pastrygirl

White chocolate shell with cookie butter gianduja - vanilla shortbread and cocoa sable pureed and mixed with white or dark chocolate, respectively. It's pretty firm but not as hard as a solid cookie.

The squared shape makes me think a paintbrush rather than a finger, but I agree. I think it's only 3 or 4 steps, not 8. Brush teal, brush white, a bit more thorough with the purple ... mold in dark The lower left one especially looks like a paintbrush. I think it's not that many layers, just streaks showing through.

Valentine's bonbons: salty caramel, hazelnut, raspberry rosemary caramel, milk & cookies, dark chocolate caramel maple & salted almond, coconut-rum, passion fruit. and truffle-filled hearts. these are about 3", 4 oz dark salty caramel and milk chocolate peanut butter crisp

Layers, but I'm not intentionally waiting around for it to set. I try to keep the airbrush moving to get an even application of color without a heavy build-up that can drip or puddle. If I'm spraying 4 molds, by the time I do a pass on the 4th, the CB in the 1st mold may not be 100% set/dry but enough to stay in place and not drip when more is added.

Yes, but after a thorough cleaning I was able to spray some 3" hearts with just a few passes. Crud on the needle was blocking flow. It had been irritatingly slow, much better now - still not massive, but enough. Now I'm the anal-retentive chef ... shiny and sanitized, of course!

I'm not sure what was clogging it. I think there was one day when I had a batch of CB with some scorched bits (probably had some white chocolate in the mix, I don't think I've scorched CB alone). Or maybe that's why some say don't clean with water, it could emulsify into mayonnaise inside the tool. There was a period in December when i couldn't be bothered to clean it and put it away, but otherwise leaving tools dirty just feels so wrong. (Clean as you go! I want to see my reflection in the stainless! Oui, chef!) I don't clean between colors, just at the end of the day. Usually I run hot water through then attempt to dry it by running it with the hairdryer aimed at the cup. I'll see how it goes, maybe leaving it dirty really is better than cleaning. Easter eggs and bunnies are my largest molds, so I'll really notice if the spray is weak on those.

Flames under the coil of an electric burner suggest a dirty stove top. It's obviously not a gas leak so there must have been some accumulated crumbs or oils that caught fire.

After how gunky mine was I blew some isopropyl alcohol through it. You think that's a bad idea?

You could use less. The guideline I learned years ago is 1 tsp baking powder OR 1/4 tsp baking soda per cup of flour is needed to leaven most baked goods. And try non-iodized salt (i.e. sea or kosher) to make sure that's not adding any chemical flavors.

Thanks! Yes, it's dark chocolate showing through the red.

Sooo, I have to take back my mediocre review of the Grex 0.5 and Point Zero 1/5 hp compressor combo. The last few times I used them, getting color on the mold was super slow - I even filmed one to share with y'all but it took so long that I ran out of storage on my phone. I wasn't even sure i wanted to spend time fussing with it today, but I did a little maintenance - pulled out the needle and wiped some gunk off, then clipped the tip that was bent. And voila! Plenty of CB coverage in no time. Vastly faster. Clean tools - who knew? (Usually I'm very clean in the kitchen, but i had not been taking the airbrush apart between uses, only rinsing with hot water.) Some truffle hearts - more red at the tops and bottoms than in the middle, intentionally. Red ruby on 60% dark. Gold splattered with the blow-while-dripping-from-the-bottle technique.

Speaking of a waste of time, Bakery in Brooklyn on Hulu. Most of the food stuff made no sense and/or was cringe-worthy (technique-wise) to watch. Two thumbs down.

that reminds me, I need to finish my Amazon order few of us are, Jim, few of us are. Maybe. iirc, it was set. Speed & angle of tape removal plus thickness of CB probably all have to be juuuust right. Persevere! pics from class ... I do recall rubbing the tape in for full contact. I was worried about getting the molds all finger print-y but it was fine.

well in that case, the higher end of my previous number

I think running it with a few cups of hot water and a drop of detergent is totally worth a try!

Ok, so how big is your university kitchen? What would you change? I thought every chef was constantly planning their dream kitchen! I know I am Are there any commissary kitchens you can get started in? Because there is also the question of real estate. What is available & what can you afford? How far from these customers and your home are you willing to travel every day? You can't just put a commercial kitchen anywhere ... Things always seem to expand to fit the space available - more space means more stuff!

You need 1500 square feet. Plus or minus 1000. Much depends on your menu. Are 1200 people all getting the same plated meal, all at once? Or is it smaller snacks with more variety that people may or may not buy? - I.e. sit-down banquets for 1200 actual butts in seats, or concessions bar for 1200 potential customers. What are the max numbers you've done out of previous kitchens? Can you imagine extrapolating those? Are you baking a lot of bread and making everything from scratch or using more convenience products,, frozen items, and mixes? As with so many things, it's not the space so much but how you use it. You'll probably want a decent sized walk-in, but how many ovens and burners do you really need? You can get a lot done with 12 burners and couple of ovens. Do you need a grill and a deep-fryer? Find some spaces that you think you can afford, then start sketching out equipment.

In my experience, a person can eat a fair amount of chilies. I went out for Sichuanese dinner a few days ago and ate most of my chilies, even if I wasn't supposed to. And if you ever have occasion to try Bhutanese food, chilies are a main ingredient and can make up the bulk of a curry.

The mix for velvet-ing with the wagner is chocolate thinned with up to 50% cocoa butter, still thicker than plain CB but very fluid.

It works OK. I think you want to go with as powerful a compressor as you can afford. Cocoa butter will pass through the 3 or 5 mm nozzle, but more PSI ought to push more CB through the gun faster, resulting in better coverage. The silver lining of low pressure is that you don't have a ton of over-spray to clean up. I've used a Wagner airless paint sprayer for velveting frozen mousses, and it's a whole different scale. Much higher volume of chocolate going through, less precision.

Now what? Now either find a place to display the pretty thing or get baking! I've never heard of a tutove in 25 years of professional baking, but I'm not a huge Francophile nor do I make laminated doughs. If you have time, I'm sure we'd all love to see a demo of the bumpy pin or comparison in results between that and smooth. This doesn't make sense to me. The butter is 'placed in the dough' by putting the butter block on the dough, folding it up, and rolling it out. After that, working temp is going to be the big factor. Cool enough that the butter stays a distinct layer and doesn't melt into the dough, but soft enough that it will actually roll into those hundreds of thin layers. You don't want the butter broken up. Does the tutove feel like it holds onto the dough better? I could see it feeling like you have a better grip. Kerry's theory about ripping the dough is interesting and slightly more plausible, but I'm still reminded of the adage 'a poor craftsman blames his tools'. The right tool for the job is one thing, but if you have the technique down - butter at proper temp, adequately developed stretchy dough, chill/rest between turns, upper body strength - you should be able to laminate dough with a wine bottle. But what do I know, I'm too impatient for puff pastry, I buy it when i need it!

Even when using the handle, not the blade?

IIrc, Melissa Coppel used Martha Stewart craft tape. Here's a 1/8" & 1/4" two-pack. http://a.co/aCkuh7T

Hmm, I would think no, since plain dark chocolate has a shelf life of 2 years and cocoa butter isn't known to go rancid easily. Though the small particle size of the powder introduces air exposure that doesn't happen in a solid block so there could be oxidation. I use Valrhona cocoa and keep it at room temp. I'm not sure how high fat it is, but it tastes great.

I've been known to just rub the stick of butter directly on my toast. Yes, you get crumbs stuck to the butter, but you don't have to wash a knife