pastrygirl

Yes, I think water would interfere with browning and roasted flavors and you'd have steamed bones instead. You'll get more browned bits on the sheet pan, but you can de-glaze with water after to loosen them to either add to the stock as flavor or for cleaning. As for fat sticking to the pan ... hot animal fat is liquid, I'm not sure how it would "stick" - remember we butter or oil so many other foods so they don't stick to the pan!

I think if the recipe works for the size of cookie you're making, scaling the batch shouldn't be a problem. With cakes, it is recommended to adjust the leavening for different sized pans since a batter will rise and bake differently in 6" pans vs 9" or 12". But if you're making all 6" or all 12", the ratio should stay the same if you're making 2 or 20 cakes. But to be safe, maybe try doubling, then tripling, then quadrupling to see what a good batch size is, instead of just leaping into a 10x batch.

You're shopping for a used oven to put where? In the commissary? In your house? Do you have commercial space of your own in the works? Nothing wrong with dreaming, I do it all the time. 'Gross'-ness aside, did the oven work? Cleanliness shouldn't really affect performance, except sometimes you'll get caked-on grunge flaking off the racks and being blown into your food. Things to consider -- Is there already an available gas connection or appropriate power outlet? Our electric convection oven has a giant 3-phase plug. If you don't already have gas, the electrical upgrade might be cheaper than running a gas line. What is the hood situation or hood requirements? Here, electric ovens under 6000 (uh, kw?) don't need a hood fan. Larger, more powerful, or gas ovens may need to be under a type 2 hood. Type 2 extracts air but isn't built to withstand or put out a fire. Open flame gas cooking like a commercial gas range needs a type 1 hood and fire suppression system aka Ansul. Hoods and fire suppression are another several thousand $$ each. As for the mixer, Hobarts are generally very reliable and there are a lot of them so you'll have better odds for parts and repair. A used 20 qt table-top Hobart is on my wish list, with a budget of around $2000-2500. Most of the 20 qt seem to have a regular 3-prong plug, but the larger ones will need special outlets for their power needs. There's also the issue of weight and batch size. A 60 qt machine to mix 300 cookies all at once means over 100 lb of dough to scrape down and dig out of the bowl. Sometimes it's easier to do two medium batches instead of one huge. And of course the bigger machines are a bigger investment.

Did you butter every layer? I like filo, but feel it really needs butter, otherwise it’s just plain boring dough.

Put them in cookie jars or on plates under cake domes, and keep the ones you want to stay dry and crispy separate from the ones you want to stay moist and chewy.

Even when vanilla isn't crazy expensive, that's a lot! I'm sure 1 or 2 beans would suffice. Or is that where the 'millionaire' comes in?

😂

It was a remnant, meant to be utilitarian and already has a few nicks on the edges so it doesn't have to be a showpiece as long as flaws don't harbor bacteria. I guess it's otherwise non-porous and easily clean-able. I got tired of the warped prep tables at my last kitchen and wanted something perfectly flat and level for truffle-making, now in my new kitchen it's covering most of that weird not-really-stainless table that turns everything grey, so still an improvement. I don't want to spend more money on it at the moment, maybe I'll see what the bottom, non-polished side looks like. Or probably just live with it

@HungryChris what sort of sander do you recommend? The stone is about 30” x 60” if size makes a difference. Thanks!

Great, I might have to try sanding it smooth again for the sake of sanitation - to eliminate nooks for crud to lodge in.

It might be marble, I don’t remember. White with grey veining. The little spots are only a few mm, and won’t affect much, just odd.

I have a slab of stone, I think it’s quartz, that I stored in my garage over the summer. The garage is kind of gross and buggy, there used to be a ton of old books in there so there were silverfish and the spiders who eat them. I don’t store paper goods out there but I figured stone would be safe. Yesterday I dusted off the bug poo and dragged the stone into the kitchen. Now I’m noticing tiny little perfections all over it, little spots where the stone has been etched into and catch when I run a fingernail across. I’m pretty sure they weren’t there in May. Is bug poo caustic enough to cause this? Or am I imagining things?

Hence the photos? I've never had it, but being a dessert nerd, have heard of it. Isn't it traditionally cut or torn into small pieces or strips? My impression was more of a thin crepe cut into wide noodles than a fluffy pancake, but I checked my pastry library and found a recipe in Alford & Duguid's Home Baking that has egg whites whipped an folded in and is described as a 'skillet souffle'. Which actually sounds like the Dutch Baby that mom occasionally made for a special Sunday breakfast. These recipes for Dutch Baby have very similar ratios to the kaiserschmarren recipe in the book (with the exception of how the eggs are treated) so maybe I have had it! (more or less) https://altonbrown.com/dutch-baby-pancake-recipe/ https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/dutch-baby-with-lemon-sugar-352279

Exactly! They are only sold in the limited number of cannabis stores (I believe 300 across the state), which are 21+ and only located a certain distance away from parks and schools. I know kids will get into everything, but that's why you keep stuff like liquor, cleaning supplies, poison, prescription meds, OTC meds, and your edibles away from them. And is a kid really not going to eat a piece of chocolate that they find because it's not colorful? I think if a kid is sneaking treats they're going to scarf down whatever they find.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/state-liquor-and-cannabis-board-to-reevaluate-marijuana-edibles-will-crack-down-on-products-that-might-appeal-to-kids/ Now WA state might wipe out much of the sweet edibles market because they think it's too appealing to kids - how do you make any cookie, candy, or snack not appealing to kids? We'll end up with the only edibles being kale chips and 95% dark chocolate 😆

The yeast will be extra happy and rise quickly. Keep an eye peeled for your usual signs of progress. Humidity is a bigger problem for high sugar items like meringue than it is for bread. Or of course if you want to keep crackers crisp.

If the sausages are overcooked, I don't want to know what happens to the eggs

Before silk there was mycryo, which is a powdery, fine granular form of cocoa butter. Sounds like you did fine with your silk. Yes, I prepare at least a cup of silk at a time. Yesterday and today I made a lot of product, tempered about 20 lbs of various couvertures. Still tiny batches by most measures, but more than a kitchen aid full. The ice cream maker with whom I share a kitchen shuts down for the season soon and I’ll be able to bring in my bigger melter and really get chocolate all over the place.

I think 94ish? How did it get powdery? Silk should be ... silky. My silk was on the stiff side today, I added it at about 93 and had a few lumps of it that I was fishing out of my bars. If you cool the silk it will become a hard mass. It'll be tempered, so you can use it as solid seed if you so desire. Or you can leave it in the container and let it cool then re-silk-ify again. I have an EZ Temper but have only done sporadic production recently, so I leave the CB in the canister and set up the machine the night before. Soon I'll be able to leave the EZ Temper and melters on 24/7. Unless the PHMB turns itself off after too long, set both your chocolate and your silk up melting the night before and be ready to go the next day.

It's a problem most of us face. I wish I could afford to take the whole summer off! If you have your own shop and kitchen space, would you consider renting it out during the summer? Or how about jams and jellies made with local seasonal fruit? They have good shelf life and could even be sold into the winter months. You only need a stove and a couple of large pots or pans for the water bath.

Is it Dulcey? I make a bar with Dulcey and it usually behaves as it should. I mold it around 88 - 89F or approx 31 C. Full disclosure I do blend it with 10-15% Callebaut Zephyr to save a buck, that probably changes the viscosity slightly. I know their Opalys (intentionally thicker white) can be a challenge with rapid thickening, and @Jim D. had mentioned getting some Orelys, (another Valrhona blond, more brown sugar than caramel). Jim, have you tried molding with it? It's 35% so that might be more fluid than the Dulcey which is 32% fat.

Its simple in terms of active time, just takes a few days of hanging out absorbing.

Candying method should be the same regardless of fruit (or veg!). Cook slowly in sugar syrup, increasing sugar content over time.

Ew, that looks raw and kinda nasty. Like molten chocolate cake with a baked shell and raw center, but in a cookie. Yours look better, a bit chewy or gooey but not raw. Whatever people are into, I guess! If you really want to re-create that I'd do higher heat for a shorter time. But if you want a cookie that is actually baked, yes, do bake a few after letting them sit out at room temp for 20 minutes and see if that changes anything.

I agree with kenneth, much depends on the market. Retail price is whatever the market will bear! So is labor cost. What's the minimum wage in your area? Here it's $14, maybe if I need someone to fold boxes and cup bonbons I could pay that little but someone skilled enough to do production would expect at least $16-18. And payroll taxes add another 25-35%. I don't have any employees, just a few friends who help me at events. I feel like I should hire someone a few days a week for the holiday season but I'm not convinced it's worth it. Whose margin, yours or the retailer's? Grocery stores tend to run on lower margins, but the cute boutiques want to at least double the wholesale price. Some even want a 60% margin. Bonbons are premium, so i'd do at least $10-12 wholesale and $20-25 retail. I do 50/50 consignment a few places and that also works.