richichi

Perfect I will do a test run tomorrow (got my preferment going now with the honey in it) so fingers. I can't believe I left the onion powder out of the final planned recipe. I tried doing it the night you replied with it initially and had written it into the King Arthur recipe for use in it. It will without a doubt be making an appearance. I will keep an eye out for this salt you are talking about, but unfortunately up here we don't have Home Goods. There is a place just up the street from my house though that has a large selection of oils, salts and herbs though. Might have to check them out tomorrow when they open. Might be able to score something nice there. Thank you so much for your help really appreciated!

Whole thing got pushed back, apparently we get to taste the beers and then make everything. Works out for me, as I wanted to make some pre ferment but wouldn't have had a chance previously. Now I can switch up my recipe completely. It is looking like I will be doing something along this line unless somebody on here says they have a suggestion which should take it to the next level. A day ahead, create the Pâte fermentée (fermented dough): 144g White Flour 94g Water 2.8g Salt 15g fresh yeast (rest 12-24 hours) 578g White Flour 340g Water 12g Salt 14g Fresh Yeast 36g soft Butter 7g Baking Malt 240g Pâte fermentée Going to put this in a baked soda bath since I can't do a lye bath. Might see if I can get some real pretzel salt in there to though. I was thinking about adding some of the beer in place of water as well. Might hit up the beer store tomorrow since I am off and do a dry run with a random wheat beer and see how it tastes. If it doesn't work out how I would like then I might have to wait until I find out what actual beer I will be using and then try to complement the tasting notes.

Thanks so much everyone. I am going to be doing baked soda for sure that turned out much better then just baking soda. Unfortunately as far as salt goes all we have is kosher salt and sea salt at work. I am not sure which one I will go with. I am pretty unfamiliar with the beer, I am a stout guy through and through so its uncharted territory for me, Fingers crossed, this could be a huge day for me.

We are having a competition at work. Winner gets their recipe used at a beer tasting and some of the local professional hockey players (a little too Canadian?) will be trying them out. I was wondering if anybody has any tips or suggestions to set my pretzel apart? Being pretty new to the profession I don't really have my own recipes yet so I was planning on making use of the King Arthur Flour recipe on their website. Also, I have only made them 3-4 times in my life. Making a batch tonight in hopes that I can get a win tomorrow. I was hoping to bust out some classic lye bathed ones but the boss put the kibosh on any use of lye. Also, each of us was given a type of beer that will be paired with the pretzel. Mine is Hefewizen which is wheat bear. I was hoping to actually bake some of the beer into my pretzel but not sure. Any experienced pretzel makers out there that can help an apprentice baker out?

I have yet to find a way that does what you are looking to accomplish. I also agree it presents horribly. This was the first picture that came up when I hit google images.

If you do reverse frozen spherification you can just store them in the liquid no problem for a while. If you are doing just straight specification though they will harden up on you due to the calcium inside the polymerized sphere. How long as you looking to store them? What is long(ish) to you? Not sure about pasturizing them though, never attempted that. If you have one on hand consider just taking a kitchen torch to it, if it holds up to that then I would imagine you should be fine.

Oh I do appreciate those tips for sure. Everything has been coming out looking really nice since the initial issue but I have always found I take a really long time to get it built up and ready to divide up. I will definitely look into that piping tip!

Franci your posts have brought me back to my childhood. I have nothing baking but I can swear I can smell those pictures. It reminds me of Christmas with my Nonna and my mother just baking away all day. Great post, great memories. Thank you.

It was docked pretty heavily. After having done it a couple more times I think I just ended up skimming over the cream in a couple of sections. Had some really picture perfect ones last week that I was thrilled with.

We make the sheets in large batches and then cut out perfectly rectangular wedges from those strips, cover the bottom with custard, then a middle sheet, whipped cream, top sheet, fondant, chocolate and then make the design with a knife. The puff itself was fine but there were some cuts where there were noticable air pockets where there should have been whipped cream. Which is weird because I outline the sheet with whipped cream, then fill in that outline, and then on top I put another rectangle and smooth it in everywhere. The top layer that went on though had some cracks in it, could this have been the cause or at least part to blame?

Hey folks, I have been put in charge of the mille feuille at work and just did my first batch today. I was wondering if somebody could help me out though. When I sliced it into wedges for sale some of the wedges had large air bubbles where the cream should have been. How do I go about preventing this on my next batch? I thought I wouldn't have an issue, the custard half turned out fine and I figured the piped half should have as well since I did the same thing there.I pipped the cream in, leveled it with with an offset and then added my top sheet. I pressed the top sheet down slightly upon adding it in hopes to push any air out, could this have possibly worked in the opposite way and caused air to rush in once the pressure was removed?

Man I wish I had the money for one of these. I want fun toys! Thanks Deryn and Kerry.

I apologize if I have missed it, but I am interested to see how a custard would work in one. I have always wanted to try a powdered creme brulee for example.

I have a new starter on the go that has a little bit of rye in it along with the white. Not sure if it will make much of a difference in flavor but I sure hope so. Just started it yesterday so I should hopefully have a really nice loaf on the go from it within 2 weeks. Tends to take me 10-12 days to get it up and going where I like it.

Not to highjack this or anything but Kerry do you happen to know any really in depth books or websites about chocolate explaining in great detail how everything works and the science behind it?

Stove looks amazing, I have a stove from the 90s that was a POS back then and even more so now. I to would love to know the cost and features of this bad boy.

I forget exactly which one mine is but when I was in school I asked my chef if she had any recommendations. She said that the single most important thing to remember is having a really nice and heavy base. If you can move it around while working on a cake you are in for a world of trouble. You want the cake put on there and for it to stay in place. A couple of my friends went out and got ones meant for potters and a couple got Wilton ones. If you take just one thing away from this, don't buy Wilton.

I'm down tenatively for the conference, just need to make sure I can have the time off at work. We run off a seniority heirachy as far as time off goes. Also quick question, at what skill level would you say the master classes are useful at? I am fresh out of culinary so I am not sure if my skills will be up to par based off of what I have seen posted here. You folks are fabulously talented and while I hope to get there I am not there yet.

Is this open to any form of member? I am currently just signed up on here as a free member, that said if it is open I would certainly be interested.

When I was in school we always cut in 50g of butter per litre of creme pat we were making. We would do this at the end along with the flavoring which tended to just be simple vanilla extract. It always made it smoother and I found compared to what I had made at home previous to that it didn't form as much of a skin on top. The skin can be avoided with proper care with the plastic wrap however. Also when we did choux paste we always cut the creme pat with whipped cream, not sure if there is a name for this since I am fresh to the industry but it made it very light but still had a bit of the creme pat flavor.

Hey folks, found this site by complete accident a couple days ago. I was looking for information about spraying chocolate and stumbled my way into what I believe is possibly one of the most informative forums I have come across on the net. A little about myself, I used to be a microbiologist worked in hospitals and private labs but eventually the market for the labs seized up and I had lost any will to go back to hospital work. I decided a career change was needed and chose to go with my other passion (yes there is life outside of mould and bacteria!) BAKING! I am now officially a baker having just graduated, but my thirst for knowledge is possibly at an all time high. So thats about it, looking forward to getting to know you all better and most importantly I am looking forward to soaking in as much as I can from you folks. Cheers!