pastrygirl

Melissa, I would try two things. 1) use a much cooler oven. 400F for cheese crackers? Cheese burns too easily, I'd try 325F 2) separate the crackers by 1/2" or so on the baking pan. If you have a large offset icing spatula, you can pick up several pieces of dough and transfer them to the baking sheet, leaving a little space as you slide each piece off. The crackers will bake more evenly, and you won't end up with a mass of dough with dark edges and a blonde interior like the blog shows.

Anna and Elsie, those both look delicious. Now I'm craving pizza!

Sounds like the kind of thing for which you would charge by the piece, but let's flesh this out a little more. Sugar work is an impressive specialty that not a lot of people do. Would you be able to create showpieces for large hotel events? Or 100+ sugar baskets in which to serve a scoop of sorbet at a banquet? Are there obstacles to shipping or delivery? Would hot/humid summer weddings be a disaster for sugar pieces? The gum paste might be a harder sell in catering. I haven't played with it myself, but my impression is that while it takes practice and tools, it's not really that technically difficult. It seems like there is kind of a division in catering. You have wedding cake makers who could probably do the gum paste themselves, and caterers who don't do much pastry because most weddings have cake. You might be able to sell through the latter, like if a bride was having mini cupcakes and wanted a custom flower for each one. If gum paste will ship OK, you could have a website or etsy store if you don't already. Sell flowers by the dozen for cupcake toppers, and take custom orders for larger projects. There is competition, though - https://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=gum+paste+flowers&explicit_scope=1 I'm just having a hard time envisioning anyone needing a sugar & gum paste guy on salary. If you're hoping to retire sometime soon, you probably don't see yourself as executive pastry chef in a big hotel, and if you go to work for a caterer either in pastry or savory, I think you'd be better off keeping your business separate and charging by the piece.

They can be quite sweet - too sweet for me.

salty lassi for a break from sweet shakes & smoothies vichyssoise or other smooth cream soups congee/savory rice porridge - either cook the rice until it falls apart, or puree briefly in the blender with chicken stock and ginger, nice with a poached egg chocolate (if melting in your mouth is liquid enough)

Yup, it's true. http://www.thewasabistore.com/about-wasabi/ Apparently it is tricky to grow, prefers a continual source of cool running water. I've seen it at Uwajimaya (local Asian supermarket chain) for something like $45 a pound, and some sushi restaurants here offer "real wasabi" for a small upcharge.

I tried the cappuccino chips. Not horrible, but not something I wanted to eat very many of, or would bother to eat again. There was a definite milkiness and a cinnamon presence. Too sweet and cinnamony for me, I prefer nutmeg in my cappuccino and don't add sugar. The coffee and potato chip flavors did not elevate each other - you get one, then the other. The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.

I don't think a QR code is as much of a shortcut as it seems. If you have a smartphone, you can just go directly to the store website or facebook page (whatever) instead of opening the QR scanning app, scanning, and then being re-directed. You said "I want to entice people with what we could POSSIBLY have." - This only makes sense in terms of special orders. If we are talking about lunch today, people only need to know what you ACTUALLY have to offer TODAY. I think you should start with a limited menu of what you know you can do well, and add a few weekly or monthly items to see how they work. Put the specials on your website, facebook page, etc, and be clear about their time frame so people aren't disappointed. Or, have a limited menu for individual lunches, plus another 'catering' section for larger quantities that must be ordered ahead. When I was doing catering we had 3 or 4 seasonal menus, with the usual subject to availability/change note. For you, that might mean you would offer BLTs and gazpacho in the summer and reubens and chili in the winter.

Are they browning differently? With apologies to your sous chef, it sounds like a mistake was made, either a mis-measurement on flour or switching baking powder and soda. I would give the mystery batter a rest overnight and see if it fries up right tomorrow. Meanwhile, make another batch that you know is right, and see how that fries without a rest.

Anyplace where the croissants are a proper "French Brown" David Lebovitz and Paris by Mouth are two good resources, Paris by Mouth kindly organizes by zip code When I was there a few months ago, my focus was more on chocolate shops, of which I'd say Pierre Herme, Patrick Roger, and Jacques Genin were my favorites. For pastry, L'Eclair du Genie and Des Gateaux et du Pain are worthy stops.

Nice work, RWood! Especially the hand-dipping, I can imagine how extra-tedious that was when already tired

Yay! Happy we could help!

Like Ashley said, you really need to let them form a skin. Then when you put them in the oven the soft batter underneath will expand and push the skin up as an intact layer, forming macaron feet at the bottom. How long it takes depends on your kitchen conditions, drying will take more time when humidity is higher. It sounds like the consistency of the batter is ok, just try letting them rest longer.

Powdered sugar does seem to dry things. Think of how a powdered sugar glaze on a cake sets up. Would macaron form a skin without powdered sugar? I don't know whether that is because of the starch, or something to do with particle size or shape, but powdered sugar does seem necessary. You definitely want to keep the almond flour from clumping. Also, almond flour has fairly high fat, and fat deflates meringue, so mixing with powdered sugar may absorb surface oil so it won't interfere. Just my theories, I'm curious to know more.

How long do you let them dry? Do they form a skin that you can touch? Does the batter almost hold a peak, or is it pretty runny?

If it seems like it holds together and has mass, I don't think I'd eat it because it might be something growing. If it breaks apart and dissipates, I'd hope it was just fine sediment that settled after sitting on the shelf for too long, and would probably use it as long as it seemed normal in other ways.

I'm interested! I haven't been to a conference before because I've been stuck working full time. Now that I'm self-employed, hopefully by next spring business will be good enough that I can afford to go, but not so good that I can't get a weekend off Sugar work is not a huge interest of mine, but I would still go to a demo or class. Definitely interested in a master class, and especially using any enrobing or panning equipment that might be available.

Hi Joel, Yes of course you can make your own pralines! Chocolate needs to be handled in very specific ways in order to crystallize the fats and allow you to dip and mold, all you need is understanding of the process and a little practice. Your example of a truffle with liquid inside, surrounded by a ball of white chocolate might have used truffles shells: http://www.callebaut.com/usen/products/decoration/truffle-shells The one with the salted pistachio was probably hand-dipped or enrobed by machine, those methods allow you to add garnish on top. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kcline/3633788812/ Using chocolate molds will give you a shinier surface and sharper edges than dipping. Molds come in thousands of designs, and can also be decorated with color or sparkle. http://www.jbprince.com/chocolate-and-sugar-work/chocolate-molds.asp I'm not familiar with the book you linked to, so I can't comment on it. I like Peter Greweling's Chocolates and Confections, he explains how things work and what might have gone wrong. If expense and technicality are not a concern, try Jean-Pierre Wybauw's books.

250F is only firm-hard ball, shouldn't be coloring much less burning. Is there some hypersensitive ingredient that you could be adding later in the process instead of cooking with the sugar? Sometimes I get some scorching on the bubbled up sugar on the sides of the pan, but I figure that is due to the gas flame coming up the sides and shouldn't happen on electric. Hmmm.

I don't know that you need thicker layers. I prefer more, thinner layers of cake so the filling can moisten them better, and when I make layer cakes often end up splitting the layers, which can be a bit of a pain. It also depends somewhat on your cake recipe. I find something like a nice moist sour cream cake fine in a thicker layer, but genoise tends to be a drier cake, so I like thinner layers of genoise with more filling. Whatever pan you use, the cake is not going to be taller than the pan. Most baking pans are 2-3" tall, but finding large enough ones for a cake for 40 might be a challenge. But it also depends on what size pieces you want to serve. If there will be a lot of other food and your audience are not big eaters, you could plan on wedding cake sized pieces (something like 1" x 2" x 4"). Wilton has a guide to help you figure out how much cake you actually need: http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-serving-guide.cfm

Equipment-wise, you should be fine. A stand mixer and sheet pans, then you just need something big enough to put the cake on, whether it's a platter or a couple layers of cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil. You can make a lemon buttercream, I use Italian meringue buttercream and just add lemon curd to taste, along with maybe a TB of fresh lemon juice or lemon liqueur to brighten it up. Sheet pans don't make very thick layers, so depending on how fluffy your filling is, consider 3 or 4 layers of cake - 4 with just a thin layer of lemon curd in between, or 3 if you make a fluffier mousse. Cake is not too hard to scale up, even with a stand mixer you'll probably need to make 2 batches of batter. But the good news is that cake, buttercream, and lemon curd all freeze very well, so if you have freezer space, you could certainly make the cake layers and lemon curd a week or two ahead, then assemble the whole thing the day of or before the event.

Compared to 10 years ago (just to pick a time span)... Far less alcohol - finally realized how bad it makes me feel. More meat - got more practice cooking it and less squeamish about it. Fewer restaurant meals, especially fine dining - BTDT, would rather spend the money on something else. Lower tolerance for sweets - familiarity breeds contempt. Less starchy food - not going totally low-carb, but after nutrition sessions w/ my fitness trainer it seems that there might be better choices.

This boggles my mind. People go to a restaurant, order hot food, receive hot food, sit there with hot food in front of them not eating it, then once the food is cold, ask for it to be reheated? I can't imagine doing that. Maybe servers should swing by and offer a to go box when they see people not eating.

Kerry, your flan looks beautiful. No bubbles!

Use the food processor. Blenders usually need more liquid to keep thing moving and are better for purees, processors are better for chopping drier components.