Wendy DeBord

Admittedly I'm coming in very late on this conversation and have only read this current page..........but I wanted to add my thoughts. First, I'm a huge fan of David Lebovitz!! But I wouldn't agree with his picks on baking books. Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Y. will be sitting on my shelf gaining dust, unfortunately. I tried several of her brownie/cookie recipes and none were good enough to repeat. They are all very closely related....as in she starts with one basic recipe for brownies and then adds nuts and chocolate chips and that makes it another recipe worthy of it's own title..... most authors would just list variations under the core recipe. It's title is Chocolate Chocolate but it should have been titled Chocolate Cookies and Brownies not as good as Betty Crocker or Pillsbury. I also wouldn't have choosen Marthas new book, just because if one is a close follower of her/companies work......all those recipes look rather familar to me. I'd swear they all were published in her various magazines previously. I'd give her magazines an award.......I love them. But I bought them once, so I'm not buying a book containing them too. One book that I think strongly deserves mention is Chocolate Obsession. It's a damn fine book!! I'd label it my favorite of the year. It's got real substance chosen over bulk. It reaches out to advanced confectioners as well as home cooks looking for a great brownie recipe.

O.k. you all have me very interested.........I've never heard of these cakes but from what your saying I must try them now. I was thinking the race track cake would be a danish kringle........is it?

You can't use butter in place of pan spray. Butter and some pan sprays contain h20/water and that makes items stick to pans. So always look at the ingredient list on your pan spray. You could use shortening, but with a cheesecake you could avoid it all together.......some people do. If you don't use anything to coat your pan, just run a thin knive around the edges before you heat the bottom to remove the cake. You can freeze them for weeks or hours.......once it's semi frozen it's easier to handle....then when it's completely frozen its practically indestructible. I've read some peoples thoughts that freezing cheesecakes ruins them. I don't agree. I freeze them all the time and they turn out fine. To cut, I use a knive dipped in hot water and wiped dry between every slice. I don't use a cake divider, I do that visually myself. For a 9" round I like to cut it into 12 pieces. 16 slices are too thin even if you use a 10" pan, they want to flop over and not stand nicely....and using a larger pan just makes for a longer slice not a more steady sitting slice. I cut cakes the old fashioned way. Usng a long knive that reaches across the whole surface of the cake, the first cut I divide the cake in half. Second cut, I divide the cake into 1/4's. Once I have my cake in fourths I then cut each section into thirds (4X3=12 slices) using a french knive. The hardest part of slicing cakes well (for me) is after I've inserted the knive it's hard to cut downward perfectly straight. That's why I switch from using a long knive after it's in 1/4s into a smaller knive... and then I cut one portion at a time so I can see I'm coming down straight in my slice....getting a even portion.

Yes. Your not freezing hunks of fruit, only diced pieces. And your not placing them alone so it will be on top as decoration on the cake (although that can be done). Mixed in the mousse.............works fine.

I bake cheesecake in full sheet pans all the time...with or with-out a sheet pan extender (thats a frame to increase the height of a sheet pan). Unless I don't have enough time I always freeze my cheesecakes to remove them from the pan, it's the easiest safest way. With a full sheet cake, place a piece of parchement on top of the frozen baked cake, place a cardboard of another sheet pan on top then invert, hit the bottom and sides with heat (blow torch) and it pops/drops out of the pan. Then re-invert to use. It's way easer to cut a semi-frozen cheesecake then a room temp. one. You can use a cookie cutter too if you want. But it hurts your hand pressing repetitively in semi-frozen cake. Silicone molds are the easiest method of all. You freeze the cheesecake in the molds (when done baking) and basicly peel the molds off your frozen cake. No need for heat. You shouldn't have any breakage working with frozen or semi frozen cheesecake.

Sooooo, I was watchin FoodTV over the weekend and I caught an article on Beard Papa. They showed the cream puffs come in frozen to the shops. They said they are cream puff dough wrapped in a pie crust. Then they cut one in half and you could clearly see the layer of pie dough around the puff. It's definately not a short dough crust. Then their filling is a pastry cream with fresh vanilla seeds and whipped cream folded into it. If they don't trust trust their employees to whip the cream, I betcha they use an instant custard powder too. They did mention how after the pastry cream is made they add butter then they clearly show an employee scraping multiple vanilla beans that were folded into finished pastry cream. I was reading another thread this morning and I'm placing my money on them doing something like the following for their pastry cream base, a qoute from Bripastryguy: "I use a product called "Freeze -Thaw" Cream powder made by Caravan. You place 6 qts water in a pot with 4 qts water (I through in some vanilla paste) bring to a boil. I mix 2 pounds of the powder with 2 quarts cold water. Add it to the boiling sugar water mix. Bring back to a blurp (not a real rolling boil as it will burn and stick on the bottom) Then I pour the mix into my 20qt hobart with paddle on speed 1. I then add 2 pounds butter. This product tastes as good as my scratch creme patisserie and lasts ahell of alot longer. I tweak it with the use of different fruit purees, change sugar to brown or maple, etc... Really a good commercial product. I am really against all these "fake" pastry items but some of them work."

Here's a qoute from Bripastryguy, that I saved because I liked it so much: "along these lines.... I will be donating my time to a charity I give to every year which is in my local community.... Evening of Good Tatse to benefit South Nassau Community Hospital... I will be in the Chocolate Pavillion sponsered by Cacao Noel and Paris Gourmet www.eveningofgoodtaste.com I will be preparing 4 passed desserts Cream filled madeliene's with warm chocolate fondue Passionfruit Creamsicle passion fruit curd, passion gelee and white chocolate foam Banana Cloud and praline crunch toasted banana chiboust, banana ganache and praline crunch garnished with a banana chip dipped in chocolate sea salt Chocolate Brownie tart with mascarpone mousse and cabarnet cherry jam"

Here's a qoute from Ling. It was on a thread asking for flavor ideas doing creme brulee trio's. "-amaretto, Grand Marnier, dark rum -caramelized banana, dark chocolate, dark rum -toasted coconut, macadamia (would this be good? maybe the bits of nuts would ruin the creamy mouthfeel?), pineapple -ginger, cardamom, cinnamon -pear, vanilla with a reduced port sauce, blue cheese"

Yes, I bake cheesecakes in regular cake pans with-out removable bottoms and I highly suggest it to everyone. You can bake using a water bath and never have a leak. In addition to having more size options when using a standard cake pan. I do nothing different preparing the pan. Don't line it (But I do spray my pan with pan release). Bake the cheesecake as usual. As with all cheesecakes your best to completely chill it before removing it from the pan (or you could dent it or make it colapse)........well the same thing applies to using a cake pan. Once the baked cheesecake is cold or frozen I place a cardboard cake circle on top of the pan, invert it, then apply heat to the pan (bottom & sides). I use a blow torch like people use for creme brulee'. The heat melts the butter in your crust so it no longer sticks to the pan. It pops out cleanly everytime.

Here's WhiteTruffleGirls new thread she's referring to.

Depends upon how it's done. It can be jarring, I agree completely. Chocolate, raspberry and cinnamon are excellent companions.

I'll layer cheesecake with other components like cakes, mousse, etc... Anyone know if Elegant cheesecakes stacks them? They look pretty tall once they are decorated.........

Auesome start!

It will work with any ganche (chocolate & cream) recipe that I'm aware of but adding other items like fruit purees and caramel might effect it. You can whip the ganche from warm or room temp.. If it's cold from the refridgerator it will be extremely difficult to do and probably do serious harm to your mixer. Your third questions depends upon when you stop whipping and begin forming. If you stop whipping and the ganche is too soft/warm it will pool and not retain its shape. But if it gets too cool even a melon baller will be hard to use. You want to work with this at just the right temp....... just as it's starting to hit room temp.. Oh, and you will get a light as air truffle that will melt in your mouth.........and it will definately be Crumbly. It's the crumbly part that makes scooping them with a melon baller difficult if your ganche is too cool. HTH

Theres so many times I wish I had a list of great flavor combo's in my recipe file. I'll read a thread where someone goes off on a riff of great combos. If I don't print it out when I read it, I loose the info.. Because you can't do a search on this topic because it could be in hundreds of threads...forcing you to read thru the whole Forum. Soooo I was wondering if we could work together as a group?. When you see a some flavor combinations that look really good, would you post a link to it in this thread or copy and paste the combo's here? The idea is, anyone could print out this page and have a great list of combinations as a handy reference tool.

I'm with MightyD...........that looks like a individual mousse cake. So you want to make mousse? Or........they do have instant mousse mixes, which could be what your second linked website is selling. Your first link doesn't work for me, I got Microsoft, not a food page.

Change the pans and the amount of batter your using. I use 9" round cake pans that are 3" tall. You can buy cake pans in any size that are 3" tall. That's where you get your height/look....gotta use a taller pan and add more batter.

I agree, I don't like gelatin-ish texture in my mousse either. There are better and worse examples of fruit mousse recipes..........they aren't all equal by any means. Pierre Herme's professional book has one of the largest collections of fruit mousse recipes published. And I've not tried any of his I didn't think were perfect. He makes fruit mousses using multiple methods and proportions.....each variation gives you a slightly different finished mousse. You can make a fruit mousse many ways, as mentioned. You could start with a bombe (egg yolk and hot syrup), a bavarian (anglaise based), sabayon (egg yolk, sugar and liqueur/non cream liquid), chocolate (white choc. or dark, fruit puree). Creme fresh instead of whipped cream with puree. The simplist version is the whites, puree, whip cream and gelatin recipe..........and it does taste that way (simple) too. But the quality of your puree can effect the complexity/flavor of your mousse too. Are you using fresh fruit, fruit sauce, purchased puree and from which company because again they vary. You can add seasonings, spice, herbs and consentrates like compounds, flower water, etc... to make a more complex flavored fruit mousse too. Puffy and fluffy I think have more to due with the amount of puffy ingredients used.......like alot of meringue or whipped cream. But that's in the proportions of the recipe. You could have a fruit mousse recipe that used 12 oz of each of whites and whip cream to 8 oz of puree and you'd get a fluffy mousse. But you could decrease the 'fluff' ingredients and use 8 oz. whipped cream and 8 oz. whipped whites to the 12 oz of puree and you'd have a completely different texture to your mousse. It's the same thing when your using gelatin. Too little and it doesn't hold, too much and it pratically bounces like jello. You've got to sort thru all this and find what appeals to you. I think you just haven't come across the method/style of mousse that most appeals to you. You need to try more recipes and different methods to find what you really like. If you like fruit (which you said you do) theres got to be a fruit mousse recipe out there that you'll love too. And yes, you can freeze chunks of fruit in you mousse. All the French chefs (baking books) do....... I was worried just like you when I first tried that, but it works. Your also not adding huge hunks of fruit and your defrosting before serving.

It took a couple weeks (2 1/2 to 3) for mine to melt out well. I'd eat one every day in excitement waiting for them to turn to liquid. Waiting, is the hardest part of making these.

Not pushing this website..........just look around on the internet. Theres sooooo much great info. and photographs of work that it puts magazines to shame. They can't keep up with the imediacy of the net. I print out items/aticles all the time. I get like 10 times more info. on the net then I find in magazines on baking. PLUS, I've developed trust in certain people who when they say xyz recipe is auesome, I know it will be (no need to test run that recipe). The community sharing of info. takes alot of work out of finding good recipes. If theres something I really like, I use good photo paper to print on, so my image is as good as possible. You can click print on a ton of things and walk away from your computor. Then go back and read it at your leasure whereever you are...and get ink on your hands. Another thing I find important is that I need to keep track of where I read something so I can access it imediately. I used to tear apart magazines so I could file recipes and articles. I have files that I use to catagorize cake referrences. Like baby cakes, graduation cakes, x-mas cakes, etc... Because when I needed an idea of a cake I didn't have time to page thru 40 magazines. Then I have baking files where I index my recipes with catagories like, chocolate, cakes, tarts, pies, custards, etc... Again, it's a huge time saver.

If your making a full sized cake I think it is wise to use a fruit mousse that contains gelatin.........like a bavarian. With-out the gelatin in your mousse there's a good chance your mousse will squeeze out as you cut it, or wilt at room temp.. I like to add bits or chunks of the fruit in with the fruit puree, whipped cream and whipped egg whites. It really does add to it's dimension, you may start to like fruit mousse.......unless you don't like fruit. Also chocolate mousse with strawberry or raspberry puree added then whole berries nestled in it, really turn me on taste wise. When you say it's popular and you should add it to your repertiore, does that mean your a pro. and selling these? If so, do you own any popular profesional books we could use as references so we could stear you toward multiple recipes that work well?

I was really excited to see how an expert reviews. Then you saddened me when I read the tiny little blurp that goes into reviewing dessert. Far less attention then a salad..........or a soup. major bummer How do we get more serious attention placed on dessert?

Good God............this is going to be an incredible journey! I dream of relocating to Vancouver, your really causing me to fall deeper in love with the area. If your not careful your going to insight a mass exodus from the States. If I practice perfecting my crossiants would you need a live-in baker/pc?

I'm sorry I didn't get to this sooner, like I said I would. These are really bad photos, sorry. They are digital shots of actual printed photos (when we didn't have digital cameras). The first two photos are the first time in my life that I made a gingerbread house/town, back in 1990. I was asked to do a copy of the town in which my job was located in, Woodstock, IL. Some of you might think that name is familar...........they filmed Dick Tracy, Ground Hogs Day and a couple other movies in this town.....it's a really charming town. My version isn't exact by any means. Here's looking at it from the opposite angle. I never got a straight on shot. I did the next two houses for a different club and haven't done any since then.... ...but I have done non-xmas gingerbread houses...

You can remelt ganche. Just watch that you don't over heat it or it will seperate. I nuke it in the microwave and then burr whip it. Adding more sugar........thats a bit of a problem..............hum..........just regular sugar won't melt into your ganche and it will make your creamy ganche crunchie. I'd add some corn syrup or glucose...........but they will also thin down your ganche (depending upon how much you use), which was the first problem. How much ganche do you have? Aprox. # of cups or oz.'s?.....that will help us guestimate how much corn syrup you could add.