pastrygirl

I keep a sheet of parchment off to the side onto which I scrape the bits from the tools or the side of the melter. I've been doing mostly molds lately, and the chocolate builds up on the scraper, so I scrape it off with a plastic bowl scraper. When I fork-dip, I wear a glove on my left (non-dominant) hand for touching the centers and wiping off the fork every few dips to avoid build-up. I also wipe down the edge of the melter with the gloved hand. If you do get solidified build-up on the fork, just slide it off the tines. Water works fine as a heat source, of course just be careful. I usually melt my chocolate in a metal bowl over hot water, then keep the pot of water handy to re-warm the chocolate as needed. I only melt in my melter if I'm doing a lot and I remember to set it the night before.

How many cakes do you offer on a given day? I think if I were faced with all 17 in the case I would have decision paralysis. Are cakes the bulk of your business? What percentage of cakes are custom/special order vs walk-in?

Ouch. I'd hate to be in that kitchen right now.

I have to agree with others that this new place is just not the best fit for you. Hectic with screaming is not an environment I enjoy either, even if I'm not the one being yelled at I don't want to be around it. Many chefs are better with food than we are with people (if we were better with people we'd make more $$ in the front of the house). This can mean chefs who are screamers, and shy pastry loners who just want a quiet place to make something beautiful and delicious (me to a T, maybe you). If it's not fun, don't do it. Move on. Good luck.

If I hired someone who had a year and a half of work experience, I would hope to not have to supervise them too much. Was your first apprenticeship full time? What did you do there? Do you make anything completely by yourself from start to finish, or did you only help the chef with supervision? It sounds like your new chef expects you to have more skill and confidence than you are showing. It is good to check in after making a few items to be sure they are right the first time or two you make something, but for a busy chef if someone is always asking questions it takes a lot of time to stop and answer them. What types of items are you making at the new place? How many times do you feel like you need to make a recipe before you are confident that you know how to make it correctly? Of course you want to please the chef, but I can understand s/he might grow impatient if the same questions are being asked over and over. If you want to work in the industry, you need to learn quickly and be able to work on your own. Training and supervision take the time and effort of another person, and those cost money and decrease productivity. You need to be able to keep up with the pace of the rest of the shop.

I can't think of any reason why that would be a problem.

Can't say I think of 'crisp' and 'cake' as words that belong together

That is hilarious. I'm so sorry!

I don't know much about NY style, but you might try Mario's on Pike between 10th & 11th (Capitol Hill), or Bambino's in Belltown.

I've given up on huge batches of pastry cream because they always scorch, so I have to recommend doing multiples of the biggest batch that doesn't scorch. As for the graininess, maybe an immersion blender would help? Not sure what would cause that.

My mom found a sorrel soup somewhere that has you puree the sorrel with some butter in the cuisinart, then add the sorrel butter to the soup. The layer of fat prevents oxidation and the soup stays green tastes good, too.

Are you 1000% sure you put all the flour in?

I make caramel italian meringue butter cream with a more liquid caramel (equal parts by weight sugar and cream), and I add a good amount. For 150 g whites, 200 g sugar, and 450 g butter, I add at least 300-400 g caramel sauce. The recipe says 300 g, but in reality I just stream it into the mixer after all of the butter has been incorporated and until it tastes good, usually 1-1/2 to 2 cups. It doesn't add that much liquid, it is mostly sugar and fat after all - dulce de leche even more so. Does adding the DDL warm compromise the icing? You could probably thin it with a little rum or something and add it at room temp.

Yeah that's what I was thinking! I don't have any magnetic, and they look so much easier to clean, just the sides and no worrying about getting in the corner edges. Need to see how many are in the budget. Thanks!

Today I came across some used magnetic molds and also a couple of two-piece polycarbonate egg molds. They had a few dozen of these: http://www.jbprince.com/chocolate-and-sugarwork/frames-magnetic-15-cavities.asp for $25 each. Has anyone ever bought used molds and/or have any advice? They looked in good condition at first glance.

If you haven't already gone there, macaron. Perfect for those leftover egg whites from your ice cream experiments. Almond tart dough: Sweet Almond Tart Dough powdered sugar 6 oz soft butter 12 oz vanilla extract 1-1/2 tsp eggs 3 lg AP flour 21 oz almond meal 6 oz salt 1/2 tsp Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients on low speed. Wrap in plastic and chill before rolling.

I cannot agree with this enough. We recently moved the resto, beautiful million dollar build out, new custom hood system, and now that it is summer it gets to be upper 80's F in the prep area, wreaks havoc with chocolate, butter, yeast, spinning ice creams. If only I could have sat in on the planning meetings and pleaded with all my heart for air conditioning.... It's not just the heat coming off the oven/stove, it's making sure there is air flow, making sure dry storage is fairly cool so your chocolate doesn't melt and your nuts don't go rancid. Kitchens are hot, fine, just make sure there is someplace cool for the stuff that needs it.

Pretty color! And nice and clear. I think you're getting somewhere!

My guess is because it has a more neutral flavor than lemon or vinegar.

That is the good thing about chocolate desserts - as long as there is good quality chocolate in there that has not been somehow ruined, chocolate fans will be very forgiving of imperfections. And enough whipped cream will hide a lot of sins. Is it something you could pour a chocolate glaze over to sex it up? If you fluff up the batter just to weigh it down, consider your deflated batter halfway pressed already

Hey pastrygirl just wanted to let you know that you got me really excited when you posted that Washington state had passed a cottage law since I'm planning on buying a house in WA this fall and was hoping to get my chocolate operation off the ground on a small scale. However, after looking into the cottage law that was just passed and talking to the lady that has done the leg work to get the cottage law off the ground, unfortunately at this time they are only allowing foods that are baked to be produced out of the home, so for now chocolates are off limits. Rats! She did say though that it is something that is being considered and hopefully will be allowed sometime next year. I'll be waiting impatiently for that day to come! Just thought I'd throw that out there. Thanks for doing the research. That is too bad, hopefully they will reconsider.

I like the texture somewhat firm, but not necessarily chewy. Does al dente apply to candy? PDF is fickle stuff. The same ingredients cooked faster or more slowly will turn out differently, and overcooking does make them tough. I had an intern make a couple batches of my usual recipe, the only difference seemed to be he had the flame lower than I usually do - I told him to turn it up a couple of times. His batches came out shorter in the frame, darker in color, and more chewy, edging towards tough. I made some today at my usual active boil, and they came out perfectly, at least in my opinion. There is also kind of a sweet spot in batch sizes, and you want your pot matched to the size of the burner. I tried doing double batches a few times, and they would get lumpy and weird, I think because I wasn't getting even heat with the small induction burner and large pot I was using. Even heat, cook as fast as feasible without burning it, don't overcook, and you may have to tweak your recipe to your ingredients and equipment.

Yeah, but comparison shopping takes time. Reading the ads and making a list and going to three different stores on shopping day takes time and effort. I, for one, don't really want to spend that time. I go to the closest store and if it looks good and the price doesn't seem insane, I buy it. Sure, I do check prices and sometimes will opt for a certain cheese or fish or whatever based on price relative to each other at that store and i do look for the items on special, but I'm not going to make an extra trip to save a couple bucks on a chicken, I'd rather have the extra half hour.

For that price, they should at least spell chanterelle correctly

Although I have neither, The Perfect Scoop and Jenni's Splendid Ice Creams seem to be popular books on the subject. If you want to get technical, there is Francisco Migoya's Frozen Desserts, which I do have, and which breaks down the role of the different types of fats, sugars, stabilizers, and their ideal ratios. For me, sorbets have always been pretty trial-and-error. If you make them often enough, you will eventually get a feel for how a base tastes vs the finished frozen texture, or you can use the 'float an egg in it' test and that will help you determine the range of sugar density needed. Sour cream sorbet works great, just add simple syrup and lemon/lime juice to taste. For sorbets, I like to make a fairly heavy syrup, 3 parts sugar to 2 parts water by weight, as you can always add more plain water if needed but it is hard to add more dissolved sugar. I do cook many fruits when making sorbet to break them down. Apples may be best when caramelized and served as an accompaniment to ice cream or maybe sour cream sorbet (sherbet). Aside from green apple sorbet made with granny smith juice and vitamin C (and a pacojet), I haven't had great luck with apple sorbet. For fruit ice creams with chunks of fruit, I like to cook the fruit with a little sugar first, otherwise if you just have chunks of raw fruit in your ice cream they will freeze solid. The sugar keeps them soft. Thin acidic sorbets like citrus can benefit from being cooked with a little pectin to thicken the juice and bind up the water. I have made an orange-campari sorbet that uses pectin, also a bit of grapefruit juice in addition to the OJ to accentuate the bitterness. For two quarts I use 6 c OJ, 1 cup grapefruit juice, 325 g sugar, 2 tsp pectin, (cook first 4 ingreds together until signs of thickening), 1/4 c campari, and water to make up the difference (will depend on how long you cooked it).