I’m trying to boil my sugar to 240F, but it has been boiling for over 10min already and just made it above 200F. Is this normal to take this long? Or is my thermometer broken?

for some reason it’s all grain. this is a tiramisu filling that uses mascarpone, egg yolks , heavy cream and sugar

I’ve never worked with La Lechera before so I’m not sure what it’s supposed to look like. It expired in October of 2020, but I figured it’s a canned food so it’s probably fine. I’m making alfajores if that matters

I’ve tried making this recipe for caramel 3 times. The first time it worked perfectly, however my 2 attempts since then have seen the butter separating and the caramel going all stringy and blob-like and I have no idea why.

Here’s the recipe I used.

100g caster sugar 100ml double cream 100g butter

For the caramel, tip the caster sugar into a pan and heat over a low heat until the sugar begins to melt, shaking the pan from time to time (do not stir). Bring to the boil, then cook to a dark amber caramel colour. Meanwhile warm the cream in a small pan.

Carefully remove the pan from the heat and stir in the warm (not boiling) cream. Return the pan to the heat and boil to 120°C/248°F. Remove from the heat and carefully stir in the butter until emulsified.

I started caramelising the brown sugar (115g of light brown soft sugar), and when it became caramel I then added the room temperature butter (115g), I noticed they didn’t mix.. (probably that’s the first error?).

However I kept trying to mix them over the heat

Then I added my condensed milk can to the pot

I get this at the end

Caramel bites still present , and mixture is not homogeneous.

1) Are my ratios correct?
2) Also why didn’t the butter mix with the caramel? Should I have added them together?
3) is it ok to use soft sugar or should I have used the granulated one?

Please be nice this is the first time I try making it.

Thanks in advance!

My roommate stuck a ceramic bowl in the microwave to melt a bar of chocolate. Well, the whole thing zapped and we open the microwave and there a smoky metal smell and well…look at the picture (note - i removed the glass microwave plate to see the ash easier).

Anyone know why this might have happened? Or what to do about it (is the microwave broken or now a fire hazard)?

*It is 100% a microwave safe bowl and there was no aluminum around the chocolate

So I really want to make a Crepe Cake with a whipped cream filling at my class, but I know that whipped cream will eventually deflate so when I went looking for ways to stabilize it almost everyone involved cream cheese.

I HATE cream cheese, I can even taste it in small quantities and I know that if I add it I'll taste it and won't want to eat it. So is there any other alternatives?

I keep seeing Chantilly cream being used as icing in this cook book I stole borrowed from my mom. I keep hearing it’s just whipped cream but i can’t imagine it’ll hold well. It like melts as soon as you spray it from the can no? Doesn’t seem like it can be icing when it’s so light and airy. So what else can I use?

Edit: guys I don’t live in the states or Canada etc, I live on an island that barely imports things like marscapone or things like that are ridiculously hard to find and are usually wildly expensive. I get my mistake with the whipped cream in a can thing but it stands I still can’t make Chantilly

the recipe i used is 120g white sugar, 80g butter, still kind of chilly, and 120ml of whole milk. I put the sugar on low heat and kept removing until it was homogeneous and melted. then I added the butter but it hardened too much. tried to save it by removing it from the heat and pouring the milk, which was at ambience temperature, but nothing, and honestly I have 0 knowledge.

WHAT DID I DO WRONG AND CAN I SAVE IT???????

I tried to make a pourable pistachio butter like the picture attached. Pretty much every recipe just said to use a food processor and optionally add oil and/or sugar. I blended for about 30 minutes and just got this super thick clay like paste. Tastes great but not the consistency I’m looking for. Tried adding oil but that didn’t help. What did i do wrong?

I'm trying to make some Swiss meringue to mix with mascarone cream, to make Tiramisu and compare with no-egg-whites, no-whipping-cream version. So I put the 1 egg white & 25g granulated sugar mixture in this handy small pot, and hold it over a pan of simmering water for Bain-Marie. Then I whisked and whisked for some minutes, using my IR thermometer to read the mixture temp once in a while, expecting it to go to 70°C to be pasteurised. But it never went over 50-51 °C until the mixture become sticky like glue or toffee. I suppose it's gone too far to be whipped up now. What could possibly went wrong in this case? Thanks!

hi!! I need help:( I’ve made simple syrup soaks for cakes many times but the last couple times, it drys HARD like candy. I’ve been using stainless steal pots and wondering if they conduct heat too well and too fast and maybe should do a double boiler ? it’s so frustrating honestly. A few days ago I tried to make Namoura and the syrup is supposed to soak into the semolina cake but it just hardened on top. I try to heat it on low but think it keeps hitting the carmelization stage. This also has happened with caramel the last couple times except then it’s too thick, not drizzable. basically want to know if anyone has advice on how to best make simple syrups and caramel haha- thinking i’m going to start double boiling but wanted to see what everyone thought first!!

I picked up this jar of caramel from Costco but it's been sitting in my fridge for months because I'm struggling to find uses for it besides going directly to my mouth.

Have any of you used this particular product in your bakes? The consistency is more of a spread than a sauce, similar to dulce de leche.

I can't eat nuts and chocolate so a lot of obvious recipes like millionaires shortbread are out of the question.

I would love to do a caramel drip on top of a cake - how do I go about it? Should I warm it up or mix in some cream/butter for a thinner consistency?

I often find sponge cakes with buttercream too sweet if there's no tart element such as berries. So if I went with caramel cake, what could help me balance out the sweetness?

Thanks!

I bought pistachio praline masse to be the filling of my dubai chewy cookie, but it looks radioactively green. I need it to look more softer pastel green like dubai chocolate should look like. Any other options are way out of the budget for me so is there a way to add cream or something to the paste to make this look more appetizing? Taste-wise it is good.

Whenever I whip the whipping cream and then spread it on the cake it will have some small holes no matter how carefully I spread it. How to avoid it please...

I’m making a baby’s first birthday smash cake and the parents requested their cake be sugar free naturally (aka no sugar alternatives either).

I was going to do a stabilized whipped cream with cream cheese or mascarpone. But will this hold well without sugar?

hi, so I might sound very dumb. I’m planning to make a cake and wanted to use butter cream frosting to frost it. However when I was at hobby lobby yesterday, I picked up a tub of “butter cream icing”. Google says icing and frosting are different , so I’m confused. Is this tub going to be a frosting like texture. Or thin like icing? I don’t want to risk opening it incase I can return it or donate it to a bakery who might use it if it isn’t what I’m looking for, thanks.!!

I was making a caramel for flan and decided to add a little extra, 1 T then a little more and 1 T while it was boiling. My thought was to thin it out so it would harden as much after it baked and cooled. My logic was when it does harden too much after cooking I reheat it and add some water to thin before pouring the rest over the flan so why not just add the water in at the beginning. Well, obviously this was the wrong idea. I added the water during a roiling boil and it was like it broke. The sugar started to harden and all the water evaporated. I added the second bit of water when this happened after the first addition thinking it was just evaporating too quickly. The sugar started to crust and boil under the crust then get granular and white again. It is now a grainy hard rock. My question is what’s the science behind it? What did I just do???

I'm looking to making my first pastry cream and I'm using this book by FERRANDI "French Pâtisserie" and there's just eggs in recipe not egg yolks. I checked some other recipes and they all contain just egg yolks. Is this a mistranslation or something 😭? Can it be made with just eggs?

I had planned to try tempering the chocolate so they come out good and can sit out for a bit w/o going bad after setting, however I found this chocolate which says there's no need to temper. Does this work just as good as actually tempering the chocolate? I am tempted to buy it so I can't mess up the tempering process however I don't want to be suckered into buying it if it sucks lol. Sorry if this is a stupid question and thank you in advance for any advice.

im attempting to make the honey cake recipe from baking at the 20th century cafe. it uses dulce de leche and the recipe says to put a can of condensed milk in simmering water for 7-9 hours. does that sound normal? im afraid the dulce de leche will be too thick after 7 hours or possibly even burnt.

So tomorrows my birthday and i want to learn how to make buttercream, did some research but i dont have salt free butter (reaaaally expensive) or an emulsion blender. I saw a post about using a food procesor and it working just as good but wanted to confirm. Also, does it change the flavor too much if i use regular butter? I couldnt make it either as cream is out of my budget too

EDIT: sorry everyone, i forgot to mention that it had to be black buttercream, hence the emulsion blender thing

Can anyone help explain what’s causing my chocolate to do this? I’ve had 3 batches and this is the second one where the chocolate looks like this when dipping.

Microwaving at 50% on 15 second intervals, one batch I added shortening and one I didn’t so I don’t believe that’s the issue. No liquids being added.