pastrygirl

Edward, this woman used to be the catering director at the restaurant I recently left. She's super hyper and would book as many events as possible, then bitch about working too hard. She has her good moments, but a lot of questionable ones. Will I ever succeed as a capitalist if I can't learn how to use people to my advantage?

Ha! EdwardJ, I knew you'd have something to say They are supposed to be getting back to me with a 'trade agreement', so I'm curious what that will be. In theory, I could probably still decline. In practice, I feel stuck. Jeanne, when my friend initially mentioned the party there was no talk of trade, and I'm irritated that she seems to have promised my services for trade without my explicit consent. It's an industry event for local wedding planners sponsored by a wedding planning website. Friend works with the event space and does send me paying business sometimes. And thinks I owe her big for this amazing opportunity It sounds like good exposure on the surface - local wedding planners and my sweets, but in reality, don't most people either get a cake from a cake artist, or go with whatever dessert their caterer offers? I would rather sell party favors and chocolates than be a caterer per se, so I guess I need to promote what I want to sell. I have a few things in the freezer I could get rid of

Do you ever trade your food or services? Rather than selling them, that is? A "friend" roped me into doing some desserts "in trade" for an event, I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to get out of it (contacts/referrals for future orders, I suppose), so I'm still a little skeptical that it will be worth doing. I feel like the whole thing is a bit nebulous with an uncertain return on my investment of labor and product. The client is supposed to be making an offer, I'm curious to see what they have to offer, if anything, beyond exposure to their contacts. How much is exposure worth? What if it's to a segment of the industry you have mixed feelings about? In this case, wedding catering... I just want to make stuff and not have to deal with crazy people! If you have any experience trading your product/services for something other than money, I'd like to hear what deals were worth it to you and which weren't. Or more generally, how to make trade worthwhile. Thanks!

Would more fat make it more tender? I'm thinking of butter mints, now I want to try a peppermint butter mint piped onto a circle of chocolate then dipped. Or what if you used coconut oil, like in a meltaway?

I've found that with regular scooped ice cream, 40 proof alcohol has a softening effect approximately equal to sugar by weight. If i wanted a bourbon ice cream that would still freeze, I'd reduce the sugar by the same amount of bourbon that I was adding. If you can figure out how much sugar a commercial slushie mix has, that would be a good starting point. I believe granita base is usually around 20% sugar by weight, so using that example you could do a cocktail that was 5% sugar and 15% alcohol and hopefully maintain the slushy granita texture.

I actually like those photos, they look composed and well balanced, but I agree that asymmetry can be over done and done poorly.

So you already prep your dough ahead, and you're getting more oven space. With pies taking so long to bake it seems like oven space is always going to be an issue. Freezing whole pies is going to add to oven time and might not be worth it, unless prepping them days ahead helps you. Do you have a lot of inactive time while the pies are baking? Does it seem like making fillings takes a long time? IQF fruit like cherries and berries can be very convenient and good quality. I wouldn't recommend canned pie filling unless you count canned pumpkin. How many flavors and sizes do you do? I would do 7 or 8" for my large pies, should be able to fit 5 or 6 on a sheet pan (hoping your oven fits full sheet pans!). Smaller pies will fit more per sheet, and depending on your market, mini pies could be good for immediate consumption. Are any of your ovens convection? I think you should be able to bake way more than 20 pies a day, if your dough is prepped and some of them are small.

If Lyle's Golden Syrup is readily available, I highly recommend it in a caramel. So good!

Unless you're shipping to warm climates or live south of 40 degrees N, you're probably OK, especially if you have an unheated pantry or spare room. Assuming these are winter holiday gifts, that is. I keep all my chocolate in my extra bedroom and never turn the heat on. It did get a bit warm when we had weather in the 90's this summer, but the chocolate has not been noticeably affected. In the winter that room is quite a bit colder than the heated living areas.

I cook mine to about 255F, also add salt and often vanilla bean. I caramelize the sugar separately then add the warmed remaining ingredients and cook to temp.

Yay! We love a success story!

To me, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla represent the chocolate chip cookie taste, but I think the caramel notes in Dulcey would be close. You could even add a tiny bit of molasses for more brown sugar flavor. Cocoa nibs on their own are unsweetened, just crushed roasted cocoa beans. Consider them 100% dark chocolate.

An airy, damp, floury thing is a good medium for yeast and mold growth. You don't need to leave flour and water out too many days before it bubbles, so I think there is too much food for wild nasties in this recipe to keep it at room temp for more than a few days. Also, I'm not sure there is enough sugar to keep the dairy from getting weird after a while. You could try baking the cookie dough without the chips, then process it until it starts to stick back together, then add the chips. I'm thinking along the lines of liquid sable... Or what if you made a roux, then added valrhona Dulcey instead of brown sugar to make it closer to ganache? Damn, I might have to try that!

I've made both honey and maple caramels, and I simply replace the corn syrup with the other liquid sugar. Since maple syrup is a bit thinner, I use a little extra, figuring some of the water will boil off. Though it sounds like your recipe is either much larger or a different ratio than mine, you might want to experiment with a tiny batch to see if you want to replace more than half of the corn syrup. IIRC, I use something like 700g sugar, 600g cream, 170g liquid sugar (glucose, lyle's golden syrup or honey, 200g+ for maple), 150g butter for a 9" square pan, yield 90 caramels.

Thanks, Teo, that sounds like good advice. Luckily it is getting cooler so the chocolate will be happier setting at room temp, and I'll try not letting the first layer set fully. I can use the cracked bars for samples at an event next month, so all is not lost.

I like saffron in desserts, have made ice cream and poached pears with it. I especially like a little lemon or orange zest with it, or typical middle eastern flavors like like pistachio and honey. How about a saffron creme caramel with orange-pistachio cookies?

Kerry, I filled them, dumped 1/2 or 2/3 out (trying to leave a decent base layer), sprinkled with candied zest, let set, then added more chocolate to fill the mold and encase the bits, then a final beauty coat - the molds end up completely full, but they are small, only about 1/4" deep. Finished bars weigh around 35g. I refrigerated them 10-20 minutes until they released from the molds. I might just need to be more careful about keeping the bits away from the weak parts of the mold. Or did I chill them too long and make them brittle?

Not a huge disaster, but pretty annoying. I made some bars today, Felchlin Arriba 72% with bits of candied orange zest. Almost half of them cracked along the indents in the mold. I've had this happen before, with a different dark chocolate and a different inclusion. I like my inclusions in the middle of the bar rather than just sprinkled on the bottom, but that sure wasn't working in my favor today Any tips for better luck with this?

Did it seem like there were more shells than mussels? I would have assumed that the cook prepared a serving of mussels in a pan and poured the contents of the pan into the dish. Small stuff and sauce would fall to the bottom, leaving the shells on top. It does seem unusual that so many shells were empty, but aside from that, do you have other reasons to feel something screwy was going on in the kitchen?

How can you reap the wisdom of the crowd and not end up playing to the lowest common denominator? Otherwise, I could sort of see this as fun, if you had a SO or group of friends to go with and were into offbeat dining experiences. The price isn't bad for a tasting menu, and you have an added theater component. But I see this more as a novelty event than as a way to build restaurants. I'm just not convinced that crowd-sourcing a fine dining menu is going to result in the same kind of experience that having a skilled, visionary chef create it.

JohnT, nice work! I have actually had good luck without acetate strips, just using stainless steel rings sprayed inside with pan release and refrigerating the dessert several hours but not freezing. I've done no-bake cheesecake and mousse-ier things. I warm the ring with my hands for a few seconds then either let the food slide down to the plate or put it on something (like the top to the pan spray can) and push it up and out. Of course, the product is going to be a little more easily damaged if it is just set and not frozen, but it can be done, and you don't get the weeping that can happen with freezing and thawing. This worked for me in a restaurant setting, where I felt the desserts were better protected in the service fridge if left in the rings, but they needed to be useable at a moments notice. Your needs may vary.

The bottoms getting much darker than the tops is strange. Does this happen with other baked goods? I wonder if there is an issue with your top element. Double-panning is definitely worth a try.

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.