pastrygirl

strawberry & cream

a rainbow of fruit flavors

My two were delicious! And no, you shouldn't have to line the pan with parchment, the fat in the crust keeps it from sticking.

Hmm, air trapped in the cookie maybe? Sounds like nothing is oozing out, it's just vexing and not the prettiest?

I'm not quite getting it, where are the bubbles, in the bottom coat? Doesn't the gianduja set fairly firmly?

I think results would vary depending on the temp and fat content. The curdled look is from fat molecules clustering together and forming buttery globules that are no longer homogenized. Blending it cold might just make it worse and leave you with actual butter, not that butter is a bad thing. You might need to heat it sufficiently to melt the fat, then blend. If you're going to heat it anyway and make creme anglaise, panna cotta, yogurt, etc then no problem.

@Jim D. I was actually surprised they all came out, it was a very ‘here goes nothing’ project. But I basically kept them refrigerated between every step, and at least the airbrush doesn’t clog up as fast 😂 For the stripes, I piped dark chocolate in a quick zigzag across the mold then sprayed with gold to fill in the gaps. The fillings were random bits from the freezer, the mocha one was layered (weirdly viscous) milk chocolate cinnamon ganache and dark chocolate coffee caramel ganache. I probably do need more aw readings! @curls yeah it’s supposed to be 90 here tomorrow, these will all go into the freezer to sell online later.

‘Tis the season for bitching about hot kitchens, at least in the northern hemisphere. I decided to quit whining and see if I could make bonbons anyway. Success! Room temp is about 80f (low humidity, at least) but with frequent refrigeration they still came out nicely. L-R, passion fruit, vanilla, honey caramel, rum caramel, cinnamon mocha.

To an extent, you can control hardness by controlling thickness. A thin piece of chocolate or cookie will crunch easily despite being frozen. A wafer thin chocolate flake will melt on your tongue as you eat it while a solid chocolate chip will be hard and waxy. And a thinner cookie will be more likely to be softened by syrup migration from the custard.

A month later, I finally posted some scenes on Instagram I admit that my effort was amateur in terms of sugar art - it was my first attempt after all - but I had fun and people were entertained. The sun came out and made quick work of the chocolate, yielding some cool patterns as the chocolate and colored cocoa butter melted and slid off the sugar panels. the whole thing collapsed right at 4 pm when the event was done, i wasn’t sure how the sugar would hold up in the sun but it softened and weakened dramatically

Here in WA they are extra strict about pasteurization of ice cream production so most shops use a pre-made base. But the previous tenant of my kitchen made scratch ice cream and was sharing with a craft soda maker and then me. (We had all met at a previous commissary that declined after a sale. Tried other kitchens then reunited). If you do make ice cream, be prepared to detail your pasteurization and cooling methods. If you’re doing low volume or significant wholesale you might be better off with department of agriculture food producer licensing. Does your state have a cottage food act? A WSDA cottage food license is under $100, I do a little higher volume so my food producer license was about $150, vs $900 a year when I was licensed as a caterer by the county health dept. $800 makes a difference to a small biz! One of my tenants is licensed under cottage food due to size even though it’s a commercial kitchen , so that’s not only for home cooking. Each company in a shared kitchen is licensed and inspected individually so unless you go with the gluten free space it shouldn’t matter what other tenants are doing. Licensing wise, that is. 🤪

I think so. I’m also not that concerned about whether the second kitchen was officially licensed. Assuming there was hot water, it’s not the space but what people are doing in it. I believe her that the pic with 3 spatulas and a ladle was the scraped off mold bucket because who uses 3 spatulas like that, but if they’re getting a full layer of mold that can be scraped off they’re definitely doing some things wrong. That being the mold scraped off the jam rather than the original bucket doesn’t make it better. I might scrape off a tiny spot around the edge, but it takes time for that much to grow.

Nasty. After the first batch or two went moldy they should have fixed the problem. More sugar, more acid, longer processing, smaller batches, store it in the freezer, etc, not just accept that oh its low sugar, mold is normal 🙄

As Jeanne said, much depends on the kitchen itself and who else is in it. Commissaries can be too much of a free-for all, see if they have set stations and set schedules or if anyone can come in and crank up all the ovens and a big pot of stock at any time. Refrigeration is a big concern, you probably don't want to share a walk-in cooler with someone else's salami, kimchi, gorgonzola, roasted garlic, etc. I have my own kitchen now and I love it but it's still not perfect. No AC and a west window means it sucks in the summer, I made a few chocolate bars the other day by putting them directly into the fridge at every stage but chocolate production season is otherwise over until September. I have two tenants, a baker and a personal chef. Since there are only 3 of us it's not too hard to coordinate who needs the oven but it's really best when only 2 of us are there at a time.