Bojana

There is a fantastic recipe for Jacques Genin caramels here on egullet that uses sorbitol. I have made them several times, and even done blind tasting with the originals from Paris, my testers could not identify original from my own brewing. let me know if you want me to repost the recipe.

thanks again for all the ideas. i ended up dehydrating tomato, flavouring the butter and making it into a lovely shortbread cookies. i added the citric acid too, which was a very nice touch, thanks for that idea too. here is the pic of the final dish

Oh, and you fold frozen, flour coated blueberries into the dough just before baking. The fruit came out perfect, but not firm, more like pocket of blueberry flavour in the cake, but not in a mushy way.

I have just made some last weekend, using the Bouchon Bakery recipe. Next to the standard ingredients you'd expect, it uses a touch of molases and honey, some salt, and buttermilk. The key to great texture is to let the batter hydrate anything from 12 to 48 hours. I did not have the time to wait and was pretty happy with them, save for the molases taste that could be a bit less strong. But they were definitely not too sweet and had a lovely crispy outside when they cooled down, something you only get with homemade muffins.

I like flavoured butter idea. Love the salt too, just find it a bit tricky to get right the first time, flavour wise and salt level wise, I have no time to do a test batch. How do you flavur butter with sundried tomato? Chop finely and mix with softened/melted butter, then strain after some hours? Pressure cook together (like MC@H book suggests for crustacean butter)? Would love to have a good and tested savoury shortbread cookie recipe, which I can use with my tomato butter...

I am making a deconstructed insalata caprese, and i need a buttery savoury tomato cookie on which to put tomato water cloud (11 madison park recipe, tomato juice foamed and set with gelatin). Anyone has a tested recipe to share? It should fall apart easily in the mouth, and emphasize the tomato flavour. I thought of shortbread dough with small pieces of sun dried tomato folded in the dough but other ideas are also welcome. Thanks

Thank you for the replies. I tested my rice cooker overnight, it can maintain 57C. My plan was to fill in with few cm of warm water, then put in a wrapped jar with garlic in and let it run. In a different articles I found, the process was described as first steam the garlic for one day ( but no temperature specified), then let it sit warm and humid for 30 days. Other sources claim 10-14 days in rice cooker is sufficient. I guess it depends on what you are after. While this can be fun to do, I am not sure it will be worthwhile, if I can only achieve average home results compared to the commercial garlic, and risk killing my rice cooker or even starting fire. Hmmm...

Rana, find a good restaurant in your area and ask to work there for free, focusing on pastry. There are no books that will be able to convey what an experienced chef can. Alternatively, you do not have to go all the way with classes. I did a 4 day patisserie training (6 hours a day) with a former michelin star pastry chef, and it cost something like eur 300. I have learnt so many useful techniques and tricks, it was invaluable. Restaurants can sometimes be reluctant to take an amateur, even if it's free. My tactic was to put a portfolio of pics togeter, illustrating all the things that I do know how to make. Plus, I took a batch of my own macarons with me ( i make killer macarons), to have the food speak on my behalf. good luck

Hi, I'd like to give black garlic a go, does anyone have a tried and tested process? Based on what I read on internet, I am inclining towards using my rice cooker in warm setting, just need to double check the temperature it runs at. I have seen temperatures mentioned from 60 to 66C, I guess lower temp will mean longer "cooking" time. How about the drying step afterwards, is 20 days really necessary or can it be done in 2-3 days to get it fully dry and safe for spoilage?

I am miso curing everyting, latest project is quail: miso cured quail and crisp sesame tuile roll filled with miso cure bavarois. Also, will soon try to make black garlic at home.

Foodman, did you like the Genoa Bread? I started making it, then noticed that it hardly uses any sugar other than what is in the praline paste and added some but I found the cake still too salty and not cake like. The caramel dusting and remelting in the oven technique worked like a charm, producing this thin and lacy caramel layer on the cake.

See this video for a very clear and detailed explanation of chocolate properties, key temperatures and processes. I do not remember any more where the part about the lava cake was but it definitely has both the recipe and the right process. I used it with great success.

I like them oven roasted, topped with salad and poached egg. If i had that many, i would try deep frying thinly sliced and also puree. Normally when i buy just several pieces, i stick to tried and tested prep. I would love to play with them more, let us know what you ended up doing.

There is New Artisan bread in 5 minutes coming in October. Wonder how different will it be from the original?

There is a recipe in Square book (that i did not test) that calls for melted butter, microplaned truffle, some salt and some water, cook to emulsify and cool.

Question for those who use the Dutch oven method: which brand and size are you using?

Foodman, it looks amazing. I think you just inspired me to try it. So far, I have made the Maillard gateau which was amazing, and bits and pieces of other stuff. An idea for caramel coating: I would apply the same (fiddly but uniform and safe) technique I have learnt from Quay (book) to encase meat. Make caramel, pour thin layer on silpat, put in food processor/ grinder and break to dust, then sieve dust over cut out forms (rectangular in this case) put into 180C oven for few minutes to melt, let cool, then place just on the top of cake pieces and put back in the oven to melt again. As the rectangle melts, it wilts and it falls neatly around meat, so should also around cake. I like to add some isomalt to original caramel, to make it dissolve less quickly. It also reduces sweetness, handy for meat.

My old oven broke down few weeks ago, which gave me the perfect excuse to replace it with a combi steam oven. I am curious about experiences of other people and discovering how tho get max results using my new toy. The model is V-Zug Combi steam XSL, fully adjustable to a degree C, with temp range from 30-235 and different steam levels. I had it for 3 days now and so far I baked some sourdough bread (brilliant), puff pastry, roasted veggies, steamed fish, made caramel flan (so easy) and did attempt at sous vide vegetables at 85 C (something did not quite work there). I am looking for general guidelines, how do you transition from conventional to this type of oven. What works and what does not? How to do SV properly (would mostly do vegetables, as I have a circulator for meat). Especially looking for advice re pizza, since pro baking starts with steaming in the cold oven, then goes over in hot air, my guess is that this does not work with very thin pizza crusts but what are other experiences? Any other advice welcome.

Made spicy chilli oil, then used that to make mayonnaise. It is divine, hot and throat warming, with a hint of star anis and cinnamon.

So I tried this again, this time the full batch as described in the book and did not add butter too early. Same result, texture that was too liquid and the same, amazing, salted butter caramel taste. I put half of it in a pan and cooked, butter and all. The cooked half set to a great texture, as you would expect from a pudding. However, the taste changed, it was still good, but not the mouth tingling toe curling good like the uncooked one. So next is to play with texture while keeping the yummy caramel taste...to be continued

Thank you, I will be trying it very soon!

I want to create apple mouse from the juiced Granny Smith apples, then mix juice with albumin to get the apple foam, add sugar, then gelatin and then fold cream. I'd start from the recipe from sosa.cat for albumin based lemon meringue: 125 gr lemon juice 250 gr sugar 11 gr albumin I will adjust the sugar down because apple juice is less acidic than lemon. I do not have too much time to experiment so I would be grateful for general guidelines on proportions between sugar, cream, juice and gelatin. I suspect I also need to add some citric or malic acid to prevent the juice from browning. I'd prefer to use malic acid, are any reasons to use citric acid here rather than malic? Thanks in advance

Linda, this was my test batch, I will make them again in 2 weeks to serve with foie More precisely, Seared Foie Gras atop Truffle Brioche with Rhubarb jam, Rhubarb foal and Pickled Red Fruit. But that is a whole other discussion. I used Peter Reinhart's Rich man brioche recipe, which is decadently buttery, 50:50 butter flour ratio. It felt like biting into a croissant.

I had recently an amazing salad with seared tuna, avocado, wasabi dressing and tobiko. There were some geens as well, dont remember which ones but tobiko added really nice popping texture to the dish.

I am jealous! I cannot get my hands on fresh leaves, wish I would have a friend like yours!