JeanneCake

I just spritz my styrofoam dummies with water to get the fondant to adhere; shake off the excess water and then apply the fondant to the styrofoam and smooth it...

I've always thought of "pearl dusts" as having a lustrous, luminous finish with an undertone of the color named (e.g., gold pearl has a gold sheen, super pearl is white, red pearl has a red shimmer). The "luster dust" has the same shimmery finish, but a distinct color. Petal dusts don't have any shimmer at all, it's just the flat color. Usually I mix them with lemon extract to paint on fondant cakes or or flowers, some people use vodka; I find the lemon extract dries faster for me than the vodka. But vodka is good for correcting mistakes I buy them from Pfeil and Holing (www.cakedeco.com), Avalon (www.avalondeco.com), Cal-Java (www.caljava-online.com), Global Sugar Art (www.globalsugarart.com)

What if you did smaller display cakes and put them on pedestals? Instead of going with a 12/10/8/6 dummy, go with 8/6/4 and then get a plastic or foam pedestal (you could find something at a floral distributor) so it can be elevated on the table. Maybe use it as the giveaway at the end of the show to people who book an appointment with you. Would you be willing to consider using a cone instead of round stacked cake dummies (sort of like a piece montee/croquembouche)? That might use less product.

RLB always has a chart in her books with ingredients listed by volume, by weight (avoirdupois) and in metric (grams) - perhaps start with her recipe and use her chart for comparison when you bake from the other recipes...

My father's mother was a suberb cook; she taught my mother and then me. Dinner was every Sunday at her house and there were a dozen of us around the table. There's a picture somewhere in the family albums of me in a high chair rolling meatballs in her kitchen. She didn't bake frequently, though; when she did it was biscotti (my Nonno's favorite) and S cookies and like everything else - done in mass quantities so it would last for a month. Ravioli were every few weeks, hundreds and hundreds of them that would take the entire day in my parent's kitchen (It was just a little bigger than hers) and more than once I was found asleep in the hallway where I had snuck out of bed so I could watch my parents and grandparents at work.

I would love to have the recipe too please.

There's a way around this; use a magnet on the outside of the cage. When I got my 30 quart it was the first thing I did (figure out how to swing the cage around so I could pour hot syrup in without the cage being locked in place). Then it seems that someone mentioned it to the tech working on the mixer one day and now I don't need the magnet anymore....

I am reading the OP as describing an individual choux puff. So to that end, I've seen some pastry chefs use a thin sweet dough, rolled very thin, placed on top of an individual choux puff before baking. I'm trying to remember where I saw this, possibly it was in Herme's dessert book but I will have to find the book to check. St Honore usually has caramel dipped puffs along the edge of the round but it could be plain puffs as well.

I freeze the unfilled shells all the time; I put them flat sides together in a fish tub (think tupperware or rubbermaid airtight container) and line them up and then freeze them. I fill them immediately after taking them from the freezer and then store the filled ones in the cooler (same way, in the fish tub, airtight) for a day. I tell the customer the shelf life is 3 days max.

Depending on the conditions in your walk in (humid or not) the shells might change color (this happened to me in the summer when I moved and got a new walk that needed to be tweaked a bit); I would put them in fish buckets lined with parchment or deli paper and go from there. Herme ages his macs in the cooler for a day; and I've stored completed ones in the freezer (in fish tubs but I wrap them with plastic wrap) for a week so I think you'll be fine!

The beater blade company is not going to make a scraper paddle for the 7 qt KA (I've asked them twice and Rose Levy Beranbaum asked on her blog and they said no) but I've found the beater blade at Home Goods. They don't have it all the time, but you could ask them to hold one for you the next time they get some in....if you have them in your area.

Hmmm... I might have to include myself in this gift list One of the intended recipients says he's not a gadget chef and likes home made things, but since I'm a pastry chef, that's like bringing coals to Newcastle.... thank you for posting this, much appreciated!

In Pierre Herme's book (Macaron) he has a few savory recipes; the majority are sweet but the savory recipes might be inspiration for you to create new flavors...

I am so enjoying this; thank you for writing!

so any ideas on (genuine) thermapens at the best price? So far all I've found is $96 on the thermoworks site, if you buy 5, it's $85/each.

I like all of these suggestions! I wish the thermapen was cheaper, maybe I just buy for the execs and do something else for the chef de cuisines. The book looks *really* cool, the same for the paddles (the spoons I mentioned for last year's gift had the chef's name engraved on them so they couldn't get "lost" and the paddles would have space on the handles for their names......

Roland Mesnier has a recipe for stove top creme brulee in his book, Dessert University. I've used it (there are several varieties: orange, vanilla and champagne) and it's fine; as you would imagine, the texture is different than a baked version. (To my taste, it is less silky. I use it when I have to for exactly the reason Pam R lists.) I don't know if the recipe is on his website or not, but you could probably find it by googling it.

I saw her husband's post on Facebook this morning, and expressed my condolences; then kept hoping maybe it was not true. Which is why I came here, hoping against hope but no. It's true. Her writing style, to me poetic and lyrical - made her books and recipes so much more appealing and inviting. I don't like losing my heroes. Now I fear the loss of Maida Heatter, since she is older than Ms Hazan and completely and utterly eschews technology. I am going to spend the afternoon going through all my Marcella books and choose something to make for dinner tonight to celebrate a life well lived.

We have a par system for the basics: curds, simple syrup, caramel, sauces, purees, etc and the most popular items our clients order (macaron shells, chocolate decadence, cheesecake pops). We have white boards on the outside of the cooler and freezer. Everyone contributes when something is getting low by writing it on the white board, and there is a white board on the outside of the freezer also lists current inventory for the stuff we have to maintain. Same for paper (boxes, cardboards, cupcake liners) and supplies (like heath bar or cocoa) so when it's low, it goes on the board so it can be replenished. One person (me) is responsible for writing up the daily prep sheets for the week and usually we have one day (Tuesday) that we do the bulk of the restocking for basics because it's not a heavy production day. I can look at the board outside the freezer and know that if we have less than 50 individual Decadence in the freezer, we should make another batch to have on hand and make that part of the prep list for a day.

I know what you mean about price; the spoons were great because it wasn't "too much" (they were $10 each) but enough so that they would not have bought it for themselves. So while I can't afford to spend $50 each on something (i again need about a dozen), a list would be a very good thing The tastevin would be good for the venue director since she mostly deals with the wine inventory but I don't have a lot of interaction with her; and they don't do any modernist dishes

I need ideas for corporate gifts this year; last year I gave the chef at each of my biggest accounts an engraved Kunz sauce spoon, which was very much appreciated. This year, I want to do something similar but I don't know how to top last year's gift. With the possible exception of the perforated Kunz spoon, but honestly, how often are you using a perforated spoon? So...Any ideas? What kind of thing would you want to have in your bag of tricks at work?

Petite Suisse Monteberg cheese (the fruit ones, which my son inhales) and the chocolate ones, which I inhale Vegetable sushi Shrimp with rice in tofu "pouches" Because I was just impulse buying when all I really needed was veggies and lettuce for salad.

You might have just had too much mix in the pie shell. The recipe on the bottle (which we've used for at least 10 years) has the amounts KaffeeKlatch listed as for one 9" shell. When using pasteurized carton yolks, I err on the side of a little bit more (e.g., one yolk weighs .67 ounce so I use .75 for ease of measuring).

I might start experimenting with this for a winter dessert option. Thanks!

I am curious about the possibility of using this as a dessert item for our accounts; how long can the unsoaked baba be held? In the cooler or freezer? I'm thinking that if the babas can hold for two days before delivery and the client soaks to order, it could work, and be a nice change of pace.