pastrygirl

Work faster.

Are you saying you haven't eaten them all yet? But that's why I don't care for the ones with a bunch of CB sprayed on after, the thick layer of fat isn't enjoyable. CB isn't necessarily a bad flavor, just not as good as the rest of the bean. It's probably all deodorized, it would be fine if it had some chocolate flavor. You can add a little chocolate or white chocolate, depending on the color. Cacao Barry actually makes blue and orange white chocolate pistoles, and their fascination with the Ruby chocolate is all about color. It could also be interesting to add a drop of flavor oil - I use Lorann pure citrus and peppermint oils to flavor dark chocolate, you could flavor the CB instead. And customers are generally clueless to the subtleties of technique. For every person who actually knows what feuilletine is, there are hundreds who ask, "is that fudge?"

Yes, I had the 0.3 which could spray CB but was slow so I upgraded to the 0.5. I think compressor power is really crucial, so the bigger compressor and the 0.5 might work just fine. My compressor is only 0.5 hp, works but could be better.

What is their revolting glaze formula? Start with 1/4 c of syrup and see. A stickier, thicker syrup won’t soak in as much as a thin watery one.

Also, I'm not sure how many health nuts are in your neck of the woods, but around here there is a faction who wants soy-free chocolate because soy is one of the crops most associated with GMOs. One natural foods co-op I was talking to said if there was soy in my chocolate I had to provide certification that it was non-GMO soy. I believe Theo (my local large bean-to-bar maker) is completely soy free, and lots of other bean-to-bar makers are also proudly just cacao and sugar. Some of them may still suck (I can't get behind the gritty un-conched stuff) or not be couverture, but soy lecithin is far from essential.

I use Felchlin's Arriba 72% which doesn't have soy lecithin, and I also just got some of their Madagascar 64% that is also additive-free. My understanding is these are both conched for 72 hours. The Arriba is plenty liquid, I haven't tried molding with the 64 yet. So I don't think you should assume you need to add lecithin just because it's not already in there. If it's too thick, thin with CB as needed. If those scraps are blended with new, adjust that to your liking. Or if you don't want to add anything at all and it is too viscous for shell molding, use it in ganache. You may be over-thinking it

There were food trucks? Guess I gotta leave my booth to find them Know that I have a stash of snacks - apples, almonds, baby carrots, luna bars, cheese, etc -and am happy to share. I still follow the restaurant tradition of staff meal and a shift intoxicant!

Can you pinpoint what's taking so much time? Lisa suggested a robot coupe - if you're hand-chopping everything, definitely try to speed that up!

Huh, I think unsweetened IS "regular" or "plain". Can't get much plainer than just nuts!

A tiny little wedding cake for a chef colleague and his bride. I wanted them to get off to an extra-sweet start, since the holidays are almost upon us and she probably won't see much of him until January Gluten free chocolate cake, chocolate caramel ganache, white chocolate vanilla butter cream, fondant flowers. I used the Steve's GF cake flour, and was very happy with the results - scraps were a tiny bit crumbly, but we'll call that "tender" and be happy that it seemed like "real" cake.

Here are some thoughts on the subject from Tom Colicchio: https://medium.com/@tcolicchio/an-open-letter-to-male-chefs-742ca722e8f2

After doing a little shopping, I found that not only are they beyond my budget, but almost 200 lb! (I knew they were heavy and expensive, but not to that degree) Maybe I'll settle for an 8qt KA if/when my existing KA needs replacement.

The bomb indeed. They go all the way down to this little 5 qt size. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hobart-mixer-N50A-model-commercial-mixer-/322866559615 I'd like one in the 10-20 qt range. Small enough to be table-top but large enough for a really big batch of cookies or several loaves of brioche. And yes, the 2-minute dishwasher. Probably actually the best part of commercial kitchens. As for Gallo Hearty Burgundy, that brings to mind my cousin once-removed's 2nd or 3rd husband bringing his own gallon to a holiday dinner at Grandma's house, must have been Thanksgiving or Christmas. Now, we're wine drinkers, my dad was Italian and I helped make wine as a kid, but that this guy kept his jug on the floor behind his chair and drank most of it over the evening was a bit scandalous.

Yes! I very rarely go to Starbucks, emergencies only, but the new Reserve Roastery is just down the hill from the kitchen I use, so I'll try to remember to stop and check it out next time I'm going past it. This may or may not change. They obviously can't add a bakery to every store; if they decide the one bakery can deliver to other stores, now everything has to be baked several hours earlier so it can be packed and delivered in the wee hours before stores open and your 3pm coffee break features pastry made last night at 8pm & getting pretty close to day-old. Frozen product baked off throughout the day has all the potential to be good. Recruitment might not be as hard for SBUX as for other restaurants since they can offer benefits, but I don't think moving baking in-house will necessarily make things larger or less expensive. Minimum wage for a large employer is $15/hr. We do have lots of good bakeries here, so talent is available but not cheap.

Yep, see you there, bring anything but snow

I read that too fast and thought you were saying how boring Seattle will be - I'm sorry, we just can't compete with Paris! It's supposed to warm up next weekend, but we've been having some wacky weather - two days of snow flurries this early is highly unusual! Bring layers, anything might happen.

Ahhhh, so that's why you don't put chocolate molds in the dishwasher!

Here's a chocolate fail for you - how on earth do molds end up like this? I went to a cooking school liquidation sale this morning, was expecting used equipment but not quite so abused! I did pick through and found several that looked in good shape. They can toss this one in the recycle bin!

Foie gras on an airplane? I wanna be like you when I grow up!

So, candy foils ... I’ve been using the really thin confectioners foils to wrap bars, and they have some drawbacks- so thin and fragile and show every wrinkle. Does anyone here use either paper-backed or waxed foil for chocolate? I can’t really picture waxed foil - is it stiff? As waxy as waxed paper or different? thanks!

The robot coupe for it size and power.

I think shelled edamame have a bit of artichoke heart-ish flavor. If you agree, then there you go.

Are they though, or are they just instagram-ing one mold at a time? Even Melissa Coppel admitted that a lot of her stuff isn't practical for retail production because you'd have to charge way too much to cover the labor. OTOH, stagiaires & interns, if they can be trusted to do it right

Tomric and chocolat-chocolat each have a few options. What size are your bars?

After the re-pasteurization, they'd be looking for best practices on cooling and storage. Cool to 40F within a few hours, store below 40F and make sure other contaminants don't enter. A dry ingredient isn't going to offer the growth potential, so they are more concerned with storage and handling - are (graham crackers, pretzels, cereal) kept airtight where mice can't get in and not touched with bare hands or cross contaminated with peanut butter?