pastrygirl

Good point. It appears some recipes talk about cutting the rhubarb into 5" long or so thin pieces and then slicing them into ribbons using a mandolin and then simply dipping them into a simple syrup which coats them and then they harden in the drying. I admit I haven't read the recipes very carefully...am getting ready to leave Moab...and was hoping for eG input. Sorry. Lazy and overtired at once. And can't type either... ← Ahh, well that might work. I was thinking of candying orange peels and all that boiling.

Whenever I cook rhubarb for more than about a minute, it totally falls apart. If anyone knows how to make it not fall apart, I'm curious. You might end up with something more like jam, but rhubarb jam would not be a bad thing!

This brought memory of Zachary's Pizza in Oakland/Berkeley. For some reason their 'stuffed pizza' is very popular. They put an extra layer of dough on top, plus more tomatoes and cheese. Problem is, the extra dough doesn't cook enough in the middle of all those tomatoes, so you end up with a pile of canned tomatoes and wet dough. Ugh. ← I live in Berkeley and have friends who've criticized my choice never to go to Zachary's. Thank you for justifying that choice. ← You're welcome! I applaud your firm stance. I lived in Berkeley for a bit and had Zachary's a couple of times at parties. It's a crime against pizza.

This brought memory of Zachary's Pizza in Oakland/Berkeley. For some reason their 'stuffed pizza' is very popular. They put an extra layer of dough on top, plus more tomatoes and cheese. Problem is, the extra dough doesn't cook enough in the middle of all those tomatoes, so you end up with a pile of canned tomatoes and wet dough. Ugh.

It's gellee, get with the program And if you serve it in a glass you can call it a verrine and yes of course charge extra. Couple layers of fruity, maybe a layer of panna cotta, call it a parfait and tell them it is low fat and gluten free and you're good to go. You could even use agar-agar and make it vegan, if desired. Nigella has a gin and tonic jello mold in her dessert book that is quite nice, slightly more mature than the jello shots of college days.

It seems many newer places are claiming that soggy in the middle is authentic neapolitan style.

Jeff, I'd say fill your muffin cups 2/3 and watch carefully, they'll be done in 15 to 20 minutes for a medium muffin. You don't want those little guys to dry out. If you are doing serious wedding cake layers you need to make some adjustments going from a 6" to a 12" layer, but for most things you just need to keep an eye on the time. You can try filling the pan with water to the level you usually fill it to determine the volume of your batter, then pour that water into your new pan and see how the volume is distributed. If you have the Food Lovers Companion, there is also a handy pan size substitution chart in there with aproximate pan volumes. RLB also has a list in the Cake Bible. Gfron, the only problem with bigger pans of brownies is that you tend to get a thicker crusty edge that needs to be trimmed off. Oh well, more snacks for you! Do you have sheet pan extenders? They come in very handy if you want something a bit taller than the sheet pan, and they are also more square than the pan itself. http://www.bakedeco.com/static/list/sheet-...n-extenders.htm (scroll down).

Are these horizontal? How about a sandwich of two thin rectangles of tempered chocolate or tuile or meringue? You could still stick something into the sides if they are vertical, or if the diameter allows, cut them in half and offset the two halves.

The instant gratification of baking something start to finish was much more appealing and less intimidating than the design profession I went to college for. Plus, as I'm socially retarded, I am totally happy back in the kitchen baking on my own, talking to myself. Of course I do like the positive feedback, but its more about the food, and playing mad scientist a little bit, and creative freedom. I took my current job in large part so I could save money, but it is not actually a high salary (just nowhere to spend it) and that was not the only factor.

New tag line!

Chocolate spring rolls/wontons with a gingery dipping sauce. Chocolate pastry cream will have less leakage problems than a ganache filling. Anything pineapple - tarte tatin, upside-down cake, jell-o mold. I really like 5 spice and vanilla with pineapple. New dessert going on one of my menus tonight has a layer of pineapple agar, a layer of 5 spice panna cotta, tapioca cooked in coconut milk, and mango sorbet. Would not be that hard to cook in quantity. semifreddo - chai, kaffir lime, thai coffee, coconut, banana, etc. rice pudding with black sesame and banana fritters or with cardamom and mango or sour cherry jasmine tea panna cotta with ginger poached pear churros y chocolate, especially spiced hot chocolate. Could also do bunuelos or sopapillas , may be easier than churros.

Also check out whatever local store has a good bulk section. Sometimes you can get Callebaut in bulk for $3 or $4 a pound. One store I used to live near would obviously just break up the 11lb blocks of semisweet Callebaut and fill their bulk bins with that. Maybe not the finest choice for dipping or molding, but perfectly serviceable for fillings, baking, hot fudge.

Aha! The doctor knows all. Can I substitute 'warped stainless steel table' for 'marble slab'?

I do find that the powdered colors don't seem to dissolve completely and was a little concerned about that. Chocoera, I use the lemon jelly in place of the jam in butter ganache. 80 g lemon jelly, 40 g butter, 120 g tempered white chocolate, 1 TB lemon juice.

Lemon butter ganache. Lime, actually, but they call limes lemons here. I made a lemon (lime) jelly with some pectin and sugar then used Greweling's butter ganache formula, adding more lemon (lime) juice at the end instead of liqueur. A little too much on the yellow side for my aesthetic, but good flavor, nice and tart.

Yes, the finger technique, first the green, let set, then the white, let set, then 55%. Of course I also have lots and lots of really ugly chocolates I'm not showing you guys. The last two times I've tried to hand dip, my temper has been off, bad bottoms happen too often, and my experiments with pate de fruit using some new pectin of uncertain formulation are not bad exactly but not quite right either.

They'll show you around, maybe have you mix or portion a few things, see if you seem to get it, see how you move. Is it bread or pastry or everything? You must bake a lot at home to be applying for this job, if that is the case, don't freak out. Professional kitchens will do things differently, so pay attention and follow directions, an established business has standards and needs to be consistent. Have fun and good luck.

Watch out, soon you'll want everything to be pretty shiny colors, it is addictive and brings out your inner abstract expressionist . I picked up a tub of Cacao Barry pure cocoa butter and the colors on vacation in Australia in February. The colors are Roberts Confectionery, www.robertsconfectionery.com.au oil based powder color but I bought them from Savour school in Melbourne, www.savourschool.com.au. I just got little 5 gram vials to play with, they were maybe $7 Australian each. The recommended dosage is 10 grams color per 100 grams cocoa butter but I didn't weigh, just eye-balled it. Now I'm trying to think of flavors to make that match the colors - lemon, blueberry, apricot...it's a slippery slope! Chef Rubber in the US also has oil-soluble powder colors as well as already mixed colored cocoa butter. You'll just have to find the best exchange & shipping rates. At least it is light weight!

I would ditch the immersion circulators and accompanying vacuum machine and get a nice fryer, good sized grill, and a second oven/range to do traditional braises. Some things can be cool sous vide, but if you are going for affordable comfort food, even if it does have a twist, is your clientele going to care whether it was braised 18 hours sous vide or braised 8 hours in a regular oven? Have you looked at combi ovens? Might be more versatile than the immersion circulators and there are some you can program to do all kinds of things. I have a Houno combi that I actually hate because I suspect it is smarter than I, but it is programmable for roasting and braising and steaming and keeping warm. Besides, 6 burners and a grill is not a lot of heat. You're still going to need a burner to heat up all your sous vide bags, more if you are going to sear those meats, that leaves you with 5 burners which is really not much. How many seats are you looking at?

I had thought I lost my marbles yesterday, so that's where they went!

Peppermint bonbons. I have to admit, I've been skeptical about colored cocoa butter, and have felt that it is sort of trendy and over used. Seriously, does everything need color? But then I got some, and have realized how much fun it is to play with! These were wiped with green, then a smear of white chocolate, then filled with dark. Filling is a light caramel ganache with peppermint liqueur.

Thanks for all the ideas. I've decided this marzipan that I have is weird stuff. If I add just a little liquid it gets totally soupy, I'm thinking it is far more sugar than almonds (no % listed). Admittedly, I haven't baked much with marzipan, just almond paste for frangipane. We did have some leakage from improperly sealed stollen at Christmas, does normal marzipan melt and ooze when hot? I tried Ann Amernick's wellingtons, which were disastrous, and a test batch of frangipane that was a little too loose but I can fix that. Today's test recipe of bonbon filling is a winner, I think: 200 g marzipan, 75 g white chocolate, 50 g butter, and 2 TB amaretto made smooth and gooey in the food processor. Soft enough to pipe and self leveling when just blended, but crusted over for bottoming pretty quickly. I did not even melt the white chocolate, the friction of blending was sufficient.

If you can find a recipe for ricotta cheesecake or ricotta pie, that might be closer. Either way, I think you would want to puree your cottage cheese first to get it as smooth as possible. I think it would be a little looser than cream cheese, so you might want to reduce the other liquid or maybe drain the cheese a little to get it the same thickness as cream cheese.

It might be my unrelenting taco cravings talking, but I might have to go with corn tortillas. Not that I wouldn't miss salt-topped rosemary sourdough, seeded baguettes, or warm potato bread slathered in butter. Either way, it would be a sad life that had only one kind of bread in it.

Wow, that is one intense cake!