ejw50

Pierre Herme's recipe in Larousse is 4 eggs, 40g butter, 140g flour, 140g sugar. He doesn't say what pan, but I've found this works for 8 inch rings or pans. Scaled 1.5, that is 6 eggs, 60g butter, 210g flour, 210g sugar. My quick thoughts - agree with Marie-ora, who suggests beating until eggs are cool - agree with lovesgenoise, who mentions beating the heck out of the eggs and his suggested times to beat. It's hard to beat it too much. This may be one of your problems. The less it's "inflated" the less margin you have for deflation. - splitting that recipe into two pans seems like not enough batter . You can always cut off the top or bottom. PH's recipe recipe for 6 eggs (in Greenspan's "Desserts by PH") is for a single 9 inch pan with at least 2 inch sides. - the batter definitely deflates when you put in the butter. Agree with suggestions above that you take some out (I take out 1C) and mix it separately with the butter and then mix it back in. - if you pour the flour through a strainer with medium holes into the dough, you can get rid of a lot of the lumps. - you can butter/flour the sides, but you don't have to. You can just detach it with an offset spatula at the end. - AP flour is fine.

I just took a trip to Vegas and saw both. They have some minor differences - the one in Aria is right inside the casino so potentially more cigarette smoke. Though, the aria is the least smokey casino in Vegas IMO. - the one in aria sells standalone chocolates. I didn't see this in the Bellagio location - the one in Bellagio has the chocolate fountain - I did not see the aria location after 11a so didn't see the pastries at aria - I felt the aria location was a little morecramped in the line. Aria has seating As part of the shop Bellagio you eat in the lobby of hotel - both locations don't bring out the pastries until later around 11 or so. Before this its croissants danishes fried donuts and so on . I can't remember if it was always like this or not. The pastries are a little different now compared to 3 years ago and will try to post pics later

I got this one from amazon. Looks like it's two takes on every recipe - the classic take and the PH take. Pluses: - beautiful photography. Every dessert has a picture - similar to PH10 and patisserie of PH and different from Desserts by PH or Chocolate Desserts by PH. - very big book. Good deal for the money. - Very interesting for the classics - some of this is in his Larousse book, but the level is a little bit harder here. - As with all PH books, his take on things and flavors is really what sets him apart from others. minuses: - If you have all the PH books already, there's not a ton of new stuff. That is, if you've seen Ispahan, maybe you don't need to see it another 3 times. - Recipes are in between home baker and pro, leaning towards pro. That is, he leaves the stabilizer out of the ice cream, but assumes you have pistachio paste. My preference is one or the other (full pro or full home baker). - some of PH's takes on the classics seem to stretch the connection to the classics a little. - This is not a technique book at ALL. All techniques are assumed. - Technique is another area where he's in between home baker and pro. He assumes you'll spend time to make 2 types of mousses and macerate cherries and grind up pistachios. But then assumes you don't have acetate liner to put on your cake ring and will use a hair dryer instead.

Somebody must be a Buckeye fan?

Couple of others that I went to this time around Madeleine Patisserie (la maison du Macaron) - Excellent macarons, they are in the same class as PH's. Macarons are expertly made - soft, not too crunchy, without a 'gap' between the shell and inside. Great flavors. Croissants have a wonderful buttery flavor. Kee's chocolates - Creme Brule chocolate is awesome, almost pastry-like. You won't see anything else like it in any chocolate shop anywhere. Lots of interesting flavors. Macaroons nothing special, would not get again. La Maison du Chocolate - went to the one on Madison. Supposed to be 3 locations total in NYC? Excellent as you'd expect, if maybe less innovative.

some quick updates in case somebody reads this thread (as I did) Payard's - closed now. Opened up a new chocolate shop with pastries at a different location. Fauchon - closed now. Petrossian - tried a pain au chocolate and tart. As described by Vivremanger, tart was a puff pastry base, mine was puff pastry base, frangipane, jam, and fruit Really liked this. They have regular tarts too, did not try. Macarons are nothing special, tried a few.

silikomart? Like these? http://shopchefrubber.com/home.php?cat=1433

At the chocolate conference, one of the Uster Chef's temperature aiming point for the airbrush was 95. 95 in meant 85 out, which was the temperature she aimed for. From what I saw, she did not temper the cocoa butter in any special way.

Directions? What are those? Good point. I'll try it on the oven next. Or maybe a piece of ice. Unless somebody has a better idea about a standard in the 90-180F range.

wow nice find Kerry! For those macaron fans, I compared the macaron recipe we got to the recipe in Herme's 'Macaron' just now (not the recipe in 'Patisserie'). Pretty similar recipe - both use the same technique of Italian Meringue added to a nut powder+powdered sugar + egg white mixture. Ratios of ingredients are pretty similar as well. Also just got myself an IR temperature sensor. As Steve pointed out to me, you really have to get close with this thing. My boiling water test showed 102-104C until I got within 1 inch of the water, when it started showing in the 100C range. Fun new toy though, and it was great to pick up that tip from everybody there!

The purees are available from a number of sources. After trying them out, I would probably not pay for them except in a few cases. I think you can make your own raspberry from the frozen food section that's just as good. Apple, kiwi, pear, banana, oranges, limes - these things are pretty consistent and available year round. I would probably only pay for a few things that are not available throughout the year, are too inconsistent, are terrible at my grocery frozen, or are exotic. Mango would fit here, as would lychee, currants, mara des bois, stone fruits (at my grocery anyway), or cherry.

The purees are available from a number of sources. The difference between them is how much you have to buy at one time. I've been buying from L'Epicerie. The purees are in 1 kg tubs which seems to be industry standard. They keep in the freezer for a long time. Simply cut out what you need, and put the rest back to keep frozen. The 3 primary brands for purees in the USA are Boiron, Sicoly, and Perfect Puree. I've not found a "retail" source for Perfect Puree and haven't tried the product but it seems very common in restaurant bars. If you live near Napa, you can buy Perfect Puree at Whole Foods in Napa Valley. That's what they told me on the phone anyway.

Bob, glad you liked the videos. Great find Pat! I also thought it was salty. But that's what great about the session: it doesn't matter if you like it or not. It's time to experiment without pressure of making for somebody else. Thanks Lior for the havla!

habanero and raspberry (I think). There were 3 raspberries on the day, I liked them all; interesting to see the different textures and raspberry power that people chose to use. Passion fruit, same cocoa butter, but one in white, one in milk, and did some in dark. I kind of liked the milk taste the best, but we agreed that the white looked the best. cherry (left), raspberry (I think), salted caramel (the beans), and forgot what the pyramids were.

Betsy, Karen, Chris, Mary, along with Bob's cinnamon pyramids and his grandfather's popcorn (really good!) No explanation necessary. the panner