pastrygirl

I find it odd that one of the rationales for smaller packaging is that it is 'greener'. If the smaller package contains less food, forcing people to buy 5 or 6 smaller packages to yield the same amount of product as 4 of the previous size, is it really greener?

I'm looking for the best organic chocolate for industrial (restaurant, wholesale chocolates) use. I recently got some samples of TCHO chocolate, some of it organic, produced in San Francisco. I initially liked the flavors of the samples, then ordered 25# of the organic 66% and am not sure I'm liking it so much, in flavor or fluidity. It is thick and very cocoa-y. Another supplier carries an organic Callebaut 70% but won't break case and I'm reluctant to buy 55# without sampling. Has anyone used the Callebaut? Locally we have Theo, an organic, fair trade bean-to-bar manufacturer which is great eating chocolate, but they don't use the usual distributors (except I think you can get nibs) and I've heard negative comments about buying wholesale from them from a friend in the ice cream business. I suppose Felchlin Cru Sauvage should be organic by default, if it is harvested from wild trees in the Amazon. I bought a few bags and I'm pretty sure I like it better than the TCHO, but haven't tried tempering it yet. What other organic chocolates are available wholesale, and which do you prefer?

I too take meds with these guidelines for an empty stomach. So if Fat Guy needs to take his NOT on an empty stomach, would that be within 2 hours of a meal? An hour after a smaller snack? Or just take with some sort of food?

I work at a restaurant where we are expected to have one drink a day, and I think many people do. We recently instituted payroll deductions for the end user tax we would pay on a shift drink. I get screwed on it because I usually only have 1 or 2 shift drinks a month, but a deduction is made for me five days a week. When I mentioned that to the GM, he said I'd better start drinking more. Funny how the restaurant industry is expected to drink, not just allowed.

Taste the puree once it has the sugar in and see how you like the sweetness. I don't know how forgiving pectin NH is, but hopefully you can adjust the lemon juice more or less to taste.

Does the cream of tartar do something special for the caramel, or is it just there to prevent crystallization? Have you tried leaving it out?

I read it as 10 g of something about as sour as lemon juice, so the substitution would need to be a solution, not straight acid. If I had only powdered citric acid and no lemon juice I would make a solution with the citric acid approximating the acidity of an average lemon, and use 10g of that. Start with 1/2 or 1 tsp powder to 1 TB water, taste and adjust? I haven't used citric acid in a while, and don't have a good idea of how sour it is. Is that the whole recipe, 300 g sugar, 1kg puree, acid, and pectin? That doesn't sound very sweet to me, not compared to most pate de fruits. The recipes I use have close to equal weights of sugar and puree/juice.

I like the way you think

I don't feel like copying it all out right now, but Harold McGee says that (at least in bread) staling happens much faster at just above freezing (refrigerator temp) than at room temp or frozen. Things happen to the starches to make them hard and taste stale. So you really don't want to be storing your baked goods in the fridge. Sounds like the 'must immediately freeze cupcakes' thing is just a quirk.

Not sure why the still warm dictate for your cupcakes, but freezing cake layers is supposed to tenderize them.

The rules at my favorite neighborhood sushi place: #1 Mashiko is a non discriminatory establishment #2 Music is chef’s choice #3 We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone #4 Prices are subject to change based on customers attitude #5 Please respect others when using your cell phones #6 10% box fee added to all to go orders #7 18% gratuity included for parties of 6 or more. #8 We take reservations #9 Cork fee $10 (it has to be good bottle of wine or sake) #10 Everything you know is wrong #11 Tip well… live long #12 After you eat, eat more! #13 Enjoy life #14 Talk to the people around you (as long as you do not have food in your mouth) #15 Do not be afraid to try something new #16 Tako is not chewy #17 Chopsticks are not drum sticks #18 Soy sauce is not a beverage #19 Trust us, we are professionals #20 Visa and master card and washing dishes are all acceptable methods of payment #21 Because Hajime said so

The coconut fat might set up a little bit softer, but it seems like it should work. Try it!

Great photos, thanks for posting. You said there was some milk chocolate in there, maybe on the crane? Isn't dark chocolate preferred for its strength? Or were the milk chocolate pieces non-structural?

I believe it is less about Paula's food and more about Paula's story. Don't recall the details, but I believe Paula had some hard times (financial? divorce?) coupled with severe anxiety that kept her almost house-bound which she managed to overcome to be the very, very successful woman she is today. So Carla probably respects Paula's strength and drive more than her deep fried butter. I do, too.

Thanks for posting this. I missed the film when it was showing in town and was happy to see that it is also available streaming on Netflix, so I watched it last night. I would have loved to see more shots of all the fully finished displays. I think the teddy bears were part of a wedding cake, bears in love gazing into each others eyes.

Ice is not served with bottled water because the ice is made with tap water, and who wants their $15 bottled water diluted with tap?

I sift the TPT into the whites in the mixing bowl. Just the way I was originally taught. So do I , but I have an intern who today folded the whites into the bowl of sifted TPT. The macarons turned out fine, just wondering if anyone thinks it makes a difference. I figure success is more about ratio, drying, and mixing to the proper consistency than which goes into which, but you never know.

How many people fold the whites into the TPT, and how many fold the almonds into the whites?

I saw this while shopping yesterday and immediately thought of this thread. It's a fan that blows on your boiling pots to keep them from boiling over!

I've heard 'best of the shop' rather than 'everything in the shop'.

The next time I made sure to dry them longer and they came out fine. But I think I will check the ratio and adjust it. Thanks.

Natto, although I recall having some dried/toasted natto once that I'd eat again. It's not the flavor, it's the viscosity. I may give durian one more try, ideally not as a surprise at breakfast like last time There are two particular things that every time I eat them I vow to try to remember how disappointing they are and not eat them again. Not because they are disgusting in taste or texture, but because they are simply not worth eating and make me sad. Those are cupcake-store cupcakes and conveyor belt sushi from Blue C (local chain, not all kaiten sushi is bad, but this is). I had both back to back the other day, the disappointing cupcake was an effort to erase the memory of the disappointing sushi. It failed.

Anyone use Pierre Herme's chocolate macaron recipe from Chocolate Desserts by PH? I swear I had this one perfected at my last job, but recently I've been having poor results. Dense, essentially no feet, smooth rounded tops and at least several crack on top. Maybe I need a speck more whites? The other kitchen was a lot warmer and I haven't been warming my whites lately, could that be it? My non-cocoa macaron recipe is working out fine in the new kitchen. Same city, sea level, brand of almond flour. Hmmm.

I'm going to have an extern soon who has just completed a LCB pastry program. When she stopped in the other day to set it up, she revealed that she had not worked in a kitchen before but was sure it was her passion. I hope she is right, but I am still amazed that people will spend so much money to get into a field they have never worked a day in. The actual work can be very different from the idea of the work, or how the industry looks on TV. I really recommend that before you commit to school of any kind, find an entry level job or do an internship somewhere so you know what you are really getting into. A little experience will also give you a leg up in school and help you know which areas to focus on. Good luck.

Shame on you, you should always tell those chickens the whole truth. The usage that always annoys me is appending the word "off" to whatever cooking method one is using: "Okay, now I'm going to bake off these cookies" or "fry off these potatoes." What does it add? To me, 'bake off' indicates baking a portion of a previously prepared item. Example, in a bakery, cookie doughs are made in big batches, portioned, and kept in the cooler to be baked as needed over the next several days. Instead of baking all the cookies at once as soon as the dough is made, they are baked off in batches of a few dozen here and there. Likewise, muffin batters can be made in large batches and stored in buckets to be portioned as needed and baked off over a few days.