pastrygirl

You're going to want to increase your baking powder a little for the smaller cakes. Seems counterintuitive, I know, but according to RLB: the larger the pan size, the less baking powder is used in proportion to other ingredients. This is because of surface tension. The larger the diameter of the pan, the slower the heat penetration and the less support the rising cake receives because the sides are further from the center. Baking powder weakens the cake's structure by enlarging the air spaces, so decreasing baking powder strengthens the structure and compensates for retarded gelatinization and the decrease in support. I have a cocoa cake that I bake in 6 inch pans (adapted from a recipe for larger cakes), last time I used 1-1/4 tsp baking powder instead of 1 tsp and they rose higher with less doming. I'm tired of wasting the domes!

Oddly enough, I've been contemplating rice sorbet myself. I started with horchata, which I haven't spun yet and might be too cinamonny to go with sake, but it tasted good and I think it may work for me as a starting point. I took 1 cup rice, 75 g cashews, soaked them overnight with 4-1/2 cups water, then blended, added 150 g sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon, blended again and strained. I'll be really interested in your progress. The rice milk recipes I looked at all called for cooked rice, that would reduce the grit factor. I don't find a little grit unpleasant, depends on your vision. I'm thinking toasting the rice might add a nice flavor, think green teas with toasted rice. Hell, use Rice Krispies!

Although a picture dictionary would be even better, our internet access up here is not great, so it may still be useful. At best, we run around 100 Kb/sec on our satellite connection, our slowest connection is around 14 Kb/sec and the dial-up gets disconnected constantly (incredibly maddening, but worth it if you're stuck out at that particular lodge for a week and are desperate for email). Video is between frustrating and impossible. We discourage staff from using the computers for personal use, which is sort of too bad, because I don't think anyone is going to the 1 or 2 internet cafes in town and googling about food, and few people have much in the way of computer skills. Bhutan is 85% stuck in the 17th century and 15% learning about the 21st. Thanks all for the input, I will probably get both books.

Rob, How were you hoping for more? Are the definitions clear? Relevant? I'm going to help a few of my better staff buy some cookbooks, one was asking about a pastry dictionary. I've already plagiarized the relevant entries from The Food Lovers Companion (but haven't printed it all out yet). Do you think it would be useful as a dictionary for people with decent but not perfect English and a pretty basic understanding of Western food, or is it more esoteric, i.e. pentosam gum? McDuff & Alanamoana, Is the Figoni book pretty technical or could someone with a high school education understand it? Are there recipes or is it all theory? Thanks, Andrea

If you need more fat, you can add butter to your cream. Rose Levy Beranbaum has a method in her Cake Bible, basically melt some butter with a little cream, then stir that into the rest of your cream. Her method is for whipped cream, and you add the butter mixture at the end of the whipping.

Upside down frozen cake technique!?! Sounds exciting. Do tell/link!

Sure. Occasionally the end product even resembles the original idea! Rob, do you have the Notebooks of Michel Bras - Desserts? It's an interesting little book, with all of the desserts sketched just like yours. I don't have it with me here, but as I recall there are some unusual combinations and techniques. Brown butter ice cream? http://www.amazon.com/Notebooks-Michel-Bra...07394459&sr=1-2

I'd try just a little corn syrup and gelatin to start, let the ISI do the whipping. I've done sabayon in my ISIs, the egg yolks don't clog it up, so hopefully egg whites would cooperate as well, it's all in how you strain it, right?

I can't speak of cold infusions, maybe someone else can. I know coconut does funny things when heated directly, maybe heating it in a bain marie and adding your infusions would be more gentle on the coconut milk. I think it's almost time to break out the home-made still to get the water out and leave coconut hooch!

I was thinking 'coconut milk powder' too. I don't have much experience with it, but worth a try. Or, why not use coconut cream? Not Coco Lopez cream of coconut sweet goo, but coconut cream that comes in cans exactly like coconut milk but is thicker and richer and more coco-licious? Or, heat your coconut milk with some dry unsweetened coconut (is that what they call macaroon coconut? not angel flake) and steep it to intensify the flavor. Man, I love coconut. If you're adding tea, could you steep the tea leaves in the coconut milk instead of making a separate infusion?

We've all worked in places where there is zero budget for pastry equipment, ancient ovens, crusty this and that, etc., and dreamt of shiny new things. Do you ever find yourself graced with the luxury of those shiny new things and realize you'd rather have those old, ugly, but straightforward ones? Admittedly, sometimes there is a learning curve that is frustrating in the beginning but pays off. Other times, simple just works better. A couple of years ago, it was the PacoJet. HATED it. I hated it so much, I went out and bought a Musso so I wouldn't have to change all my ice cream recipes. Half-quart capacity, kinda useless, a zillion little containers in the freezer just bugged me, and having to freeze things solid first just added to production time. Plus, if you want to re-spin with good results, you have to melt and re-freeze, otherwise you get the iciness that the Paco is supposed to eliminate. Bah! Right now, it's the Houno Combi oven. A) I want an oven with RACKS so I can bake oh, say loaf pans, cake pans, whatever without having to put it on another sheet pan and try to fit the pan into the slots. B) I'm sure the corporate chef thought he was giving us something great, but I really don't need the programmable convection roast with built in thermometer. The steam would be nice if I could figure out how to give a blast when I put the bread in, but that would involve changing settings and other confusion, and I don't think it's designed for that. C) It only heats when the timer is on. I want the oven to stay hot all day, not have to reset the damn thing every ten minutes. D) the two-step door lock (even worse on another Houno model at a different lodge) requires jarring force that makes it extra-easy to bake fallen cakes. Give me a crusty old Blodgett and a squirt bottle any day. Anyone?

I'm no stranger to the cream puff, my choux recipe has served me well for years - in the US, at sea level. Now I'm in the Himalayas, around 7000 feet, my choux is just not cooperating, and I'm getting rather peeved. Of course I want to blame the altitude, but it could just be I've lost my choux mojo. Help me figure out what I can do to make them work! Problem: they puff OK but are not the nice hollow shell I'm looking for, and they get holes in the top. I want to make eclairs for my breakfast basket, and need a smooth, hole-free top and hollow interior. I tried Ann Amernick's recipe from her new dessert book, batter was super soupy, and they still were not hollow, so I'm inclined to think it's not just my recipe that isn't working. Any ideas? Thanks, Andrea

. I'd like to think that I could handle people you didn't enjoy my work, but no telling how I'll take it when it happens. Thanks, Will ← I meant that a lot of pastry jobs feature zero interaction with the clientele, you might be making desserts from 6am to 3pm for a restaurant that doesn't open until 5pm. You don't always get a lot of feedback or get to see the happy faces and clean plates. Usually you can find a server or fellow cook with a major sweet tooth to stroke your ego when you need it, but worthwhile feedback can be hard to find.

Hey, Will, congratulations on hearing the calling. If it really is your calling, I hope you have a long and satisfying career. First off, what do you mean by 'I want to be a pastry chef'? Do you want to be pastry chef at a restaurant and create plated desserts? Is a big hotel with lots of banquets your dream? Do you love to bake bread? Decorate cakes? Do you want to have the neighborhood bakery where all the kids love your colorful cookies and cute cupcakes? Pastry has a lot of different aspects, so think about which one you want to pursue, then try to get a job in that area. Find a bakery or restaurant that you respect (ideally one that is hiring) and offer to work for free for a week if they are skeptical about your lack of experience. If you have pictures of things you've made at home, those can help in an interview. Prospective employers will want to know that you can work fast, clean, detailed, consistent, try to find ways to relate your previous experience to the kitchen - how you can handle pressure, solve problems, give & take direction. I didn't go to school so I'm going to tell you that it is not a requirement -I've been baking professionally for 12 years, pastry chef for 9, mostly in independent restaurants, now at a small luxury hotel in Asia. The CIA is a great school, so are the other big expensive ones, but many community colleges have very worthwhile programs at a fraction of the cost. Learning on the job might be slower in some ways, but you end up with more experience and no loans, GI bill or not. What do you bake? Do you make up your own recipes, tweak existing ones, or follow books to the letter? Will you still be satisfied if you don't actually see the paople enjoying your work?

Chefpeon, you're right, it does seem a bit fishy, especially with all of the hype recently about health benefits of tea. Is e.coli widespread across Asia and India? Doubtful. And if e.coli is killed in your hamburger at 160F, shouldn't it be killed by the hot water for tea brewing? And why would e.coli from one source cause different symptoms than the same bacteria from another source?

The Sweet Spot is by Pichet Ong, not Susur Lee, I just got it yesterday and there are some interesting recipes. Also, Indulge, 100 Perfect Desserts by Claire Clark has everything in metric first, then avoirdupois. Chef Clark is a Brit, and even though she's been at the French Laundry for two or three years, the book seems quite British. I must add I am a little disappointed, this does not seem to be a French Laundry desserts book, rather the chef's favorites from her entire career. The recipes do look good, and there are a few interesting twists, I might make the black forest trifle but I already have plenty of recipes for banana cake, shortbread, lemon tart, etc. I was hoping for more complex plated desserts. Looking through my bookshelf...Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme has metric (but regular desserts by him does not), the Tartine bakery book by Pruitt & Robertson does (GREAT bakery in San Francisco), and Sweet Seasons by Richard Leach but it is odd that he gives sugar and flour in mililiters, not grams (everything else is in cups, not weight) so maybe that is not as helpful.

If the traces of e.coli come from nylon tea bags, then I guess loose leaf tea or non-nylon bags would be safe? http://diseaset.tripod.com/

Peter, Is your caramel still hard after a night in the refrigerator? I find creme caramel often needs to sit for a day for the moisture in the custard to dissolve the sugar.

Tuile flexibility also depends on the recipe. My honey tuiles can be shaped into tubes, corkscrews, etc., but my chocolate ones are too brittle. My guess is the sugar content is part of the equation, more sugar should mean more flexibility. Also, I like my tuile batter pretty loose, about the consistency of thick snot. If it is stiffer to begin with, it will probably also be stiffer when you try to shape it. If you want a hemisphere from a circle, you need to cut a wedge out of the circle so you don't have extra. As for the pistachio cake, I believe the recommendation is to under-whip whites a bit at altitude, but like I said, I'm still having problems with meringue-y things. I should have taken a picture of my last attempt at french macaroons. Two tries might be enough to decide they are just not going to happen at 7000'

Tuiles can be shaped in/over almost anything while they are still warm - rolling pin, glass, coffee cup, spoon handle, baguette pan, etc. If they get too stiff, just pop them back in the oven for a few seconds. I really appreciate your dedication in making those cheesecake bars! How nice that they turned out delicious. Was the pistachio cake a genoise or something with beaten egg whites folded in? It looks like it rose too fast. I've been having a terrible time with baked meringues at altitude, so I'm thinking a bubbly batter might be part of the problem.

I realize this is an old thread, but deep fried pastry is timeless, right? I'm in the mood for something fried on my next dessert menu and I am wondering if anyone has any experience with holding the dough. Does it have to be fried right away or can it be kept in the fridge for a day or two and fried to order? Or maybe piped onto parchment squares, frozen, then fried directly from the freezer? My fryer is pretty small so I would worry about the temperature drop, but it might be worth it to avoid having line cooks try to pipe to order. Thanks for any input. Andrea

Hi! I have tried a few graham cracker recipes too. Would you mind sharing yours so I can compare?! Thanks! ← I'm not promising perfection, but they work for me. Graham Crackers ¾ cup AP flour 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour (atta) ½ cup brown sugar 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp cinnamon 110 g cold butter ¼ cup honey ¼ cup water ½ tsp vanilla Put dry ingredients in the robot coupe and mix briefly. Add cold butter, cut in small pieces, and process until crumbly. Add the honey, water, and vanilla, and process until the dough forms a ball. Dough can also be mixed by hand. Divide the dough in half and roll each half thin on a sheet of parchment. Prick the dough all over with a fork, then cut into squares with the pizza cutter. Bake at 325F/165C for about 15 minutes or until browned, crisp and dry. Cool, then store airtight.

Great topic! I started playing with molded chocolates and got more comfortable tempering. I finally made croissants, found a good graham cracker recipe, and have made a lot more bread than before. A job change has put me in more of a management position, which I am definitely still learning how to do. I am also learning metric and how to adapt recipes to 2300 meters elevation.

Looks good. Next year, maybe something with kiwis. They make great green sorbet.

What is the shelf life of stollen? My GM gave me a recipe he would like me to make for 150 of our company's closest friends. I don't like stollen and have only made it at one bakery, nine years ago, so I am basically in the dark. This recipe has no eggs and not much sugar or alcohol, and I am worried about the stollens drying out and getting stale between baking and delivery. Also, we are at 7000 feet, and dry thin air is going to be a factor as well. So, how long should I hope for stollen to stay fresh? How can I extend the shelf life? thanks