minas6907

I'm also for the Capresso Infinity. I got one when a friend of mine gave me his Coffee Gaggia, and the thing works wonderfully for grinding espresso, also has a wide variety of grind settings.

Just got: Bread Bakers Apprentice Art of the Chocolatier On Baking (and included on the cd-rom of On Baking is the entire 11th edition of "Food for Fifty." in .pdf format)

Nice, I like the silicone work. I almost bought a silicone chocolate mold to use to make plaster casts for liquor filled chocolates, but realized before I got one that the cheap plastic candy molds work just as well.

I actually do have a garde manger book, if I had looked through it before I bought it, I probably would not have, most of it is already covered in the Professional Chef book. Anyways, theres a recipe for "Mediterranean Seafood Terrine" (Has shrimp and scallops, but I'm sure you can sub all shrimp) and "Salmon Pâté en Croûte" (which has 1 lb. shrimp and 12 oz. salmon). The recipes are too much to type, if you want them, pm me your email and I'll scan them and send them in a .jpg.

Just from personal experience, we always used the Matfer pans at the last restaurant I worked at. Seriously, those things are indestructible. When I saw them for sale at a restaurant supply store, I bought two, gave my stainless steel pan to my sister, and over the year returned to get 5 more pans. They brown meat so nicely, much better then I was ever going to get with my stainless. TomatoMustard, get a small pan from the store, follow the directions to season it, and sear a piece of meat in it. Wait for the pan to start smoking, then place your meat inside. I guarantee you will notice a difference. And as for as the Matfer pans go, in the restaurant and in my kitchen, I've put those pans through everything, never seen the slightest hint of it wanting to warp.

Oops, didnt realize I didnt say what I was using it for. Yes, its for hard candy, caramel, toffee, etc. I pretty much stopped using my current thermometer with caramels and just test by hand, the mixture seems to get too thick after a while and just kind of gunks up the little space that the thermometer is in at the bottom and doesn't read properly. I've been looking at the probes, I'll probably end up with one of those.

I honestly thought hard about your first topic about the lemon honey jellies, I just jokingly thought if injection. I took the fact that no one responded as a clue as to how difficult that might be. It's not like you can really fold the honey into it and cut them after, some sort of injection is the only thing that comes to mind.

Hey Everyone I was wondering what most of you were using for thermometers. Thus far, I've been using this CDN that I got at a restaurant store: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000095RBW/ref=s9_simh_gw_p79_d0_i6?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1HCJMAFHT277HBR4BD8Y&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 Its done very well, the only thing I get nervous about it is it seems like there needs to be a significant amount of liquid that it has to be immersed in, and the liquid has to be thin enough to get to the actual glass meter, since its the bottom is encased in a little metal cylinder with holes. Anyways, like I said, it has done very well (though the black piece of plastic broke off, but thats no biggie) but I've been considering getting a digital probe thermometer. Anyone have any suggestions for a brand? I've seen the one Kerry used in the confectionary 101 course, and was wondering if there was anything I should keep in mind when selecting one? Does having the probe hang over the side of the pan make stirring easy?

Is there any specific way to discern that? After I make a puree, to ensure a recipe to work properly, would most take a hydrometer to a diluted puree? It seems rather comlicated. Also, considering that all fruits have different sugar/pectin levels, how is it that in the recipe for pectin jellies in chocolates and confections, simply any fruit puree is listed as an ingredient? Anyways, from watching that video I see a few things I could have dont better, and since I have the apple compote made up, I'll give grewelings recipe another go. Thats funny, I actually did see that video on youtube...but having the subtitles helps alot! And, mabye I'm wrong, but I didnt think caster sugar made any difference, especially since its measured by weight and it all dissolves in the mixture...but I've been wrong before :-)

Is everyone who's making pate de fruit here using the puree's from Boiron or Perfect Puree? I'm planning on pureeing my own fruit, do you use these table simply as a guide? Or will I not get consistent results with my own fruit puree? The recipe I used in my first attempt was from Chocolates and Confections if anyone was curious.

Thanks for those tables, I think those will be helpful. I made nectarine PDF today, but they didn't really set up fully, I suspect that, as stated in the .pdf Kerry posted, I let the mixture get too cool when adding the sugar. It says "When adding the sugar, make sure the cooking temperature does not fall below 85° C (185°F) to prevent the pectin gelling." Anywho, I'll try again later. Also, on all the tables I've seen, nectarines are not mentioned. I guess I'll just keep fooling with this one. Thanks guys!

Thanks for your reply. The tartaric acid called for is in the form of a solution. I do have critic acid, can I just make a solution from that and use it in place? On a Google search on the subject I found some information suggesting the same thing, but I also found some other misleading information from those searches, so I was a bit hesitant to believe that, but I'll give it a try. I think I just have to mess around with the jellies, I'm just nervous, new area I haven't been in yet.

This is very interesting. I check my book The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef on Friberg's pate de fruit recipe, and he doesn't use any pectin. In the paragraph, he says that "that candy becomes firm due to the natural pectin in the fruit in combination with the cooked sugar." It consists of the apple compote, apricots, sugar, and (this was what I thought was interesting) 5 oz. strawberries or 3 T lemon juice. Looks like the Lemon juice would help firm up the jellies, even with out the additional mass that 5 oz. of strawberries would give. He actually doesn't give a temperature to cook to, just has a test to see if the mixture is thick enough. Anywho, thought someone would find that interesting.

Hey Everyone! I was thinking about making some pate de fruit, I've never done any jellies before. I had a few questions about some recipes. Firstly, I was looking at the recipe from Chocolates and Confections on page 280. I wanted to try this one, but the formula requires apple compote, which for the first try I rather refrain from including, I dont really want to make something like that for my first run, I may have time tomorrow to do it, but if at all possible, I rather not. So I was thinking about using the recipe from The Art of the Chocolatier. Notter's formula doesn't require the apple compote, but tartaric acid is used to gel the pectin. Thing is, I really dont have tartaric acid, I have plenty of cream of tartar, but from some google searches I've seen that these aren't the same thing. When I was comparing Greweling's recipe to Notter's, I saw that in Chocolates and Confections, Greweling uses lemon juice as an acid. Both formulas are kind of similar, Grewelings seems to use quite a bit more glucose, though it is a larger yield. Basically from comparing these two formulas, it seems like I could use Notters recipe and just use some lemon juice. How would I go about the substitution? Let me know if it's ok to post the formulas from these two books. Also, interesting to note, this site here http://suziesweettooth.com/2011/06/06/raspberry-pate-de-fruits-fruit-jellies/ posted an adapted version on Notter's jellies. She says that the tartaric acid is optional, and you can skip this step. Comparing her recipe to the books, she pretty much just doubled the pectin, and skipped the tartaric acid. I just thought it was interesting, maybe her adding more pectin to the same quantity of pate de fruit mixture, shes less liable to have issues with it not setting up, hmmm. Anyways, I guess I'm just interested in seeing how I can substitute lemon juice for the Tartaric acid. Any help is appreciated, thanks guys! :-)

Sorry to say, but I'm also with dcarch, mostly for the reason that they are breakable. I think it may just be from previously working in a commercial kitchen, I really hate any cook ware that is glass, I'm terrified of dropping it, especially those large heavy pyrex pans, cant stand those.

Wow, ok, Brandy Snaps it is! I was confused by the title of the video, I did a google image search for 'snaps' and pretty much just got lots of ginger snaps. A search of 'brandy snaps' got what I was looking for. Thanks everyone!

Is there any other name? The reason I'm a bit confused is that I see no reference to a 'snap cookie' (except ginger snaps) in any of my text books. I think the name is throwing me off. Even my Food Lovers Companion had no reference to anything called a snap. It almost looks like a florentine with out the candied fruit/nuts. Anywho, thanks for the fast response. Edited to say that I posted the above before seeing Kerry's post. She posted while I was typing this out.

Is it just me, or does that cream look slightly over whipped at 5:03?

Heres a video I found on youtube. What would you call this cookie? I'm not so much interested in the final product, but more so in the thin moldable cookie that looks like it spreads out like crazy in the oven. This kind of reminds me of a wafer type cookie we I would make sometimes as a garnish when I was in a restaurant. Anyone know the proper name of the dough that is being made here? Would this be a florentine? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZuBL3jPBEk

Haha, I thought I was clever for thinking of this. I just wrap it into a log in plastic wrap, then freeze. I just cut off pieces as I need them. Thats so funny you say about the chipotles looking just like the tomato paste, one day I was looking for some paste and wondered (of course forgetting that I had peppers in the freezer) why is this tomato paste wrapped in such a large log and such a deep blood red color?

This is copied from the menu from my first restaurant job: "Santa Ynez Tri Tip $24 Grilled tri tip, burgundy-pepper marinade, roasted new potatoes, santa ynez-spiced demi-glacé" Its the 'demi-glace' that kills me. That was made from salty powdered beef stick mix, a handfull of Christmas spice, and a cornstarch slurry to thicken. It really was great meat, but that sauce kills it, its so salty and jelly like, hardly can be called a demi.

I remember for the grilled chicken breasts, before lunch and dinner service, they would get marked on the grill, into the oven into 75% done, and then put into the holding cabinet. Rotisserie chicken was done the same way. When we got an order, it got pulled from the cabinet and finished cooking fully in the oven. Also, at a French place I worked at, the wogs we got were quite huge. So those were seared in the black pan, cooked half way in the oven, divided up into appropriate portions, and then refrigerated. They got reheated and finished cooking in the oven in a pool of sauce we made for the chicken.

Thats interesting you mention that. I saw soda candies that were made with the same mixture, its really cool. I did my best to mimic them at home. I made a batch or hard candy, added red color and raspberry flavor, pulled it a little bit, flattened it into a thick square, then put the citric acid/baking soda/powdered sugar filling in the middle and folded it over, rolled it into a log and started pulling it. I just made little pillow shapes, cutting them with shears, and they came out pretty decent for the first try. You can suck on the candies, but when you bit them you get the fizzy feeling in your mouth.

Blueberry Almond Scones topped with strussel, using the base recipe for scones in the Professional Pastry Chef.

Kerry, can I sub granulated white sugar for the brown sugar in the pulled candy recipe?