pastrygirl

The caramel layer would definitely help, OTOH, I've made cheesecake in a regular cake pan and it unmolds fine once it is well chilled and solid. The solidity of the custard may be a factor, and may require either very thorough chilling or a slight reduction in liquid/increase in egg (especially whites) to solidify. Once upon a time I did a banana genoise with a layer of spiced creme brulee baked on top. The main problem I had was the cake wanted to float, I never thought about baking it with the cake on top. Anyway, I did not find that the cake overcooked, because it was soaked with custard which either insulated it or just made it so moist you couldn't tell. It makes sense that your stovetop custard ended up curdled after baking - custards are delicate, the eggs simply didn't need to be cooked twice. The addition of starch a la pastry cream will inhibit curdling, but of course affect the texture. Good luck with your chef, it is hard to create something according to some one else's vision, especially when that some one else doesn't really know how baking works.

I have a tiny bird's beak that I hardly ever use except to peel kiwi That curvy part is used for carving-type tasks like turning new potatoes into seven-sided footballs and otherwise torturing food. The blade does look a little wide for that, and a bit awkward that the curve is in the base and not the middle. You wouldn't use that to cut a carrot into discs for stir-fry, but if you wanted to cut your carrots into short lengths and turn each piece into a football, you could.

Maybe just proof of how jaded I am after 13 years as a pastry chef, but I'm disappointed with this book. I was lured into buying it by the above discussion of complex multi-component professional level recipes. Yeah, a few, but also a lot of really simple stuff and repeats from PH's other books. Baba? Tiramisu? Tarte tatin? Squash muffins? Opera cake? Trifle? Eh... yawn. These days I look to cookbooks first for inspiration and secondly for recipes (which I usually adapt to my needs anyway). Not much inspiration found tonight. The grapefruit/ginger/berry combo does sound good, and I may try stenciling macaron or some of his mousse filling recipes. It's a pretty book, but nothing revelatory, and a lot of basic/classic stuff.

Crazy. Maybe the milk was past its prime? I've had some separation a few times when heating the milk, water, and butter for pate a choux, and figured maybe the milk was old but continued anyway. Separated pastry cream isn't going to fix itself, so you have more of a problem. This happened after adding the yolks and starch? How much did you deviate from your usual proportions?

Broccoli is one of those things that goes from great to terrible with just a few minutes of overcooking, so I'm not sure I'd recommend hot holding. Slightly undercook and reheat if necessary. I made the mistake of trying to keep some brussels sprouts warm on low heat while the rest of dinner cooked... they ended up in the compost. Awful.

You use tempered but still liquid chocolate and mix it with room temperature to slightly warm (but not hot enough to throw the chocolate out of temper) ingredients. It sets up much more quickly and maybe more firmly than the same ingredients combined in the usual heat cream and pour over chocolate to melt method.

Kerry, I wanted to thank you again for the reminder that the rejects can be re-purposed. Management hadn't eaten too many of the cracked ones I had left in the office, so I took them back and melted them down with a little cream and another splash of bourbon. That plus a the extra filling I had saved ended up being the perfect amount to fill two molds of 32. All came out perfect, shiny, and sell-able! As with so many aspects of cooking, it's not about never making mistakes, it's about knowing how to fix them. Thanks!

Good point! I guess with a single flavor you could just add a bit of cream and a bit more flavoring to make up for the additional chocolate in the shells, and use that as the filling for the next batch. I'll try to remember that next time catastrophe strikes. Usually my first impulse is to throw the rejects against the wall

Nice try, but I think piping on top of molded and often even dipped pieces is so ugly.

Ooh! Ooh! I have some! It was about 77F in the kitchen yesterday afternoon, but I needed to make bonbons, and I wanted to make them fast. I cast the molds and immediately set them in the cooler, before they had even start to set. I'm guessing this was where I made my mistake, because a few mornings earlier I made several rounds of larger hemispheres that got a brief chill and came out fine, but were chilled after they looked set (and it was only 71, so there was a smaller temperature difference). I noticed a few of the cracks as I was filling the molds, put them back in the cooler to set the ganache, capped, and turned them out to reveal a mix of about half cracked and half not cracked in both of the molds. 33 to sell, 31 for management to eat. Ouch. Just when I start to think I know what I'm doing, chocolate has a way of keeping me humble.

Yes, and no filling, not a layer cake.

Wow, I expect more from the NYT. The candy/deep fry thermometer she had would be useless for tempering chocolate because candy thermometers are for much higher temperatures and don't even register below 100F. Then she leaves dipped items on a wire rack to drain and harden? And they are not going to harden around the wires and get stuck? I'm skeptical...

is that a retail price? I get Valrhona cocoa powder for $6.89/kg or $3.13/lb from my restaurant's supplier. I have to agree with Sebastian.

I'm with you. It seems like every chef these days thinks they invented the sweet and savory combination, then takes it too far. Maybe it started with candied nuts on salads 10 years ago and has grown. I'm down with salt or spice in my dessert but I don't want my entree sweet. It's something I constantly have to remind myself to watch out for to avoid disappointment. Bacon jam might sound good because it's bacon, but I'm not going to be happy when it is on my scallops and is more sweet than salty. I don't want all of my food to taste like candy!!!

Edward, is corn starch more likely to weep than flour? I use flour and sometimes freeze and thaw for cream puff filling, haven't had trouble. That is why I prefer flour, it seems more stable over time. Piracer, corn starch/flour should be gluten free but may have been processed on shared equipment. Corn starch has twice the thickening power by volume as AP flour, so if you were using 2 TB of AP flour you should need only 1 of corn flour. Not sure how it compares by weight.

A little constructive criticism - I found it impossible to read the text, as it flashed on the screen so very very briefly between scenes. Next time consider a longer pause to allow viewers to read the text, or perhaps treat it as subtitles.

Do you mean a chewy caramel candy? Consider that peanut butter is approximately half peanut solids, so it won't be a 1:1 substitution for butter in terms of fat content, and also that the peanut oil is not solid at room temperature like butter is, so that may affect the texture.

If you have whole wheat flour, you can make a good approximation of graham crackers. I may have a recipe somewhere, I'll try to remember to look for it after work.

For those of you who have one, how loud are these things? I guess anything is quieter than banging molds against the edge of the stainless steel prep table But is it quiet enough to use in an open kitchen during dinner service without being obnoxious?

I do the same.

To clarify, it would be used uncooked in a ganache center, and it has to be bourbon (not scotch) because this is to humor my GM who has been bugging me for months to make bourbon bonbons so we can call them bour-bons and feel clever. The Woodford is about $37 for a 750, which is fine, I only need a few tablespoons per batch. The chocolate did dominate in the test batches, but I still want to use the best spirit I can afford, even if it is only for name recognition. We have a good variety at the bar at work, so I'll have to look into these suggestions. Thanks!

I'm decidedly NOT a fan of bourbons and whiskey, yet want to create a dark chocolate and bourbon truffle that will satisfy bourbon lovers. Woodford Reserve was recommended to me, but it was out of stock at both liquor stores I visited today, so I need another idea. What bourbon would you recommend to pair with 70% dark chocolate and a hint of caramel? Thanks!

If it has solidified in the ISI, try dipping the canister in warm water and shaking to melt the mass. I've found it to be very temperature sensitive.

I'm having a hard time seeing a big need for this. I think most restaurateurs know who their competitors are, and the successful ones don't necessarily care about the details of what the others are doing. I think good managers do find time to check their yelp reviews and address the negative ones. I guess if a business was really struggling and couldn't figure out why, your service might come in handy.

Except for the mango tree. Canadian mangoes?