nightscotsman

I made banana marshamallow a couple weeks ago. Just replaced the strawberry with banana puree (important to puree just before you need it so it doesn't turn brown). Coated with unsweetened toasted coconut. Nice. Also good piped into a silicone dome mold and mini chocolate cupcake inserted like a "Snowball".

You can make something that looks almost exactly like pummice from pastillage (which is basically just sugar with small amounts of other ingredients like gelatine and vinegar). Just put a chunk in the microwave and nuke. It will actually foam up as it melts. Stop the microwave as soon as it stops growing. It should cool quickly and will be hard and brittle.

It really isn't necessary to poach your fruit slices before drying into chips. Pretty much any fruit that can be sliced paper thin can be made into chips - apples, pineapple, mangos, pears, etc. Some, like apples and pears, should be put directly into lemon or lime juice after slicing, then drained and dipped in simple syrup before spreading out in a single layer on a silpat lined baking sheet. Tropical fruit like pineapple and mango just needs to be sliced. An electric meat slicer will give you thinner, more even slices and will make your work much faster, though a good mandoline will also work fine. Dry slowly in the oven at a low 180 degrees so the fruit doesn't brown. The wetter the fruit, the longer it will take. Since the fruit will still be soft when it's warm, you have to peel a slice of fruit off of the sheet and let it cool to see if will be dry and crisp at room temp.

I loved my time at the French Pastry School and recomend it to everyone who asks, but my situation was very, very different from a teenager just getting out of high school. I was turning 40 when I finally made the decision to change careers and go into pastry, so I didn't have the years it sometimes takes to work my way up in the industry starting at ground zero. I went to school to give me a kick start and chose one with a good, national reputation and instructors with wide industry connections. I actually seriously considered a good community college program for awhile, and I think I would have learned a lot there, but I wouldn't have learned the most modern, up-to-date techniques, and though the instructors were well regarded locally, I wouldn't have had the access to national opportunities. That said, community college can been a good choice if you have more years ahead of you than money in your bank account. I also had been working at a well paying job for years and had a big chunk of money set aside to pay for school and live on while I attended so I didn't have to work at the same time. The French Pastry School certainly isn't cheap, though it's far less expensive than most of the other well known schools like CIA, ICE and the French Culinary Institute. So I'm with others who have written here about getting a job first. In fact, go through several jobs before deciding if this is the career she wants, and then start thinking about IF spending a huge amount of money on school makes sense. Afterall, she will most likely make very little money for years even after coming out of the best school, and having big loans to pay back can be a crushing burden.

The dessert menu hasn't changed very much, actually. The toffee pudding's gone, we still do the donuts and the brownie/espresso milkshake combo, the cobbler (actually a crisp) is plum instead of the peach or apple we did last year, there's a peanut butter and jelly creme brulee (which is actually better than it sounds), and a banana caramel bread pudding. Glad you had the cucumber cocktail - it's the best. And the scallopes benedict totally rocks.

I had lunch there awhile back. I second the bbq duck crepes, and there was also some kind of shrimp tamale that was really good. My chef warned me off the desserts, so all I had were the two apps.

Yes, those chefs do use it. As fred said above, it probably helps stabilize the mixture a bit, and my guess is it also adds some extra depth in flavour. Ducasses chefs ( mainly Frederic Roberts) uses it all over his books, IN CONJUNCTION, it has to be said, with the other ingredients that would be in a pastry cream, or a creme anglaise. In other words, you see a creme patisserie recipe in a Ducasse book, it is usually kicked up a notch with some creme poudre, as well as anglaises to be used in mousses, etc. Olivier Bajard recipes do the same, FPS ones, as already noted. Not that much different then using powdered egg whites along with fresh in a pro recipe. Re: Using Elsay as a pastry creme like jenny does in a high volume bakery is just a reality. It's a good product. If I was using it as a full on pastry cream I would at least flavor it a bit with some vanilla paste or something. Wendy, It just gave the cake a bit more depth, something like that. On tonights tasting I thought it had a bit of a cake donut taste again. My wife didn't. ← Of COURSE we don't use the pastry cream powder by itself. It's a replacement for corn starch (or the more old-fashioned flour) in a regular pastry cream recipe along with whole milk, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla beans (we use a LOT of vanilla beans). My understanding is the pastry cream powder is a mixture of starch (mostly corn starch), milk powder, vanilla, and a bit of yellow color. It makes a smoother, more stable pastry cream that has a cleaner taste. We ran out once and had to substitute corn starch in our regular recipe and you could tell the difference. The powder also thickened more than the same amount of corn starch.

Is custard powder the same as pastry cream powder? If so, we make all our pastry cream with it (instead of corn starch), but nothing else as far as I know.

Definitely. We use them at work broken up and packed around the base of caramel apples that have also been dipped in chocolate.

This is a very different technique from mixing toasted nut with caramel as shown above. This is a method you would use if you want individual whole nuts with a thin coating of caramel, useful for garnishing, as a crunchy component in a dessert, or just eating as a snack (which I'll bet is where your first batch will end up - it's hard to stop eating them). This recipe will not work with delicate, high-fat nuts like pecans, walnuts or pistachios since they will burn long before the sugar caramelizes. I've only done it with almonds and hazelnuts myself, so I don't know if macadamias would work too. It is important that the nuts be raw and blanched since the process of caramelizing will also toast them, and the skins would not only prevent you from telling how dark they were, but would also tend to flake off and taste bitter. Blanched almonds are usually easy to find or skin yourself at home with boiling water. Blanched raw hazelnuts are harder to find for the home cook, and though they can be blanched at home with water and baking soda, that method is not without its issues (as you can read about here). This recipe calls for a small amount of cocoa butter. You can substitute butter, but the advantage of the cocoa butter is it's 100% fat that is solid at room temperature, so it will not soften the caramel when you add it and will form a nice moisture barrier when the nuts have cooled, which can help protect them from humidity so they won't get sticky as fast. This is a small batch that can easily be multiplied. At work, we make batches using three kilos of nuts once a week or so. Just make sure to use a large enough pan so you have enough room to stir and they aren't so deep that they don't all get some time at the bottom of the pan so they'll toast. Make sure you have everything scaled and all your equipment ready before you start. You will need a wooden spoon (I really like my Matfer exoglass paddle, but don't use metal since it will get too hot, or a rubber spatula that will be too flexible), a sheet pan with a silpat, and rubber gloves. Also have your cocoa butter ready to add quickly - I put it on the silpat so I don't forget it at the end. Ingredients: 200 g whole, blanched, raw almonds or hazelnuts 70 g sugar 15 g water 3 g cocoa butter 1/4 of a vanilla bean Put the sugar, water and vanilla bean (split and scraped) in a sauce pan and just bring to a boil: Take the pan off the heat and stir in the nuts: Stir the nuts until the sugar begins to turn white and then crystallize. The process is known as "sanding". The nuts should now be coated with crystallized sugar with some loose sugar in the pan: Return the pan to heat and turn the temp to medium to medium-high. Stir the nuts slowly so the nuts will have some time in contact with the hot bottom of the pan and toast. You'll soon notice some of the sugar on the bottom of the pan start to melt: As more of the sugar melts, the nuts should also begin to brown: Here the sugar is almost all melted and has begun to caramelize. At this point it's tempting to stop before the caramel gets too dark, but keep cooking and stirring a little longer because the nuts aren't fully toasted yet. If the nuts are starting to smoke, turn the heat down to medium low or low, or even take the pan off the heat for a moment while you stir. OK, the caramel is nice, rich brown and the nuts are toasted. It can also be very easy to over toast the nuts, especially almonds, so don't go too dark. At this point, take the pan off the heat and quickly stir in the cocoa butter until in melts, then pour out onto the silpat. After dumping the nuts onto the sheet pan, Its time to put on the rubber gloves. Continue to stir the nuts gently while they cool. When the caramel is starting to get sticky and the nuts are just cooled enough to touch without immediately burning your fingers (they'll still be VERY hot), begin to stir with your hands and separating them with your fingers. The gloves are important both to keep the caramel from sticking to your fingers, as well as keeping moisture from you hands from melting the caramel and making it sticky as it cools. Keep pulling the nuts apart and rubbing them with your hands, which will now be coated with melted cocoa butter keeping the nuts from re-sticking together. If the nuts have been properly toasted, when they are cool they will sound like glass beads when you stir them. Here is a close-up of the nuts showing the color you're looking for next to an under caramelized nut. Cut them in half and you can see the difference in toasting - the one on the right is pretty much still raw inside.

In my opinion, the 5 course tasting may be a bit overpriced at $180. There's no denying the room and view are fabulous, and the food is very good, but I think there are several better choices in Vegas at the high end. For example, I thought Picasso was wonderful and was actually substantially less expensive. I also thought Shibuya in MGM Grand was more interesting, though of course the cooking style is Japanese fusion rather than straight French.

I haven't had any high-end burgers here, but for fast food, it's gotta be Fatburger by a mile. Wait, I take that back - Vialé (more at the mid-range) at Caesars makes a killer burger and fantastic fries with lemon and basil. The exec chef is a pastry chef, so get dessert too.

For florentine/nougatine type tuiles you could try adding some pectin to the recipe. The recipes we used in school included some pectin and it acted sort of like an internal dessicant, allowing us to use the nougatine as a layer in a mousse cake and have it stay crunchy. I don't know if it would work this way in a cigarette paste type tuile though. Here is a recipe we used for a pecan nougatine, though you could use almonds or other nuts instead: 63 g sugar 1.25 g pectine (we used apple pectin) 37 g glucose 63 g butter 87 g pecan pieces mix 1/4 of the sugar with the pectin and set aside. melt together butter, sugar and glucose and bring to 40C. Whisk in pectin mixture, bring to a boil, and add nuts. Spread on a silicone sheet and bake at 320F until medium golden brown (about 15-20 minutes). You'll still need to store in with a dessicant, but it should hold up a little better.

I believe that would be this thread here. Be sure to check out Chef Rubber for lots of info and products for making your own molds.

One more thing I thought I would mention - I checked today and according to the labels, the ultrapasturized cream we use when we want very stable whipped cream actually has a LOWER fat content than the regular cream that doesn't whip as stiffly. 5 grams of fat per tablespoon vs. 6 grams per tablespoon. I know, it doesn't make sense, but I've whipped both and there's a noticable difference.

Just thought I would mention we use 100 grams of powdered sugar per quart of cream, added at the beginning.

I was testing a new chocolate financier recipe this weekend to see if it was better than the one we made in school. I baked both recipes in various shapes of silicone molds (Silicone Flex brand) and the low and behold I got the dreaded air bubbles on the bottoms of the recipe from class. However, the new recipe came out perfectly smooth with no deformations. The two recipes did vary slightly in ingredient proportions, but the new recipe did contain about 2 grams of baking powder that the old recipe didn't. While they didn't rise much more than the others, it's possible that may have made the difference. Anyway, something to try.

I completely agree with Leslie - dough too thick and bake longer. As for the "tradtional choux and a pie crust type dough" option, Bo Friberg has a recipe for what he calls "Swedish Profiteroles" on page 597 of the fourth edition of the Professional Pastry Chef. It calls for a thin disk of sweet short dough placed on top of the piped choux before baking. I've tried the recipe in the past and liked them quite a bit - the short dough adds crunch and flavor. Something like this may be what you're looking for.

The type of cream does make a difference if you're whipping. We have two brands of cream in the cooler - one is a regular pasturized heavy cream brand found in all the local supermarkets, and the other is Challenge brand ultra-pasturized. Both have the same fat content. Contrary to what you might think we use the Challenge when we want a stiff, stable whipped cream. The regular stuff will not whip as stiff no matter how long you beat it. The ultra-pasturized does contain some thickeners and stablizers to compensate for the extra heating process, so that might have something to do with it. We also don't use added gelatine or stabilizers. We add powdered sugar and vanilla and whip to very, very stiff. Rosettes on cakes and toppings on key lime tarts are stable for a least two days, though we rarely keep anything around that long. I used to think that you had to add gelatine to keep whipped cream from watering out, but I'm in Wendy's camp now. Though if the cream had to be firm enough to be sliceable like a mousse, then I would use some gelatine.

Let me try to outline some of the pros and cons of the "Bellagio Options" (which might also apply to other large high end hotels)... Pros: - With a wide range of pastry products produced in-house, you get exposure to a lot of different processes and techniques, in both large and small batches. Lot's to learn. - Almost everything is made from scratch using the best ingredients. Chefs are constantly telling us 'nothing goes out that isn't perfect'. - Within our restaurant team there are several stations that we all rotate through during the week, so not only do we each learn all of the items, we don't get bored doing the same things every day. - Good pay. Pastry cooks/bakers (entry level for anyone with any experience) make a little over $15 an hour, with time and a half for overtime, and double time for holidays. Wages are set by the union contract, so everyone at the same level makes the same money. Assistant pastry chefs and pastry chefs are on salary, so I don't know what they make. - The standard work day is 8 hours with full two day weekends. We've been working quite a bit of overtime since we're still short handed, but once we get fully staffed, overtime will become rare again. Sometimes we do get loaned out to banquets or other teams that are slammed for some optional overtime. - Great benefits. Full medical and dental, 401k, pension, job security, uniforms provided and maintained, free meals in employee dining room, plus miscelaneous perks. - Employees are treated fairly and with respect. No yelling and screaming, and foul language is frowned upon. - After 6 months, you have to option to transfer to other parts of the kitchen or anywhere else within the company, including other properties like MGM Grand, or Mirage. Cons: - Depending on which team you're on and you're shift, work shedules can be tough. Restaurant team currently works 3:00 am to 11:00 am. This can be especially hard if you have a family with kids you want to spend time with. - While I don't think we approach the insanity of most restaurant kitchens, we do have a lot of product to get out every day and we have to work fast and clean. - For the most part we have good equipment, but a big crew banging hard on this stuff every day takes it's toll. Mixer whisk attachements missing wires, dented and warped sheet pans, not enough bowls, burr mixers out for repairs, torches that won't stay lit, etc. They try to make sure we have to tools to get the job done, but it's not a perfect world. - opportunities for advancement are limited since most chefs have multi-year contracts, though promotions do happen. - If you are a pastry cook/baker, chances for personal creativity are rare to non-existant. The chefs develop all the desserts and recipes and we get to make them. - While some of what we make for the pasty shop is very advanced and modern, most of what we do is not exactly cutting edge or adventurous flavor-wise. Also, since we don't do final assembly and plating for the restaurant desserts, the components have to be a little more sturdy and construction less fussy so the restaurant staff put them together quickly and have them look nice. - Living in Las Vegas. This can either be a pro or con depending on your preferences and what type of community you're cofortable with. Outside of the Strip, Vegas is basically like a big California suburb. Lots of strip malls, you need a car to get anything done, no colorful/funky neighborhoods, not much in the way of culture. On the other hand, cost of living is still realatively low compared to other major cities (though housing prices are climbing fast), and if you like lots of sun, you'll get it (and temps over 100 for a least 3 months a year) along with very low humidity. What I really recommend, if you're at all interested, is to fill out an online application, then call the pastry kitchen office to set up an interview. Once you see the operation and try some of our product, you'll have a better idea of what's going on here - and you certainly have no obligation to accept a position if one is offered.

I just signed up. It's nice to finally have an alternative to PA&D, even if they are mostly just republishing from other sources for now.

This is not necessarily true. While the banquet and danish groups do work in large volumes, in the restaurant team we usually finish quantities of 8-20 daily of most items. And while of course it's true that Vegas isn't crime free, can you name a US city that is? Though I'm not a big fan of the lifestyle here, I've never felt unsafe.

OK, I wanted to post as soon as I saw this thread, but it's taken be a while to read through the posts up til now. Here are my two cents: I agree with those advising to not do the full school program thing, either at Notter or FPS. While I had a great experience at the FPS and learned a lot, I was heading into a big career change as an "older" person with no experience, and went there specifically to get a jump start so I wouldn't have to spend 5 years doing shit jobs working my way up. I didn't expect to be a pastry chef when I graduated, but I wanted to make sure I was positioned to enter a top kitchen and have some knowledge and skills. While I think that you might learn some things, Ted, I feel that their 6 month program is actually much too basic for where you're at right now. Much better to either stage with some great people, or take shorter advanced classes, or both. I know that you are looking into job possibilities here in Vegas now. I also know that you're more interested/comfortable in doing restaurant dessert work. However, if your goal is to learn and have a broader base of skills, then you might consider going the hotel route for awhile. I can't speak from experience about other hotels in the area, but I can tell you that I've learned a huge amount since coming to work at Bellagio. I believe that a hotel pastry program of this size and quality is very rare in this country, and I'm very happy to be able to take advantage of the diversity of work and personalities here. As you know, I work on the restaurant dessert team, which produces plated dessert components for five restaurants and room service, as well as finished desserts for Jean Philippe Patisserie and several other retail outlets. Just working on our stuff, rotating through the different stations, keeps me interested and learning, but we also occasionally get "loaned out" to the banquet team or the chocolate room where we get exposed to new and different processes. No, I'm not doing chocolate showpieces or developing new dishes for the restaurants (the chefs and assistant chefs handle those), but I'm where I need to be right now in my career and building a good foundation and work habits. With your experience and training, Ted, if you came to work here it would most likely be as a pastry cook (the union calls us "bakers"). Or you might be able to start as an assistant pastry chef, though those positions are fewer and not as available, often being filled from in-house. This may sound like a huge step down, but you could consider it as a temporary paid learning experience, just to get in and find out where you want to go. One of our people - who is at the same level as me - has much more experience and was formerly the pastry chef at Nobu here in Vegas. She came here for the better hours, better pay (about $15 an hour), better benefits, and to be exposed to a wider variety of work. Another person on our team used to teach at the CIA Graystone. I'm really not trying to talk you into anything, or say that Bellagio is the best and only place to work. I just wanted to offer another option that might help to round out your skill, expose you to new ways of working, and possibly become a stepping stone to other opportunities.

I'm starting to wonder if we are all talking about the same type of glaze here? The chocolate glaze we use is a French style "glacage" that contains cream, sugar and cocoa set with gelatine. It stays glossy (and sticky) when frozen and defrosted. Very different from a pourable ganache type glaze made with chocolate. In either case the stick blender method should work to eliminate bubbles (again, as long as you keep the head under the surface), but I think a torch would tend to burn the glacage glaze before it melted enough to pop the bubbles.

You can sometimes find frozen calamansi juice in Asian markets. They also usually sell bottled or canned calamansi juice for drinking, but that would contain water and sugar. The flavor is similar to yuzu in that it kind of tastes like a cross between lime and tangerine.