pastrygirl

Does your local health authority require a barrier between customers and food? A local baker keeps posting pics of her cake shop with the cakes all out, uncovered, on the counter. No barrier, no glass domes ... I can't see how the health department allows this. I think it's only a matter of time until flying insects, jumping dogs, or curious children destroy a cake. Is this weird to anyone else? From her Instagram - nice work, but do you really want flowers dropping pollen on your cakes?

The freaking ginormous wedding cake I delivered yesterday - bride wanted "big & impressive" ... mission accomplished? 😂 I won't go into all the things I could/should have done differently, though I'll admit I almost forgot one layer of supports. I did enjoy gold leaf-ing, which I had never done before. The transfer sheets were easy to use, and when I wheeled it through a sunny spot on the way to the venue, the gold was beautifully, blindingly brilliant.

Aren't they urine specimen containers? Oh, Kerry! 😆

I was wondering about that too. The pieces look fairly large, up to an inch or more - too big to stir into potting soil, and if I used them as bark chips on my flower beds, how would they look & smell after a few months of rain?

There are different blades? All I've ever known are the metal ones.

That's entirely possible. Ideally the motor is strong enough to handle 3 qts of whatever you want to make. They're usually fine fully loaded with bread crumbs, mayonnaise, or anything not super stiff and heavy. A large batch of something sticky and dense like marzipan is a challenge for most machines. I'm sure you'll find the limits of yours - and hopefully there's a re-set button on the bottom for when you do.

Does this sound like assisted suicide to anyone else? Which I support, but I'm having a hard time reconciling my reactions to this vs Tony Bourdain. J-P was older (late 70s?), obviously sick and in pain, Tony was younger and less obvious, but don't we all have the right to relieve our pain, whatever it may be? Either way, rest in peace and thanks for all the knowledge.

Try Valrhona Orelys for a brown sugar flavor, or Dulcey for a dulce de leche type caramel flavor in your ganache.

Bring on the challenges and questions! Rules & regulations are going to vary by state - apparently in WA you can't be both the maker and the retailer, but in OR it's opposite, I have no idea about ME. I don't buy a lot of edibles, but there's definitely a huge range. There's a company here who actually uses good dark chocolate, I think a lot of producers use whatever is cheapest thinking consumers only care how high they'll get. But the serving size is so small it's hard to imagine that food cost is a problem. I still don't want to eat bad candy, even if it's just a bite - I recently got some CBD candies to help with cramps from hell; they had a burnt aftertaste, were kind of sticky and the hard candy had flowed and changed shape. Not a product I'd be proud to put out, OK for medicine but crap as candy. As with any other food product, I think packaging and labeling are going to be the biggest challenges just because there will be extra layers of regulation, testing, and info required. Aside from finding kitchen space, that is - here there are limited areas where cannabis can be produced or sold (X hundred feet away from parks and schools), so cannabis kitchens are even more limited in availability. So consult your lawyer regarding state of Maine requirements, otherwise we have lots of confectionery expertise here.

I've heard of people using cotton swabs aka Q-tips to get into tight corners. Just make sure you have the softer paper sticks, the plastic ones might scratch.

They look surprisingly ... rustic 😂 But I'd still eat one!

And here's the winner: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-44519335

It has a conical lid. It's not shown in the video, but the product sheet denotes the special shaped lid holds in moisture.

Yes, I currently have Cacao Barry CB and I think the temp is set at 33.8 or 33.9. I've randomly pushed buttons to mixed effect.

Why does it have to be a sealed lid? And how about a fire mixer? I think they're only $15k or so, and they heat and stir, but I wonder if it would be problematic that they're designed for cooking candy to much hotter temps than you need for custard. How low do they go? https://www.savagebros.com/p.1/firemixer-14-table-top-automatic-electric-cooker-mixer-with-plc-touch-screen-control.aspx

A few months ago I talked to a woman who was trying to sell one of these https://advancedgourmet.com/ott-freezer-masterchef/ she used it for cooking pate a choux, so definitely can handle thick ice cream, wanted $19k after two years of use, i don’t recall which size it was. She was really enthusiastic about it, loved being able to push a few buttons and have consistent product. Or how about a steam-jacketed kettle?

What have you done to make it set up? i.e. seeding with CB, tabling ... and how much butter vs CB did you add?

@ElsieD that's so cool that you just happened to find them out in the wild! And that @liuzhou ate them as a child; I knew someone here would have heard of them The only other pastry that I think of as Scottish is shortbread, also heavy on the butter... I guess they must have some good butter over there I've never been to the UK, will have to see for myself someday.

I'm not buying this cacao pod "strawberry" nonsense!

If so, what was it like? Sounds similar to kouign-aman ... https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-44486529

Definitely, to the point that I wonder if any stainless steel isn't food-worthy. I did get a large remnant of stone that I believe is quartz, so quartz is an option also.

I agree with Chris, stainless isn't great if you're tabling, but perfectly fine for dripping chocolate on while filling molds. And easy to clean. Also agree with looking for remnants of stone. I'd like to find a few pieces about the size of a sheet pan that will fit in the fridge to chill.

I think the original yield is off. If a pound of butter, 8 eggs, 4 cups of flour, etc makes a 10" cake, it must be 4" tall! I've been working on a wedding cake, and similar amounts of my vanilla cake have made two 9" x 2" round layers or one shorter 14" round. Maybe in the restaurant it was baked as a half sheet and a little thinner, with more surface area for the almonds on top. I agree that 2 TB of baking powder seems excessive, I stick with roughly 1 tsp per cup of flour.

How does one polish a silicone mold? Silicone that I've used for chocolate truffles and mendiants still has a cocoa butter film years later, despite repeated washings. You might be better off hand-painting them after un-molding.

So you decided? What did you go with?