Lisa Shock

That usually works out ok. But, commercial kitchens avoid using glass for tasks like this because if your hand slips and it falls and breaks, not only does the whole kitchen immediately have to be cleaned from top to bottom, any food that is out or open (on prep areas, on the steam table, on the stove cooking, on speed racks cooling, on the pass waiting for a server, bins with lids off for a moment) has to be tossed out. The OP is trying to teach herself professional baking, and it's probably best that she work with equipment used in a professional kitchen.

There's usually a tool like THIS in a cheap garnishing kit. It makes a thin spiral very easily. For the money, I'd get the whole kit, the extra tools are also useful.

Here's a basic formula: 250g Butter 100g Sugar (regular, granulated) 2g Salt 2g Grated Lemon Zest 4 drops Vanilla Extract --- 100g Eggs, Beaten ----- 400g Pastry Flour -Creaming method: add the eggs a little bit at a time, mixing well between each addition, barely mix in flour, use your bowl scraper to do the final folding-in of flour. Chill until firm and chill after each time you work it.

That's not a traditional recipe there, the almonds don't help it hold together (they get crispy when baked) and the cornstarch in the icing sugar is partly causing your problem. I'd start with the basic plain recipe first to get an idea of what it's supposed to be like. Also, you never touch dough when placing it in the tart pan or flan ring. You use a tart tamper or, for minis, a mini tart tamper. Hands are warm and constantly giving off small amounts of steam which helps gluten development and can ruin pastry texture. Also, pressing with the fingertips pulls the dough unevenly which can lead to uneven baking.

Here's the history of the dish, page two has a pretty good recipe.

Pâte Sucrée is very often a dough similar to a sugar cookie, shortbread or sable. -If cut and baked, and maybe iced, you'd call it a cookie; made with the creaming method. This is what I was taught to call sucrée in culinary school. Some authors use the term for a lightly sweetened pie crust type dough, made with the cut-in method. Knowing which type you are attempting would be useful. It sounds like too much gluten development. Dryness shouldn't be an issue, one always wants a dry crust as no one likes a soggy bottom. Most crusts should be flaky or crumbly when cut, because the dough is 'short' without much gluten. Are you using pastry or cake flour? (AP flour varies in gluten content by region in the US, in the North and West, it's almost bread flour. In the South, it's almost cake flour, because it's mostly used or biscuits.) In some regions, AP flour is very high in gluten. Is your work area cold, 72°F or less? Is you fat worked in cold? Are any liquids added cold? If you have 'hot hands' are you wearing gloves? Are you mixing and rolling as little as possible? Are you resting the dough in the fridge after rolling out and after cutting? All of these things affect gluten development. Without watching every step, or knowing the recipe, it's hard to say where things are going wrong.

From your first menu, it appears that your school has some western influences or might be a completely western style culinary program. If so, and you like using the western ingredients, then choose a season (it's early autumn right now) and a country and build your menu from there. For example, you could call your meal 'Autumn in Paris' giving you the range of vegetables and fruits to use, and a set of recipes, that is, French cooking. If I were taking your test, and calling it Autumn in Paris, I might choose to make: Fennel, Orange and Olive Salad with red onions and tarragon dressing Pork Tenderloin Diane, Duchess Potatoes, Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts Pears Poached in Port with Toasted Walnuts and Blue Cheese If your program is mostly local cooking, don't try so hard with the western ingredients. Just because a supplier can get them to you, doesn't mean they're automatically good.

I agree with going simple. As an instructor, I can tell you that the point of this exam is to see how well you can execute the techniques and principles that you have been taught during the term. Unless you had a class in molecular techniques, don't force them into this test. Chances are, there is no 'extra credit' being offered on the score sheet. And, if molecular/modernist techniques were not covered yet, you do not know the rubric the instructor would be grading to in such a class. Therefore, the instructor grading this test, even if s/he is the molecular class instructor cannot hold you to any rubric and simply cannot give a grade for those efforts. I see students trying to show off (for me, or fellow students) by doing extra things in exams and getting bogged down and not finishing on time. When those extras aren't even going to be graded, it breaks my heart to see all the effort wasted on showboating. You were probably given a list of requirements. Those requirements are probably reflected on the instructor's grade sheet. Simply focus on meeting those requirements as perfectly as possible. Practice what you will make, and make sure that you have a written timeline for all of your tasks. If you aren't allowed to bring it in, memorize it. The benefits of making simple things, such as a soup, are many. You will be more relaxed without tremendous time pressure. If you ruin something, you will have time to start over. You can make sure to work cleanly and meet sanitation standards for the test. (did you change your sani-buckets when needed? did you temp the meat? did you wash your hands properly? is your station organized at all times?) You won't get so stressed out that you make silly mistakes. You'll get every dish just right. You'll have time to work on great plating. If you wind up with 15 extra minutes at the end, you can make an extra garnish and then deep clean your station. Maybe get positive vibes by cleaning the class dishwashing sink, organizing the pantry, or somesuch chore. Good luck!

You're all over the place with seasonality and regionality. Asparagus is a spring vegetable. Berries are an early summer, June mostly, phenomenon. Fresh tomatoes are also a summer item. Also, you're really heavy on protein: cheese & ham with a sauce containing cheese as the starter, tenderloin with bacon as the man, and a dessert made of eggs and cream. I'd make a different salad as a starter -something reflecting the start of autumn like with squash and pepitos, root vegetables and/or squashes with the meat, and something like a seasonal fruit pie or clafoutis (more properly a flaugnarde, since cherries are out of season, I suggest pear) for dessert.

Nice! I like to toss basil on right as the pizza is being pulled out of the oven. It wilts a bit from the residual heat but doesn't dry out as much. That's not to everyone's taste, though.

I have, on occasion, longed for a tastevin. That might be too unrelated for you, though. I also use my refractometer quite a bit, but, I mostly do pastry type things. If they do modernist dishes, they might like a pocket jeweler's scale fo weighing out tiny amounts of ingredients.

I've only used the fat based colors with Ivoire, seems safest.

You might try an enzymatic cleaner, look for something that says it's good for chocolate, wine, blood and pet stains. -Even if it says it's for carpeting, this is what you need. I would avoid bleach as it may eat away at the resin or discolor it.

That's true, I think TM purposely has fewer employees on hand, and the stores are smaller than a HG. Price-wise, it's hard for me to compare a lot of items come and go. What I like about TM is the occasional high end find like hand cut, genuine Waterford crystal or real copper cookware from France (the kind you get re-lined occasionally, not the clad stainless stuff.)

True, they also own Marshall's. That said, HG has the biggest supply of kitchenware. Another place to check is Tuesday Morning. As their name implies, they put out new stuff on Tuesday morning. I got tons of Duralex there last year. They tend to be smaller, but, tend to carry higher-end goods.

You might want to check your local Home Goods stores, they are a discount retailer that has a variety of cookware. As we head into the winter holiday season, they get pricier/better inventory. Last year they had a selection of Staub and some Falk, for example. The selection constantly changes, so, it's tough to say what you'll find, but, the prices are outstanding -usually 50%+ off regular retail. And, remember, if you see something there you like, buy it, they may never get it in again.

Years ago, the Washington Post food section ran an article that had several dozen variations on grilled cheese. I remember having that clipped out and attached to my fridge when I was right out of college. I tried almost every one, and, went on to make many more. My tried and true favorite doesn't have any traditional condiments: sourdough bread, smoked gouda, mushrooms sauteed with garlic.

Chocolate ice cream topped with Malt-o-Meal brand Golden Puffs -like Sugar Smacks, only has more caramel/molasses flavor, IMO. I was eating the cereal one day and just blurted out, 'I bet this would taste really good on chocolate ice cream' didn't get a chance to test it for several months, but, when I did it was really pretty good.

And...She's back! Her publicity team has got back up and running. Look for her show to return real soon, y'all.

Some fish & chips shops add a touch of turmeric to their batter to make it more golden. You might want to try adding some to the mix somewhere along the line.

You can do it with the chocolate, but, you'll want to monitor the temperature carefully so it doesn't go out of temper.

You could try hitting them with a blowtorch, carefully. That said, you'd want to be the one doing it and lock the torch up when not in use. Another idea might be to dip them and refrigerate, then have some warm caramel in a plastic squirt bottle (think mustard and ketchup picnic bottles) sitting in a pan of simmering water. Drizzle on the extra caramel then roll. It won't give 100% coverage, but, it should work.

I second the community college recommendation. Although, I would like to point out that there are some great pastry schools in the US. Classes will drill into you professional habits that you will need if you want to open a patisserie: sanitation, production standards, speed, using professional equipment, handling wholesale food packages. Being able to have a few months' of hands-on work with a Hobart 60 qt mixer, steam-injected rotating convection ovens, proof boxes, a full-sized sheeter, a three compartment sink, and, commercial dishwashers is experience that most people will never get at home. The biggest issue I see with self-taught people trying to enter the job market is a lacking the knowledge and experience to work quickly. Production speed standards determine whether a venture will be profitable or not. A couple of months' of classroom drills and student competitions can make all the difference. (Example: you can hand me, or most experienced decorators, some cake layers and a pile of buttercream and we can put out a fully decorated birthday cake in 5 minutes. -I have worked places where the standard was 3 minutes, if you couldn't keep up, you didn't keep your job.)

Annabelle is correct, silicone is an insulator and gives really weird results with cake -usually the top will be done/overdone while the bottoms are still uncooked.

First thing I see is volume measurement of dry ingredients, most importantly the flour. A 'cup' of flour can wind up being anything from about 3.5 oz to about 6 oz, with an average at just over 5 oz. On day one class, I have pastry student measure a cup of flour then weigh it. no one gets the same amount. Then, I have them do it again, and, no one gets the same amount they had before. This sort of variation can drastically affect the outcome of a cake, and is why professional recipes use weight-based measurement for dry ingredients. Your issue sounds like the usual roulette everyone plays when they don't weigh the dry ingredients -you may have added as much as twice as much flour the first time around. On a related note, there's no standards organization checking home-user measuring devices. This means that if you purchase several 'cups' at your local kitchen shop or mass merchant, they can give different measurements from each other. Have you switched the brand/type of measuring cup? And, lastly, is there any chance that you have mistaken some white whole wheat flour for the 'plain' flour?