JeanneCake

Years ago, my friend Annie AKA Chefpeon was testing Pichet Ong's pate a choux recipe (it's fantastic. I'll even eat it plain it's that good). Like teonzo, she cautions that the amount of egg is always variable, and dependent on how much you cook it, and how much you let it mix (to release the steam). If she thought it needed more egg, she added the yolk first and then tested the dough again; adding the white if it needed it. Using teonzo's method you'd just add more of the mixed egg in spoonfuls as needed. I've been thinking eggs are getting smaller over the years; I have several recipes that call for a dozen large eggs, and for the last five or so years, I'm getting a different yield from the recipe, all other things being equal.

If you're looking for commercial use, try Amoretti. They are based in California and they are very helpful and offer a wide variety of flavoring options - for hot/cold beverages, baked goods..... You can buy by the ounce or the barrel. We use some of their compounds and I've been very pleased with what I've tried. It might be an option for you. I've heard they are moving toward serving the consumer market as well in the future; perhaps in the new year.

I've been baking a creamier style cheesecake in my convection ovens for years, and I typically do individual 3 inch rings and only the larger sizes (8, 9 or 10 inch rounds) during the holidays. I'm not using a bain marie for the individuals, but I do with the larger sizes. I don't use the buttered parchment circles on top. I've found I need to lower the temp - for the rings I'm baking at 250 (the oven runs a little hot so the oven thermometer reads around 275) for about 30 minutes then letting them sit in the turned-off oven. I tend to get more air bubbles, not any pitting; and I would say that maybe the bubbles could look like craters. We're making some individuals this week so I will take pictures if I am there when they get made.

Pitted in what way? large air pockets or small bubbles? Is this a dense cheesecake recipe? (as in, NY Style?) Had you been having problems with it baking before? Did this method give you an improvement or no change as far as consistency/cracking/etc? I guess I'm trying to figure out if the pitting is new with this method (with the paper) or if it always happened and the paper made no difference.

Our local fishmonger closed up shop when rents became too exorbitant in our town; but now he runs a "shore to door" entity. So I can still get the amazing fish he sold, but I can only get it on Tuesdays and Fridays. It's worth planning ahead. I'm north of Boston (the fishmonger is out of Gloucester) so if you're interested in his info, PM me.

OK, we need to find someone who works at the Chiko Roll factory... LOL!

So I was browsing the Chef Rubber site today and came across this in the food additive section, and I immediately thought of this thread. I have no idea what this stuff is, or what it does (or doesn't do), but it strikes me as one of those things that a commercial operation would have that is not available to the average home cook. While it's possible that Chef Rubber probably ships internationally, there has to be some equivalent type of distributor or specialty trade retailer who is closer to you....? https://shop.chefrubber.com/item/501026S/Crisp-Coat/

I'd paint the plastique with a little thinned corn syrup if you want to make it shiny - not too much, just the thinnest possible coating. Kind of like the clear edible glue they use for fondant, but you don't have to source it. the film strip on the pictured cake is quite thin (narrow) and putting holes in something that small is going to make you crazy. Can you make it wider so you aren't cross-eyed after? Not that running a dark chocolate line to mark the sections and top/bottom is going to be any more fun If you were to do that, then I'd just do tiny dots in white for the edges.

you could also use modeling chocolate, also known as "chocolate plastic", chocolate plastique, or candy clay. You can even make it yourself, there's lots of recipes. There's a very old thread somewhere here about it too. You're basically seizing melted chocolate with warmed corn syrup and mixing it; it will stiffen and firm up then you can roll it and shape it just as you would fondant, except it's not fondant You can curve and curl it just like a strip of film....

I've never done this myself, so I have no experience to offer - however..... A few years ago, people were doing "surprize inside" cakes where they made cake batter, colored it, then (slightly under)baked it in that cake ball pan. You then baked another cake, and placed half the batter in a pan, placed the baked cake balls in, then poured the rest of the batter over said cake balls, then bake as usual. One of my favorite Maida Heatter recipes is the chocolate brownie cheesecake - you bake a pan of brownies, cut them into small-ish cubes, then add it to a vanilla cheesecake. It's fantastic! So, presumably you could do the same with brownies in your usual cake batter. Unbaked cookie dough, I'm not sure about.

Ok, here's what Kerekes has: http://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=9534&categoryid=110 and they have a pullman loaf but it looks bigger than what you want: http://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=254&categoryid=110 This is from King Arthur https://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/canape-bread-tubes Maybe those will help?

all I can think of when I see the video and when I looked at the stock photos Kerry posted earlier in the thread - is bread! As if a thin slice of a pullman-like loaf was rolled out a little bit more then wrapped around the filling and the ends left exposed. It's too rough to have been rolled on a silpat (there's no tell-tale signs of the crosshatch pattern of a silpat anyway) but I still think that there's some industrial rollers sheeting a dough, then it gets cut/filled and then rolled to "seal" before being whisked through a bath of something (are these fully cooked when you get them and you're just heating them through (I admit, I just scrolled to the good part of the video and didn't watch all ten minutes of it

I have two favorite cookie books: Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies (the first one); and Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The Christmas cookie book has excellent recipes for biscotti (hers is an oil based dough, which is a great keeper), moravian spice thins, gingerbread, lebkuchen, and springerle. I have several favorites from Maida Heatter's book - chocolate gobs, coconut washboards, there's a fig newton style cookie with apricot instead of fig. If you are able to only get one book, get the RLB christmas cookie book though.

gingerbread will definitely work, so will biscotti (even though biscotti aren't usually a festive holiday cookie); you could also do lebkuchen. And Moravian spice thins.

you're comparing something made on a large-scale commercial basis with something you want to make at home? That, in and of itself, is a challenge. Commercial operations have vastly different equipment that gives results you just can't duplicate in a home kitchen.

For what it's worth, the apple cake in Payard's first book is wonderful. It took me a while to figure out how he was trying to explain arranging the apple slices in the loaf pan; but the cake itself is terrific. Now if only I could find my copy of the book, I could make it again....

Yes, get the casters. What KitchenQueen said! I have a bakery, and everything is on wheels so we can move things (tables, shelving, the convection ovens, the display case - the only thing not on wheels is the 30 qt Hobart) around to clean. At least for me, another advantage is the caster raises the lowest shelf to the 6-inch floor clearance required by the BOH. If you are doing your own version of Metro shelving, get the heavy-duty casters. You don't want to have filmsy casters. They'll bend over time.

I've had a two door True reach in (he 49 cubic foot one) in my basement for the last 13ish years. I got it because it was an easy way for me to bring orders home and store them safely and appropriately so I could deliver them first thing in the morning to the gourmet shop less than a mile from my house that were selling my products (the kitchen I was renting was 30 mins away so that hour saved was precious - yes, it's loud. Yes, you can't re-arrange the shelving as easily. If you need service, you have to call a commercial refrigeration company. I particularly loved the Arctic Air freezer I had before it died; it was bigger than any consumer model. I wish I could get another one.

Ugh. It's as if he wants to be known as the historian for a simpler, perhaps long lost, New England way of life. Pick one: write or cook. I don't remember the very early editions of CI as having these essays in the front that were a hallmark of the later years. I do remember, when reading those first few issues, that I felt like I was reading the cooking equivalent of Consumer Reports, where someone researched (too) many ways to cook a dish and reported the results. Those early issues were interesting, and a few friends subscribed and we'd talk about what they did and cook the dishes to compare their taste to our own. I still use one or two of the recipes now (the rice pudding comes to mind) and someone got me one of the year-end books as a holiday gift. But then they started sounding presumptuous, and repeating topics; and then there was a book, and another book, and the TV show, and ... and ugh. Enough already. Just retire!

Hmmm. When I read the topic title, all I thought of was the simplicity of a well made tart crust and a wonderful lemon curd filling. And maybe some blueberries on the plate for color. Then I read Lisa's take on it, and thought, why not put a quenelle of meringue on the plate and torch that. And then my mind wandered (ok, it's a big leap) to Jim Dodge's whole fresh raspberries in creme brulee (at least, I think it was he who did that, while he was at the Stanford Court?) and I thought why not hide a few perfect blueberries or raspberries under the lemon curd....

I went and clicked on the link. Eww was my first reaction, but I should admit that I have never bought a package of the pie crust stuff (and nor have I bought the stuff in the cans that you smash against the counter and it splits open. I don't know what it is (biscuits?) but if it's going to behave like that snake-in-a-can toy, you shouldn't eat it. And that last photo doesn't even show the crust, so what's the point? Lisa's right - I vote make your own spiced crust too.

What she said. ^^^

Or try places that have a kitchen for their own use, such as a church or banquet facility amd approach them about renting their space. Here in the US we have lots of function halls that are run by VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), Knights of Columbus, and other social groups that have kitchens that are idle when there is no function. (Some halls offer lunch service but most have bars and a limited pub menu for their members and a larger space for social gatherings with the kitchen.) I don't know if you have the same licensing issues that we have here in the US, with a Board of Health to inspect and issue permits to operate a food business; and a Planning or Building Inspector that issues permits for businesses... that sort of thing.... but that's also a possible source for places that might be willing to rent out space.

I love his recipe too, it's my favorite. I'd experiment by replacing 1/6th of the flour with cocoa (this is the ratio I use for my chocolate rolled butter cookies so that's where I'd start the experimenting).

When I was choosing ovens, I called a few repair places and asked them what manufacturers and models they received the most calls for. I ended up choosing Blodgett and didn't get swayed into buying the very inexpensive (by comparison) Beverage Air (or something Air). It's also how I found out that the local place, which pretty much has a monopoly on repairs for the surrounding 100 miles or so, won't service Hobart. Hobart will charge $185 *just to show up* (they call it a travel fee!) and $200/hr, 1 hr minimum. If they "can't fix the problem in the first visit, they won't impose a second travel fee." I should have learned how to fix Hobart machines!!!