How do you make a cup of hot chocolate drink so that it's sweet and thick and maintains the chocolate taste?  I haven't been able to make anything acceptable by melting chocolate, adding sugar, milk or water. At best it tasted like crude cocoa drink. My cooking skills are very low, so please describe every step thoroughly.
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I've been trying to make a thicker hot chocolate and I'm not sure what to add without taking away from the flavor of the chocolate. Usually what I do is boil the milk, and then I add chocolate baking powder and shaved chocolate.
57299
I decided I would make baked beans for a BBQ at my MIL's this past weekend. I've never made baked beans but decided that it was time since I love them so much! I found a recipe for Southern Baked Beans (using Navy beans). It was from a food blog.   During the description/commentary of the dish the blogger said they could be made with dried beans but she uses canned to save time. The recipe only mentioned canned beans. I couldn't find anything to tell me the ratio canned:dried beans so I decide a 1:1 ratio would be good. After putting a 24oz bag of beans in a cake pan (the recipe called for 32oz canned beans), I decided that was A LOT of beans so didn't add the remaining 8oz. I rinsed them first then soaked them for 15-18 hours. I rinsed them again and put them in a pot with the rest of the ingredients.   The recipe said to bake them at 350 for about 40 minutes and they should be done. After an hour and a temperature increase to 400, the beans weren't anywhere close to being done. At this point I decided they were probably very old beans. :( I moved them to the stove after another 30 minutes. They boiled on the stove for another 1 1/2 hours and were still rock hard (I kept adding water so they wouldn't boil dry - and this was on medium to medium-low heat).   We left the beans at my MIL's and she cooked them "off and on" (her words) the next day and declared they were done. They are not done. :(  Now that they've been cooked then refrigerated then cooked then refrigerated again, can I attempt to salvage them? I've read that adding 1/8 tsp baking soda per cup of beans will soften them. Is it too late to try this - add the beans, more water, and a small amount of baking soda and cook them a little more? I've put so much effort into these stupid beans I can't just give up! LOL
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So, I just was trying to get back into blender, and I made .  Unfortunately, this cup has some issues right at the bottom of the inside, and I can't figure out why.  You can download the blend file .  And just for good measure, here is a screenshot of the problem.
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I found a small bag of raw un-roasted peanuts, around 200 grams, in my cupboard. Any idea how can I roast these peanuts in my convection microwave oven? Would appreciate if some one can add suggestions :-)
27230
I haven't done this for a very long time. I am following , which conveniently fits perfectly into a little hack-job of containers I already had. (Related: ) @Athanasius' answer to that question led me to what I'm doing with this batch. At this point I feel pretty comfortable with it:    The two containers are identical, and I have a few inches of water in the top container so that it weighs down the cabbage in the lower container. It seems to be working pretty sweet. I'm three days in and it's starting to smell like something is happening. There is a funk in the air.  So far so good.  Now I am dying to stir it...to do something! Everything I have read (including Athanasius' answer) suggests that in a less awesome container I might have to stir, but now I don't necessarily have to do anything but scoop off scum which has yet to appear.  That's killing me.  Is there a reason not to stir? Will stirring offer any benefit?
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I've been trying a simple recipe I found on the internet, which is a simple recipe consisting mostly of gelatin.  The problem is that the end result is basically just a fruit-flavoured jelly (Jell-O?), rather than the more chewy gummy-bears (Haribo) style of jelly confectionery.  Can anyone suggest what I need to do to make them less springy and more chewy.  It's all difficult to articulate!  Here's what I used for the first test-batch:   12 tbsp sugar 12/3 cup fruit juice 8 tbsp Golden Syrup 8 tbsp gelatin   soften the gelatin in 1/2 cup of cold water. place sugar, syrup and the juice in a pan and gently heat until sugar dissolves. Stir in the gelatin and stir until dissolved. Pour into moulds and wait until set.    Thanks
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I made a some pies a couple of days ago. The recipe called for cornstarch and it thicken the filling after it came out of the oven. The only thing is I could taste a bit of the cornstarch when I was eating the pies. I would just use less of it but I am afraid of making my pies to runny without the cornstarch.   Is there an alternative to cornstarch to thicken the pie filling or should I just use less and hope I still use enough?
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I am looking to understand the nature of how binders work.   I made patties the other day. A potato, two carrots, a can of black beans, a bit of bread crumbs. It blended to a decent grainy slush and fried up nicely.   Then I tried a sweet potato, broccoli, and chick peas. The mixture felt right, but it did not hold together when I tried to cook it up, either in a pan or baking it. (Although, my vegan daughter said the taste was great, so I was on to something)  Is there a process vegan cooks use to (a) choose the right mix of ingredients that need no special binder or (b) is there a decent universal binder that works within reason when the other ingredients are chosen right?
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Is there any way to add pasta to soup without the pasta doubling in size and getting mushy in the fridge later.I've even tried putting uncooked pasta in with the same result.
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When I vacuum seal chicken pieces, freeze them, and then thaw them again, there is always a small amount of liquid in the bag after the thaw. When this liquid hits hot oil, it forms a crispy, airy puff that is absolutely delicious. I'm trying to figure out what the liquid is, and how I can extract more of it, so that I can make crispy fried chicken liquid for garnishes.
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When I melt 16 oz of chocolate I add 4 oz of oil how long can I keep this and how should it be stored. Someone said something about botulism ??
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I know there's dozen of posts and discussion everywhere, but I'm getting pretty confused. Everyone has something different to say : use rapeseed oil, coconut, olive oil, flaxseed, someone in the oven, someone on the stove.. I found two good videos, made by professional people, but they use a different process to season them:   and   The eggs are moving much better in the second video than any of my non stick pans, and I would like to obtain that result, and possible mantain it, without removing the seasoning.  Which one do you recon works better? I also have an electric stove, so it may be better using the oven instead.   My knowledge is never to wash them under the water. Just remove the sticky stuff using a spatula, put some oil to keep them well and if you need use salt and a paper towel to scrub. I read that someone is deglazing using some water in the process, or scrub them with a a brush under the water (My old chef told me never to do that so.. I'm a bit confused)  I am seeking help from the experts... :)
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I would like to make the dense&amp;soft bread like the bottom one and the taste is plain not sweet. What techniques will make bread closer to the one I want? I also want it to be chewy, not just soft.
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I remembered everything else, it taste fine but a little bland. Even though i already cooked it, is there anything I can do to make it taste better?
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I am tinkering with my stock recipes.   For pork stock I have been using 8 cups of water over a roasted trotter, a roasted backbone section with about 4 inches of rib attached, and a 1/4 inch slab of roasted pork belly.   For the beef stock I have been using 8 cups of water over an equivalent amount of roasted beef bones (knuckles and backbone/rib).   This gives a very flavorful stock and, for cost reasons, I want to determine how much I can reduce the concentration (by adding more water) without reaching too watery a taste.   Does anybody have any guidance on this topic?
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I want to make plain dark chocolate at home.   The process is tricky in my experience, not simply mixing cocoa, cocoa butter, milk powder, sugar, etc.  Can you share some practical tips for doing the process and choosing the right ingredients.
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I was wondering if I could get some advice as I have intolerances to yeast and have heard of a few substitutions from: baking soda, baking powder, lemon juice, milk and yogurt. The question comes to how do I measure these into bread or baking to make whatever I am making rise? I have heard that in the middle east they rarely use yeast for bread baking and their bread still rises. I just don't know the proper measurements I would use, if a bread recipe calls for 1 or 2 packets of yeast and mixing them in water do you mix one tsp of baking soda and 1 tsp of lemon juice in together?   If you can give me any advice on this that would be greatly appreciated, thanks.