chefette

It is invert sugar - As defined in factmoster.com "a mixture of the dextrorotatory forms of glucose and fructose, formed naturally in fruits and produced artificially in syrups or fondants by treating cane sugar with acids." or "Invert sugar is prepared by the hydrolysis of sucrose to glucose (dextrose) and fructose. This is achieved by subjecting a sucrose solution to acid and heat:" "Invert sugar has a high affinity for water. For this reason, invert sugar is used to keep products moist, extending acceptable shelf life. Applications of this include sugar confectionery, cakes and soft cookies, and bread rolls. In low fat baked goods this increase in moisture retention is especially important, since low fat products become dry and stale much more quickly than their full fat counterparts. Glycerol is often used as the humectant in cakes, and a suitable rule of thumb is that around two to three times the level of invert syrup can be used in place of glycerol. Using invert instead of glycerol will give the additional benefits of sweetness, flavour enhancement of fruit products, and colour and flavour development during cooking." Brittish Sugar also Crystallisation Control Reduced Viscosity Flavour Enhancement Flavour and Colour Development Texture Softening Water Activity Reduction (slows spoilage) Freezing Point Depression It is not really available to the home cook - it is a professional product and generally comes in big buckets. Hope this answers your questions

Anyone wonder about the significance of the pheasant or whatever bird that is on the Bob White Baking Powder?

I second the Agrimontana paste - I order it from Qzina

Try a stove top creme brulee custard 1 pint heavy cream 2oz sugar 6 large egg yolks vanilla pinch salt bring the cream and sugar to a boil temper the yolks and return to the pot stir over high heat about 12 stirs strain and chill about 6 hours you may want to add about 1tsp powdered gelatin or 1 sheet to this while warm for a thicker consistency If you add gelatin you can pour it into a flexipan or other silicon mold and freeze then just pop it out and drop into the cake. Make sure that you create a dam of buttercream or frosting round the custard so it does not seep out. Because of the eggs, the cake will be more perishable and will not be able to sit out at room temperature too long.

Congratulations Bri. It is good to see that you put yourself out there in a public competition, and your desserts sound interesting and tasty. What was your showpiece? Will you post pictures? Bri’s post raises an interesting question for me… When is a competition a competition? What are the elements a potential competitor should look for in determining whether to participate in a competition? 1- What are your goals and expectations in participating in a competition? Publicity? Advertisment? Peer advancement in the craft – Participation in the peer community? To push yourself in your technique? Contribution to a charity? 2- Venue: where will the competition be held? Is this a peer event or a public event? 3- Audience: Is it an event primarily for the pastry community to explore excellence that also has an opportunity for the public to view and sample to raise awareness? 4- Judging: Who will be judging the competition? What are their qualifications to judge pastry? Are they individuals whose skills and opinions hold value? I ask these questions because there are many types of competitions and naturally in the end – it is up to the individual participant to determine the value and real purpose of the competition. Some competitions are opportunities to demonstrate your skills and vie with other professionals to demonstrate technical, artistic, and culinary excellence. Some are beauty contests and parties for which you are providing the organizers desserts and decorations as well as servers at no charge. Assuming that the chef is aware of the nature of the event and willing to make such a contribution, and gets publicity and an award out of it that is great. Brian – how would you have felt about your participation in this event if you had come in 5th, or 10th, or last and not received any award?

In the past I have made St. Honore with a circle of Pate Brisee, but you can also do it with puff Dock and cut a circle of brisee, and bake Egg wash edge of circle, and make 2 smaller circles inside Pipe choux in 3 rings: around perimeter, and two inside rings Egg wash the choux rings Pipe 25-40 choux balls on a separate sheet and egg wash them Place everything in a 475 degree oven for 10 minutes than reduce heat to 375 for another 10-20 minutes While this is cooling make the Honore Chiboust The Cream is a Chiboust (combination of warm pastry cream and warm Italian meringue) Alternatively you can make a lightened pastry cream flavored with rum and then pipe whipped cream on top of it. Pastry Cream 2C milk 100g sugar 40g corn starch 4 egg yolks 75 g butter vanilla (extract or bean) boil milk combine starch, sugar and egg yolks into smooth paste gradually add the hot milk while whisking return to the pot and bring to boil and cook stirring about 1 minute whisk in butter and vanilla Italian Meringue 50g sugar 25g corn syrup 40g water 4 egg whites cook sugar, corn syrup, and water to soft ball whip whites to soft peak and slowly pour hot sugar syrup into whites while whipping While both the pastry cream and the meringue are warm, fold together You can flavor with rum Pipe into the choux balls, dip in caramelized sugar, and attach to the outer ring Fill the tart with the cream and serve if you cannot find a St Honore tip you can use a large spoon

I think it is the shortcrust base although it may not matter if you use that or inhibited caramelized puff, then the filled, caramel dipped choux balls attached around the outside perimeter. There is actually a special St Honore Cream. I have the recipe but not on hand. I can add it later if you are still looking. Since it is his favorite - what does he see as the ideal St. Honore cake? That is probably the direction you should go - but I will be happy to post what I have later this evening

Well, I think that your original question was dealing with whether competitions actually have an impact on what PCs do in their kitchens -yes? I think that Steve has a point - many chefs, pastry chefs, and diners (especially in the US) are completely unaware of pastry competition work. Most of them never even contemplated the real artistic aspects of pastry. So what happens in competitions might as well be on Mars for all the immediate impact it has on them. I actually DO think that there is impact though. In sort of the same way that technology and products developed for the Space Program or the military eventually find their way into our lives there is cross over. Showpiece work - new techniques, materials and tools are brought into play (from silicon to paint sprayers, to plastic hoses, PVS pipes, blow torches, X-acto knives, scalpels, clamps, insulating material, neoprene, and molds) chefs in competition use these stuff to create showpieces. Whether you see the work or the finished product your awareness of what is possible and how to do it is expanded. People who want to make your life easier create shortcuts, forms, templates, locate and package stuff specifically for pastry chefs eventually. Restaurant owners and diners see things on TV and want more. They want it at their special parties and weddings, so there is impact. Plus you find new uses for things and ingredients. Maybe it expands the types of things you push yourself to do. Cakes, Ice Creams, Chocolates, Petit Fours and Plated Desserts - in competitions there is alot of innovation in presentation (from decoration to plates and platforms), you see wild new styles and concepts and these show up in magazines, newspapers, TV shows, cooking classrooms they impact the life of the PC. There are innovative flavor combinations, innovative use of ingredients, sometimes new ingredients that become made available in more convenient new ways. This impacts your life. I think that pastry competitions force PCs to push the envelope of technique, creativity, artistry, presentation, and taste to distinguish themselves. You may not be successful in a competition but ultimately I think the work that is done, the ideas expressed, and the tools, techniques, and ingredients utilized affect many ordinary pastry chefs. I would contend that they affect all PCs, but perhaps there are those who chose to shut out those influences as irrelevant, but even so there is impact.

Whole Foods sells a gluten free pizza dough (frozen).

I read your thread the other day and just now I happened to see some Corn Husks on sale in the store. Whole Foods carries these http://888eatchile.com/category_sub.asp?intCat_ID=26. I noticed that online they are $5.40 for 6oz, but in the store they were selling for $4.49 From Los Chileros de Nueve Mexico

Bian, re the cut disks of brulee - This is definitely a possibility - especially if you go with the stovetop method and use a bit of gelatin. You can mold off small domes or shapes in flexipans and freeze then pop them out and incorporate in cakes or other desserts, or you can prepare sheets of brulee in the same manner and cut them up.

Never let yourself be penned in or limited by what is done, or has been done. Take inspiration wherever it leads you. OK Pan, perhaps my statement about indian desserts was too much of a blatant generality. I can accept that.

As cbarre02 indicated, you can do Indian desserts per se, but there can also be Indian elements employed to influence desserts. These can be conceptual (based on actual Indian desserts) OR Conceptual (concepts of India, and dining in India), ingredients, influences, non-dessert items or dishes. Based on my research when I was doing such a project I got the impression that desserts were not that big a deal in Indian cooking--"sweets" were, marzipan-like candies were, you had kulfi, rice puddings, things in sickly sweet syrups. Most of the Indian sweets available to us at the time in Queens, Iselin or the typical Indian restaurant or cookbook tasted the same, were too sweet or not all that attractive, and not really competitive here in the US vs. non-Indian restaurants, or at higher dollar fine dining locations. It's more likely we have not seen how wonderful Indian sweets could be here in this country because not too many are doing them well. Items that inspired me: Rose (using petals, scent, pink coloring. I never did find a rose water that I really liked, but Sevarome makes a really good compound. In Indian stores you can find rose syrup or powdered rose milk mix but they are almost completely sugar, food color, and a bit of citric acid - no real rose) I think that rose goes pretty well with chocolate. I created a Rose Opera Cake to showcase the combination and it has proven very popular. It was discussed a bit here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...t=0entry78798 My Rose opera is a traditional French-style opera cake except that I make a pistachio jaconde, use rose buttercream, and infuse the dark chocolate ganache with cardamom. I like the colors (green, pink, dark brown). When sufficiently motivated I serve it with a tiny decorative rosebud (made of chocolate) on top. I think it would be a tasty and beautiful plated dessert served with a plain creme anglaise, a rose syrup, a small dome of pistachio cream with an Adria-style thin caramel tuile with bits of candied rose petals suspended in it. Some other possibilities: Sugar Cane (used as skewers, peeled as stirrers, juice, gelee...) Apricots (never really appealed to me until they were exotic) Especially paired with cardamom and vanilla cream Pistachio (great color, interesting taste) Cardamon, Cinnamon, and Star Anise Some working ideas that I had included but as yet unrealized: · Floating Madagascar Vanilla Bean flecked Floating Island with a Madagascar vanilla anglaise and vanilla coulis garnished with kiwi, currants, and mangos and a cassis tuile palm tree · Crispy Almond Saffron Napoleon Crispy almond filo squares layered with warm almond pudding and saffron crème brulee served with apricot confit, chocolate sauce and crispy filo · Moon of India Chocolate Chai Mousse layered with Cashew Nut Cake (fruit jelly?) served with caramelized pineapple and chocolate sauce in a candied kumquat · Star of India Cake Silky warm vermicelli payasim poured over almond genoise with warm almond pudding and apricot compote topped with chocolate leaves accompanied by poached fruit and (?) ice cream · Bergamot-Scented Sugar Cane Granite Accented with a splash of lemon vodka and served with sabayon and spiced tuile florets. Garnished with spears of cystalized sugar cane and lemon swirls · Skewered Roasted Fruits Mangos, Bananas, Apricots, Plums, Figs Skewered on Sugar Cane and flambeed tableside in (?liqour) served with ginger, cardamom, and nutmeg ice creams and a orange caramel tea sauce with candied lemongrass and lemon verbena. · Beggars Purse Pear, Quince, Apples, Raisins, Figs, and Dates with Honey, saffron and almonds tied up in a crisp pouch of filo tied with a strand of vanilla bean served warm with vanilla anglaise and pistachio ice cream · Chocolate-Banana Samosas Molten chocolate and bananas with chocolate genoise baked in filo bundles and served with cardamom ice cream and masala coulis.

http://www.elreychocolates.com/recipes/rec...reme_brule.html Going way back, this dessert of Steve's was featured by Pastry Art & Design magazine and El Rey chocolate, maybe in 1998--before we even had chai in Starbucks or anyone had heard much about it on the East coast. William Grimes reviewed Steve a few years ago in the Times and gave him two stars when he consulted for an upper East Side Indian restaurant trying to look forward: "The dessert menu severs almost all ties to India. Steve Klc (pronounced kelch), the executive pastry chef, uses a few Indian ingredients strategically, with some success. Coconut panna cotta, covered with a slick of ice-wine gelee and tiny apple dice, has a perfect sweet-tart balance, and a surprise at the bottom of the dish, a firm layer of coconut-cardamom rice. Chocolate chai souffle stumbles at the outset. Chocolate without chai would be fine. Likewise, chai without chocolate. Together, the two make bad company. Mr. Klc recovers nicely with a disc of apple chutney balanced on top of a spongy layer of ladyfingers and topped with saffron cream." from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shobak_news/message/393 In spite of that view of chocolate and chai - I thought it worked really well together and so do most who have ever had it, Mr. Grimes excepted, and it's been a signature of our dessert philosophy since '97 or so--embrace tradition, but go beyond tradition and let your palate be your ultimate guide. One early plated dessert version of the chocolate chai, molded in a demisphere, ran in Food Arts magazine (maybe in 1999? ) and is pictured here: http://www.pastryarts.com/preview.html

Yes - always strain. That's a given. I prefer a convection oven and then dry bake the brulee - much faster and more consistent results. But you need a good convection oven

STIR with the whisk - no beating!!!!!!!! If you have foamy bubbles hit them with a torch quickly BEFORE you put them in the oven

I picked up a basket of them at the local Farmer's Market here in Virginia this Fall. They were great. Firm, crisp, nice balance of sweetness/tartness, great flavor. I have never seen them in stores though. My standby at the store is the Moutaineer Apple. They are sort of lopsided, but crisp and tasy (though they seem a bit sweet)

My favorite christmas cookie traditionally has been a chocolate drop cookie with fudge frosting topped witha (sorry to say) maraschino cherry half. I can post the recipe but don't have it handy right now. They are especially good slightly under baked and freeze well, but not with the cherry.

Dinner for 10 adults, 2 teens, 2 small kids Boring Crudite just because Cheese - assorted Nuts because they are just so harvesty Spicy crab salad with flatbread and sweet potato chips Sparkling wine Roasted Parsnip & Green Apple Soup with Ginger Custard with some light white Butternut Squash Ravioli and sage brown butter pinot noir Individual macaroni & cheese casseroles (because we have several young guests who will eat nothing else apparently) Mashed potatoes Roasted Yams with citrus and corriander butter Mushroom dish (to be provided by Edemuth) Boring stuffing Sage Sausage Stuffing Green lentil salad fresh green beans - with just a bit of butter al dente Turkey (1 brined, 1 boned and cooked some mysterious Steve way TBD) gravy wine TBD Minted Romain salad with grapes and toasted almonds Apple and Manchego Cheese ravioli Apple Pie a la mode deconstructed Apple pie - to be made and brought by a guest Pumpkin pie - also courtesy of guest brownies for those boring kids eating the macaroni cranberry wine capuccino or espresso

Thanks for responding Sammy - I was curious since I have done several very untraditional things but like the fun of naming them with a traditional name. Your post though made me stop and think that mental preparation can really affect your recpetion of a dessert since as soon as you read off the title you are conjuring up in your brain the image and sensations of something and getting something unexpected is not always welcome. We ate at Blue Hill this summer and I recall that we had the avacodo thing (interesting as something different - but I did not like it) I don't actually recall what else we had unfortunately.

Sammy - I am interested in your reaction to the desserts. Did you find that you did not respond well to them since they were doing 'takes' on traditional desserts but using traditional names? Would you have liked the desserts better if the names had prepared you mentally for something different? Or did you just not enjoy them? Or, as yet another alternative - do you feel that you just prefer more old fashioned simple desserts? Now, traditional desserts have their place and like any dessert when well done are delicious, but the issue is are they appropriate? After the food style, presentation, and preparations at Blue Hill, would you not fing a hunk of cheesecake or a tart tatin out of place and stodgy? Did your lack of enjoyment for these desserts stem from pure reaction to the desserts themselves or is this reflective of an internal bias toward more traditional desserts? Interested to hear your response. As in - are there any circumstances under which you would have enjoyed the desserts? Naming, presentation...

The pastry chef (Pierre Reboul) has apparently terminated his relationship with Blue Hill or perhaps Blue Hill terminated their relationship with Pierre - not sure which. It was extremely disappointing when he had volunteered to do an exciting demo for the IHMRS Nov 8 but then due to changing circumstances and priorities in his life opted not to participate leaving many disappointed attendees. So perhaps Blue Hill has decided to revert to their previous pastry chef free ways or maybe they are in the market for someone new. May be an opportunity.

Here's an idea I gave someone else a while back. It didn't appeal to them, but I have made this before and I like it pear sashimi dessert slices of pear poached in red wine ginger infused cream (stovetop creme brulee) warm liquid center chocolate cake possibly served with ginger tuile for crunch

I think that what you are showing us is rolled rondant that has been marbled and is shiny possibly from being refrigerated and picking up moisture

Wellllllll, there are several ways... How it was done where you saw it might depend on the type of place it was. Probably not what you saw, but: You can use transfer sheets with ganache so it could have been a transfer sheet, but probably not in this instance. Just as you might marble chocolate or cake batter, you could color portions of your ganache and then swirl together on the cake if it was a pourable ganache But...are you SURE it was white chocolate ganache? That would look fairly creamy yellow and blue and pink don't come out looking so good - they look pretty unappetizing. You may have been seeing the pretty fake chocolate glaze that comes in pellets of every color imaginable. One might melt this and sirl it around.