Almondmeal

ctown13! You know, I actually almost bought that book from dymocks bookstore but they do sell it rather pricy. I saw this chocolate gateux they have in that book that looks delicious!! but I have seen many other macaron books that are pretty good too. Going to dymocks again to check out the author and title and will let you know! I do wonder sometimes if famous places are actually willing to just sell out their secret recipe in a book! If they do, why would they do that? hmmmm

and if you want some fruity frappucino, you could go for fresh strawberries, passionfruit pulp in a can, some sugar water and blend them together with ice. Try it, its one of my favorite fruity frappes!!!

dear chocoeara, I used to be a waitress at a chocolate bar for 4 years in melbourne and I could not tell you how much I want you to add Frappucino on your menu! The funny thing is, a lot of customers always comes in for a milkshake and I guess that is probably the hip thing in Australia but because we do not have milkshakes in our menu, I always recommend them a Chocolate Frappucino instead. "Frappucino?", 80% of them would usually ask! I normally would just reply " It is similar to milk shakes only that its an ice blended chocolate drink with crunchy ice in them!." And every customers that have tried it always comes back for more! I rarely find a customer, unless if they hate chocolate so much that dislike a chocolate frappucino! It reminds me of the spider drink that are normally served in tall glasses and rainbow colors and flavors that usually comes with a scoop of ice cream. Spiders are so old school and now if someone were to crave for a childhood drink as thus, there is only one pancake restaurant that sells them in melbourrne. Its a good reminiscing drink that people has always like and if they bring them back in trend again, it will be hit again! I never find frappucino cheesy and I am pretty sure the 95% of the customers that I have recommended frapuccino to would agree too! The Frappucinos that was served in the chocolate bar that I worked at used to come in white, milk or dark chocolate. And there is this strawberry float that they make from white chocolate ganache, fresh strawberries and ice blended together. They are sensational! Please, frappucino is awesome!!!! To make frappucinos are simple! All you need is a strong blender meant for blending iced drinks! And the frappucino that was made from where i used to work use real chocolate ganache with milk and ice, then blend them together! that way its richer and sensational! If you buy the blend tec blender, you can make both smoothies and frappucino!!! The big deal about frappucino? Its like drinking a chocolate slurpee!!!!! How can you compare? hehehehe

I am having a break now from work and is just logging in to read yous advice. I came to work 45 minutes early this morning to get myself ready for the lashings and also to make it up to the chef if anything went wrong. My heart was pounding and I couldn't hear my own mind. - started washing up for the vegetables for the sandwich while waiting for the rest of the big chefs to come in. And I even checked the proofer where the croissants are stored in waiting for the bake off. I didn't know what I was looking for for if its a bad dough, I wouldn't know. Chef started coming in at 5 am and oven were turned on and I see the croissants being rolled in to it. Heart still pounding, I asked my chef if the dough was okay, he tiredly shrug and said it looks fine. Croissant came out ok but I'm still not sure if it could be better. I have learnt a great deal since last night and I could not sleep, I would always stop to ask whenever I sense something is not right instead of going for it! Thank u so much for the good advicem today I took up yous advise and asked my chefs question though it may be annoying for them. I wanted to tell my chef my cowardice decision yesterday, but since the dough came out fine, I decide not to infuriate them with unecessary comment. Hope this is not a bad thing to do. I feel horrible still. Got to go back to work. Thank u again!

Dear Pastry chefs out there, Today, I was given an important job to laminate croissant dough. And as an utterly inexperienced apprentice, I am not sure if what I just did at work would hear my chef's furious bellow tomorrow when they see the baked croissant in the morning. This is what happened, as I was told to laminate the dough with the butter, I realized that the butter was a little bit too soft, hence, I put them back in the fridge, but barely long enough for it to stiffen up a little. But because my chef wanted me to hurry up and finish the job, I reluctantly had to make do with the soft butter. As I folded the dough over the butter and rolling them through the roller machine, I realized that there were bits of butter uncovered by the dough which to my logic, would mean that the dough are not properly laminated which means that when they are baked, there would be parts without dough but only butter and probably means an uneven lift. This appearance are still visible even after I;ve done the Third fold but had to wrap them up and store in the blast chiller until the night chef comes in to make the croissant for bake off tomorrow morning. I am wreck nervous and I am hoping if someone out there could tell me if this would immensely affect the outcome when the dough are proofed and baked. I really want to just keep my job! Anyone out there?

Hi Eat.Choui, I was told that going for the TPT formula works like wonder. TPT is a french word which stands for Tant Pour Tant which means equal amount. As for Macaron shell, instead of using recipes that uses more icing sugar than almond meal, you change that to equal amount of icing sugar and almond meal. That way when mixed through the meringue, the batter would come out firmer and do not not require a long waiting time for skin to form and when you bake them, the shell just pop up with a wonderful feet! And this formulated macaron actually tasted more like almond meal than sugar! I have only discovered this amazing TPT formula after the market which kinda sucks because I can't convince people that my macaron aren't as sweet anymore... oh well hehehehe

I used chocolate imitations before and they have this reallie faux chocolate smell to it and they sort of taste unpleasant. But mind me, the one I bought was some cheap stuff, I've never seen a good high quality chocolate extract before.

Hey ctown 13, u know, ure right. What may be delicious to someone may just be alright for the other. I am using the italian method too for I am too impatient to boil the suugar although it doesn't take long to reach 120 degrees. And because of all the reccomendations above, I went to try macarons anywhere I can find. Its true, they all have their own delicious way even though they look pretty similar! I am more relieved now! Thank u so much!!!!!!

Can I make a wild guess? I dun think all this have anything to do with the cake. -i simply think that its just merely that ur chefs wants to get them packed and stored away as u go so that to save time. From where I work, we make cakes and when the cakes are just baked off, we roll the whole trolley straight to the big walk in fridge to make space so we can move on to baking other cakes. And as we go, apprentice like me would be packing the chilled cakes straight off and put in freezer for use when needed. This do not affect the texture of the cake and I think its totally normal if u want to be organised and fast! The biggest flaw in a kitchen, I reckon is to leave baked good laying around. Its so messy! So dun worry, I dun think ur workplace is doing anything dodgy. Hehehehe

Sometimes I wonder if famous macaron places like pierre or laduree would really give out genuine good recipe for their product....or maybe there is a special equipment involved that doesn't allow normal domestic people like me to perfect them.

YUM!!!!!

hmmmm

Rarerolling! If you are up for a delivery of macaron to your place, I am up for it , please send me a postal address because so happens that I just got a call from a good friend who wants some macaron for her daughter's birthday this sunday. The problem is, I just hope that when the macaron arrives it would still be intact! lol But that is if my macaron is successful for its been months that I haven't been baking them Hmmm, no offence but I am not sure about Zumbo macaron but I will soon be traveling to sydney to try his specialties. Watch his show here in MElbourne every thursday. Interesting though especially the hamburger macaron... mmm..... Don't want to be judge before I try it myself. Gap, I did not realize that Ganache has macaron!!!!!!!, but so far I have only tried the ones at Laurent and Cacao's. I still need to know what a macaron should really taste like and the real texture.

Hi Mjx, I did not realize that salt can be part of a macaron recipe too. !! That is actually a pretty good idea. I will give it a try and see hot it goes this time. Thank you!!! Rarerolling, a macaron tour sounds awesome!!!! I wish there is a standard way of telling if you have made a perfect macaron. I mean, it can be so bias for some people might think that the chewiness is the key point of judging the best macaron and some may pay attention on the crunch on the skin. Hmmm....

These macarons are made for a market function at Melbourne. I thought that I have finally perfected the look, the flavor and taste for a perfect macaron, then one day, not one but 98% of my friends opened up and told me that they are too sweet and find the texture incomparable to those that they have tried somewhere else. How do you tell what is a perfect macaron? I know it should be crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. but yet with the same texture of two macaron from two totally different method of making, yet people can differentiate the good and the bad? HELP! my self esteem has shattered as the one and only friend's cafe that bough the macaron I made to sell has cease to buy any from me because another chef he knows makes better ones

I am no professional but I love reading books about pastry. As I was browsing through eggulet, I find your topic interesting because it so happened that I was reading this alteration that you could do for sponge cakes. Sponge is just a sponge isn't it? Well, that was what I thought initially. I always thought that to make a sponge cake its all about the fluffiness and how well you whip the whites and folding them through the other ingredients. But the truth is, it really depends on what you are after. Some recipes may give you an end result of a denser sponge that holds shape and some a lot fluffier. I used to think that pastry is all about exact and accurate, but ever since I started working in the kitchen, I realized that pastry good can be improvised too. Take the sponge for example, depending on whether you want a softer sponge or a denser one, whole eggs, entirely or partially can be replaced with egg yolks or whites. If you use more egg yolks, you have a denser sponge which is good and if you use more of whites you have a softer and more fragile sponge, which is good too. But of course there is a catch to this concept just the same as cooking itself. There is always a rule to the ratios of ingredients you can improvised on any food at all and in the case of sponge cake is actually equal amount flour, eggs and sugar. But this equal amount produce an extremely heavy sponge and as said before if you wish to alter it, you could by changing the ratio like for example, instead of using all purpose flour, you could combine bread and cake flours and if you wish for a a softer texture, you could use more whites than whole eggs in the sponge. Like cooking, if its too bland, you add a bit of salt, but if you add too much, it becomes too salty, the same with if you add too much sugar in a sponge, it will burn easily but if you dun it would not have enough flavor and would not give color. Therefore, the recipes are there, but to what result you want them, is entirely up to you which recipe is best. Hope you understood what I meant cause as i was writing this, I got abit confused myself... teee heeeheee

I am not really a big fan of acidic flavor but once in a while I like something tangy to wash off the stale taste in my mouth and I find Lemoncurd ∫to be the best dessert for that. The basic ingredients for Lemoncurd are : Lemon juice, Sugar, Eggs and Butter. I realized through many recipe that I have gone through requires corn starch as well for making Lemon curd. I guess the reason is obvious, corn starch are usually used as a thickening agent but I find cornstarch leaves a kind of unpleasant flavor for the curd. The method of making a lemon curd usually comes down to whisking the eggs and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and then adding lemon juice and butter or sometimes corn starch, then keep whisking the mixture until it thickens. But do not get me wrong, this method is the most original way of making Lemon curd and usually the results are not bad all, except the taste if you are using cornstarch. But one week ago, I witnessed my chef making the most straightforward and easiest method of producing a Lemoncurd that I never thought existed! That is to microwave them. Then I searched online for this method and turns out that Lemoncurd can easily be done without the hassle of heating up the stove. All you need in one bowl and a microwave. The method is fairly simple: First, you heat up the lemon puree (which is 70% pure lemon juice and 30% sugar) and castor sugar with a microwavable bowl in the microwave until it is just hot enough or until the sugar dissolves. Then you add the eggs (lightly beaten beforehand) with the puree and whisk to combine. Heat the mixture again in the microwave for 20 seconds. After the 20 seconds, take the bowl out and whisk the mixture then put the bowl back in the microwave for another 20 seconds and whisk. Repeat this step until mixtures thickens and seems like a blob. Finally, add in the butter mixture, and using a barmix, mix the butter in to the Lemon curd until thoroughly mixed through. Cling wrap the bowl and put in fridge to cool before use. And there, you have a Lemon curd in less than 3 minutes!!! The ingredients? The ingredients is even more simple! That is the equal amount of everything. Which means, Equal measurements (in grams) of lemon puree, sugar, eggs and butter! The ratio that I use would be: 500 g Lemon Puree 500 g Castor sugar 500 g Whole eggs 500 g Unsalted Butter The reason for using butter in lemon curd is for a smoother texture and butter helps the curd to set too to a certain consistency and it works and taste better than having to use cornstarch, I reckon!

Thanks for the great infos! I've checked the websites on the link you guys sent me, though still a small oven but so much better than the one I am using. So there is something out there that suits a small place I am so Glad!

I live in a small unit apartment with a kitchen-dining room and absolute no space for even a domestic build in oven. The past years I have been making basic cakes with my mini portable oven which seems alright because all that I ever made when I first started learning to bake was brownie, chocolate cake, and cookies. But as time goes on I want to try something different, like profitetols, pastry goods, bread and other desserts that do not require me to bake 6 or 7 times compare to a one time bake off if I am in a Commercial kitchen. Last year for christmas, I had to bake 3 gingerbread man a time and it took me forever to finish baking off the whole dough from 1 recipe! There are things that I want to try making but it just doesn't seem to work considering the time and space which ended up being the dessert not worth making at all! I have thought about installing a proper domestic oven but the building would not allow as it would change the structure of the building. Is there a bigger portable oven out there? Is there anything else out there that could make a small home a "bake possible" place?