alanamoana

as much as i love wybauw, i have to agree. i think a lot of it has to do with poor translation whereas the peter greweling book was written by a native english speaker in his own language being read by native english speakers. is anyone else disturbed by the photo opposite page 114 (cinnamon stacks)? we're always being warned that we need to make sure that our chocolates have no air, etc. in them, but this method clearly allows large air gaps between ganache piping which goes against what i've been taught.

Nicole, are you referring to the use of the packaged cocoa butter crystals that Albert Uster has started carrying? Or is there a topic regarding tempering that talks about crystallization? At any rate, Jean-Pierre Wybauw sort of poo-poo-ed the idea of using Mycryo or any of those other products as proper pre-crystallization technique should work without these doctors. Particularly when it comes down to price, these items are very expensive.

I don't think doing it custard style would be very nice (that is, i've never done it that way). usually, i use a very thick yogurt or i drain a regular style yogurt. flavor it the way i want to and then add tons of sugar and corn syrup (so that it will freeze creamier) and then process in an ice cream machine. I don't usually measure ingredients for this as i do it to taste. it should be sweeter than you think as the perceived sweetness will be less when it is frozen (cold molecules don't move as fast).

yeah, but the room temp in your basement workshop is like 60 degrees

yay! late to chime in my enthusiasm for this week's food blogger! it was great to read your 'blog' when you first started working at your (then) new job...and then the kitchen remodel...and now, a week with you! great! sounds like your husband and mine (from reading the most recent post on his blog) share some skeptical sensibilities...i think my husband just finished 'the god delusion'...uh-oh! and i'm a pastry chef. we'll have to meet one day as we only live in cupertino. can't wait to see how your week unfolds. so far it has been delicious.

the aging process is also important when making ice cream based on a custard. to let the custard sit overnight allows the proteins, which have been coagulated at a low temperature, time to absorb extra liquid. from what i understand, this can help bind excess water as well, thus keeping your ice cream from being too icy. you can understand better what i mean if you have ever over cooked your anglaise...the protein from the egg coagulates too much and the proteins tighten up to the point that they squeeze out all the moisture they contain. you have a loose mixture of water and egg protein. same thing with overcooked scrambled eggs...all that water gets squeezed out. if you cook your anglaise to the perfect degree of doneness, it will be a nice thick mixture which will thicken even more overnight in the fridge. i'm sure harold mcgee has more to say on this topic

When home roasting, how should green beans be stored and how long are they viable? i assume like nuts that they last longer (when stored properly) than roasted nuts as the oils have been released and denatured in the roasting process, thus leaving them more susceptible to rancidity (staling)...is this the case? I've heard differing opinions on storage of already roasted beans, so any information on that would be appreciated as well. example: if buying roasted beans, store them in the freezer in three-four day measured packets which can be defrosted and used quickly. by the way MGLloyd, great website!

don't know how possible it is to make them at home. there are several sources online for neutral flavored poprocks... for example: chefrubber

while for the most part, corn syrup and glucose can be used interchangeably in recipes calling for one or the other...it is my understanding that invert sugar (known by name brands: trimoline, nuvoline, etc.) cannot be used in place of corn syrup or glucose. it is a different ingredient which will give you different results.

Sandy, it isn't accessible by public transportation, but Amato's here in the South Bay (Silicon Valley) has pretty decent cheesesteak. eG member 'ghost', who is from philly, has said that walking through the door transports him home. let me know where you are, i'll pick you up and drag you down here!

ummm, costco sells a pack of 48 general use towels for like $12...that's 24 cents per towel. cheap enough to almost be disposable. that's what i buy because i like to have a zillion towels around the kitchen when i'm working. i guess it is a result of all those years working in professional kitchens.

Alana, Was it a caramel center with the coconut-curry flavourings? Might be fun to try, deglazing your caramel with coconut milk or cream for the coconut flavour, infused with a mild curry. ← kerry, it was a ganache...but your idea sounds great for a caramel. i was just surprised that i liked it as much as i did. i think it could have been more subtle...it was a bit in-your-face-ish. i also make a nice kaffir lime caramel that i like. i am going to try to make it more liquid for a filling for molded chocolate.

you start by making a dry caramel in a pot and then you add your infused cream to it. you can add butter and even chocolate to it after it cools. it is thicker or thinner based on how much cream you add to the caramel. i had a coconut-curry truffle from vosges (whose chocolates i was determined NOT to like) and it was surprisingly good. i have a hard time with things like basil because i feel fresh herb flavors get muddied when infused, particularly leafy herbs...not so much things like thyme or rosemary. you end up tasting cut grass, if you know what i mean.

I just ordered some metal bars from onlinemetals.com Very fast service and from what I can tell, very reasonable prices. While I think the aluminum bars are fine (and MUCH cheaper), I really like the weight of the stainless steel bars better. I bought 0.375" (3/8") square bars in both aluminum and stainless to compare. 0.375" Stainless steel annealed square at 16" long = 13.60USD 0.375" Aluminum 6061 T6 bare square at 16" long = 2.24USD So you can see the difference in price. Shipping was +/- $10.00 Still a lot cheaper than buying from chefrubber, I think.

and that's why you're exactly right and why i said to kim that it doesn't matter if the tops of the cupcake get swampy because she's icing the tops anyway as you said, more than one way to skin a cake!

you're not doing anything wrong. if you're going to ice your cupcakes, then i wouldn't worry about losing some of the top crust. maybe we can get harold mcgee to write abut this, but this is my theory: you know the top layer of cake (the crust, so to speak) has a lot of sugar in it. with sponge cakes this is particularly noticeable and you usually scrape this off before icing it. sugar is hygroscopic (it absorbs moisture) so when you freeze things, the moisture will migrate to where there is a higher concentration of sugar - to the crust. so when you thaw, the top crust gets a bit sticky and soggy. i wouldn't change what you're doing as long as it doesn't bother you aesthetically. if you unwrap and thaw, you chance having pretty dry cupcakes as the moisture has migrated to the surface and now you're letting it evaporate. evaporation (loss of moisture) is the main cause of staling. i'm not trying to contradict you k8memphis, but if you've got ice crystals on the surface, they were once inside your product...they don't just magically appear between your cake and the plastic wrap. same goes for ice cream. eat a few bites and leave the carton in the freezer for a couple of weeks and take a look inside sometime...the ice cream will have tons of ice crystals on top and the ice cream itself will have changed texture from losing all the suspended water which was once part of the emulsion. this is just what happens. also with home freezers, they cycle through temp changes much more inefficiently than commercial freezers, so the thaw-freeze-thaw-freeze helps to accelerate the ice crystal formation on products in your freezers. edited to clarify?

are you sure you're putting the bowl in properly? there's a nipple on the back of the bowl that should fit under a little metal tab and hold the bowl in place in back while the two side tabs pop onto the arms. if your bowl is tilting forward, then this might be your problem. just give a little pressure on the top edge of your bowl toward the back and you should feel the nipple pop under the metal tab and it will be seated properly. let us know if this works...i could be wrong.

actually thermohauser makes great NON-disposable bags. but i use kee seal. and just for you fat guy, i'm going to use my brand new digital camera and take some photos...see if i can't work up a mini demonstration.

i only wish i had a tv so i could have watched! congratulations on your tv spot and lets hope it brings business as well as fame (15 minutes tho' it may be )!

freeze the pie solid (either baked or unbaked), fedex with ice packs or dry ice. overnight shouldn't be a problem. include warming or baking instructions with the pie.

I don't have much in the way of food recommendations, but this was in the paper recently: Santa Cruz wineries just in case.

Kye - I'm curious - where do you buy chocolate in NYC? ← I was curious as well when I read this response as I work with several chocolatiers (and know several as well) and although they can be pretty critical, none of them has much negative to say about Maison du Chocolat. Quite the contrary, most can find no fault with Maison du Chocolat. Can't speak for others, however.

add to that the high number of chefs who really don't know anything about pastry who always add things on to the pastry prep list. "oh, can you bust out a few extra sheet pans of crackers for tonight?", "I'd love to make a savory sorbet to go with such-and-such, can you help me out with it?" or "I'm trying to make a savory tuile/cookie/garnish/whatever for this dish but can't get it to work, can you come up with a recipe for me...while you're at it, why don't you make them for me every night for service?!" sound familiar?

No malice perceived. Obviously I am speaking from my very limited experinece and with a statistical sampling of exactly 2 (I have a ch8ildhood friendn who went through thje same curricular path as the young man I spoke of upthread but she burned out on pastry work after two years... went to Hotel and Restaurant Admin school and left the front end of biz to go to work for a food conglomerate. I am curious however. I'm guessing based on some of your statements that you are doing / learning /acquring skills on the "hot side". Now that you're out in the field with experience.... would you pursue the path to where you're at any differently than by the way in which you have already arrived there? (assuming that you could go back and follow a path again from an earlier juncture). ← phaelon56, it is probably a bit off topic, but I understand your curiosity. Here's my experience: 1) curious about entering restaurant world 2) got a job for no pay just to get experience before deciding to attend culinary school 3) they threw me in pastry (I've found this to be typical...pastry tends to be neglected and therefore if there is someone that they don't know what to do with, they'll send them to hang out in pastry) 4) I liked it! 5) started to get paid, moved to the 'warm' side (not hot side because I was making food for the cafe, not the sit down part of the restaurant) 6) became a barrista in the cafe for a while 7) moved to San Francisco to attend culinary school (stayed working for the same restaurant chain in SF as a barrista while in culinary school) 8) graduated in pastry, got a good job in SF (moonlighting as catering person on the side...savory stuff and pastry stuff) 9) got promoted to pastry sous chef TOO SOON 10) got next job as pastry chef of a new restaurant (again, TOO SOON, but learned a lot about savory cooking at this restaurant) 11) moved to New York to take a job as pastry sous (stepped away from too much responsibility) with my first boss from SF (she had moved to NY) 12) two or three more pastry chef and pastry sous chef jobs later, I moved back to the San Francisco Bay area and now I'm teaching baking and pastry. 13) the entire time I was employed in restaurants, I can say that I knew the savory menu almost as well as the pastry menu and would always help where I could on the 'other side'. I've never lost my curiosity for learning as much as I could...but that's my personality. Teaching is a whole new thing and harder in some ways than working in restaurants. I've done some subbing for other chefs in savory classes as I'm only part time. I usually sub for things like Asian cuisine (since I'm half Chinese and have been cooking Chinese food my whole life). I certainly help out the savory students when it comes time for their final exam (offering them menu help, plating advice, flavor stuff, whatever). Oh, I teach baking and pastry to the 'Culinary Arts' students (this means 'hot side' people). So I know what exposure most hot side people get. It ain't much, it's fast and most of them barely grasp the basics. School is what you put into it and most of these people aren't going far (their choice). They're looking for a job at Google because they work Monday through Friday (mostly 9-5), get great benefits with decent pay and that's all they aspire to. That's fine. I hope and work for the one or two students that look beyond that and hope that I can help them get where they want to be. I did burn out a bit and I fit what seems to be a typical 'female' situation: I got married and wanted a life - no kids yet - but was tired of working ALL THE TIME. Now I have better hours and better pay, I'm still a pastry chef. Sometimes I give myself the old "Those who can't DO, teach" talk down. But then I think about the hours (read: blood, sweat, tears) and pay in restaurants and I'm okay with my decisions. Besides, here in Silicon Valley, there really aren't a lot of restaurants that would pay a pastry chef. I get to hang out with some good chefs here at school and do what Vadouvan suggests...I keep learning. I watch what the other classes are making I ask questions of the chef. The learning NEVER STOPS. I don't think I'd change the way I got to where I am. So, you can see that I see this particular topic from MANY different viewpoints. I see the people entering the biz on one end and I've been there and been spit out on the other end. I'm removed enough to be objective about it and as I said, I really do understand all sides. But I'll reiterate: this is nothing new to the biz. As long as you're good at what you do, there will be a place for you as a pastry chef. You can make a difference regardless of where you're coming from, but it takes your energy, not someone else's.

Your post was excellent Alanamoana.... No disagreements but I just have to note that..... The chef cannot unilaterally fire the pastry chef in any of Stephen Starr's restaurants. They do not have the authority to do so. They are compartmentalized departments. I worked for them for a little over a year. ← good to know! i've never been fired, but you never know