minas6907

Hey man, dont take it so personal. In all fairness, I'm also having a difficult time discerning what your looking for. Do you want to be a chef? Truthfully, any chef in the industry will tell you that spending two weeks doing some prep and dish washing is certainly not enough to decide that you want to go head on in the culinary field. I think most individuals would need to give it a few years.

What are you specifically talking about? Well, it really does mean to bake until its set. As with cheesecake and a creame brulee, you know when its set and no longer a liquid when you tap on the pan and you'll see it jiggle, but it will sort of jiggle in one big piece, rather then the sides jiggling and the very center ripples as a liquid would do. When you see it all moves together, even if it may seen like its moving too much and not cooked enough, when it cools down and is chilled, it will firmly set. Hope that makes sense. :-) Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

1) Yes, definitely. At an old school French place I was at, the roux was made with duck fat and stored at room temp in a large pot. I never really liked that, but thats how they did it for years prior. When I do roux at home, I will usually wrap it into a log with plastic wrap, then freeze it, and just cut off little coins as needed.

Hey Thanks, glad you liked them. It took probably an hour and a half total. If your familiar with doing pulled sugar, its no biggie. Just make sure your have a way of keeping the sugar warm, I use an oven set to 225f, though I think I may get a few more heat lamps (one heat lamp doesnt keep it warm enough) so I dont have to do the oven thing. Its pretty easy encasing the peanut butter mixture and pulling it over and over with out it coming out, then you just wrap that log in a jacket and start pulling. Its fun, I'd definitely make it again, and especially after making so much pulled hard candy, the butterfinger like crunch is very appealing.

Maybe slightly hotter, but I wouldnt go too crazy. Is your oven holding the temp accurately? Cause shell or not, I think an hour and a half in a 350f oven would make some nice toasty nuts. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

I agree with the above post, I think YouTube, plenty of parchment, good melted chocolate and practice are going to be your best bet. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

How hot is your oven? Are they in shell? I'd say any unshelled nuts just need maybe 20 min or so in the oven, depending on the temp. Your oven may be a tad too low. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

I just got done making the Peanut Butter Honey Comb candies from Grewelings book, they came out so nice! I'm very surprised I havent done these earlier. You pretty much make a hard candy base that contains molasses, hence the golden color, cool it down (which was sorta fun in itself since the candy gets the addition of baking soda, making it very foamy) Pull it, wrap the peanut butter filling in the larger portion of candy to make a tube, and carefully stretch it out and fold back onto itself, so you get peanut butter carefully encased in a hard candy. After that, take another portion of the candy, make a jacket around that log, and pull and cut. The texture is absolutely wonderful, much nicer then I was expecting. On the outside you get a bite because of the thin candy jacket, but the inside has perfect crunch, sort of like a butter finger, but a littler finer. My next project will be the Leaf Croquant, which I feel much more comfortable doing after trying this one.

I've never used one, but it looks like some sort of sheeter, the long edges are tilted up and it looks like a canvas material Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chocolates-and-confections-peter-p-greweling/1110764028 Saw the table of contents for the 2nd edition, looks like it just has the additional chapter for candy bars. I'm hoping additional items were added to the non crystalline confection, that seems to be the section I use the most. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Nice cake, I'm loving the sheep! There was some discussion a few pages back about cottage law, I was just informed it recently passed in California, so that may open up some possibilities for individuals. Me personally, I'd love to do something with various sugar confections, not ready just yet to jump into chocolate. http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml

They are good books, The Professional Pastry Chef was the very first book I bought. I look to then for inspiration and when I'm interested in making something I haven't done before or want to look up, normally I do find it somewhere in the two books. In general, though, I've had recipes come out better when I use a book like On Baking, which is a little more straight forward. Bo's books are fine, but I've experienced multiple occasions where the recipe itself needed tweaking. A few examples off the top of my head are for the scones, 425f seemed a bit hot to bake them, so I do 400f, and thats in addition to just using the formula to make my own variations, the directions for shaping them sounds like it would yield sharp long skinny scones, it sounded sort of odd. The formula for pastillage was off, it was unusually soft, very very difficult to work with, and I never had very much success with the pulled sugar formulas, I use Notters formulas from his book. I was also never much of a fan of his breads, some are good, other I would pass. On the other hand, I love the cookies, both in the standard book and the advanced, he makes very nice cookies, ice creams are good also, and he explains well why you should have a syrup density meter when making sorbets. So there's pros and cons to the books, it is informative, but not always my first choice. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Hey thanks. Do you add the chili and salt to the syrup?

Hey thanks guys! Heres another one I just got done with, its the almond dragée from Chocolates and Confections. It was easy enough to make, I like the rustic look of these, next to try these puppies with espresso beans!

What temp are you looking to bake at? Something I do with my pizzas is bake at 500 basically until done using a pizza screen, then I put the screen on the oven floor to darken and crisp it. I like how the crust comes out on a stone, but sometimes its just easier to do it this way. And about crackers, in addition to long baking and temperature, a cracker dough has much less hydration then a pizza dough, if you looking for that I'd decrease the hydration on a pizza recipe and see if you like the results. Hope fully that hasn't been mentioned before, I didn't read through all the other posts. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah, not all kitchens are the same, and the above post is very correct in saying that your so much more likely to get chewed out at a larger bakery/restaurant. Look for a smaller place where you feel like you fit in, when you find it you'll love to go to work rather then dread it. As far as your chef goes, it very well could be that she was trained in the same rough manner, but she could also be that way in general. I've known chefs who had a lifetime of experience behind then, being classically trained by individuals who were extremely temperamental, but they didn't act that way to others (not all the time anyways haha). But keep looking, you'll find chefs and pastry chefs with a huge variety of personalities and traits, when you find the right place you'll know it. You sound stressed at an unhealthy level, I'd definitely look for another place. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

You'll be happier with granite tops, they won't etch from acidic foods and cleaners, while marble will. In addition to that, granite is much harder to scratch then marbles, which is important when your using metal tools on the surface of the stone in candy making. You won't regret getting the granite, trust me, I work in the industry doing stone restoration, I've met plenty of home owners who wish they didn't install that beautiful white marble on their tops, simply because of the maintenance. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Heres some things I did recently. Just tried the mint meltaways from Grewlings book, and made some peppermint heart lollis for a friends anniversary this weekend.

I think Bourdain would be alot less interesting to most people if they didnt show crap like that, its just tv man.

Can you make me a giraffe? And I want him to have real big eyes ooooohh, and how about a sloth?! Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Ok, I appologize, I didnt realize you were trying to mix the caramel into the chocolate to create a product, I just looked up what the 'Caramelia' is. I'll just shut up now :-)

The milk powders listed for that candy are in the milk chocolate, not the caramel inside. But...what is the candy your trying to achieve? Is it a caramel bar dipped into chocolate? Or a chocolate bar with a liquid caramel center? What are you going for and how will it be put together? I dont see why creating a rich caramel flavor with a low moisture level is problematic, or there is probably something I'm missing here, ignore me if what I said was irrelevant.

I'm sure a salted caramel rum raisin would taste fine, perhaps up the salt in the mixture and fold in a caramel. For my personal taste, that would seem like a bit too much going on in a single ice cream, I think you'd lose alot of the rum flavor when you have a caramel and additional salt added to the mix, but we all have different preferences. I'd like to do a rum raisin for winter time, add a tiny bit of cinnamon and ginger and freshly grated nutmeg, yum. Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah, I could imagine how they would get sort of chewy in cold ice cream. It is nice, because by soaking them you prevent them from becoming little rocks inside your soft ice cream.

I would just add the macerated raisins to a vanilla ice cream base. Here are 2 I use, one is thickened with egg yolks, and the other is thickened with cornstarch, each would make an appropriate base for a rum raisin ice cream. Vanilla Ice Cream Base (Yolk) 1 qt. half and half 10 egg yolks 10 oz. sugar White Ice Cream Base (Cornstarch) 16 fl. oz. whole milk 10 fl. oz. heavy cream 4.5 oz. sugar 1/4 t. salt 1 T.+1 t. cornstarch