jmacnaughtan
-
Posts
838 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by jmacnaughtan
-
-
19 hours ago, TdeV said:
Last time I made baked brie, I had too many layers of puff pastry which didn't cook enough. I've looked at a few blog posts where it seems "other people" are able to have many overlapping pastry leaves, see link. Suggestions about how to avoid undercooked dough?
Just bake it for longer.
-
I made a Mont Blanc for dessert yesterday. It was nice, but I couldn't help monkeying around with the flavours (adding ginger and lemon) so it didn't really taste like a Mont Blanc.
Still tasty, though.
Mont Blanc
Speculoos, ginger and chestnut base
Chestnut and brandy buttercream
Lemon chantilly
French meringue batons
-
15
-
2
-
-
On 08/12/2017 at 9:48 PM, blbst36 said:
I made a bundt cake. I've made it before, but I didn't get the swirl I did this time. I also made ganache for the first time. I think it was a little too thin. Next time, I want to fiddle with the proportions and see if I can get it thicker. It was like water.
Try a straight 1:1 ratio of dark chocolate to cream. That's not too thin, and if you need it thicker you can let it set a little.
-
2 hours ago, rarerollingobject said:
Yep @jmacnaughtan, it’s the Cedric Grolet idea as you can see from the hashtags on my instagram post beneath the video. But no, I don’t have the book.
Hmmm. I should probably start paying attention to hashtags.
But I do like his work - I'd particularly like to try his fresh almond one. But that means waiting until they're back in season
-
3 hours ago, rarerollingobject said:
I wanted to make a lemon in the shape of a lemon, so I had a silicone mold in the shape of a lemon comissioned from a lemon silicone mold maker in China, and filled it with frozen lemon white chocolate mousse ice cream, with a core of frozen lemon curd, and sprayed the outside with lemon-flavored cocoa butter velvet spray and stuck a lemon leaf in the end, and my colleague who loves lemon said it was the lemoniest lemon that’s actually a faux lemon she’s ever tasted.
Very cute
Have you been browsing Cédric Grolet's new book?
-
Or you could go in a completely different direction, and do it with potatoes and smoked sausage, Savoyard style. It's what I do with baked Mont d'Or and it always goes over well
Although if you can find Mont d'Or, I strongly recommend getting some and baking it. Not for the party though- you don't want to share it with too many people.
-
1
-
-
13 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
...as Anna said.
Actually the cambros of flour are by the bedroom window. The unopened bags are on the other side of the bed, near the closets. Not in the closets because there is no room.
Heh. I do occasionally put unneeded equipment under the bed, but something prevents me from keeping actual ingredients in there. Probably the fear I'll forget them and cultivate a vigorous insect/rodent/vagrant population directly underneath where I sleep.
-
2
-
5
-
-
On 27/11/2017 at 1:28 AM, JoNorvelleWalker said:
I shall never again drop a ripped bag of organic flour on the bedroom floor. An hour after Roomba finished cleaning.
Probably better not to ask what the flour was doing in the bedroom.
-
1
-
-
12 hours ago, btbyrd said:
The problem is that you're looking for a bar. Apart from candy, is there any other food that you purchase in bar form?
Butter.
Admittedly less practical as a gym snack, but it will give you the calories you need.
-
1
-
1
-
-
3 minutes ago, Anna N said:
The kitchen gods favour some of us. The others of us not so much.
I belong to the latter group.
I might change my ways going forward. I changed all my loaf pans from ones that looked as though they barely survived the Battle of Britain to ones that appear as though they might release a loaf upon command. On the other hand I think I’ve offended the kitchen gods far too often to take chances.
Haha, there's nothing wrong with baking equipment that has character
I think the key is just to use as much butter as possible. Then a little more.
-
2
-
-
I only line tins that might overflow - that way I can put a collar on them.
For loaf tins, I just generously butter and coat in flour. Even for really wet batters like pain d'épices, it never sticks.
-
On 28/11/2017 at 3:21 AM, Okanagancook said:
that’s An awesome video, thanks
You're welcome. INA put a load of excellent vintage videos on YouTube; you should check them out.
-
1
-
-
Plain old blown sugar should work. You can stretch that extremely thinly, but it requires a lot more sugarwork skill than I have...
-
They look good! Pommes soufflées aren't something I've attempted myself, but I found that Raymond Oliver seems to give a good idea of how it's done.
With lot's of hot oil shaking, etc.
(It's in French - if you want to get straight to the blanching part, it's at the 10 minute mark or thereabouts)
-
1 minute ago, Jim D. said:
It is a beautiful dessert. I can't imagine anyone commenting on your desserts except with the most lavish of praise. Having said that, yes, white chocolate can be really sweet. What chocolate are you using? If you haven't tried it, Valrhona's Opalys is a bit less sweet than all the others I have tasted (which at this point is a lot).
Thanks
I was running short on time, so I had to make do with standard Nestlé white from the local supermarket. I do enjoy Opalys though, and it would certainly be a better fit for the dessert. My problem with it is that it's too dangerous having big bags of white chocolate lying around...
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:
Just water and white chocolate?
No, not the Hervé This version. This one was white chocolate and double cream, at 100:180, but I suppose at this ratio it's almost a whipped ganache (with dark chocolate I do 150:400). I needed something that I could make quickly and still be able to pipe.
-
More fun playing around with piping tips, this time with the wide fluted "Chantilly" tip.
White chocolate tart
Sablé breton, hazelnut and ginger base
White chocolate and clementine chantilly
Hazelnuts, candied orange and ginger
Still a work in progress. I can handle a big sugar hit from white chocolate, but it seems other people can't, so there's a big pinch of Maldon salt in both the base and the chantilly. It probably needs something sharp to balance it out; diners still commented on the sweetness...
Pretty, though.
Also, I can't I've never done a white chocolate chantilly before. It's so easy, the texture is wonderful, it holds its shape beautifully and it's so damn quick to make.
-
13
-
-
I occasionally like to add black pudding to my bolognese. It makes it really rich
It's also good to cook the meat as a whole piece in the sauce, then shred it and stir it back in. The texture's different from a standard sauce, but I like it.
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, rarerollingobject said:
Shy kids get no toffee.
Truer words were never spoken.
-
9 minutes ago, rarerollingobject said:
Are you flirting with me?
The apocryphal story goes: a Persian woman was madly in love with a prince. To have him fall in love with her, she baked him a cake, filled with sweet cardamom, pistachios and rose petals. The cake was said to have magical love powers. Etc, and so on and so forth.
I can imagine that working.
But surely, that's a dangerous thing to bring into the office...
-
2
-
-
1 hour ago, rarerollingobject said:
Persian Love Cake, with ginger, cinnamon and cardamom caramel mud cake, black pepper syrup, freeze-dried raspberries, toasted pistachios, rosewater and orgeat mascarpone buttercream, crushed pomegranate meringue, dried rose petals, and gold-leafed figs.
Why is it called a love cake? Even with me at the table, that's a lot of cake for two people...
-
I've realised that, while I've got a decent set, I only ever really use my trusty 10mm plain piping tip.
So yesterday I broke out the St Honoré.
Chocolate tart
Sablé breton, cedar pine nut, orange and chocolate base.
Chocolate chantilly
Candied orange
Toasted cedar pine nuts
-
19
-
1
-
-
1 minute ago, Kerry Beal said:
We might be finished with our Chinese search for now (might have to leave that to next trip) - but James I'm curious about where your favourite Ramen joint is?
It's in the Japanese district, not far from the Opéra Garnier: a place called Naritake ramen, on the rue des Petits Champs. There are a few nearby, but this does the proper heavy Hokkaido style ramen with (allegedly) hand-pulled noodles. It's like a hug in a bowl.
-
6
-
-
2 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:
Our search (which was not fulfilled by last nights meal) was the find the Chinese food of @Alleguede's youth here in Paris. He is determined that the fat it's cooked in tastes different (and I suspect that is a big part of the difference).
Ah, I see. Have you checked around the Chinese quarter in (I think) the 13th? It's near metro Maison Blanche, where the big avenues form a triangle. There's also a few big Chinese supermarkets there, which are always fun to visit
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Is that 1:1? I always do mine by weight. Try measuring 4 ounces of cream next time