Lisa Shock

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?

I tend to slice it very finely and go the coleslaw route with kale. The 1953 Joy of Cooking has some good boiled dressings made with fruit juice that make tasty slaws.

Some of it is misleading. Beans and nuts, especially when combined with grains, are also affordable protein sources, probably THE most affordable sources. Until factory farming post WW2, chicken was one of the most expensive meats, thus recipes for 'city chicken' made from veal, which was cheaper and far more plentiful. Chickens have to be carefully cared for and fed. They were generally kept by farmers for the eggs, and only killed and eaten when old and beyond laying, many medieval peasants did not have the resources to run their own chicken coops. Meanwhile, the medieval peasant had streams and oceans full of fish, forests full of game, and plenty of assorted rodents readily available. (we have Roman recipes for mice) But, the medieval diet for rich and poor alike was governed by the principle of balancing 'humors' and most often consisted of grain-based gruel with various flavorings depending upon a person's health. They boiled everything into these gruels, including vegetables like lettuce, eating very little, if anything, raw. They cooked in pots over the home hearth, home ovens were rare signs of wealth. (The home stove and oven are an invention of the 1800s) An average peasant family took their raw loaves to the village baker to be baked for a fee. That baker would cook other dishes as well, but, doing so cost a family dearly. (boulangere potatoes evolved as one of those type dishes, obviously post Columbus) I am not a fan of Mr. Ruhlman, btw. My 'last straw' with him was his blog post, since deleted, where he quite seriously quoted Eric Ripert stating that it is a well known fact that women are inferior as chefs because it is impossible for a menstruating woman to make mayonnaise without it breaking. He only withdrew the post a week later following video demonstrations by several female bloggers (one wasn't enough to convince him) creating perfect, unbroken mayonnaises while 'Aunt Flo' was visiting.

BTW, the time between turns should be increased based on the size of the batch of dough. A large batch won't cool sufficiently in 30 minutes, might need 45-60 minutes.

Once again, not the pantry, but, I usually have some soup frozen and some sort of bread or pastry also frozen. I also like to freeze cooked jasmine rice and any extra curries I make, so usually, I can pull out a few portions of Korma or a tomato based curry and rice. Oh, and I have a selection of odds and ends of batches of raw cookie dough frozen -they can be sliced and baked off in about ten minutes while you're prepping the main meal. I generally have carrots, celery, onions, and a few other salad greens on hand, plus olives, so, a salad is easy. If you have a loaf of frozen bread, a jar of tapenade, or homemade, would be nice. I can also make drop cream biscuits from scratch really fast.

Fat does a lot of things. It can allow food to cook at a higher temperature and develop flavors they wouldn't otherwise, like frying potatoes gives them a crispy brown crust (maillard reaction & caramelization) they can't really get from baking or boiling. (McGee tested baked potatoes rubbed in oil and baked without, with oil was better) Sauteing onions brings out flavors that boiling can't, that's why so many recipes start with cooking an onion in oil or butter and then adding liquids. Some fats have flavor naturally, like some olive oils or butter. Others are fairly flavorless like shortening or grapeseed oil. Obviously adding a flavorful oil will add flavor to a dish, while pouring a lot of grapeseed oil all over a dish won't be useful. Some flavors are fat soluble and can be infused in oil, some at room temperature, some need to be heated -like chile oils. Once infused, those oils obviously add flavor to a dish.

BTW, when the time comes to get a new fridge, look to see if you can get one with a humidity adjustment feature. They aren't all that common in the US, I have no idea about China.

Can you get a vacuum sealer? They work really well on cheese, and honestly, cheese is the one item I have sealed more than anything else. Once sealed, the cheese can remain in the fridge for several months. What you do is seal it in a bag that is much longer than really needed. Then each time you open it to use it, you reseal which means you lose about 4cm of the bag.

Yeah, had some of that on a shelf at the old house. It partially disintegrated and stuck all over things. I use the clear plastic stuff with ridges for glassware and clear plastic stuff with round bumps for the other shelves -dishes, food etc. The nice part about it is that it can be removed and washed.

Even Viking refrigerators do not produce clear ice. They do, however, sell a separate, freestanding ice machine which makes clear ice.

Sorry, same time post as Darienne. I haven't made magic shell before. The big issue with subbing pure cocoa butter in her recipe would be flavor and some texture. Without cocoa solids, you lose some of the solidity of the final product. And, obviously, flavor. Butterscotch flavor might make it work, might need some creamy background flavor to prevent it from tasting like flavored oil.

Yeah, exactly. You need to start with an ingredient that has the properties you are seeking. I have never seen coconut oil turn into a crisp solid, I have no idea what would need to be done to it to make it change into one. Cocoa butter naturally crystallizes when properly tempered, one of the few pastry ingredients that will do that without cooking. If you are seeking a vegan product, you can experiment with pure cocoa butter, or Mycro, but, you'll need to add something with more flavor than coconut oil to simulate white chocolate, and, something that won't interfere with the cocoa butter crystalline structure. I am not sure what the 'secret' is to meltaways, I do know that they have a soft, non-crispy texture and rplicating them would give you a soft coating not a crisp shell.

Yeah, I unwittingly melted down some of the 45% stuff to make clarified for Hollandaise! I then had to show the boss why our yield was so low, melted a couple pounds so it separated, then chilled it and weight the solid part and water separately so she could complain to the supplier.

The easiest ting to do would be to get some butterscotch flavoring and add it to melted and tempered white chocolate.

Making your own butter is pretty easy if you have a stand mixer. (look for recipes online, it can be cultured for more flavor, or not) It can also be frozen, if needed. I make it if I see cream on sale -it must be heavy cream without additives. Sometimes around holidays, stores get in a lot to run promotions on, and then when it gets close to the expiration date, it's half price. The weeks following Christmas are prime hunting season for cheap cream. I also have a Smart & Final near me and access to a Restaurant Depot, both of which sell half gallons of manufacturing cream -which is fine to use if you're cooking the butter.

Water, usually with a lemon or lime wedge squeezed into it. Occasionally a beer or glass of wine, depending on the food.

Malt syrup adds flavor, doesn't do much else. Powder diastatic malt is a dough conditioner. I'd make up half batch and run tests. IIRC, 3 oz of dough should make a fairly substantial roll.

What about using it in a white wine punch?

Oh yeah, the aforementioned recipe contains amaretto, so, some sort of hazelnut liqueur or extract will be needed for the test.

In Professional Baking by Gisslen, I linked to the version I own, there's an almond pastry filling that is based on creme anglaise with marzipan stirred in while it's warm. I'm thinking that you could sub hazelnut paste/butter for the marzipan. I'm not near the book right now, I can probably post an ingredients list in a couple of days.

That's a smart way to go.