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chefpeon

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Posts posted by chefpeon

  1. Longtime eG Pastry and Baking friends:

     

    Our very own CanadianBakin' is now living her last days. She is losing the battle with breast cancer and is in palliative care. She doesn't have too much longer, unfortunately. 

    I am posting a link in regard to donations to her family to help with expenses and to help them after she leaves us. I hope this is not inappropriate to this forum. 

    http://www.youcaring.com/family-fundraiser/bearing-the-bacon-s-burdens/315458#.VPU6oqFMhp1.twitter

     

    Sadly, Annie

     

     

     

    [Moderator note: edited with member permission]

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  2. I think you'd have an awful lot of trouble with them on chocolate. They were designed to use on gumpaste, fondant or modeling chocolate. The chocolate would just get stuck inside the cutter and the action of the veiner wouldn't work because the chocolate is semi-set when you cut it. You're better off using leaf shaped candy molds than going through the hassle of using a cutter and risking so much breakage.

  3. I agree, that the mousse would take longer to set in a larger bowl. But still, any mousse should set up in 7 hours, even in a big bowl.

    Hopefully someone else can chime in here, because all I can think of is the milk.

    Also you did say when you put the mousse in the espresso cups, the consistency was "almost" right. So I figure "almost" in the smaller cup would be

    "maybe not" in the bigger bowl. :unsure:

  4. This is sort of an odd recipe to me. I have never used milk in a mousse.....always heavy cream. My first thought is that it is the milk that is causing your mousse not to set properly. If you put your mousse in the freezer, the top, that has set, will have sort of a frozen fluffy consistency, but I'm afraid the bottom that has not set, will freeze solid. I don't think there's much of a fix for a mousse you've already made. You might try folding in some chocolate whipped cream, but I'm not sure how that would work out, to be honest.

  5. I wonder where she got the violet flavored pearl sugar? When I googled violet flavored sugar, I got some directions on how to make some, but I don't have violets around and can't make my own. I'd love to know where to get it retail or commercially.

  6. Cream of tartar, while causing extra leavening, can also add an extra "tang" to a cookie. I have a snickerdoodle recipe that calls for cream of tartar for just that reason.

    Why don't you just try the recipe and see what happens? And if you have extra time on your hands, make another small batch without the cream of tartar and see what difference it makes, if any.

    Then you'll have your answer and can share it with us!

  7. All I can say is that in 18 years of decorating, I've never seen the cake cops pull up to my shop and arrest me. Perhaps I'm "living on the edge" but I just don't worry about it that much. However, I do do what Jeanne said, and that is, I leave off a small portion of what makes the character what it is. For instance, if I do Spiderman, I leave off the spider logo on the front of his costume.

  8. Anytime you scrape off refrigerated colored buttercream it will streak. The color is bleeding out of the buttercream is what is happening. Once I have my colored buttercream on the cake, I smooth it well, then refrigerate, then I don't touch it after it's refrigerated. You can't stop the streaking if you scrape it after it's cooled. :sad:

  9. Have you ever tried Black Bean Brownies?

    I used to make these all the time, and no one could tell that they had black beans in them. They were fudgy and soft.

    At first, I didn't want to make them, but since I live in freaking Veganville, I did so reluctantly. After tasting the results, I was impressed, and it's one of the few Vegan recipes that win my star of approval.

  10. I just ate a cupcake at a cupcake shop (Trophy Cupcakes), and they didn't spread their icing from edge to edge, and from a production and neatness standpoint I can see why.

    Production-wise, it's very fast to just pipe the icing on top of the cupcake in a swirl pattern rather than slop it on with a spatula. The edge is left bare so that fingerprints from the salespeople (although they wear gloves) don't mar the look of the cupcake, especially when they load dozens in boxes.

    From a customer standpoint, the icing is still very generous.....it's just piled high rather than spread out. I was very happy with my cupcake.

  11. I have pretty good luck with these type of pans by either spraying with pan spray or using the bakers grease, after baking, I cool the cakes, then freeze them solid. Then I turn the pan upside down and use a propane torch to heat up the bottom of the pan a little. They will usually release nicely.

    pastrymama's suggestion is really a good one. That's what really works a lot of the time. The cooling gives them time to contract and loosen. Freezing makes them nice and hard, and the propane torch warms the grease to let them just pop out.

    This is how I release my pineapple upside down cakes. Bake, then refrigerate in the pan, then turn the pan upside down and heat it with the torch. It comes out perfectly.

  12. Sorry, it's what I came up with... I also compromised with the owner and made a gluten-free vegan pumplkin pie and carmel pepita bars.

    Why are you sorry? Thanks for the recipe too! I may not have the greatest attitude about Raw Vegans, but I may need that recipe some day. :wink:

  13. This topic has been thought-provoking for me. Raw vegan is basically Adam & Eve food, raw fruits and veggies. Animal proteins are out, but so are most (all?) grains like wheat and rice, which require cooking to be palatable. So the question in my mind is, if people have chosen this very restricted diet, why are we trying to present something closer to the normal idea of dessert? Their choices point to a platter of raw fruits for dessert, so why not give them that? Is that what they basically want and/or expect?

    This is my thinking exactly. You made your choice so here it is. Tri2cook has a point in that even Raw Vegans want their food as interesting and exciting as people with "normal" diets. But it's like they want to have their cake and eat it too. I think the only venues that can make money by catering to Raw Vegans are venues that specialize in it. I don't think venues that cater to the common carnivore should be expected to come up with vegan options, although some are. It depends on if it's cost effective and worth the effort. I mean, I wouldn't go to Taco Bell and order a Filet-o-Fish sandwich.........

    I live in a town that has a high percentage of these raw vegan types of people. The bakery I used to work in opened a retail outlet here and I KNEW I would start getting asked about dairy free, sugar free, fat free, gluten free, vegan friendly items, and sure enough I did. But even the amount of requests I got didn't justify me ordering in those expensive ingredients and starting a vegan line of baked, or in the case of raw vegans, unbaked goods. That's not even counting in the extra labor. I told the owners that when they got requests for stuff like that, to refer them to our local food co-op which specializes in all that restrictive diet weirdness. There are a lot of companies out there that are getting their "free" products out there. I even saw gluten free bread at Safeway the other day.

    As a pastry chef, I feel like getting asked to do raw vegan desserts is like being asked to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but you have no rabbit. And sometimes, no hat.

  14. I almost forgot, the owner cringed when I suggested bringing in an ice cream maker- she reminded me that frozen foods hurt digestion.... we never spoke of it again. I wish I was making this sh*t up.

    Oh.My.God. Frozen foods hurt digestion. Please. I wish you were making that sh*t up too, but

    I live in a town full of "raw people". I've heard it all. I think it's just another trend that will go away in a few years. I hope.

    And you are truly living my "job from hell". I'd rather work as a lunch lady than a job like that. Good luck with it. Yeesh.

    Edited to add: looking over those raw recipes, one can only think of the money you have to spend for all those nuts and specialty products (raw cocoa powder=$20 a lb)

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