Wendy DeBord

Maybe it would be helpful if you qouted us the confusing responses you've recieved. Perhaps we can clarify what their points were. You can indeed double, triple and even multiple like 30 times what the orginial recipe was with-out having any bad effects at all. BUT there are a few items that you can't just keep multiplying with-out making some adjustments. Your question is too broad. No one can say you can do 'this' for all recipes. You need to be more specific. Which recipes do you want to increase, how big of a batch do you want to make? Over all, doubling or tripling a recipe has very little if any effect on 99.9% of baked goods.

Your cake doesn't look over baked to me CaliPoutine. Your edges aren't over baked........ The cross section of your cake shows it's light, it doesn't look dry at all. I don't think you did anything wrong at all. I know from experience that the cracking is because the cake is too thick and that's what happens when you roll a cake. That's just the way that recipe from Libbys turns out. Theres really only a few cakes that won't crack when you roll them up and that's because their very thin and or very flexiable.

I'd go with these proportions for a mixed berry pie: 5 1/2 c. fruit 1/2 c. sugar 2 tbsp. cornstarch pinch of salt 1 tbsp. lemon juice Don't take it out of the oven until you see that it's come to a boil, to activate the thickener.

I can't believe the photo you got inside Joesph's..........I've never seen it so empty! You could see the floor.........and across a couple feet..........how strange. Did you notice that they are building a Trader Joes over in the Algonquin mall. That will be nice! I can't wait to see more insight to local places I've never visited........this is auesome. P.S. Love your cat! His size is mind boggling.

"I had a business lunch at Zaytinya in Penn Quarter, DC yesterday and had the BEST DESSERT. The lunch was a great shared mezze selection that I really enjoyed, but the desserts that the table shared were fabulous. The Apples and Saffron, described on their menu as "saffron cream with apples, cinnamon crumble and spice syrup" was wonderful. I think it would be pretty easy to create a reasonable facsimile at home. It was basically diced apples caramelized with a nice spice mixture like cinnamon, star anise, cardamon, etc. (I'm speculating about the spices because I have no idea what was actually used) and was surrounded by a saffron-infused creme anglaise. That was basically it, but the flavors were fabulous. The apples and saffron paired suprisingly well together. They also served a molten chocolate-cinnamon cake that was not that exciting, but I'm kind of over the whole molten chocolate cake thing. But they had an apricot/yogurt cream "parfait" that was also great. The menu describes it as "Yogurt Cream with apricot two-ways and Samos Island Muscat-vanilla gelee". It is difficult to describe because, frankly, it was scarfed before I got much more than a taste. huh.gif but the taste that I got was fabulous." FYI, here's my co-hosts signature: Steve Klc Site Manager, eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and Letters Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo I added the blue highlight.............

Ulimately, when I want to make something that I know will be really hard to slice, I make it in individual portions so I don't have to cut it.

Oh boy, I'm so excited.........I also live in CL! We have a couple other members that live by us too. I shop at Joesphs since they opened, so we may have passed each other in the store some time. I'm so grateful for a grocery store that has an auesome produce selection.........finally! I have to admit I often walk around the store not knowing what many items are.....so I'm happy to be introduced to something new (I hope you'll show us more). I've never heard of arancini until now, so I have several questions, hope you don't mind. They're a breakfast item only? And you eat them plain? Its savory and tastes like rice? I find them at the deli counter.........?.......and they are Polish?

You've got it. It contained more moisture then you had starch to thicken. Theres nothing I know of to fix it after the fact...........other then what you did. You could have made a thickened sauce then added your berries to it precooking your filling. But with berries your going to turn it into puree if you double cook it. I think the real answer was to have more thickener in your pie filling to start with. I agree with using the berries from a frozen state........but I'm not so sure about using tapioca flour. But thats because I don't use it, I'm more comfortable with cornstarch. Blueberries contain natural thickeners, so they require less starch to set then other berries. That was your mistake.....you can't use the amount of thickener called for in a BB pie universally in other fruit pies.

Oh boy, I really think you develop a feel for cutting desserts. I prefer to use a thin long knive and rinse it under hot water (and wipe dry) between each slice. But depending upon what your cutting and what state it's in, sometimes I need to use a heavy weight long knive. I'll use that to make my major cuts.........like to cut an item in half. Then I'll use my thin bladed knive to cut individual portions from there. I have to cut all of my items at work and sometimes it's really not alot of fun. I almost always freeze cakes and torte items and cut them as they're semi-frozen. You really have to do that with fragile cakes. Items with buttercream, I cut very close to room temp. or the buttercream cracks because its too cold. Soft meringues cut better frozen, then room temp.. Then you can extert force and they won't smash downward. Using a serated knife and sawing thru meringues is preferred..........but sometimes when you have to cut a couple hundred slices..........I just give up and go with freezing and force. All cookie bars (except lemon) I cut semi-frozen. Napoleons or items layered with puff pastry I use a serated knive and a sawing motion to slice.

Thank-you for that wonderful explaination.

I've talked extensively about the sugar into the yolks technique.........I've alway thought it was unnecessary for custards also. It's completely pointless when your going to pour a liquid on top of it, that will deflate all your built up air.......and who wants air in their brulee.......... The bubbles that form on the sides of the dish, I believe are bubbles from the object coming to a boil. (I've never seen that myself until now) The foam on your unbaked brulee can be dissolved by running a torch over the tops of them before baking, the heat will pop the bubbles for you. Marlene, thanks for posting your pictures, they're always helpful! ..... I'm not so sure your gaining much by infusing. It's only necessary if your bean is old or dry. Just the scraped seeds will give you the flavor you want. I actually don't use vanilla bean in my brulees, the seeds sink to the bottom of your finished brulee. I use vanilla extract instead.

Have you noticed that several companies now make transfer sheets with animal patterns? I think I would make whatever pastries I wanted then just decorate them to fit the theme. To push the drama of the presentation I'd probably stick with a limited color range...........like all chocolate or browns and then use the transfer sheets with my garnishes. Verses using lemon or raspberry colored mousses with those animal patterns. When you keep you color palate tight it definately creates drama. I also would try to stick all my pastries on similar background trays to keep the look/drama. Maybe lining all your trays with a grass patterned fabric, or using all black serving trays, maybe lining all your trays with large banana leafs, etc.....

I find that if your cake is too hot when you roll it up (which I don't suggest rolling in the first place) it will stick to whatever surface you've used.........wax paper, parchment paper, even towels heavily sprinkled with xxxsugar.

I would love to know more about long term storage of apples with-out preparing them into something else. I have 3 apple trees in my garden and have never found a way to store them fresh for a long period of time. I currently store them in a refridgerator. But they usually don't last more then a month or two. Out of the fridge storage doesn't prolong keeping........just the opposite, they ruin very quickly. At work we do purchase frozen apple slices, that last a long time and work just fine in recipes. I'd like to know specificly how they treat the apples slices to prevent browning and moisture loss. Anyone know the science on this?

I've never heard of this before. Would you mind explaining what osmotolerant yeast is, and where one can buy it? .....and how does it compensate for the amount of sugar/honey used? P.S. Those are incredible looking breads!!!!!!!!!!!

If you consider presentation, take a look at this similar thread.

One thing that stands out to me, is the temp. you baked at was 200F. If water boils at 212F, choosing 200F is playing it extremely safe........sort of a guarentee that it can't come up to a boil. Eggs curdle at 190F. So one would think that 200F is ideal to bake custard that's not in a water bath. Unforunately, all that great logic doesn't always work the way one plans. Exactly why.............I'm not a scientist and can't tell you (but we do have some scientists here so maybe they can explain), sorry...........I can unfortunately tell you what I know based on my baking experiences only. I do know that my thermometers aren't always accurate, nor is my oven temp.. I lost 3 batches of marshmellows last week with 3 different thermometers, all turned out to be off. If your oven was set at 200F and a little off, say 25 degrees, you may have been baking in a 175F oven and you needed 10 more degrees of heat for the custard to set perfectly. So when you make these again, I'd suggest using 325F for your oven temp.. There's other factors that effect your baking custards..........among all of us here in P & B I think we've come across all of them by now. Some people can't get their brulees to set when baked in a water bath in their particular oven. Some people swear by covering the tops of their dishes while they bake. Some swear not covering is best. Some will tell you a confection oven bakes best, others will tell you a conventional oven is best for creme brulee. We can tell you that the type of dish your baking your custards in will effect them, and the temp. of the water in your water bath will effect them too. Some of us use heavy cream, some use half and half. Some don't believe in beating the yolks and sugar prior to adding your cream, others swear by it.......and so it goes, on and on. These little desserts can have as many complexities as making pie crusts. The only real way to solve your particular issue is to keep making them until you find the right adjustments needed in your particular kitchen. There isn't really one answer, recipe or method that works in all situations. I can share with you the recipe I use for creme brulee, if you'd like to try it? It comes from Marlene Sorosky. 2 cups half and half 1/2 c. sugar Heated together, brought up to a boil. While hot, temper into: 7 egg yolks 2tsp. vanilla extract Strain in chinois imediately to stop the cooking. While this is still hot, pour into your ramikins and bake at 325F. These will set very quickly, under 20 minutes. I don't use a water bath, but you can if you wish.

Oh my, Lurch has seen better days.........my oven is beginning to look like a close relative of his! I'm so glad to read that it was just your apples and your second attempt turned out great. Also, when I sprinkle xxxsugar on an item to be baked in the oven it never browns/melts, that would take a higher heat. But it does set the sugar so it doesn't dissolve visually as quickly as when sprinkled on after an item is baked. If you did want your sugar to melt you could brulee some on top, that might be nice.

I just noticed that the thread we have on your cream puffs was being talked about over here. I do want to mention that I LOVE it. It really is the ideal choux paste, light and it hollows out perfectly, thank-you for sharing it with everyone! I've only made it once so far (but it will be my default choux paste recipe from now on). Mine turned out very moist. Moist in a good way, I don't like choux paste that's dry and like shoe leather. Did I mis-bake mine, does it turn out moist intentionally? When I saw that that thread was active, members were asking each other about the moisture and how to bake them, should they leave the oven door open to cool in the oven, do you poke them to dry them out.... Can you straighten us out please? So, dare I ask.........how in the world did you arrive upon that recipe (tons of experiments or did you get lucky after a few trys)? It's just brilliant! What makes it hollow out so perfectly in comparison to other choux paste recipes? Oh why I'm thinking of it, can you help us with making custard tarts? We've had several threads on the topic both here in the Pastry & Baking Forum and in our Asian Forum, look here. People have come close, but no one seems to be able to reach perfection on this item. Would you happen to have a winning recipe for this, that you could share?

I also made his recipe. I LOVE it! It's going to be my new default choux paste recipe. The addition of the sweetened condensed milk is genious! It gives it a great sweetness. I am curious what it is about his recipe that hollows out so beautifully. I'm going to ask him look here.

The only "secret" part, took me years to figure out (true)............you just can't make a decent tiramisu with your own lady fingers....no lie. Unless you can figure out how to make them dry just like the packaged ones. All the lady finger recipes I've come across were cakes (no matter how you baked or tried to dry them), where as the package ones are really crisp/dry cookies. Maybe some sort of variation on a babies teething biscuit would work, I haven't found the right recipe yet. The packaged hard lady fingers are needed to absorb just enough of your coffee/liqour syrup and the moisture from the marscarpone mixture. The overnight blending of flavors is necessary to soften the ladyfingers and set your filling. Theres tons of ways to fix your marscarpone, most are pretty good... I prefer raw yolk and whipped egg whites (both pasturized) to lighten, no whipped cream. My only other "secret" is I like to sprinkle cocoa powder on my inner layers and sweet chocolate on top. Otherwise you choke on the cocoa powder on top ........and if you don't put the cocoa powder through out your layers, it' boring. Everyone fights over which liqours to use, just like the marscarpone filling, I think most are pretty good, it's always just personal taste. Do you work with sugar and chocolate to make showpiece types of pieces? I feel silly asking you that, it's just that I don't know........I've never seen anything written on you doing so. Can I assume that your naturally artistic (considering your previous career)?.....most pastry chefs are artistic in multiple medias..... what type of visual work would you do? Are you playful like Martin Howard, serious like Steve Klc, romantic like Jacque Torres, etc....? Would your work have an Asian visual style? O.k. so your on Iron Chef, which Iron Chef do you compete against? What's your ideal secret ingredient, that you know you can out handle your competitor with? What would you prepare (keeping in mind that you've got a time limit to accomplish everything in)?

So would Iron Chef appeal to you? Or do any of the FoodTV series like the Cupcake competition or the Sugar showpiece competitions interest you? I don't know, are you into decorative aspects too? For example, I always look forward to seeing the results from the Ny City Chocolate Show. Martin Howards' designs always make me smile! I think that's the ultimate play ground..............food and fun....... So then the National and International pastry Championship contests don't appeal to you? I'm a little confused, when you mention Italian concept you are talking about sweets, right? So is it the cheeses, custards, cookies and liqours that attract you to Italian baking?

I like to use a toothpick to test cakes. When I insert the toothpick into the cake it's equal to having a window into the center of the cake. If it comes out completely dry with no crumbs sticking to it, it's DONE. I like to get to my cakes just when it tests clean. I guess to some extent this becomes clearer with the more cakes you bake. You get a 'feel' for how long a given cake takes to bake and you want to be there to pull it out just as it finishes baking. The thing is, a cake can bake for an extra 10/15 minutes if your not paying attention and it's in that time the cake over bakes, yet it doesn't burn. People don't always know that their cake is over baked. Sometimes they think a particular cake recipe is dry............but if it had 10 less minutes in the oven it might have been a really moist lovely cake. I know alot of bakers bake by touch. They know when a cake is done by it's spring (or lack of) when touched. That's true but it's not really acurate, I believe. Yes, if the cake is done it will feel firm but it could have been done minutes ago before it felt firm. Plus every type of cake bakes differently. The touch test works best with cake mix cakes. I've tried to use/perfect this method but it's just not as reliable in all types of cakes like a tooth pick is, where you can literally see the crumb of the cake. If your making cakes to roll into jelly rolls and you've accidently over baked it a bit. You should trim off all four edges of the cake because they're likely to crack as you roll your cake. Besides if they're not moist you don't want those edges anyway.

Wow, congratulations to you too Cakesuite! I'm truely amazed by the talent you all have...........

I do really hope you'll all try this, I promise it's much easier and more successful. The typical pumpkin cake roll has chopped nuts baked on top, so you'd want that side exposed on your finished product. So if you invert your baked cake onto parchment or plastic wrap, the plain side (underside) of the cake will be face up (nuts side is face down). That is the side you want to apply your frosting to. Then you work from the long length of the jelly roll and roll up the cake into a log. The first roll over frequently cracks, don't worry no one will really notice once it's tucked inside.