Food Porn and Discussion.

[mama cass]

Oh GOD!


mama cass if you like doing buns, ever tried choc and mint pieces on top? thing is, what I had was not icing, it was like........something else. LOL!

ooh do you mean like bits of after-eights/mint matchsticks?? i love chocolate and mint together... bet that would be lovely on a cupcake... *adds to list of things to make and do* hehe

 

[mama cass]

did you add this photo later on I didn't see it yesterday! You can pipe warm meringue. In fact, the quicker you use it the better it will look on your product. Maybe it wasn't whipped long enough. Do you mix it in your mixer after you take it off the stove?

I always cook my sugar and make an Italian meringue because that helps keep whatever shape you've pipped stable. Also, sometimes even the tiny drop of color you've added is too much moisture and will cause your meringue to be runny, but I've never had that trouble using Italian meringue.

hi arw! i must've edited while you were replying earlier, sorry!

yes, i think i can't have whipped it for long enough that time - i whisk it on its own first, and then over hot water and use right away normally... i just checked the recipe and it's called "Seven-minute frosting" with one egg white, 6oz caster sugar, 2 tbsp water and a pinch of salt and cream of tartar - you whisk all the ingredients for a few minutes til smooth, then place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and continue whisking for 7 min, and then use right away - does that sound like your Swiss recipe??

it does dry out really quickly and adding the colouring is tricky too so maybe that destabilised it as well... along with my dodgy piping too haha! i wonder if it would help if i added the colouring to the water before it goes in with the egg white and sugar - or would that stop the whites from peaking??

i am tempted to have a go at Italian meringue - will need to get a decent sugar thermometer though first i guess - i'm too scared to pluck the syrup out with my fingers to test the consistency lol!!

i'm looking for a thick and stable meringue recipe to fill a chocolate shell - i tried this "thing" at a Chocolate Festival the other day and it was just delicious - chocolate shell filled with a thick dense unbaked meringue with a wafer base and would like to try and have a go at making it at home - maybe an Italian meringue might work??

 

[arw]

7 minute frosting is essentially Italian Meringue, not Swiss. For Italian, you cook the sugar. For Swiss, you cook the egg whites. The outcome is the same for Italian Meringue/7 Minute but it just has more ingredients (basically cream of tartar). Italian Meringue is just water and sugar on the stove and egg whites in a mixer. You start whipping your whites when your sugar is about 220*F . The way I have done 7 Minute is to cook all of the ingredients in a pot until it's at a rolling boil and the whip your whites in a mixer to stiff peaks then pour the boiling liquid in your mixer and whip until the bottom of the bowl is cool. I'm basing that off of using a Kitchenaide, which I do not have at home . For my use at home I've been able to do this using a handheld mixer but it's not that easy to pour boiling sugar into a bowl while mixing with the mixer in my other hand. But still, same process, you know it's done when the bottom of your bowl is cool for that and Italian Meringue.

I wouldn't recommend sticking your hand in a pot of boiling sugar! It needs to be roughly 242*F/117*C. Plus it takes a long time of testing sugar to learn by feel when it's done. We had to stick our hands in boiling sugar in school but we'd soak our fingers in freezing water first. I never burned myself but it wasn't pleasant so I just bought a digital thermometer and test it that way.

I'd say an Italian Meringue would work great for your chocolate shell. Or even your 7 Minute recipe. You could torch the meringue and stick a piece of graham crack in it and call it a s'more! At least that's what I would do with it for a petit four platter....

 

[mama cass]

WOW!!! thanks soooooo much for all the advice arw - i really appreciate it! my 7-minute recipe must be a weird hybrid then as all the ingredients are in the same pan and mixed/cooked together at the same time... i will definitely try your Italian meringue method, thanks! yeah i never could bring myself to put my fingers into hot sugar syrup, but have used a spoon a few times to drop some of the liquid into freezing cold water to test consistency, and that worked ok (when i've made fondant), but it was a bit faffy, and a thermometer would be so much easier i'm sure!

i am desperate for a Kitchenaid but i think it will be a long long time before i can afford one lol!! my old food processor was a Kenwood, not a "chef" but just a basic version i bought on special offer a few years ago - it was great though but didn't last very long at all, and finally died this summer! i'm going to take it to a local repair man and see if he can fix it for me... it's really hard managing without it, and i don't know how i'm going to manage my yule log this year as the buttercream takes absolutely ages to beat - i will have to stand still and hold my hand mixer i guess haha!

thanks again! i do love chatting about baking haha

 

[anitram]

arw,

Question for you re: scones. I have a recipe that somebody passed on to me at work and I'll try it this weekend. Thing is I don't really like very dense scones (ones that could kill a person if you threw it at them hard enough) - I prefer ones that have a consistency closer to a biscuit. What can I do to scone recipes to make them less dense/more soft?

 

[Purplereign]

^ maybe use self raising flour and add a teaspoon of baking powder?

 

[arw]

arw,

Question for you re: scones. I have a recipe that somebody passed on to me at work and I'll try it this weekend. Thing is I don't really like very dense scones (ones that could kill a person if you threw it at them hard enough) - I prefer ones that have a consistency closer to a biscuit. What can I do to scone recipes to make them less dense/more soft?

I would need to see the recipe....but I do have an awesome recipe for scones where they are more muffin-like than a scone. Also, I've found that using a mixer tends to make them softer than if you make a scone the traditional way of using your hands to break up the butter in your dry. I've worked at some places where it's a crime if you don't make a scone with your hands but my current place we make them with a mixer.

 

[yolland]

Anyone have a recipe for a lemon cake with a large, moist crumb? I've been trying off-and-on for years to replicate a lemon cake my husband ate at a tiny village taverna in Greece during our honeymoon (not a Greek-style cake, more like a bundt cake) and it seems I can never get its texture quite right. Unfortunately I didn't eat any of said cake myself, and my husband's not good at describing texture, so I'm kind of shooting in the dark. All I know is I've tried lemon pound cake, lemon chiffon cake, lemon tealoaf cake, lemon layer cake, lemon-poppyseed cake, and lemon bundt cake (which EVERYONE swooned over except him ), and each time he says, "This tastes great, but the texture's just not like the one in Greece," which according to him was "almost like carrot cake" in texture. I do vaguely remember looking at that cake and thinking it looked to me like a somewhat rustic version of lemon-poppyseed cake only minus the poppyseeds--moister and shaggier than usual, definitely not a fine delicate crumb. No frosting, though there might've been a light glaze. I don't know if maybe they used liquid sweetener or oil or some kind of puree in it (though wouldn't those things shout down the lemon flavor?), or what. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[kramwest1]

Anyone have a recipe for a lemon cake with a large, moist crumb? I've been trying off-and-on for years to replicate a lemon cake my husband ate at a tiny village taverna in Greece during our honeymoon (not a Greek-style cake, more like a bundt cake) and it seems I can never get its texture quite right. Unfortunately I didn't eat any of said cake myself, and my husband's not good at describing texture, so I'm kind of shooting in the dark. All I know is I've tried lemon pound cake, lemon chiffon cake, lemon tealoaf cake, lemon layer cake, lemon-poppyseed cake, and lemon bundt cake (which EVERYONE swooned over except him ), and each time he says, "This tastes great, but the texture's just not like the one in Greece," which according to him was "almost like carrot cake" in texture. I do vaguely remember looking at that cake and thinking it looked to me like a somewhat rustic version of lemon-poppyseed cake only minus the poppyseeds--moister and shaggier than usual, definitely not a fine delicate crumb. No frosting, though there might've been a light glaze. I don't know if maybe they used liquid sweetener or oil or some kind of puree in it (though wouldn't those things shout down the lemon flavor?), or what. Anyone have any ideas?

Sorry, no. But OMG that made me hungry for lemon stuff. Love it all!

 

[yolland]

Well, if you like bundt cakes...that one was the biggest hit in my quest thus far. For flavoring ideas, I basically followed the "Ultra-Lemon Cake" recipe in Lisa Yockelson's Baking by Flavor--didn't use her exact batter, but the cake itself is flavored with lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon extract and lemon-scented sugar, then doused with a juice-and-extract-flavored soaking syrup, then a standard juice-and-powdered-sugar pouring glaze over the top. I also saved some of the leftover peel, candied it, and sprinkled it over the top to pretty it up a little. It was very flavorful, and I'm sure anyone who likes bundt cakes and lemon flavors would really like it.

 

[arw]

it probably had yogurt in it. So if you have a recipe that calls for sour cream you could replace it and see if that helps. The cake also could have had honey in it as well.

 

[arw]

^ maybe use self raising flour and add a teaspoon of baking powder?

self rising flour is all purpose flour with baking powder already added to it so you wouldn't need to try both, just one.

 

[Purplereign]

self rising flour is all purpose flour with baking powder already added to it so you wouldn't need to try both, just one.

it is - and I've added a little extra baking powder for more air in scones before and it's worked a treat - have to be careful not to overdo it or it can go a little pear shaped

and ditto to drooling over all that lemony goodness above Y-U-M

 

[mama cass]

i made scones for some French friends one time - i was making them an "English cream tea", only i ended up rushing and stupidly used plain flour instead of self-raising, and they turned out like little lumps of lead - i was gutted! i whizzed up another batch with self-raising flour while my friends were arriving, and one of them picked up one of the failed ones i'd put aside, bit into it, chomped away and made encouraging noises lol and i was like nooooooo they're not meant to be like that haha - the other ones turned out lovely and she then realised how they were meant to be!

one thing with scones is you only need to knead very lightly - i mix with a knife first, and then barely knead, roll out to about an inch thick, then cut out, and they turn out lovely and light - overkneading will definitely make them rock hard as i have also found out lol!!!

 

[bono_212]

I had that new "Western BBQ" sandwich at BK the other day (its a burger with BBQ and Onion Rings on it) and it was surprisingly good, so decided to try and replicate it at home. I used a hickory BBQ sauce with french fried onions and added pickles. They were soooo good.

 

[Rachel D.]

There's nothing like hot dogs cooked over a fire on a nice October evening.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

pictures or it didn't happen.

 

[Rachel D.]

It was too dark for pictures. Sorry.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I thought for a second you were making some play-on-porn joke there... with this being food porn and whatnot. And hot dogs. And it being too graphic.

... and now I realize you meant it was too dark outside.

 

[mama cass]

oh dear...

 

[Rachel D.]

I thought for a second you were making some play-on-porn joke there... with this being food porn and whatnot. And hot dogs. And it being too graphic.

... and now I realize you meant it was too dark outside.

I was really and truly talking about actual hot dogs that were cooked over a fire outdoors at night.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any naughty misinterpretations that may arise thereby.

Spoiler

 

[mama cass]

i just made a fig and frangipane tart - i tweaked a Jamie Oliver recipe and oh god it is amazing! the blend of flavours is sooooo good! it is really light and refreshing, combined with winter warmth, perfect for autumn...

we had lots of figs in the garden this year, so i tried freezing some, with this recipe in mind, and tonight i finally had a go at making it - i halved the quantities as i had no idea what it would be like, so it was a bit of an experiment, but i'm meant to be making a pud tomorrow for friends, so am definitely going to make it again!

 

[TARDIS]

guys: one word.

NUTELLA
food of the gods

 

[Rachel D.]

I like Nutella, but I never know what to put it on. It's pretty good on toast, but it has cocoa in it and I have trouble accepting the idea of chocolate toast. It's like a confusing fusion of peanut butter and cake frosting, but yet it tastes like hazelnuts. It boggles the mind!

 

[Dfit00]

Try it on croissants - a dream.

 

[mama cass]

Nutella is best spread on freshest French baguette - i tried it for the first time 25 years ago on a trip to France, and it was a revelation lol! we used to fill the car up with Nutella and wine whenever we went to France, but i've just noticed Nutella ads on UK tv so it looks like people are finally starting to discover it... we have giant jars of it in the house, the kids love it! it's also really good on brioche too...

also, Ferrero Rocher chocolates are filled with Nutella - i love them!

 

[mama cass]

It's like a confusing fusion of peanut butter and cake frosting, but yet it tastes like hazelnuts. It boggles the mind!

but it is hazelnuts

 

[mama cass]

also - Nutella crepes - now that is heavenly!! it's my favourite street food whenever i'm in Paris! nutella and banana crepes are pretty heavenly too! it's so nice standing there on the street in the freezing cold while your crepe is being made right there in front of you and you get to eat it straightaway

you just make your pancake/crepe, flip it, then when it's done on both sides, still on the heat spread it with Nutella, then quickly fold it into quarters and then fold again and tuck in! actually i think Nutella crepes are the best way to eat Nutella - even better than baguette or brioche... you have to try it!

 

[TARDIS]

I never put it on anything. I just eat it out of the jar.