FWED

I think Chef Rubber has what you want also. You can find them at www.chefrubber.com.

You can also use inexpensive and simple tin cookie cutters ( rounds, squares, triangles or stars). I have also seen inexpensive tin biscuit cutters in round shapes for about a dollar each.

Chef Canonne used the Elsay cream powder in only one recipe but his assistant Chef Sebastien Thieffine used a similar cream powder in a Praline Cream that was part of his demo at the World Pastry Forum trade show. The cream powder was a Felchlin -Swiss product. Both of these chefs told us we could use an equal weight made up of 50 50 corn starch to pastry flour. Yes I just realized that I said powdered sugar in my original reply but that was wrong. It should have been corn starch. The chefs said it was to give the cream added stability and they said that the commercial products may contain other flavoring elements and sometimes coloring agents.

If this is the same thing as "Elsay" cream powder, and I suspect it is, then we used it in a Pistachio cream with creme fraiche during the five day chocolate class at the World Pastry Forum. If I remember correct chef Canonne said we could substitute an equal weight of one half powdered sugar and one half pastry flour.

Both of these techniques were used by the students in the World Pastry Forum hands on chocolate class to fabricate their chocolate candies. We got more than a little practice in both techniques. Great demo guys!!

I have Beranbaum's cookie book and have made several things out of it but not the Rugelach. I suspect that the dough for the rugelach is what it is and not much of an outstanding flavor. After reading the recipe I would think that the real flavor of the cookie comes from the filling. But that doesn't mean we can't change things. I would suggest trying the recipe again using a really good grade of vanilla and hi fat butter along with the Phili cream cheese and definitely taste the raw dough before rolling and filling. Check for the vanilla taste and the salt. I know the salt is listed as optional but you would be surprised at what adding more than a pinch of salt will do to bring out the brilliance of other flavors. For this recipe I would start with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and maybe more according to your taste. I have also added 1 tablespoon of lemon or orange zest to cream cheese to add to the flavor of the dough. Remember the recipe is a starting place. You can always tweak the flavorings to your taste and in the final analysis with all the changes you may find that you just don't like this cookie. That can happen.

Ted. I signed up for the site and the magazine. Its only 10 days old so its really and infant but it has promise. The more sources of information and inspiration we have the better. I must admit I even read the newsletters from pastry product purveyors looking for ideas. I may not use their products but If I get an idea that I can use its worth it. Lets face it no one web site or forum is going to be all things to all people and we need all the sources of information we can get. Each web site has its own pluses and minuses.

Like Patrick S I use the table from the Cake Bible. It deals with large eggs and the values are very close to the values given by the PA&D. If the number of eggs is given in the recipe it is important to note if the recipe or the author uses med or large or X large eggs. If a weight is given it doesn't matter what size of eggs you are using, the weight is the weight.

I just happened upon this new pastry magazine called "Pastrys Best Magazine" and wondered if anyone else had seen it and what they thought of it. It can be found at www.pastrynet.com.

Thanks everyone. Simdelish: The macaroons were from a recipe in Gisslen's book "Professional Baking" and help from notes taken in a topic here in the baking and pastry forum. Click here! Some of the macaroons were chopped up and put into the Bombe mixture at the center of the confection. They remained somewhat crunchy for a couple of days. The original recipe was very simple and came from a magazine called "Sunset Magazine" in 1970. I made it a few times then and put the article away in a folder. I found it the other day and decided to redo it and update it. As to the transportation to the event. The day before the event I made the macaroons I also made and glazed the two bombs. The day of the event I made the isomolt piece, packed the frozen bombes into a cooler lined with dry ice, and drove across town to the event site. The desserts were placed in a freezer until time to serve them. I placed the macaroons and the decorated sugar piece on the desserts as you see them just before serving. By the time I served them they had softened just enough for eating. Edited to add something that I forgot the first time around.

No ice water. Just a container such as a 1 gallon bucket filled with small ice cubes (no large lumps). Heat and melt the isomolt (I used about 3/4 cup) then pour into the center of the top of the ice cubes. Let set a couple of minutes and gently remove the sculpture from the bucket. Let the entrapped ice cubes melt just enough to remove. Let the sculpture dry for a bit and decorate. I usually do mine the morning of use or even the day before.

Just recently Mette,another contributor to the pastry and baking forum, posed a question related to the making of bon bons. I am bringing this topic up to the top again because of the photo of the beautifully finished bon bons that were included in the other topic. Hope that makes sense. Here is the photo. The questions that I had were in regard to the finish of these beautiful bon boons in the photo. I have been reading this topic since its inception and have used the techniques included here such as; spraying cocoa butter, either plain or colored, adding lustra dust, transfer sheets, and polishing the molds. I have been happy with the results but am always looking for further refinements. Now getting down to the photo. The thing that intrigues me is the finnish. It seems to be of greater depth than I am used to seeing. I have found that when spraying cocoa butter into the mold that the thinner the better. I was wondering if Mette was using some special sort of tinted cocoa butter or if the entire shell was a very thin layer of cocoa butter and I was also wondering how she got the speckles in the finish. Maybe Mette or someone else can enlighten me. I did want to bring up another thought concerning the close up photographing of bon bons. I have been using a camera with a flash and a diffuser on it. At close range it produces a soft fuzzy highlight. In the photo that Mette posted it seems that a flash was not used, only natural light thus producing highlights with crisp edges and making the finish appear more glossy. Something to think about the next time I photograph my bon bons. Included here is a photo of some of my latest bon bons.

Here are some photos of a frozen dessert the I did for a foodie BAR BQ recently. It contains raspberry and lime sorbet with a center of almond nougat filled with bits of almond macaroons. The toping is made with isomolt sugar poured into a container of ice. The base is decorated with more almond macaroons.

The finish on the chocolates is amazing. Would you mind telling us how you got it? Did you use any special cocoa butter colors and how did the speckles occur? Thanks.

I agree with Carswell about concentrating the flavor. I have recently been making a champagne ganache. I reduce a bottle of high quality champagne down to about 1/2 of a cup. I taste it at this point to see if I liked the reduction. I then use 2 tablespoons of it to flavor the ganche made of 1/2 pound of E Guittard Prestige 62% chocolate, 1/2 cup of cream, and 2 tablespoons of Plugra butter. The taste was great but next time I think I will use 3 tablespoons of the reduction for the same amount of chocolate. I have tried reducing several champagnes and have found that high quality champagnes make a better tasting reduction. I suggest trying the reduction technique with several beers that you like. Taste the reductions as see which one you like the best.

Hi Wendy. This may be old news to you but I will add it to the thread. I don't do gumpaste so I can only speak as an observer. I have a close friend here in town that is very involved in cake decorating and recently took a five day class from NICHOLAS LODGE reportedly one of the top gumpaste experts in the world. I saw the work that my friend did and the work that Nick did. It was amazing. I couldn't believe how realistic the flowers especially the roses were. I was so impressed that I went to his web site to see what else he did. Then today I see your thread. I can highly recommend the www.nicholaslodge.com site. He has a number of books (reasonable priced I think) and also video's and DVDs showing his techniques. Hope this helps.

Here are some photos of the chocolates that I made for Valentines Day. The Red hearts are made of white chocolate filled with a white chocolate and champagne ganche. The mold is first sprayed with coco butter then a light dusting of gold powder and then a heavy spray of red coco butter. The white chocolate ovals and rounds are made in magnetic molds with transfer sheets and filled with white chocolate and raspberry ganache. The other photo shows the finished package including several flavors of pate de fruits.

We live over in Montlake by the Queen City yacht club. When can we come over and sample these goodies to make sure they taste as good as they look? Wonderful pictures and I'll bet they taste as good as they look. Keep up the good work.

Vengroff: Inquiring minds want to know or perhaps its just those of us like myself that are nosy. What happened when you called Albert Lee and told them to come take the refer back? Did that shake some one loose for help or could they have cared less? Tell us, tell us please.

I second the recommendation for Sherry Yard's "Caramel sauce". I use it regularly and usually keep a container of it in the refer for use on short notice.

Chefwoody I have a question if you don't mind. Wont the water seize the chocolate and if it doesn't, do you know why it doesn't? Thanks

Well right now I am thinking that I will do some molded chocolates. Since the two weeks before Valentines day there are two family birthdays and I am doing some baking for each event. Sooo I am thinking that I will do white molded chocolates filled with either a raspberry ganache or a pink champagne ganache or something else in a red or pink vein. I have just ordered 2 polycarbonate, mini heart shaped, chocolate molds from JB Prince and I plan (if they arrive in time) to spray the bottom of the molds (the top of the chocolates) with plain cocoa butter, then a layer of red, then a dusting of gold powder and finally mold white chocolate with white chocolate ganache. I wanted to do something like this for Christmas but just ran out of time. If the molds don't arrive in time I'll go to plan B what ever that is.

On the Friday Night PBS program "SERIOUS MONEY" Tom Cox will talk with FRAN BIGALOW about her recent book "Pure Chocolate" and what its like to run a chocolate company. Also featured on the program will be an interview with Howard Schultz of Starbucks.

Thanks to everyone for replying. Thats just what I wanted to know. I must say I was impressed by the use of weights as well as volume measurements and the many high quality pictures. I will let you know results as I use it.

I just noticed that Gordon Ramsay has a dessert book out called (naturally) "Gordon Ramsay's just desserts". Has anyone here seen it, read it, or know anything about the quality of the recipes? My knowledge of Gordon Ramsay is from his television series about mis managed kitchens and I would be interested in hearing evaluations of the recipes as to flavor combinations, difficulty, or complexity.