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Well I live here. And am associated with every restauarant on the beach and its professionals. Screw blue point, left bank, sanderling Inn, and ocean boulevard. They are all hype and no performance as far as I'm concerned. They spend a lot of money to get review out there to bring in the northeastern tourism. My recommendations: Freshest Seafood: Lone Cedar Cafe (on the causeway, Senator Basnights restaurant, almost like an uncle to me) Great place all around: Outer Banks Brewing Station (worked there for a year and half, very good friends with owners and they will treat you right, Eric and Aubrey) Groupers Grill(very good friend with owner Matt Fretwell) Fusion upscale food, adults only, can get pricey 25-50 dollar range. Great show. Meridian 42 is fantastic. They do an excellent job keeping up trends. Very similar to groupers. The current owner chuck actually owned Groupers and sold it to Matt. Chuck is head chef with a very good friend of mine, who wrote me a school rec. Grant (soux chef) Great place for lunch or a quick brekfast - Beach Bread Co. My current occupancy as a baker. all Boars head meats, fresh house bread and pastries. Quagmires is a very acceptable place for a family. very friendly staff, decent food and great price. Metropolitan, I have not been too but have a couple former colleagues who work there and talk it up big. they from my experience do a very good job so I would recommend it at your own expense. tortugas lie, goombays, the red drum and bacu grill are all decent places to go for lunch if your just a couple of buds grabbing a quick bite thats inexpensive yet not dissapointing. Places to avoid, outerbanks steak house, applebees, outback steak house, windmill point, sam and omies and the ones I first mentioned. The first ones will be too dissapointing for the money. They try to give an upscale groumet, from the garden whatever BS atmosphere and dont deliver. PM if you have any other questions, interest since I dont check this thread often. Oh and by the way, Carolina Blue no longer exists. They are moving to raleigh wher eI geuss they might get some business.

Hey Everyone. Since the previous demo was so fun and received a lot of feed back I thought I'd continue with more. Praline's seem to come up once a month atleast. People seem to dispute all sides of pralines, when to use, how to use, and most of all how to make. So here you go. This praline is made from chopped Macadamia nuts, which I will use for a white chocolate and macadamia nut mousse with rainier cherry compote. You can check that out here>Egulleteers Plated Desserts. Which will be post shortly after this demo. Heres a start: In this picture is 5 oz of chopped/blanched macadamia nuts already to go. My oven is at 400F conventional. They will bake for about 5 minutes or until lightly toasted While the nuts are toasting, put 9 oz of sugar in a saucepan and just cover with water. Cook on high heat brushing down the sides of the pan with wet brush until rapidly boiling. Once signs of caramel become prevalent toss your toasted nuts in once a deep caramel, which could come to happen in secounds so be ready. Once all in, poor onto a silicone baking mat or a lightly greased SS pan/ Non-stick pan Next, this is how I do it if your at home and dont have a constant source for everything you need as I do in the restaurant. I made extra caramelized sugar so I can use that later in a simple syrup when processing. So carefully, when beginning to cool and very malleable, pull/cut/tear off the excess sugar from the pralines and put back into your saucepan. While doing that, mold your praline how you want it. I put it all together so its even throughout. This way I dont have clusters of nuts and big splots of solid sugar. If all I was making was Pralines I would actually want a little less sugar coating my nuts, but this is fine for what I'm using it for. Even if you were making pralines this would be quite good too. Next, cover the excess sugar in water and big back to a boil to dissolve. Let the pralines cool mostly. While warm but hard go ahead and break it up as much as you'd like. Then put about a quarter into your food processor. Blend it until its well broken up. Add a quarter at a time blending consistently until all is added. Blend fine. You see its fine but still dry and crumbly. You should be reducing the water out of your caramel syrup while doing this until simple syrup stage. You'll know this because the bubbles will just become larger and consume the entire surface. Before this desired stage the bubbles will be sporatic and small. Once you get your syrup, take it off the heat and allow to cool just until warm. I put my syrup into a cup for easier pouring Turn your processor on and gradually pour your syrup into the ground pralines just until its starts to come together. It will look like a paste, hence it being praline paste. Keep processing until very smooth and somewhat shiny/sleek. Don't worry about adding too much syrup because the paste really can only absorb so much before the oils block it out. What you will get is a little syrup laying onto, just place your paste in a seive and toss it around until a single consistency. Once finished your praline should look like this: Its all one uniform texture and is very malleable, almost like taffy. It molds easy but doesnt stretch. Very simple, and you see it doesnt stick to my hands. Lastely I place it in a sealable container and place it in the fridge to be used at my disposal. I hope this helps you all, and if you have any questions on the process or other processes that I maybe be able to document for you, dont be afraid to ask.

well, yea egg white helps but then it isnt whipped cream any more and you have now crossed into a mousse base. Which is still tasty, but its not whats the word.... chantilly cream.

well bread flour(high gluten flour) is better for a flaky dough like scones and pie dough. Some people cream there scones but I think its better to cut in the butter and the bread flour helps that process out more too because it absorbs more water/moisture than a.p.-cake-pastry flour. So when you add eggs and cream you want something to hold it in and still be flaky.

did you pipe the prints on anne, or did you cut or pipe them before hand and press them on?

Thats EXACTLY it because I memorized the recipe. I dont see Marcels name on the site, hmm interesting. I might have to have a talk with him.

It's all part of learning process. If someone is wrong its ok. But most of the time here were just a we bit skewed and were all on the right track. I like when people are direct. I dont mind being told I'm wrong. I use to be very good in physics, math and chemistry but unfortunately I dont dont use the terminalogy everyday like some people and when im on here trying to explain something I type so fast I may state things that are there but they arent very clear and need a little adjusting. If I had thought about it a second I would have rephrased and used weight instead of volume. Its jus tthe thinking process that puts wrong words in the right places. I was thinking about the dispute between mass and weight and I remembered a strong argument I and some fellow students gave in highschool to my physics teacher talk about the difference between mass and weight. And at that time I was on the other side of the table stating that weight cant be too far from mass. I wish I could remember exactly how she explained it to us so that I could restate it but my mind just doesnt care about that anymore. Unless it has a definate effect on how my souffle rises I dont really care.

Yea Genny thats the Chocolate Fudge Espresso Cake. The sponge recipe is one of my favorites even though I dont care to use marcel stuff anymore.

things to think about: Meringue: (Give it surprising texture in the center as a crunchy layer with a complementing flavor) Chocolate meringue Caramel Chocolate meringe Chocolate Nut meringue Chocolate Citrus Meringue Fillings: Chocolate Chibouste(or chocolate + otehr ingredient) Chocolate Bavarian Cream (ditto) Chocolate Mousse(Thousands of varieties) Chocolate Buttercream (Swiss, Italian, or German. If you want a great tasting buttercream for a FILLING the german version is a great option) ----Frozen------ You can do fillings with: Frozen Mousse Frozen Souffle Glace Parfait Bombe Ganache is great to use inbetween layers especially to lock things in and for a smooth mouth feel. Coffee and espresso are highly recommended somewhere in the cake Orange and Lemon have great accented flavors Praline Pastes, if you can buy or make them, are one of my favorite flavors for subtlety and aroma. Fresh fruit is often praised when placed in layers. I like to put whole stemmed strawberries in mine and cover it with a soft filling so that you have interesting red arches flowing through your cake when sliced. An all chocolate way to have that look is bipe buttercream and hard ganache on the cake layers, freeze and then fill with desired filling. Another trick your can poor ganache in the cake layer with a pan, tilt it slightly on its side and freeze. The fill with desired filling and set up. That way you have a slant. But i would only do that with a square or rectangle pan where the slices will be consistent. there are many more fun things to do but i'll leave you with this.

im sure it will be very similar to plastic. though glass is much more conductive than plastic as is metal, so im not totally sure.

hahaha, noooo. Everything that consists of matter has a different density rating. so with that said one thing and can weigh the same as another but consumer a lot less volume. Example, lead and water. 1lb of Pb is a lot smaller in proportion than 1 lb of H2O. Mass equals the amount of matter a subtance contains. You can break that down to its molecular structure. Weight is measured by its gravitational pull. So you can be weightless in space but still contain the same mass. Understand? So thats why you need a formula consisting of density to determine mass if you have the weight scaled + its density measure.

thank you, i was going to say that too but I didnt have a way to say it without sounding mean. And percentage can be of anything as long as its 2 same factors. Also weight and mass arent the same thing. They are completely different and you need the density calculation to figure one or the other out. Plus mass is almost if never a factor in cooking/baking.

Well Steve you are right. But I wouldn't say were too much more relaxed these days. Theres is ten times the knowledge to learn these days than then. In the past 50 years fusion of cultures has blown up and we a blending at an alarming rate. Quite honestly I think its extremely challenging for the average culinary enthusiast to keep up. I read everything I can get my hands on and experiment with any idea that dashes into my brain. But yet you guys here still show me more doors to enter. I have one question. Will it ever end? No it won't. So i'd say, not just to contradict you but to share another opinion, that we are infact less relaxed and more focused on being different than traditionally skilled in its artistry. I garuntee you chefette wouldnt be making pastillage PLANES in the 18th century.

I have to say, this almost feels like arts and craft demo rather than pastry, haha. Crazy its somewhat food form.

why dont you check this out... DEMO: Pastillage And yes, there are many many ways to make molds. You name what shape or Idea more specific and theres plenty of suggestions we can give you and direction. Food safe sillicone is fun to play with but can get pricey if you dont know what your doin+ can really screw up. Check arts and craft stores too. They have a lot of cool things you can use your imagination to use. Oh, by the way, Welcome to Egullet soceity.

Alright everyone, this is our conclusion. And I say I couldnt be happier. Let I remind you in the most modest I can, the whipped cream was whipped perfectly and am very happy it was plus this was a controlled experement, nobody disturbed the variables except me and you know everything I did. This last showing is at 30 hours A wide shot: You can easily tell which is weeping more. From left to right its SS bowl, Plastic Container and Scoop, and last Plastic undisturbed. Heres a closer image: First Secound Third You can see the one conatined in plastic hasn't even begun to weep, its still good.

I dont think you'll ever be able to truly say farewell. So im not going to say goodbye, mearely an "until next time" I hope all is well.

Alright first in has little result. This is 10 hours. I must say I whipped it perfectly so they are all holding very well. Also remember that these are stored out of reach from people so they are not being tampered with. This means we should see a very maximum time result due to low levels of agitation. From left to right its plastic/sscoop, SS bowl, and plastic container. You can see a very slight slope in the first too but not enough to worry about. I check it once more after about 14 hours and both the bowl and scoop were creating a thin line of liquid appearance near the bottom. Also just another trick, you can use a seive to drain some of the excess moisture/water that creates the creams weeping by simple scooping the whipped cream into a metal seive and allowing it to rest over a container for alittle while in the refrigerator.

well actually I've only had problems when I add sugar at soft peaks. When you use confectioners' sugar its preferred to add at soft peaks because it dissolves so readily. When you use granular you might want to add it at the begginning to give it the extra time to dissolve. Superfine sugar is great to work with and is acceptable to add at soft peaks so you wont get that gritty taste in your mouth from undissolved sugar.

Hey everyone. I told you I'd get to this for you and I did. Heres the mixing method and stages for you, plus the usage of gelatin when and how. Here are the differences between heavy whipping cream and whipping cream right on the label. The heavy says a minimum of 36% milk fat while the whipping says a minimum of 30% Ok lets start with the pint of cream and a half cup of sugar Add a tsp of vanilla All ingredients ready to go and dissolve. Lets mix on medium/low. Once you get to this point, which is soft peaks, you can tell its getting thick but its still sliding from the bowl when you tilt it. This may be where some of you are stopping and this will last approximately 2 hours on its own before its liquid again. Here is roughly medium peaks. This is where you need to start paying attention and possible take the bowl into your own hands and whisk. You can see that it has enough form to stay on the whisk but if I tilt the bowl it will still recede a little. This now is stiff peaks and is what you want. Try and see how high some of the peaks are. They are perfectly stiff and unmoving with gravity. I can even take a spoon (sorry for no picture) and flip it upside down but the cream wont budge. Here for our experiment is a seperation. One plastic, one plastic with a stainless steel 2 oz scoop carelessly left inside, and remaining 1/3 in the SS bowl. Wrapped and stored in refrigerator. Ok, with that said and done lets go on to GELATIN. Heres a start with two sheets of gelatin weighing in at 1/10 oz each will be used for a pint/2 cups of cream. Submerge these bad boys in COLD water If they are hanging out a little just wait a secound until soft enough to fold and fold them so they are completely submerged. after a about 2 minutes of soaking while setting up the cream/sugar/vanilla in a mixing bowl, pull the softened gelatin. They should kind of feel like mini water beds with a leak. Next squeeze the gelatin a little to get excess water out plus any water that may be trapped inside after handling. Dump the water out of the bowl and put the gelatin back in. While doing that heat a burner, electric or gas on high. Once Hot turn the burner off and place your gelatin bowl on top. This way it has no direct heat but is kind of like a hot plate. Microwave works very well too but i would use a metal bowl. Just put it in a plastic container and nuke for 10 secound intrevals until its warm to the touch. Right before you put this on heat start your mixer at medium-low speed and gradually bump the speed up as it gets thicker (paying attention to your gelatin) Now as thats going check back with your gelatin and you'll notice it starting to break down and "clarify". Finish clarifying until its decently warm to the touch. To me its warm but for anyone whos not use to the heat in the kitchen it might be hot to you. If you really want to be sure you can temp it and if its around 110-120 degrees your good. If its over 130 your in bad shape and its lost considerable power and form. Now lets turn off the mixer at soft peaks. This way the gelatin should fall right in and dissolve nicely without too much mixing/agitation. Scrape gelatin into the edge(tilted) of the bowl to be poured. Pour gelatin in steady stream, fast enough to get it in fast enough before it cools and slow enough so it doesnt build up ontop. The cream is a lot cooler than the bowl and will set up the gelatin much faster. Now beat on high to stiff peaks while gelatin is relatively warm and unset. See how thick the cream is, and geuss what, no lumps of gelatin at all. Just for a last note, this is the Stabilizer we use at the bakery I work at. It's made of modified wheat gluten and phosphate lactose. Directed to use 10g to every L of cream. I'll be back periodically to show you time results of the seperated cream. I hope this helps everyone.

frozen chocolate mint mousse.

next time you should purposely make butter just so you know how far you can go. You'll notice it long before trust me. Theres a point where you've whipped it too much but its not to the point of no return, just starting to gather the fat. In that instance you can always deflate it with a spatula a little.

raspberry mousse and banana bavaroise

your not cooking your sugar syrup enough. bring peel's to a boil three to six times in replacing water to eliminate bitterness dry the peels and bring simple syrup to a boil. Right before candy stage, or when the bubbles start comming up slow, just before caramel stage toss in your peel. turn off and and toss the peel around just slightly not to put air into the sugar. use tongs to pull the peel our and lay on a mat/pan covered with sugar. Let rest for a few moments and then roll/toss in the sugar. set aside to cool

I geuss the word butter in the reference is negligible to what i said. if your using butter than were not talking about oil pastry anymore even though they are all fats. All im stating is be careful what you change up because you will can leave your base very quickly into to something completely different.