Rouxbe

You can't make ice cream without an electric ice cream maker or old-fashioned manual machine. The hand-crank manual machines are usually more expensive and require lots of ice and rock salt for success. As you begin to freeze the ice cream base, it is vital to incorporate air at the same time. Churning gives ice cream its fluffy texture and smooth mouth feel. Without churning, you'll wind up with a solid, dense mass with poor texture.

The amount of baking soda used in a recipe is just enough to neutralize the acids present in the recipe. If more leavening power is required, baking powder can be added – not more baking soda. Too much baking soda will cause a soapy taste. However, both used in excess can give bad flavor, texture, and color to baked goods, so just be careful when tweaking recipes.

This dough is a type of shortcrust. Shortcrusts are known for their medium to high proportion of fat to flour, and also have low moisture content. It is important to work quickly and not over-work the dough, or you may wind up with a greasy crust.

This dough is classified as a flaky dough. All ingredients should be as cold as possible and the dough should not be overworked. The individual parcels of butter make this crust very flaky.

We suggest in this recipe that the beans be cooked for approximately 5-7 minutes (the eggs are the ones that are simmered for 8 minutes). It all depends on how thick or thin your beans are, but most definitely cook them to your liking. There are no strict rules here. Enjoy this lovely salad!

It's actually ok to transfer Pyrex from the freezer to the oven. According to the Pyrex website, "PYREX® glassware products can go directly from refrigerator or freezer to a microwave, convection, or preheated conventional oven."

It's fine to use a standing mixer, just be careful not to over-mix/whip and incorporate too much air. This could form unattractive air bubbles on the surface of your cake. Too much air could also make the cheesecake fall during baking.

We have updated this recipe to include Imperial measurements. It is recommended, however, to use a scale whenever you are making dough or pastry. It is better to weigh flour, rather than to measure it by volume. If you pack the flour into the measuring cup, you may use way more than the recipe calls for, and you'll alter the formula in the recipe. Even the humidity in the environment can affect whether or not the flour will be lighter or heavier.

A scale, preferably digital, will give you precise measurements and will help to ensure a successful recipe. Great baking is all about having the correct formula, so the more accurate you can be, the more consistent your result will be.

We are busy working on launching the cooking school, but a conversion tool will soon be added - we promise! Happy baking!

Generally, liquids should be measured by volume and solids should be measured by weight. Here's a link describing the many reasons why one would invest in a kitchen scale: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/82/Kitchen-Scales

You can certainly use a stand mixer with a dough hook or a food processor to mix the dough. However, if you haven’t worked with a lot of dough, it’s great to get your hands dirty and do it by hand. This way, you’ll learn how the dough feels during each of the stages it goes through. You’ll also begin to understand how gluten develops in the dough, and how it becomes smooth and elastic. Once you’ve done it by hand a few times and know what it should look and feel like, you could, if you really wanted to, move on to a mixer.

Using a stand mixer, in my opinion, doesn’t save you that much time. Either way, the dough needs to be kneaded well – the mixer will just save you energy. If you do choose to use a mixer for the dough, put it at a setting that would match the speed of you kneading it by hand. Faster isn’t always better. It’s difficult to over knead dough by hand, but in a mixer, it may start to become wet again if really overworked.

Just try making it by hand. It’s quite therapeutic and satisfying!

When a recipe calls for dry yeast, you'll need to double the amount when substituting fresh yeast. For this recipe, you'll need 20 grams of fresh yeast (I would use a scale for measuring fresh yeast). You don't have to use the sugar, but this amount doesn't hurt the recipe. Just break up the fresh yeast a bit and mix all of the ingredients together as the video shows. You'll work it into the dough when mixing and kneading it.

For this recipe, canned pumpkin is highly recommended. There are many great brands available, and they tend to have a more concentrated flavor. If you choose to use fresh pumpkin, you'll need to make sure most of the water is extracted after cooking it. If the pumpkin puree is too wet, it will alter the recipe and it may not set. If you do use fresh pumpkin and it works out for you, we'd be happy to hear about it. Hope this helps.

We're happy you enjoyed the fries!

When making fries, it's best to soak the potatoes prior to cooking. Soaking removes some of the surface sugar from the potato and will give it a delicate, crispy crust. Cold water is often used, however, it's fine to use hot water to speed up the process.

If you click on "Text Recipe", we often add these extra bits of information in the Notes section at the bottom of the page.

Be careful on how much "guppy" espresso you use. The amount of water in it can affect the final texture of the ice cream, and may give it a more crystal-like texture (rather than creamy). For a richer and creamier texture, the infusing the cream with espresso beans are the way to go, since no water is altering the formula.

In the video, we used a 2-quart (model:ICE-30BC) from Cuisinart: http://www.cuisinart.com/catalog/category.php?cat_id=10, however, the ICE-20 works just fine. I personally own one of these and quite like it.

Our recipe is not formulated to be used with artificial sweeteners, such as Splenda. Without adjusting the formula, artificial sweeteners cannot substitute sugar 1:1. They just don't contain the same properties.

Since we do not use artificial sweeteners in our Test Kitchen, perhaps you can contact the manufacturer to obtain replacement guidelines. We tried looking on Splenda's website for a brulee recipe, but didn't find one. However, if you search online for "creme brulee made with Splenda", you'll find quite a few recipes. Hope that helps. Good luck!

It's absolutely fine to substitute the entire amount of bread flour and semolina flour with all-purpose flour. You'll still get fantastic results.

Bread flour contains higher protein content than all-purpose flour and is preferred by some when making yeast breads. The higher the protein content in flour, the more gluten can be developed when kneading, which is what gives strength and chewy textures to dough. All-purpose flour works just fine.

A combination of whole-wheat bread flour and all-purpose flour will work in this recipe. However, when substituting whole-wheat flour in place of white flour, it can result in a heavier and denser texture. The total amount of flour used in this recipe is 500 grams. Start by trying 200 grams of whole wheat flour and 300 grams of all-purpose flour and see how you like it. Bump it up to 250 grams of each, but don’t use any more whole-wheat flour than that. The texture just won't be the same.

(Just fyi…You can find the protein content of flour in the nutritional section on the package. Bread flour is often around 13.5% protein content (great for breads), while all-purpose flours range between 9-11% (a good general flour for most baking). This is why bakers often use cake flour when making lighter products. Cake flour contains around 8.5% protein content and is a good choice when you want the end result to have a delicate texture.)

The risk of contracting a food-borne illness or salmonella from raw eggs is quite low. However, if you are concerned about this risk, a safer alternative is to purchase pasteurized eggs.

Other things to keep in mind with mayonnaise: keep it cold at all times, try to only make the amount that you will immediately use, and store any leftovers for no more than a day or two in the refrigerator.

Hi Francesca,

We haven't included a puff pastry recipe here yet. Puff pastry takes a bit of time to make properly, which most people don't have time for. You can usually buy good puff pastry at quality bakeries and grocery stores. It comes frozen, so you'll just have to thaw it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.

In the upcoming Rouxbe Cooking School, we'll be teaching people how to make their own puff pastry, so stay tuned.

This soup is amazing and is a favorite at our house. Served with a light salad and some crusty bread, it makes a perfect dinner. I'm already looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch.

Yes, it's easy to make vanilla ice cream from this recipe. The best way to get great vanilla flavor is to replace the coffee beans with one whole, fresh vanilla bean. Split the bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Put everything in the pot and go through the same process to infuse the vanilla bean into the milk and cream. You'll wind up with gorgeous specks of vanilla throughout the ice cream.

If you don't have a fresh vanilla bean, simply stir in 2-3 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract into the anglaise while it's cooling in the ice bath. Have fun!

Post your questions here. We'll do our best to help you out.

I love all kinds of fruit. Sometimes I cut up strawberries, mangoes, bananas, and apples and pour fresh orange juice over top for a delicious fruit salad. My husband makes yummy smoothies too with frozen bananas, strawberries, vanilla yogurt, and a splash of orange juice.

Right now, I am addicted to beef chilaquiles with salsa verde from a local restaurant, Salsa and Agave. They are so fresh and full of flavor. The tart salsa verde and the gooey cheese and sour cream....mmmmmm It's to die for!

My least favorite ingredient is white pepper. To me, it has an awful, dusty smell and flavor. Even though it’s good for preventing specks in sauces, I can’t get myself to use it.

Thanks for the catch, Judi. We just updated the text recipe to be more specific. Can't wait to hear how you like it! It's delicious!

Hi Dave,

Yes, smashing garlic will crush the cells in the garlic and definitely release more flavor. The finer you cut or mince garlic, the stronger the flavor will be. This is why we often émincé (thinly slice) garlic in many dishes, as the thin slices add a subtle flavor and not permeate the whole dish. You can prepare garlic a variety of ways; it's just up to you how strong you want the garlic flavor to be.

Hi Judi,

The recipe has just been updated to be more clear. Use the hot red chili flakes. They give this recipe just a bit of heat. Use more or less to your liking.

Hi Jackie,

Small stainless-steel inserts can be found at restaurant supply stores and most of these stores will sell to the general public. Larger, longer inserts are often referred to as 'hotel pans'. These pans are used in professional kitchens and are quite handy. You may have spotted them being used in buffets and salad bars.