50 Terrific Nap Hacks Every College Student Should Know About

http://oedb.org/library/features/50_terrific_nap_hacks_every_college_student_should_know

brown sugar is a miracle :)

The six benefits of a brown sugar scrub described below are six reasons why you will love including brown sugar into your natural skin care recipe collection.

1 - Exfoliation

Brown sugar has tiny particles that provide just the right amount of texture to gently exfoliate the skin. Exfoliation, or the removal of dead skin cells from the skin, should be done on a regular basis. It is a process that makes skin look and feel healthier by improving skin circulation and riding it of toxins. Exfoliation also increases the production of collagen that gives skin its tone and elasticity.

2 - Smaller pores

Exfoliating the skin with a brown sugar scrub cleans and tightens pores giving the skin a more even uniform appearance; pores look smaller, skin tone more even. It can also diminish the damage to the skin caused by acne and other skin conditions. It eliminates fine lines and diminishes the signs of aging.

3 - Healthier skin

Sugar contains glycolic acid, an alpha-hydroxy acid an ingredient that keeps skin healthy. It moisturizes and conditions the skin while protecting it from the harmful effects of toxins. Using a brown sugar scrub improves your skin's ability to retain its natural moisture balance.

4 - Dry skin remedy

More benefits of brown sugar scrub come from brown sugar's property to be an excellent treatment for people who suffer from dry, itchy scalps. Using a scrub as a pre-treatment prior to shampooing can eliminate dandruff, moisturize the skin and ease itching and flaking. After a brown sugar scrub hair looks healthy and shiny.

5 - Soothing aromatherapy

The wonderful sweet smell of brown sugar provides a soothing aromatherapy. It is relaxing and a perfect addition to any spa treatment.

6 - Cheap

One of the wonderful benefits of using natural brown sugar as part of a beauty treatment is that it is cheap! It is one of the least costly ingredients you can include in a scrub. Add it to your other favorite skin care ingredients and you will have a perfect homemade skin care recipe to add to your collection.

You don't have to go to an expensive spa to treat yourself to a delicious homemade brown sugar scrub. Just go to your kitchen pantry where you keep your baking goods and pull out the brown sugar. Add it to one of your favorite scrub recipes and treat yourself to a healthful, relaxing scrub. For more sugar scrub information and recipes, visit our body scrubs recipes section. Your skin will look and feel great and you will be amazed and how relaxed and glowing you feel.


http://www.skin-care-recipes-and-remedies.com/benefits-of-brown-sugar-scrub.html


what is the purpose of cream of tartar in a recipe?

Cream of Tartar is an acidic ingredient without a lot of taste, and it's used (as you note) in helping to stiffen egg whites when beating, as well as helping to prevent crystallization in some sugary desserts.

Well, in a cookie recipe it's most likely that cream of tartar is paired with baking soda for leavening (i.e., creating bubbles and "lift" while baking).

Lemon Meringue pie

FOR THE PASTRY

  • 175g plain flour
  • 100g cold butter , cut in small pieces
  • 1 tbsp icing sugar
  • 1 egg yolk

FOR THE FILLING

  • 2 level tbsp cornflour
  • 100g golden caster sugar
  • finely grated zest 2 large lemon
  • 125ml fresh lemon juice (from 2-3 lemons)
  • juice 1 small orange
  • 85g butter , cut into pieces
  • 3 egg yolks and a 1 whole egg

FOR THE MERINGUE

  • 4 egg whites , room temperature
  • 200g golden caster sugar
  • 2 level tsp cornflour

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3482/ultimate-lemon-meringue-pie

Edible Clay

Pastillage

Pastillage is porous and dries more rigid and faster than the other edible modelling options. Many people confuse pastillage with gum paste but the real difference is that gum paste contains gum tragacanth to keep it flexible a little longer.

With pastillage, you must work very quickly but the end result is the most sturdy of the sugarcraft mediums. It dries the most rigid of all. It will also take on the least amount of humidity from surrounding features (such as buttercream.)


Gum Paste

Gum Paste is basically pastillage with gum tragacanth added, allowing more time to work before the creation hardens. It dries fairly rigid (less than pastillage but far more than fondant.)

Gum Paste dough is very soft and elastic (far more so than pastillage.) It can be rolled out very thin while pastillage cannot.

Fondant

Fondant is tastier and softer than the other edible clays. It holds its shape well, but will never harden completely. It remains maleable much longer than its counterparts and hardens only to a soft clay consistency.

Fondant is tastier and softer than the other edible clays. It holds its shape well, but will never harden completely. It remains maleable much longer than its counterparts and hardens only to a soft clay consistency.

fondant CAN be used to make flowers, bows, and even intricate figures, but they do not dry quite as hard or sturdy as gum paste and they lack the finesse and delicacy you can achieve with gumpaste. You can make your fondant act more like gumpaste by kneeding in about a cup of gum paste mix into a pound of rolled fondant. This will make it dry harder than it normally would.


Most professional bakers use fondant for covering cakes and making large decorations that will be eaten, and use gum paste for smaller, more intricate decorations. Fondant is found in the center of many candies, like chocolate buttercream-filled candy or the white part of a chocolate-covered cherry (a reaction with the cherry causes the fondant to liquefy a bit, making it runny.)

Sugar Paste

Sugar Paste is usually assumed to mean gum paste, but there are certainly people who use the term to mean fondant. Since gum paste and fondant have such striking differences, it's best to use these terms to avoid confusion.

Marzipan

Marzipan is a sweet paste made from ground almonds that makes a smooth frosting or decadent filling. Marzipan is pricier than the other edible clays on this page and is considered the tastiest of all. It's considered best for modeling shapes such as fruits and figures for candies and yummy, edible cake decorations.

The figures in the White House Gingerbread House are done with Marzipan because it is so easy to use and the results are very predictable.

Marzipan is frequently used to cover cakes (for its tastiness) along with a layer of fondant (for its smoothness and crisp, bright white color which is easy to turn into any color you desire) or a layer of chocolate. Marzipan is more porous than fondant or chocolate so it would be likely to dry out and become crusty if not covered with another material.

You can dye marzipan in batches or hand-paint the end result shapes (with food dyes of course.) Since it does not start out bright white, like fondant or gum paste, it does not take color quite as easily as the others.

Pulled, Blown & Cast Sugar

Cast, pulled, spun, poured, and blown sugar are the trickiest of the professional pastry chef techniques for intricate decorations. The process involves boiling a mixture of sugar, water, glucose, and cream of tartar, pouring it out onto a greased slab to cool slightly, and then pulling it out to form a glossy sheen. A heat lamp is used to keep the sugar flexible while working with it.

Pouring sugar is the same except that it's poured straight out of the pan into molds. You can purchase molds or cast your own out of plasticene, which is found in most hobby stores.

rose sugar showpiece


Blown sugar is similar except that a small tube is used to blow bubbles into the hot sugar mixture, very similar to glass blowing.

Sugar sculptures made with these techniques are quite impressive. Give it a try if you consider yourself more advanced, but be aware that it's common for newbies to burn themselves working with the hot sugar. Most gingerbread house decorations can be formed much more easily with the other techniques listed here.


http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/edible-clay.html

Nougatine slivers-

Nougatine Recipe

1 Cup + 2 Tbsp (9 oz) Extra fine granulated sugar 270 g
6 Tablespoons (3 oz) Water 90 g
¾ Cup (4 oz) Toasted almonds 120 g
½ (1/2) Seeds of half vanilla bean ½
1 Tbsp + 1 teaspoon (3/4 oz) Unsalted butter 20 g
pinch (pinch) Fleur de sel pinch
  1. Set aside a silpat and a rolling pin. If using a wooden rolling pin, butter it lightly. Not necessary if using a silicone rolling pin. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C)
  2. In a saucepan bring the sugar and water to a boil. Wash away any sugar crystals adhering to the side of the pan using a brush dipped in water. Additional water obtained in the pan from this process will not alter the final product.
  3. Cook to a golden caramel without stirring! (Stirring the mixture will make the mixture crystallize before it caramelizes!) Remove from heat, immediately add the toasted almonds, vanilla bean seeds, butter and fleur de sel. Stir to combine with a heat resistant or wooden spatula.
  4. Scrape the nougatine onto the silpat. Let sit for a few moments and then start gently rolling the nougatine into a thin sheet.
  5. If the nougatine hardens before it is sufficiently thin, keep it on the silpat and place it in the oven to slowly soften. Press with a finger to check if it is soft enough and then roll once more.
  6. When cold break into slivers. Temper chocolate of choice. Tempering chocolate can be found on this site.
  7. Dip the nougatine slivers into tempered chocolate using a chocolate fork. Store airtight.

http://www.chefeddy.com/2009/10/nougatine/

Gelatin


Gelatin is a protein produced by partial hydrolysis of collagen extracted from the boiled bones, connective tissues, organs and some intestines of animals such as domesticated cattle, pigs, and horses. Gelatin is an unusual protein whereas most normal proteins when heated respond by unfolding and bonding permanently to neighbouring proteins (aka coagulating for example poaching an egg), the proteins in gelatin respond to heat by releasing their bonds to each other. The unusually long protein chains in gelatin, when cold, bind to each other via a triple helix structure, which cross link with others to form a web. This web interferes with the movement of the water the gelatin is dispersed in, thus gelling the liquid into a solid.

Many things effect the final texture of a gelatin gelled liquid, particularly the manner in which it is cooled. The warmed liquid, necessary to release the proteins from their initial web and disperse them, is most often immediately placed in the refrigerator and cooled quickly. In doing this, the protein chains bond to each other immediately, and randomly, causing bulky and weak cross sections. By cooling the gelatin slowly, at room temperature, the proteins are allowed to mingle with each other, forming a tighter, more structured web which produces a superior mouth feel and texture.