pastrygirl

Thanks. The splatter has its place, for sure. I used a pastry brush that I'd cut down so only about 1/2 inch of the stiff part near the ferrule is left. What seemed to work well was holding an icing spatula in my left hand and swiping the brush against it with my right, just have to get the angles and the amount of cocoa butter right. There were some 'seconds' with big drips, but friends and coworkers never seem to care about cosmetics.

First attempt at color...bright out of the mixer... ...rather muted after baking, but I do usually get some light browning on my non-food colored macaron, so I'll have to try turning the oven down or covering with a sheet pan for brighter colors. The fun part was that I used no almond flour! The green ones were made with graham cracker crumbs instead, I found the cookies too sweet but not bad with lime cream cheese filling. The orange ones were made with fine shred unsweetened coconut and filled with passion fruit curd. Oddly, I've made a few more batches with half coconut and half almond that I haven't been as pleased with (not great feet, texture) but I also had to use a different oven, which may have been a factor. My usual oven got repaired today, so my next batch will be a true test.

Passion fruit, filled with rejects from the last batch where the cocoa butter swirl stuck to the mold on about half of them. I don't love the color splatter as much as the swirl, but I like that they all came out and were all shiny. Ginger milk chocolate caramel, a sample wedding favor that I'm hoping our catering division can sell for me.

There always seems to be a piece or two that gets in the way of the mold when I'm banging the last few stuck ones out....also known as samples for the chef

Jen, Washington just passed a cottage foods law, sounds the same but I haven't looked into it much. Where do you sell if wholesale is not allowed? I'm also surprised jams made the list of low-hazard foods, with all the potential for improper canning and botulism. Are the rules on confections pretty specific about formulation (available water, sugar density) or do they just figure confections are all safe? Thanks.

That must be some acidic jam, surprising that the sugar wouldn't cancel out the effects of the acid. I don't see any reason to add the jam at the beginning, so might as well keep adding it at the end.

Great job, Jen!

Perhaps I was a bit harsh. I have no idea what his production schedule is like, I just have a hard time grasping how you could sell out a day's supply of pastry in an hour. Must be a real feeding frenzy. I definitely support the small batch high quality ideal, and can see how he might have wanted a cozy little pastry shop as a respite from years in the restaurant world. I have that fantasy myself. But it's still a bit silly, disingenuous even, to claim you just wanted a quiet little neighborhood place and not expect to be busy when you open in the most densely populated, hipster foodie infested neighborhood in the city. Best of luck to Neil.

For those of you who use food color in your macaron, any tips or preferences between brands, paste, or liquid? When to add? Bake as usual or...? I have an order for a rainbow assortment in a few weeks but have never tried coloring the batter, only au natural or chocolate so far.

Until now, your of idea of having a life was going out to enjoy his food. If that's not life enough for the chef, he doesn't want or deserve your business.

Cute spot, and finally some better pastry on Capitol Hill. I hope he gets his production schedule worked out. OTOH.....I believed the hype for about a minute, but now I'm over it, significantly because of the Economist article, and because of my pastry experience and the other bakers I know. What kind of business model is it to open a bakery, make one batch of everything, then go home? You start baking at 4:30am and close up at 5 or 6 hours later? WTF? James at Besalu had a line out the door all day weekends for years, maybe still does, and started with himself, a helper, and two ovens. I would rib him about working too hard, but he kept up with the demand by just making more. Sure, croissants are a lengthy process that can't be whipped up on the fly, but scones, brownies, cookies, tartlets, even macaron...what kind of baker stands there smugly thinking how great he is because he's selling out instead of getting another batch in the oven? I have no doubt that the guy has worked very hard throughout his career and is very talented, but this just rubs me the wrong way. How many times does he expect people to come by looking for food before they stop trying and go somewhere more reliable instead? As for the food - everything is small and cute and perfect looking. I had a kouign amann that was nice, but compared to the big, gooey, over the top kouign amann at Bakery Nouveau - well, something halfway in between would be ideal. Also a rhubarb financier. I don't know who his suppliers are, but I have returned 3 bags of almond flour to my supplier because I thought they tasted like play-doh. I tasted the same off note in C&F's financier and was stunned to consider that I may be even pickier than Neil (though admittedly, it did take me a few weeks of using it to get over my denial that it was bad and return the remainder). I'd say wait a few more weeks or months for the hype to die down and for Neil to decide whether he wants to run a real bakery with operating hours or just a vanity project. If you come anyway and he's closed, Besalu, Nouveau, and Honore will be open their regular hours and are sure to please.

You're fine. He has issues. And anyone who can't tell the difference between a fresh raw oyster and a canned one is awfully slow. How the heck are you supposed to eat them still attached to the shell? That's just BS. You go that often and he didn't recognize you? There is really no excuse for his behavior, but I'm guessing that he's under a lot of stress or has serious issues going on and you just happened to be someone there to lash out at.

I recently sacrificed one to act in lieu of a baking stone for pizza. Works decently.

Sooo, y'know how sometimes you have a nice cocoa butter swirl in your molds that seems to be in temper, but when you unmold the finished pieces half of them have spots where the color has flaked off? Do we know exactly why that happens? Cocoa butter too hot, too cold, too much agitation? Agitating when semi-set because you just can't leave well enough alone?

I think it could work. Coconut goes great with lots of tart tropical fruits, meyer lemon isn't really that different from lime, pineapple or passion fruit. Do it! Or you could make a meyer lemon curd or some kind of lemon cookie, using the juice in a filling or glaze. Even though the zest smells amazing, i feel like the flavor of meyers doesn't come through as well as regular lemon zest, so I always use the juice too.

The crumb doesn't looks so bad. If the batter deflates too quickly when folding in flour, I think your eggs may not be whipped until thick enough. Those babies have to be THICK!

Does the filling normally soak into the ladyfingers a little? If so, I'd think it would do the same with the sponge. After all, ladyfingers are just one variation of sponge cake. Looks like the butter and chocolate in the filling would stabilize it enough to not need gelatin. i really don't think you have anythig to worry about.

Have you looked at Bragard?

Instead of doing a cocoa butter layer and a luster dust layer, why not just mix the luster dust with the liquid cocoa butter? I feel like I have done that before with fine result, though I don't think I have a photo. Isn't that essentially what the chef rubber jewel colors are, cocoa butter plus color plust luster dust? Why not do clear plus luster dust? Like others, i just brush it in and it sticks to the mold and is (not amazingly, impossibly shiny but) shiny enough.

Thanks! I find the 5 quart kitchenaid bowl such an awkward shape for trying to fold the flour in, and it seems like you need 3 hands for that anyway. I do it on speed 2 or 3 and use the parchment as a funnel to add the flour. You do want to watch and add it gradually, too much at once isn't good.

I use 170g sugar, 140g AP flour, and 60g of fat to 5 eggs, so I agree that the flour looks a little too generous. I don't heat the eggs, just room temp. If the batter deflates quickly, the eggs may not be thick enough. Keep going! Here is my method: whip eggs and sugar until very thick in the kitchenaid with the whip attachment on high speed. Meanwhile, sift flour 3 times onto parchment and melt butter. When eggs are thick enough, turn the mixer to low and gradually add the flour then the melted butter (or I often use olive oil). Remove bowl from mixer and, using a spatula, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and fold in any unmixed ingredients. Pour into parchment lined pans and bake at 325F in convection oven until done.

No worries.

Looks like a nice blog. She must be pastrygirl on another board, as far as I know there is only one of us here and I don't have a blog

Where will you be staying? Will you have a car? I can't speak to the child issue, but recently I've had great food at Bar del Corso on Beacon Hill (wood oven pizza and small plates), Walrus & Carpenter in Ballard (oysters/fish, small plates), Restaurant Zoe on Capitol Hill (new american). If you are into sushi I highly recommend Mashiko in West Seattle. Had a good but not amazing dinner at Staple & Fancy in Ballard (Italian). Best bakeries in town are Cafe Besalu, Honore, (both Ballard), Bakery Nouveau (w. Sea), Columbia City Bakery, and Fuji Bakery (international district). Chowhound has a much more active local board than eG, you might want to check recent reports there.

If you ever make meringue and find it too sweet, a little citric acid will balance that out.