaay to light and fluffy, like sandwich bread in the shape of a baguette or boule. I like the Pain a l'Ancienne recipe with 80% hydration, but I suppose thats not really meant to be shaped, Reinhart gives instructions to just sort of stretch it out into shape, not really forming it and tightening the gluten on the outside, but it does have a nice crumb, and most of the time, I can get the crust crisp. And it seems in between those, is the Lean Bread with 75% hydration. This also had a nice crumb, not and nice as the 80% hydration dough, but I still thought it was acceptable. So I'm wondering about my baguettes. The pictures are the 75% hydration Lean Bread recipe from Artisan Breads Every Day. I followed the instructions, formed them into baguettes, and let them proof 1 hour covered, and about 45 min uncovered. I read on a website that the times Reinhart gives to proof are guidlines, and its more accurate to test by poking the dough, so I did that. The dough had very little springing back, which I took as a sign of bring proofed. Into the oven they went with steam, and they did spring up, but the scores opened very little, and the bottoms baked quite unevenly. Can someone give me a few tips on what I can do for more even baking, and to have the scores open up? The pictured loaves were baked on a sheet pan at 450f. Am I over proofing them? Hopefully this isnt getting too long, but if I still have your attention...what seems weird to me is that I made a small batch of 80% hydration dough, and one day later I took off a piece and shaped (or tried to) it into a batard, I let it sit for like 10 or 15 min probably after bring shaped, and it went into the hot oven...then it sprang up like crazy and developed a beautiful ridge (see the picture with the mussels) and was perfectly crisp, no blond spots on the bottom, even brown...I'm not kidding, this is the best one that has come out of my oven. This little batard was baked on the back of a cast iron pan that was preheating with the oven. Then 24 hours later with the same dough, the baguettes I baked were ok, just sub par, could barley make out the scores. What accounts for the difference? I cant imagine it was being baked on the cast iron pan vs. a sheet pan. Anywho, I'm just wondering what steps I should take after the 75% hydration dough come out of the fridge after 24 hours of cold fermentation to get a decent looking and even baked baguette. Thanks for reading this and any help provided. :-)

I dont meant to be correcting the Chocolate Doctor, but even though the gummies are typically deposited in cornstarch molds, I think it would be more accurate to say they are a gelatin candy. There is not cornstarch (at least none that I have seen) that is in the actual gummie, any cornstarch is residual from the mold it was cast in. Thats why gummie bears would melt if you put the on a stove, turkish delight, or lokumi, dont do that, you cant remelt gelatenized cornstarch, the Turkish candies are quite different.

I agree with the above. I would worry about finding a fruit flavor to accompany the gummie, just get a clove oil to put in the gummie candy, they should taste fine

They are not 22 lb. If you can, just walk into a Depot and pick one up.

Very nice, and nice looking macaroons as well. So that caramel pop in the sphere? What kind of a form did you use for that? Silicone?

Yay! First time posting in this thread! I made a batard tonight! I've been having fun with the recipe from the Bread Bakers Apprentice for "Pain a L'ancienne." After experimenting with it a bunch of times, and trying many different ways of shaping, I think I have this one down to a science. Since its such a wet dough, I shaped it into a baguette while its cold, put it on parchment, slashed it, and let it proof for a short while, and in the oven the thing just sprang up like crazy! I was having a problem with this recipe, the loaves were turning out sort of on the flat side, even though they had a nice crust. But for this one, I kneaded the dough in the mixer more then I would have initially to make sure the gluten was developed, actually shaped into a baguette rather then doing it kind of free form, and it came out great. I had it along with some muscles (thanks Grandma) that I sauteed and made a light shallot and mustard wine broth. Yummy :-)