chefpeon

As long as it's not a freakin' belt drive! Those are worthless. I used a stupid Blakeslee for a while and it would blow our circuit breaker when I was whipping CREAM.......and as we all know, cream doesn't put a load on the machine!

Ok, since this is the pumpkin thread.....maybe y'all can help me out. One of my biggest problems/weaknesses as a professional is to get excited about making stuff that doesn't appeal to me personally. I hate pumpkin. In fact, I don't even like most fall fare or holiday foods.....don't like turkey dinner.....have never looked forward to Thanksgiving. Never had much of a problem with the ol' holiday weight gain, that's for sure. So I'm making pumpkin cheesecakes at work (not to mention pumpkin pies, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin bread.....my co-workers are making pumpkin soup)....it's just one big, freaking pumpkin-fest....woo hoo. Anyway, I like to break with the "same-old" by making whatever I make a little bit different....add my "signature" if you will. This is easy when I'm making things I like, but really hard when I'm not. So I'd like to put some sort of topping on my pumpkin cheesecake. I was thinking of cooking down some cranberries (a la cherry pie filling) and topping the cheesecake with that. I hate cranberries too, so since I have no clue, how does that sound to you all.....pumpkin cheesecake with cranberry topping? Would the cranberry be too strong for something like that? I was also thinking about something like a pecan caramel topping, but I've had problems with my caramel becoming very liquid under refrigeration..... Any ideas and suggestion you all may have is greatly appreciated!

Ok, I get it.....you're messin' wit' me. Right?

Really Nice I don't know if it's my browser or what, but your directions to the top secret NY pizza place shows up as kind of......gobbledygook. And I must ask, why didn't you include the name of the establishment? That's kind of important.....especially for those of us that aren't good with directions....... Sleepy Dragon Yes, it's true....I am not only the "other species" but from a different planet..... Anyway, the science of bread/pizza dough etc, is a complicated one. The temperature at which you "fire your dough" is but only one component. You have so many other factors to consider. Moisture content in the dough, the presence of fat, sugars, protein, yeast, fermentation times, shop conditions, how much the dough is developed.....whether you use a starter......what kind of oven you have.....proofboxes......it goes on....and on. Eventually you get a feel for how your dough should be and how you should bake it, but all doughs are different, and you just gotta "get to know them". I suggest dinner and a movie first... One thing is for certain in my book.....nothing beats brick or stone for pizza crust. I swear by my baking stone at home! It's a key thing to achieve "crisp and chew". I am now curious about this NY Pizza phenom. I've had Piecora's and didn't like it, so I don't know if NY Pizza is for me, or if Piecora's didn't get it right at the time. The way Deborah describes it sounds like heaven to me, so I'm inclined to think it's the latter.

I think I'm the only person on the planet that doesn't like pumpkin....... Here it is the middle of October and I'm so sick of pumpkin already! I'm making pumpkin pies, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecakes, pumpkin ice cream....... oh yeah, pumpkin soup.....that too...... I'm going pumpkin crazy. It's all selling like crazy too. People must like it. But it's beyond me!

Hey, I remember those! I used them a long time ago, and if I remember right, I think I was told that they were cocoa butter flakes......true?

Geez......maybe I should move to Ohio! Here where I live, in Jefferson County, Washington, you have to have a license for EVERYTHING. The health department freaking "fees" us to death. For instance, the front part of the location where I work is a delicatessen. They just started making soups to serve for lunch, but, they're doing it "on the sly" in a way, because they haven't been issued their "hot hold" license yet. They're waiting to "get busted" by the health dept. before they shell the money out for it. Restaurants in town want to buy a lot of the desserts they make, but they don't have a "wholesale" license yet. Doesn't mean they don't sell it to the restaurants....they just do that on the sly too. Just ask Abra, she lives in a neighboring county, but her rules are just as strict......and boy does it make it a bitch to do business!

If you're not sure how to reach the Council, the contact info is in the back of the Lexicon.

So what exactly IS "New York Style" Pizza anyway? Can you describe what made it so good? What's different about it as compared to uh......."regular" pizza? Is it more tomatoey? Cheesy? Thicker crust? Spicy? I'm a a dyed-in-the-wool West Coaster. The farthest east I've ever gotten is Minnesota, and that's far enough......

My Lord.....what is the recipe? It sounds to me like melting chocolate with paraffin wax would be a "cheater's" way to temper. I can guarantee you, it won't taste very good.

Seems pretty clear to me she really has nothing to say about it. It's your recipes and your business..... you didn't sign any contract (did you?) so there's nothing legally binding. She never seemed to order enough to make it worth your while, so you really owe her nothing. Maybe you should invite her to take your class......

Well, when I worked there we made our own biscotti, and I'm sure that hasn't changed. The owner would never buy anything in if he could make it himself.

Ahhhh......Alki Bakery.......affectionately known to me as "Alki-Traz". I used to be the production manager there at the Georgetown location. Started at the beach location which was MUCH better. Imagine going from beautiful sunrises on the beach to...... Georgetown. So depressing. They do make some good stuff. Their clam chowder is very popular, and they also make it for their other satellites, The Alki Cafe and what used to be the Point Grill (I don't know what it's called now). I was also the lead bread baker, and we cranked out loaves upon loaves of rustic italian bread in a really nice Tibiletti oven. I used to motivate my crew by telling them if we got all the bread in the proofers by midnight, we could go shoot a game or two of pool at the bar down the street. They were really into that.....only problem was they worked hard until midnight, and then when we got back to do the bake off they slowed down considerably.......sigh. Those were fun days......sort of. The owner also had an obsession with making our cinnamon rolls EXACTLY like Cinnabon. He kept wanting me to tinker with the dough or the filling or the icing and he was never satisfied. Meanwhile we'd sell them like gangbusters and I figured "sheesh......leave well enough alone....some people don't even LIKE Cinnabons....." Alki has grown since I've left, and I don't even know what they are doing now, but they're still in business so they must be doing something right. A funny side note: The owners father has his own toupee business in the same building as the Georgetown bakery. We could always tell who his father's customers were......all the guys with BAD (and I mean BAD) toupees who walked in the door. If you ever get lost in Georgetown, and want to find Alki Bakery, just follow the trail of bad hair.......

Word!!! I love my trigger start also! Press a button, flame-o, and you're good to go. If you work in a kitchen with unsavory co-workers, you may even need to hide it when you aren't using it. I've had more people abuse my torches by borrowing them in my absence and worst of all, not putting it back, so when I go to use it, it's not there. I've even had to resort to locking my toolbox too. (NO, you do NOT use my $80 Global Chef's knife to cut brownies on a metal sheet pan!)

Glad you made it up here to Port Townsend. You're right.....Water Street Brewing hasn't been open that long.....it was formerly the Town Tavern, and the backdrop for the bar fight scene in "An Officer and a Gentleman". You sat on a movie set and you didn't even know it. It's too bad I read this thread after you'd come and gone.......I would have recommended that you go to the Tyler Street Coffee House for great espresso, soup and pastries! It's the most popular coffee house in PT. Glad you enjoyed your vacation! Cheers!

I've had the "pleasure" of delivering a couple wedding cakes to the China Harbor. Once I got past the terrible smell emanating from the front entrance of the place, it didn't get much better after that. Never ate there, but after seeing it, I don't want to.

Tapioca flour is a starch extracted from the root of the tropical cassava plant (also called manihot or manioc or yucca) in both the East and the West. This is a tall slender plant, which has poinsettia- type leaves, cultivated in plantation-type settings. It can attain heights of ten to sixteen feet. The root tubers grow in clusters and are tapered in shape, like giant sweet potatoes, twelve to twenty inches long; they sometime weigh as much as thirty pounds. Some species are bitter and others are sweet, and all must be processed to remove toxic compounds before being eaten. When fully grown, the roots are harvested and sent to modern mills near the plantation. The roots are washed and peeled by tumbling in water sprays, then ground to a fine pulp. The liquid, which now contains the starch, is drained off. To separate and purify it, repeated washings and settlings form the starch into a moist cake. This is further dried and pulverized into a tapioca flour. To make tapioca pearls, the tapioca flour, which is fine as face powder, is mixed with water to make a dough, which is slowly cooked and stirred. By the end of the precooking process, the tapioca has dried again into so called "flakes". These are reduced in size in hammer mills and dried in warm air before cooling, grinding, and screening to produce uniform granules. Tapioca pearls come in small, large or giant, and instant. 3 / 4 cup pearl tapioca thickens the same as 1 / 2 cup instant-type tapioca. Besides pudding, Tapioca is commonly used as a thickening agent.....primarily in fruit pies.

Because with some types of cakes, sometimes, greasin' just ain't enough. The layer of flour absorbs a little of the sticky moisture from the cake and makes it a bit easier to release. I make my own "baker's grease" so that I don't have to go through the greasing and flouring ritual. I mix equal parts flour, shortening and oil in a mixing bowl and whip for a few minutes. Just spread it in your cake pan as you would butter, and you don't have to worry about tapping any flour in.

And don't forget, "asserting dominance". No one messes with the boss when they're wielding a fiery torch! The wider tip may also be just right for this purpose.

That's the cool thing about PC's. I'm fairly sure more of them have done "hot side" time before going into the pastry side, as opposed to chefs who have stayed "hot side". I have found a lot of savory guys who try pastry end up saying they don't have the patience for it.

Since I live in Tinytown, and Tinytown Cable doesn't provide me with the Food Network (probably a good thing because then I'd NEVER get anything done).....I'm wondering....does Iron Chef America do the same thing as the original Iron Chef where the contestants and provided with a mystery ingredient at the beginning of the show? Or do they just get a "theme"? Personally, I think PC's and savory chefs are two different animals. I'd rather see Laiskonis go up against another PC.....it would be much more exciting. I've never known Batali to be much of a PC, so if Laiskonis is going against him, and it's a dessert thing, then yeah.....Batali is goin' down!

Yes, read the above post by PastryLady.

Well, since you're the boss, and she just cost you some $$$ because you had to pitch the dough, I'd say you have every right to tell her that in your shop, you DON'T add eggs last. End of story. In school, I learned to do things one way. In all the jobs I've had since then, I have discovered the "right" way, is the way the boss tells you to do it. Of course, if the boss's way has no basis in logic, then I will tell them so (but respectfully). I've actually learned many things by working in different places. Some techniques I've learned outside of school were actually better than the ones I learned in school. This biz is a constant learning process. Don't let her waste any more of your money. It's your way or the highway.

That has got to be the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. For the reasons Neil stated above, I can't imagine adding eggs last, and why it would advantageous to do so. I'm very curious....how did your final product turn out?

I am also very interested in a stovetop brulee. Seems like Neil did everything he was supposed to.......I wonder what happened? Also, what does (burr, beur) mix mean? Is it the use of a stick blender? I'm thinking Wendy's recipe might work out better because of the cornstarch. Gives you a little insurance that the custards will set up. What kind of a flavor does the champagne give it? Is there a bite?