pastrygirl

I'd also add Pierre Herme Pastries, it's a good overview of his style, some simpler pastries, some elaborate gateaux.

yum!

350F should be fine, just let them rise more. The light ring around the center comes from the dough being light and full of air and floating on the oil.

Alain Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine: Desserts and Pastries. Francisco Migoya's Elements of Dessert Bouchon Bakery cookbook

But less dense cakes like most butter cakes and sponge cakes may suffer from too much compression in the vacuum. A strong vacuum will pull all the air out of the cake. I would just wrap well and skip the vacuum.

I'm happy to report my last batches of coated nuts turned out much rounder and smoother than the last. I'm not entirely sure what I did differently, maybe just let them tumble longer. The nuts were cold, the chocolate was mid 90s. One of the batches used warmer chocolate and a few pieces of dry ice. Fascinating how chocolate doesn't stick to dry ice. Can anyone explain how/why the dry ice bits repel chocolate and don't get coated?

NO2 has smaller bubbles and less flavor than CO2. CO2 carbonates whatever you add it to. It will make a foam in an isi canister, but it will be rougher on the palate, less stable, and have the taste & sensation of carbonation. Unless you want carbonation, use NO2. I've had line cooks mistakenly charge sweet mousses with CO2 and I could immediately taste the mistake. Not good. You want your foam base chilled, and you want to charge the canister at least 1/2 an hour before you need to use it to let the gas diffuse. If you charge a canister and try to use it right away, it just squirts all over instead of making a nice foam. After that, it should keep for a few days, or until most of the contents are used up. But if you start a busy night with a partial container, or need more than one per night, best to have a back-up already charged so you don't have to deal with charging and waiting during service. It's not really that expensive, 2 NO2 charges for a quart of foam base is maybe $2 (not sure), but considering how much it expands, you get maybe a gallon of foam. And William is right, many savory foams, especially the ones with larger more distinct bubbles (of the sort that haters call spit) are made with lecithin and an immersion blender.

I only cover my custards if my only option is to bake them in a convection oven, to protect them from the hot wind. I bake them low enough (275F) that browning isn't a problem. I suppose covering the hotel pan with foil even in a still oven would help make a more uniformly moist environment and reduce the chance of a dry skin forming on top. Covering them individually seems like a pain. How are you going to check for done-ness? More trouble than its worth, IMO.

It IS a yogurt maker, and cheaper on amazon! http://www.amazon.com/Dash-DSY007CM-STAINLESS-Yogurt-Maker/dp/B00AWDTISK It looks like there is a timer but not a temp adjustment, so I wonder if CR has added something to adjust the temp?

http://everettfarmersmarket.net/meet-our-vendors/farmers/ I have no idea if the honey producer at this market sells raw, if not, maybe they would be able to recommend someone. Also, it seems like honey is usually sold by weight, not volume. I'm guessing a gallon would be at least 15, maybe 20 pounds?

I have to agree with Anna N. Trying to adapt your existing recipes to suit vegans may well be more trouble than it is worth. If you yourself have an interest in developing a vegan line and think it would be profitable, go for it. But if its just a few people you are considering humoring, all that R&D is not going to be worth the time or expense. If you do want some vegan offerings, I'd stay away from trying to make vegan puff pastry and creme brulee, and look for things that can be made with 'normal' ingredients (ingredients you would already use - I refuse to use margarine, for anybody!). Vegan chocolate mousse a la Herve This' chocolate + water mousse, truffles made with coconut milk, fillo cups with tapioca pudding and fruit compote, 'lemon curd' made with pectin. Or make pate de fruits and dip various things in dark chocolate. But messing around with egg substitutes to try to make cream puffs? I would not bother. You should be able to offer a few things that are up to your standards, and vegan, but they may not be vegan versions of your regular offerings. Here's a vegan lemon curd I developed for a wedding cake a few years ago: Vegan Lemon Curd - makes about 1 c lemon zest 1/2 lemon lemon juice 100 g water 25 g sugar 160 g cornstarch 10 g pectin 6 g cocoa butter 45 g Bring juice, zest, and water to a boil. Mix sugar, starch, and pectin and whisk it slowly into the boiling juice. Boil 1 minute, whisking, until it looks thick. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa butter. Strain and chill before using.

Would you be able to hydrate the gum in a small amount of milk at the higher temp then add it to your ice cream base after cooling slightly? Not sure how these things work, just an idea.

You could try not trying: http://nyti.ms/1kNQQls

I think it would be totally appropriate in that scenario to go out to the table and have a little chat, informing him that you cooked the duck and any issues with it should be addressed to you, and to please be respectful of your staff and other diners. I would be really uncomfortable if I was trying to enjoy a nice meal and some loudmouth kept complaining like that. I agree with the others, you can't ban a general group or even a habitual lousy tipper, but you can ban individual assholes if they are harassing your staff or interfering with your business.

Why use French words? Because much of pastry is French to begin with. What else would you call a soufflé? Because foreign words can sound sexier, or more exotic, which translates to sounding more expensive. I think coulis just sounds better than sauce. But I would name the fruit in English - strawberry coulis, not coulis au frais (or whatever) Because there is limited space on the menu and chantilly is shorter than whipped cream. But mostly to make things seem more exotic and fancy/expensive. I never use tarte, or tartelette unless it is a traditional French item like tarte Tatin. Why add the e when it is the same word? Comes off as trying too hard.

Very, very nice! What ganache recipe did you find that worked?

Well shoot, you didn't tell me there'd be sushi!

Jim, welcome to the wonderful world of guitar ownership! 1) I cut pretty stiff ganache, pate de fruits, shortbread dough, even cut some samples of (thin) tempered chocolate without (usually) breaking strings. As Edward J mentioned, it's the chunks of hard stuff that cause problems...once I tried to cut something with a very hard pretzel base and broke 8 strings at once. But you will need to learn how to replace strings eventually - a bummer when they snap, especially if they get stuck in the middle of a slab, but not the end of the world. 2) I don't have a specific recipe to recommend, but my truffles are based on Greweling's butter ganache - butter, liquid, tempered chocolate. Sometimes I have to put all of my weight on the frame to get the strings through the last bit - the guitar is really quite sturdy. 3) you do get a little more leverage placing the slab at far edge, not the closer raised edge. If I have a particularly stiff ganache to cut, sometimes I will do the first cut, then cut the rest of the slab half at a time, pushing it to the back of the cutter. Hold the slab in place with one hand as you get the strings embedded in the first bit so it doesn't side around. 4) I wipe the strings with a towel between cuts to remove the little bits that cling. When I'm finished, I run the frames and the base through a commercial dishwasher. Alternately, spray the base with hot water to get the bits out. I have never tried to do this in a home kitchen, though, that could be a little more challenging Maybe something thin like a toothpick or cake tester could be run between the slots in the base.

Maybe instead of changing the serving size, they should keep the info for what one serving should be, and put next to it the info for the whole package.

I'm not sure I agree with re-sizing portions to reflect what people actually eat. Seems like it makes it even harder for people to know what a reasonable portion should be. I suppose they are trying to make it so people don't have to do the math to know they ate 800 calories after finishing off the four servings of ice cream in a pint, but it also puts the stamp of approval on eating the whole pint. If a pint becomes a single serving, can I have two if I was good that day?

Thanks guys, I'll read up. It's kind of funny, because I've been harassing my new sous chef at the restaurant about freshness and not making too much and being super selective about quality, but yesterday not only did I find that the pate de fruits I was about to sell had gotten all weepy and syrupy in the box, but a customer e-mailed me when she got home that I had sold her a box of truffles with a use by date of today I'm sure they are fine or I wouldn't have sold them, but I should have been paying more attention. I think once I get production amounts dialed in better, shelf life will be less of an issue. I'll remind myself that even though most confections CAN spend some time on the shelf, doesn't mean they SHOULD.

I've been making chocolates in my spare time over the past few years, but have taken a few big steps lately towards shifting from pastry chef to chocolatier. I had packaging designed and made, cobbled together a website, rented space in a commissary kitchen, and am almost out the door at the restaurant. Yup, finally quit the day job! I've done two pop-up shops and will be part of another on Saturday, and today I exhibited and sold at the Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon. I'm learning a lot, but one thing I still need to figure out is how to determine shelf life and balance that with production. Products are filled bonbons, ganache truffle squares, bars with fillings or inclusions, caramels, and pate de fruits. My estimate of shelf life is around 2 weeks for bonbons and pdf, 3-4 weeks for truffles, and longer for caramels and bars. I guess I don't have a specific question, more looking for insight on how other confectioners & chocolatiers manage to have efficient production. Do you date your product? Refrigerate/freeze it? How do you determine your sell by date? How many orders/boxes of an item do you usually make at once, and how long does it take to sell? How much of a window before the sell by date do you think people expect? Is it better to have an earlier sell by date and risk people thinking it might be bad when it probably isn't, or have a later date and risk people waiting too long and eating things not at their peak? Your thoughts & experience are appreciated! Andrea

The restaurants I work for have an event space next to one of them, so I borrowed that - they get an excuse to advertise and get people in to look at the space and I get the exposure and sales. It's a cool spot in a vibrant neighborhood, unfortunately it was cold and rainy so we were not able to open the big roll-up garage door to attract foot traffic. We spread the word via our various email lists, social media, and I emailed our local eater.com editor and the hipster alternative newspaper. I'd guess somewhere between 50-75 people came and bought something. I think better weather would definitely have helped, and better signage to draw people in - getting posters printed was one of the things I really should have made a higher priority. Learn, learn, learn! I did make it all myself. I've cut my hours at the restaurants and moved my toys into a shared kitchen that I can use 15 hours a week, so all the production was at the new kitchen over the last 3 weeks. I have a lot left but mostly things that will keep and that I can use for my next event. I think I do get too ambitious about variety, I just have this crazy drive to try to make as much as possible.

keychris, those are fantastic. I want a chocolate tiger!

What did we make? What didn't I make! I created a pop-up chocolate shop today, having produced many delights over the past several days, here's the menu: Chocolate Bars Solid, with fillings or inclusions Caramelized white, almonds, salt Caramelized white, cashew gianduja Milk chocolate & pretzel Dark chocolate & toasted coconut Dark chocolate & cacao nib brittle Caramels – box of 6 Salty Vanilla bean & honey Espresso Maple syrup & pepper Apple cider Truffles – box of 12 Dark chocolate salty caramel Milk chocolate salted peanut butter crisp Dark chocolate, mandarin orange & cointreau Dark chocolate, hazelnut & frangelico Chocolate covered nuts Caramelized almonds, coated in chocolate & cocoa Macarons 3 French almond cookies with butter cream or ganache Pate de fruits – box of 12 Raspberry - key lime Pear – passion fruit Chocolate Rabbits Dark or milk, solid with inclusions -hazelnut -almonds & smoked salt -pistachio & candied orange -rice krispies -candied orange & grapefruit zests Bonbons Molded chocolates with a solid shell and ganache filling dark chocolate with -salted 38% milk chocolate caramel ganache -white chocolate toasted coconut ganache -68% & vanilla gaanche -49% & rosemary caramel ganache -white chocolate passion fruit ganache It was a lot of work, but fun and I'm happy with the sales and response. I'm looking for excuses to do it again soon. Maybe Mothers day... I'll see if I can post photos from my phone.