jgarner53
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Posts posted by jgarner53
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OK, here's what I did:
8 oz. sugar
4 oz. water
4 oz. egg whites
Standard Italian meringue procedure - bring sugar to soft ball stage. Whip whites to stiff peaks. Add sugar. Whip until cool.
Then I whipped together with my hand blender:
8 oz. cream cheese (very soft)
2 oz. butter
I whipped these until they were smooth.
When the meringue was cool, I started adding the cream cheese/butter mixture. I kept whipping.
And whipping.
And whipping.
It was very soupy, so I figured some time in the fridge wouuld help it.
Now, after much more whipping, I have a soupy, curdled mess. I've added 2 more oz. of butter, hoping to salvage it and pull it together, but no luck.
Any suggestions? It tastes great, btw. If I can get it to come together, it will be fantastic.
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In contemplating my birthday cake which will be RLB's banana cake with a rum-laced cream cheese icing, I was thinking about assembly, and how lovely it would be in open layers (so icing between the layers and on top, but not on the sides). Except that cream cheese frosting isn't billowy the same way that buttercream is, and to put enough frosting between the layers to make it seen would make the cake way too rich.
So I got to thinking (always dangerous) about the idea of replacing some (or all) of the butter in a traditional Italian meringue buttercream with cream cheese. You'd get the tang of a cream cheese icing but the volume of an Italian meringue. I know it wouldn't set up as firm in the fridge because cream cheese doesn't get as hard as butter does, but would that be a problem?
Am I nuts? This has got to have been tried before. I want your opinions before I go out and buy a pound of cream cheese and thaw out some egg whites.
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They look really cool - even better than the versions I've seen that use twinkies. Love the flattening technique for the rk treats!
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At my sister's eighth grade graduation dinner, at a nice prime-rib type restaurant, with many kids at the table, the waitress, carrying a huge tray with many glasses of milk, spilled the whole thing all over my grandfather. I wasn't there (or if I was, I don't remember it, since I was 4 at the time, and not exactly privy to the reparationsn made), but I think they paid to clean his suit. I would hope that they comped something from that meal. I'm sure the waitress was mortified; fortunately, my grandfather had a good sense of humor.
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Frozen non-dairy whipped topping in place of whipped cream. Especially on something as special as a birthday cake. Just eat the damned cream! It's your birthday!
In flipping through the new Cooking Light (which I'm willing to do except for baking), they have a whole article devoted to the birthday cake. One imposter for buttercream (Betty Crocker style bc, not Italian meringue buttercream) thickens it with a cooked flour/milk mixture (like a roux, but without the butter). If I wanted faux bechamel on my cake,...well, I wouldn't.
Life is too short to eat dietized versions of real desserts.
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I will say that last Christmas, we were staying with my brother-in-law and his family (wife and 2-year old who's very adept at tantrum throwing when the mood strikes). We wanted to take them out to dinner one night (to a family friendly pizza/brewpub joint) as a thank you. We went early to try to beat the inevitable crowd, and when we got there, it was already mobbed. The wait was going to be at least 30 minutes. They were smart enough and mature enough to realize that Junior was NOT going to be able to manage that, and graciously told us to enjoy our meal, to call them when we were done, and they'd come pick us up. We got them a gift certificate to the place and gave them cash for a babysitter for a night out on their own instead, grateful not to have to listen to Junior have a meltdown.
Now if it had been my brother and his brood, we would have been forced to deal with cranky, hungry kids tugging at our sleeves, whining, and at least one probably kicking or being loud.
Really, isn't it all about the parents? Last time I checked, kids didn't come pre-programmed to behave appropriately for any particular situation, and it's the parents' job to teach them.
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Isn't there a recipe on the back of the Ritz cracker box for "mock apple pie?" I could never for the life of me understand how you'd mistake Ritz crackers, even with a lot of sugar and cinnamon, for apples.
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I got mine from the restaurant supply, as well, for I think $2 or $3 each.
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I've been hunting fruitlessly (ha ha) for weeks for rhubarb. Not at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market. Not at the Alemany (cheaper) farmer's market. Not at my local produce stand. Finally found some sad looking stalks at the local supermarket for $3/lb. I don't even think they had enough there for a pie.
Artichokes seem scarce so far this season, too.
But I am really, really jonesing for some rhubarb!
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Scratch, definitely, with one exception, and even then, one of these days, I will develop a more grown up version of the lemon jello cake my mom always made for me for my birthday that doesn't involve a box of lemon jello and a lemon cake mix.
I stopped making box cakes probably by the time I was 8 or so and ran out of the mixes from my Easy Bake Oven (their cakes were too small anyway). I loved poring through my mom's cookbooks for cake recipes (chocolate was a favorite). I did have a taste for the canned frosting, though, because I didn't like the extra work of melting squares of chocolate for the traditional American powdered sugar-based "buttercream."
I like cakes like genoise because you can control how sweet you make them by how much syrup (and how strong it is) you add. That and the versatility. Take a plain genoise, and you can transform it any number of ways depending on how you flavor the syrup and what you fill the cake with. Try that with a box mix.
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I want to add that I have found it easier to work with a partner when coating chocolate truffles. One person does the coating, then drops the coated truffle into the cocoa powder (or crushed nuts or whatever), and the other rolls it around in the coating. Less excess chocolate gets into the cocoa powder that way.
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And I hope that you have some style and can put together a nice outfit appropriate to you body.
Wendy, isn't that kind of irrelevant to whether or not the person can do the job? I admit to living in jeans and t-shirts these days because mostly the alternative for me (what's in my closet right now) is generally boring corporate clothes (button down shirts, a couple of pairs of slacks that I'm proud to say are too big for me right now). I guess it's an excuse to get something that's between the two.
As for my hair, mine is an odd length -- too long to be considered "short," and too short to pull back. When I'm working, I do wear a bandanna to keep it covered and out of my face. I would never, ever wear that to an interview.
Thanks for all the suggestions. Yes, I am looking for a pastry cook job, not a chef's position. My first interview is coming up on the 29th.
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For me, the hardest part about making an angel food cake has always been waiting for it to cool! (Though I loved, as a kid, that you had to set the pan upside down and that it wouldn't fall out).
I definitely say make your own. It's really not much more work than the box mix, and I find them much tastier. Angel food cake was the first thing I made after I got my KA stand mixer. Like others have said, use the yolks for lemon curd, bearnaise, hollandaise, or make mayonnaise, a custard, or crème brulée.
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I have a question, since I'm heading out to find my first pastry job, and it's my first non-corporate type job. What's considered appropriate dress? I'd feel silly walking into a restaurant kitchen in heels and a skirt, but are (clean) jeans out, too? Considering that most bakers wear some kind of uniform (whether it's a chef's uniform or the staff's in company t-shirts and aprons), the old adage, "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have," doesn't seem to quite apply here.
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Wendy, I really have to say I'm just overwhelmed by the stuff you create. It's all just tremendous.
So I have to ask, where do you find you get the most inspiration? You mentioned earlier that you read Pastry Art & Design & Chocolatier. Do you read other magazines & books for ideas as well?
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I have my grandmother's 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook. The cover's falling apart, but at least since it was put together as a binder, it holds the recipes in place pretty well. There are a lot of paper-clipped pages, or notes in the front of the book in her handwriting.
I also have my grandparents' popcorn popper. Every Sunday after church, they'd eat brunch or a heavy mid-day meal, so that they didn't really want dinner and would usually have popcorn while they watched shows like "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" or "Lawrence Welk." The popper is a rectangular metal (iron?) box, with long handle and a sliding lid. There's a depression with holes in it in the top where you'd place the pat of butter to melt as the corn started to pop. While I don't use it, it has always had a place of honor in my kitchen.
One of the only other things I have is Nana's tool for folding in egg whites. It's sort of like a whisk, but shaped differently. There's an oval ring of heavy gauge wire, crossed by wavy, coiled, thinner wires. Hmm. I can see I'm going to have to take a picture of this.
My mom has most of the other stuff, as well as my great-grandmother's cast iron skillet.
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This is what I get after 2 1/2 days with no internet access (I'd curse my provider except that they credited me a whole month). Four pages of pastry orgy. Wow, Wendy. The members of your CC don't know how lucky they have it! I can't believe you produce all of that by yourself.
Truly, truly gorgeous stuff, all of it. I wouuld like to know your whipped cream trick/technique, but maybe that's better left to the P/B forum?
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I personally don't find much of a difference in sleep patterns, weight, or general health depending on when I eat, but I tend not to eat much past about 9pm for the most part. If I'm eating later, I am also usually staying up later, too.
I'd agree with the women's mag theory that generally speaking, those who tend to eat a lot just before bed are more likely eating junk food or sweets, rather than a big plate of steamed veggies and a multi-grain roll.
It's probably another one of those "everybody knows it's true" myths that has some basis in reality, particularly for some people (like those who suffer from acid reflux), and it's been generalized to the entire population.
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One of the "fancy" desserts (a tart) my mom commonly made for dinner guests in the late 70's and 80's used canned pears on top of a sweetened cream cheese filling. They were glazed with apricot jam and topped with sliced almonds. If (gods forbid) I ever made this tart again (cuz it was kinda tasty if you like canned pears, which I used to), I'd torch the pears - great tip!
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There is definitely a difference in tone between Anne's two variations, and even if the employee had asked, "How do YOU crack an egg?" (meaning that he/she is asking for the point of clarity, not out of outright stupidity).
Whenever I have a question to ask, I always try to phrase it such that it's at least somewhat apparent that I'm asking because I want to do things the way the person I'm working with wants them done, not because I don't know how. I might have my own methodology, but they might have discovered some trick of production that I don't know (being new to production) or have a specific way they want something done.
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Arbucio,
I believe that the linen towel is called for to reduce sticking. In commercial bakeries (and for some of us who are nuts for bread), they use a piece of unbleached cloth to create the couche. These pieces of linen hold the flour in pretty well, and are never washed. After the bread is removed, they're hung up to dry out (they wick moisture away from the dough) and reused. Over time, you need less flour.
If you can, devote a towel to this purpose so that you can do the same thing. If you get really crazy about baking, you can buy a cloth from The Baker's Catalog.
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I actually prefer Diamond Crystal kosher, if you can find it. I like their flakes better than Morton's. My lame-ass supermarkets only carry small canisters of Diamond Crystal, but do carry the large boxes of Morton's.
I keep a container of it on the stove at all times. Great for quick seasoning.
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I would almost venture to say that my blow torch (the basic kind available at the hardware store) is just about my favorite gadget in the kitchen. There's something so very cool and industrial about it to me that I just love. When I use it to warm up a mold to remove it, here's this very practical, industrial tool being used to unveil a gorgeous dessert.
That, and I get to play with fire.
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I have some gooseberry patch type cookbook that someone gave me -- you know, homey recipes from some local women's group or something like that. Not as bad as having things like 7-up cake or the 7-layer salad that sits overnight in the fridge, but bad enough.
I did get Bourdain for Christmas and haven't made anything out of it yet, but that doesn't mean I won't. I'm afraid if I make it wrong he's going to come knocking on the door and grab the skillet out of my hand and bash me about the head with it, spouting a fountain of obscenities excoriating my cooking skills (or lack thereof)
cream cheese icing / frosting (inc buttercream)
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
So now there's a total of 8 oz. of butter in the mess, with really not much change. I've given up for the day and thrown it into the fridge. I don't know what I'm hoping will change overnight, but I hate to throw it out just yet.