pastrygirl

filling for small batches of macarons

Pretty. You can also use luster dust mixed with lemon extract (or something else high-alcohol and fast-evaporating) to paint the macarons any color you like. I am sure there is a macaron thread or two if you search, if you need general advise on making/troubleshooting.

Regular chocolate chips are 1000 count, so the 250 count should be equal to four regular chips.

I don't understand where the shame is in this. I once tried to eat Kraft Dinner at a friends house when I was six or so. Even with more ketchup than KD on my plate I couldn't eat it. I've never had it since either, even as a poor, poor student. And I'm not ashamed of that at all. Well its not shame exactly but it makes me feel like a freak. Mom never even made homemade mac & cheese, so I never understand the big deal about it. Made with good cheese it can be good, but can't relate to seemingly the rest of America on their nostalgia/cravings for Kraft. Also never had PB&J in my lunchbox.

I have never to my knowledge eaten Kraft macaroni and cheese. Maybe at a friends house growing up, but never at my parents house, never in my own house. There is still chocolate on my kitchen floor from making last year's Christmas treats.

I get superfine bakers sugar that is not that fine. I use C&H 'bakers special, definitely more granular than icing sugar, maybe a 4 or 6x. Maybe it is just one of those hazy terms with multiple applications. For grit, how about brown sugar in the frosting?

I would not worry about it. If there is enough sugar in them and they are stiff enough to dip, they should be fine for a few weeks. I would only worry if it was a runny center, like if I had a really soft ganache in a molded chocolate.

The caviar I've made with agar agar keeps for a few days. What are yours made with?

So the dough itself is sugared, not regular bagel dough with sweet bits mixed in? Gross.

I doubt you'd have enough fineness of control for tempering or keeping chocolate in temper. I have an induction burner at work that is handy for many things, but the lowest setting is 100F and the temperature increases are increments of 10 degrees, so not suitable for holding tempered chocolate. A different model with different increments or that went below 100 might be useful, but I have no idea if that exists.

At the market to eat at home I go for : salmon scallops manila clams oysters trout At sushi: salmon scallops sweet shrimp mackerel uni

I puree my berries in a blender then push the puree through a chinoise with a ladle. I cook my berries with a bit of sugar until they fall apart, and puree and strain while still warm.

Definitely plastic wrap. Half sheet pans, microplane, chinoise...I wouldn't mind a vitamix at home

Molds can be too clean?? Ya learn sump'in every day....

NOT that showroom finish: Orange cocoa butter painted in, white chocolate finger-swirled then molded in dark chocolate (filled with Greweling's white chocolate passion fruit ganache). I did four molds this way and a significant number of pieces have places where the orange stuck to the mold, as with the bottom piece in the picture. I had the same issue with some chocolates I had made around New Years: Clearly I am doing something wrong. Is the white chocolate not warm enough to adhere to the cocoa butter properly? Am I just out of temper somewhere? The ones today were in new molds, so the molds should not have been dirty. I am sure I have done a combo like this successfully before. Hmmm

Jacques and Francois, just a coupla downhome American guys...

It's cherry season here (I'm going picking on Thursday!), and I would love to have this recipe, if possible. Thank you, pastrygirl! For the cheesecake, I put 680 grams soft cream cheese, 400 grams soft fresh chevere, 100 g sugar, 1/4 tsp salt and the microplaned zest of one lemon in the food processor. Process until smooth then add in 3 eggs and 2 egg yolks. I bake individual cheesecakes in disposable aluminum cups - 13 per batch - or this would make one decent sized cheesecake. Bake in a water bath at 325 for an hour or until done. For the thyme-infused honey, heat honey and fresh time gently and keep warm for a while, until flavor is infused. Strain out thyme. For roasted cherries, pit fresh red (bing) cherries, toss with a little sugar and water, and bake in a convection oven at 325F , stirring every 15 minutes, until cherries are soft and syrup is reduced. Enjoy!

here's a recipe i've used before with a caramelized apple filling- it makes a fair amount if i recall, you may want to halve it 25 oz ap flour 1/2 c sugar 1 tsp salt 2 TB cinnamon 1 TB ginger 1 lb cold butter 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks 1/3 to 1/2 c orange juice mix dry. cut in butter. add eggs and liquid to form a dough. chill before rolling & filling

60 ml is a quarter of a cup. Dried shrink a little, so I'd use about half the volume if I were using dried.

cheesecake made with cream cheese, chevre, and lemon with roasted sweet cherries and thyme infused honey butterscotch blondie with spicy peanut ice cream and bacon caramel sauce sweet cherry and pistachio tarts vanilla-white pepper shortbread cookies

Yes, put your color on the acetate, then spread a thin layer of tempered chocolate over it. If you have a guitar cutter, you can lay a frame over your acetate and use the strings as a guideline while you cut the chocolate with a knife. Use the same strings you'll use to cut the ganache. I have a few pics of the process starting here: but not including cutting them.

@ a french cafe: 'mister' = croque monsieur murr = medium rare i.e. 'order in one burger murr, one mister'

Agreed that 75 cents above minimum wage is really, really low for even the most basic kitchen job. There is some skill involved, isn't there? Even if legally you can't FORCE people to share tips, you can sit down with the bartenders and explain how far a little sharing would go to making the whole place run better. Its not forcing, its encouraging. Isn't it standard for servers to tip out the bar and their bussers? Why not the pizza guy? I have worked a few places where the kitchen got tips - a very small portion, maybe 3%? - usually ending up at around $100 a month per cook. Even that little bit goes a long way towards diminishing resentment. Encourage your bartenders to throw a couple bucks a night in the pizza guys direction and to stop talking about how much they made. A little discretion really helps too. The kitchen DOES NOT want to hear that the bartender is walking with $200 on a saturday night. Keep it quiet, share a little, and do give that guy an extra dollar an hour (at least) if he is doing a good job.

If you have professional experience, get in touch with the various international culinary recruiters. They mostly offer hotel jobs at management level (chef, sous chef, pastry chef) and a 2 year contract is typical. If you can get a job like that they will take care of your visa.

I generally agree with parchment over silpat for cookies, but with macaron I find they spread more evenly and stay rounder on silpat. Parchment seems to wrinkle and buckle while the macaron are resting, giving me mis-shapen cookies.