Wendy DeBord

Although I haven't made the chocolate covered cherries from Ruth Kendricks book, there are a couple other recipes from that book I use and get rave reviews on. So I'll triple the suggestion of trying her recipe. I have made chocolate covered cherried with-out a written recipe. It's not hard if you have access to purchased fondant (not rolling fondant). I pat my cherries dry, dip them in kirsh spiked fondant, let that air dry or chill them, then dip in chocolate. If I pat dry my cherries too much the fondant doesn't turn into liquid as much as I like.......so I dry them just enough to get it so the fondant will stick to the cherry. I also like to keep my fondant thick......... it gives you more liquid in the end. It takes about 3 weeks for them to be all liquid, so make these well in advance of when you need them.

So here I am a professional pastry chef.........and I thought I made a very good apple bread, until last year when a neighbors apple bread wowed the socks off my husband (and me too). We've both asked her for the recipe multiple times, but she's not parting with her recipe...even though she's never been rude about it, just avoids ever writing hers down. SOoooo I need to make tons of apple bread as an item in our Thanksgiving food package at work and now I'm embarassed to use my old recipe knowing theres better out there. I'm searching for 'the BEST Knock your socks off' apple bread recipe in the world! Anyone own that one incredible recipe? If so, would you please share it with me?

Those of you going......any chance you wouldn't mind sharing your photos and reviews of this event for us out of towners...........pretty please?

Thanks, everyone for the help! I made it to Bennisons, Belgian Chocolatier Piron, Kaufmans and Food Stuffs today.....my stomach hurts from so much tasting/eating.......... So far the best buy I tasted was the crossaints at Bennisons.......... and the worst item was the black and white cookies at Bennisons too. I definately want to do a better job next time charting out my driving and going to only downtown Chi town bakeries (next adventure). I lost alot of time today circling around getting lost in Evanston......but it's such a charming town I didn't mind. thanks again.

I believe everyone is using rice paper, top and bottom.

My all time favorite sugar cookie recipe comes from Carol Walters book 'Great Cookies, secrets to sensational sweets'. Published by Clarkson Potter in 2003. The cover states winner of the james beard award........but it doesn't specify if it's for this book or another book Carole did. The ingredients are: 3 c. ap flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. soda 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar 1 c. butter 1 1/4 c. superfine sugar 4 egg yolks 2 tsp. vanilla 2 tbsp. milk Mix together like any cookie recipe. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sparkling white sugar. I bake them at 350F, the recipes suggests 375F.

Here's the recipe for the mousse I used. It's really terrific. It comes from Pastry Art & Design Magazine........(I've lost track of which year and which team offered this recipe. I'll post that info. if I come across it in the future.) It was from one of their issues on the World Pastry Forum. The recipe is titled: Coffee Mousse (but I don't use the coffee), this may look complicated but it's really not hard to do. 4.2 oz/120 g egg yolks 1.7 oz/50 g whole egg 5.2 oz/350 g simple syrup (a 1/1 ratio) You make a pate a bomb with these ingredients. Put your eggs in your mixing bowl while you heat your simple syrup up to 248F. When your syrup starts to get close to 248F begin whipping your eggs. As soon as it reaches 248F slowly pour the syrup into your whipping eggs. This will essentially cook your eggs. You continue whipping this mixture until they cool off (check by touching the bottom of your bowl). To your pate a bomb your going to add: 12.3 oz/350 g melted semi sweet chocolate (this is where the recipe calls for a coffee flavored chocolate which I don't use, I just use reg. chocolate) .14 oz/4 g gelatin sheets, bloomed and melted I pour my chocolate into my pate a bomb right in the mixing bowl. Let it turn a couple times to incorporate, then stop it, scrape down my bowl and continue. Then I add my melted gelatin to the mixer, again giving it a couple turns in the bowl, then scraping down my bowl. Last you add: 14.1 oz/400 g whipped heavy cream Fold your whipped cream into your chocolate base or add it into your mixer and give it a couple turns letting the mixer fold in your whipped cream like I let it fold in my chocolate and gelatin. That's it. It's a wonderful recipe in that it's very light, yet very durable. It will set up fairly quickly since it has gelatin and cold whipped cream. You can pre-mold some in cake pans, freeze them, unmold from your pans and store them in your freezer so you have layers of chocolate mousse always on hand. You can use a cookie cutter or knive to cut layers out of this mousse if you freeze it in sheet pans. The cake I used was the Scott Clark Wooley recipe in our Best of Chocolate Cakes thread.

I've made the Bacardi Rum cake using a cake mix....it's really very good, actually. You can use almost any firm cake and soak it with a rum simple syrup to get a rum cake. Use the recipe for the Bacardi rum cakes glaze, it's nice....and of course you can use a different brand of rum if you wish. Heres a thread we had in the Pastry & Baking Forum recently on the same topic.

Have they opened for the season yet? I can't wait to go back to Whistler!!!!!!

Wonderful work ladies!!! I'm thrilled that you all desided to conquer this relatively advanced pastry..................good for you all.............!! Was it easier or harder then you had anticipated? Anything or aspect that threw you/challenged you a bit? Quick mention......this isn't a dough you raise. It can be baked straight from the cooler. You definately don't want to bake it if the dough is warm, wait and refridgerate it until it chills down a bit. Your oven temp. also effects your rise, what temp. did you bake on?

I'm hooked on using my emursion blender for ganches and tempering chocolate. I do see a difference in using cooler temp. when making a ganche. It makes for a thicker/denser emulsion (not likely to break). That's why I use a stick blender, it does the work for me sooner then heat alone.

Sarahs Pastries does greatly interest me (I read the thread on it a while ago). But I thought it was more down town Chi town..........where parking can be a problem if I'm just making quick stops? no...... or can you tell me where I might find on the street parking near there? Is there any specific item at Chocolatier Piron you'd reccomend? What do you buy there? I am very familar with Rolfs, thanks for mentioning them. Lincolnwood Produce sounds cool! I'll have to find that and bring a cooler with me. Foodstuffs, I've never been to, perhaps it's time..........I thought it could be hit or miss? Is there anything they make that really stands out specificly? Redhen might be a good place to pick up lunch on the run.......any specific items that are to die for? Korean food may need to be a seperate visit all on it's own. Isn't there a Sur La Table somewhere downtown or northshore? Do they have a big pastry department or are they just like William Sonoma? Oh NO.........I just remembered I better get corned beef and bagels at Kaufmans........too die for.............. Any other last minute thoughts? and thank-you for your help........this has really helped me!

I'm finally setting aside a day (tommarrow, 11/7/05) to check out Bennison's bakery in Evanston, IL. . As I understand I must try their crossiants? What else must I try there? I'm seeking other reccomendations in that general area. Chicago......at least on the north side is fine, and all surrounding suburbs. I'm a pastry chef and adore good pastries, chocolates and breads. I'll be alone and not really seeking to sit down anywhere, just drop by a few spots and pick up some treats and get home before rush hour. (Home is far Northwest Burbs) Any great grocery stores or culinary shops that have a good baking section.....would also be really great to know of? Don't assume that because I live in Chi area that I know what's available.........I'm REALLY out of the loop of whats good/cool because I stick to my geographical area 99.99% of the time. I do this soooo rarely and I'd hate to waste a rare day off.........please help me locate some good eats and shopping for a pastry nut. thanks

I just bought some pistachio paste and I'm wondering what else to use it for besides buttercream? ← You can add pistachio paste to almost everything since it's oil based. I add it to items that I'm going to bake and items that aren't going to be baked. Add it to ganches both light and dark, any kind of mousse or bavarian (but it's nice with a vanilla), add it to plain cheesecake batter, add to cake batter (even a cake mix batter), add to creme brulee recipes (my favorite way to eat it), pastry cream recipes, blonde brownies, tea cake batter like petite almond cakes, add it to whip cream (before whipping), fondant, etc.........

I've never made a blueberry cheesecake before..........any chance you'd share your recipe ChefDanBrown?

Wow, thank-you for the information. I'll have to give it a try sometime......

As noted in my post above..........she's referring to the Pinchet Ong recipe in the thread linked above.

Any chance you would post that recipe franktex? I've never heard of such a thing with a cobbler..........I've gotta see this one to believe it.

I wanted to start a seperate thread on this topic. In the first couple posts people are referring to Pinchet Ong's pate' choux recipe as listed in this thread..

I've been in the business most of my adult life and I don't make $20.00 per hour. The average pc job makes under $15.00 regardless of experience. We also work much more then 40 hours per week.......mostly non-paid hours. You must be able to work all weekends and all holidays. You can not ask to have them off. This is a highly competitive field because theres VERY VERY FEW JOBS for pastry chefs! I live in the suburbs of Chicago and I can count the number of pastry chefs working outside of the city, theres so few of us............

For the most part, this is what we try to do here at eG.......help people sort thru the confusion and help people learn how to bake. I can tell you from my own experience baking from countless numbers of books..........that not everything I've read is true/correct. Just like reading the newspaper or watching tv, everything isn't always as factual as one might be lead to believe. For the most part I have seen better information being written over the last couple years then ever were on baking. Partly because peoples knowledge and science has increased. Partly because we have such a global community that now you can talk to someone on the other side of the earth, communication and knowledge have gotten better. Unforunately, the information you qouted is as outdated/incorrect as me telling you the earth is flat. Theres so many different types of baked goods that you can't group everything into one. Maybe some items do need adjustments as you increase or decrease it's recipe. Some you don't need to adjust ever. There just isn't one answer for every type of baked good. So when your trying to learn about baked goods, it's most helpful if you ask specific questions about specific items. Not all cookies contain eggs, not all cookies bake best at 350F, all cookies aren't chocolate, all cookies don't contain butter. But if you ask someone about the specific cookie recipe (or cake, whatever) then it leaves little room for experts/people to debate. And thats exactly what we all do here at eG. We talk about specific recipes and what our results were. We discuss and contemplate why this or that happened and how to make adjustments to recipes.

Lovem Kevin!

Wow thats interesting Beanie.........my extra refridg. isn't new by any means but it does self defrost. I can't believe it, that makes that much of a difference..........I'll be damned! Thanks for asking them, I do appreciate it alot! Any chance you saw how they store their apples in the refridgerator? I've played trying paper grocery bags, plastic bags, cardboard boxes, bushel container, glass bowls, tupperware and then covering each and leaving them uncovered in the refrid.. I think open paper bags have probably worked the best, but I don't know, maybe some years it's about the apples inner moisture or how late in the season we harvested them.........?

Joconde cake won't crack, to find the recipe look at the dirrectory of demonstration threads pinned to the top of this forum. Flo Braker has a couple jelly roll cakes in her book that roll very nicely.

No, I've never heard of it. What do they have?