Frostings, What Is Your Favorite?

[mixfinder]

German's Chocolate Frosting

In a heavy saucepan combine
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup evaporated milk
3 egg yolks
dash of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cookover medium low heat stirring constantly until mixture coats the back of a spoon. Don't boil. Remove from heat and stir in
2 cups Angel Flake Coconut
1 cup chopped Pecans or Walnuts

 

[danemodsandy]

Noooooooooooooo, Kelly!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

[gyrafoam]

Hey Kelly,

What happens if one substitutes flour for the cornstarch in the French Buttercream (which is what I do with great results)?
What is the recipe for the Italian version?

 

[polkanut]

Here is an old family favorite for chocolate cake, or brownies.

1 cup white sugar
5 tbsp. butter
1/3 cup milk
Boil for 1 minute. Stir in 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. Spread or drizzle at once while cake is still warm.

 

[gizmo]

ganache

I make a flourless chocolate, date and walnut cake at work. I ice it with a dark chocolate ganache.

250 ml cream
400 grams dark chocolate, chopped

In a small saucepan place a cup (250 ml) of cream. (not double cream, it's too fatty.) Don't use a very heavy pan, you don't want it to store too much heat.
Bring to the boil. Remove from heat and add the chopped up chocolate and stir through. There should be enough residual heat in the cream and in the pan to melt the chocolate. keep stirring till all the chocolate is melted, it should be completely smooth and creamy with no lumps of chocolate at all.

Allow to cool till it is starting to thicken up a bit. it will cool faster at the edges of the bowl so stir occasionally to even up the temperature. When it its thickened up but still glossy and pourable, spread about half over the cake. place the rest into a mixer bowl, place in the fridge to thicken further till the mixture has a matte (not glossy) appearance. Whip up in your Kenwood Chef or inferior substitute(!) mixer, till it is pale in colour and fluffy. Place the whipped ganache in an icing bag (frosting bag??) with a star nozzle and pipe peaks of whipped ganache around the edge of your iced (frosted?) cake. Try to space then so one portion of cake gets one swirl of whipped ganache.

 

[mixfinder]

Flour or Cornstarch

French Buttercreme is dairy based (pudding) and Italian Buttercreme is egg based (meringue). Our German exchange student pronounced it mare-in-gay. I use flour if I am not adding eggs and cornstarch if eggs are added. Cornstarch gelatinizes at lower temperatures but is unstable if overcooked. Items will thicken and then become thin. When eggs are added extended cooking can cause the protiens in the egg to seize producing a curdled look. Flour takes longer to gelatanize and at higher tempratures so it is more stable for gravies or sauces that are held for longer periods of time. Flour has a heavier somewhat pasty taste so for purity of flavor I opt for cornstarch with seafood, poultry or fruit and citrus and flour for the heavier flavors like beef or chocolate. Personally I like the French buttercreme with eggs better but in the back of mind the niggling fear of single handedly wiping out the family from salmonella makes me opt for flour based if it goes to a potluck or a friend.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I usually buy either Pillsbury, Duncan Hines, or Betty. Sometimes (on rare occasions), I will make it from scratch from a recipe in the Hershey cookbook. I love cream cheese frosting the best, followed by chocolate.