chefette

Generally you need to go to a 2:1 ratio for white chocolate. As with dark chocolate ganache a little Karo syrup or invert sugar is good for texture and some butter whisked in at the end improves mouth feel. Are you going for a plain white or something leveraging the neutrality of the white chocolate? White is fun since you can bring out more spice, nut, caqramel, other flavors. The drawback is the sweetness and often the color is less attractive that one might desire. At this time of year I like doing a white chocolate Eggnog Ganache. Depending on what you will be using the ganache for you may want to go with slightly more or less chocolate to cream, I add nutmeg and a touch of rum, finish with butter. I think its fun as a filling in very intense dark chocolate molded candies. White chocolate also makes nice pistachio ganache. Best to use the Agrimontana pistachio paste available through Qzina - thin, smooth, intensely green, wonderful nutty pistachio aroma an taste.

Like I said - although I have the notebook, I haven't been inspired by it and haven't given it much attention. For the desserts in the beautiful cookbook, you are almost better off taking Sinclair's approach and looking at the pictures, reading the basic elements and coming up with your own methods. Of the recipes I tried I did not think the resilts were that good, things were too sweet and stuff didn't really work the way he had indicated it would. I did get some good ideas and came up with some tasty things that I liked based on his concepts. But if I was in a bind and someone said pick a book and make something great out of it I would not pick his book especially if you had to follow his recipes. As for "reading the crumb" from pictures I find that is frequently deceptive. things look thick or moist or dense, but when you make them they are not like that at all. Someone I know asked for a specific cake out of the Bau book (which is actually an event that led me to think about this). In the photos it looked pretty lucuious. I started looking over the recipe and realized it was just his sort of take on an opera cake. It didn't look like it in the picture because they were on ultimate close focus and so it was deceptive. I realized that this was a cake you would easily make by the hundreds in a production environment, that would hold up well in a case and look good. I think that it did not have much going for it in terms of flavor. Too sweet, too boring, no texture really and no contrast. It is a recipe for a cake sold in a shop that is some imitation of a good cake you would make at home but can't do in a shop because of time, or cost, or durability. I think that is a problem. Yes, its good to get recipes that work in shops, but I think that we are all looking for shops that sell nice cakes that taste great - don't just look great. This is the root of the evil trend to the 'rustic' desserts and the bizarre idea that ugly cakes will taste better. Well, maybe, but as soon as shops get this in their heads, they just start making ugly yucky cakes. yuck! And if you do not have a shop and want to make one nice cake for your own occasions why should you put in the effort to make a production cake - which frankly is alot of work for one cake. Not bad when you can do 20 or something, but for the home user...

Adrober is a funny guy and he wrote a fine and amusing story of his adventure in a great dramatic fashion. Is there any scientific evidence that some palates or tastebuds are superior to others? Are you a better person if your taste buds are better - who decides that? Do you go to an institute and get a taste bud test? If you have good ones you leave all smug and happy, or you find out you are merely average or, God forbid - below average and leave in a deep depression knowing you will be forced to live out your days eating Taco Bell, Hardees, and Bayless' chicken sandwiches. Alas, wo, sigh, all that rot. Is anything good just by right? You have to like it - You like it - it is good. You don't - its not. Maybe its good to someone else - does that make someone else's palate superior? Seems to me is is only means he likes something you do not. Myself, I get to eat in alot of amazing places (and I like wine) but my lazy ole palate has just never really gotten around to deciding to get a PhD and like many of the squishy, funky things it gets served. I have never understood the need to 'learn' to like things. That sounds like punishment. Either I like things or I do not - it is that simple. I think that many tasting menu-oriented places can be quite difficult because they glory in the things that you have to learn to like and they charge you alot of money. I have had plenty of these meals and I really enjoy looking at them. They are beautiful. The dishes are really cool, the workmanship and the plating are extraordinary. Sometimes they slip something in that is actually tasty - like microgreens or pomegranate seeds, sauce, maybe a sun dried tomato. I have begun to learn that in some of these places if you carefully explain to the staff your basic failure to have 'learned' to like alot of the items on the menu a really good kitchen can whip up interesting and delicious things that you might actually like. I have also found that most foodies seem to feel that my dislike of things they like makes me somehow disadvantaged and somewhat inferior. Maybe we all need to refer to the supertaster thread and see that perhaps adrober actually has a more refined and delicate palate that cannot take the abuse of being subjected that other tolerate. I for one hate brocoli. I don't like fish, shell fish, things that live in shells, things that derive oxygen from water. I don't like mushrooms or spinach, I don't like internal organs or brains. I don't know why - I just don't. It isn't that I have not had ample opportunity or that I have been subjected to inferior efforts to make me like these things. I just find them inconceivably unpleasant for the most part - can hardly stand to smell them. So I guess my nose is a slacker too. I like wine though. I don't think this is an issue of adrobers readiness for CT. I was just watching an episode of Into the Fire on Trio recently and I have to admit it looked bizarre. Interesting, intriguing, but sort of scary. They must have spent hours meeting and dniffing evergreens trying to figure out how to make someone feel like they were in the forest eating salmon. Wouldn't it be a riot if the waiter had to lug a potted pine tree up behind your chair when you got your salmon course? They could play a soundtrack of Alaskan rivers in headphones for you. But what if that got you too far into the salmon experience and you suffered transferrence? But I am going to far and will undoubtedly get attacked - as if those slacker senses of mine weren't already enough punishment. Bye now

I love the pictures in the Bras book - not the pastry notebook. I have that but haven't really used it . I have to admit, I love to see the pictures too. Bras desserts look really cool and sound intriguiong, but I have found that the recipes themselves are a TOTAL PAIN!!!!!!! Especially for the home user because he is being a chef - he's grabbing things from mise en place in the kitchen and making a dessert. There is nothing wrong with that - it happens all the time and its good to be creative with what you have on hand. But it makes for incredibly difficult and complicated recipes since for each item or component on a plate you may need to first make two or three other interim items and then use some of that to mash up and add to something else. What I do is look at what he is ending up with and seeing if I can take a more direct route.

But Seawakim has not divulged to us the intent of the chocolate tasting, which may be the theme of an evening for friends to get toggether, talk, and eat chocolate, bon bons, and treats made opf chocolate in which case they should heartily indulge in whatever beverages and other foods will make them jovial and happy and enjoy the sharing experience. If Seawakim is conducting a class or serious taste testing for serious minded tasters to sample and discern the nuances of a selection of dark chocolates and appreciate the differences between a 64% and a 72%, between venezuala origin and costa rica, or blends etc then they should stick to something neutral and cleansing so they can perceive the qualities of the chocolates to be tasted. Seawakim? Did you have this tasting? What did you taste? What was the purpose, pleasure or enlightenment? What did you use as palate cleansers, and how did your tasters react to the experience? What was your objective going in? Did you achieve it? What would you do differently if you were going to do it all over again? People are dying to know.

A- Dessert/Baking books by women (not pastry chefs - Fannie Farmer, Betty Crocker, Joy of Cooking, Martha Stewart, etc. Baking with Julia would not actually count since it is a collection of work by other pastry chefs) B- Dessert/Baking books by men (not pastry chefs - can't even think of any off hand hmmmm) C- Pastry/Baking books by well known american pastry chefs D- Pastry/Baking books by well known foreign pastry chefs working in the US E- Pastry/Baking books by famous pastry chefs in France F- Pastry/Baking books by famous pastry chefs in Spain G- Pastry/Baking books by famous pastry chefs in other parts of Europe and the world First: Fess up about your skill level Amateur home baker/ Pastry student/ Newbie professional / Established Pro Then: Talk about the category of books from which you most frequently and successfully derive recipes Then: Talk about the category of books from which you get the most inspiration Lastly: Talk about the category of books that give you the most satisfaction and which ones frustrate you the most Just sort of interested/curious in how things might fall out.

One of my all time favorite instructions from famous french pastry chef books is this: Prepare in the usual fashion I think this says it all for me. Anyone else have any favorites?

Quote "BTW, who invented those stupid cups" Someone who hated their scale

I have issues with many of the cookbooks that are available to me. How about you? Here are some of my thoughts and I hope that many of you have some of your own to add. Or share some of the resource books you have experience with and the experiences you have had trying to use recipes from them. Were the results what you had hoped for or expected? Were temperatures too high, techniques waived, were you talked down to? Did you scour the universe looking for a teaspoon of something that cost a fortune? Did you destroy your kitchen and spend 12 hours just to end up a sticky frustrated mess? Or did you produce exactly what you dreamed of with grace and ease? I for one would be very interested to hear these things - brilliant successes and horrible disappointments. I would also be interested in your opinions on how the resources available to you could have been better - in your opinion - both as home cooks and/or as professionals. For one thing they are packed with beautifully styled pictures of desserts plated just so on amazing dishes with perfect lighting. Many of the photos contain elements that are not even part of the recipes they accompany. Many times items that are prepared in the recipe are primarily for decorative effect and not for real consumption (take nougatine cups in Michel Roux's Finest Desserts for example a home cook can easily get this book, go to huge amounts of effort to produce the &^*(%$# cups only to discover that they taste good but are not realistically edible.) Another peeve is that depending on the source many recipes are vague and do not produce results even reminiscent of the accompanying photos From the perspective of friends who do not cook professionally - the recipes involve ingredients, and equipment they cannot get or never heard of, or can be obtained at fairly high cost. Sometimes recipes and techniques are oversimplified and written in such a way that seems to imply that the reader is incapable of cooking in the first place Sometimes cook books do not make it clear to the home cook that some things just cannot realistically be done at home, or that some of the ingredients and equipment they use are superfluous to the home cooking environment and scale. Since it is unrealistic to expect that people are creating these books solely for the benefit of their peers they should really help everyone by working out both sides of the equation so both worlds could enjoy their books. And if you are going to provide a book translated into English you need to have it well translated and edited in translation as well as in its original language. Since people pay upwards of $100 for many such books, they deserve to be able to use them I think that many chefs basically have adapted recipes and techniques to give individual diners in restaurants or patrons in pastry shops some version of something they themselves might make at home or have made for them at home if they were wealthy aristocrats at the turn of the century. So all these chefs have adopted tricks to do things in volume or do things fast, or make sure things last long enough to go from production to table. Now we at home are supposed to take their restaurant or shop tricks and copy them? How silly is that? No, I think that to really do a cookbook that will be sold to the public is to do the following: 1- Show and explain the standard for the dessert or item and by what elements one can determine its quality (take an éclair for instance - you should know the proper size, that it should be nicely formed and smooth, that it should be well browned and crisp, that the cream should fill it just so, should be smooth and rich, that the topping should be shiny and not dripping, and should be nicely chocolatey - it should not be limp, and light gold and top sliced off, filled with stiff whipped cream and sort of slopped with brown frosting) 2- provide the and technique for preparation in small batches at home within the limitations of ingredients and equipment available to the home cook 3- provide alterations to the recipe and technique for preparing commercially using professional equipment and ingredients (also providing notes to home users on what these are, why they are employed, etc - so people will not be flipping out thinking they need Glucose or invert sugar or stabilizers to they can make a pint of ice cream at home. Likewise that they do not think they can produce the same results as professional products as well as understand why their ice cream will never taste like Haagen Daz, their cookies like keeblers...) 4- provide information about serving/presenting to guests or customers for maximum enjoyment and goodness In this manner the book will have greater utility to all audiences and we will also benefit by helping people identify what is good product well executed and what is sloppy or lazy or bad. Then we will not have to keep going back to have endless discussions on why people do not care about desserts and why so many desserts are bad, because we will contribute to giving the public a good solid ability to choose and enjoy.

I think the white bread is the best idea since it is a basic blank. If you do drinks or sorbets you are introducing new flavors to the equation. Of course if this is really more of a party where you are eating chocolate then do whatever you want. A serious chocolate tasting is sort of tiring and tedious to your friends who are undoubtedly thinking they would rather be eating chocolate and drinking drinks and generally having fun.

Too cold. It will make your mouth too cold between chocolates and will not be so helpful

So Verbena - give us feedback on what you ended up doing, why, and how it worked out.

For a roll your own truffle project (really more of a coat your own truffle to taste some yummy chocolate and expand your horizons on flavor combos) for kids this summer we did ganache balls which the kids could roll in their choice of cocoa powder, 10X sugar, colored sprinkles, colored sugar, or try sweet green tea powder, instant espresso powder, powdered ginger, sea salt, crushed caramelized nuts, cruchy maple sugar, or another cruchy mix. It was a fun project and I think it opened people's minds to some fun possibilities with chocolate that they could approach on their own at home without having to know how to temper chocolate. And, as I said, the whole class was really aimed at introducing kids to good chocolate/real chocolate and showing them how they could use chocolate to make something at home. It was actually quite interesting to see the level of taste sophistication and awareness among many of the kids most of whom really liked the deep dark chocolate and loved tasting the ganache with many of the condiments we brought along.

I don't know about the recipe in the magazine, but in my experience no whipping, just stirring or simple stirring with a whisk. Its really really simple. I do the sugar flour mix in one bowl, combine the chocolate, butter, egg, and stir it into the sugar flour (kind of like how you would mix the egg into the sugar starch mix for a pastry cream. Pipe into the greased aluminum tins. Its a fairly liquid batter when its fresh warm so you need to clip the bag closed or start with a disposable non cut bag. You do not want to let the batter chill before piping. If you have to cycle through a set of tins, its really better to just do enough in a batch to fill the tins and then prep another batch while the first is cooling slightly. Very simple. Rewarming strategy all depends on service type and pace and available equipment. Nice results. If I was going to add somethingf it would be a pinch of salt or so. I miss that in this cake.

Kate - just get over it. School is great. It is the most fun easy part of your cooking life. People here have been really nice to you, supportive, understanding and helpful. They have put alot of energy into wishing you well and onward.

I have tried the Chocolate Wave Cake at Disney (don't know if this recipe will really reproduce it or not) but it is GREAT!!!!!!!! I love it. Well, it is really togh to figure out what makes anything more'ish (like the scottish moors? sort of wuthering heights hahahahah) Verbena - the link I gave you previously provides probably the most reliable best recipe I have used for liquid vcenter cocolate cakes maybe your search and connect function isn't working so here. This was posted by Steve Klc on the thread I directed you to. It is unquestionably excellent but performance is up to you. Track down the Food Arts July/August 2000 issue for a charming, well-written piece on Philippe with a few recipes. Then there was that NY Times six part series which you probably saw. But by far the best source of info and current recipes by Philippe is the Thuries magazine issue #132 from September 2001--14 big full color pages, incredible photographs, with his real recipes. By real recipes I mean if his typical dessert has 11 components--in Thuries he gives you all 11 recipes and methods. His chocolate moelleux is in there: 125 g 70% chocolate 120 g butter 1 yolk 2 eggs 90 g sugar 120 g flour you melt the chocolate and butter, combine the yolks, sugar, flour then sir the chocolate into the egg mix now whipping. Makes a nice elastic shiny batter, important to pipe it into the preapred molds while it is still warm 3/4 of the way ensuring that you get good even bottom and side coating. Pipe it in don't spoon since the batter may pile and result in gaps. You need aluminum molds, the batter must be chilled before baking, you need to be quite precise in removing it from the oven. Because of the liquid center you need to let them set up a few minutes before taking out of the tins. Good idea to put them in the walk in or freezer to stop cooking. They should slip right out of the tins, you can hold or freeze them then warm over steam or in a microwave for service. Getting the right rewarming is also important so that they are squishy and liquidy when served. They are incredibly boring served alone (in my opinion) but make a great chocolatey center of a plated dessert. Or try this: 10oz unsweetened chocolate melted with 1 pound butter combine and fold into slightly cooled chocolate: 1/2t salt 18 yolks Whip to soft peak and fold in 8 oz sugar 6 oz whites Pipe into buttered rings (3") on silpat or parchment lined trays and chill They can be baked to order temp depends on your oven - we did them in a Deck oven at about 400 the need to be unmolded and served immediately. Or try Jacques Torres Chocolate Fondant 260g unsalted butter 500g bittersweet chocolate 50g dutch process cocoa powder pinch salt 160g egg whites 25g meringue powder 100g sugar butter and sugar 3 oz aluminum molds and heat oven to 400 (again depends on oven type (Convection, deck, normal) melt butter and chocolate add cocoa powder and salt whip whites to stiff peak with the meringue powder and sugar fold into chocolate pipe into molds 3/4 full freeze thaw 2 hours prior to baking and bake Serve immediately . It is frequently useful to sort of add to the liquidity of the center by injecting it with a warm chocolate sauce Now there are three recipes that work - in different ways. If you have tried several recipes that are not working it could be your technique. It is important to use metal molds, it is vital that the batter be cold when it enters the oven, it is critical to use a very hot oven, and the baking time be monitored since the mold size, oven performance, and going in temp of the batter affect baking time. One batch may take 5-6 minutes while another is done in 3. You have to be on top of these things and need to take action to stop the baking. The ones Steve wrote about are the only ones that I have worked with that bake well in advance and rewarm with excellent results. What are you planning on serving this with? Stand alone or part of a more complex plating? For your normal dessert service or for a special event?

The fact is that this is a public place. There are lots of people here. people who love food, love cooking, pastry... Professional pastry chefs, food writers, Food TV people, instructors from schools, all sorts of people. Would you burst into a kitchen at a restaurant and demand that the pastry chef help you? If you were the pastry chef would you respond to that? This is not the psychic friends network where you come on line and ask someone to read your mind and make your life better. This is a public forum where people give of their time and exchange ideas. No one owes you anything. People here are amazingly giving of their time, their great ideas, their techniques, their experience. Benefiting from that is up to you. Completely up to you. Now to your question again... Are you a professional or a home cook? Are these cakes for 500 or 5? Are you trying to do something too challenging that might be a risk? Should you do something you have more experience with and are more confident in? (Did I read on another eG thread that you have your own restaurant and have been a chef for 15 years?)

Well, it seems that it all comes down to trust and appreciation. You can't trust the recipes you see in books? Is that the problem? Some books are good, some aren't. How do you know any better who on-line to trust? Some of the people here have written the books you may or may not have looked through. Many of them have posted recipes here on this site--how much effort did you put into searching? You asked the most vague question possible here and people have still jumped in attempting to give you all sorts of help and advice. At first blush you should appreciate that. Try a search on molten center chocolate cake Lookey here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...+chocolate+cake or liquid center chocolate cake I am sure that there are several of the most world class recipes posted, including one by Philippe Conticini. And why are you upset? People are helping you--Carolyn's post was great and so was Wendy's. People helped KateW and she didn't seem to appreciate the fact that many older, wiser, more experienced pastry chefs were willing to take her under their wings, tell her what she needed to hear, in the hope that she could fly on her own wings. Ultimately if you have commited to do something, though, you need to take some responsibility for it and make a selection or do your own homework. It is a myth that there are only a few secret, super recipes and these should be coveted and passed on--it is less about the recipe, and more about understanding the technique.

Anyone familiar with this wine? It is bottled on the Kansas Settlement in Arizona. A friend gave me a bottle and we really liked it. Just wondered if anyone else has any experience with it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that making the recipes in these books at home alone in small quantities has almost nothing to do with how most pastry chef work. Next you should really seek out some of the threads about whether or not you want to, or can afford to quit your job to become a pastry chef. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...l=pastry+school http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...l=pastry+school http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...l=pastry+school http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...f=1&t=15644&hl= http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...=72&t=13139&hl= http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...=72&t=13197&hl= Buyer beware, be informed before you sign on any of the many dotted lines..

Dessert Circus by Jacques Torres is actually a good book for you to start with. He gives measurements in Grams/ounces, and cups so you don't need to rush out for a scale. The techniques are french. And Technique is important to Jacques - he has said that recipes are nothing without technique. Alot of the recipes in his book (and he includes some guidance for sugar showpieces, chocolate showpieces, and wedding cakes) are the same that are used at the French Culinary Institute and were desserts he served at Le Cirque. I think that you may find Bo tedious and the recipes too huge to cope with (also really really old) but a good reference Flo's sweet miniatures has alot of nice recipes but I don't think that will give you a real idea about professional baking. I recently tried several of her recipes for an even and many were quite tasty although some did not behave well. I would shy away from the big buck Famous French pastry chef books. Great pictures, really exciting for ideas and such, but I think they are tough for non-french speakers, or novices. The Herme Greenspan books might be somewhat useful, but keep in mind recipes are simplified for the home cook. Overall, I stick by my first recommendation. Dessert Circus is a real gem. It doesn't dumb things down, the recipes are good, and the techniques are pretty well explained. My first books were Michel Roux Finest Desserts and I Nicolello Complete Pastrywork Techniques. I cannot say that I recommend either, but they are fairly comprehensive. If you are really serious you might track down the Professional Pastry Series (Bilheux) for classic techniques. While you are out looking for books make sure to pick up a good scale and a stand mixer (preferably the 5qt kitchenaid) You should do a search since there have been very similar questions in the past and the responses to those should be helpful to you.

Maybe a wild mix of orange, purple, green, red jellos cut into cubes and sprinkled with pop rocks would be tasty, amusing, and palatable. Chocolate creme brulee with candy corn garnishes Don't forget to bob for apples

If I was one of those kids I would be thinking, why can't you keep you creamy bruley to youselves and just give us the candy. I think that the pop rocks only works out if mixed in just before serving since they start popping away as soon as they hit moisture.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...&hl=silk+screen Are you screening a design on something people will be eating - or is it for a show piece? If it is for a show piece that you will be controlling then the food safe issue is not so important. or visit a craft store - its not hard to make your own. Get the speedball kit - buy the non-toxic developer, print your high contract basic black & white design on acetate - make sure you have a piece of clear glass that just fits inside the screen, you need at very strong lightbulb (150W) and a tinfoil pie plate. Not hard. Hand the light bulb with the foil reflector about 8-10 inches above the design on top of the developer covered silk with the glass on top og the design.

Zilla, nothing personal here, but keep in mind, they are making you/having you do the floors that should tell you something. I would not have said no in your position either. But, keep in mind that you have an opportunity to learn here What strikes me on this thread is that yes, there are two ways to look at this 1) Great opportunity for very young person just out of school, new restaurant, take it and run with it 2) hmmm How can one explain explain that you actually sort of feel sorry for Zilla and others in your position. She was there she is new, she is cheap, who the hell really cares about desserts, no budget, let's get this place up and running. Later on what will they do with her. How much is she making, how many hours is she working, when push comes to shove will they support her? appreciate ger for stepping in and holding up the earth? When things get settled down will they hire a real PC at a higher salary who will just keep Zilla running doing a ton of work (dues) or even get rid of her in favor of their own person/people? ?????????? Maybe everything will work out great. Maybe I'll win the lottery. who knows. Again Zilla, not rain on your parade per se, but please use these comments to position yourself either professionally or emotionally to make the best of what you are doing and leverage it. If I understand correctly the chef who is opening this restaurant is a HUGE deal in the marketplace there. A local luminary. The fact that they/he is willing and able to drop pastry on a new hire is shocvking since one would expect that he would want to open on the strongest possible foot. Maybe he has complete faith in himself and his ability to get you to execute his concepts, maybe he just doesn't care about the last course. Either way, ... Again, this does not mean that we are not happy about your new job, or that we are not supportive of you. This is people showing honest concern about you, the profession, your, and all of our futures. May we all do briiliantly in the foreseeable future.