alanamoana

it may be that you need a flash plug-in or some other tech-y thing in order to access the web-site. it seems to be working fine from what i can tell. i know that i sometimes have problems with certain web sites when i use my mozilla browser but when i use internet explorer it will work. it could be your browser as well.

the new york times magazine (special style edition) today has a recipe for gingersnaps made with bacon fat! sounds deee-lish if you ask me. unfortunately, they are also the crispy variety.

in the bay area, i was able to get fresh bottled yuzu juice (unsalted, without that "real lemon" taste) from a japanese purveyor (i was working in a restaurant at the time). i made a yuzu granite and it was deelish. i'm sure a yuzu-drop cocktail would be just as tasty. simple and clean.

i think on-line would be your best bet. i think the article is great, as they actually tell you what to do with the lye when you're done with it. often, recipes assume knowledge of handling chemical solutions i love pretzel rolls and visited a bakery in germany's black forest which made them...they eat them like we eat bagels here in new york! the knotty part on top is thin and crispy with a fat belly on the bottom which they slice open and spread with butter and put some delicious black forest ham on!!! mmmmmmm deeelish!

Is there any way we can get your recipe for a "Scratch" cake that tastes like a mix? Does it have the texture of a mix? It's funny that we're even trying to make a scratch cake taste like a mix, isn't it? ← The chocolate recipe I used is a mayonnaise cake sort of like devil's food and the white cake I made was from Martha Stewart (I think...I'll have to check on that one). Both were completely from scratch with fresh/good ingredients but in my opinion tasted like mix. Not BAD, just a little like it came from a box. If you want exact recipes, I can PM them to you.

with all the added ingredients, it sounds more like "scratch" to me! i recently made two wedding cakes (for my own wedding!) from "scratch"...but to be honest, they tasted like "mix" cakes to me. not in the the wierd chemically way, but in the pleasant bring back the memories kind of way. i guess what i'm trying to say is that if you feel the recipe tastes good, then go ahead and do it. that's ultimately what it comes down to, right?

they have a couple on amazon for less than a hundred, but i think some of the recipes might be in "bittersweet"

I would also get "Cocolat" This was one of the first cookbooks I ever owned and I bought it long before I even thought I would attend culinary school and become a pastry chef. The recipes are not "easy" but certainly do-able by a novice (as I was at the time). I had no tools or machinery and often replaced ingredients with what was readily available and the tortes/cakes/mousses all came out well...and very delicious! I highly recommend this book.

I've just made four batches of this recipe: 10 oz egg whites 3.5 oz granulated sugar 10 oz sugar water to moisten 2 # butter, paddled smooth and light flavoring of your choice (i'm using vanilla bean and i'm making two different cakes, so i'll add nut paste to some of this when i'm ready to finish that cake). follow the standard procedure for IMBC. this is the recipe i learned in culinary school and i've made it many, many times without any sort of problems. i melt it down to glaze with and it works really well. i tend to add a pinch of salt (to most things) to enhance the flavor a little. i had to make four batches because i only have a 5qt kitchenaid. it fits perfectly in the 5qt. this recipe scales up and down without any problems either (it started out as an 8# butter batch). *edited to add: i'm making this buttercream in hawaii and it is warm and humid in the kitchen. the butter is super soft and i didn't take too much care to let the whites totally cool. it didn't break on me at all. i'm very happy with this recipe.

i have done donuts for service and the easiest is: 1) make the dough and proof - this can be done several hours before service 2) roll and shape - cut out shapes, etc. 3) place on sprayed parchment and wrap in plastic 4) allow to proof for about 15-20 minutes more depending on how small your donuts are and how warm your space is 5) place in fridge and keep refrigerated during service and fry as needed they should have proofed enough before refrigerating and the refrigeration is just retarding the dough. it shouldn't need anything more than that and they'll puff up nicely in the fryer.

Choklit Molds i think red and black paper lined might be harder to find. check out this website (you have to have a javascript enabled browser or something like that). they don't really have a lot of pictures but you can call them. they might have something closer.

whole foods should have something organic/natural. i seem to remember someone i know buying food coloring there specifically for a vegan cake. they were paste.

old wives' tale is that if you add fresh whites to whites sitting out, they don't go bad for some reason. this is what they do at payard patisserie. i'm not sure how long they stay out since they make hundreds of macaron at a time, but i don't think they worry about sanitation...that's the french way. i know they leave them out in a warm room (as kitchens are wont to be). this doesn't mean that yours are good or bad but smell is certainly a good indicator.

GlerupRevere Packaging This company is only one of many that offers foil. They do have minimum orders, so make sure you check with them. They also have a decent selection of boxes and other items which might be useful.

something my most recent pastry chef introduced me to is Stroh Rhum which is made in Austria. it smells like butterscotch and will melt your throat...it is actually called Stroh 80 because it is 80% alcohol or 160 proof. very strong stuff but deeee-lish when added to almost anything in the pastry kitchen. i use it to make my vanilla extract at home. just throw all the used vanilla pods in an old jar and fill to the top with Stroh. it really adds a distinct/aromatic flavor to baked goods. a little pricey at about $35/bottle retail, but a little goes a long way so it should last a while. also makes great rum raisins (a few of which could easily get you drunk!)

marlene, i think this may have been covered in another thread, but i'm not a huge fan of whisking or paddling the egg yolks and sugar until thick/light yellow when dealing with creme brulees or anglaises. one of the reasons is, when you whip them that much (to dissolve the sugar is the usual explanation) you end up with a foamy mix. when you use the mix immediately in the case of creme brulees, you end up with a foamy top and are unable to tell when correctly baked. just whisking by hand until the yolks and sugar are mixed well should be good enough. i am also a proponent of heating the cream/milk/half and half mixture. the heated liquid should aid in dissolving the sugar and you should always strain the mix afterward anyway in case there are lumps. i really think you need to try to bake them covered. if you can't get a good seal with plastic wrap, use aluminum foil. it's a pain when you want to check them during baking as you can't see through it, but it really makes a difference when you create that moist heat so the tops of your custard don't dry out and brown. when using convection, i tend to bake custards right around 300 degrees fahrenheit. good luck on your next attempt!

i know a pastry chef who just took the whole can of lychee and pureed it with the syrup and froze it "as is" for his lychee sorbet. worked fine.

jean-pierre wybauw's book makes some good points regarding tempering chocolate. he prefers to call the process "pre-crystallizing" because he doesn't think you should be so much concerned with temperature as the appearance of the chocolate while you're stirring, melting, seeding, etc. i agree with him because we can all become slaves to the thermometer when, as chefpeon says, it can change depending on what brand of chocolate you're using or what the weather is like that day, or any number of things that can affect the "temper" of your chocolate.

At work, we make a similar ganache type cake...it is too delicate to slice horizontally, but we bake it into thin layers in sheet pans which are then frozen and unmolded to be used as layers in a cake. that way, you can get the rich chocolatey-ness without it overwhelming.

chefpeon: i thought we pc's were dishwashers?! i never send anything to the dishwasher for fear of: losing expensive molds/cutter, destroying cake rings (oval from round anyone?), etc, etc.

if the frosting doesn't have to set up, can't you just use buttercream or some equivalent? (since it has to be cheap, you can make shortening-cream)

i really like most of the e.guittard line of "signature" chocolate. their white chocolate is good for the price if a little sweet

the one pictured initially has 12 blades which if calculated at the JB Prince price is 12 blades @ 14.70/ea + the handle = 203.20 + tax + shipping... although the one which started this thread is almost twice as much, it still isn't cheap. on the other hand, the one described by andiesenji actually sounds reasonable and pretty easy to put together.

the rows don't get "wonky" hehehe... it's one of those things with pastry...the faster you move, the less likely there will be a disaster. just slide the metal sheet under the rows - quickly - and you'll be fine. i'll try to find a link for you, but there was a web-site i was looking at that had a huge (i'm talking probably around $15,000 guitar) machine for cutting sheet cakes and things for a production bakery. they had a video demo-ing the product. pretty cool!

The guitar has a metal base with space underneath it for the top wires (cutter) to rest once it has cut through the ganache/pate de fruit. Once you've cut through your food item, the guitar comes with a large "spatula"-like metal sheet that you slide under the food. You then lift off the food, lift up the wire cutter and then place the food back on the guitar a quarter turn from the original direction and slice through again. Now you have little cubes of ganache/pate de fruit and you can remove them with the large metal sheet and it's ready for coating. Actually, you only need to coat one side of your ganache with tempered chocolate. The coated side should be the bottom side. This helps hold the ganache together in case it cracks or is a little soft. If you're cutting pate de fruit, a little corn starch helps to keep it from sticking to the guitar. They are expensive, but there are some smaller table-top models which are cheaper than the versions sold on JB prince for $5,000. They are well worth the investment when you calculate how little waste you end up with and how perfect your portion sizes are. I use them for ganache, pate de fruit and cookie dough (obviously for square cookies). I'm sure there are other people who have used them for other things as well.