nightscotsman

Yes, I believe we have heard your rant against cake flour before - however, cake and pastry flour are not interchangeable. Pastry flour has more gluten than cake and less than all purpose. Here is what baking911.com has to say about pastry flour:

I find that if I just avoid direct sunlight I get much more pasty. (sorry, couldn't resist )

Wow, very interesting. I may have to get some myself to play with. Thanks for posting the topic.

I learned a great tip for dealing with burns in school: when the burn occurs, immediately apply white vinegar to the area. Soaking a paper towel and holding it to the burn works well. No, it won't hurt or sting, believe it or not. The real pain (and scar) of a burn is when a blister forms and inevitably breaks open causing an open wound. The acid in the vinegar will actually etch tiny holes in the skin letting it breath and usually prevent a blister from forming. Unfortunately this treatment doesn't seem to work after the blister has already formed, but I promise that it will work for most minor burns you would get in the kitchen.

I also haven't seen the "new" design yet, but it sounds very much like the dough hooks that have always come with the larger hobarts. If so, they should work much better and give a more natural knead.

Silicone is great for many things, though they may take a little getting used to if you are used to metal. You'll find much lower prices and a wider selection at dr.ca here. Ceramic is good for creme brulees and other baked custards, or some people like ceramic for pies.

I used silicone molds sprayed lightly with flavorless baking spray. No sticking at all.

Here's an on-line source. Any chance you could tell us a little bit about what wattleseed is and what you plan to do with it?

We actually have to supply all of our own small hand tools such as whisks, spatulas, knives (of course), cutters, piping tips, etc. I had to put bright orange tape on all of my tools, because if you happen to leave them around, someone else will pick them up and you'll never see them again. If you do happen to catch someone using one of your tools and you ask them "is that yours?", they'll just look at you and say "no". No!? Then why the hell are you using it? I swear, if I could bring in my own sheet pans and find a place to stash them where nobody else could get at them, I'd do it. Same with a speed rack, which we have to hunt for every single morning.

What? Are you trying to say that all your sheet pans are warped at the Bellagio? Most of mine are too. I hide my flat ones so the hot side doesn't put them in their infamous 500 degree ovens. Actually that's a good question......I've never personally warped a sheet pan myself. How DOES one screw a pan up that bad anyway? ← Warped!? I swear most of them look like they turned a flame thrower on them while simultaneously running over them with a tank. I saw one the other day that "something" had eaten through so badly you could could actually see the reinforcing wire exposed around part of the edge. They bought us a whole stack of shiny new ones a couple months ago, but most of those have made their way out of the pastry kitchen by now and have gotten the "treatment". Oh, and then there are the times when I open the oven door to take out the creme brulees and get a big noseful of FISH! Ewwwwwww. (rat piss and velveta - ha! )

Wow, I really do lead a sheltered life at work. But if you want to see my blood pressure go up, just mention the words "flat sheet pan". Grrr. What the hell do they do to those things, anyway? I really feel for you Wendy. It's tough enough to have a kitchen be uncomfortable, but to be so hot as to make you job all but impossible is ridiculous. I hope your idea of working at night works out for you. The hours will certainly suck, but I've learned that it's not so hard to get used to.

Actually, Renoir closed because the chef chose not to renew his contract. He's going over to Wynn to open a new place. The exec chef at Le Cirque in Bellagio has also handed in his resignation to go work at Wynn, though Le Cirque will remain open.

Well, being in a big, dedicated pastry kitchen all day I'm pretty insulated from contact with the hot side at all (except when we have to go raid their cooler for fruit ). However, my suggestion would be to write down the issues that come up during the work day, take the list home and think (in a calm, relaxed atmosphere) about what it would take to fix the problems or at least make your life easier. Then set up a time when you can meet with the executive chef (again in a calm, relaxed atmosphere) to discuss possible options for improving work processes and the environment. Maybe away from the stress and demands of working during a shift they might be able to listen to what you have to say and understand that you just want to help the business and work better with everyone.

we got ourselves a fatburger here in NJ. i might check it out on that recommendation. but i'll still try to get to in-and-out. are you involved in that pastry shop in any way? i so i'll make it a point to stop by. ← I'm on the restaurant dessert team in the Bellagio pastry kitchen, so we'll be producing all of the dessert pastries for the new shop such as fruit tarts, mousse cakes, eclairs, napoleons, etc. Breakfast pastries will be done by our danish team, and chocolates provided by the chocolate team. Everything will be produced in house from scratch including a full selections of ice creams and sorbets. We haven't started making any of the new stuff yet, but we've been shown examples and I think you'll be impressed.

correct me if I am wrong, I always throught when making chocolate mousse it doesn't matter if the chocolate is temper or not??? ← Of course you are correct - chocolate for mousse doesn't need to be tempered. I believe jgarner53 was referring to emilymarie's question about using the acetate to make chocolate decorations (for which the chocolate would have to be tempered).

Call the PR flacks and work the media - "haunted bakery - film at 11:00"!

Had lunch at the new Treasure Island buffet - Dishes - today. The remodeled room is beautiful. It feels like an upscale restaurant rather than a buffet, but warm and comfortable, so I was optimistic about the food. What a disappointment! A very small selection of dishes compared to other buffets, and the stations are small and cramped. The overall quality is about average with the barbecue selections being somewhat of a highlight, though not as flavorful as I would have liked. Green salads are made to order rather than a salad bar, and aren't bad, but I could see lines forming just to get salads when the place is crowded. The sushi was OK, though the rice didn't seemed to be seasoned. Dessert selections look nice with some fun ideas like freshly fried mini donuts and cotton candy, but when tasted it becomes clear that most if not all of them are made from mixes and have no flavor, including garnishes of non-dairy whipped topping. The creme brulee was especially odd, having no flavor of eggs or custard at all - in fact, I'm not sure what that stuff tasted like. For the same price ($15 for lunch), the Mirage Buffet is far superior with more choices and better quality.

According to Citysearch, Lotus of Siam is open 11:30am-2:30pm daily. And really, Fatburger is WAY better than In-n-Out. Several locations including one on the Strip. By the way, what dates will you be here? I've been told our pastry shop (Jean Philippe Patisserie) in the new Bellagio tower will be open by the 21st.

I usually just use the flour on the table method myself, but I can pass on a little secret when using a silpat: you may have noticed that one side of the sheet is very smooth while the other has sort of a woven texture to it. If you use the textured side rather than the smooth side, and dust it with flour, the flour will be trapped by the little bumps in the texture and stay under the dough rather than pushing out to the sides as you roll out. Also, if you make sure the table is clean and just a little bit damp before you lay out the sheet, the smooth side will stick and and keep the sheet from sliding around.

lepatissier works on our banquet team, so hopefully he will see this thread and chime in with what they are up to. I see a little bit of the stuff the banquet group does, and it ranges from standard cookies, cakes and tarts, to trays of petits fours, to totally over-the-top plated desserts. A few weeks ago they did a dessert for a thousand or so people with a theme of "fire and ice". All the plates were airbrushed with multicolored flames using cocoabutter. On top of that were disks of ice with a dry ice insert to produce a mist effect, and a selection of small chocolate deserts placed is slots molded into the ice. Right now they are working their little fingers to the bone building all these elaborate, round pastilage boxes, into which will be placed three custom molded chocolate compartments each with a different layered dessert. If you ever wondered who actually produces desserts like those seen in pastry competitions - wonder no more.

Sorry you didn't like the buffet. I've only had lunch there a few times, and while I think it's usually very good, I don't think it's reliably the best (well, except for the desserts, of course ). I recommend the new Mirage buffet "Cravings", because while it is a little less ambitious, the quality is excellent. Oh, and by the way - the newly remodelled buffet at Treasure Island just opened last week. They're calling it "Dishes". I plan to try it out for lunch this week and see how it is. I'll let you know.

Jeez, has it really been two years? Some day I'll get back to Seattle. Hope everyone there had a great Thanksgiving. The recipe is from Martha Stewart and as written above is the full batch.

Actually, no, cocoa butter does not need to be tempered because it contains no sugar or cocoa solids. All you have to do is put the bottle in the microwave and nuke a bit at a time on medium, shaking occasionally, until melted. To get a glossy surface when molding chocolates it's important how you treat the mold. Never wash with soap, only warm water. If you let air dry you might get hard water spots on the mold surface, so dry with a non-abrasive cloth. Before filling molds, polish the insides with a cotton ball. You don't have to use an airbrush to apply the color. You can also use a brush, your finger, a Q-tip, or whatever - each will give you a different look. After applying color (and optional metalic dust), place the mold in the cooler for only a few minutes until the cocoa butter is completely set. Bring back to room temp before pouring in tempered chocolate to form shells.

Actually this depends on your recipe. I've seen some chiffon cakes that can be baked as layers and have enough structure not to have to be inverted, but others (such as those from the Cake Bible) are much more like an angel food cake and must be inverted to cool or they will deflate into a rubbery pancake. And yes, I do know this from embarrassing experience.

If you are talking about the Pierre Herme recipe for this, then I've made them several times. The type of apples you use are very important since only a few varieties will hold up under the extended cooking and not fall apart into sauce. I used granny smith apples and they seemed to work well. Golden delicious should also work as long as they are on the green side and not too old or ripe. The apples came out very soft and buttery while still being distinct slices, not a mush. It's also important for the oven not to exceed the temperature stated in the recipe, so you may want to get out the oven thermometer to make sure.