duckduck

Just ran to the vending machine because I spotted a 100 Grand wrapper from a distance. Got back to my desk to open it and it says "with coconut"! I like Almond Joy and I love 100 Grand bars but the two together ain't workin' for me. It's okay, it's just not either one and doesn't seem to be hitting the spot. It's missing the chewy caramel and there's not quite enough moistness in the coconut. The two are mixed and it just kinda loses something in the translation. The flavor is okay. Hmmm.

I totally agree on that one. Started me going "mmmmm" right away. What started the whole idea for me in the first place was looking at a recipe for tom yum soup one day and wondering, okay, what if I took out the chicken and the 'shrooms and made it sweet? In my mind it became a little trio of sweet versions of tom yum, green papaya salad and pad thai. Haven't played with them yet but sometime I will. So far, all the ideas are sounding good. I'm getting hungry!

Very cool. Edited to say I love your avatar!

They were very happy! I snagged the last one. The rum mellows a lot after a day. Very nice. They disappeared very quickly.

My ganache came out a little bit soft but I think I have an issue with my scale. Looking into a new one. It's nice and creamy when you bite into them. I'll definately make this one again. I think for myself, I might lower the Meyer's rum a bit. It's not overpowering, but I'd like the coconut rum to be a little more forward. Nice pineapple flavor. I'll feed them to my coworkers and get their feedback. They'll polish them off in a heartbeat. I was glad to see that it is a smaller batch so there's no reason for me not to make them.

We have another challenger...YAY! Thank you, Bripastryguy! Well, we've all heard the words "life is short...eat dessert first", right? Well, my challenge to Bri is more like "dessert...it's what's for dinner!" We've seen a few dessert soups, pasta, etc. and we've seen some herbs that we normally associate with savory use that have been used in dessert. My challenge to Bripastryguy is show us something that we usually think of as a dinner course (soup, salad, pasta, even an entree!) using an herb we tend to think of as savory and make it sweet! It can be one course or twenty. How ever many you want. As elegant or wild as you want. Good luck, Bri! Let the challenge begin! For future reference, these were the previous challenges: Round 1 (Kerry Beal challenges Ling in Vancouver BC)- Take pineapple upside down cake and bring it into this century Round 2 (Ling Challenges Gfron1 in Silver City NM) - Make a dessert containing an animal ingredient or product other than lard or bacon Round 3 (Gronf1 challenges Mette in Copenhagen Denmark)- Create a deconstructed beer dessert Round 4 (Mette Challenges Shalmanese in Seattle WA) - Create a dessert tapas plate consisting of 7 items in 7 days, using local and seasonal flavours Round 5 (Shalmanese challenges Chiantiglace in West Palm Beach FL) - create a dessert involving smoke that evokes Autumn Round 6 (Chiantiglace challenges K8Memphis in Memphis, TN) - create a dessert using Southern Sweet Tea Round 7 (K8Memphis challenges SweetSide in rural CT) - create a desset using 5 kernels of corn representing the 5 blessing of the Pilgrims Round 8 (SweetSide challenges alanamoana in the Silicon Valley, CA) - take fruitcake out of the land of the misfits and show us the beauty that lies within Round 9 ( Alanmoana challenges Dejaq in Nation’s Capital) - make a dessert using Champagne and at least three Citrus Fruits, along with Agar Agar. Round 10 (Dejaq in Nation's Capital challenges Kerry Beal in Ontario, Canada) - make a dessert utilizing white, milk and dark chocolate, along with a tea of her choice and a fresh seasonal pear. Round 11 (Kerry Beal in Ontario, Canada challenges Chufi, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to make a dessert that evokes the spirit of Sinterklaas, uses speculaas spices and includes a seasonal fruit or vegetable. Round 12 (Chufi in Amsterdam challenges tammylc in Ann Arbor, MI to make a dessert that incorporates at least 2 wines and 2 cheeses Round 13 (tammylc in Ann Arbor, MI challenged Kouign Aman in San Diego, CA,to make a dessert from/inspired by an ethnic cuisine she doesn't usually cook and that incorporates at least one vegetable. Bonus points for actually using her "good and accessible source of interesting produce" (reference to 2006 resolution thread)) Round 14 (Kouign Aman In San Diego CA challenges Duckduck, Portland OR) a layered dessert using legumes.

I'm working on the carribean cocktail now and my only gripe is that it smells so good as you're making it, that you want to taste it. Don't do it my friends. Once you do, you'll just want to pour it over ice, top it with a small umbrella and find a lounge chair. Yummy!

Green pea shortbread recipe and coconut custard with black bean brownie.

I'm going to have dreams tonight about those chocolate buffet pictures! Thanks for sharing them! Looks like a good time was had by all.

Coconut Custard with Black Bean Brownie Coconut custard ½ cup Chaokah coconut cream or coconut milk 2 eggs 3 TB agave syrup, brown sugar or palm sugar 3 TB cooked forbidden rice Mix and pour into 3 oz ramekins. Makes 3 servings. Lightly oil the ramekins first if you’re going to be unmolding to place them on top of the brownie. Put in a 300 degree oven in a hot water bath for 35 min. If not pairing with the brownies, I would use only 2 TB agave syrup. Black Bean Brownies (wheat free) 8 oz unsalted butter 2 oz unsweetened chocolate 1 cup sugar 2 eggs room temp. ½ cup black bean puree 1 TB instant coffee (Nescafe Mountain Blend for mine) ¼ c chopped pecans Melt butter over low heat, at chocolate to melt. Let cool. Add eggs one at a time to sugar in mixer bowl. Slowly add butter and chocolate mixture. Add black bean puree. Add coffee.Turn off mixer and stir in pecans. Pour into greased 8x8 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Allow to cool completely. I think these would be great topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. These are a very fudgy and some what crumbly brownie and I found that if you use 2/3 cup black bean puree, it makes them a little more cakey and less fudgy. For the black bean puree, I used low sodium canned black bean, rinsed very thoroughly and buzzed in a food processor. Keywords: Dessert, Plated Dessert ( RG1932 )

Green Pea Shortbread 8 oz butter 1/3 c powdered sugar sifted 1 T cornstarch 1/2 c green pea flour (Bob’s Red Mill) 1/2 c AP flour Cream the butter and sugar. Sift together the cornstarch and flours six times. Mix into butter/sugar. It makes a very crumbly mixture that will eventually hold together. You may need to put down the spoon and get your hands into it. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead just until it comes together. Roll out ¼”. I put mine on a sheet pan with parchment where the original recipe said to press into pie pans. Press rubber stamped images into it if desired and bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Check frequently after 20 minutes as it browns very quickly and if it does you will lose the lovely green color you’re after. After removing from the oven, gently cut with a sharp knife while still warm then allow to cool. Keywords: Dessert, Cookie ( RG1931 )

Very cool. Thanks for sharing, Jaycel! I'm looking forward to those photos. And that answers my question I had on why I need to let things dry overnight. Thanks!

Just in case anyone else is trying to track down the mojito liqueur, here's some info on it. http://www.beveragewarehouse.com/search/mo...hp?item_id=5333

Just got my chocosphere order and waiting on G pectin. I'll be in it soon. Probably start with some truffles or the salted caramel this weekend.

Those are beautiful!

Just a reminder in questioning Drew that he's going to teaching a hands on course at Notter School the rest of the week. I would imagine he'd be a bit busy to post. Wish I were there myself. If anybody ends up going, throw us a bone, will ya? Any small tips would be appreciated. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?&act=c...y=2007&m=1&d=18

And it tasted every bit as good as it looked, Ling! I second Brian's rec on Podnah.

Yes, that is the "foot" that they are refering to.

I googled and found this sweet one. I was surprised. http://www.canneryseafood.com/recipes/month_01.html I remember making a savory one years ago and Lord only knows where that recipe went. Seems like I remember it having a ground up triscuit crust. I never made it again because it was very strong. I'll see if I can dig it up though.

I have a challenge in mind for the next one but no one to challenge at this point so I'm waiting for word on what to do with that. Thank you everyone for the feedback and the encourangement! Like I said, it was a lot fun. I'll get the recipes into the recipeGullet in the next couple of days.

The mango was okay with the chocolate. I think it would have been better without the cinnamon. The cinnamon in the brownie made it just a dead on perfect match for the kiwi. The mango did help the dessert over all though. Besides the color it gave, the tartness helped to balance the sweetness of the overall dessert. It was actually you that gave me the idea to use stamps. In one of the PM's you mentioned that you had read through my posts to see who I am and what I do and that got my thinking of how I was going to leave my mark on this dessert and make it totally my own. Thank you for that.

The beans in the brownies will work well for my cousin who is allergic to wheat. The beans are a good replacement for flour apparently. As far as just weird ingredients in dessert, I don't think there's too much that's really off limits for me. I like to play. My brother took a bite of the shortbread and said, "Hmmm... it tastes like shortbread." It does have a bit of pea flavor. I got tired of it after tasting it after several batches over several days. It smells like peas in the kitchen too. The kind of starchy pea smell lingers. In the glass is the halo-halo with sweetened red azuki beans, tapioca threads, mango and kiwi. I made it with evaporated milk like most of the halo-halo recipes called for and in tasting decided that I much prefer the coconut milk used for the Vietnamese version that I tend to find around town known as 3 color. I found the evaporated milk to be a bit bland.

I'm more of a chewy brownie sort of person but my mother said she prefers the bean brownies over the ones I normally make, so yeah, I guess they will. I would like to get a good list of recipes that work for special needs like wheat allergies, lactose intolerance, etc. so I will keep working in this area.

K8memphis, I tasted the agave straight and it has no after taste but it does taste a lot like a mild honey. My shortbread was a bit more brown than the last batch which I didn't get photos of. I went with a rubber stamped image (and wish I'd had more pea flour to make a bigger batch to play with) because I wanted to put my mark on my dessert. Most people that know me know that I'm a rubber stamp artist and have been for many years. I tweaked everything even more this last round and found that adding Penzey's china cassia cinnamon to the brownies made them less than a perfect match for the cusard but a completely perfect match for the kiwi that I put on last minute only for color. I made three custards with different levels of agave and found that I needed it sweeter to match the brownies but I prefer it alone with less sweetness. Mom is still munching on the brownies and loving them. Accidently grabbed the wrong measuring cup today and put in 2/3 cup bean instead of a 1/2 cup which made for a more cakelike brownie where the 1/2 cup make a very fudgey brownie. Mom liked the second version, I'll take the first. I'll include that option when I post to RecipeGullet this next week. It was a blast and I'm very proud of myself for posting my first photos. YAY! (Now, I just need to work on my photography skills.)

Getting my "mess in place". The money shot. Want a bite? The stamped images in this post were used with permission from Stamp Zia and thank you for that Zana!