Wishlist for Possible Forthcoming Modernist Pastry/Dessert Cookbook

[Anonymous Modernist 8210]

Hi all, I'm a MC owner and transplant from the egullet forums.

I didn't see any threads devoted to what people would like to see in the possible modernist pastry/baking/dessert cookbook from the good folks at the Cooking Lab. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who have a wish/suggestion list of what they would like such a text to contain.

My personal areas of interest are in sugarless and grainless baking and dessert making. For those living on low-carb, paleo/primal, diabetic, or gluten-free/celiac diets these are critical concerns. How can we make ice creams with, say, stevia or erythritol that don't suffer so greatly from textural and mouthfeel deficiencies? What about using non-sugar sweeteners to construct chocolate candies? For baked goods ("bread", buns, rolls, pizza crust, pasta noodles) how can we use nut flours, seed flours, or other low-starch flours (along with, perhaps, various modernist ingredients and techniques) to achieve similar results to wheat flour/yeast/gluten-based products?

[Anonymous Modernist 7391]

First of all, I'd love love love to see a MC pastry book.

Things I'd like to see:

- Applications of modern techniques, especially sous vide, to custards and other temperature-sensitive items.

- Chocolate work

- Ways of stabilizing products (e.g. whipped cream which doesn't weep, chocolate which can withstand higher temperatures without loosing its temper or lower temperatures without blooming, etc.)

[Judy Wilson]

While it just scrapes the surface of these topics, we do touch on some of this in MCAH. Actually, cooking creme brulee, pot de creme, and flan sous vide is a great way to avoid syneresis. The chapter includes recipes for cream infusions, creme brulee, pot de creme, flan, posset, sous vide lemon curd, panna cotta, sous vide creme anglaise, gelato (pistachio and variations), pie crusts, pastry creams, pie toppings, cream pies... In the microwave chapter, there's a recipe for microwaved sponge cake, and in the burger chapter there's a recipe for sandwich bread.

[Anonymous Modernist 14912]

Can't wait for this one, would be nice to have ideas, technics, recipes for whole desserts, entremets...

[Anonymous Modernist 3840]

I think MC could give desserts a very fresh and healthier perspective. How do we enjoy the most taste yet do without the gluten and sugar that is used as a filler so much of the time. It doesn't have to be the focus, but a chapter on creatively redefining desserts would be well received i would think.

[Anonymous Modernist 19679]

May I put in my two bits worth two please?

Pastry - combining flours, fats and liquids to produce a baked product. I see a MC book about such things doing either or both of two things, detailing the science behind how pastes work and the effect of heat on them; and/or developing new techniques to old methods to produce reproducible, repeatable results every time without having to have the "knowledge" in your fingers. e.g. what's the best baking temp for which particular type of paste, etc.

Savoury fillings for pies, pasties, sausage rolls, etc., both meat based and vegetarian; the best thickeners and why, optimal serving temperatures, the effects of heating, freezing and reheating on various thickeners; deconstructed assembly: individual preparation of filling ingredients for pie fillings and their optimal combination prior to baking in a piecrust.

Oh, and some info on the sweet stuff would also be mildly interesting ;-)