JeanneCake

Hi, and a belated welcome http://mvpgroupcorp.com/hydra-kool/bakery-cases/ is a bakery case I bought two years ago, through the RD Store here in the US; the manufacturer is in Canada. The case look is exactly what I wanted - somewhat sleek, glass shelves, easy to clean. My experience with the RD store was horrible and I will never buy from them again. The case works. You cannot control the humidity in it, and it dries everything out - even though it is a case designed to store bakery items and pastry. We have to take everything out of the case each night and store it in our walk in cooler; and that time adds up. Be aware that a deli case cools from the bottom up; the shelves are cold and that cold radiates up; a bakery case circulates cold air. They are two very different things and many people will tell you they are interchangeable. They are not. There are many wonderful and knowledgeable chocolatiers here who I am sure will help you find other places to look. I myself might have a double Martellato guitar to sell (because I can't find a table for it, and I'm ready to give up. If I sell this, I can just buy a double Dedy and get it over with instead of pissing and moaning every other week when I'm trying to cut pate de fruit and getting the thing out, putting it away, wah, wah, wah :).)

You go girl! So happy for you! Years ago, when I started my business a neighbor was saying how someday they'd look across the street and see a van with the bakery name on it and he'd be able to say he knew me when...... I laughed right out loud. I bought a new refrigerated Metris van last week. So now it's your turn You GO girl!!

Then I would definitely not use it for this The Brazilian friends told me to look for DaFruta bottled passion juice concentrate in the spanish/latin foods (where the soda/juice is) aisle at the grocery store; I know that Goya has a frozen passion puree. I've only ever tried it with the bottled juice and that's a little thinner than the Perfect Puree so like @pastrygirl says, Perfect Puree will work if you can get it.

So, an update. It turns out the brand of mascarpone makes all the difference. We used Vermont Creamery today and the results were perfect: it was smooth, creamy, it didn't break or curdle. and we didn't even need the vet's glove (ok, we're still using the 20 qt for a few turns).

I think the syrup might be too sweet and might not set with the SCM; but depending on how much the syrup costs, you could experiment with it. I know when friends of ours mentioned this dessert (they're from Brazil) they were specific about using concentrate from the spanish foods aisle at the grocery store. Maybe you can try one can of SCM and half a can of the syrup and see what happens!

I haven't worked with Ultra-tex 8 so I don't have a way to relate to the texture issue. I thought about a key lime mousse pie, but you might be looking for that sharp lime flavor and then I started to wonder if a modification of a brazilian dessert might be helpful to you. You basically take "media cream" (in a can from the latin market, think of something similar to sweetened condensed milk for want of a quick definition) and combine it with passion juice concentrate in a blender. Generally it's a 1 can of cream to 1 can of passion concentrate but you can adjust it to suit your taste. Pour it into cups or verrines and chill for a few hours. I was going to suggest replacing the passion juice with lime juice to see if it might work for you.

Is there a preference for the no-bake option? (shape, size, presentation?) Meaning, do you need it to be no bake because of the facility, or it has to be egg free so using the Nellie and Joe's recipe isn't an option - that might help point us in a direction to guide you.

When we were having trouble with PdF, I ordered some apple pectin to try; that was the only time we've ever "burned" it. Turns out the apple pectin was meant for jam and not PdF so perhaps the pectin is part of your issue?

those are great aren't they! You've made me realize that I told her about the elastic bands we have for the rolling pins,and told her where I thought they were stores, but I bet they weren't in the drawer. I"m going to look for them tomorrow to see if they've been squirreled away. The squared dowels would work well and be easier to keep track of !! We roll cookie dough between sheets of parchment so we can just put them on sheet pans and take out however many sheets we need and those would be far easier to use. Have you seen that Do-Board contraption? That's big bucks for a toy you can mimic easily and for a lot less!

@gfweb - yes the intern is being paid. Here is a prime example of what I mean. She made chocolate cookie dough and I asked her to roll it thin and showed her. It was a little thick but these things can be hard to gauge, so I ask her to roll it thinner then we cut a sample to make sure it wouldn't spread when baked and could be used under a molded half sphere of mousse. I asked if she knew what Famous Wafers were (she doesn't) and I explain they are a very thin chocolate cookie and that's what I want for under the base of the mousse to make it easier to handle and plate. The few we test baked didn't spread (I rolled/cut them) and fit under the mousse and I tell how many we need, and when she had the cookies cut out ready to bake, I happened to look at them and told her to roll them thinner and to make them even (not taller on one side). I showed her what I meant with one and off she goes, the cookies get baked while I am out delivering and she boxes them up for storage. I go to unmold the mousse today and fit them to the cookies and they're still too thick! I can't remake them, there's not enough dough and I have to deliver them by 2. It's not earth shattering but why aren't schools teaching kitchen behavior - as in "Chef please show me what you want this to look like" and then after you do a few on your own, "Chef, would you like to check progress so far" or if you aren't getting the instruction you need, then show the chef what you produce the first few times and check in. Does no one teach checking in any more? Even if the chef *doesn't* check in, ASK! And for crying out loud, they're on their phones constantly checking things, you don't google Famous Wafers to see what they are? And for this, they think they should be paid?

So I've got a question for you who have interned, or are hosting an intern ..... today, our intern mentioned she'd *never* do an unpaid internship, a comment I found amusing (the discussion was about whether a certain extraordinary and supremely talented baker pays interns). It was amusing to me because clearly the intern had no idea how many, and how much, the intern's mistakes were costing me. Or how confounded I am, that despite me saying I wanted regular check ins, I find stuff partially done and I have to step in and try to salvage whatever's been done thus far. I am not someone who yells (that doesn't help anyone and just adds tension to the kitchen) so usually I just lean in and use a low voice to go over it. Again. The intern is coming along nicely and I do plan to offer an entry level position when graduation happens, but I'm just bemused that as an intern, you have no freaking clue what you don't know and yet you think your internship (the last semester of culinary school, I'm not talking about a stage) should be paid. (I don't want to be snarky here, but I want to add: Because you're bringing so much to the table with you? Your productivity is equal to that of people with more years of experience? Let me pay you to make mistakes?) ETA: the question - are you paying your culinary student intern? Did you get paid as a culinary intern?

I also don't think the pate a bombe method will be an accepted method where the health dept or a wholesale requirement is going to matter. I know there are organic liquid pasteurized whites, but other than Abbotsford Farms brand, I don't know that the liquid yolks are organic. What's the application (a product with no cooking) and who is the governing authority (are you doing mail order?) that you need to satisfy?

I did a google search for food testing services in NYC, and came up with this: http://foodtestinglab.com/food-testing.htm#BasePackages From the very very little I know from anecdotal stories, you submit a recipe/product and fees are based on the different tests they run. What tests are determined by what you are selling (potentially hazardous, non-potentially hazardous) and your local BOH requirements. I"m hoping your questions means you're about to go national

Is buying the pasteurized liquid yolks not a possibility? I can get them locally through a distributor or at Restaurant Depot. If you have a relationship with a chef, they might be willing to let you buy on their account. At Restaurant Depot, if there is one any where near you, you just need to show your business ID # and you can become a member (it's kind of like a wholesale club, but you have to have an active business to qualify for membership, and there is no membership fee).

Your response is coming across as grouchy. I'd say this cook had been left exposed by the Chef (who was not present at the time, and given the holiday, I venture to guess the Chef hadn't ordered much because of the restaurant and hotel closing for 3 days) and was more unhappy about not being paid for working past closing time on a holiday. That's something your post didn't mention.

I think JohnT and Lisa are on to something - the picture looks to me like a pastry version of hasselback potatoes (where you cut slices into a cooked potato then insert slices of cheese and then bake again). It looks like there could be a second egg wash after the apples are placed and then some crystal sugar to finish; I definitely hope those are not red apples! (more for the mush factor they would result in)

I loved her books; her writing was so inviting and her recipes are wonderful to work from. I have all of her cookbooks and realized yesterday how happy I was that I never loaned them out to friends who asked; because I feared not getting the book returned and not being able to replace them (I'm still annoyed at not getting back my copy of Jack Ubaldi's Meat Book after loaning it to a chef-in-training. And Nick Malgieri's Great Italian Desserts). I am glad her spirit will live on in her writing and she will continue to bring joy, by way of cooking, into the lives of her fans.

Can we ask them to just go back to coffee, please? Knock it off with the food already. Or go back to just the large cookies (I had a molasses cookie there that was ok) I had a "bistro box" once about a year ago and it was not at all good. It was well within the sell by date, but the "wrap" pieces were soggy, the grapes were mushy and I don't remember what there was for a sweet, or even if there was one. At something along the lines of $5 or $6 to boot it was an utter waste of money. I did have an almond croissant there that was decent (for what it was. I'm not comparing it to a freshly made croissant obviously but for something made far away and shipped in, it wasn't bad. Way better than that bistro box, to be sure!) I haven't seen these "pies" here in the US so do let us know if you try it!

I would do a google search for Wowie Cake; it's an eggless chocolate cake (best made with Hershey's Cocoa not the more expensive cocoas - it will still work if all you have is a high quality cooca powder but it's not necessary) and you can add chopped oreo cookies to it. My mom made this all the time when we were growing up and I use it as the vegan chocolate cake in our bakery. It also works as a vanilla cake if you sub out almond or hazelnut flour equally for measure for the cocoa (as long as you can have nuts, that is).

I don't sell chocolates, I'm in the pastry/dessert side and we sell to caterers, restaurants, etc and have a small retail (very small) space. Most "wholesale" clients are asking for 20% off and that depends on the volume they do. If you want 20% off my retail for a wedding cake and you're only going to order 5 cakes over the course of a year, then no, that doesn't qualify for 20% off. If that number goes to 100, well then yes, that makes it worthwhile for me to discount the retail price. When I sell to gourmet shops, I have to consider that their customers may overlap my area and if someone walks into the shop and sees I'm selling a flourless chocolate cake for $38 and the gourmet store wants to sell it for $50 that's a problem. (Mostly for them because I can't control their margin/markup requirements. You sell for what the market will bear, and your margin on different items is going to be different, which means the markup is going to be different. I can't get $50 for that cake in the town I'm in; but in a more affluent town, it could very well be considered a bargain at $50!!) Something I've heard other vendors mention is buy-back - if something doesn't sell do you buy it back or not? How do you handle problems (quality, storage, shelf life, missed deliveries, missed deadlines - meaning they don't get their order in to you on time and now you charge a rush fee to fulfill an order)?

I didn't want the Pectin NH and I told the rep that; she checked with the corporate pastry chefs and was told that's what to sell for PDF..... the apple pectin I got (from the same distributor as the Boiron) is from Pastry Star and normally I won't buy anything from that brand (I've been disappointed too many times in the past) and now that you say it, Kerry, I strongly suspect it's for jam!

If it's ok, I'd like to hijack the thread back to a traditional PdF and my troubles We bought a jar of pectin last summer from AUI, and it worked ok for a few flavors but it didn't set as firmly as I would prefer but we didn't get a lot of orders for Pdf so our interest waned a bit. Then since Christmas, we've had orders for assorted mignardises and I got a lot of Boiron purees (local distributor). It's been nothing but trouble (guava doesn't set up At All), raspberry set up but just barely and it was frustrating for the staff making it so I got in some apple pectin and that made things far worse. Completely and utterly ruined a batch of blackberry, cassis and another flavor that I can't remember using the apple pectin. On Saturday we got in an order from AUI and they are now selling the Sosa line from Spain and the rep suggested we use their Fruit Pectin NH so I got a jar. The staff pulled out a Mandarine Orange for me so I could make a batch this morning before having to leave for an event; but they didn't realize they needed to pull a Pear as well (the Boiron recipes specify using Apricot or Pear as a base for some flavors like Passionfruit, Mandarine, kalamansi...) anyway. I went back tonight to make it. At one point I was ready to fling the pot into the trash - it was only 325 gm of pear, brought to a boil, then adding sugar/pectin, and then in stages adding a total of 1550 gm of sugar (and after that is incorporated, you add the glucose then 1000gm of warm Mandarine puree). That is so much sugar for the little that was in the pot and I struggled after only adding a third of the sugar and ended up scorching some of the sugar (I was using an induction). It was a nightmare but I kept stirring and then in desperation because it needed more fluid added the glucose before all the sugar was added. It all came together in the end; even though I forgot the tartaric acid (fortunately I remembered that as I was pouring it into the pan and put it back in the pot and brought it back to 225 and then added the acid). The rep said that the Sosa fruit pectin is thermo-reversible so I knew putting it back on the heat wouldn't mess things up. It set up really well in an hour so I'm not expecting any problems when I cut it up tomorrow. What I noticed is that the Boiron recipes suggest the use of "pectin E440" and this Sosa product has (among other things in it) "pectin e44011" and now I want to know more about that. Can anyone elaborate please?

It's a GE Advantium over the range "oven" and it has separate selections for convection bake and speed cook. I used the convection bake feature when I first got the oven a few years back, and I just didn't like how long it took to cool down (and I own a bakery with commercial convection ovens so this isn't something I should have even batted an eye over!); then I discovered the speed cook function, and well who needs convection bake anyway! For what it cost, it does a lot more than I ultimately ended up using it for.

We have a combo convection/uwave. I like it best for the speed cook function - being able to cook a casserole in half the time for example, without heating up the oven (or waiting for it to preheat). I don't use it for baking, and I don't use it as an "oven" per se - and if something were to happen to it, I would replace it with the same thing. The usual uwave functions are there (cooking fresh or frozen veg, potatoes, reheating a serving, there's even a bacon setting that can make an unholy mess in the uwave if someone tries to cook more strips than you're supposed to (leaving child's name out!) The speed cook function kind of reminds me of the InstaPot - I can cook something faster with that speed cook setting than I would in a conventional oven and that for me is worth it.

I hope your father in law had a wonderful birthday! I also second the recommendation for the Silver Palate recipe. I make it with a few changes: I use vegetable oil instead of corn oil, make sure the pineapple is well drained, I use chopped pecans instead of walnuts and I've won "best dessert" type contests with the recipe. Later versions of the recipe cut down the sugar a little but I like the original version best. It scales up and down easily (I can get a 4x batch to fit in our 20 qt Hobart with a little room to spare). And also from personal experience: don't forget the vanilla, you'll notice it (yes, I was surprised too). Don't mess up the baking soda (too much or too little or you forget it altogether - I have done all three on separate occasions and you don't want to do that). Peel the carrots before you cook/puree them (I didn't think this would make that much of a difference but it did and I will never not peel the carrots again). You can leave out the nuts or the coconut but not both (one of the nice things about this cake is the texture). Don't leave out the pineapple; while you won't really notice it unless there are huge chunks, you need it for the moisture. This cake really does turn non-believers into believers