SweetSide

I'm going off topic here for just a quick question. Pardon my ignorance... To me, Ikea is a home furnishings store, of which we only have 1 in New England, to which I have never been. Can someone please enlighten me as to what Ikea would have these mergpijpje or træstamme? I've seen the name mentioned in another thread or two and I am obviously out of the loop. Thanks!

I was thinking I might try making the brulee topping on a single crepe under the broiler and then just add it to the top of the stack with some filling underneath it. ← Go for it... Anything to make the top from being naked. You could also make a complementary sauce and drizzle that over the top for service, mimicking a big stack of pancakes. Kitchy, but oh what pancakes they are!

Something in the back of my mind (from some show I watched) is telling me that there is also malted milk in the 3 musketeers filling. Not just whipped chocolate in it. There used to be three bars in each pack, each a different flavor. The one we now know what was the favorite and is the one that survived. Also, somewhere in the back of my mind I know I saw a recipe that said something to the effect that it was just like the middle of the 3 musketeer bar. I wish I could remember which book it was...

I did mine for dinner (6:30 pm) and by morning (5 am) when I went in the fridge for breakfast, the brulee was gone. Looked like someone had poured some syrup on a stack of pancakes. So, no I don't think it would still be pretty after 8 hours under refrigeration. If at all possible, I would bring some sugar and blowtorch with me and just torch it up in the house at which you will be having the dessert. ETA: Megan was less long winded than me and finished typing first. Yeah, what she said...

I made one change to this recipe which I think was an improvement: Instead of using 1 1/2 cups of flour, I used 1 1/4 cups of flour and 1/4 cup cornstarch. Due to the lower protein content of the batter, the crepes were more tender, with less "chew", which I found preferable. They cooked up beautifully. I can't seem to find the instructions on eGullet for how to upload a photo. If someone would be so kind as to let me know how to do this, I'll upload a photo of my cake, with all of its 27 layers! ← Thanks! I'll be trying it again next week. Sorry, no help on the photos from me -- that's why I haven't posted a picture yet ... In fact, I've lost the instructions for posting them in the pile on my desk...

I ditto that. Plus it's alot of HOW they ask. If your rude asking, forget it. It's weird because I rarely hestitate to give out a recipe to people I've never met on the internet, yet I almost always hestitate to give people I work with them. It's true that they can rarely reproduce the recipe as well. But then I don't want my name attached to the less then stellar product. ← I guess this sums up how I was feeling. That's the same reason I don't hesitate to share on eGullet. None of you are my direct competition, nor are any of you a potential client. Perhaps that people are buying this stuff from me actually says something in itself -- they don't make the desserts themselves due to either lack of time, lack of skill, or lack of desire to make the mess in the kitchen! I'll just keep using my judgement on a recipe by recipe basis. Thanks for all your feedback!

I'm new at the pastry biz, and I'm starting to pick up a decent amount of business making cakes on the side. In the past, when I was just another person who brought goodies to the office, I never had a problem sharing my recipes. However, now that I make money off of them, I'm hesitant to share the ones that can't readily be found. I don't mind sharing in eGullet because you all aren't potential clients and by sharing we (well, mostly me) all learn from each other. For those of you who are professionals, when do you share recipes and when don't you share?

ROFL It's like you read my mind! And, I acutally did do that the first time (and last time) I tried the stuff. I guess I just don't like flowers. I don't like lavender in my foods either. I had to delicately remove from my mouth a tea cake we made in school with lavender. I'll leave the flowers to the bees. Orange flower water I can tolerate because it at least has a fruit/flower smell. But that still has to be used VERY judiciously.

Things with pastry cream I don't usually keep around very long. It is now 2 days after I made mine, the crepes are getting soft and the texture is melding together. I would still feel comfortable serving it today except for the top -- as the bruleed sugar has sat in the fridge, it has melted and turned into syrup. The top crepe is mushy. You can make the crepes in advance and freeze. Then just make the pastry cream closer to the date. The crepes themselves are what take the most time. Filling and stacking took me but 10 minutes. Brulee a few minutes before serving.

I've had variances in the color of my lemon curd (and the cream, which is fantastic) depending upon the color of my yolks. Sometimes my eggs will have a lemon yellow yolk. Sometimes the yolks are near orange. The darker the yolk, the darker the cream. Can't explain the color variance of the yolks other than particular chicken, particular diet. I always buy the same brand...

Patrick, I'll have to remember that about the pastry cream. That's one of the things I don't like is trying to squish that thick cream through a Bismark tube. I have weak, carpal hands. Next time, as eclairs are a favorite in the house, I'll try it your way. The easier filling may very well be the better alternative.

Thank you for the compliment, Shaya. Eclairs aren't difficult to make, but like lots of other things, after you make it once you think of things you could do differently the next time. You could certainly make them in one day, but if you want to take you time, you can make them over several days. The choux dough can be baked and stored in advance. The pastry cream I would make when you are ready to use it. ← Actually, I do mine just the opposite. I make the pastry cream the night before. I make the choux and bake it off the day I'm going to use it because I find they are at their crispest then. When the choux is cool, I fill then glaze, then eat. While you can store the choux, mine never seem to be quite as crisp or I end up having to reheat them. Either way -- and I'm not going to criticize a thing Patrick does as it is all so marvelous -- you can easily make it a two day affair and not stress yourself over it. I agree that eclairs are not at all difficult. They were my first foray that made me decide working in pastry was for me.

Just went back and read the NY Times article on the Mille Crepes, and think I found part of my fork cutting problem. In the article is says "The crepes have to be baked thin enoug so that when you cut through with a fork, it can't be an impediment." Back to the crepe pan for me... Mine aren't bad, they just aren't perfect...

No problems with downloading, viewing, or saving -- I really liked this. My question has to do with browsing. Before I buy a magazine, I often like to browse it to see if there is something in there that I want. I'm new to the profession, want to develop, but some things are just beyond my reach at the moment because of access to ingredients and equipment. Will there be a way to browse what is in the magazine before committing to purchase? That would be great, but I know you would want to prevent people from printing off content and then not making the purchase. Not sure how you would do this though...

Does anyone else love how you can see Patrick's reflection in that perfect glaze? In the eclair on the lower-left... ← Didn't notice before -- that's a beautiful shiny eclair!

Did you chill the cake at all before serving? That seemed to help us... ← Yes, I did, and it was definitely firmer than when it was originally put together. No parts of mine were "oozy and goozy". I think part of it has to do with the shape of the slice itself. Today, the cake is a more uniform texture and the pastry cream has lost some of its moisture to the crepes. And fork cutting from the whole cake (who needs slices) is easier still. Looking at your pictures -- beautiful, by the way -- I can tell that my cream is probably firmer than yours as I didn't get the little "gooshies" on the sides of the freshly cut slice. And, IMO (as I have no photo), the chocolate looks better than the white due to the richer color. I'm wondering about chocolate and white -- I love looking at the many thin layers...

Last night I made Mille Crepe for dessert. No photos though, but it was quite a pretty sight. I had posted under Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme thread and the What are you eating for Dessert thread, but I'll repeat myself here to start this new. I decided to do a chocolate version. For the crepes, I used the Pierre Herme chocolate crepes recipe. As the only beer I had on hand was a stronger Sam Adams Brown Ale, my crepes came out nutty tasting. For the filling I used the Pierre Herme chocolate pastry cream recipe but added about 2T of Frangelico. The pastry cream was then lighted with 1 1/2 cups of cream whipped with 2T of Frangelico. Came out beautiful and delicious. One issue I had with the cake though, was how it ended up being eaten. Slicing servings with the knife was easy -- nice clean cuts. However, we ended up eating the cake by layers since a fork squished a lot of the filling out before cutting through the crepes. I'd like to see the filling less squish prone, but not rubbery. Some tinkering needed.

I, too, had a Mille Crepe for dessert last night. No photos though, but it was quite a pretty sight. I had posted under Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme thread, as my version was adapted from some of his recipes. Used his chocolate crepes and chocolate pastry cream with Frangelico added. For the whipped cream, I added Frangelico and folded with the pastry cream. Scrumptious. One issue I had with the cake though, was how it was eaten. Slicing with the knife was easy -- nice clean cuts. However, we ended up eating the cake by layers since a fork squished a lot of the filling out before cutting through the crepes. I think I'll go and start a new thread now...

Well, I've done my version of the Mille Crepes today, but we have yet to cut into the final product. Of course, along the way sampling have proven there to be delicious components along the way... My version: Chocolate Crepes from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme Chocolate Pastry Cream (from above as well) with 3T Frangeligo added in for additional flavor. This recipe was folded with 1 1/2 cups of whipped cream with 2 T of Frangelico added. As the only beer I had for the crepes was Sam Adams Brown Ale -- I was a little strong and nutty, so I figured the Frangelico would play that up. Crepes and resulting cream were layered, then I bruleed the top of the stack. It is now resting in the fridge until after dinner... Sample taste of a crepe rolled with the cream proved to be very nice. I'm happy. Just waiting to see the texture of the whole stack...

Yes, powder to sheets is the same. ← I wish I knew for sure if that were true. Knox gelatin is rated at something like 225 bloom strength. I have a silver box of sheets at work that says 160 bloom. It's more like 16 sheets to the ounce instead of 10. I wonder if the difference between the silver and gold is the weight of the individual sheets. I've been going on the assumption that I need to use a little more sheet gelatin by weight to get the same results that I would get from powdered. I got mixed up in using mycryo, but the stuff drives me nuts. I switched one of my cakes to gelatin because I know I can just go ahead and make the filling and not worry if it's going to be ok. I want to do it to the rest of the mousse cakes but it's a lot of paperwork and people fretting about the use of gelatin. ← Hmmm, then should I assume that if the powder is a 225 and the silver is a 160, if the recipe assumes 10 grams of gelatin (assuming sheet), I would need like 7 grams of powder ( 160 bloom sheet / 225 bloom powder x 10 grams of sheet gelatin = # of grams of powder gelatin)? I would use that as a starting point for a test batch on the gelee first. The last thing I want is a rubber frisbee sitting on top of a cake...

That's brilliant. I've been icing individual cakes with a small offset spatula. When Passover is over, and I'm ready to fill the showcase again I'm trying this! thanks. ← I second that! I was doing these silly ring ding looking things, and I think the finger method (hey, can I say I'm giving little cakes the finger? ) would have left me with less buttercream on my hands than the offset.

If you go to this thread CLICK and go to post #15, look at the first picture under the section that talks about the ENTREMETS. The cake is the square white one on the left. In the discussions of the cake, I'm not sure if this was actually an actual entrant. The picture is the one that was done in one of the classes. I'd have to go back and read more. I wish I had a square mold -- I do like it better square than round.

Sugarella, what is the easy way to do the sides of a 3 inch cake? I (unexperienced me) find it harder to do than a large cake. I'd love a lesson!

At work, we would wrap layer cakes with acetate when the sides weren't done (Boston cream pie for example). The held for a day when the top frosting was sealed to the acetate so there was no air leakage as Sugarella mentioned. But, for these cakes, the sides were not trimmed either. The light crust did provide some protection.

Earth Balance is a butter substitute sold in natural food stores. No trans fats, no cholesterol as it is vegetable based, no hydrogenated oils. I've used it in a vegan cake recipe that was specifically formulated for such a thing. However, as these products don't behave the same way as butter, my belief is that you aren't going to be able to go substituting it willy-nilly. As for the adjustments that would need to be made, I couldn't tell you. Also, there are trans fat, hydrogenated oil free shortenings on the market that you can substitute for regular shortening in recipes that call for shortening.