Rana
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Posts posted by Rana
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Hello everyone,
I have been going to a cafe that serves pastries with "hazelnut cream". The cream has a really distinctive flavor but I wasn't able to get it. I tried pastry cream with praline, with whipping cream but the flavor is not even close. I tried hazelnut butter cream, also not even close.
I talked to staff and one of them tried to talk to the chef into giving me the secret and all he was willing to say is: I don't use any artificial flavorings or extracts, I use fresh hazelnut.
Can someone please how to make a hazelnut cream using fresh hazelnut?
Thanks a lot in advance.
Rana
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Hello everyone,
Ok I have been trying to make croissant dough (puff pastry) just like the ones I see in videos and books. I CANNOT seem to be able to roll the dough thin enough. It remains really thick. If I apply more pressure in order to press down it tears right away. And YES and temperature of the butter and the dough is cold (not freezingly cold).
My question is do you think the reason is the dough itself? I use the standard dough I always make: flour, milk, water, yeast, salt and sugar.
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the insides of your look perfectly awesome to me - the cafe ones look like the ones with the problem IMHO
I'm no expert though. And if someone uttered the phrase, 'tastes like cadbury chocolate bar' to a ganache I made, I think I would punch them right inna nose, because I can make infinitely better tasting things than crapbury
Thanks
!trouble is it is unpleasantly crunchy, the other one is "creamy" which we all like the macaron to be, regardless of the filling, I am wondering how to get that creamy layer right under the thin shell.
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I checked several websites on the troubleshooting but none referred to that layer I am asking about. I followed all the instructions and they were perfect and smooth in terms of shape. it is the inside that disturbed me. I baked them for 13 minutes (160 degree) on a silicon mat.
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Hello every body!!
Please have a look at the attached photo to see the difference between my macaron and the one from a cafe. Mine was hollow and unpleasantly crunchy, unlike the one on the right which was very creamy.
Can someone please explain to me how to get the layer "right right under the thin shell" to be creamy like the one in the photo?
This is the recipe I used:
- 90 grams (3 ounces) of egg whites (equal to whites of 3 large eggs), at room temperature
- 125 grams (4 ½ ounces) of ground almonds or almond flour
- 125 grams (4 ½ ounces) of icing sugar
- 25 grams (1 ounce) unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
- 125 grams (4 ½ ounces) of caster sugar (superfine sugar) divided into two equal portions
Thanks in advance for any help
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What mkayahara said.
Pastry chefs who are successfully producing creative desserts/pastries/sweets tend to have two things in common: they have a lot of experience and internalized knowledge, and an active imagination.
The former makes it possible for the latter to function as the guiding force (i.e. they've moved past the necessity to spend a vast amount of time looking things up or finding them out); the latter is something no book/course/person can teach you, you just have to get out there, look at things, think about them without other crap cluttering up your environment.
Don't go out of your way to be outrageous, since that just leads to being derivative, but don't let yourself be embarrassed about making a complete ass of yourself (e.g. the brilliant idea for a dessert inspired by Piranesi's Carceri, which, unable to sustain it's weight, ends up looking like Post-WWII Dresden ... don't ask, it seemed good idea at the time).
Basically, learn the physics and chemistry of what you're working with until you know it inside and out, and then just play with it.
ETA, Migoya's Elements of Dessert is a great book, I got it recently, and it's just killing me that I can't really play with many of the ideas at this time.
However I wanna pastry guides (or for baking) that teach innovative creations, gourmet desserts, techniques and recipes used by professional chefs in restaurants. Not ones that teach ordinary recipes (e.g. cookies, cream caramel, chocolate cake....etc)
I want something that makes me feel as I am in pastry (or baking) school! Something creative, with clear instructions
Aren't those two things at odds with each other? Pastry school will start by teaching you ordinary recipes, because those are the foundation for the innovative desserts.
In any case, I second Baselerd's recommendations, and would add Migoya's book Frozen Desserts as well: even though it's nominally about frozen items only, it contains lots of interesting composed desserts that use non-frozen elements. Also, check out anything you can find written by Michael Laiskonis. Eric Ripert's book On the Line has a few of his recipes, and you should be able to find several more online.
Beyond that, you may want to take a look in many of the high-end restaurant books that aren't dedicated to pastry, like Alinea, Eleven Madison Park and the like. You're not going to find a comprehensive course in innovative pastry in them, but that's where some of the most creative stuff has been happening.
Thanks for your responses I will check the recommendations.
I am well of that, but since I can't afford to go to these schools and since I already can make the ordinary things I want something more advance. I saw maaaaaany videos and read maaaaaaaany books, all the techniques and methods are repetitive to the point that I can tell the what the dish is by looking only at the ingredients and vise versa.
However if you go to fancy restaurants you see their amazing complex desserts with many components, with many interesting techniques and things like that. I want to extend my pastry knowledge as I can't get them anywhere else!
I know these things need experience but where am I going to get it from if not from the internet or books? no cooking schools here.
I will be checking also the ones you mentioned Baselerd
ThanksIf you know good websites or channels please let me know. Even if they cost money
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Hi all,,,
Ok I have a HUGE amount of books and videos about desserts and recipes, good ones when it comes to that.
However I wanna pastry guides (or for baking) that teach innovative creations, gourmet desserts, techniques and recipes used by professional chefs in restaurants. Not ones that teach ordinary recipes (e.g. cookies, cream caramel, chocolate cake....etc)
I want something that makes me feel as I am in pastry (or baking) school! Something creative, with clear instructions
I can't afford these schools so I am trying to learn at home.
Online websites with videos even if I have to pay for them are even better if you know good ones or even in youtube
Thanks a lot in advance guys!
Rana
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See this video for a very clear and detailed explanation of chocolate properties, key temperatures and processes. I do not remember any more where the part about the lava cake was but it definitely has both the recipe and the right process. I used it with great success.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS VIDEO!! I am VERY VERY much interested in these kind of things! The science of pastry intrigues me and I just got Alton Brown's book about the topic!!
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I make something similar. I posted the details in the Daily Sweets thread a while back - I am copying my original post below. I hope that you will find a recipe that works for you!
My husband had a craving for chocolate so I made soft chocolate cakes with Valrhona chocolate.
The recipe is here; I've been using it for years. Instead of ramekins, I bake them in muffin tins lined with paper cups. They cook very fast and are ready in less than 10 minutes typically.
This looks yummy!! If I make it bigger would the chocolate pour out like the one in my picture?
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You can make balls of ganache, freeze or chill them, then drop them into the batter before baking. Here's a recipe from Ghirardelli you can use as a guide:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ghirardelli-individual-chocolate-lava-cakes/
Believe it or not I did this one 4 times!! but the result was always: Either the ganache ball go down and the upper cake is thick or it breaks down on the tray after I take it out (and because it happened several times I did add more time in the oven, or add flour, all failed)
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Yeah yeah I know I can google it, but let me tell you I LOST COUNT of how many recipes I tried online, and none gave me the result I want. It is either thick cake and little pudding like inside, or filling is only down and up is all cake, or it breaks down, and yes I do follow the measurements and they come out right but NOT the result I want, not only that but I tried to modify in the recipe once I see a flaw, but the result isn't what I want.
[LIKE THIS ONE] What I want is a think crust with LOTS of fiiling, and exactly this size (Got the rings)
Note: I try a recipe every week and luckily my brother is my experiment rat. He eats all the results (says it is yummy but surely not to be served for guests)
Thank you in advance you guys!
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To me it looks like rolled fondant with chocolate worked into it very slightly before it was rolled out. But this should be easy to tell; pull off a bit, and taste it... how does it taste, what's the texture like? Fondant taste of sugar/corn syrup, and usually, little else (although there's no reason it shouldn't). White chocolate ganache would taste of cocoa butter/chocolate.
I just did and you know, I did taste white chocolate. I tasted it before but all I tasted was sweetness. Now i did again with this "examination" mood and I did get white chocolate. So basically this is not a fondant??? How can you make white chocolate ganache this "blanket-y" ????
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Can you believe that I have been keeping this cake for days in order to compare it with every attempt or suggestion I get?
I used to do the ganache with gelatine before but I don't think it would make it a blanket-like shape. It was in a cold display and this layer is really hmmm whats the word "independet?" it actually got upside down inside the box and my mobile kinda fell on it but this X layer was not affected. Check this out, I got it now out of the fridge and peeled it more.
What do you think?
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This is cafe so they don't know. Boy how easier it would have been if I could. Can you please a white chocolate ganache that is a separate layer (like a blanket) like this? If so, how?
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I went all the way and bought it. I tried to make poured fondant at home (recipe I got from the internet, not sure if it was successful), If you see the cake you notice that the topping is a cover by itself and be removed as a blanket, would a poured fondant do that? The one I just made was denser and sticks to whats beneath.
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If it's not a fondant it could be a white chocolate ganache. A whipped ganache is more like buttercream than fondant, but if not and there's a higher ratio of cream to chocolate then it would look like the photo.
I don't think thats the case because when you touch it the surface is very smooth and not sticky at all.
The poured forndant is an intersting idea, would it be with this thickness? I saw some recipes for it and the poured fondant looks very thin coating, being a liquid.
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My mom loves it, in UAE some people cook as done up but with meat and onion and sometimes with chickpeas. I personally think it is too heavy but come on it is YUMMY!!
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Hi everyone,
Can someone please tell me any idea of what the white topping up was done in this cake?
http://picturepush.com/public/12383416
Not the chocolate part drizziling over the cake but the part which was marbled. The marble effect clearly was done with caramel and the "marbling" itself I know is not hard and done it several times but what is that layer the marble is in? It was very smooth and not sticky at all but rather smooth and shiny.Thanks you guys in advance
Rana
Rolling puff pastry
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Thanks everybody each answer will be taken into consideration when I make it next time. The beating sounds a good idea to me.