alanamoana
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Posts posted by alanamoana
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jbprince.com
pastrychef.com
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there is also this website, which makes plastic molds for mousse cakes (full sized)
and these, which you can use to make quantities of individual items in different shapes. most of these are meant to be made with sponge cake around the outside and filled with whatever you want on the inside.
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i imagine this is baked in a silicon mold, but i've never seen anything with this shape before.....
this could be a ring mold or a silicone mold. it looks like the raised edge is piped on after the fact and the entire dessert is then sprayed with chocolate to give it the velvet texture you see.
ring molds and silicone molds come in so many shapes now. note that ring molds are a lot easier to unmold. the demo video from demarle that you linked to is a great example of ease of use, but that is a large flat mold with low edges under perfect working conditions with a professional pastry chef. even silicone muffin pans are extremely difficult to unmold. the item needs to be firm enough not to tear and usually has to be frozen solid (as in the video -20C?) in order to unmold cleanly. so consider your work space and what you have available to you.
the pink clear gel on the first dessert you posted is probably just that. depending on the dessert, they probably made a thick gel out of a sugar syrup (maybe with a touch of food coloring or fruit juice) and piped little spheres on top of the dessert for garnish.
if the company who made these desserts is a large one, then they probably have a guitar cutter for the cakes like the following: go to 'professional cake cutter'.
if you're doing small volume, then a machine like that is too expensive and you'd be doing it by hand.
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you could always grind the oats down to a flour-like substance in a food processor or blender. being more like flour will make the substitution easier. with a quick bread like muffins, it might be easier to substitute because you don't really need a lot of gluten development and you have the chemical leaveners to do a lot of the work for you. i guess, as you stated, it would be more important to make sure the amount of liquid is balanced.
please post your results!
edited to add: you can grind some and leave some oats whole if you are looking for texture. also, you can make a streusel topping with some additional oats which will also add some good texture to the muffins.
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at my house we just say "i'm making rice"...that nicely sidesteps the question as to whether it is boiled or steamed.
if i'm making sticky rice, i'm steaming it.
i think in chinese cooking, the terms are clearer. it is usually very clear by a dish's name as to the cooking method. where in the united states, a dish might be labeled "crispy fish" in chinese it is often clearer as to whether that fish has been deep fried, pan fried or whatever.
is that still on topic?
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growing up, my mom would leave a pot of soup on the stove (room temp) for several days in a row. she'd just bring it up to a boil before she ate any of it. with her hot sour soup, by the third day it was at its most delicious...reduced and tangy (from vinegar, not bacteria) a little thicker and just great.
think about what people did before they had refrigerators! the pantry was where they put any leftovers and stored what food they could at a cool room temp.
i might disagree with the organic vs. conventional, but i think it ends up being psychological. with conventional berries (particularly driscoll raspberries) they always taste like pesticides or chemicals or anything BUT raspberries. go to an organic berry farm and eat a berry right off the bush and it tastes so much more berry-like. with other conventional foods, it is a tossup. if you're shopping at a farmers' market and there are organic and conventional purveyors but they are both selling freshly picked ingredients...then i'll bet one would be hard pressed to taste the difference.
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They still have a maid! They let her use the vacuum...So does she deal with the compost?!
I read this article and probably went through, over the course of the day, every reaction that everyone here has already posted.
Having lived in Manhattan, I know how difficult it must be to try to sustain a small footprint. Ultimately, I think it would be amazing if everyone in the city (or everywhere for that matter) would try to just minimize their solid waste (garbage, not toilet) when possible. If you've ever walked down the street on garbage day (which is every day on one street or another) and seen the piles of black garbage bags on the sidewalk...early in the morning the rats scurrying around them and in the summer the flies and stench are tremendous, you'd definitely understand. And WHERE DOES IT ALL GO? It is nothing like the more sterile suburban lifestyle (here in California anyway) of the two garbage cans...one for regular garbage and one for recycling...lining the streets...where residents don't even give it a second thought.
I think almost any attempt at putting this type of activity in writing, be it a blog or a book deal or a newspaper article, is a bit self serving. But, it does get other people thinking. So, even if you don't pack your lunch in a mason jar, if you decide to cut back on aluminum foil or plastic wrap or single use ziploc bags, then you're still moving in the right direction.
I reiterate...THEY STILL HAVE A MAID...and those Chloe boots?! Only in New York, I tell ya'!
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sorry about all the roadblocks david j.!!
i'm extremely impressed with the progress that you have made, but it does seem that even as expensive as a commercial guitar can be it might end up being cheaper in the long run.
i wish i had a reason to buy one, because i'd do it in a second. they're great for cookie dough as well as ganaches and everything else. the labor and cut down on waste is incredible.
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Hi people-
I asked at school about the tempered vs untempered chocolate as a foot. Back in January, when they were teaching us chocolate, it was below freezing in Chicago and the kitchens weren't much warmer. They taught us to use untempered chocolate. When I asked this time, they said in terms of the science, if you can do it with tempered chocolate, then great, but the reality is a lot of the time you don't have time to cut it before it sets too hard, so for practicality you use untempered chocolate. I am just envisioning 17 people in my class waiting in line to cut a ganache with the guitar in the freezing cold and it makes sense why they said to use untempered chocolate.
Also yeah- in terms of wrapping the syrup in water, it's so the steam hits the top, turns to water, and runs back down the side of the pot, melting any crystals that are building up on the sides.
How I love school. =)
trust me serj, if you really love it, you'll never stop learning. imagine being like jean-pierre wybauw after 33 years with the same company? i can only hope!!!
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Thanks for the info on Jan Kish. I viewed her site - WOW! Her butterfly cake was along the lines of what I had in mind - butterflies flying. Hers are FABULOUS!
I've never used the rice paper butterflies - can someone tell me more about them?
The idea of using white chocolate sounds good, too. Never thought of making the butterflies edible (as in something the customer would want to eat) - I was more concerned about their stability!
Is there a reason that I wouldn't want to use pastillage - that's what I'm currently experimenting with. I like it because I can roll it very thin (delicate wings), it dries so fast and doesn't soak up the humidity (yet!!)
I truly appreciate all of your comments and suggestions. Mary
i like pastillage for the reasons you state (dries fast, roll thin), but you need to give them some shape before you dry them and that might make it difficult to paint/color them if that's what you're looking to do. if you want them a bit abstract...like shapes with luster, then you don't have a problem and i think pastillage is a great medium.
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kerry, do you add more water to the solution when you reboil or do you add more sugar? it seems to me you'd add more sugar to increase the saturation again since you've just reduced the amount of sugar in the solution by allowing it to coat your centers.
He did say more water and I've just confirmed it in his book. I guess it will dissolve any crystals, then you'll just boil off the extra water again.
One thing I discovered when attempting to do this at home (notice I say attempting rather than succeeding) you need to make a huge batch to cover things and the sugar really wants to crystallize out while it's cooling.
that makes sense, thanks.
also, did you notice that he covered the pot with plastic wrap while it was still hot/warm? it created some condensation and a vacuum which might help to keep the syrup from crystallizing while cooling
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Your best bet is to buy prechopped or sliced nuts from a nut processor. They come in different uniform sizes depending on the nut and the processor. They use sieves to produce the various sizes. For example we use a pecan piece called a midget which is a 1/16" cube and is perfect for coating a truffle.
i second what lloydchoc says. there are a lot of nut products out there which are suitable for your needs davidj. they might cost a bit more, but that is made up with savings in time and labor. i also recommend products which are named 'granulated'...perfectly even size with no dust. i think you can get hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds, etc. all granulated. you can usually get them raw or roasted. i'd go for raw and roast them myself as you can control how dark you want them and you also know how old they are. there was a post recently which talked about how roasted nuts go rancid faster because the oils are broken down through the heating process which speeds up rancidity.
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you'll notice at chefrubber they carry two different lines of metallic colors (either in cocoa butter or not)...one of them is fda approved and the other one isn't.
if you're concerned at all, pcb products are probably safe as (in my opinion) european products are more stringently tested than american products.
there are enough choices that are fda approved that you can assuage your conscience, but the small amounts used and the small amounts ingested are probably not a problem. i'd be more concerned with how much we're ingesting while spraying that stuff without wearing a mask!
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25 microns or less! for sugar crystals to be undetectable on the tongue.
when soaking the ganache centers in the sugar syrup, you have to leave them overnight and what happens is the extra sugar in from the supersaturated solution crystallizes nice and evenly on the surface of whatever is in the solution (your ganache centers).
kerry, do you add more water to the solution when you reboil or do you add more sugar? it seems to me you'd add more sugar to increase the saturation again since you've just reduced the amount of sugar in the solution by allowing it to coat your centers.
if you don't have a refractometer, you can reuse that syrup for other bakeshop applications (if you're not doing chocolates exclusively) like cake syrup, etc. also, after you've used the syrup a couple of times, there are probably too many impurities or fats released in the syrup so you have to do something else with it.
by the way kerry, thanks for posting all the tips from the class for everyone! you're doing a bang-up job.
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piped white chocolate (or candy chips) with some dark or milk for contrast would be nice and wouldn't be affected by the humidity or the buttercream. they're solid enough for standing up and the white would look great with luster dusts. just another option.
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angel pie sounds a lot like a pavlova!
i love the fact that everyone immediately thought of seasons and what fruit to use! makes me happy.
someone upthread said buttermilk pie with peach sauce...but i would love the opposite: peach pie with buttermilk sauce or buttermilk ice cream. especially in the summer when the peaches are bursting with sweetness!
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look up food grade titanium dioxide. this is what makes colors opaque.
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i think it depends on what texture you'd ultimately like your final product.
as much as you can control texture with stablilizers and the like, draining your yogurt will cause you to end up with a 'richer' feeling end product and not draining obviously an icier or 'lighter' product. but all that water needs to be balanced if you want to avoid a 'powdery' product.
edited to add: a refractometer is probably a decent investment and can be used for other applications as well so wouldn't be wasted
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adding water or juice seems counterintuitive...when frozen and re-spun/pacotized, it will end up just as icy, no? it would seem better to adjust your formula to include more sugar or glucose or something which will not freeze and will give better texture.
sethro, you can use any normal frozen yogurt recipe and pacotize. do you hold the air valve in when spinning?
ours was something like:
8# yogurt
2.2# sugar
+ flavoring and juice
splash of corn syrup
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I received my copy of this book last week, and I have to agree with everyone else - it is fantastic!
I also bought a new iSi 1L Profi Whip cream whipper today. The instructions for the aerated chocolate in the book call for actually heating the cream whipper to about 32C. Is this really necessary?! How would one heat up the whipper? I also note that the instructions for the cream whipper state that it is not to be used for hot ingredients.
Also, for recipes in the book which call for fondant - I have Caullet fondant. Is this the right type of fondant that is specified in the book? Thanks.
you should be fine as kerry said with heating it up, before putting the chocolate in, with a hair dryer or heat gun. you do this so that the chocolate which has to be in temper isn't shocked and doesn't set up as soon as you put it in the whipper. also, when you add the gas it cools down considerably, that's why the chocolate sets up so quickly once aerated and extruded.
when isi says not to use for hot ingredients, they mean things that are around 150+ degrees F. your chocolate and heating it up shouldn't be above 90-93F, so no worries. they make a special whipper for hot ingredients.
edited for clarity
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DavidJ, the light brown parts are just a mix of white and dark chocolate.
From what I understand, JPW likes to make every class as different as possible. So while you might learn some of the same techniques, he does like to use new recipes as much as he can and he will teach any technique that you can think of, time permitting. For example, he went ahead and did a poured syrup (super saturated sugar syrup) over some ganache centers to crystallize the outside as demonstrated in his book. This was good to see first hand as reading about it is never as good as seeing it being done.
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how about johnny iuzzini's desserts at jean georges? i'm sure you can go there just for desserts.
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How were the rectangles in the top photo (one of them is pushed with a chocolate trail) finished? Is that a transfer or was that design made with chocolate in class?
david, that's my new favorite way to decorate. it was a slab of almond praline paste mixed with chocolate. we put a foot on it and then on the top spread white chocolate over it. with a parchment paper piping cone, piped dark chocolate stripes and then marbled the stripes in with the tip of a knife (dragging the tip back and forth like you would on the top of a napoleon). then a couple of whacks on the table to smooth everything. before it all completely sets hard, you cut with the guitar. the chocolates are then hand dipped to the top.
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check with eG member Lindacakes as her avatar is a west indian black cake. she'll probably have some information for you.
Favorite tools for hand enrobing?
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
one thing that jpw did during the class that i liked was placing a bonbon in the chocolate and using the dipping fork to lift some chocolate from one side of the candy over the top to the other side...thus ensuring that the top layer of chocolate wasn't too thick which can happen if you completely submerge your bonbon and then just lift and try to tap off the extra.
also, don't tap the fork against the bowl to remove excess chocolate but rather tap the dipped bonbon against the surface of the chocolate (while it is on the fork) to use the surface tension of the bowl of chocolate to 'pull' excess chocolate off the bonbon...then a quick drag over the edge of your bowl and a release onto the paper exactly as gap described
obviously this is much easier to see and understand than to describe with words.
i see a pastry demo in the works!