teonzo

Beautiful beautiful logo! Teo

There are cases of people who are intolerant to alcohol, so even the smallest trace in food is a treat to their life. So it's better to not make the assumption that all alcohol evaporates: almost all evaporates, but traces are left. Teo

Definetely this. It has no sense to work with less than 2 kg chocolate. With 500 g or less you need to keep after it every 2 minutes, pure nightmare. With 100 g it becomes a horror movie, there will be more air bubbles than chocolate at the end.. Definetely this too. Teo

The one on the right seems perfect, so you got the correct settings for your oven. Now it's just abount finding your favourite recipe, eating the trials will be a huge sacrifice I suppose. Teo

This is a great reference: Jean-Pierre Wybauw - "Fine Chocolates Gold" Teo

I would say the inside is similar to crepes, after all the recipes are pretty similar. Teo

You need to create a proper emulsion, which you can't judge with your eyes. It takes an immersion blender or a lot of hand mixing. The batch that separated was not mixed enough. Teo

You should give some more details. If you talk about generic pasta, like in the first post, Italians like me think you are talking about dried pasta, not fresh pasta. So you should give a brief description of which kind of fresh pasta you are dealing with (eggs or water? shapes?), sauces too. You also should specify which production steps you have control on, which not. I suppose you have control on at least one of the steps, if you have zero control then it's pretty impossible to fix anything. Teo

The doneness degree of pasta depends a lot on local culture. There is quite a big difference even between South and North Italy. What is considered perfect in Naples would be considered too dry in Trento. So it seems like the average Russian customer wants overcooked / chewy pasta. You just need to cook it (boiling stage, not the re-heating) 1 or 2 minutes more. Probably you'll think you are preparing mush, but if this is what customers wants, then it's gold not mush. Teo

A wire rack over a pan is used to limit the heat from below: the pan acts as a shield against the radiating heat from the bottom of the oven, the wire rack is used to not put stuff in direct contact with the pan. So it seems like this is the reason behind the white bottoms. Next time I would try using only the pan or only the wire rack. Using a baking stone could be overkill, since you are passing from a "low heat from the bottom" to a "high heat from the bottom" solution, not from a medium one, the difference could be too big, resulting in burnt bottoms. When baking each oven is its own beast. Instructions given in books / recipes are to be taken as guidelines, then you need to adapt to your setting. Probably your source adopted the wire rack + pan solution because their oven was over-heating from the bottom. Or vice-versa, your oven is low-heating from the bottom, who knows. Even the same models can have different behaviours. Teo

I know that these exists: Bendersky Ari - "1,000 Food Art & Styling Ideas" Denbury Jo - "Food Presenting Secrets: Creative Styling Techniques" Styler Christopher - "Working the Plate: The Art of Food Presentation" But I never had the chance to give them a look, so I don't know if they are any good. Teo

The insides look pretty good. The outsides should be darker, verging on burnt but not being burnt. I would suggest trying raising the oven temperature to 400 F. The white bottom can be caused by the pan used to lay the molds, maybe it's not doing a good job about radiating heat. So I would suggest trying to change the pan, or putting the molds on a wire rack (even better). Teo

When you buy frozen white peach puree in May you are using something that has been in the freezer for almost a full year in a cold chain much worse than yours. Fruit puree is much more dangerous than a truffle with aW below 0.60. If you are confident selling stuff made with frozen purees that are well out of season, then there is no reason to not be confident selling these truffles. If they were packed well (which I suppose it's a given), they were left undisturbed at that temperature without fluctuations, they taste fine, then I don't see any reason to be dubious. If your question is ethical then you can give them away for free (samples at markets, whatever); composting them is a waste of good food, which should be against the ethics of every professional. Teo

I think the best choice for you would be going to a bakery and ask for a stage. If you are really willing to learn then that's the best road. You will not be paid, you'll have to deal with basic tasks, but you'll have the chance to see what's the real deal. Working for free means you don't get money, but it also means you don't spend money to be taught. Otherwise you can check with your local colleges, there are various cooking schools in Hawaii, for sure there is a bread program that can suit your needs. Teo

You can find some discussions and explanations in this thread. Teo

1- water, not a joke, there's nothing more satisfying than drinking water when you need it 2- strawberries, the small ones just picked from the plant, not the huge flavorless crap found in stores 3- wild blackberries, huge pita to collect but they taste like the sun 4- "verdoni", a kind of green plum similar to greengage and reine claude 5- mulberries, if I were forced to choose then I would pick the white ones over the black ones 6- figs, when in season I can't stop eating them 7- radicchio tardivo, the best vegetable we grow in this region 8- carrots, when I was a child I loved going in the garden, picking a carrot from the soil, washing it and eating it raw 9- tonka beans, I used them in many pastries and loved all them 10- ylang ylang, such an inebriating aroma I can live without meat, fish and cheese, but don't touch my fruit. Teo

Seems like the batteries released some acid. After 3-4-whatever years batteries start to release acid, this causes problems with the contacts. For most cases it's not a problem since batteries need to be changed before that time, but I suppose you don't use your Thermapen for hours each day. There are plenty of tutorials on the internet on how to clean that acid, hopefully this will solve your problem. Teo

You need to buy the whole set which comes in 3 sizes: big for grapefruits; medium for oranges and lemons; small for limes. If you behave well then you can win the chance to get the tiny tiny version for kumquats. Teo

Very nice to see, totally useless. You need to put a hand behind it, which will be uncomfortable. You'll get lots of juice drops ending everywhere due to the geometry. Only way to sell it is with a price tag well over $50 and aiming to design maniacs. Cooks will keep far like the plague. NO. Teo

Chocolate is a suspension of solids in a continuous fat phase. If you add lecithin to chocolate, you risk that a good amount of it does not end up being dissolved in the cocoa fat phase, thus becoming ineffective. If you dissolve it in cocoa butter then add this to the chocolate, then you don't run this risk. In your first messages you wrote that if you taste erythritol and inulin alone you don't feel any grains in your mouth, they are fine enough. You feel grains when you taste the final chocolate you are making. So this should mean that those grains are formed during your chocolate making process, otherwise you would detect those grains also when you taste erythritol and inulin alone. Teo

On average cocoa has around 55% fat and 45% solids. Couverture is made with added cocoa butter, so the % is a bit higher. If you want to get something similar to dark couverture then you should aim for around 60% cocoa butter 40% cocoa solids. The % of cocoa butter in cocoa powder can vary quite a bit, usually from 6% to 24%. To know this you need to read the label of the cocoa powder you are using, just look at the nutritional infos for the % of fats. If you call: %CBP = % of cocoa butter in cocoa powder (from 6% to 24%) %CBF = % of cocoa butter in the final product (if compared to the total of cocoa fat and cocoa solids, this is the 55% to 60%) Then the formulas are (percentages are used in decimal, you need to write 0.6 instead of 60%): cocoa powder to use = (1 - CBF) / (1 - CBP) cocoa butter to use = 1 - ( (1 - CBF) / (1 - CBP) ) Example: if you are using cocoa powder with 20% fat and are aiming for a couverture-like result of 60% cocoa fat, then the formulas are: cocoa powder to use = (1 - 0.6) / (1 - 0.2) = 0.5 cocoa butter to use = 1 - ( (1 - 0.6) / (1 - 0.2) ) 0.5 In this case you should start with equal amounts of cocoa powder and cocoa butter. The range should be within 59% cocoa powder 41% cocoa butter and 42% cocoa powder 58% cocoa butter. Teo

Try dissolving the liquid lecithin in a bit of cocoa butter before adding it to the rest of the ingredients, it should be much more effective. Teo

Perfect, thanks. We pick them when they are like in this photo. Teo

Ah, good to know, thanks. Sometimes I tried to taste a jujube that I forgot on the tree (did not notice or what else) and it "wilted" (please tell me the correct English term, "wilt" is what I get with google translator), taste is really different. I never tried to pick them green then let them dry, always picked them brown and used them immediately. Next year I will try this method, I'm really curious. I suppose it gives better results, since this is what came out after centuries of tries, while here we have really few experience and treated jujubes like other stone fruits out of ignorance. Teo

I use jujubes in many sweet preparations (that's my area). Just now I'm eating a pie made with lemon shortcrust, jujube jam and nutmeg crumble, nice coincidence. I use jujubes when they just turn brown, meaning they are plump, not wilted like in the photo here. Taste changes drastically when they wilt. From what you write you get plump jujubes, so you should find them at the maturation point I use them. I'm writing the recipes for some of the things I make. Everything is based on jujube puree, which is quite a PITA to make, so that's the first one. These recipes are made using plump jujubes, so I have no idea if they work with wilted jujubes too. ---------------------------------------------------------- JUJUBE PUREE The big problem is getting rid of the stones and the skin, so it takes a good amount of manual work. There are 2 ways. 1 Wash the jujubes and dry them. Pick one, with a small knife you cut away the pulp from the stone, pur the pulp pieces in a pan. throw away the stones. When you are done (and said more curses than stars in the sky) you add enough water to the pulp pieces just to level them. Put the pan on the stove, cover with a lid, cook the jujube pieces until they are tender. When the pulp is tender you strain the pieces (don't waste the cooking liquid, it's delicious), then make a puree with an immersion blender or food processor. Then you pass it through a food mill to eliminate the skin pieces. 2 Wash the jujubes and dry them. Put the jujubes (whole) in a pan, add enough water to level them. Put the pan on the stove, cover with a lid, cook the jujubes until the pulp is tender. When the pulp is tender you strain the jujubes (don't waste the cooking liquid, it's delicious), then pass them through a food mill to eliminate the stones and the skins. ---------------------------------------------------------- JUJUBE JAM 1000 g jujube puree 600 g sugar Put jujube puree in a pan, add sugar and mix, cook until you get a jam. ---------------------------------------------------------- JUJUBE SORBET 110 g jujube cooking liquid 110 g sugar 280 g jujube puree. Make a syrup with the jujube cooking liquid and the sugar. Add the jujube puree and mix with immersion blender. Churn the sorbet base in an ice-cream machine. ---------------------------------------------------------- JUJUBE PATE DE FRUIT 300 g jujube juice 300 g sugar 10 g pectin NH 8 g lemon juice Run some jujube puree in a food juicer until you get 300 g of jujube juice, you should need around 400-450 g of jujube puree. Alternatively you can use 1000 g jujube cooking liquid and reduce it to 300 g. Mix sugar and pectin to avoid lumps. Put the jujube juice in a pan, heat to around 40-50° C. Add the sugar pectin mix, whisking to dissolve them and avoid lumps. Cook to 105° C whisking constantly, pour the pate de fruit in iron bars and proceed as usual. ---------------------------------------------------------- JUJUBE MOUSSE 300 g jujube puree 150 g sugar 7 g gelatin sheets 300 g cream (35% fat) Mix jujube puree and sugar, heat to around 60°C so the sugar dissolves (microwave works fine). Add the gelatin sheets (soaked and squeezed, as usual), mix well. When the jujube base drops to 30° C, whisk the cream until you reach semi-whipped texture. Fold the cream in the jujube base. I used this mousse for an entremet made with prickly pears and cloves. ---------------------------------------------------------- JUJUBE GANACHE 360 g white chocolate 280 g jujube puree Bring jujube puree to a boil, add the white chocolate (in small pieces), wait 2 minutes, then mix to get a smooth ganache. I used this ganache for a dual layer praline (filled bonbon), the other layer was a rosemary ganache made with dark chocolate. You can use this ganache for filling macarons too, but you need to raise the jujube puree to 400 g. ---------------------------------------------------------- Teo