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JeanneCake

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Everything posted by JeanneCake

  1. My usual batch size is 30 oz of whites to 6# of butter. I add the syrup on speed 3 (hobart) and let it cool for about 8? 10? mins at speed 2. I know when the meringue starts to climb on the beaters that it is too cool. To test, I put the inside of my wrist against the bottom of the bowl and if it can stay there comfortably, I know it's time to add the butter. If your butter is cool - not soft - then you can start adding it sooner, while the meringue is still warm-ish. If your butter is squishy soft (all these techical terms, I know!) then wait until the meringue is cool to the wrist before you start adding it. When I make small batches in the KA, I beat the whites with a whip at speed 6 - add the syrup while on speed 8, then back to 6. If it seems to be taking a long time, I can go to speed 4, but I very rarely have to do that. If you are really bothered by the sugar crusting on the sides, wash the pan down with a pastry brush dipped in water to help minimize it (I don't, I just live with it). The amount of buttercream you end up with is supposed to have a correlation to the amount of syrup added to the whites; I usually get 10.5- sometimes 11 pounds of buttercream to my 6# of butter batches.
  2. Over the years, I've learned that I can use a probe-type thermometer in the sugar syrup - set the alarm to go off at 244 or 246 and the syrup will be at 248 by the time you pour it in. I have to walk about 15 steps in the shop from the stove to the mixer and if I let the alarm go off at 248, the syrup could get to 250 or higher by the time I poured the syrup in. There's no discernable difference by pulling it off the flame at the lower temp. I started doing this when the little bits of hardened sugar that show up when you add melted chocolate to the buttercream really bothered me. I thought it might have something to do with the temp of the sugar, so I started to pull it off the heat at 246 and I don't see those little white flecks anymore. But I still get steam! I have successfully added the 3 oz of liqueur to the buttercream but I don't like how "hot" it tastes with that much alcohol so I don't usually add that much. The only time I can get away with the full 3oz is with Bailey's Irish Cream - anything else like Amaretto or Grand Marnier seems to get "hot" with that much of it added. Thanks Ruth for taking the time to put together the demo....
  3. The angle on these particular letters remind me of a candy mold I have stashed away somewhere - it is a three part mold with initial caps and the smaller caps plus numerals. I bought it so long ago that I can't remember where, but it might have been Country Kitchens. If you soften fondant with some piping gel, you could mold it in the form then release it and neaten up the edges. Or use white chocolate, which would be more rigid than fondant. For monograms, I use an oval plaque and pipe the mongram in royal icing. I can usually do it freehand but if you have one of those kopycake image projectors, that would work too if you don't feel confident in your freehand piping. I've been doing RLB's Hebrew 10 commandments design for years and still use the image projector for that particular project!
  4. When I was a kid, I used to go into the closet and take my mother's cookbooks out and pore over them, dreaming of making every single recipe. My mom's a great cook, but I was fascinated by the pictures and the possibilities. As soon as I was able, I made the Lemon Mousse from Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts and I haven't stopped yet. My husband knew I was a foodie when he brought recipes from a Thai cooking class that I'd given him for his birthday - he said that one of the dishes (I can't remember what the name is, but it's ground fish sauteed like a fish cake) was really good but he missed it and didn't know how to make it. So I did it, it came out looking and tasting like it was supposed to and he was stunned that I was able to replicate it without knowing what it looked like or was supposed to taste like before doing it. The bad part is that he decided he wouldn't attempt anything in the kitchen except take out!!
  5. That's true about the Cuisinart strainer; I got one on eBay years ago and it's great. And since they don't make it anymore, I take especially good care of it. It works like a charm. But it's easier to open a jar of Perfect Puree.....
  6. there's a really good recipe for meringue "stars" in RLB's Christmas Cookie book and if you pipe them like kisses and make them larger, they'll resemble what you pictured (is it too funny that you see bags of Lay's potato chips in the background? ) The bottom looks as if they developed "feet" like a macaron; that happens to me if I bake them too long, put the sheet pan too close to the bottom of the oven or don't let them dry out enough before baking.
  7. that's what I do - add about 2 tablespoons more (1 qt milk with 4 oz sugar, bring to boil, 2.5 oz yolks, 3.5 whole egg; 2.5 oz cornstarch with 4 oz sugar, then 2 oz butter at the end. I'll use 3 oz cornstarch for a thicker consistency. Too much though makes it rubbery).
  8. It's kind of like watching all three Stooges rolled into one guy who's cooking..... My husband and son love it; I'm not as into it. I was on the fence about it - some of the episodes I liked, but it was when they bowled with turkeys that I realized I couldn't get past all the wasted food in the name of entertainment. I'm (foolishly) holding out hope that they donated an amount of food equal or greater than what they're playing with ....
  9. Can you put the sliced strawberries on the cake layer, with a buttercream dam around the edge, and then layer the custard in? You'd get a berry in each slice that way. For my cakes, I use pastry cream for my "custard" and have it a little on the thick side so I can add a little whipped cream to lighten it up. I make the pastry cream cakes the day before they are to be served, (I chop the berries, they're not sliced) and haven't had any comments about watering out....
  10. After reading through the posts, I started to wonder.... how is pastry and baking education handled in similar schools in foreign countries? How does Le Cordon Bleu do P&B? Does anyone know what their program is like? What about other countries? It would be a powerful statement to cite an example of what you're looking is something that already exists in a foreign curriculum.
  11. When you mentioned the tall, narrow vessel for sugar, I immediately thought of using some type of immersion blender but outfitted with a whisk-type attachment. I've never made the marshmallows myself, so this could be completely off base, but perhaps you could use a handheld cordless drill with a whisk "bit" originally from a handheld mixer attachment? Or a dentist's drill - but I have no clue where you'd find a tiny enough whisk to use as a beater!
  12. I've been hired to provide desserts next weekend for a local music chamber group evening event. They're showcasing a pianist from Argentina, so the music and menu is honoring their featured guest. The caterer is working up a tapas menu, and I'd like to include some regional dessert choices and maybe some of the usual mini pastry suspects (I haven't decided anything yet).... it's probably going to be for about 200 people, so I'm thinking 3 pieces per person. I can't do any cooking there (so no more playing with the torch on those champagne creme brulees!!!) so one-bite things would be ideal IMHO. So, any ideas? I'd love to do a dessert tapas menu, but I need some inspiration from all of you (long week with lots of weddings this weekend, I'm pretty fried already). I tried to google "argentinian desserts" in a few different variants, but I didn't come up with much past dulce de leche! thanks, jeanne
  13. Do you have time to get any banana compound to add to your standard pastry cream recipe? Or add mashed banana with some allspice or dark rum if alcohol is ok to your pastry cream recipe. Sherry Yard has a recipe for "banana schmutz" in her baking book - I've never tried it, but it might be a good starting place for inspiration. Maida Heatter has a banana terrine recipe in her New(est) book of Great Desserts (it's the one without her photo on the cover, all her other books have her pictured with all the desserts). Now, if I could find my copies of these books, I could be more helpful. Dorie Greenspan, in Paris Sweets, talks about a chocolate banana tart - sauteed sliced bananas (in butter on high heat - melt some butter and sugar first, then throw in the banana slices, until they are caramelized. Remove with slotted spoon, blot excess butter and layer into a prebaked tart shell, cover with ganache and use some for garnish). So maybe you could ask if you could substitute a truffle filling with these sauteed bananas and a little cinnamon (or candied ginger)?
  14. is it sweetened or unsweetened? The Cake Bible has some chestnut cake recipes - the cake calls for chestnut flour, but the filling calls for chestnut puree. You could make a mousse filling for a chocolate cake (or tart crust) and if you find any candied chestnuts at this time of year, you could add those. Or maybe some candied ginger bits. I used to have a recipe for a white choc chestnut pave (terrine) but it's lost to eternity now. Too bad because it was nice to eat - marbled blobs of white choc chestnut and dark choc mousse in a plastic-lined terrine or loaf mold, then glazed with more dark choc.
  15. wow, thanks Sebastian, that was great. I learn so much from everyone here, and not just about pastry either!!!
  16. try looking for a rhubarb financier and see what happens.... or look for another fruit financier and see if you can replace the fruit with rhubarb...
  17. I've been seeing all types of silicone molds (shaped ice cube styles) in retail stores lately and have managed to talk myself out of buying them every time, but ... this ice block dipping technique could be a great way to get some new chocolate "cup" shapes on the mini pastry table!
  18. could you use a white chocolate ganache? Test it first, only because in my experience, ganache doesn't have the "sticky" factor that helps to hold the fondant on. When I use it, I put a thin coat on just before I put the fondant on and that helps.
  19. I've had the best luck with lavenders by using the Grape Violet paste color from Sugarflair (I get it from Creativecutters.com or from beryls.com). It reminds me of a funny story... I did a three tier square lavender cake, dropped it off at 10 am (it was a last minute order... the restaurant called on Tuesday for the same week and of course doesn't have time to send me a swatch) and at 4, the function manager is calling me saying the cake is pink, not lavender. I promptly took a picture of the left over lavender fondant, which was still lavender, btw, a piece of pink fondant that I'd been working with and a lavender gum paste rose, all together on a white cake board, emailed it to her and never heard a peep from her again about it. For pale colors, I usually wait until just before I'm working on the cake to color the fondant - for deeper colors I do it the day before.
  20. Hello, hope you have enjoyed the first night and that you're able to get some well deserved rest! I know I have the recipes saved somewhere around here, I copied them from last year because I thought I might use them to do the Sisterhood cooking presentation but there wasn't time. I do have someone who called today asking for a cake for a 4 yr old's birthday for Saturday - I would like to do the brownie as a sort of layered cake approximation, with layers of brownie baked in a round pan with frosting (or nondairy type frosting) in between the layers and not on the outside (think the inside out german choc cake on epicurious.com). The brownies I ended up doing for today were the Katharine Hepburn brownies - 4 oz butter or margarine, 2 oz unsweetened choc, melted; then stir in 7 oz sugar, pinch salt, 1 tsp vanilla and 2 eggs (do the eggs separately for best results). Then stir in 1/4 cup cake meal, chopped nuts if you want, pour into 8" square pan (line it with foil or make a foil sling and spray to make it easier to get out of the pan) and bake at 325 for about 35-40 mins. They are fudgy with the classic thin crusty top. and the recipe scales up nicely (multiply by 3 for a 9x13 pan). But they wouldn't be great for this birthday cake, I don't think. It should be something with a cakier texture, but they don't want sponge cake, they like this brownie idea. Happy Passover! Any ideas? edited to add pan prep
  21. When clients ask me to use a family recipe, or something out of the ordinary where they are providing me the recipe, I tell them that I will be charging a small fee for the tasting/consultation. They understand that, it's because I'm doing something outside what I usually do and no one has ever had a problem with it. (I explain that I don't charge for consultations - which is a one hour time and includes tasting my house recipes, but they choose, obviously, what they want to taste.) At the meeting, I get feedback from them - is this what it is supposed to taste like? (etc). And because I've made the recipe a few days in advance, I can also adjust my recipes to see if I can come close to what they're asking for but with a known formula that I'm comfortable with. Then I can suggest to them what kind of configuration will work - maybe this won't do for a traditional stacked cake, but will work for individual cakes on stands (or cupcakes as K8 mentioned). This gives them an option to consider, and allows me to price accordingly. It might help you in this case.
  22. Hi Pam! I just found your blog this year! You're a wonderful blogger and I love reading about your adventures and wish you lots of success in the new space. And hope that you are able to rest after the holiday. Anyway, last year you shared two brownie recipes with us - one had choc chips, butter, cake meal and potato starch; the other had oil and cocoa powder. I've had some people ask me this year to make brownies for them (they know I'm not a kosher baker, I share space and they are aware of that. Mostly I make macaroons for my Passover clients). Which recipe is your favorite or maybe the question is which version sells out faster!? I would leave out the nuts either way. Thanks again for taking the time to share with us this year. It's a big effort, and I most definitely appreciate it. Jeanne
  23. I've never seen them in my local supermarket, but there's supposed to be "irradiated" (I don't think I spelled that right) eggs in the shell - maybe they're labeled pasteurized? - that could work for this recipe. I can get pasteurized liquid eggs from my distributor, but that's not something available in the local supermarket.
  24. A very, very long time ago, before I went to school, I used The Cake Bible to make my own wedding cake. I followed her instructions to the letter and used the start/stop technique (and the pyrex cup!). It was 15 years later that I went to school and learned that you don't have to beat the butter before hand, you add the syrup in a steady stream; if your sugar is ready before the whites are, you add more water to slow it down and buy yourself more time. Plus, you don't have to add any liquor to the buttercream when it's done, it's fine the way it is. The part that's missing from these Cake Bible instructions is that you're supposed to be working quickly. With this method, there shouldn't be any lag time in adding the syrup, turning on the mixer etc. It should take about 30 seconds to add the syrup. Sarah, maybe you could put a "baker's note" or "Sarah's Suggestion" in about this instead of removing the recipe from your site....
  25. I can't tell from the first photo whether there's liquid in the bottom left corner or not. When you added the hot syrup, how did you do it (slowly? quickly? what speed was the mixer at?) It may be that your meringue deflated/collapsed and so the butter didn't incorporate. Do you have a blow torch? You could use it to warm up the sides of the bowl while the whip is on (speed 2 or 4) and see what happens. Or take some out and put it in a microwave safe container, and nuke it for 3-5 sec until soft and melt-y (like ice cream). Add this in a steady stream to the cold buttercream and let it go for a few minutes and see if it comes together. You can only do this once or twice before you end up with just butter in the bowl, though. Edited to add: When I'm re-whipping buttercream, I use the paddle and try to have it as close to rm temp as I can (as long as it isn't ice cold)
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