Matthew.Taylor

I do know a Trader Joe's up on Montgomery rd. and my mother showed interest today in a mixture of Raspberries and cream cheese frosting. So far building a buttercream dam, and filling it with cream and berries seems to be the right way to go. But I'm still considering things. Thanks really for all this advice.

I like the idea of building a dam for them. Though I often wonder if I need to let the cake cool in the fridge afterwards, before fulling frosting it. Though since I am experimenting with the cream (with profiteroles) this weekend, I may try mixing a little puree in some of it, just to see how it goes. I also like the idea of freeze dried raspberries, but I'm not sure I have enough time to make those.

Ok, my parents 40th anniversary is a week from Saturday. They’ve requested A cake from me, they’re only requests was raspberries. Now i’m gonna be working on French pastry cream this weekend, and I was thinking of mixing a purée of raspberries in it to use as filling. How does this sound, and what would be good ratios?

OK, since i'm still working on my portfolio, I made another cake today, took all day but it was worthwhile. Real Happy with this one, though i'm gonna need bigger circular cutters for the future.

OK, With my Niece' fifth Birthday, my family entrusted me with the creation of the Birthday cake. She requested a Unicorn themed cake several months ago at her brother's party (I made a large Chocolate Chip cookie for the cake, it was dinosaur themes). My sister sent a more specific request, and the end result was this. The buttercream is American Vanilla Buttercream, and the cake is a Vanilla Buttermilk Funfetti cake. I'm really proud of myself for this, I'm even thinking of doing some cakes on the side for people, perhaps finally get my long-wanted business up and running. Nevertheless, here we go.

OK, First, MERRY CHRISTMAS Everyone! Second. one of the gifts I got this year was Pierre Herme's book on Macarons. These delightful little buggers continue to elude me, and hopefully this boo can help me find a good recipe (My one attempt at making them tasted good, but clearly needed improvements) So I thought i'd make this thread. Feel free to discuss your own attempts at these occasionally insufferable things.

Normally, i'm severely against resurrecting old threads, but I found this and felt I had to add something. My current go-to chocolate chip cookie is this one. I got it from this website. http://www.thecrepesofwrath.com/2011/06/29/infamous-jacques-torres-chocolate-chip-cookies/ TORRES CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. INGREDIENTS 1. 2 Cups Minus 2 Tablespoons Cake flour 2. 1 2/3 cups Bread flour 3. 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder 4. 1 ¼ teaspoons Baking Soda. 5. 1 ½ teaspoons Coarse salt 6. 2 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter, at room temperature 7. 1 ¼ cups Light Brown Sugar, packed 8. 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons Granulated (white) sugar 9. 2 Large Eggs, room temperature. 10. 2 teaspoons pure Vanilla Extract 11. 1 ½ pounds bittersweet chocolate discs or feves, at least 60% cacao content. Or substitute a bag and a half (or 2 bags) 60% Cacao chocolate chips, or type of your choice.) 12. Sea Salt or Fleur De sel, for sprinkling STEPS. 1. Sift together the Flours, Baking powder and Soda, and Salt in a medium size bowl, and set aside. 2. In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the Butter and Sugars until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes 3. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until well blended, scraping down the sides as needed. 4. Add in the Vanilla and mix until combined. 5. Gradually add in the dry ingredients, until just moistened. 6. Fold in your chocolate until it is evenly distributed throughout the dough. 7. Take a piece of plastic wrap, and cover the bowl, pressing it against the dough, and making sure it is completely covered. 8. Refrigerate dough for at least 24 hours, to 72 hours. 9. When ready to bake, set dough out to get to room temperature, and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 10. Line with parchment, or grease your cookie sheets. 11. Scoop out dough at size you want, but do not press the dough balls down. 12. Place dough balls on cookie sheets, and sprinkle with Fleur de Sel, or sea salt. 13. For smaller cookies, bake for 10-12 minutes. For larger cookies bake for 18-20 minutes. 14. Allow them to cool slightly on the sheet, before moving them to a cooling rack. 15. Let cool till edible (or warm), and serve. Store at room temperature in an air-tight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for 2 months. As I said, this is the infamous Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe attributed to Jacques Torres. I got it off of a website that said it was the Jacques Torres recipe, I don't know how accurate that is, as I haven't seen the original, but it is the best chocolate chip cookie I've tasted. I use normal chips, as I don't know where to get those chocolate disks, and something in me is just against the use of those coverture discs. I'm currently trying to merge this Recipe with the idea behind those extra large cookies you get from Levain bakery in New York. (Cornstarch and baking after freezing seem to be the answer, just need to fins a good ratio). edit: Added the website I got it from. Hope that helps with any rules I may have broken. I am very sorry about that.

Frankly, I'd choose a Cheeseburger in paradise over that.

Cool. This will be the most....elaborate cake I've ever made, so far (I've been studying on sugar art), and I want to cover all my bases.

I mean one cake with three layers. I just want to make sure I have everything ready by the time February rolls around. This cake is going to take some planning and design to get right. My idea at the moment is this: Two bottom layers, made from vanilla cake, and the third layer will be a cut out of a unicorn head. There will be frosting flowers on each corner of the lower two layers, with green frosting vines connecting all four. I may also purchase some candy molds and make some sugar jewels to put on the side alongside some sun and moon cutouts of fondant.

Well, it's done! And I have to say it was a mostly-smashing success!. I used Alton Brown's brining recipe (1 pound kosher salt 1 pound dark brown sugar, 5 quarts hot water, 5 pounds ice) and made sure to let it sit for at least half an hour out of the brine before putting it in. I also made sure to pat it down and remove any excess moisture. I say mostly because the thigh's weren't done, as there was a little blood spurt when I tried to cut them, but the rest of the bird was done. I ran them through the microwave a few times, and hopefully they're now finished. I now know that i can deep fry a turkey, so now we have another potential option for Thanksgiving (not that anyone will take it, not in a family as traditional as mine, but que sera sera)!

Not bad, not bad. Though I feel the sugar on top could be toasted a bit more, plus I would suggest making sure the sugar is spread from edge to edge. Despite the criticism, this is a good piece of work. Well done.

OK, My niece has asked for a unicorn cake for her birthday in February. I have a big idea planned for it, but the cake should be about three layers total, and still be rather wide (as I expect alot of her friends will be there). I have to ask though. how many layers would be necessary for the use of dowel rods? I don't expect a three layer cake to need them, but there will be decorations, and I've made enough layer cakes to know that they can be heavy.

Nothing wrong with getting a recipe off of a container. I'll wager that alot of the great recipes we take for granted these days started that way. Look at Toll House chocolate chip cookies? I've heard that this is one of the few recipes where you actually have to work to get wrong. Key Lime Pie was created strictly to capitalize and show off Sweetened Condensed milk. I occasionally get the impression that a lot of bakers today might "look down" upon such origins, but it's really fine place to put a recipe, right on the package for one of the main ingredients.

I've heard plenty of stories, so i'm gonna be very careful here. The biggest problem is finding a place to put the fryer. The only real flat place we have is the back porch, and it's not that far from the condo. The front driveway is slanted just enough to give you the willies for this kind of thing. I know to make sure the bird is completely defrosted, and dried from any excess moisture.

I'm a few years behind here, but I've decided that in one week i'm gonna deep fry a turkey. I've got the turkey (13.50 pounds), I've got a fryer that should be big enough. I will have a good amount of peanut oil before next Saturday. But I really need some good advice. I know the turkey has to be completely defrosted, and there should be no, to very very little excess moisture, but that's about it really. Techniques for cooking, and times are all over the place that I've heard.

By unusual, I mean stuff that generally isn't something that most people would think of. Stuff outside the normal thoughts on baking and pastry. Stuff that would make someone who isn't aware of this kind of stuff go "Huh?" Just things that you guys were trying when you were really being creative.

Now I have no choice but to try to create that dish. I don't care if you're joking.

Yep, that was him.

Interesting, I got the recipe from this guy's show. http://www.atasteofhistory.org/ Though I still think it counts as something unusual. Also, I got a copy of the book "The Flavor Bible" in the mail today, and in a section on chocolate, I read a quote from a chef who talked about how he had created three desserts combining Chocolate and corn. One a mixture of soft corn and ganache in three textures,a crunchy corn and hazelnut sorbet, and a corn tuile. How would I go about recreating these?

Hey all. One thing I always like finding in my forays across the internet, is a recipe that's a little unusual. I still have a fondness for putting a little cayenne pepper in my chocolate chip cookies, and while I love the tried and true stuff, I always enjoy having my horizon's lifted a bit every now and then. I rather like this one I saw on a show called a Taste of History, once. BEN FRANKLIN’S PARMESAN CHEESECAKE. CRUST INGREDIENTS 1. 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs 2. ½ cup chopped walnuts 3. ½ cup parmesan cheese. 4. 2 tablespoons of sugar 5. 1 stick of butter. STEPS. 1. Mix first four ingredients together well. 2. Add melted butter. 3. Pour into a springform baking pan, and press down against the bottom and up the sides. 4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 5. Bake crust for 8 to 10 minutes, and let cool. CAKE INGREDIENTS 1. 2 eggs separated with whites beaten 2. 6 ounces of cream cheese 3. 2 ounces sour cream 4. ½ cup of sugar 5. 1 ½ cups fresh shredded parmesan cheese (no green bottle stuff) 6. ½ teaspoon of lemon zest 7. A good squeeze of lemon juice STEPS. 1. Separate eggs, and beat egg whites till well foamy. 2. Combine cream cheese, sour cream and sugar and mix until just combined. 3. Add parmesan cheese, lemon zest and juice and mix until just combined. 4. Fold in egg whites carefully. 5. Bake at 350 degree for 25 to 30 minutes 6. You’ll know it’s done when the edges are nice and brown and there’s no wobble in the center of the cake. 7. Let cool until room temperature, remove from pan and serve. What about you guys?

Is there such a thing as too much chocolate? Seriously, looks great.

Tons of things, i'd say. Anything that requires chocolate. I would suggest breaking it into chips and making chocolate chip cookies with it. Or perhaps tempering it (if it isn't already,) and trying dipping something in it for Halloween (like marshmallows).

Well, I haven't done this yet, but my little nephew's birthday is next weekend. He's turning 2 years old, and loves cars. I've been commissioned by my sister to make a large chocolate chip cookie cake. You've seen those if you've been to a cookie store in the mall. It's too have a big picture of the Blue Truck, on it. Little Blue Truck's Halloween (board book, by Alice Schertle) I was thinking of using my copy of Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie recipe, as Collin seems to like that. I'm gonna make a test-run "cake" early this week.

Nothing wrong with a challenge every now and then, Anna. To go along with the world peace cookies, I am very fond of this recipe. https://food52.com/recipes/75975-salted-chocolate-shard-shortbread