nightscotsman

The commercial-style shinyness actually comes from a final coat of gum based glaze. The Kitchenaide tumbler attachment does work, but it can be tricky and require much practice to get good results. If you just want to do a small batch at home, you can also use a stainless steel bowl and wooden spoon to coat the nuts in tempered (important) chocolate. Put the nuts in the bowl add add a small ladle of chocolate. Stir and toss semi vigorously so all the nuts are coated evenly and they separate as the chocolate sets. continue to stir until the chocolate is COMPLETELY set before adding a little more chocolate and repeating the process. If the chocolate on the nuts is not set enough, it will melt when you add more melted chocolate and the coating will become uneaven. It will take several repetitions of this before the nuts are evenly and completely coated - be patient. Like many things with chocolate, this process is hard to describe and it really helps to see how it's done Coating nuts in a thin, hard sugar glaze is another story. Are you looking for a clear candy type coating, or caramelized?

You want to check to see how fast the chocolate sets at room temperature. If it sets in about a minute, then you have temper. You also want to check for the quality of the set - no streaks and a glossy finish. Like I said before, you won't get it truly shiney, but is shouldn't be dull. This is just one of those things, like many when it comes to chocolate, that you just have to see and learn the difference. We tempered chocolate every day for several weeks, both tabling and seeding. We were taught to look for changes in the texture and feel of the chocolate as it reaches the different stages of temper and cocoa butter crystals formed. Again, this is something that it almost impossible to describe or even show with photos - you really have to see it done to know what to look for. Testing on the lower lip is how it used to be done, but a major no-no as far as sanitation. Tabling will give you the best snap and shine in my experience. You might want to do a search for one of the other threads where we've discussed tempering techniques in the past.

Oh, well - of course. Not even worth wasting the flour and eggs on that. Carry on.

Thanks for the article, Mamster. I've made yeasted waffles for years (mostly with Marion Cunninghams recipe, though I use much less butter) and love them. In fact, I agree they are the best waffles you can make at home. But I'm actually here to stand up for Belgian waffles. Belgian waffles are not just about the size of the indentations! You have to use a special maker - preferably cast iron - to make them right and you can't use just any waffle recipe (and certainly not a mix). I know all this because we made them in pastry school and they were by far the best waffles I've ever had, though they do seem more of a dessert than a breakfast item. I feel sure that you haven't had a truly authentic Belgian waffle, or you would not have disparaged them as you did you in your article. Sadly I know of no place in or near Seattle where you can get the real thing - guess you'll just have book the eGullet jet to Belgium for the weekend sometime.

Perfectly tempered chocolate will have a shiny surface, but not actually glossy. I think what you are comparing to is chocolate that has been molded or spread on a shiny plastic surface. The glossier the surface of the mold, the shinier the chocolate when completely set. As far as thermometers, you can use almost any good quality digital, but know that even with the most accurate readings there may be some slight variations in correct temper temperatures. Chocolate is tempered when it's tempered, and the only way to know for sure is to dip a test strip and see how it sets. knowing the temperature points is helpful, but we learned to do it in class without thermometers and I find that you can run into trouble if you only rely on often unreliable instruments and tempurature alone.

Well that puts me neatly in my place I'll just watch thanks. Well... I might actually say that baking is a craft, and while some of us have more experience than others, skills can certainly be learned. Although I think the main goal is to find "best of category" recipes rather than teach a class in baking, I think you can use this as an opportunity to try new things and get feedback. Don't be shy - this ain't rocket surgery. Just post if you have questions.

Yikes - so much for sleep! I've extremely excited for you. Wish I could be there to help you out. I will absolutely stop by next time I'm in Portland to visit family (I was born in Portland and lived there for 30 years). Yeah, next time I get a vacation - hah! By the way, I still don't think you've told us what you're naming the place or the address. What date are you planning to open by?

Wendy - I will try to bake a test of your recipe sometime in the next week. I have a few little questions first: 1) What brand of cocoa do you normally use? 2) Do you usually bake this in a convection oven? If so, have you tried a conventional home oven? Any difference? 3) I don't suppose you have a version converted to grams or ounces? 4) What's the best way prepare you pans for this recipe? butter/flour, spray, parchement, or a combo? Thanks very much for getting this ball rolling! I was testing chocolate cakes a couple months ago and really liked the Chocolate Fudge Cake from the "Cake Bible". I'm interested to see how this one compares.

Go melmck, go melmck, go melmck...

I think this sounds like a really great idea. I'm not sure how much I will be able to participate at first since I'm still getting used to working for a living. I have some chocolate cake recipes that I really like, but have yet to find the perfect ballance of moistness, soft but elastic (for want of a better word) crumb, not too dense - not to airy, and rich, full chocolate flavor. By far my favorite white cake recipe is the white chocolate whisper cake from the Cake Bible, but then, I haven't really tried that many alternatives. One recipe I would really like to find the best of is for baba au rhum and/or savarin. I've tried several, but I'm still searching for the right texture that will soak up the syrup soften nicely, but not fall apart or get pasty.

I think it sounds fine, but aren't we basically talking about chocolate pudding here? Not that there's anything wrong with that. As you mentioned, the chocolate will make the finished product thicker, so you might want to play with reducing the amount of gelatine. In fact, since the base of panna cotta is milk/cream you might be able to use a smaller amount of dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and achieve a milk chocolate flavor. Another idea (that may sound out of left field, or even icky to some people) is to use a bit of evaporated milk to give the mix a bit of that caramelized/cooked milk flavor that some milk chocolates feature.

Yikes- that's a hell of a typo!

That's how I would do it. As long as the chocolate is tempered properly and the molds are very clean, as the chocolate sets it will shrink slighly and you will be able to easily slide it out of the mold. You will also get a nice shiney outside surface. And as FistFullaRoux said, you can paint or spray the inside of the mold with white chocolate or colored cocoa butter before filling and it will transfer to the finished box, still with a glossy surface. You can find clear plastic rectangular boxes at office supply stores that come in a range of sizes, work perfectly, and are quite cheap. They can also be purchased online from The Container Store here.

"potato wizards"?

I should really qualify my suggestion by saying I didn't actually take my own advice when I decided to change careers. I did a lot of research and talked to many people (some of whom also told me I should do some trials or stages first), so I thought I had a fairly good idea of what I was getting into. However, the major difference was I had been saving money for years and had enough set aside to both pay for school and live for over a year with no income. Now that I'm actually out there doing the job, I've learned that some things I anticipated correctly and some where harder than I expected, but almost nothing was a complete surprise. It helped that the school I went to taught me how to do things very similarly to the way we work at the Bellagio. It IS very hard work, and getting up to speed has been stressful, but now that I'm starting to get settled in the kitchen and know what is expected of me, I'm actually enjoying it. Of course my hours completely suck, my back hurts (working on that), I have no social life, and I'm not going to be rich any time soon, but I have a strong feeling of satisfaction at the end of the day and I'm proud of the product we put out to our guests, which is way more than I can say for my last job.

Actually we lost TONS of product - not to mention it was Easter and none of the stuff that the kitchen made special for the holiday could be served, so it ended up in the employee dining room. We make almost everything fresh everyday. In the restaurant team where I'm at, we had almost our whole order filled before the power went out for good: several kinds of fruit tarts, petits fours, eclairs, about 150 creme brulees of various flavors, tuiles, cheesecakes, mousse cakes, opera cake, napoleons, tiramisu, cannoli, etc - it all went in the trash. Then when the power came back we had to bust our asses that night making all new bases, sauces, and mixes to be ready to make stuff for guests the next day. Yes, we are a union shop, which is really, really nice. 8 hour work days, time and a half for overtime, paid vacation, 401k, a pension (!), full medical and dental, free meals, free classes and training - in general, employees get treated very well. Of course we work hard for the money, but I'm not complaining.

Very nice stuff, Wendy . And a LOT of work, too. How long did it take you to make everything? Did you have any assistance? Which items turned out to be most popular? By the way, you may have heard that we do have power back at the Bellagio. The day it came back on was completely insane - There were twice as many people as normal in the pastry kitchen all trying to use the same equipment. So I worked until about 9:30 pm Wednesday and had to come back in for my normal shift at 4:00 am. That's right, after four hours sleep. Luckily all of the restaurants weren't open yet, so we had a lighter work load for a couple days. The good news is we'll all get paid for the time missed during the outage.

What recipe does the "cream powder" appear in and how is it used? My guess would be pastry cream powder (a mixture of corn starch, non-fat dry milk, sugar, vanilla, etc), especially if this is a professional book.

The French Culinary Institute Does offer evening and weekend classes. You can see their schedule here. However, I don't recommend training for a career change this way. Being in the kitchen, even as a student, is a lot of work and you will end up getting very little sleep and having not much energy for either you current job or for class. Also, from what I've heard the FCI has a good program, but it's VERY expensive - currently $30,0000 to $32,500. Instead, you might look into getting a part-time job at a bakery, pastry shop or restaurant to get some experience and find out if you want to make a serious go of changing careers.

I was wondering what the hell happened. I ate at Spuds a few weeks ago and it sucked. don't remember that from 10 years ago-->it was good back then! at least I thought so. dill in the tartar sauce, this was the first thing I noticed had changed... Jeez - I'm gone for less than a year and Seattle just goes to hell. What's next, Starbucks buys Vivace?

Trimoline can also act as an emulsifier and help stabilize an emulsion, which is why it is included in some ganache recipes.

In school we used a lot of vanilla beans in pastry cream and such, ending up with a lot of scraped pods that still had some flavor. So we dried them in the oven and ground them in a robot coupe. The resulting vanilla "powder" made a great addition to recipes like financiers that could benefit from a rustic appearance. The flavor was great.

You could use high quality lemon oil, but even the best is a highly processed and refined product while the fresh zest tastes, well... fresh. Sort of like vanilla vs. vanillin - sure the main flavor is the chemical vanillin, but there are other, more subtle and volatile elements that add complexity and fullness of flavor. Many people probably won't be able to tell the difference, but a difference there is.

Great stuff, Mel. I love hearing about your background and all the prep for the bakery. A couple questions - How did you decide to open a bakery as the next step in your career, and why did you choose to start it in Portland (which seems to have several quality bakeries already, while Seattle has almost no pastry worth mentioning)?

I'm afraid I don't own it and haven't had a chance to look through it. My next book purchases will probably be replacements for the ones that the Post Office LOST when I shipped them to Las Vegas.