Wendy DeBord

Ah, when you added the water you were creating caramel actually. That's why it was chewie and not crunchy. If you had added more liquid you'd get caramel sauce. I probably would have used your cooked sugar as is....it should have been fine........just a bit darker.

Thank-you sharing all your hard work with us Duckduck. Your efforts will save someone time when they need similar.

schneich, how do you hang them, please?

I've never purchased nor seen almond flour thru any source that was similar in texture to a wheat flour and definately nothing nearly as fine as Wondra. Please share your source for this ultra fine almond flour?

No, the recipe I tried came from a newspaper article on the cookie. It was linked in a thread here in P & B...........but it could be the same recipe. I'll dig my copy out my next day off work and compare it to what's in RecipeGullet.

I've not seen a difference between almond meal and almond flour from comercial bakery suppliers.............just two words for the same thing.

Theres how many manufactors of vanillan in this world? And is all vanillan exactly the same from one company to the next? Lets face it, theres some crap vanillan out of the markets and theres also some crappy "fresh" vanilla beans too. You can't condemn all until you've tried many. I too have tasted some nasty vanillan, but I've also tasted some that I don't believe anyone could detect was vanillan and not real vanilla. Now when you talk about vanilla beans, your totally right Patrick. It is a shame that no one can unlock the exact copy of a vanilla bean. Nelson Massey's vanilla bean paste comes the closest I've taste and smelled to a real bean. Have you tried that? Also, you have to watch brands when you buy vanilla powder. They are not all the same from company to company either. Nelson Masseys version is an off white powder, with good flavor and smell. Albert Usters version looks like dried vanilla seeds and no other substances (but it has no real flavor inspite of it's looks).

I've made a recipe that's supposed to be Haas' sparkle cookie, it too had almond flour in it's ingredients and I don't think it comes close to replicating Haas's cookie. You can imediately detect the almond flour in recipes you find published......by mouth feel. Where as, when you've had one of the real ones from his shop fresh out of the oven or cold, there absolutely isn't a grainly almond flour texture at all. I've come across two recipes that come much closer to Haas' sparkle cookie. One was published in Martha Stewarts newer magazine, they call it something like 'the auesome chocolate cookie' or 'the incredible chocolate cookie' (and it is). It's very close to a flourless chocolate cookie but it does have just the smallest amount of flour. If you roll that in the sparkling sugar and eat it warm it's pretty close to Haas' sparkle cookie. Then theres a similar cookie call soho globs (I can't think of the author off the top of my head tonight). The only real difference is that recipe adds coffee to the almost flourless cookie, but it's still excellent. BUT of course.........I'm way off topic because theres nothing chewie about those chocolate cookies. Actually, I don't think I've ever eaten a chewie chocolate cookie. I can't even think of one made commercially, can you?

Your welcome.............don't forget to heed my warning, it will set up incredible fast. You can pipe it right away into balls (you won't have time to fuss), then go back and dip them.

If any of you recall we had a thread mentioning a Holiday Cake Competition on Foodtv. The thread got moved here. Well, Duckduck showed me Michelles website and I just have to share it with everyone. Her work is incredible. Check out this site: http://michellebommarito.com/weddingCakes.html

To tell you the truth, what I find online at this site and a couple others is far better and more detailed then any magazine. And it's even cheaper.

They definately shouldn't have fizzled down. Is there an expiration date on your dried whites container? It's a shame this didn't work for you, five times is quite an effort. I don't believe anyone can take this as a blanket statement that dried whites don't work in a souffle application. I believe there was something unique happening for M. Lucias' trials.

Wow, I never knew you could make a gingerbread dough that would bake o.k. vertically. That's hard to believe................. I've always baked it inverted over something......... thanks for sharing!!!

I'd hand dip them in chocolate myself, just because typically the hobby type molds aren't very deep. And it's not alot of fun to have to reuse the mold over and over: temper, fill, finish, set-up, empty, re-polish, start again.......well maybe you do have several? Hopefully Elaine will see this post and help you out. She's a regular member here when she's not traveling. Plus she's an expert on Peter's brand of chocolate. To other questions you raised: Yes, different brands of chocolate need/take different amounts of cream and different types of chocolate (semi-sweet verses milk verse white) also require different amounts. An easy yet challenging way to firm up a truffle/ganche that's too soft is to beat it/whip it in your mixer. Incorporating air will definately stiffen up the ganche, no other adjustments need to be made. BUT you must do this with caution and work quickly.....because once you stop whipping it, it sets up very firm very quickly. The addition of air also gives it a different dimension. It will melt in your mouth differently........like air verses smooth and creamy. Also, Carol Blooms proportions seem off, I agree. But that's still a very nice candy book.

Holy cow Artistic Sugarworks you say can't do the basics, but you CAN do advanced work! I'd love to know how you baked off all the curved pieces on your shoe???????? Better yet.........I'd LOVE to see a demo on how you did that step by step..........it's auesome! And how about the structure on your hat...........please share your technique..........they look so naturally shaped...............

From my experiences I do think powdered egg white should work. When whipped, powdered whites feel just as strong as fresh. Although I suppose quality could vary from one brand to another of the dried whites. (I'm not using product available to the home consumer.) The only thing that gives me trouble is using cartons of fresh egg whites with additive. Those do not whip up fully with any strength and I never use them in whipped applications. But I do successfully sub in and out fresh whites with dried. Chemically there shouldn't really be any difference if they are pure. Last, you do realize your whites will deflate to some extent as you fold heavy ingredients into them. But if they deflate too much they aren't going to work well. And you wrote that they did deflate when you added your bechamel. It could have been just too heavy and your whites too light or over beaten so they couldn't stand up to it. When I make a souffle I whip my whites until they just become stiff and not a moment past that. I think it's better if they are slightly under-developed then over-developed. The over-developed/whipped whites just have nothing left to give.

Claudia Flemmings' book has a really great gingersnap recipe, but it's crisp.

I ditto that response. I have to blot my toffee with paper towels before adhearing the chocolate.

Nice job Maggie and helpers! I might have to steal the way you applied the clouds/fog/atmosphere one day......I love how you wrapped it around the mound the grinch is sitting on....really enforces the idea of his height. I only have some old photos, nothing digital. I'll post my photos next Monday when I have a day off. Surely more members have some photos to share.......come on guys it's christmas time......share-em.

I always take my bowl off the double boiler when I use my stick blender............but that's because I don't want my cord to accidentally get burned. The way our outlets are by our counter my cord is too long and seems to get into everything. If anyone reading this is interested, I'd love to find someone willing to do a demo thread on the method of tempering. Please pm me if your interested.

Rarely do you need to have one container for each ingredient. Usually your seasoning all goes in at once, so put/measure all your spices into one container. If you have multiple liquids to be measured, I also measure them all in one larger measuring cup. For example just pour the next ingredient on top of the last in the measuring cup. You don't need a clean blank cup to measure each ingredient into. When I have items that go into a recipe at different times I'll lay them all out on a buffet sized plate in sections. Then I just slide off the section I need as I need it. If you cover your plate first with plastic wrap you won't even get it dirty. Instead of using a dish towel to cover your mixer when you mixing or whipping something messy, use clear plastic wrap. You can see thru it to watch what you mixing and it's cheap and disposable for easy clean up. Never use shortening or butter to grease a pan. Those pan sprays work better and are easier/quicker to apply. You can't tell any difference.

Have you tried slicing the oranges on a meat slicer? I get my best results with a slicer verses a mandoline.

You've got me excited......I can't wait to see your pictures!

I assume your talking about when you temper your chocolate for covering your ganche......your not bothering to temper your chocolate for the ganche, right? (some people think they have to temper chocolate in all applications, so I'm just checking) When I temper chocolate I use my stick blender.........and love it! It's a great tool for tempering. Your chocolate needs to be completely melted before tabling it.......so you shouldn't have begun tabling before. It is hard to melt/temper white chocolate because of what a low temp. it requires. Thats where the stick blender does wonders. It pulverizes your chocolate so fine that the tiny particals easily melt down at that low temp.. Where as stirring with a spatula doesn't really break down your smaller unmelted bits........and you naturally want to apply more heat to get those tiny bits to melt out. I also use my stick blender to temper my chocolate so I don't have to table it (making a mess)........and it's such a breeze............I promise.

From my experience, I tend to disagree with the thought that glopping was caused by getting water into your ganche. Although it is possible, I don't think it's probable. Instead, I find it very easy to get 'globbing' with white chocolate ganche if there's the slighest inbalance. Inbalance as in: not enough cream to chocolate ratio, not emulsified enough and certain brands of chocolate and or cream don't melt out like they should/or are expected to and sometimes the cocoa butter wants to seperate out even though you haven't over heated your cream. For example, I used to use Flechlin chocolates and never in my years of using it did I encounter any ganche related problems. I never knew of, yet alone experienced a broken emulsion. But, currently I'm using E. Guittard and I've had to adjust all my ganche recipes because if I use the same proportions of cream to chocolate my ganches are all too dense/firm. Although I can't prove it, it could also be the cream you have. I've had heavy cream that was low in butter fat and wouldn't even whip (like half and half) and I've had heavy cream that was so dense with fat it clops. So if your cream was off (which happens regardless of what the carton label says) you would get different results. Also when making white chocolate ganche theres a very fine line between too thin and too thick. When your trying to achieve a thick white chocolate ganche your ganche will be very hard to emusify well, even when using a stick blender. A little less cream to chocolate ratio and you've got globs. A little too much cream and it remains very thin. I believe the yellow color is something that becomes more evidient when you make a white chocolate ganche verses looking at the solid white chocolate. White chocolate ganche is yellow if your using real white chocolate that contains cocoa butter.