Matthew Kirshner

I have an unusual question about adding color cocoa butter to a mold. I have been told in the past to cast the molds in white cocoa butter after finishing adding the main colors for the molds. does anyone do this? I find spots of white throughout the chocolate piece. I made a raspberry lime bonbon today(sorry I forgot to take a picture, will add tomorrow) the main colors are red and green cast in dark chocolate shell. I added white cocoa butter on top of the colored inlays, like I said this is something I was told before. so I guess my question really is the white cocoa butter really necessary?

I would try switching to a low protein bread flour. As for the steaming, try this: go to a hardware store and purchase either metal chains or a bunch of nuts and bolts to fill a loaf pan. when heating up the oven place the pan either on the side of the baking stone or on the bottom rack. the metal will help create the steam and you would vent the last 10mins of baking. Personally when I use to do 4-hour baguettes I never liked the outcome until I switched flours.

Hi Anna, I just curious, what is your steaming method? and what type of bread flour are you using?

Thank you for the formula, I am working out of a professional kitchen when I do make them. I try not to make them at home because I always had a fear they will not rise without a convection fan. If I were to make them at home I will definitely try your formula, would a baking stone help with the baking process? Thanks!!

I use my digital scale. it is very accurate, I keep it calibrated normally. the egg supplier does change job to job, but I rely on the measurement on the scale. Today the shells came out great, because it was less humid in the kitchen, I am just wondering if I should use more egg white powder in the meringue for those humid days, or would that be an overkill

Thanks, the French crème is hard for me to explain, when we develop this at my the bakery I worked at, my boss came home from France after meeting with an old friend. How he explain was it is a very low grade French buttercream, but with the pastry cream made with mostly a water instead of milk or cream. it is held together with mostly starch. after mixing on the stove we add 5% butter then beat the mixture with a paddle until chill. According to the French baker, this is a good alternative to pastry cream that can has a longer shelf life. Normally I would just make pastry cream, but being I did not want pastry cream to sit in the fridge, this is the best alternative.

So recently I have been dealing with an issue with my macarons. The formula I have been using years has not be producing the shells I like. Nothing has dramatically change with ingredients except when I was at my last employment and they were an organic bakery, so the sugar was very corase. with that I changed the meringue to a swiss. the place I am at now I am back to regular sugar but the resting time is taking longer than usualy to dry out, when it does and comes out of the oven it does not create feet it stays how it was piped. I know with the weather changing is it possible I should add more egg white powder to the meringue? I am use to classic French meringue. Any thoughts?

I made these cakes for a client recently. This is a Hazelnut Cake: Vanilla sponge, Hazelnut cream filling, with Hazelnut buttercream, and a mirror ganache glaze. She told me it must be very hazelnutty!!! I acutlly made my own hazelnut paste for this and I believe it came out very well. This is my version of a Strawberry Shortcake: Vanilla Sponge, French Crème with sliced strawberries, Vanilla Buttercream and fresh dipping strawberry décor

if you have a local Michael's near you they have tons of cake decorating supplies. Otherwise, I sometimes use pastrychef.com or bakedeco.com for supplies. if you are out west, chefrubber.com is another source.

its been a little over a month since I have been using this vegetable gelatin my boss brought in, and the results have been not as great. Although it has been working very well as a gelee topping for the mousse, the mousse itself has not passed my approval. I did decide for right now to combo fruit/chocolate mousses to pass the time. sometimes you just have to know when to move along.

Thanks I will try tomorrow at work. could just changing the procedure of not melting the chocolate first help or just stick to a slabbed?

I recently bought the medium size truffle silicone mold from trufflemade, I notice in some on their website I should make a ganache as if I were to slabbed/tabled cut. Has anyone used these molds and have used their own truffle ganache recipe and had success? I do find this process a little strange. Any thoughts?

Are you freezing the mousse in a special mold? if so, the alcohol will not solidify. I would reduce the wine first and add it to the chocolate, then add the remaining components. You could always make the whipped cream a little stiffer, somewhere between soft and medium peaks.

I am curious, with your method, would you be willing to share your formula?

Yes, it will be layered between either cake or mousse layers. Also I was planning a large macaron disc with fresh raspberries around.

I was planning to make some cakes with a crème brulee insert but I do not own the flexi mold for them. I had an idea of baking the mixture in a 1/2 sheet pan then freezing. After freezing I was going to use my mousse rings to cut out the dimensions I need. Has anyone done this approach before or does anyone have any other methods I could try. Flexi molds are really expensive and I would not like to go down that path.

At work I make these cakes all the time, the first one is a Chocolate mocha cake: This cake is our Chocolate ridiculous Cake: Chocolate cake, Rich chocolate pudding filling, Chocolate buttercream, Chocolate Ganache Glaze.

Hello Everyone, I am in the market for a new printer for my frosting sheets(My last one is discontinue, and can no longer find parts.) I was wondering if anyone has bought a newer version of printers for edible printing(Either Epison or Canon) and which model and thoughts on the product. Any suggestion would be great. Thanks in advance!!

Found out the hard way, I made a very small batch of strawberry mousse, it came out stiffer then I wanted it to, but a froze in the molds and it did not have any different effect then if I would use regular gelatin. going to try again next week, Easter Weekend, too much going on.

I soak the layers in a raspberry syrup before sandwiching. I understand what you mean by the dryness factor, I usually add a little more butter when I fold it in.

I have been waiting a long time to make this cake,but I finally got around to it. Vanilla Genoise, Housemade Raspberry jam, Italian Meringue Frosting, toasted Almonds Fresh Raspberry pile. I think the reason why I don't make this cake is it does not last long, it was sold in less then 20 mins after putting on display. i don't have the man power to make a lot of Meringue, but here it is!!

I always use white coating chocolate to mask inside any crust shell, regardless if it pie, tart, etc with cream fillings. It does help prolong the crust from becoming soggy.

Ok, so I know it has been awhile but my boss finally got something in: Vegetable Gelatin. After doing a quick research on it, I found two sources saying two different application process. One says to dissolve normally 5x water amount, while the other mention to dissolve 3x water amount. Any thoughts??

Made this cake at work the other day, nothing special. Vanilla Chiffon, with Strawberry Buttercream and with chocolate dipped strawberry décor. Like I said, nothing special just wanted to share.

I have personally never tasted a difference between using the same % of couverture from separate chocolate companies and have different results. The only company I have seen a difference is Felchin chocolates, only because of the intense flavor or what they call "intense compound" Customers normally will not know the difference. I am a huge Valrhona user for ganaches but I use Orchard Chocolates for enrobing.