pastrygirl

I try really hard to suck in my gut and keep it out of the chocolate, sometimes it works! For cleanup (of stainless tables), the propane torch and a wet rag.

Does anybody have a good recipe for a THIN buttermilk cracker? I have a recipe that tastes OK, but they always shrink and get too thick. I already have a lavash yeasted cracker, and a cheese cracker and would like something a little different, a little plainer but with seeds. A friend gave me a recipe that was more a wine-based batter than a dough, but I haven't tried it yet. Are there other 'batter' type recipes that don't include wine?

This is how Greweling has you make Almond Dragees (my results can be seen here). It gives a very different look, but you still wind up with chocolate covered stuff, which is OK in my book . ← Chris, that must have been the book I was thinking of! (On vacation away from my pastry library at the moment). Yours look good, how many layers of chocolate did you do? I might have to try some for the holidays.

I think you should be able to coat the beans by adding a little tempered chocolate to the beans in a bowl and stirring until the chocolate hardens. Repeat as necessary to get the desired thickness. Of course this won't give you the shiny polished look of the coating pan and wax and polish. I've seen this method in a chocolate book somewhere but I have not actually tried it. I would try it before dipping, though!

It shouldn't be too hard to find a list of what volume the most commonly used pans hold, I think the Cake Bible has one somewhere in back, or the Food Lovers Companion. This would be in cups instead of the cubic inches that Tino calculated, but it would be helpful in deciding which pans will equal which other pans. Or a quick google: http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html

The orange molds at JB prince might be getting close. I have a few different ones and they are decent quality but do degrade from butter/oil when use for baking as opposed to just molding. They also have some modular molds that might be worth a look. http://www.jbprince.com/flexible-silicone-...8-cylinders.asp http://www.jbprince.com/production-molds/1...ds-and-tray.asp If you're just molding and not baking, there's always PVC pipe, 1-3/4" might be close to 4 cm, and definitely cylindrical. And CHEAP!!! It might be hard to find those exact dimensions, good luck, but I hope your friend is a little bit flexible!

After checking opentable...can anyone comment on the chances of finding a relatively quiet table at: cafe campagne BOKA Elysian Fields Juno Purple (downtown) Thanks!

I'm sure they're just going the extra distance with thoughtful service. I think that's preferable to the server leaving the to-go box on the table all night after we didn't finish the HUGE calamari app, as happened last week in Colorado - in that case I would have preferred them to keep it in the kitchen and bring it back out with the check, instead of looking at the box for the next three courses.

Back in town after my first year in the Himalayas & trying to figure out a nice lunch spot for today. Something highly delicious, maybe new, oysters a plus, only caveat is the friend I'm meeting has poor hearing (wears aids) & super noisy will be impossible for him, so the uber-hip, hard-surfaces-only places are out. Neighborhood not important! Thanks for any suggestions, I'm feeling a little out of touch on this one.

Just got back from my first trip to Denver - hopefully not my last - and here is my report. I road tripped out w/ friend M who was moving from Seattle for a new job in CO, fun times! Overall we had some good food but found service to be generally lacking polish - Seattle servers may think they are too cool for you and bring too much attitude along with your food, but at least they are generally efficient and otherwise professinal. Dinner at Rioja - I had the radish, watermelon, and feta salad to start which was a nice array of flavors, then the duck with 'crispy shiitakes' a salad napoleon thing, and a little pot of sesame (?) sauce that was quite tasty. M had a green salad and lamb. Both mains had superfluous fillo garnish, we thought flavors were good but presentation might have been trying a little too hard, kind of a lot going on. I loved the yuzu in the dressing on the salad part of my entree. We had fig and goat cheese beignets for dessert, which were not light and fluffy, despite the server's assurance that it was yeast dough, not just a random fried thing labeled 'beignet' (as a pastry chef, I was suspicious). Maybe the dough was just a little thin, they were cute and bite-sized, so it would be hard to get them small and pillowy at the same time. Our server kept calling us both 'dear' which was odd, as she appeared our age (35/36) or probably younger, and she spaced out on my request for a tea menu until I asked again at dessert (sore throat, tea would have been really nice). Wines by the glass were good - good overall, but not amazing. Lunch at Osteria Marco - M had gazpacho which was nice with a little kick, we both had panini, really delicious but a tad on the greasy side. I liked his prosciutto, robiola, and fried egg just slightly better than my porchetta cubano, the stronger cheese was more interesting. Next night, we had happy hour oysters and a glass of wine at Highland Pacific, no complaints. The table next to us seemed to be overgrown frat boys, as much as we enjoyed giggling at overhearing 'chicken tiki marsala' being touted as a favorite dish, we opted to explore more options. I do enjoy chicken tikka masala every now and then... We moved on to Black Pearl for dinner. I think Black Pearl was our favorite out of what we tried together. Our server was helpful and friendly but still professional and efficient. We shared the salted pork ribs and the fried peppers (padron?) to start, then a whole crispy bass that was beautiful and not greasy, roasted asparagus, and truffles fries. Asparagus wasn't anything special but we really liked everything else. Once I heard who was behind D Bar (seasoned professionals), I had to go, but the dinner menu looked a little insufficient to make a night of it, so I went for lunch. I had a very nice panini, but was really disappointed that they weren't serving their full dessert menu at lunch, they only had cookies and what was in the pastry case - cupcakes (which don't excite me) and a few tartlets. The chocolate tartlet was nicely bittersweet and garnished with thin sheets of chocolate toffee, but I felt the crust tasted a little 'fridge-y', not soggy or anything, just slightly off. I was surprised that they would keep cupcakes in a chilled case, cold cake is so much less good than room temperature. The space is really cute, except all hard surfaces made it pretty cacaphonous, even without full occupancy. I admit I was hoping for another sweet experience like I had at Chikalicious in NYC last summer, this wasn't it, but I'm sure D Bar will still make plenty of people happy. Also, the line cook working counter service needed considerably more training in the service side of things. Overall, I wasn't impressed enough to drag M back in later to try the plated desserts, maybe next time. Dinner at Solera - M was more disappointed than I, maybe because it was his turn to pay We started with a small calamari with Thai peanut/chili sauce, which was a HUGE plate of rings (didn't see any tentacles). We both would have preferred the sauce on the side instead of the squid fully dressed in it, as it was heavy on the sweet chili sauce and too sweet for us. We had salads, no complaints there, but M dared to order paella, wondering in advance if it would be disappointing. He found it distressingly soupy and kept grumbling that paella IS NOT gumbo. I think it may have tasted OK, it was more of an authenticity issue. Even worse, when we inquired as to the characteristics of the Primitivo on the wine list, our server assured us "it's Zinfandel, exactly the same as Zinfandel" Well, we both know that while the grapes are related, they are not exactly the same, so this did not go over so well with us. The other major service gaffe was setting our silver for our 2nd course while we were still eating our calamari - nice to be on top of things, but wait 5 minutes and do it between courses like you're supposed to! I had the duck special, which was delicious, but a lot more rare than what I was expecting medium rare to look like, basically a thin layer of cooked meat surrounding a very dark red center. Ice creams for dessert were fine, blueberry thyme sorbet had good flavor but too much sugar to freeze properly, so was slush and syrupy goo. We both felt there were far too many missteps for the fine dining that they are trying to be. Loved the guitar player, however. There were a few taco stops in there, we liked the one on Colfax next to the rasta shop, great carnitas and not-too-sweet horchata. I can't remember if that was tacos el chorizo, or if el chorizo was the one two or three blocks further east that was good but we liked less, even if the owner seemed really old country. Saturday we trekked out to Boulder to see the hippies and had lunch at the Dushanbe teahouse. After a bit of a wait outside, we had duck confit empanadas with red bell pepper coulis that were very good. I had the chickpea kofteh (sp?) balls with tomato sauce and pomegranate syrup, which I really enjoyed, M had the pheasant sausage with mashed potatoes and escarole, which he enjoyed but the portion was pretty small. Gingerbread for dessert was a touch dry, maybe made the day before? It was really charming and good food that came out fairly quickly. Last but not least, pizza from Enzo's on Colfax was totally satisfying for a neighborhood pizza joint.

I think that with some fruits the pectin content might be a factor in fluffiness, except I don't think pineapples have much pectin. But raspberries, cranberries, and apricots do, and those can get pretty fluffy for me, more than say mango or kiwi. Maybe the pomegranate just needs a little stabilizer, pectin or gelatin or a commercial stabilizer. You could add body with a fairly neutral fruit like pear, but then you wouldn't get a pure pomegranate flavor I'm envious of your carpigiani!

Unless your cakes are more than $50 to $100, $5 is 5-10%! I agree that you need to develop a signature style but have an easy way to do minimal customizing. You can't please everyone, do what you do best & believe in. Life is too short to make food you hate.

Pomegranates are very high in sugar, maybe the formula needs a little adjusting. I always have more trouble with 'juice' sorbets like pom or lemon than with 'puree' sopbets like apricot or strawberry. I think having more fruit solids really helps with texture. I had a batch freezer at one job and it seemed like the cardamom ice cream was more likely to get overspun than any other flavor. Weird. Coincidence or chemistry?

OF COURSE it is a silly semantical dispute. Are silly semantical disputes not allowed on this forum? I enjoy one now and again. Besides, pastry chefs are notoriously picky and attentive to detail, silly semantical disputes are right up our alley. It seems we have three definitions of 'pastry' that are contributing to the confusion. 1) Pastry: a type of dough - the dough itself, such as pate choux, pate brisee, pate feuillate, pate sucre 2) Pastry: a baked good, often individually portioned, usually made out of one of the above doughs, often with other ingredients, such as a croissant or danish (is a muffin a pastry or a cake?). Pastries are often eaten for breakfast. 3) Pastry: a field of expertise that encompasses rubbed doughs, laminated doughs, creamed doughs, cakes, confections, plated desserts, ice creams and sorbets, mousses, chocolates, pulled sugar showpieces, etc. I subscribe to #3 which is why I'm old school and think 'dessert chef' is limiting and silly. It seems we have a lot of #2 fans here. Like an old boyfriend used to tell me, 'that's OK, you're allowed to be wrong'

Ahh, but if you buy citric acid from your favorite purveyor, you can get the same result without actually stooping to kool-aid. https://www.shopchefrubber.com/product.php?...21&cat=0&page=1 Hopefully. Might take some experimentation getting the sugar ratio right, citric acid really does not taste good straight.

I would consider cakes, cookies, meringues, and quickbreads to be 'pastries' - are you saying only viennoisserie is pastry? Maybe it's part of the whole popular misuse of 'chef'. The garde manger line cook is the salad chef, the grill guy is the grill chef, maybe the dishwasher is the compost chef.... Whomever said: 'Basically "dessert chef" sounds awkward because there is already an established term that everyone uses and understands.' - exactly, so why change it! It just seems odd. Are the chefs changing their title, or is the NYT just being goofy? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/dining/2...ing&oref=slogin When I look for a job, I type 'pastry chef' in the search window, its worked so far! Current job = breakfast pastries, jams, breads, desserts, snacks, hotel guest amenities, and chocolates just to keep myself entertained. Last job was desserts, table bread, and mignardises at a dinner only restaurant. Before that, desserts for lunch and dinner, pizza dough for the wood oven, and pastries and jam for Sunday brunch. Pastry chef jobs run the gamut, but I think usually if you are actually the pastry chef (meaning some management/responsibility/menu creation) there is probably more involved than strictly desserts.

I've noticed some people (such as the NYT in yesterday's article about soft-serve ice cream) using the title 'dessert chef' instead of 'pastry chef', and I'm wondering where this is coming from and why. I understand how annoying it can be to tell people you're a pastry chef and have them ask you if you can make really good doughnuts (along with all the other silly questions), but 'dessert' is so much more limiting than 'pastry'. I guess dessert chefs never have to be bothered with breads, savory snacks, or anything remotely associated with breakfast? A sweet, if not very well-rounded position If you are well-rounded in the pastry arts, why would you use a more limiting title? I know we have some cake artists here, and I think that is a great way to describe a specialty, just as chocolatier or boulanger are very specific. I don't know, something about 'dessert chef' just sounds a little goofy to me, dumbed down somehow. Anyone else?

I have to disagree with your premise (above), but they do look quite interesting.

Rob, re: suppliers - the squeaky wheel gets the grease. You have to be as much of a hardass as you can be - without being an asshole, of course - a nice, straightforward hardass. Cheese that doesn't make it onto the truck is a tough one if it is coming from far away, but make sure you don't set the standard of accepting inferior goods. If say the herbs come in looking crappy, either demand better or negotiate a discount, then follow up and make sure you get the credit. Cisco is OK for plastic wrap, canned goods, and such, but if the meat you're looking at is only 20 cents a pound more at your local supplier, talk to the local source and see if they can match the price. If you're going to be a good account, they should be willing to work with you. Cisco is the man, they may be a necessary evil in your area but it seems at odds with everything else you've posted to not make an effort to support the little guys. Also, check on local regulations regarding having people drop by the back door with their produce. There may be some licensing or food handling permit issues. Maybe talk to your local farmers market farmers about growing more of the things you want, and possibly delivering. It can be kind of annoying to have people drop by unannounced when you are busy, trying to sell 5 lb of carrots or such, so try to find a few growers you can work with on a regular basis so you'll know what they will have and when. To add to the 'good luck's: tashi delek!

You'll get used to it. Triple mochas exist for a reason.

Kumquats, being citrus, don't like to freeze. Did you have them indoors for the winter? I think you should try again.

If you want a sugar tattoo, take liquid caramel, approximately 340F and apply directly to skin. Cheaper, easier, unfortunately only semi-permanent, but then again it wont look as bad when you're 80.

Just a comment on the pickle debate: Tartine Bakery in San Francisco gives a really delicious spicy pickled carrot with their sandwiches. I'm sure they are made in-house with little effort, and they are a nice, unique alternative to the traditional pickle. Plus, carrots are pretty cheap, so it would add only a few cents to the plate. New Mexico is far enough away that you could copy it and nobody would know!

Add booze. I take my basic custard recipe, thin it a little (more milk), add chocolate and a good dose of liqueur to keep it soft (adding chocolate makes it harder). Chambord is very nice.

Somehow I thought that slower caramelization increased your risk of undesireable crystallization, especially in wet caramels. Apparently not?