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Limited usage with isi but to have a foam/ froth with butter or browned butter would really work in this application. Can anyone help me out with a good method? thanks in advance.. danny

A slightly less heart-stopping version of a classic. Ingredients - Dough 4 C unbleached all-purpose flour 1 C quinua flour * 1 C panela / piloncillo / demerrera / the darkest brown sugar you can find 2 C tepid water 1/2 oz active dry yeast 8 TBSP light extra-virgin olive oil, plus a bit more (see instructions) Ingredients - Filling 1 block (about 6 oz) bittersweet chocolate, grated 6-8 TBSP panela / piloncillos / demerrera etc. 3 TBSP ground cinnamon 1 TBSP ground ishpingo (optional - it's not available outside of Ecuador) A handful of golden raisins (optional, but I really like them) 1/2 C finely-chopped walnuts (optional) Ingredients - Caramel (optional, but very tasty) 1/4 C panela / piloncillo / demerrera etc. 1/2 C light corn syrup 1 TBSP butter, melted Hardware Mixing bowls Measuring cups 10" round, deep pans (or deep-dish pie plates) Measuring tape Sharp knife Method 1. Sift the flours together. 2. In your choice of cup or bowl, mix the water and the sugar together, then add the yeast. Allow to bloom 10-15 minutes (or until you've got a good froth going) 3. Stir the yeast up, then add it to the flour along with the olive oil. Knead until slightly elastic and resilient. This is a fairly slack dough with a texture similar to brioche, and because of the sugar it will never get to the point where it's not slightly sticky. 4. Lightly grease your bowl with a bit more evoo, and slip the dough into it. Set it in a warmish, non-drafty place to rise until slightly more than doubled in bulk. 5. Punch down and divide into two balls (use your scale to make sure they're even. When I do this, they're about 1 lb 8 oz each.) 6. Roll one ball into a rectangle roughly 14" by however long, and about 1/8" thick. 7. Brush the surface of the dough with a bit of evoo, then sprinkle about half of the filling on and spread it around until it's fairly evenly distributed. Sprinkle on the raisins and nuts if you're using them. Leave a margin of about 1/4" at the edges of the dough. 8. Starting on the shorter end of the rectangle, roll up the dough. 9. In a bowl, mix together the ingredients for the caramel. 10. Grease the pans well. Then divide the caramel between the two, spreading it so that it covers the bottom of the pans. 10a. If you're like me, now place 7 walnut halves upside down into the caramel - one in the center, and six around it. This is an optional step, but I'm really fond of pralinized walnuts on top of my buns. 11. Measure the roll, and divide it into 7 sections. Place each section in the pan - one in the center, and six around it. Press them down slightly so that they're touching. 12. Cover the pans and set them aside to proof for about 20-25 minutes, or until poofy. 13. Heat your oven to 350 F / 180 C 14. Bake 30 minutes (this is for my altitude - yours may take longer if you're closer to sea level) or until the tops of the buns are lightly golden. 15. Unmold almost immediately onto your choice of a wire rack or a foam cake base (I use cake bases) - this prevents the caramel from sticking to your pan. * Quinua flour can be hard to source outside of South America. Good substitutes include Amaranth, Millet, and Spelt.

My neighbor came over with the two empty strawberry baskets and invited me to pick the ripe blackberries from his little patch as they would be out of town. I am not one to just eat them out of hand. My thinking was just cooking briefly with a bit a sugar, mashing and then using the result as a topping on yogurt or mixed with some whipped cream. There are not many as you can see, but if there is a simple dessert for just one or two people that springs out at you I would love to hear.

I want to make the Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cake from Bon Appetit. I've made it many times, and it's great, but this time, I want to use two sponge cake layers instead of the ladyfingers. Do you think they would squish the filling? (there's no gelatin in the filling). I don't want to split them, and each layer has 3/4 cup flour - they're made in 9-inch rounds. Here are the ingredients of the cake I'm considering: 6 large eggs, separated 1 cup sugar 1½ cups bleached AP flour 2 tsp. baking powder ¼ tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla Here's a link to the cake: http://www.epicuriou...box-Cake-101955

Help, I am having a dinner party on Thursday night which is difficult for me as I work all day everyday. I am making lie flottante, I am going to do the creme anglais sous vide on Wed. I want to make the meringues early, but don't know how long they will keep. I also have a chamber vacuum sealer and am having trouble keeping the liquid in the bags upon sealing. All help is greatly appreciated. Ike

Hi everybody, Pectins. Well I am trying to do some research on Pectins. The Bought kind. From the ideas in food blog and reading i have discovered there are basically 2 types of pectins. HM Pectin (The one you know, Requires acidic conditions and Sugar to set, Has different seeting speeds available) & LM Pectin is thermo reversible) (Low Ester, Requires Calcium to set. Hence Pomona comes with calcium satchels) However, In recipes recently the chefs are using some pectins which have confused me. Ok Grant Achatz uses "Yellow Pectin" & "Pectin NH" along with others including Adriano Zumbo (Zumbo uses it for his Glaze amongst many other things, which he reheats everytime he needs it over double boiler to 35degrees Celcius) I have the following Pectins at home and am trying to match which ones equal what in the recipes. Genu Pectin Type 101 AS (This is a LM amidated Pectin) Brown Ribbon HV (HM Pectin) GENU pectin type D slow set-Z (HM Pectin, Slow setting) This one is referred to as Yellow at Le Sanctuaire) So there you have it I have Solved the Yellow Pectin problem. Its a slow set HM Pectin. I suspect I could swap the Brown ribbon with The genu pectin Type D slow set. I'll test that and get back to you. So the question remains what the bleep is Pectin NH. Ok So i do know that Pectin NH is a LM amidated Pectin. So I would suspect the LMA pectin I have would be fine. I know that it requires calcium to set, and so many of the recipes it is mentioned in does not have any calcium added? so what is going on. I noticed at the paddymelon website in Melbourne, Australia that it states it is standardised with Polyposphate, Calcium Citrate & dextrose. And Louis Stab information sheets says it has Sodium Diphosphate and Calcium Orthophosphate in it. So I've found a few clues there. Seems that Pectin NH is LMA pectin with Calcium in it, now to work out the concentration. I'll have to do some tests. Has anyone anymore knowledge on this topic? Please add, correct delete and contribute to the discussion. I really don't want to reinvent the wheel. I also don't want to buy Pectin NH if i really already have it. Also asking as to why you would choose Pectin over other Colloids like Gelatin, Gellan, etc. Does anyone kno what brands of Pectin they use at Alinea, French Laundry, Fat Duck & Zumbo? Kindest regards, Vol

I'm doing a wedding pie display this August for about 200 ppl. The bride wants pie, not cake. It's outdoors in August so it'll be hot hot hot and I am worried about my good friends egg and cream. I've never done pie for a wedding before. Anyone have any suggestions? The wedding's kinda artsy/rustic.

I'm trying to make a spongecake and it is just awful. The cake is dense, eggy and crunchy. Is it supposed to be like this until I add the syrup? I don't think the addition of syrup would help all that much. Anyway, here is the recipe. 225g AP Flour 6 Eggs 160g Caster Sugar 75g Butter, melted Add sugar to eggs in a heatproof bowl and beat over simmering water until a ribbon consistency. Remove from heat and allow to cool for three minute. Add cool butter and sifted flour, using a large metal spoon to fold in until just combined. Split evenly into two 8" pans and bake at 350°F for fifteen to twenty minutes, checking doneness with a skewer. Cake is done when the center bounces back after slight pressure. Now, I have tried replacing the AP flour with cake flour and a combination of cake flower and cornstarch and I still get an eggy, crunchy texture. I have tried adding warm butter directly to the batter as well as cooled melted butter. I have tried adding a little batter warm butter, then combining all of the batter together but butter still weeps out of the batter. Regardless of what I do, I am deflating the batter as soon as I add butter to the it. With the flour, I can fold in fairly quickly without deflating the batter but if I do that I am left with clumps of flour in the batter that I generally fish out. If I go slower, I can incorporate the flour more thoroughly but I find I lose quite a bit more air. So, what am I doing wrong and where do I go from here? I thought this was going to be the easiest recipe out of the book because it has the fewest ingredients and steps but I have been through a dozen cakes and I still can't get it to look more like a cake and less like Vietnamese baked eggs?

I've been asked to create a white chocolate wedding cake for a friend, whose wedding is in September (the 22nd, to be precise). All well and good, but I haven't got a go-to recipe for such a creature, and I tend to avoid white chocolate (I find myself thinking it's unnatural, like zombies....) I have access to white chocolate couberture made from Arriba cacao beans, and it's all cocoa butter with no vegetable additions (so, as far as white chocolate goes, it's good stuff). Does anybody out there have a really stupendous recipe they'd be willing to share? Or tips on how to incorporate melted white chocolate into a cake batter? Thanks in advance....

I live in New York (Long Island) and I am looking for some new desserts. I live in a studio apartment without a kitchen so cooking is not an option. I usually go to the local bakery for cookies, pies etc. I have my nephews christening coming up and I would like to bring something different for a change. All suggestions and recommendations welcome...

i am making an oatmeal pumpkin bundt...i had latkes over the holidays and the cook subbed applesauce for the egg and it was totally delish...the recipe i have calls for 1 cup of butter and 4 eggs...how much subbing do you think i could get away with ?? i would first like to get rid of the butter...maybe half applesauce then half oil ? i am not a baker but trying

I was just told that March 25th is Aretha Franklin's birthday. As it happens, I've been requested to bring a dessert to a potluck that day, and I was going to make a blood orange panna cotta, as that's one of Toots' favorite desserts. Now I'd like to make something that will celebrate Aretha's b'day. Any suggestions?

Hi everyone, I haven't been here in a long while and when I came across this problem I knew exactly where to go! Hope someone can help. I have to make a plated dessert, creme brulee cooked on top of a cake. Every recipe I try, the brulee mix soaks into the cake. I've tried a number of different recipes to no avail. Searching the internet resulted in some great pics, but nothing more. Anyone have experience with this or a recipe I can use? The only stipulation is that the cake has to be vanilla. Thank you!!

What makes a cake a "coffee cake?" Any particular ingredient, baking technique, or ... ?

Just want some quick advice for a bread pudding-like dessert. I have some left over coffee cake (not a very large piece) which I plan to cube for the pudding. I bet I could use a standard bread pudding recipe, but since the texture/structure of the cake is different than the bread I would normally use, any input is appreciated. Anyone ever done this before?

Is it just me... or are fine dining restaurants (at least in the U.S.) increasingly pawning off desserts as savory dishes? Whether it is the Michelin starred restaurants in the Bay Area, haute joints in Hawaii, Seattle & other places... the Foie Gras PBJs, Molasses Short Ribs, Sugar flavored with Pork Bellies are taking the joy of out of every f_ing fine dining meal I've had in the last 5 years and the trend seems to be getting disturbingly worse... and on top of the junior high school vending machine equivalent sugar load of the dishes they try to pair them with Sauternes, Rieslings etc., Is it just me... are anybody else noticing the trend, and put off by it? I really can't get excited by any haute joint now.

i'm desperately trying to find a cupcake frosting that sets HARD! i've tried royal icing, but it stays soft!! i live in a hot tropical place... could that be the reason? any suggestions???

I love to bake, and I'm good at it, but it's mostly something for a special occasion or because I'm itching to try out a new recipe. If I had a cookie jar, it would be empty 200 days of the year. Important point: although I'm not a chocolate lady, I always have some decent chocolate in the house. Twice a month, after eleven pm, I have a desperate desire for dessert. Trust me, that melted choc /shredded wheat concoction was a bad idea. The microwaved Brownie in a mug is only so-so unless you own a lot of whipped cream, which suggests you are phyched for desserts, not desperate. A couple of desperate days ago I threw a small handful of frozen TJ's blueberries, topped with some brown sugar into a cocotte in the microwave and nuked it until it was warm and juicy. I topped it with Greek Yog, and to me it was ambrosia. (Yeah with some nuts or coconut it would be better, but I was in desperation mode, not recipe writing mode.) In my teens, a mixture of walnuts and raisins was my idea of an anytime go-to dessert. Oh, I loved it, and I'll buy some walnuts and see if it still satisfies. Long preamble to my question: What's your Desperation Dessert?

Recently in a topic, Graham Cracker Alternatives, someone suggested crushed pretzels which then led to the subject of the Margarita Pie, which caught my fancy big time. (I had my first Margarita summer before last and I really did like it. LOL.) So, Margarita Pie. I googled it and the results, as usual, were varied. Not much sugar in crust or filling to more sugar than I could imagine. Most call for whipped cream and condensed milk. Oh, I don't know about that. Who has a recipe for Margarita Pie that I might like to make?

i have a serious question. we are serving tons more gluten free people lately at our restaurant,and i make my own version of a lava cake. there is NO flour in my recipe except at the end when i fold in 2 TBSP of flour. my question is WHY? I mean ii am only adding it cause of other lava recipes that do this. Now if i take it out it would be a gluten free recipe. Do you think it would affect anything? why do people use that little bit at the end and fold it in? most of the recipe is heavy on eggs,butter and chocolate and not much else....so essentially a flourless cake underbaked to be a lavacake. so please let me know if you think that if i take out that little bit of flour if it should matter? thanks..sorry sor the winded post...

I made a blackberry pie from a recipe on line that had rave reviews. For a 9" pie the filling used 4 cups of fresh berries, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of flour to thicken. You mixed most of the berries with the sugar and flour, and mixed till there was no "white" on the berries. You put in in the pie plate then topped with 1/2 cup of reserved berries and a top crust then baked 425 for 15 minutes then 25 minutes at 375. I made a 9.5 " deep dish pie and used 6 cups of berries. I added more sugar about 1/4 cup...still the filling is too tart. I dotted it with butter. Put a lattice crust on top. Now. I baked the pie to the directions and it looked beautiful on the outside,the crust is good. The filling was runny, too tart, but more worrisome was the floury color and taste of the filling. It doesn't taste cooked. I need this to be perfect for next weekend. What did I do wrong? What can I substitute for the flour? How much should I use for 4 cups of fruit and also for 6 cups of fruit? How long should I bake it? I wondered about tapioca as I have minute instant and also tapioca starch powder that I got at the Asian market. I appreciate any and all help.

Hello, and happy holidays to you all. Not quite yet Christmas, and already I need to think about dessert for New Years. My friends that are bringing the wine have bought Muscat da Beaumes de Venise "Hommage". I would normally go the 'chocolate-something and port' way on dessert, but I don't think chocolate and Muscat is probably a good match. So I need inspiration for something that both children from the age of 7 and grown ups will enjoy and that goes well with the wine. Thanks very much

My son likes blueberry pie (he's home for the holidays) but my wife and daughter prefer apple. At the store I have seen pies that are half one fruit, half another. (not mixed, split down the middle) Any suggestions on the best way to accomplish this? Or should I just make what I want: cherry!

My experience in free-form baking is very limited and I would like to make my traditional Christmas pie for guests this year. The recipe is from a very old cheese cookbook and this book is currently 2,000 miles away. I've looked up a number of recipes online but none of them use enough lemon juice to make the pie interesting. They all seem to call for 2 T of juice only. Phooey. This isn't something I am comfortable fooling around with. Oh, then I always top the pie with a bittersweet chocolate ganache. Delicious. What do I recall? 9 oz of cream cheese (inconvenient), one egg only, either 1/4 or 1/3 cup lemon juice, lemon zest and then flour, sugar, butter (I think), vanilla, ??? And it's set in a cracker crumb crust which I'll have no problem with. Can anyone help me to reconstruct this or a similar lemon cream cheese pie. The salient detail is the larger amount of lemon juice and also zest. Thanks so much. (I'd settle for two eggs, etc)

I'm looking for some help with a dessert I am planning to do in a couple of weeks time using David Everitt-Matthias' recipe for chocolate delice as a basis: http://www.lechampignonsauvage.co.uk/chocolate.html I've actually tried doing the dessert before but it didn't turn out right due to me screwing up the part where you whisk the oil into the egg yolks as if making a mayonnaise - I knew at the time it wasn't right but I'd used up my eggs and it was a bit late, and I ended up with a rather dense filling. This time I'm going to be more careful, but I was thinking of changing the filling to something like peanut butter and raspberry. Any thoughts on this? I was going to plate it with a raspberry gel and maybe some kind of chocolate crumbs, but I'm not sure about an ice cream which would work, possibly peanut butter but I don't want something to rich. I've no idea if the malted barley from the original recipe would work? One last thing, the recipe doesn't state what type of gelatin sheets to use - i.e. bronze/silver/gold strength. Should I stick to a medium strength to play it safe?