alanamoana

i also ask...all your gumpastes, fondants, etc. are made without gelatin?

if you're concerned about flavor development and don't want to commit to a sourdough starter, you can always use the old dough method that devlin mentioned above. save some of the dough from the batch you've just made and use that to start your dough the next day. this way, you don't even need to worry about the biga. a more experienced baker (anyone?) can explain proportions, etc.

i can also add that most people don't bake things long enough. the pasty, pale pastries that most people consider done are miles away from being finished. color is flavor (until it is burnt, of course). when working with puff pastry and pate a choux especially, most people don't bake until thoroughly "dried" out. my rule of thumb is that no oven bakes perfectly and no oven is truly accurate...so i compensate: start off with a high temp to get color and lower the tempt to finish baking. always rotate from front to back and top to bottom at least once during baking. chefpeon, i'm one of those instructors..."chef, how long do i bake this?"..."until it is done"...i try to give my students several ways to test whether something is done: sight, touch, toothpick, some indicator specific to the recipe. it's better than having every one of my students asking me one hundred times a class whether something is baked or not! especially with every one of them opening the oven door a dozen times per item. rob, this still doesn't discount your conspiracy theory though!

nakji, could those be daikon sprouts? they tend to be nice and peppery...

This is from the White Lily website. I would also recommend maybe using a blend of White Lily and ap flour to get the benefits from both. If you need some structure, but also want lightness or delicateness.

i wouldn't use it for just any baking. white lily is a cake flour, correct (like swan's down?)? if so, then it should have a much lower protein level than all purpose. it is good for things that don't need a lot of structure...like sponge cake, shortbread, etc. but i wouldn't use it if you're looking for structure because you need the added protein that all purpose flour has.

Your butter should be room temperature (not melted) before mixing for two reasons: 1) It will incorporate much better. All ingredients should be of the same consistency for best mixing. 2) It won't cause the chocolate to cool and form chunks. Let your butter sit out next time and you should see a marked improvement. ← i'll add to davidj's comments with: butter is an emulsion, so is ganache. keeping it in emulsion is important. when you melt butter, it separates. best to do it as he said and have it soft but not melted.

Once it is sold, can you remove it? I know, I know, probably not. But can you at least make it easier to work with from the perspective of adding ingredients (without it running along the cage edge and out?) with the mixer running? ← i realize this is an old post but... i used wire cutters and removed a couple of the wires on the cage to make my own hole to add ingredients. the cage can be removed for cleaning, but there are magnets or some other contacts that will keep the machine from turning on if the cage is removed.

i still temper as that was the way i was taught, but i don't think it makes a huge difference if you are careful enough. besides, for the most part, i strain all my custard bases through a chinois to avoid chunks of chalazae or cooked egg. i think with the bitterness, is there a way to process the fruit so that you can avoid this? like when one candies citrus skin, you blanch several times in several changes of water to get rid of bitterness. can you peel the fruit, and do the insides fresh for brightness of flavor and blanch the skins and pith to avoid bitterness? poach the whole fruit? particularly with grapefruit...it tends to be the most bitter of the citrus.

i would avoid the cuisinart. they are not known for stand mixers, so i certainly wouldn't buy a first generation stand mixer from them. i agree with some of the posters that the kitchen aid, while a work horse, isn't really meant for breads. i usually have to start the mixing on the mixer and finish it by hand as the dough hook is very inefficient. cakes, cookies, etc. kitchen aid all the way... i think the other options out there are (what andiesenji mentioned) better for bread doughs.

i don't live in manhattan anymore...did they close all of the fauchon locations there? i know for a while, they left the park avenue location open...but for some reason, i think that closed as well...anybody know? at any rate, if they closed, where is florian?

i think the problem the op is worried about is justified...remember in the antipodes, our winter is their summer (and vice versa), so regardless of when they order, the weather on one end or the other might not be ideal for shipping. i would really consider what the second poster mentioned and try to order from a local distributor. that way, you're guaranteed a decent product. the con would be a limited choice in patterns/colors. pcb is a good company, they happen to have (in my opinion) a monopoly on good design for transfer sheets. but, as mentioned, their shipping prices are a pain. in the usa this is a problem now because of the weak dollar. it wasn't so in the past. good luck with your ordering! edited to add: in a more direct response to your question, they don't specify differences in shipping costs based on season. it is a sort of "order at your own risk" kind of policy. also, they don't pack in any sort of insulated or specialized packaging. if you're ordering for a business, you might be able to order in bulk which might warrant more/better packaging. i've only ordered small quantities from them at a time. of course, you can always call them. it can be a pain. e-mailing them is a relatively futile experience. the europeans are woefully behind when it comes to internet (international) commerce.

Did you warm the lemons? If you put them whole into the microwave for about 25 seconds, one at a time, you will find you get a lot more juice. I almost always need less lemons than the recipe calls for to get the juice. ← yes, damn near burned my hands doing so. Ever get a lemon with about a 1/2 inch of pith?? ← any citrus fruit you pick should be heavy for its size. these will usually yield more juice than what appears to be a big lemon but is very light for its size.

you will also need to know how to temper chocolate as these are both made using tempered chocolate. there are demos on tempering linked in the baking and pastry index if you take a look. with the cigarettes, it is more about timing than anything else. with the chocolate plaques, it is about practicing getting a thin layer of chocolate on the acetate or transfer sheet. if you want to practice with the plaques, you can use candy melts or coating compound which will take a transfer very well. i don't know how well this stuff works for cigarettes.

i personally love gift certificates... ecookbooks.com (a.k.a. Jessica's Biscuit) is a cookbook site that you can give a gift card too. $25 gives you free shipping... anything from J.B. Prince would be appreciated. i love things like copper cookie cutters in fun shapes/sizes. there are tons of things for around $20-$25 that a pastry cook would appreciate. you don't have to go overboard. sur la table gift card...and they get a discount if they are an industry person...so the dollar goes farther.

depends on what kind of bread you're baking. if you're baking a lean dough that requires steam, i wouldn't use the convection feature. enriched breads like brioche, challah and the like are okay to bake using convection.

it is more of a food safety issue than a performance issue with buttercreams. depending on how the egg product is processed in making the recipe, will affect how long you can keep it at room temp. i would say that swiss meringue buttercream and italian meringue buttercream are the most stable at room temp for long periods of time because during the process the egg whites are pasteurized. if you make your buttercream with pasteurized egg products, you would probably be able to keep them at room temperature longer than stated in the recipes. sometimes, however, the pasteurized products give you a different result. you'll have to experiment with that.

i've never done it, but i would consider lightly poaching them first in a spiced syrup, then putting them into a tatin

a lot of doughs discolor after a couple of days. when the flour sits with water/moisture it turns gray to green. not only is it oxidation but also enzyme activity which causes breakdown in the flour. so maybe more biodegradation than oxidation if that makes any sense. with choux, there's a much higher ratio of water to flour...so it must happen that much quicker.

if you're going to make the batter right before going over, then just put in the piping bag and walk over to your friend's house. if you're going to make the batter several hours before (i.e. before your matinee), then pipe and fridge or freeze them on trays and bring over to bake. either option is better than reheated!

canned asparagus? it just sounds yucky to me. it's probably the reason that so many people in the united states don't like certain vegetables when the only way they've eaten them is from a can.

you can also freeze the choux paste before baking...not as a huge blob, but piped out on a pan...then bake directly from frozen. depending on how far away your friend lives from you, this should work as well.

Rob, in order to get that really creamy almost marshmallow-y texture in italian meringue, there has to be a large amount of sugar to egg white. the sugar will prevent the italian meringue from setting up in the freezer enough for you to pop out of a mold. remember, with sorbets and ice creams, the higher the level of sugar, the softer it is when frozen. so, i don't know if you'll get a really clean look. if you do, post pics and let us know how you did it! this is the kind of meringue used in baked alaska...when frozen, it is still very soft.

about one half to one third of the fresh yeast by weight...so 1 oz of instant if the recipe calls for 2 oz of fresh. and please don't proof in warm liquid. if you want to dissolve the yeast in liquid, you can do so, but cold or straight from the cold tap. with any kind of yeast, be careful when you're putting it in contact with the full amount of sugar and liquid that the recipe calls for before adding it to the flour/dry items. this can give the yeast too much food to deal with and it can also cause it to either "blow its load" before mixing or it can sort of kill it off. if you need to, stir the instant yeast in with the water and honey, but mix it right away with the dry ingredients. i've never had any problems using instant and getting more than one fermentation from it.

grape pate de fruit would be nice too!