JeanneCake

double pans will do the same thing

are you doing the usual, spinning the pans, changing the pan position (top to middle, middle to bottom, bottom to top or some combination thereof)? Will your oven fit a three-quarters sheet pan? It is not as large as a sheet pan used in commercial kitchens, but is bigger than a half sheet pan. I bought a dozen or so years ago, and use them at home because they don't fit on the speed racks at work You might end up having to bake two of these size pans at a time, rather than three smaller pans.

I have more luck with choux paste when it cooks longer on the stove after the ball forms - 4 to 5 minutes minimum. This "dries" out the dough so you can add eggs; sometimes the amount of eggs is variable. I use my friend Annie's method of adding first the yolk, testing the batter and then if it needs more egg, adding the white and so on. My favorite choux recipe is from Pichet Ong and it's the only one I use now. I'm sure you could use that recipe and just adapt it by adding a little more dairy at the end so it flows better and is spreadable on the waffle iron....

I think it might have been RLB who popularized the use of the word "mousseline" in naming her IMBC when The Cake Bible was published in 1988 and that may be when a lot of people started calling IMBC a mousseline buttercream and it's just become part of the vernacular after 20 or so years.

Everything everyone has said so far, and you want to identify where your potential customers are currently buying products. If they're getting frozen stuff from a Sysco or other place, you need to know how to compete on price and product variety.

I can't help but wonder if the whole point was to weed out the wannabees and recent culinary school graduates; I get what they want and what they're looking for. If you turn away from the ad thinking you don't want to work there, you haven't wasted anyone's time (yours and theirs). I don't think I agree about calling in sick part but I absolutely love the efficiency bullet and the observant bullet.

French breakfast radishes Rainbow carrots golden cippolini onions japanese turnips

What size tart are you making? Does it crack only in the center? Or is it shrinking from the edge? Or both? When you make the lemon curd, do you pour it directly into the tart shell and then cool and refrigerate or do you bake it for a few minutes? Do all of the tarts crack or just some of them?

I like "teacakes" - hope they use it for their project....

the amount of water will make a difference; in RLB's baking blog, she notes that the fondant seemed dry and kneading in small amounts of water helped return it to a workable state. So maybe that scant ounce of water will make a difference (between the 1/3 cup your recipe listed and the 1/2 cup the recipe called for). I can say I've made it and not had trouble, but it was so long ago that I cannot give you any pointers. We buy Bakel's Pettinice chocolate fondant at work, we can't keep up with the amounts we need making it by hand

I agree about the all metal one; if you should run across one in your travels, please keep me in mind. There's nothing in my area on ebay or craigslist at the moment but will keep looking.

I'm curious about where to find used confectionery equipment; like everyone else, I'm thinking of getting a guitar (for cutting pate de fruit, marshmallows, petit fours) but I wonder if buying a used machine - if one were to be found - is a good idea. Do you have a dealer you'd recommend? What say you all?

Another possibility is to modify a blondie recipe (a little like brownies but with brown sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla); my favorite recipe is from Maida Heatter in her Great American Desserts book for California Fruit Bars. As I recall, you melt butter and brown sugar and then add eggs, vanilla, salt and flour. And steamed dried fruit and pecans (or all pecans). I've made this with cherries and hazelnuts; kind of chewy, and sort of butterscotchy; on the thin side (about a half inch high) but no matter what you put in it, it's really good!

It has been hinted that I am going to get a Valentine's gift of a coffee maker (my child is not good at keeping quiet) since the one I had on the counter isn't working any more. Usually I make coffee if I am home or having guests so while I want something useful, coffee is not a religion in my house so the single cup thing would be ok.. I make coffee at home once or twice a week at most and I'm told that they were looking at the Starbucks one (because they had hot chocolate there today). If I need to do some hinting of my own between a Nespresso, Starbucks Verismo and the Keurig, which one should I start gushing about (because that's what will be in the box . No chocolates for me this year!)

Some of the favorites from my non-professional cooking days were from Maida Heatter's books - the California Fruit Bars (also the Pecan Bars version); the Oreo Sour Cream Cake (a white sour cream cake with chopped oreos - you pour some of the batter in the bundt pan, sprinkle in chopped oreos, put the rest of the batter in, then glaze with chocolate after cooling), her Bran Muffins (don't laugh, these are awesome. Use walnut halves, not chopped walnuts and use golden raisins.) for cookies, go for the Chocolate Gobs (Best American Desserts) or Mulattoes (her first book). Rose Levy Beranbaum's pecan tarts, hazelnut Linzer (try it with apricot jam intead of seedless raspberry, it's fantastic), the key lime pie from the bottle of Nellie and Joe's key lime juice....

No, that's the thing. It's a supporting beam (or whatever they're called) and I think this is going to be a dealbreaker. I don't want a cooler that is only 4 feet wide and I don't want it to be the big square in the center of the space. Sigh. It's always something. This is a great retail space, too.

So I'm considering new space; and the challenge is that there are four steel poles that are about 4 or 5 feet away from the corners at each point. I need to install a walk in cooler; and I've got the panels, etc (I'll need to buy a new compressor). I'm thinking that I can't install a cooler with one of those poles in the corner of it because the ceiling panel of the cooler would have to have a hole cut in it then sealed around the pole and that could be a problem. Yes? No? Has anyone done this before? Can it work?

When making key lime pie, I always use the pasteurized yolks, and I use .62 oz of the carton stuff to replace 3 large fresh yolks, so if you were to use about 15-17 grams or .2 oz per large yolk that would probably be ok. I use the pasteurized yolks for this recipe only because there's so little cooking involved - the acidity of the lime juice is what is setting the mix not necessarily the heat.

I've seen similar results when using pasteurized yolks when making fruit curd - compared to using shell eggs, the 'set" in the curd is much softer with the carton stuff. I don't know why that is; i wonder if some of the proteins are neutralized during processing. I know this isn't much help, sorry

Can you describe the scones? Or buy one and take a photo to post? You might be able to add rehydrated apple chips to a rich scone recipe or otherwise modify your favorite type of scone to include apples....

I am considering buying a large and small for each of the chefs at my major accounts as a thank you gift for their business over the past year. Is it lame? Or would make a well appreciated gift?

You could sugar them (paint a very thin layer of egg white, and dredge in sugar, let dry) and then use them in mendiants or as decoration for future desserts. Stored airtight they will last quite a long time; but if there's any moisture they'll develop mold. You could store them with a dessisicant packet in them for insurance.

Our go to formula for most of the ganache we use (cake filling, outside coat on cake) is 2# chopped chocolate or callets - we use bittersweet choc, usually a 60% - 8 butter in with the chocolate. Then in a pot, 2# heavy cream (40%). If we are using it for tarts where we'd like to to maintain a gloss for a few hours, I'll sub an ounce or two of corn syrup for an ounce of 2 of cream. Bring to a rolling boil (as in climbing the pot) then pour over the chocolate/butter. Let it sit for a minute or so, then stir very gently with a whisk. Then leave it alone!

You can also use food color pens on a pastillage (or gum paste) plaque.

I have two different lemon curd recipes; one that uses only yolks (we call it cake curd because we use it as a component in our lemon cakes - spreading on the cake, and flavoring the buttercream) and the other (we call it tart curd because we pour it into tart shells) that uses whole eggs and some additional yolks. The cake curd sets firmer than the tart curd; and to my taste is a far stronger lemon punch (all those yolks are fat, and fat carries flavor....). I don't like the cake curd in a tart shell, though for exactly that reason. In our cheesecake, if I want to make it a little firmer without resorting to adding (any, or more) cornstarch or flour (only the pumpkin cheesecake has any flour in it actually), especially when I'm trying to make cheesecake pops, I replace one of the whole eggs with two yolks. If I get cocky and think I need it to be a littler firmer and add an extra yolk "just because", I am rewarded with a too-tough texture and end up making little cheesecake superballs that can take your eye out!