Sugar Cane syrup

[maggiethecat]

Jaymes:

Girlfriend, I have already gained three inches simply reading your recipies. Will run around the block twenty times, print them out, and bake.

Thanks.

[Stargryphon]

My wife has reached the point of threatening me to stop making sourdough English muffins. She loves them and accuses me of being responsible for ruining her attempts to lose weight.

(Come to think of it, I should threaten myself to stop as well!)

Jaymes, thanks for the recipes!

Edited January 18, 2003 by Stargryphon (log)

[chefette]

This snippet is not actually about the $50,000 Pastry Challeng, but the World Cup Pastry Competition where the US WON!!!!!!!

http://www.frolicanddetour.com/writings/ar...ves/000035.html

"But the Pastry Cup is particularly tense and stressful. I've already seen Greece's ice sculpture collapse right on top of its climactic dessert. Oops. Holland had the same problem. Most surprisingly, the United States actually won. First our surprisingly non-sucky World Cup showing, and now this! (Which is not to say this is necessarily recent, but everything on the Food Network is timeless.) It does appear that the US team was made up in part of ringers -- they work in the US, but two out of three are French. The INS will probably come and grab them now that they've served their purpose." Read more...

I think this is my favorite paragraph and really tells it like it is IMHO

"You don't get to watch them stirring and whipping and pushing perfectly formed ovals of sponge cake into twee little molds. No, what the audience sees is primarily the sneering and the eating -- the judging portion of the competition. They see the chefs bring out the three-foot-tall chocolate cake with its majestic red blown-sugar flourish on top and parade it in front of the judges, who make faces like it smells like feet. Some of the judges take pictures. They take little bites. They never make that "Ohgodohgodohgod" face that I make when I eat a really good chocolate cake, either. They look unimpressed. "Good, but not as good as what I fed to the Empress last Wednesday."

Edited January 18, 2003 by chefette (log)

[Robert Schonfeld]

Just about any recipe can be converted to sourdough by substituting the amount of flour and water in an appropriate amount of starter (20 - 40% of the total weight of the dough, depending on temperature and some other factors) for those same amounts in the non-sourdough recipe.

[Suzi Edwards]

OK. I've just made some pastry and it has ended up looking like crumbs. I used my magimix and did the following:

1. creamed 175g of butter with 50g of caster sugar

2. added an egg yolk

3. slowly added 270g of plain flour

the recipe said not to overwork the pastry and it wasn't balling together (as suggested in the recipe) i kind of squidged it together and popped it into the fridge.

It wouldn't really roll out and when i did get it to roll out, it was impossible to lift up and line the tin.

So what did I do wrong? Please tell me there was something wrong with the recipe. I've never had any problems before.

[chefette]

It sounds like there just wasn't enough moisture. Are you sure you weren't supposed to add the whole egg? did you try adding just a tsp or so of water?

[Steve Klc]

Tarka--was your butter hard or soft when you started? Is plain flour AP flour?

It would also help if you told us where this recipe is from--author and title please, even a link if it is on the web. A trick, too, in rolling out crumbly doughs--roll them out in between two pieces of plastic wrap--lift them up and drape over your tart tin--peel one side off--flip over--peel the other side off--and then press gently in place.

What's a Magimix--is that a UK brand and a version of a stand mixer? See I'm guessing UK because all your amounts are in weight. Did you use the "paddle"? Sometimes it also helps to give a final push or schmear together on the countertop before wrapping and refrigerating.

And when you say you never had any problems before--was that with this recipe, the Magimix or other doughs you've made in the Magimix?

[elyse]

Isn't shortbread just butter, sugar, and flour? I'm certainly no expert, but couldn't it just have been too cold, possibly?

[chefette]

It sounds as though you are looking for something specific. What is it? Or are you just making a collection?

[elyse]

Well, I'm remembering some savory dishes as well, so that may be why they're not at the tips of your floury fingertips. I'll try looking in my IHMRS bin to look for specific notes. May take a few days.

Thanks!

[chefette]

The savory portion of the program was not at all connected to eGullet. Steve Klc, one of the moderators here coordinated the entire pastry program for the Societe and the IHMRS so that is why he asked us to make the pastry components available here.

[Ed Hamilton]

I ran across a bottle of this near Boston in October and noticed that it says "Simple Syrup" on the bottom of the label. What I'm looking for in the US is real sugar cane syrup. I brought some back from Martinique and haven't found anything like it in the states.

[Dave the Cook]

Ed:

Three possibilities:

Refiner's syrup, which is a liquid byproduct of the refining process. It's light in color, and is used in lots of baked goods. More here.

Perhaps we're all being misled by the idea of "syrup," which is a refined product (it's usually a thin liquid that's cooked down). Maybe what you're looking for is cane juice?

Finally, there is a product called evaporated cane juice that is available through health food stores. It's sold as dry crystals, but presumably could be reconstituted. I had a link, but can't find it now. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll look some more.

[Lesley C]

Steve, a magimix is what we call a cuisinart or robocoupe.

I've been making doughs this week and I find them all too dry. But I'm up in cold, dry Canada so I need to add a bit more water.

If you're making a pate sucree like this, it should smear together nicely before refrigeration ( a technique called "fraser" or "fraiser").

If not, turn the dough out onto to counter and sprinkle over a tablespoon (or 1 1/2) of cold water. But be careful, too much water will toughen the dough.

[elyse]

There we go.

[Marlene]

I couldn't decide whether this belonged in the Beer Forum, the baking forum or the Cooking Forum! I just received the quarterly edition of Food and Drink, an Ontario publication put out by our Liquour Control Board. In it, they have a recipe for chcolate cheesecake, and one of the ingredients is Porter beer. I've never heard of beer being used in a cheesecake recipe before. Anyone else? (Although the picture looks yummy!)

[Miss J]

Interesting - do they specify any particular porter?

[Marlene]

They suggest Hales, or even Rogue Chocolate Stout or St. Peter's Cream Stout. They say whatever you use, make sure it's a full bodied and roundly malty beer.?

[Miss J]

I think it would be interesting to try. I know people who like eating dark chocolate with porter or stout, although I've not seen it actually used in a chocolate dessert before. Could be worth a try. I imagine that you'd REALLY want a harmoniously nutty/sweetish porter or stout, though.

A bit about porters from Beer Advocat:

"Modern-day Porters are typically brewed using a pale malt base with the addition of black malt, crystal, chocolate or smoked brown malt. The addition of roasted malt is uncommon, but used occasionally. Some brewers will also age their beers after inoculation with live bacteria to create an authentic taste. Hop bitterness is moderate on the whole and colour ranges from brown to black. Overall they remain very complex and interesting beers."

The rest of the article is here.

[Marlene]

I'll make this in the next day or two and report back.

[Suzi Edwards]

thank you, thank you, thank you. i knew egullet would help.

the recipe was from "food and travel" magazine. the description was really short and i remembered thinking it seemed odd there was no water in it. it's a great magazine, but they push all the recipes to the end and it's more about nice photos...i guess i should have checked online instead of throwing it all away.

right, round two with your suggestions incorporated this weekend.

will report back!

[ranitidine]

I'm looking forward to your results. I type this as I am finishing a bottle of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout.

[maggiethecat]

Ah, the LCBO's glossy cooking mag. One of the better ways to waste the taxpayers' money. When I visit my parents I always pick up a copy.

The recipe sounds interesting. Please let us know.

[heyjude]

Marlene, when I used to bake cheesecakes for restaurants, one of the favorites was a Beer-Cheddar NY style. There are many variations. I think, it would be easy to find a recipe on-line or PM me for my recipe. The beer taste is subtle, but it also adds to the texture.

[stellabella]

i use my "standard" skillets--they're 10"

maggie, yes, wedges.

suzanne--the dough is really stiff. spread it out on a piece of foil to about 10 inches then fold the foil up--this is just a suggestion--i think it would work--check them as they bake to see the sides aren't over-browning.