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pquinene

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Everything posted by pquinene

  1. This is a gorgeous rendition of a pie!!! WOW! Both are beautiful and I'd love me some pithivier!!! I would love a serving of this!
  2. After I set aside enough for the next three parties this weekend, I still had about 70 extra, so I put them in the freezer and will see if they survive well enough to be sold next week. I'm sure I've seen frozen macarons in grocery stores. I'll try to remember to report back on how well they thaw out. I have frozen both filled and unfilled macs for as long as 5 to 6 weeks. How fast they soften depends on the filling. I use primarily cream cheese and butter flavored with jam, just jam or a soft chocolate ganache. I don't use buttercream because it is too sweet and can take several days to soften the shells. I have found that filled and frozen macs thawed out in the fridge mature more quickly than macs that are filled then placed immediately in the fridge. I freeze mine in freezer storage bags and plastic food storage containers. I would freeze at least 6 to 12 pieces of every batch you make and takes notes of filled, unfilled, the type of filling, how long your freeze them......then you have a more confident idea of how long they keep well for future event planning.
  3. pquinene

    Pithiviers

    Hi FP! I'm here for advice. I need to make some galettes for a class of 27 children this Friday, now I'm kind of regretting it since I have a fever... I was reading on line and Bouchon bakery book for reference. David Lebovitz cooks the galete for 30 minutes at 375 F, TK goes for 30 minutes plus 30 minutes after rotating at 350F then lower at 325 and cooks for 50 minutes! Basically 2 hours cooking for only one galette. And I have an ancient gas oven so I cannot put more than 1 galette at the time and basically I have no time to bake in the morning. What a huge difference in time and temperature, I'm undecided. What to do? Bake at night? It is not ideal right? It would be better to bake in the morning Other question. David goes only with the almond cream, Keller with a frangipane? Which one? I'm going to buy frozen puff pastry because I don't have time or energy to make it right now. I see on line Fresh direct puff pastry is 340 grams, Keller calls for 400 g puff pastry for a 9 inch galette. Are two boxes of puff pastry enough for 2 galettes or it's a little tight? Can I assemble the galettes at night and keep in the fridge and just bake in the morning with no problem? Or just cut the disk and fill, seal and decorate in the morning? In the south of France, where we were living before, the tradition is the couronne and I'm going to make a couple ready the night before because there are children with nuts allergies and I can omit the nuts. Now I'm trying the no knead brioche from Ideas in food (which I failed once, just to discover that my house temperature was too high...not a problem this days in NYC) adapted to include orange water and some other small changes...let's see if it works because I don't have a stand mixer yet. Good to know because my option for frozen puff pastry are Trader Joe's (not the closest), Whole foods and Fresh direct. Which one? The average size of a puff pastry box in the US is 12 oz, 340 g? Thanks for any advice on this. This is beautiful! I love pithiviers and first made them back in late 1990s. OMG, it was so rich and so delish I just can't get myself to make it again for fear of eating way too much. Thanks for sharing this gorgeous photo!
  4. Did you "age/mature" your macs in the fridge? I find that once you fill the macs, they have to go in the fridge to become soft and creamy. In general, ganache-filled macs take a day or two to mature compared to macs filled with a cream cheese mixture or just plain jam. I love how the macs go from soft and chewy to soft and creamy the longer they are in the fridge. Depending on the filling, if they age too long, they become too soft. Hope this helps.
  5. ALFAJORES I attended a class by Sandra Gutierrez at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, NC. She is the author of the cookbook, "Latin American Street Food." I used the alfajores recipe from her book. I love the cookies, not just because they are delicious, but because they remind me of the roskette cookies we make on Guam. Both goodies use plenty of cornstarch in addition to all-purpose flour. And then of course, there is the coconut -- born and raised on Guam, I love coconut! The filling is dulce de leche.
  6. pquinene

    Breakfast! 2013

    Ann, I read your earlier posts and realized Moe is your husband's name. OMG, there is a restaurant chain called "Moe's." Every time a customer walks in, they say "welcome to Moe's." Yes, I am excited to take the class; it's in September though.
  7. I also made crepes earlier this week. These bad boys are super delish and I finally get to use the crepe batter spreader I bought at a fair in Germany during the late 1990s. I ordered my Tibos crepe machine on Amazon. This is a welcome addition to our home! Crepes with chocolate, bananas, strawberries, and whipped cream
  8. I made rocky road ice cream yesterday. It was a favorite while growing up on Guam. It also happens to be my husband's fav. I used Dove dark chocolate squares for the ice cream base then added chopped pieces of the same chocolate, chopped marshmallows, and chopped, roasted, unsalted almonds. The chocolate flavor really shines through in the ice cream base. Rocky Road Ice Cream
  9. pquinene

    Breakfast! 2013

    That looks great for lunch too. I'm guessing it's leftovers from "welcome to Moe's?" I'm just learning to make Latin/Spanish foods. This past week I made arepas and omg, what a great palette from which to build strong flavors. In a few weeks I'm taking a Latin street food class at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, NC. You did a great job in making your leftovers look fresh!!!
  10. I made French macarons using almond flour. The filling is simply a not-so-sweet velvet cake frosting (cream cheese, butter, a bit powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla extract). I was testing the how well the freeze-dried strawberries would do in the oven; they added a slight tang but darkened too much. Next time, I'll just paint a bit of melted, white Crisco on the baked and cooled macarons then sprinkle on the freeze-dried berries.
  11. pquinene

    Breakfast! 2013

    We had crepes for breakfast this morning! Nutella is hiding between the folded crepe :-)
  12. Nick did a great job explaining the process in his book, Bread. The actual recipe, "babka's babka" was for poppy seeds, but he included the option for a walnut filling. The only thing I found difficult was transferring the roll to the Bundt pan. I think what would have been easier it a tube pan (with removable base) that is the size Nick noted in the recipe. I would have taken the insert out, placed it close to the roll, shimmied the roll onto the insert, and finally placed the insert into the pan. Mmmm, I just had the last slice about 30 minutes ago!
  13. Walnut babka from Nick Malgieri's book, Bread: It was delish! This is great for those who love cinnamon and walnuts; who prefer a not-so-sweet version of sticky buns/cinnamon buns.
  14. Yes, it's a hit-or-miss when I buy macarons. I use tapioca starch in my French meringue (weird, but some pastry chefs do use a starch in their meringue for pies). I also keep the fillings from being too sweet. Follow the link via the picture below where you will find another link to my recipe. It's too long to post here.
  15. I made macarons with French meringue yesterday; they were ready to eat today. Grand Marnier-soaked discs with orange curd-flavored bittersweet chocolate ganache and a dollop of orange curd in the middle: This one has a vanilla-cream cheese filling with a dollop of orange curd in the center:
  16. Here is the link to my recipe: PaulaQ's French Macarons...w/video demonstration Well, for some reason I can't put a link on here. Recipe is on my site, www.paulaq.com > macaron book....scroll down for the link.
  17. Hafa Adai Minas6907, That's hello in Chamorro, the native language of Guam.....though I do live in North Carolina. I've actually been working on this recipe for a month! I am doing trial #18 today; the picture above is very close, but I want to test one more variable. It's a basic meringue recipe with the macs baked in an electric oven (upper and lower heating element). I will post a link to the recipe here. Because it's very detailed it's too long to copy/paste to the forum (details on meringue, macaronage, oven heat). I will post on my website as well, paulaq.com>macaron book.
  18. I've been working on a basic meringue recipe for almond macaron batter over the last several weeks. One more trial to go, but I did end up filling some macs last night:
  19. One more trial run for my almond macaron batter, but I did fill some last night.
  20. I made plain almond macarons with basic meringue yesterday. This morning, I'm working on the final trial (hopefully) of creating a "perfect" macaron using a very stable basic meringue...in an electric oven with upper and lower heating elements. These are unfilled macaron discs bent in half:
  21. I bought flat half sheet pan size from King Arthur Flour for $19.99 for 100 sheets plus $8 shipping. The quilon coated stuff I bought from a restaurant supply place for $50 for 2000 half sheet pan size. I thought it was a real deal. The best deal that I could find online was about $100 for 1000 full sheet pan size silicone treated parchments (same place sells quilon treated parchment for about 1/2 the price). I like the flat sheets for making macarons as I can't seem to ever get the curl out of the stuff on a roll. So, the King Arthur brand was working for you then??? I tempted fate and lost today, using a new parchment too. I've been using Reynold's rolled parchment. I'll try King Arthur's if that is what you have been using. Please let me know. Thanks! Your macaron problem looks exactly like mine! I was using King Arthur Flour parchment and it did work for me. If you shop from King Arthur before Feb. 7, the half sheets of parchment are on sale 10% off and with free shipping. I would get some, but I just invested in more silpats. I decided that I like baking macarons on the silpats better. Thanks! I'm going to test my silpats today or tomorrow. FYI: I am in the midst of baking some Guam cookies today on the new parchment I bought. Using the exact recipe, the Guam cookies also had a tough time coming off of the new parchment I bought. I threw out a whole tray of macs yesterday because they stuck to that new paper! Be careful if you use your new (bad) parchment; they may not work that well for other baked goodies. Good to know about other things not working on the new (bad) parchment. I've been using mine primarily to set already baked things on, like lining up the macaron shells for filling, since I discovered the problems. Now that you mention it, though, I made a sacher torte in December and the parchment paper stuck to the bottom. I never had that happen before, but I wasn't into parchment differences at the time, so I didn't make the connection with the new (bad) parchment. Can you tell if your parchment is quilon or silicone treated? I'm curious as to whether this is a quilon problem or just something about the quality of the parchment. I don't think that I'll buy any more batches of flat parchment sheets unless I can get samples to try out! The label does not specify. After baking macs with silicone mats and parchment yesterday, I'm a convert to the mats. For all the work and manipulations, I'd like them to at least look as pretty as can be! Below are macs baked on Reynold's rolled parchment. They are not too badly misshapen, but the later pans of macs were not as circular. For the tray on the right, I placed a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil on the top rack to shield the macs from the heating element:
  22. I just ordered me 3 more half-sheet silpats because the macs bake up more evenly:
  23. I bought flat half sheet pan size from King Arthur Flour for $19.99 for 100 sheets plus $8 shipping. The quilon coated stuff I bought from a restaurant supply place for $50 for 2000 half sheet pan size. I thought it was a real deal. The best deal that I could find online was about $100 for 1000 full sheet pan size silicone treated parchments (same place sells quilon treated parchment for about 1/2 the price). I like the flat sheets for making macarons as I can't seem to ever get the curl out of the stuff on a roll. So, the King Arthur brand was working for you then??? I tempted fate and lost today, using a new parchment too. I've been using Reynold's rolled parchment. I'll try King Arthur's if that is what you have been using. Please let me know. Thanks! Your macaron problem looks exactly like mine! I was using King Arthur Flour parchment and it did work for me. If you shop from King Arthur before Feb. 7, the half sheets of parchment are on sale 10% off and with free shipping. I would get some, but I just invested in more silpats. I decided that I like baking macarons on the silpats better. Thanks! I'm going to test my silpats today or tomorrow. FYI: I am in the midst of baking some Guam cookies today on the new parchment I bought. Using the exact recipe, the Guam cookies also had a tough time coming off of the new parchment I bought. I threw out a whole tray of macs yesterday because they stuck to that new paper! Be careful if you use your new (bad) parchment; they may not work that well for other baked goodies.
  24. I bought flat half sheet pan size from King Arthur Flour for $19.99 for 100 sheets plus $8 shipping. The quilon coated stuff I bought from a restaurant supply place for $50 for 2000 half sheet pan size. I thought it was a real deal. The best deal that I could find online was about $100 for 1000 full sheet pan size silicone treated parchments (same place sells quilon treated parchment for about 1/2 the price). I like the flat sheets for making macarons as I can't seem to ever get the curl out of the stuff on a roll. So, the King Arthur brand was working for you then??? I tempted fate and lost today, using a new parchment too. I've been using Reynold's rolled parchment. I'll try King Arthur's if that is what you have been using. Please let me know. Thanks! Your macaron problem looks exactly like mine! I was using King Arthur Flour parchment and it did work for me. If you shop from King Arthur before Feb. 7, the half sheets of parchment are on sale 10% off and with free shipping. I would get some, but I just invested in more silpats. I decided that I like baking macarons on the silpats better. Thanks! I'm going to test my silpats today or tomorrow.
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