albert_crowley

I'm not a professional baker, but I have taken some classes. As far as I know, there isn't any problem with increasing or decreasing a recipe in theory. The thing to remember is that the more you scale your recipie the more rounding error will creep into the final result....especially for the smaller quantity items. For example, in a single batch recipe you might use "1/2 teaspoon" of baking powerder...but really the perfect recipe would have .4 teaspons. If you quintuple the batch and put in 2.5 teaspoons, you are now have an extra .5 teaspoons that you don't really want in there...which might or might not be a problem, but using just 2 teaspoons would be perfect. If you have a very accurate recepie measured in grams rather than teaspoons and whole egges and such you will probably have better luck making multiple batches at one go. If you want to make a really big batch, say 4x your normal, you could try finding a large quanity recipie and cutting it down by half rather than multiplying a small recipe by 4. -Al

I'm a real chocolate lover, but I also like pecan pie quite a bit. One Thanksgiving, my sister made the best pecan pie I ever ate. It was exactly the same recipe that she always used except that she poured a 1/4 inch thick layer of melted chocolate over the crust before putting in the pecan filling. After the pie was cooled she drizzeled a small amount of chocolate on the top in a decorative pattern. She thought it had too much chocolate, but I thought it was just perfect. If he really likes chocolate (or at least as much as I like chocolate), doing this will improve whatever recipe you end up making. -Al

This might not be helpful if you are already getting your stuff there but... In my area (Cape May County, NJ) there are a lot of generic uniform stores that have really good prices on a wide variety of Chef's jackets and pants and whatnot. There are a few that will do free embroidery if you need your name sewn on. Granted, there is a pretty large cullinary school nearby, but I would immagine that most uniform stores around the country will have at least some selection. You should be able to find a few places in your phone book. Call 'em up and see what prices you can get.

I have noticed that my particular oven seems to vent out the steam pretty quickly so what I do is this: Just before putting the loaves in the oven I pour a few cups of simmering water into a 13x9 glass dish and put that on the bottom rack of the oven. The loaves go on the middle rack above the water. When I want to remove the steam, I just pull the glass dish out and finish baking. I'm not an expert, but the bread I make at home using this method seem to come out pretty well. The crumb develops very nicely and the spring is pretty good....not as much spring as I get at school with the comercial ovens, but better than nothing! -Al