pastrygirl

@Tri2Cook I know, the traditional is probably just fine with the cooking and ton of sugar, Im sure I've left pecan pie out and not worried. Just being cautious because it's a warm weekend & not something I normally make Thanks!

Ok I think I'll skip the eggs and just use this it does say refrigerate after opening but it should be fine overnight, right?

I have a wedding order next weekend with multiple cakes and one of the flavors they want is German chocolate. I don't believe I've ever actually made one before! A lot of recipes use egg yolks. Is the goo still safe at room temp with the cooking and all that sugar? They are picking up the night before and heading to the woods with limited refrigeration. Would it be better to leave out the yolks and make a thicker caramel or substitute gelatin? I love coconut so ill so I'll be happy to experiment, but any pro tips on shelf stable GCC fillings would be appreciated. My plan is to do naked cakes with acetate wrapped around so they'll travel well. Thanks!

Yep, exactly what Kenneth said. Your caramel was just sugar, and would turn to goo over time even left out in a humid kitchen. A toffee made with butter should last a little longer with the fat there to interfere with water absorption.

Absolutely! I'll occasionally watch Pioneer Woman while at the gym and while she doesn't make anything that spectacular, it's easy to see how this idyllic rustic Americana thing would appeal. She's not a chef, not claiming to be a chef (afaik), she's making money appealing to the masses. Good for her.

I don't have any strong feelings about Ree Drummond, but if you enjoy snark, this guy has plenty ... https://www.thelostogle.com/2017/07/20/5-of-the-pioneer-womans-worst-laziest-and-most-questionable-recipes/

Looks like as long as the declared value is less than USD$800 and it's for personal use (not re-sale) you shouldn't have to pay duty ... https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/internet-purchases I've never bought anything from Japan, only Canada and definitely under $800 and have never had issues with customs or duty. But I suppose that could be due to NAFTA or something ...

for all the mayo lovers out there - http://www.theonion.com/article/hellmanns-introduces-new-meat-bottom-mayo-cups-56396

Are these the good ones - all jumbled up and touching?? Perfectly cut then thrown in a pile? The horror! I can't look ... yet can't look away ... Kerry you're killing me, how much butter do you have to put in a thing before caramels can touch and not make misery? Anna, can't you patiently line them up in rows or something? How can you live like this?

I'm trying to remember the dressing for the grilled romaine salad at a restaurant I used to enjoy - I think it was browned butter and citrus, maybe a little balsamic? Browned butter in salad dressing might sound weird, but it was semi-warm so the butter stayed melted. So good!

How awful if people need a device to tell whether their food is actually food.

I haven't made one either, but my first approach would be to use olive oil plus water to replace the cream. Heavy cream is 40% fat, so I would see how 40g oil plus 60g water acts instead of 100g cream in a known recipe and go from there.

Interesting, but I don't consider sugar to be the only mark of deliciousness. What would it do with Granny Smith apples, say they are all bad? Can it detect whether a peach will be mealy and gross, or only the sugar? Can it tell how juicy a lemon will be? Maybe I could use it to find less sweet corn because all the super-sweet is too sweet for me - sometimes I want produce that is "poor" on the sugar scale! Almost everything packaged already has nutrition info. Ok, cheese sold by weight might not, but anyone counting calories already knows that cheese tends to be high fat. I guess it could be useful at buffets or something but in general if you don't want crap produce, don't buy out of season or flown in from the other hemisphere. I wonder if it is accurate enough for people with actual medical needs, like whether a diabetic could trust the sugar info. On a consumer level, how many of us have bought more than $200 of disappointing produce in a year? I doubt this device would pay for itself in terms of food waste avoided. Even mealy, un-sweet peaches can be made edible by cooking with a bit of sugar. Cool toy, but not necessary in my world.

Uh, which of you is low-carb-ing? That looks a lot like pasta!

What do you typically cook for each meal? Do you eat leftovers or are you cooking every single meal from scratch every day?

Yes! I hate sweaty glove hands! So gross. I'll admit it, I am guilty of frequent bare hand contact. Sometimes gloves just get in the way, mostly I'd rather wash my hands and compost a paper towel than add more nitrile or latex or whatever to the landfill - my plastic wrap usage is bad enough! But seeing other people not using gloves can still strike a chord. There's a chocolatier who frequently posts pics of his kids in his commercial kitchen on social media- the little girl with crazy hair garnishing caramel truffles with salt is super cute but inappropriate for food production on multiple levels.

If there is no fan in your fridge, you're not getting much air circulation to begin with, so I was thinking that putting the molds directly on a cold surface would chill them more quickly. But I'm no physicist I don't routinely chill molds, only when it is warm in the kitchen - like above 70F. My work fridge is the sort that has wire racks and cold air blowing from both sides of a central column (2 door restaurant reach-in). Since the air blows directly on the molds, I don't need to leave them in very long - maybe 10 minutes for solid bars. So yeah, a fan in the fridge should definitely help.

Maybe diluted clam juice? Or vegetable stock would be lighter than chicken but still add some flavor.

@Jim D. First, ugh. Can you charge these prospective customers enough to make it worth the frustration? What are your overnight temps? I don't have AC so I just get up super early to beat the heat. Is humidity lower at a certain time of day? Despite our (in)famous Seattle rain, we have relatively dry summers, so I only worry about humidity when making macarons. I would definitely try a fan or several. A large box fan at 70F might be better at blowing away that latent heat of crystallization and not adding humidity than a home fridge with no fan. Otherwise, how about putting a pizza stone in the fridge ahead of time to pre-chill - wouldn't that conduct heat away faster than just the air in the fridge?

Depends on how much cocoa butter is in it. Are you using couverture (30%+ cocoa butter)? Not all chocolates are suitable for molding, for exactly that reason. Some have less cocoa butter and may be great for baking or as an ingredient, but too thick for molding. For example, Barry-Calleabut uses the 5 drop scale on their chocolate- 1 drop will be very thick, 5 will be very runny. You might use a 1 drop chocolate in a brownie recipe but should switch to a 3 or 4 for dipping or molding. As for bubbles - I don't know, I think bubbles are just bubbles.

Thanks for the update. Are you doing custom plates and the whole 9 yards? I can see why chefs geek out on plates, but the custom chairs in the Eater article seemed like gilding the lily. I think construction costs were most surprising to me - does that include material and labor, or just labor? $220k for construction and the place is only 1250 square feet. I wonder how well social media really translates into sales. Say you get 10k followers, how many of them are going to be local? For me, the cool thing about Instagram is following people all over the world. OTOH, the book can be shipped is already a source of sexy photos, maybe that will sell on social media. Or maybe people just like to look and it's forgotten 30 seconds later.

If the chocolate has been in temper for a while and has started to thicken despite being held at 32C, then yes you can raise the temp enough to melt out some of the crystals and have it still be in temper. As long as you don't melt all the crystallization out - do test it before using. Does that help?

$1.50 in COSTS for one piece does seem quite high. It may make more sense to break it down into food cost only, packaging, labor, and profit margin. Also allowing for waste and things like parchment paper & gloves used while making. Calculating food cost in metric is SOOOO much better!!! (Happy Canada Day) I make slabbed truffles that are cut into 22.5 x 22.5 x 15mm squares that are 9-10g each (average 115g per dozen) I don't enrobe them. Here's a rough breakdown on cost for my salty caramel truffles, my most popular flavor - for 1 ganache frame 1200 g chocolate @ $14/kg = $16.80 225 g butter @ $7/kg = $1.60 400 g sugar @ $1.14/kg = $0.45 400 g cream @ $4.25/kg = $1.70 salt, vanilla bean, cocoa powder = $1.00 total $21.55, cut into 225 squares = 9-1/2 cents each. But in practice I usually cut the edges off for samples so yield is reduced to 196 pieces at 11 cents each. So 11 cents each and 12 in a box is $1.32 in food (ingredients) cost for that item. Packaging is 35 cents for an inner clear box, 75 cents for a custom printed outer box, and 10 cents for an ingredients sticker for $1.20 in packaging. All packaging pieces could be less expensive if bought in large quantity. So this box of 12 truffles is $2.52 so far. Labor and overhead are much more nebulous. Some days I seem to spend hours watching chocolate melt, others are super productive. If active time on 1 frame of truffles (including mixing, cutting, dusting, and packing) is an hour and yield is 16 boxes then I need a dollar or more per box for labor. Now we're at $4 for ingredients and labor (if I want to pay a living wage and am as fast as I want to be). MSRP is $12. Overhead like rent & utilities should be a consideration, but not really your problem. Just make sure to allow enough margin that all the bills get paid eventually. Is the shop only chocolate or lots of other stuff? Rent is fixed but chocolate is seasonal and winter holidays subsidize the slow summer. In restaurants we always tried to keep food and labor costs below 30% each - as far as possible if there is to be any profit. Adding in packaging increases labor hours and expense and decreases the percentage allowed for ingredients. It kind of sucks. I have to do nutrition info and other tedious stuff, should probably take a good look at food cost, so I feel ya - wait a second, this is exactly what I was avoiding by being online!

Yeah, that is quite the long list. Does each of the bottom six ingredients have a specific, purposeful role? Do they copy a commercial stabilizer mix? I've used Cremodan but never tried to put together my own stabilizer mix. Is the maltodextrin the same stuff you use to make powders out of oils? If so, what does that do for ice cream? If not, what is it? This recipe is very low fat, I'd try changing the proportions of milk:cream, maybe add a touch more sugar. Are you trying to avoid using eggs?

I use a propane torch all the time to warm the bowl while re-beating previously frozen buttercream frostings. The key is to keep the torch moving so you don't make any hot spots. It's easy to see buttercream slide down the bowl as it melts, harder to see what's happening with nougat, which is so much thicker.