pastrygirl

Try less water. A shot of espresso should only be an ounce or two, not six or seven. If you want an americano, add more water after the espresso is extracted. What are you stirring? What machine or device are you using?

While I agree that simply having a hole doesn't make something a doughnut worth eating, I'm skeptical of Lisa's claims about glazing. Maybe the dough needs to be warm/hot from the fryer if you want a super thin glaze completely coating the pastry a la Krispy Kreme, but sometimes you want a thicker glaze piped on or dipped into. If you're going to dip a pastry in a chocolate glaze and add sprinkles, you'll want a cool pastry and warm but not hot glaze so you get good coverage without both the glaze and the sprinkles running off.

Of Guittard chocolate. https://www.guittard.com/

See, @Kerry Beal, we don’t ask for much. Pretty please? 😇

Mine, too! I 😍 ginger boys 😊 Tell him we all love him.

Well that was short & sweet! I didn't get downstairs at all except to find my helper today. Today was actually busier than yesterday, which is unheard of! Sunday is usually 2/3 of Saturday sales at every show I've done so far. You never know! Nice to see you and I hope you are happy with sales too

It's a crumbly, rustic, cookie-like thing, so I think you're fine to change pan sizes as long as they do have close to equal area. 2/3 of the recipe in a 9" pan maybe? Or just mash it all out on a cookie sheet in either 6" rounds or whatever shapes you like. I don't think the springform pans are essential, the stuff is not going to rise much and instructions are to break it into pieces anyway.

3 tiers? Better safe than sorry!

Welcome! See you soon.

My wholesaler started doing better on Valrhona pricing after they lost Felchlin to Albert Uster - AUI is now the sole US importer of Felchlin, so the other company is hoping all their Felchlin-using customers will switch to Valrhona. I haven't bought Opalys in quite a while, but I bought a bag of Bahibe last week for $57.99, $19.33/kg and a case of Dulcey was $23.49/kg. The Zephyr is $6.84/lb, so $15.05/kg. Probably not enough of a discount to cover shipping to Sweden

Opalys. It is less sweet than Ivoire, and better for molding shells due to increased viscosity and opacity. Thst said, the only white chocolate that I’m willing to pay Valrhona prices for is their blond Dulcey. The Cacao Barry Zephyr is in between ivoire and Opalys in terms of sweetness and thickness, but $3/lb less expensive. I very rarely shell in white, instead use it in fillings.

Was the meat bad in taste or texture after cooking? If you hadn’t seen it raw, would you have known? The time to get your money back would have been before cooking. (Depending on store policy of course). But definitely write or call Perdue and see what they say.

@Kerry Beal so your guys with ez tempers were 2 & 3? Swiss guy had an unfair advantage due to having chocolate running through his veins. New tag line: if you can’t be Swiss, EZ temper 😂

True, zephyr is only about halfway there. Use it as a base and grind in more milk powder in your melanger?

I like Cacao Barry Zephyr. Not quite as thick as Opalys, medium viscosity & opacity, and under $7/lb wholesale vs $10+ for Valrhona. it might be a little sweeter than Opalys but not crazy sweet.

now I know what I want for my last meal

You can also blend your own - take a super sweet milk and add a splash of dark to taste.

Sorry.

Available in retail bars or for professional use? Bahibe is good, but my favorite milk is Felchlin Maracaibo Creole 49%, just slightly darker and similarly priced. Theo makes a 45% milk that’s good, or Dick Taylor just launched a dark milk bar that I haven’t tried. I think dark milk is trending among bean-to-bar makers and we’ll be seeing more.

You can learn!

Agreed, 2x3’ is probably enough area. Do you want to be able to move it around, or will it have a permanent spot in your kitchen? If you want to move it, you may prefer a smaller piece or at least a thinner slab of stone. If it will have a permanent spot, might be worth finding a remnant you like and having it cut to fit. I have a piece of stone that is thinner (1”) and about the size of a sheet pan (18 x 24” approx), I do move it around but it must be at least 30 lb. Any larger or thicker approaches difficult for one person to move.

You’ve heard enough ‘no’s on the skinny wood handles, but I’ll also suggest that wood doesn’t hold up as well over time if it’s going to be soaking in a tub during service then run through a commercial dishwasher.

Good point- without stabilizers, ice cream can get icy over time. The solid hunk of dark chocolate has a much longer shelf life than anything you’d make with it, so saving it as-is for future projects works too.

Chop some into chunks and mix into your banana bread batter, then make ganache with some and drizzle or spread it on top of the finished loaf. Or if you're feeling fancy, bake the banana bread as cake rounds and make a banana layer cake with chocolate ganache filling.

Those don't look big, but it's hard to tell. You also don't want thin and flimsy, or small handles that are hard to hold on to. Do you have Crate & barrel near you? I think they're good for stylish basics.