pastrygirl

If you were a line cook and the ovens you used were the type under the cook-top, those may be different from the free-standing baker's ovens. I used to bake in an old gas wolf range's oven and though the fan did have a separate switch, I honestly never tried baking without it on (if memory serves I think it wouldn't ignite without the fan on). What sorts of things would you prefer to bake/cook without the fan? As a pastry chef the only thing I used the still oven for was baked custards like creme brulee, so I'm used to all convection all the time. Now on the rare occasion that I bake something at home, it takes foreeeeeever. They might be a little more even than still ovens but they all have their quirks. Generally when the door opens the fan automatically shuts off so you're not blowing tons of heat out. It should only take a few seconds to rotate a pan, don't sweat it.

You could try adding almond extract to the hot caramelized sugar, it should be hot enough to evaporate the liquid.

Not my experience. My current kitchen has an electric convection oven with no options for the fan, other convection ovens have had the option of high or low fan. Commercial baking ovens are different from the home ovens with the option of convection. Unfortunately I think you’ll just need to do some test baking to get used to your rental ovens. Start with just a few cookies till you’re happy, then do a full sheet and see if it needs adjusting. Mike is right in that no oven bakes perfectly evenly. Top rack may be hotter, or the back corner, etc. Always rotate! Will you be able to get a better deal on space as you use more hours? If you’re already worried about test batches eating up the profit, maybe you need to charge more. Or make a 5 oz cookie, that’s still huge!

I'd try the pecan pie with peanut butter, bacon, and salted caramel. That funnel cake with pink glaze is terrifying.

The caramel looks a little dark, if you’re getting an unpleasant aftertaste simply caramelize the sugar to a lighter color next time. Otherwise, isn’t slightly burnt sugar flavor what you wanted when you caramelized it? As for grinding the nuts into a paste, that can take a while, especially with the added sugar. Just keep going! Many of us have the wet grinders designed for the Indian market to grind rice and lentils for idli and dosa. If you have access to one of those, it should take that powder and turn it into a completely smooth paste. A food processor will get it 90% smooth if you let it run long enough but there may still be a few small hard bits. And if it really refuses to turn into paste, you could add some more fat. Almond oil, flavorless cooking oil, coconut oil, melted cocoa butter etc.

Right. Nut butter plus liquid caramel sauce is probably delicious, but praline paste would not normally include liquid. If the praline has only nut oil and no water, it can be mixed into chocolate and tempered like gianduja. If there is water from milk or cream and you mix the paste into chocolate, you’ll get a softer ganache. Water in the mix isn’t necessarily bad, but it means shorter shelf life and different applications.

This sounds very ambitious. Is air-conditioning in the kitchen part of the budget? Or is there enough separation that you have a cool place to work with chocolate while the oven is on baking croissants all morning and cakes all afternoon? If the focus is chocolate confections I think chocolate should take priority over pastries. Do you really need a sheeter and viennoiserie on the menu or would it be better to spend on chocolate equipment and keep the baked goods more simple? Is it a bakery with chocolate or a chocolate shop with pastry? How will you schedule production so you're not trying to mold bonbons next to an oven running at 200C? Are you making the chocolate bean-to-bar or is the couverture produced elsewhere?

Yeah, someone was saying that they got some beans for a great price at $3 each and I was thinking that's not such a great price. But then I went and counted the number of beans in the half pound I recently bought and turns out they were about $2 each wholesale. So $3 retail isn't that unreasonable!

Are you referring to the method of making a sugar syrup, adding nuts and stirring until the sugar crystallizes then continuing to cook and stir until the sugar caramelizes? That's a nice way to get nuts that are individually coated, but if you're going to grind it all up into paste you could simply caramelize the sugar then pour it over the nuts and grind them together and save yourself the stirring.

Cleaner is usually just water, or a no-rinse sanitizer. The other table is fine. I'm sure they were both acquired used.

The commercial kitchen I'm in has two prep tables, both seemingly stainless steel, but one of them gives off a grey residue. If I roll dough on it the dough turns grey. When I wipe it down to clean it, my rag turns grey. It's otherwise a super clean kitchen and I am cleaning continually throughout my day, so it's not accumulated grime. What's up with this? Is it not actually stainless steel? Is there any cure besides always using cutting board or parchment?

Usually bonbons are filled with ganache. If you want to get fancy other than decorating with colors, you can try layers. Two different ganaches, or one ganache plus one caramel, pate de fruits, marshmallow, or gianduja. To color your own cocoa butter, you need fat-soluble dry powder colors. Some people here use them, I still opt for convenience and buy the pre-made colored cocoa butters.

@mebinsf, what kind of volume are you thinking? Something you'll make a few dozen or hundred of, or are we talking distribution by the case? I've made a hot chocolate mix the past few winters that is mostly cocoa powder and sugar but does have dark chocolate ground into it. I make it the food processor with the blade. All the dry stuff keeps the chocolate from melting and sticking back together. I start with feves or pistoles that are already small. If you have large blocks or less cocoa/sugar, something else might be better.

Don't worry there's an expensive machine for that 😉 here, this one looks nice: https://www.brunner-anliker.com/en/food-industry/nut-and-cheese-graters/ir-250/

Another small biz owner temporarily talked some sense into me, he asked if I wanted it or if I needed it. Don't actually need it, I'm sure I can manage with my 2 Kitchen-aids a while longer.

@JeanneCake I know what you mean about the collar thing to hold the smaller bowl, we had a 60 qt mixer with a 40 qt set at my last restaurant. This is either missing a piece or it simply has extra-long tabs on the sides and back to hold it in place. Maybe at the smaller sizes the difference is small enough to not need the extra piece. I did stop by one of our local used equipment shops and they have three 20 qts to choose from, now it’s just a matter of managing my temptation.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hobart-A200-reduction-20-to-12-quart-bowl-and-3-attachment-complete-set-OEM/292736343955?hash=item4428721f93:g:CJMAAOSwXy1bo-iB Looks like there is a 12 qt bowl option for the 20 qt Hobart ...

92-93 f is rather high, I aim for 90-91 with dark chocolate.

Baby steps! I'm still always amazed when I get to the bottom of a stack of 1000 candy foils or caramel wrappers.

I’m considering a mixer upgrade to a 20 qt tabletop model and would like to hear thoughts on Hobart vs Globe, Volrath, and other brands. I know and trust Hobart but I don’t want to go too much over $2-3k so that means a used one. Is an old Hobart of uncertain provenance still as good or better than a new, lesser known brand? How about Berkel, there was a Berkel mixer on eBay that looked cool but I’ve only heard of them for their meat slicers. @gfron1, did you find if a smaller bowl can go on your 20 qt, or have you found yourself using it more? I’d still use my 6 qt kitchenAid for lots of small things but a bigger mixer would be so nice for large batches of cake batter and buttercream during wedding and holiday catering seasons.

Cacao butter itself can get pretty hot, it's the milk and sugar that make white & milk chocolates scorch so easily. The machine seems fine as well. I figure, the Premier I have is made for the Indian market, and it gets really hot in India - flawless logic, I am sure!

I've broken many a guitar string on gianduja. 😆 I find it helps to cut it as soon as you can, there's a point at which it is set and firm enough to handle but not yet as hard as it will get. Since you're doing two layers, try pouring the softer one in the frame first and letting it set, then add the firmer one. Once the firmer one is just set, flip it so it's on the bottom and cut the slab.

So it's too hard to cut with a guitar and the layers come apart from each other and crack when you cut them with a knife? I think you still want to temper it but you do need a softer gianduja. Add a higher proportion of nut paste, or some nut oil, or even browned butter or coconut oil to soften them.

Wow, so not everyone cooks up a batch of sugar then works it on a marble table? I had no idea you could make fudge with bags of powders! https://www.calicocottage.com/make-kettle-fudge/how-to/how-to-make-fudge Anyway, I'd say the "base" of fudge is sugar And it usually has some milk and/or butter, did you (OP) mean non-chocolate flavors?

I don't know, it's confusing so you're making up a recipe based on the suggested ratios of sugar, fat, solids, liquids, etc on the previous page and he has the example of the 8kg batch first you figure out how much of the base is total solids (fat, sugar, egg yolk, stabilizers) and how much is liquid. The nonfat solids are not included in the total solids, so the 'liquid' portion is the water and nonfat solids in the milk but the fat in the milk gets counted as solids. The second equation is figuring out how much nonfat solids are in that amount of skim milk and how much more (in the form of nonfat dry milk) you need to add to reach the target % in the recipe. But then how do you calculate the fat? There isn't 720 g of fat in 6034 g of whole or skim milk ... Now I'm more confused! Makes tempering chocolate seem easy