What are You Baking the Week of February 12, 2017?

[BakerAunt]

I'm starting this thread, so that those of you who are starting your Valentine's baking today, can start posting!

Spread the word

      

  

  

[aaronatthedoublef]

The English muffin dough is rising. I'll also make challah this week and perhaps cherry pie. I already made (and my kids have already consumed) a batch of shortbread cookies. I was going to make scones Tuesday but that's off until Thursday as my wife left on a last minute trip and will not return until late Wednesday. I am debating whether or not to make meringues Thursday. Any good recipes would be appreciated. They are usually too eggy for me. Would mixing some powdered egg whites with fresh egg whites help?

[BevM]

I baked an Italian Creme Cake on Friday and we ate it today, but it was for an early Valentine celebration. This was a new recipe for me and it turned out pretty good; however, I will be looking for another recipe to experiment with. It was at my granddaughters' request because she had eaten one at a restaurant and fell in love with it. It was similar but not exact. Since I haven't tasted it, it was hit and miss. It was not the usual Italian Cream Cake with nuts and coconut (which I like and have a recipe for), but the family doesn't. So it was a fun adventure finding out if I could duplicate something I've never tried. My granddaughter was happy with it.

If anyone has a recipe, I would love to give it a try. Any and all suggestions welcomed.

[Mike Nolan]

when I have extra egg whites, I often make meringue cookies with mini chocolate chips in them.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm looking for powdered egg whites but I cannot seem to find them anymore. I may have to go to WalMart which is a bit out of the way considering I have three grocery stores within two miles of my house.

Mini chocolate chips (any kind of chocolate for that matter) will go over well.

Any suggestions to look for instructions on tempering chocolate? I may try that to dip some berries.

[Mike Nolan]

There are quite a few pages on the web that talk about how to temper chocolate. I had read several of them before going to chocolate school, it isn't that we did things differently there, but the hands-on experience was worth the time and cost.

The biggest trick on tempering chocolate is to be able to control and measure the temperature fairly precisely. In school we used infrared thermometers to test the temperature of the chocolate as we stirred it.

The temperatures below are for dark chocolate. For milk chocolate subtract 2-3 degrees (C) and for white chocolate subtract 6-8 degrees.

You need to get the chocolate warm enough to melt out all the existing fat crystals (45-50 degrees C) then cool it to the point where it can form new crystals. The crystals you want have the highest melting point of the five crystal structures, so you want the chocolate in the 28-32 degree range. (There is a sixth crystal structure, but it generally only forms when chocolate sits for a very long time.)

If you have some tempered chocolate on hand, you can use that to 'seed' the right crystals by stirring it into your un-tempered melted chocolate. You need to add about 10% by weight to seed it properly.

Otherwise you need to let the chocolate cool, working it to develop crystals (we did this on a marble surface), then reheat it to melt the 'wrong' crystal structures, which have a lower melting point and stir it some more to get the right crystals to spread.

We used strips of parchment paper to test how well tempered our chocolate was. Dip a strip in the chocolate then set it on a second strip of parchment to cool. If it is well-tempered, you won't get any streaks in the cooled chocolate and it will have a 'snap' to it.

I bought a small chocolate pot after spending a week at chocolate school. It gives me fairly precise temperature controls over a range of 20-50 degrees (C).

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron, there are some meringue recipes in the 2016 Holiday Sift magazine from KAF. I noted on Saturday that my Barnes and Noble was still stocking that issue.

[Italiancook]

Aaron, Vermont Country Store used to sell them, but when I checked their site just now, I can't find them. Walmart online has them, if you can wait for delivery.

[RiversideLen]

I just a Good Eats episode on the food channel on chocolate, one of the episodes gave detailed instructions on tempering chocolate. I wish I could remember the specific episode. There are a number of recipes and videos about that on the Food Network site, just type "how to temper chocolate" in their search thingy.

[Mike Nolan]

Looking at the Wikipedia guide on Good Eats, Season 1, Episode 13, "The Art of Darkness", is probably the episode where he talks about tempering chocolate.

I think I saw that episode in the list of programs on the Food Channel over the weekend, too.

[RiversideLen]

Mike, I think they had 4 chocolate episodes on, in one episode he did microwave tempering and in another episode he did it the old fashioned way.

[BakerAunt]

I've had a busy Monday evening of baking. I baked that Mocha Chocolate Chip Cake to which Cwcdesign introduced us last year. When I baked it for work in the fall, another staff member liked it so much that she requested it for her birthday tomorrow. I used 3/4 cups of mini-chocolate chips this time and dredged them with flour. They still sank to the bottom, but it is less messy with the mini chips. I will stack the layers so that each has the chips on the top. I also used 1/2 tsp. salt in the cake rather than the specified 1 tsp. kosher salt. I omitted the kosher salt from the frosting, since it uses salted butter. I used just 2 Tbs. of the King Arthur Espresso powder (recipe calls for 2 Tbs. and 1 tsp.). I like the frosting much better this time, perhaps because I used less and because I had freshly opened espresso powder.

I tried a new recipe, Gluten-Free Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies, from the KAF site. One of our staff members has gluten intolerance issues, and I wanted her to have a dessert that she can eat along with us. The recipe is very simple.

I also baked Pumpkin Streusel muffins. The recipe came from Breads, Breads, and More Breads, a cook booklet from Pillsbury (#37) that I got a very long time ago. I baked them in two pans that have five flat hearts each. (The pans came from KAF years ago, and the 10 hearts work for a recipe for a dozen muffins.). I needed to have a special Valentine's treat in the house for tomorrow!

[cwcdesign]

On Sunday I made Pain au Chocolate Bread Pudding from Gourmet (Epicurious.com) for a dinner party last night. I hadn't made it in years and I was amused to read the comments that, like me, a lot of people substituted raspberries for the cranberries. I used frozen raspberries figuring that it was baked so it wouldn't matter (it didn't. I followed some of the comments and added a little more liquid and wished I hadn't - I thought it made it soggy. I used 6 ounces of chocolate. Next time I will tent it at 30 minutes so the top doesn't get too brown and I will air dry the croissants. But I had forgotten how much I like this decadent bread pudding.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone for the tips. I ordered Wilton Meringue powder from Amazon. It won't be here in time but I'll have them for the next time.

I think I actually have the Good Eats Art of Darkness. Someone gave me some Alton Brown DVDs so I'll check there.

I made shortbread cookies for my kids yesterday. I used brown sugar and cut back the butter a bit. They had a chewy snap and the reduced butter plus brown sugar really made the taste. I usually use corn starch in addition to flour but I was out so I substituted cake flour.

[BakerAunt]

Those gluten-free cookies delighted our staff member, who rushed over to a neighboring department to give a taste test to a staff member there who is gluten intolerant. That person, who calls herself fussy about food, gave them highest marks. I had one this morning, and they are a great cookie for anyone. As I have a niece who cannot tolerate gluten, it is good to have a simple recipe in my baking repertoire.

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