pastrygirl

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).

http://marquefoods.com/products/patisfrance-powdered-pectin-green http://www.europeanfoodservice.com/patis-france-rapid-pectin-green/ This is what I use. It does seem expensive, especially if you have to double the price for shipping to AK (luckily I don't pay shipping so it is about $47/kg from my wholesaler). I use 30g per 15mm ganache frame (336mm square), so a 1kg pail lasts me at least a few months, even though I usually make 3 batches of PDF a week. If you are doing a thinner layer of PDF in combination with ganache you will use even less. I think if you cost out how much you actually will use you will get over the sticker shock.

I always add the sugar to the egg yolks (be sure to whisk thoroughly, immediately, or they will get lumpy and weird). Then when I add the hot cream/milk to the sugar/yolk mixture, I never have a problem with it scrambling or needing to temper it slowly. Of course, you can still overcook your custard when it's back on the stove, but the only time I have scrambled yolks with hot liquid was when they were not mixed with the sugar first.

I'm sorry, but that makes no sense. Why would you take the square root? You want the same thickness of cake batter covering a larger area. You can visualize that if a full sheet pan is 18 x 26, and you take a bit off the long end to make a square, you have an 18 x 18 square, which will fit four 9 x 9 squares. Then you still have that 18 x 8 piece, which is almost two more. 468/81 = 5.78. Multiply the 9x9 recipe by 5-3/4 or even 6 if that's easier.

Hmm, I dunno. I've definitely had things served in bowls that became unstable when you tried to cut the food in said bowl, but there I'd blame the choice of plate rather than the plating. Otherwise, it's OK to deconstruct, knock over, rearrange, etc the plating as needed. It is meant to be eaten, it is meant to be destroyed.

Some time, and sometimes some more time, in the freezer will usually help the more stubborn ones come out. Then even if they aren't pretty, they are more intact. A different kind of disappointment: happily made three molds of bonbons on Tuesday for a catering order I had next week. Checked the banquet menus today, and no more chocolates on that party. Oh well, guess we'll see how well they freeze, and if nothing else they can be part of the spread at my brother's wedding in 6 weeks. That's what I get for trying to stay ahead.

Pastrygirl and Curls, were you using cream with 35% fat? Not sure. Standard grocery store whipping cream (well, organic).

Just to corroborate cream weights, yesterday I was making caramel and found a pint of cream to be 465g (didn't scrape the container), which would confirm a cup of cream being about 235g rather than 260g (as the recipe apparently suggests).

Thanks Jeanne! The orange & yellow were AmeriColor gel, and the rest were Spectrum gel color, the purple being their 'regal purple'. I was least happy with the purple, it came out more lavender like in the top photo, not as saturated as the other colors. Plus, those got a little brown, I guess my oven was hotter than for the other colors. I don't cook my meringue, just do French, so I added the color towards the end of whipping the whites. It was pretty fun to do something so colorful, I gotta admit!

A brilliant rainbow of macarons for our catering co's propaganda booth at gay pride last weekend.

I believe it does have to be real chocolate with real cocoa butter to be labeled as such (despite much lobbying by Hershey's). If vegetable oils are subbed it gets labeled chocolate flavored. Most milk chocolate is below 50% anyway. Is that not considered chocolate in Ecuador?

I can't wait to see what kind of response I get when I go in asking for a praline stirrer They never seem to know where the chocolate scrapers and entremet molds are either...

That's interesting. I wonder if there is a way to get the same result with the Matisse, either by using more pectin or cooking it a little longer?

Bon bon suicides, so sad Do tell.... who doesn't love neurotic overly complicated confectionery? But I guess a sheet pan or something would save some losses...