chefette

I think people have been slow to respond to you here because tempering chocolate has been discussed in depth several times. I was trying to find some of the links for you – but I can see that this might be frustrating because apparently it has been a while and they seem pretty well hidden away. First you need to think about how much time you want to commit to this chocolate leaf project and decide if you really want to make these yourself or just purchase some. If you decide you want to make these leave and that the waxy crap is out (yayayay – good choice on that at least) you need to locate some good chocolate. Chocolate for tempering is normally referred to as couverature (its French). Couverature has a higher percentage of cocoa butter. You do not want chocolate that involves paraffin or coconut oil or any fat other than cocoa butter. Sourcing chocolate for tempering may not be easy depending on where you are located. You should use a dark chocolate because that is the easiest to work with. As was mentioned already – Callebaut is a very functional and widely used chocolate that is also fairly available. I think that Williams Sonoma sells it – another source of good chocolate is Sur La Table. Trader Joes has several chocolates that can be tempered as does Whole Foods. Or you can look on the web. Your mold – you have just the one? This could be a slow job – you might want to look for another one or two so that you can produce more efficiently. Make sure it is nice and clean – I like to wipe my molds gently with a cotton pad or cotton ball – but if it is new and never used you should not have to do this unless you have gotten fingerprints inside the mold cavities. If you have just the one you may need to give it a cleaning once or twice during your production (either because you misstemper and need to clean our untempered chocolate stuck in your mold – or because you may see a decrease in shine after a couple of moldings as a little cocoa butter film may accumulate). If you must wash – use hot water – soap is generally frowned upon and definitely no abrasives. Dry the mold carefully with a soft towel and give each cavity a wipe with a cotton ball – if you rub vigorously you can build up static electricity that may cause the chocolate to refuse to release without a fight. Now its time to temper and of course there are several methods to do that – you already have one that is perfectly serviceable. You can chop your chocolate and melt it (direct warm) in the microwave. To do this your chocolate must already be in temper – which purchased chocolate should be – and you should be pretty sure of yourself and have an accurate thermometer 1) . This is not actually tempering in the strictest sense since you are merely raising the temperature gradually without allowing it to rise above 91F. Use a plastic bowl so that you do not have heat accumulation. Typically it is a good idea to temper at least 1 pound of chocolate. 2) Wave on Hi 1 minute then check your chocolate (it will probably still be pieces that are just a bit soft – maybe a tiny bit of melt) 3) Wave some more but just 10-30 seconds at a time. Check after each waving to see the melt and sample the temp. 4) After approximately 2 minutes your chocolate should be almost all melted (not all – that would be a bad sign) with many small lumps (good sign) 5) Stir with a rubber spatula smushing lumps as you do 6) Take the temp – you want it to be 91F or lower if you come up with 93F then you need to proceed to real tempering methods 7) Test the chocolate – dip a slip of parchment, or the blade of a knife in the chocolate and set it on your counter (hopefully you will be working in a comfortably cool area – too cold will mean the chocolate sets up quickly and may make it hard for you to do your molding – too warm and the chocolate will be problematic – too humid is also bad since very moist air can also cause chocolate to take on a grayish film. The dipped paper or blade should be smooth and hardened without streaking or spots in about 1 minute. If after 1 minute you still have a blade or paper that is coated in wet chocolate then you probably are too warm and will need to proceed to real tempering. 8) Never pour chocolate into your molds unless you are absolutely certain that it is in temper – otherwise you have a lot of washing up to do and waste a lot of chocolate. The hot water method – as described previously – that should work This is Seeding – you ‘seed’ the melted chocolate with tempered chocolate pieces. Typically you will melt 2/3 and reserve 1/3 for seeding. You can do this same effect by dropping a block of tempered chocolate into your bowl of melted chocolate and stirring it around until the melted chocolate has cooled sufficiently and responds appropriately to the temper test. At this point you just pull out the remainder of the block and save it for later. Tempering using an Ice Bath or Marble This is real honest to goodness tempering – perhaps when you have messed up or don’t have any tempered chocolate left to work with. 1) Warm your chocolate (all of it) to 120F (you can do this over hot water or in the microwave. 2) Assuming you do not have a marble or any tools – you can use an ice bath to temper your chocolate you will probably want a metal bowl for this. 3) Set the bowl of warmed chocolate into a larger bowl with some ice and just a bit of water 4) Use a rubber spatula to stir the chocolate 5) You will notice that the chocolate at the bottom in contact with the cold ice sets up quickly – so you want to keep that moving and incorporate it into the main body of the chocolate 6) Assuming you are working with a pound of chocolate you should cool down fairly fast 7) Lumps may be an issue – do the best you can to get rid of them 8) Test and use 9) Be very careful since you have water hazards with the ice – get that out of the way and wipe off the bowl immediately Tabling (Tablier - if you insist on the french) – same basic theory classically achieved 1) Pour about 2/3 of the chocolate out onto your marble (I would recommend a large marble 18x24. You will also want an large offset spatula and a dough scraper or nice large clean metal paint scraper 2) Using the large offset – spread the chocolate out in a thin layer so that it approaches the edge of your marble but not so that it drips off the edges 3) Let it set for a moment then scrape it up with the scraper – cleaning regularly with your spatula 4) You will probably have to repeat the spreading and scraping procedure a couple of times – it will be obvious when the chocolate is getting to the right temperature since it will get thick and pasty 5) Scrape up your cooled chocolate and stir it into the warm chocolate smushing any lumps 6) Test for temperature (you are always looking for 91F or below – note that under 88 the chocolate will be harder to work with for molding since the fluidity is less the colder it gets – the microwave is your friend but only used sparingly – no more than a 6 second burst to be safe Now you have to mold off all those leaves If the leaf shapes are complex and have creases and small points you may want to use a clean soft paint brush to brush chocolate lightly into the mold so that all the surface of the cavity is coated before you pour chocolate into the mold. The reason for this is to avoid bubbles and air holes in the finished chocolates. The down side is that once you finish with the brush the chocolate will set and you have to clean and dry it before reusing. (you can set the brush in a bowl over some hot water to keep it from hardening – just make sure to squish out the chocolate on the brush with a paper towel before using it again since that chocolate will be over warmed at will cause bloom in your mold. (bad) I am assuming that you are using one of those clear plastic molds available at many craft and candy supply shops. The difficulty in working with this type of mold is that they are not rigid like a polycarbonate mold. If you are using a real polycarbonate mold thet is great. Pour the tempered chocolate (88-90F) into the mold cavities – at least try to keep the stream focused on filling the holes – you could use a ladel for this – but that’s just one more thing that will now be coated in hard chocolate that you have to clean later. Tapping is generally the next step – this gets out air bubbles – tapping is hard if you are working with a plastic mold. Next you use the clean offset or spatula to scrape off the excess chocolate back into the bowl. If you are working with the plastic you should probably leave the mold on the counter and carefully scrape the chocolate off – ideally you now have the cavities evenly filled with chocolate all smoothed off even with the surface of the mold and the mold surface just has a light smear of chocolate. Pop the mold into the fridge for about 15 minutes then remove. The leaves should just pop right out when you invert the mold. (keep your fingers crossed) Good luck

Try this link to Jacques Torres' Chocolate Caramel Mou recipe http://food4.epicurious.com/HyperNews/get/...00/50007/1.html This recipe is slightly different than the one I have used before (use of cocoa butter and dipping) so I will look up the recipe this evening and check, but it produces a very nice textured fudge-like confection that is nice as a petit four. Traditional 'real' american fudge is also quite nice when done well. Here is how I have altered the traditional Harvard fudge recipe. 2 cups sugar 2 T light corn syrup 2/3 c milk 1/4 tsp salt (normally one would also add 2 oz unsweetened chocolate-but don't) cook to soft ball drop in 10 oz very good, dark chocolate (I like Cluizel 85% or 99%) you can use unsweetened but would probably want to cut back to 8oz. 2 T unsalted butter 1 t vanilla extract stir to melt the chocolate you can allow this to cool slightly Pour out onto a large marble and work with an offset spatula and scraper (as if you were tabling chocolate) until it is cool and looses its gloss. You will see that it suddenly starts to thicken and is ready for the buttered pan - It takes a while so be patient spread into a buttered 8" pan - cover and let set up at room temp for about an hour. Keep wrapped well. this makes a very smooth, dense chocolaty fudge. The flavor is entirely dependent on the quality of the chocolate though so you need to get a very intense very dark chocolate.

Steve - you forgot to add the little smileys to go along with your sarcastic commentary so I will add them in for you - here Thanks Sweet Basil Cafe - Wonderful evening! Great food, great wines, nicely matched. A really amazing value! and SBC dresses up real nice at night - I think it is quite charming. If you need a mood wall, a snotty tux-clad waiter, $30 napkins or bone china in order to enjoy good food there just isn't much hope for you as a real food lover.

This should get you started: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=43489&st=0& - entry611698 Samakai: QUOTE (bloviatrix @ Feb 2 2004, 10:32 AM) Truffles are made using ganache. Yes, but they're not necessarily the same thing. For example, I add butter to my truffles, many chocolatiers also throw in a bit of alcohol, and sugar syrup. While you certainly can make ganache with these things in it as well, the basic, and what was likely used on those cookie bars, is just chocolate and cream. I was just trying to help out, not knowing what sort of truffle recipe the original poster might have used. Phaelon, ganache can be very soft or very firm. It just depends on how much chocolate you add. If it's not firm enough, add more next time. Another possibility - was the cheesecake filling baked? If so they may have simply dumped a bunch of chopped chocolate on top of it when it came out of the oven and spread it into an even layer after it melted. I've got a brownie recipe that uses this trick, and the chocolate winds up reasonably soft and pliable once it cools down. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=72&t=17520& http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=72&t=24392& http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=25795 http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=28694&st=0& - entry452687

Shirley's biscuits are not actually worked - you mix up the batter and drop spoonfuls in flour then drop those into the pan and bake.

I do not think anyone is advocating the use of used tools - - like from the garage or tool shed - rather - using tools designed for other uses in the kitchen. I regularly shop at Home Depot for tools

This recipe is a simple truffle. You do not "temper" the chocolate for making the ganache truffle (which is the emulsion of the cream and chocolate) and all the other things tossed in here for flavor. The cooled ganache is firm enough and you roll it into balls and coat with cocoa powder. Tempering is only involved if you want to coat the truffles in a shell of chocolate. It is not part of making ganache and isn't necessary for a beginner--this recipe just calls for you to roll it in cocoa powder--a lazy man's truffle. It will still taste good. But if you are going to try to coat your truffle ball in chocolate--as a serious amateur or pro would--coat it in tempered chocolate or don't bother. Couverture is the term for a type of chocolate that has extra cocoa butter, is more fluid, more easily temperable and workable. Couverture essentially means covering. Tempering non-couverture chocolate is not recommended because it is too thick and pasty. Please do not worry - I hope that your initial truffle experiment goes well, and after you feel comfortable making ganache that you will start thinking about tempering and coating your truffles in tempered chocolate. There's a wealth of that info on the site and after you read and try we can help.

I know we have a few vocal pastry pros who regularly contribute and I am sure there are at least a few lurkers who follow the goings-on on eGullet - so I am interested in your feedback and insights about Pastry buffets or sweet tables. I know I am asking a lot of questions here but it is something that we have not really talked about. Pastry buffets can be a nightmare or they can be an opportunity to really show off and do your best work depending on frequency, resources, and funding. So share your thoughts, experiences and photos. I know that Sinclair has spoken many times about creating sweet tables and the photos she shared from her Easter buffet were very impressive. For starters: How do you feel about pastry buffets? Are they the greatest thing ever? Lots of fun (you can't do them often enough?) Worst idea in history? Pain in the ass? Great opportunity to strut your stuff? What is your opinion on them in principle? Here are a few other issues we might address: Do you work in a venue where you routinely have to put out a pastry buffet? (every Sunday? Special parties? Holidays? Is the pastry buffet in conjunction with a savory buffet? Brunch orientation? or main meal? What is your philosophy is creating your buffet? How do you determine the menu? What is your pastry buffet presentation style? You have an entire table or areas dedicated to pastry and you decorate/present your goods according to the occasion? Do you just pull decorative serving pieces? Do you do showpieces? (Sugar, chocolate, pastillage, ice?) Do you style your food to fit a theme? Do you rely on non-edible decoration? What about your pastry buffet technical details - as in cold things cold, hot things hot...? How do you control the buffet appearance as people enjoy items from the buffet? is everything portioned? Do you serve? What are the pressing issues for you? Where do you go for inspiration? Your favorite authors or books/sources? Anyone care to share pastry buffet menus that they are particularly proud of? Photos? What about your ideal pastry buffet share your fantasies? How much time/staff hours and resources do you commit to creating pastry buffets? Who does the conceptualization and realization of the centerpiece work? Anyone work with a stylist? And what about the audience? Do you feel that they appreciate pastry buffets in general? or do you feel that they could care less? Do diners seem to respond better to fantasy food presentations or just nice arrangements of old standards? How adventurous are you on your pastry buffets? (it seems to me that since people are already paid up for dessert it is an opportunity for them to try some out of the ordinary daring desserts in a low threat environment since it costs them no more and they don't have to eat it if they don't like it after a taste, plus they can still have the same old same old as a safety net)

Interesting - I think that desserts might fall into several categories 1- Cool presentation where beauty is the driving factor and taste may fall by the wayside (for example dots of sauce - in particular - microscopic dots of sauce that are just there to be pretty and have nothing to do with the dessert, things that have to be constructed or deconstructed by the diner to facilitate consumption - Usually things that involve chocolate or sugar containers usually they cost more and end in quite a bit of waste. 2- Flip side of cool presentation dessert - is the 'rustic' dessert where theoretically taste is everything. The big problem in this category is that many producers have caught on that people think that the 'homey' 'rustic' sort of dumpy simplistic desserts somehow equate directly to great tasting desserts and so go to lots of trouble to create desserts that have that rustic flair - unfortunately most of these people are not preparing simple hearty fresh fare in the Tuscan countryside and the fact that they are trying to make something that looks like it came off the hearth in the 17th century does not mean that it actually tastes good. 3- 'Exotic' desserts where lots of people go for varying reasons and come out with many different types of results based on who they are and why they are going 'exotic' (and I think that's what we are really talking about here - why did a PC choose to go 'exotic', how did they pursue it, where did they go with it, and how successful were they at what they produced?) 3a- 'Exotic' unusual flavors or ingredients - the chef may be bored with the same old same old or may like these flavors or ingredients and feels that they need more exposure. The question is do they introduce exotics as touches, highlights. Are they using unusual rare ingredients that are little known, or are they moving ingredients that we don't normally think about as dessert ingredients into their desserts? Do they have a real handle on the flavors and harmonies they are creating or are they just out on a limb. In the end - does something 'work' or is it just weird? This category probably should be split into 'exotic' ingredients on the one hand and unusual use of common ingredients on the other. 3b. Refocusing and reinterpreting cherished or simple desserts through deconstruction, examination of texture, flavor, temperature. Why? well, it may be that a PC thinks that the problem with apple pie one gets in the 21st century and latter 20th is never really fresh and warm like they recall Grandma's pie being- that they loved the warm tartness of the apples, the bite of lemon, the buttery crust (stuff like that) but that more often than not the current pie has to be made a day ahead - may have suffered freezing, etc. The challenge for this PC is to make a dessert that gives the diner the very sensations about grandma's apple pie that the PC loves. I think that all approaches to desserts can produce great results and they can all produce disastrous awful results. The issue is that this is sort of where personality and art play a role and that not understanding 'WHY' you are doing something but working to fit into a trend or going for a 'look' will ultimately be trouble. This is about who you are and how you cook. Some people have a knack for design and some do not. Some people can make dough sing for them and could produce anything over a wood fire with a rock but couldn't make a passion fruit roll down hill. I guess ultimately it is a question of who you are and how you see the world and that the most successful PCs do work that truly reflects their perspective and the least successful are those that blindly attempt to copy the styles of others. I am NOT saying that you cannot use someone else's recipe and succeed - I am talking about going out and doing something independently to be part of a trend or achieve the appearance of something without actually understanding what you are doing. I feel that Conticini and Adria and other very individual, very personal chefs and pastry chefs don't necessarily care what everyone else is doing - but they have insight on what they want to make and how you should have it and they use foams or plastic syringes or purees or canned corn to provide to the diner their perspective of a perfect bite, their vision of a taste the fullest way that they can. These people actually want to share very directly with the diner exactly what they like (the temperature, the texture, the zing, etc) about something. I think that it is actually a very controlling, very positive and very personal interaction between the chef and the diner. When I did that apple pie a la mode I originally was thinking the following: 1- Its Fall and its apple time 2- Apple pie and gingerbread cookies (tastes I associate with late October/early November) 3- I also need to come up with a dessert using cheese for the IHMRS at the same time - lots of people apparently enjoy cheese on apple pie 4- I like hot apple pie that has not been out of the oven too long I like it with ice cream 5- I have to do this dessert for about 600 people - how do you give 600 people fresh hot apple pie with cheese? 6- I could not really go with ice cream since keeping it cold and scooping it would be inconvenient at best - impossible at worst so I tried combining my ice cream concept with the cheese angle making a cheese anglaise that I foamed/made into a mousse - This did not work out as well as I had hoped and I had to keep playing to achieve the taste I wanted people to have - hot apples with brown sugar, the tangy lemon, the buttery crust, the cool creaminess of ice cream, the warmth of cinnamon, and the grounding of cheddar cheese. So you see, I went through a process of examining what I liked about apple pie ala mode and then another process of how to deliver that (force that same perspective) on my diners. In the end I think that the cinnamon foam and the cheese custard were the big favorites of most tasters. I thought that the cheese custard was the most dangerous element that might be a problem for diners. But no worry--I also did this as a guest chef at Walt Disney World during last year's Epcot International Food & Wine Festival (a fantastic event by the way) for hundreds of just regular old American folks and they just dug in with their spoon and loved their apple pie in a glass, cheese and all. And we have not even talked about why people EAT or ORDER or are fascinated about these daring desserts... Maybe they are just bored. Maybe everything else is so disappointing that they figure what have they got to loose?

In general - my thoughts about Lisbon were that it seems as if it has languished neglected and unchanged for a long time (like in a time bubble) but that recently there has been a restart and suddenly the wheels are turning again, blood is moving through the arteries and veins and things are starting to change. From the meals we had it was hard to say what the state of things culinary was. We ate lunch twice at the Expo prepared one day by the Junior Culinary Olympic Team, and the next day by the Senior Team. Both meals were really nicely presented and seemed in line with things that you see come out of such groups in the US and in France - but I am not a good judge of that. My thought on the cooking and cuisine is that there is new money coming into Portugal, new interests, new visibility, new alignments, new competitiveness for tourism and with the modernization, with upgrades and rebuilding, with new tourism and new visibility come new demands, new expectations and that what may have been great for 500 years is being adapted. I think that Spain and to some extent Italy went through much the same thing about 10 or 20 years ago - the transition from local & traditional to more international & to varying degrees more modern cuisine. I think that there was much bemoaning that move but at the same time this awakening and changing brought alot of new energy, excitement, and innovative thinking to the cooking there. I get the sense that this is starting to happen in Portugal. I know that I missed out on alot since I don't care for fish and seafood. I really liked the Black Pork though. Plus, they have some really great, really under-appreciated wine. I think that chefs like Vitor seem hungry and excited to try new things, do new things but it does seem as though it is hard to move in the directions they want to go since the consumer base appears to prefer the more traditional, but where there is one - there is usually another and chefs like Vitor (who seems aglow with excitement for creative cooking) who are just beginning their career and get encouragement I think will ultimately influence and affect many more chefs. Maybe we are seeing the trickle at the source of the Amazon River.

Since it is an anglaise to be used as an ice cream base I think that you are being way way too fastidious about this. Boil the cream - with all the sugar if you like whisk the yolks in a seperate bowl when the cream/milk is boiling away steadily pour it into the yolks while you are whisking them Pour it all back into the pan on the heat whisk it for about 8 seconds (I mean that - no more than 10 seconds) Remove from heat Pour through a strainer into another container (use an ice bath if it is convenient) Whatever stays in the pan - wash out Chill the mixture so that a skin does not form on the surface porocess in your ice cream freezer You are being victimized by recipe writers who are terrified that you will not understand the yolk tempering process and that from there - assuming you managed to combine your hot cream and yolks - you will cook to too high a heat Since you are not in fact making custard you need not be concerned about that - only whether or not the anglaise base you prepared is freezing properly in the ice cream maker Do not worry overly about tempering the yolks - the key is to be moving the yolks - combining them with the hot liquid so that one area of the yolks does not have to suffer all the heat and cook while all its buddy yolk molecules ridicule it There should be enough residual heat in the mixture over the heat to bring the anglaise up to 84 where it will be 'safe' (which is the whole point here for ice cream - safely cooked eggs) The real critical element is quickly removing the anglaise from the heat source and pouring it through a strainer into a cooler container so you should have the recipient bowl all set up with the strainer set atop it so that you are able to efficiently move your ice cream base from the heating to the cooling portion of its life So, only 3 things to think about 1- tempering the yolks 2- not heating anglaise above 84/85 (which happens very fast) 3- quickly removing from heating environment For ice cream many people in professional kitchens reserve a portion of the cream and after the anglaise has been heated and strained - the cold cream is poured into the hot mixture which effectively stops the cooking process

Steve Klc and I were recently in Lisbon to take part in a forum on innovation in cooking, to give a demonstration and to judge a national wedding cake competition. While were were there we stayed at the Hotel Lapa Palace, which was simply amazing and consummately professional in every respect, and we enjoyed two very good meals with a very young Portuguese chef named Vitor Claro. Here are the menus and some pictures of his cooking, which was less traditional and more modern in spirit, with apologies in advance about the wine notes, I was writing quickly and in the dark. Restaurant Pico no Chao in Lisbon owned by Vitor Claro - an up and coming young Chefe de Cozinha--does an a la carte lunch which changes daily and a fixed-price dinner tasting menu which runs for a two week period. Since he is only 23, smart, reflective and quietly confident, Steve and I both agreed he has a very exciting future in cooking ahead of him. Rua de O seculo 170; Lisboa Tel 21431973 Here is their website http://picanochao.restaunet.pt/en/index.asp Pico is very small and intimate - 15 seats - but realistically it seemed more like 12 seats. Here is Steve and Victor in the tiny kitchen - many people sit at tables bigger than this kitchen - it is amazing that so much great food comes out of it. We enjoyed Victor's tasting menu on our first night in Lisbon - 7 courses E30 (a bit over $30) Creme de favas com tamboril e molho de soja baunilhado (Broad beans creamed soup with monkfish tartare, vanilla & soy syrup) Petisco de azeitonas, tremoscos e braesola (olives, lupines & bresaela appetizer) with Quinta da Alorma Late Harvest 2001 Peixe do dia salteado com polivinho, legumes e azeite de canela (daily fish pan fried with baby octopus, vegetables and cinnamon oil) with Reigia Colheita Regumgrs D.O.C. 2002 Pineapple sorbet Bochecha de porco preto mousse de aipo e pesto de tomate e anchova (black pig cheek with creamed celeriac and tomato and anchovy sauce) with Don Rafael Mouchao 2001 Pao de lo cremoso com roqueforte e limao, gelado de rum com passas (Creamy sponge cake with roquefort cheese, lemon and rum raisin ice cream) with Limoncetta di Sorrento Terrina de ameixa e arroz doce de coco, kumquats, e molho de vinho (plums & coconut sweet rice, kumquats & wine sauce) with Noval Port Tawny Reserve Victor changes the menu every 15 days and we were lucky enough to taste a first draft of his new menu. Since we did not get a menu I do not have the Portuguese: Creamy Cauliflower soup with foie gras and with sea bream, Quinta del Orna wine Two amuse: Shrimp with spicy chocolate sauce and percebes (barnacles) with gelee (lime, chervil) Black pork sausage appetizer with asparagus and warm pesto of tomato and anchovy Beef with vegetables, cinnamon oil and black truffle with Regia Colheita wine, also tried a Meandro Red wine from Duro in the North of Portugal which Vitor said comes from the same estate as Barca Velia used to come from. It is a very young wine intended to be drunk young (2001) Just started releasing this in 1999 Lamb tenderloin from the saddle chop with marscapone, tomato and olive pesto Goat cheese with baby corn and chocolate chocolate chip sorbet Pate a brik with sweet egg filling and saffron ginger whipped cream and raspberry with J.P Moscatel de Setubal

I think that with this recipe you would be best off baking it when you are ready to serve since the melted ganache ball will tend to be absorbed if you do it in advance. You will also get the best melt and response to freshly baked not rewarmed. second - I think that these really NEED to be baked individually to get the centers up to temp and the cake cooked - quickly The single large one sounds like trouble. This is a liquid center cake--like a coulant, a molleux--not a "cake" cake.

Sinclair - for your textured top chocolates you could try using a chablon with the same shape as your chocolates placed on the acetate and just do the surface directly on the textured acetate then enrobe and place the chocolate onto the chocolate 'spots' so that you get your perfect textured and shiny tops. Just a thought - not sure it is sanctioned by the Chocolate Gods - but that is what the american frontier is all about - boldly trying things and seeing where they take us.

I think that it is the food safety issue Italian meringe buttercream is taken to a higher heat so the whites are 'cooked' more thoroughly so not only is it more stable but also better in applications where one is feeding the public including the elderly and young children But otherwise it is personal preference.

Reesek - are you roasting your berries then including them in the chilled panna cotta? I think you might want to serve them hot from the oven alongside your panna cotta. To the frequently referenced Jacques Torres Dessert Circus, on pg 172 Roasted strawberries. Here he roasts them in a 400 oven for about 10 min brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with vanilla sugar served immediately on a round of strawberry vodka soaked genoise.

macho

what plane would NSM be operating on that is so different from the rest of us? It is not as scary as it sounds to do the grab thing, but if you have never even seen it done I would not recommend that you just start - use a thermometer and work from there

to 24 yolks and 2 quarts of cream - I would use only 8 oz of sugar and if it is flavored with something sweet (like pistachio paste) I would back off on that. I believe that the whole idea behind creme brulee is to take the sugar out of the custard and put it on top. - just as in creme caramel you take out sugar and make it into the caramel syrup. You may want to test your recipe using less sugar and see if you actually find it more enjoyable

Kim - by your logic - would you not need to wait til you had tasted each course before ordering the next? or is your point about balance more about determining how much more one can consume? If a diner is capable of reading the offered dishes in each course (say appetizer, salad/soup, entree) to balance their meal then I think they might also be able to figure in the dessert.

Well, all that peeling and chopping takes time - and if you prep a bunch and don't get enough takers - you loose Sounds partly like they only have one chocolate fondue pot are set up for meats (oil and broth fondue) that is more profitable and faster turn over. I think they want to discourage the chocolate fondue - in the most positive way possible.

It looked to me that the participating pastry chefs were not on the same skill level that I have seen in the wedding cakes on display in NYC at the annual Salon Culinaire in November. Overall my critisims were: 1- flawed fondant covering - while the fondant or marzipan or whatever covering was being used seemed to be rolled quite thin frequently there were finger indents, holes, etc and many time the fondant was not thick enough to be opaque 2- Use of synthetic decor: plastic, ceramic ornaments, Silk, or other fake flowers, cloth ribbon, straw, actual rocks, actual sea shells as primary decoration 3- Use of purchased pastry flowers, birds or other ornaments 4- Insufficient use of chocolate, fondant, gum paste, pastillage, sugar decor to demonstrate technical and artistic skills 5- very little royal icing work 6- very uneven work on many cakes where you would see one element done well but others poorly executed 7- artistry and presentation seemed sub wilton overall 8- bad use of scale (a competitor might make a carriage of pastillage and place a tiny plastic bride and groom inside - but they were not in proper proportion to the carriage In terms of tasting the cakes I had expected some difficulties based on acclimation and taste/texture predispositions. While I did not find most of the cakes enjoyable to taste I noted that the local judges were much harsher critics in this area. Most of the cakes were almost identical - sort of coarse or light sponge non descript moist, yellow sort of lemony or nutty. Almost no chocolate at all. The Portuguese judges felt that many of the chefs had used mixes. Sinclair your critisism of the winning cake is interesting in several ways - should you evaluate wedding cakes by how they fit within a standard or category of wedding cakes? or do you just judge them based on technical excellence, artistry, originality? Does it matter that they are showpiece esque? Isn't a wedding cake a good place to do the type of higher pastry art that you so rarely get to do? My biggest problem with the winning cake is that the cake was glazed with neutral glaze but it was quite badly done - glaze was running off, globbed up in areas - very unattractive

At the Hor Expo 2004 in Lisboa last week Inter Magazine sponsored a Wedding Cake Competition. Steve and I were invited to serve on the International judging panel. There were just a few short of 50 cakes on display and here are some of the better ones The winning cake - Very thin cake with a poured sugar support, blown sugar balls, pulled sugar flowers and ribbons and some molded work on the top. Very nice work. The pink and slight olive green colors are a bit off due to the strong yellow hue of the lighting. some details The second place cake work is uneven And third place Here are some of my favorites Very sleek and modern - interesting styling Maybe not the best wedding cake in the world but I thought the chocolate swirlys were fun This was very eye catching and sort of lunar - I think of it as a moonstone cake This cake was very nicely done and the figures on top were very compelling This cake was actually very nice work - covered in marzipane it included a spotlight embedded in the lower tier that was plugged in at first but as it heated up it melted the frosting around it and shorted out and here are the judges Overall it was a very interesting experience especially since we also judged taste I will post more later

Definitely in the plastic boxes. Wash and carefully dry the boxes first so you don't have any unpleasant residu on them and be careful not to dry energetically which could build up static electricity. Make sure to terst the temper of your chocolate before introducing it to the plastic boxes since washing them out again is a real pain. It can be helpful to use a brush to lightly paint the interior of the boxes with chocolate prior to pouring in chocolate for the molding. The chocolate should be quite fluid to work well. It is just like any other mold - don't get intimidated. Bang out the air bubbles let it rest a moment or so and then pour out the excess, tap and carefully scrape the tops. Rest upside down on the marble briefly, rescrape and chill. In a moment or so they should set - give them a while to make sure the chocolate is completely set and let it pull away from the plastic. Jacques Torres may have instructions in Dessert Circus (The Piano) Otherwise you can pour our chocolate on parchment or acetate and cut squares then make the boxes as Sinclair showed you. Despite the apparent ease of molding the boxes you may actually find making the boxes easier and less frustrating depending on your skill level and comfort with chocolate and molding. If you do the chocolate on sheets - let it get almost set up and then cut. You will want to lay a second sheet of acetate, parchment or a silpat on top and then weight your chocolate using a sheet pan or something like that to ensure that it sets flat (chocolate curls upward as it sets). You can also obtain success by using lucite. You moisten the lucide and then the plastic (not rigid acetate) will adhere to that. You need to ensure that no water droplets end up on top. You spread a thin even layer of tempered chocolate onto the pastic sheet, and proceed with the cutting as above. The chocolate should not curl using this method - but to be safe, you may want to invert the lucite (with chocolate side down) onto a sheet tray.

You can make thin shiny chocolate squares on sheets of acetate and attach them to the brownies using a spot of ganache. When you ask about coating the brownies with shiny chocolate - is this something you saw in a picture? It sounds like glaze - which is poured over the cake or dessert and has a high glossy shine but no snap