jedovaty

Sold locally to a home-pottery person Apparently these things are currently on backorder!

Hi: I temper chocolate with homemade "silk". I've found I have to rapidly cool the chocolate to prevent blooming as well as loss of temper, i.e. put it in the fridge for 30-60 minutes. I'm using the fancy pricey GP-610 tomric molds, filling each bar with ~50g dark chocolate. Blooming always occurs if I let it set slowly at room temp, which ranges 60-75F. Does this sound right, or am I potentially doing something wrong? I'm asking this question to help me troubleshoot another issue (which I'll bring up later if needed, trying to figure things out on my own ;)) PS: fwiw, this is a hobby, I make a few bars every couple months for fun to taste varieties of cacao I roast. Not a commercial operation.

Hi! I purchased this Shimpo-Nidec mini slab roller to make my life easier with laminated doughs (before all the DIY and neato fancy ones started showing up on etsy), but, I'm just not using it enough and I need the space for my hobby. The Konbi restaurant in LA area uses this roller (it's orange though), check out all the videos for glimpses of it in action. I've had the Konbi pain au chocolat, and they are pretty darn tasty. They will source and sell it to you for about $1,500, although, you can get it new for $500-600 (I paid $529 for it). I'm asking $400 since it is used, but, I take very good care of my things. The unit came with a board and canvas specifically for clay, the wood board could make shipping tricky. If you want the board and canvas, I'll include them, but I'm not sure they are food safe. If you look through the konbi videos above, you'll see they are using a custom board of sorts. I did a little prelim work here, trying to decide whether to cut my own from wood or get a plastic cutting board but never pulled the trigger on anything, had other priorities at the time. I use the board with parchment paper and it was really annoying, the paper would slide around. Once over that aggravation, the resulting doughs were excellent and much more uniform than had I rolled them out by hand. If you are in southern california, I'm happy to meet you half-way and so I don't have to ship. I also make occasional trips to northern California bay area, and I have various conferences I attend for work in the second half of the year around the US, so I am always happy to drag it with me on the plane. I haven't figured out how to ship this thing yet.. I'll split it with you whatever it is. I really don't want to ship, so one of you in California buy this 😁 BTW, this thing works very well for inverse laminated doughs, not sure why but was so much easier than regular laminations which do take practice. Maybe it's because of the parchment paper. Here's a thread you can see my early attempts at croissant dough, having very little experience making these things. I've attached pics of my fronch apple thingies I made using inverse laminated dough and deep-fried left overs, very proud of the results! And yes, yes, one can do these by hand with a rolling pin or dowel quite well. Don't judge me. Let me know if you have any questions

Their "liquid baking" product has carmine in it (the bugs!). I will get some, easier than making it myself, thank you for this

@minas6907That attachment is pricey, yikes. Converting the stand mixer doesn't seem too difficult. It's more difficult to commit to NOT doing it, everything in me wants to pursue the perfect pralines for the brioche, but I'm going to have to draw the line now. I think these would be good in ice cream, too. Taking a slight tangent, I tried two different brioche styles side by side: one more typical with milk, eggs, butter, and the other without milk with increased eggs and butter. It's so strange I could not tell the difference between the two in taste (single blind test), with only a slight color difference! Also, need to really load up on the pralines in the brioche, I thought I put in a lot but clearly not enough.

Considering these are destined for baking, so will melt a bit, doesn't seem like there's a need to pan them. You did make me curious so I will do a little research and see if there's an easy way to do this easily at home without many tools. My first thoughts are turning the stand mixer or my wet grinder into something like this. Meantime, I'll work on technique, too, I was not shaking pan much and that would probably help reduce the rockiness. The instructions in the video I linked to earlier talk about letting excess crystalized sugar remelt in the pan a little at the 2nd and 3rd coating stages. I did try this, and the bottom of the pan became glossy, but I couldn't get it to stick/coat the nuts anymore. Thanks all for the advices this was fun 😁

@RWood Perfect, thank you! Here's my first try using the basic recipe to understand technique. I'll experiment later. Mix of almonds and hazelnuts, raw, with skin. Tastes like candy with a lot of sugar. I suspect removing skins will have little to no impact, and roasting the nuts may be too strong, but, we'll see Next batch only change will be some corn syrup (okay sub for glucose, right?) to see what happens to texture. Also, pan with taller sides. A fun thing to make, not overly difficult, just a generally clumsy nature means it is time to clean the kitchen 😭

I did not know, and thank you for that! Dead bugs in my amazon order 😁

I fry mine on ghee or clarified butter. Makes them super amazing, especially if you push the fermentation as far as you can! I would be willing to try frying it on some duck fat, too, omg.

Worst case scenario, grocery store by my house carries "McCormick Red" for $3.99. Yay.

@minas6907 Great, thanks! The bit about moisture absorption is most helpful, that actually makes sense now considering other confections I've had in the past. I'll report back with results, I think I'll try with standard food coloring first to make this easy then explore making my own from pulverized bugs later. It looks like finding food coloring for baking will need to be ordered online, the local arts/crafts stores only have stuff for icing, bummer. There's a culinary store near my sibling which carries the "Chefmaster" product line, but can't tell if it is heat stable.

Thank you, @minas6907, that's very helpful! Regarding your note on air drying, won't they get sticky if left in the air to dry? Sugar is hygroscopic from what I've seen, and seems to suck up moisture in the air. I live very close to the ocean, with relative humidity generally ranging 50-75%. I have one small non-stick pan, and two stainless steel pans. I'm assuming pan doesn't matter when making the pralines? I typically make dry caramel in the stainless, so, hopefully won't scorch anything. Should be fun

I looked these up.. aren't they pretty much english muffins? I know there are various ways to make english muffins (some people use yogurt, I follow a variation of the Model Bakery recipe, etc), but it's pretty much fully proofed dough that is pan fried... ?

Okay, well, thanks anyway, I appreciate the help 😁. I can't find any food coloring that uses the bugs, so, I'll just have to make it, and see how it turns out. Maybe I'll try the beetroot powder as well, who knows. I suppose this is all french. While researching, I learned the brioche Saint-Genix was the first, which is why I'm curious how they colored foods back then without red #40. Then some frenchman dude named Pralus repopularized it in the 1950s and trademarked it as the praluline. I'm debating whether to make the brioche all egg or milk + egg, I'm only made the latter but the former sounds intriguing. Here's the one my friend sent me that revealed the rabbit hole I fell into: https://www.chocolats-pralus.com/product/la-praluline-r-600g This Pralus dude's website also has the pink pralines for sale, where they list the ingredients in french. I ran that through google translate, and it looks like they use almonds, two kinds of hazelnuts, sugar, glucose, and red #40. Which now actually brings up a few questions just out of curiosity.. 1) what's the purpose of glucose here, maybe to make the candy smoother? 2) should I roast the hazelnuts first? and 3) remove skin from almonds and hazelnuts? I wish I had more time and space so I could test all these things out myself. Roasted hazelnuts taste so much better than raw, but I've never actually baked with them. It's also interesting this dude's pralines do not include the orange blossom or rose waters, that all the other online recipes use. Hmmm. And I just finished distilling some rose water since my citrus trees don't have any blooms right now. Phooey!

Hi, I made at least two terminology flaws in my post, my sincere apologies. First, I totally forgot there are multiple definitions to praline. These are not the candy brittles where you pour out a caramel sauce with the nuts and let harden, but rather, toss the nuts in a caramel until the sugar crystalizes and the nut/sugars all become their own entities. Let this cool, and repeat. Here's an example, and just your luck, this guy is making exactly what I plan to make (I will follow his technique, but may make changes to the recipe). "High heat" - anything over boiling is high heat to me, however, I realize now that is wrong. What I meant, is, will the color stand up to the temps of sugar candy making, and baking temps of 350-450? Or maybe a better question to ask, what is the upper temp limit for carmide/cochineal coloring before it loses its color? There are recipes that bake the pralines into breads and brioches, and that's ultimately my goal (look up "pink bread" or "praluline"). Thanks again for your time!

Hi! My secret goal is to make pink pralines (aka rose pralines) both for eating and baking. The recipes call for red food coloring. My only experience with food coloring was a few years ago, when I attempted to make various pastries extra hippie with vegan and natural ingredients. The homemade beetroot powder was an epic failure, which looked great until baked (made the macarons look like desiccated dog doo, you know, the kind that gets left out in the grass for months). In other words, I don't know anything about food coloring and research so far has not addressed my questions. Questions: 1. will cochineal-based food coloring hold up in high heat of making pralines, and then ultimately in baking? 2. would someone be kind enough to point me to a carmine/cochineal-based food coloring? I can't seem to find it after about 30 minutes of google searching, everything is about safety or how to make your own (which I will do if necessary) 3. what is considered an upscale brand for food coloring (doesn't matter if synthetic or natural) ? 4. how would people in the 1800s have colored the pralines pink, since that's when these things were presumably first created? Thanks for your time

I have a 10+ year old bamix. 150w. I actually exchanged the first one I bought for the one with the long shaft. The bamix is used for making mayo/aioli, blending soups quickly, puree canned tomatoes, and I have the small "slicey" attachment that I use to make pesto (doesn't look like the new style, however, it's different). I tried making an ice smoothie with the bamix, didn't work. That said, I'm curious about this sharper blade.. I see it is for meats and veggies, but appears to be unavailable wherever I check. Willing to share a source? Also, I've read your comments, and happy you and the gf are making it work. FWIW, my ex-gf had one of those ninja things from costco that had a special mug attachment to the base, which worked similar to a magic bullet. It had no issues with rolled oats in smoothies, did not try with steel cut or groats, however. Easy to clean up, etc. Her boss had a magic bullet at work and used it for peanut butter and various other ingredient smoothies. Never talked to him about it, however, I just recall she mentioned it once.

What do you all think of wolf cookware? Someone I know is updating their kitchen, doesn't care for stainless cookware, and wants to gift me their entire set. It kind of looks like rebranded all-clad? Seems like the line is NLA. https://wolfgourmet.com/store/cookware

@Anna N Thanks, their website where I pulled the video from. @jimb0 They talk about anodized aluminum, but call the coating "proprietary" and a "water-based release coating". Bunch of marketing fluff. So you think it's as simple as an aluminum zinc coating? Hmmm. Why wouldn't this be more popular vs cast iron, carbon steel, stainless steel, etc? I don't see much of this kind of pan at all.

While looking around for a 9x13 all-purpose pan to bake with, I stumbled upon the following, and I'm wondering why I can't find much more information about these or why they aren't discussed much anywhere... https://vimeo.com/334731970 IT SCRAPES IT WITH THE METAL!

@Emily440 How did you come up with 65g of potato starch? The tapioca + corn starch in the original recipe comes to ~50g, not 65.. were you comparing starch level in white rice vs oats to make up the difference, or is there a magic formula when swapping between the starches?

Despite all my efforts to avoid adulting Friday after work, vegetables were still forced into my meal 😒

I just uploaded a better picture, hopefully that comes through, where I included a head-on view to show heights of the cookies.

Hi! What began as a "why do cookies sometimes get oily" question has turned into a "let's play with gluten free cookie dough" topic 😁. @Emily440 Thanks so much for that! The original AB recipe uses all brown rice flour. I don't recall why I changed the recipe to be 50/50 brown/white years ago when I was making the vegan variation, but, I did recall doing so which is why it made its way here. I made a variety of doughs since this thread prompted by discussions, then baked them up to compare. The recipes are provided in the attached table - color coding denotes mixing groups. All with same scoop. The original batch was a full one, the rest were half-batches, there's only so much room in the freezer! Batches 2-6 used a hand mixer instead of the stand mixer. Baked at 350 + fan (e.g. 375) for 11 minutes. Through discussions with the intended recipient of these cookies, I learned xanthan gum causes irritation, so I excluded it in 2-6. Here are comments, left to right of the picture: 1. Original dough that prompted this thread. Cookies were oily and randomly spread. I think it has to do with using the stand mixer and over mixing or just not properly mixing bottom of the bowl. Tasty. 2. Tried @teonzo's mayo technique. They spread, and were shiny, but neither oily nor greasy. Super crispy, lacy and Mandelbrot-patterned texture, I really like these. The coconut oil flavor was masked compared to the original. I'm not sure if the spread was because I omitted the white sugar (accident), extra yolk brought more moisture, improperly mixed, or simply nature of the ingredients and technique. I suspect it was the latter because the spreading was consistent and had body to it. The dough was soft and malleable even after several days in the freezer! 3. With arrival of chocolate supplies, I was anxious to try cacao butter instead of coconut oil. I followed technique suggestions here, pouring oil in slowly and mixing with sugar no more than a minute or two. As sugar and oil became uniform, I drizzled in the soy milk, and finished with rest of the wet ingredients. Results were neither oily nor greasy. Everything came together very nicely. I was sorely disappointed with flavor, though, the cacao butter is not good baked, at least, with the combination of ingredients. Unpleasant, almost like eating cookies off hot silpat sheets (you know that plastic, silicone flavor?). 4. Original recipe with the improved technique (slowly pouring oil in, short mixing times, etc). I also used the whole egg. Delicious, if not cloying. After tasting all the cookies and dough batter, the sugar was making me jitter. I think using the whole egg kept the cookies poofier and they spread less. 5. I read @Emily440's suggestion just as I prepared to shut down my computer Thursday evening, and was excited since I had all the ingredients on hand. The cookie recipient has issues with oats as well, so I subbed buckwheat flour***, which gels up kind of like oats, and thought I'd be close enough to her recommendation, except, I thought the amount of potato starch was a bit high so I dropped it a few grams. As I was mixing in the chocolate chips in the last step, I looked over at the packages and realized a mistake I used potato flour, not starch. Oh, well, might as well try. These were delicious. The reduced sugar is better. They did not spread as much, were more cakey and pleasantly moist inside. 6. The cookie recipient loves all things coconut, so decided to try this sub as the last step, and realized I have japanese potato starch (katakuriko), not american potato starch from some attempts to make karaage. It's not clear on the packaging whether the starch was derived from potatos or the water lilly. Coconut flour absorbs a lot of water, but I'm not sure how much more so I made sure to increase liquid items a bit. The resulting taste was interesting, but kind of bland. They have an unusual, almost unpleasant texture of very sproingy meatballs. They also did not spread at all. Conclusion: for the official batch, I will reduce the sugar, sub in buckwheat for white rice flour, and stick with the 1 egg + yolk, rather than 2 eggs. I might try one more batch replacing the starches and/or potato flour with katakuriko. I could also try splitting the flours three ways with coconut, rice, and buckwheat, or add an extra yolk to the sixth test.. oh boy, too many choices 🤯 Thanks all for the help, hope you've enjoyed my attempts at making some tasty cookies. I enjoyed eating them! *** I have hulled buckwheat groats on hand, which I rinse, spread out on a paper towel into one layer, and allow to dry overnight. I then grind down to flour (I use an EK43 coffee grinder... don't judge me). These have more moisture due to the rinsing stage, they absorb some water as they dry off, about 5% I think. I do this as a result of the advice here.

I'll keep these things in mind. After 3 weeks, we're still chuckling about how gross the experiment was, but I hope to try some of the techniques here another day, since mom's garden has a huge area of mint growing. Especially now that I learned I can use other fats instead of the earthbalance sticks (which I think contributed to the pain), it'll open up some alternatives to us. The best takeaway from this: although the results were without a doubt disappointing, we got a really good laugh out of them and learned something. Let's keep having fun 😎 OMG I hope to never smell mint simmering away in coconut milk again 🤢