Wendy DeBord

I had a person ask me for help and I don't know the answer..... I told her I'd post this and see if we could help. This women inherited a cookbook from her grandmother, she thinks it's 80 years old. It's all hand written. She was very sweet and I know she would be very appreciative if we could figure this out for her. In looking thru other examples of how this women wrote her recipes I noticed she does write baking powder and baking soda so the ingredient in question is most likely neither. Here's the recipe, I'll write it exactly as she did with spelling and words. It's Ma's Cream Cookies: 1 pd butter 2 pd sugar 6 eggs 1 pt sour cream 1 tes. soda 1 tablespoon cardamon 6 tes. B.B. (this is the ingredient we can't figure out-whats B.B stand for?) 10 cups of sifted flour. Chill dough and put thru cookie press or roll dough out and cut with cookie cutter bake on greased tins. Heres another recipe that uses this mysterous B.B., perhaps it will give us more clues. Upside Down Cake Melt in a frying pan 3 tab butter & 3/4 cup of brown sugar add drained apricots. Batter 2 cups flour salt pinch 3 tea B.B. 1 tea vanilla 1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 3/4 cup milk Bake 30 min on moderate oven. So any idea what the B.B. is?

Maybe this will sound dumb but-have you made any white or yellow cakes you liked at a lower altitute? Thats my biggest problem with both cakes...I don't think I've found the perfect recipe for either. That issue aside heres some info. from Letty Flatts book Chocolate Snowball. I believe Jason is very familar with her but for anyone who isn't...shes the pc at Deer Valley Ski Resort. It's a very upscale skiing resort with exceptional dining (and a personal favorite of mine). Although I've not baked from her book I think she is a trust worthy resource with personal experience baking at high altitude. I have eaten her work and found it to be very good! She has a section on high altitude baking and covers several catagories. This is what she wrote specificly on cakes. "Cakes are possibly the trickiest baked item to adjust since they are inherently delicate. First, decrease the sugar by 1 to 2 tbsp. per cup of sugar to compensate for liquid evaporation. A benefit from decreasing the sugar is that the egg protein sets sooner in the oven's heat. That is because the sugar interferes with egg protein, raising the temperature at which eggs (and therefore a batter) can set. So, at altitudes where the boiling point is lower, reducing the sugar lowers the temperature needed to set the batter. It is important to never beat too much air into egg whites, especially at high altitude. Whipped egg whites at high altitude should form peaks that just fold over, verses peaks that are stiff. When egg whites are overbeaten, they are stretched beyond their capacity; there is no room for them to expand even more. You want to leave room for them to expand. If a cake is chemically leavened, reduce the leavening 15 to 70 percent, depending on your altitutde. To stregthen the cell structure of rich cakes, bakers at alititudes over 9,000 feet may need to reduce the fat by 1 or 2 tablespoons per cup of fat. High altitude recipe adjustment guidelines often suggest increasing the liquid in a recipe by 1 to 4 tablespoons, but I find reducing the sugar alone to be effective. Use cake flour for finer texture. Some guidelines also reccomend increasing the flour by 1 to 2 tablespoons per cup; I use this adjustment occasionally, to lend stability to very fragile batters such as angel food cake, and when sugar reduction isn't enough." Jason, she has a chart for changes. Tell me what altitude your at and I'll type what she lists for your height. P.S. The line about reducing your leavening 15 to 70 percent sure is a wide span!

Wow! I've had that experience several times at the small places I've worked at, but I never imagined that happens at the huge hotels. Soooooooooo did they attempt any food service at all on Easter or did they turn back everyone, including room service? I bet some poor insurance company is groaning and some lawyers are smiling today. When your back-up generators fail-you got issues!

Well don't worry, angel food cake is a breeze to make and you can flavor it too. You can split hairs over the best methods/techniques on making these. Theres a book called The Bakers Dozen where a group of people (many well known chefs included) did some extensive studing on making the perfect angel food cake. They organized a study where everyone used the same recipe, but because everyone had slightly different techniques the results were wildly different from one persons cake to the next. They then narrowed down the exact techniques that they agreed made the best cake. This is published in their book, your library might have it....it's an interesting quick read if your interested. The wierd thing is, I've baked using that recipe and technique and found I like another recipe better. So I think the bottom line is you might not get one universal recipe and technique agreed upon here by e-gulleters either. But don't be nervous, these are actually very simple cakes. They travel well-no need to worry about that! I need to get my recipe out of my file.....so I'll come back later and offer you my favorite angel food cake recipe. Hopefully others will offer up their favorites too...and the basic info on technique to get you started.

Here's the champange brulee recipe. It's from "Cre'me Brule'e" by Sara Lewis, published by Hamlyn 2003. 6 yolks 2/3 c. fine sugar 1/2c. dry champagne 1/2c. heavy cream plus sugar to brulee with Make like a zabaglione over a double boiler, cooking the cream with the rest of the custard ingredients until very thick. You cool this, then serve over fresh berries, she uses raspberries, I'll be using strawberries (they're cheaper). You brulee the tops like usual (sprinkle sugar over the custard and torch).

I hope to include everyone Kevin, maybe I should have been clearer.... I just wrote what I was doing-professional or not. It wierd because I struggle between traditional items and wanting to make more interesting items (for me personally). Looks like Ling has the same struggle. I don't really know what MOST people see as a traditional Easter dessert (I can think of many items but not one definitive dessert). I didn't come from a family that was religious, nor one with a leaning toward Christianity or one that kept any traditions. I'm not exactly sure what most people serve for dessert on Easter at home? We had Easter dinners just because it was something everyone else was doing, seriously. My Mother was a chef so we always ate well and had a variety at each course. Honestly, I sort of gather my ideas from others/books/media and making assumptions more then from experiences in my own background. I try to make fantasy sweet tables to some extent...........Willy Wonka's world was a auesome fantasy for me (a kid with a huge sweet tooth) and it would be so cool to be able to put out something in that realm so kids and my adults would be wowed and given something worthy to make a memory. (if only money and time were more generous-I'd really go nuts on sweet tables) Then I wonder what other professionals are doing too. Maybe to judge/compare myself, but to also gain ideas I could borrow. I still have a week infront of me to change and or refine my ideas. Every night I look thru books and my files trying to spark more creativity in my work.

Herme's streusel goes like this: 3 1/2 T. sugar 6 T. ground almonds 6 T. flour salt 16 t. butter He chills it before baking and uses a med. low oven temp. 325F. P.S. This obviously makes a very small amount-just x's up what you want. You can draw your own conclusions by comparing it to Peters recipe. You can omit the sugar and add what-ever seasoning or changes for a savory version.

I'd like to see your cloud cake if you take a photo, please?.........I don't follow Lawson but that sounds interesting. What does the cake consists of?

I've never oven dried my tant pour tant or the almond flour seperately. Although I have to admit, its not a bad idea for really wet days.....Humidity does play with your recipes (I worked right at the shores of Lake Michigan and it kept all my items damp year round-not to mention the building it's self wasn't sealed well), instead I increased the amount of dried whites I added and decreased my fresh whites.

O.k. very funny! I'll post photos when I'm done. First problem..........they changed the room and typical setup of my tables. All the food will be served in their bar- to accomodate more seating=more profit. Thats a drag, in that the bar area is sort of dark and a much smaller room then they usually use. It's got tight entrances too. Add to that, they do seatings-which translates into 250 people all hitting your buffet at once. I'm glad I'm not doing the hot side buffet-they'll never get into the room with out burning themselfs and others trying to replace empty hotel pans in chaffers. So I have some rethinking to do. I can't believe no one is make Easter pastries.................common guys, what's your Easter bringing? P.S. The brulee recipe-I haven't made this one previously. I can pm you with it to avoid copyright issues. Give me over the weekend to send it, o.k.?

In Desserts of Pierre Herme' by Dorie Greenspan.....Herme has a streusel he bakes seperately as your looking for. For copyright reasons I can't post it, but it's easily found in the book. I forget the extact item it was with......I think it was a component with a cream cheese mousse cake...I believe it had griotes layered in the center.

I finished with one job and tommarrow I begin at my second club and my second approach to Easter. I have a few components planned out but not my whole menu and so I thought I'd ask what everyone else is doing? This is always one of the hardest sweet tables to narrow into style because thereare so many good posiblities to choose from. Do I go with hens and chicks or rabbits and carrots, lambs, or alittle of each theme, etc............believe me I think too hard on details. I've desided to go very, very "cute" this Easter, after all my goal is pleasing a large group of average people not a group of gourmets dining at the art institute. I bought a green carpet, I think it's like indoor outdoor stuff-well it's like fake grass. A 12' by 3 feet wide strip to lay on my buffet table was only $20.00. Then I found white picket fencing (like for rabbits) at the home depot too, it was like $4. per 3' lenght. I'm currently planning to line the back edge of my tables with this fence. In front of the fence (about 6" wide) I plan on making it like a flower garden along the whole length and turning it in on both ends for stabilaty (like a large U). It will be styrofoam wrapped with green tissue paper (with the fence attached to the styrofoam), then I'll use lemon leaves through-out. I'm still trying to figure out how to cover the styrofoam quicker and more naturally on the cheap, any ideas? My flowers will be an assortment of goodies. For some reason (don't laugh too loud) but these people love food on sticks..................so...........I'm giving it to them. I plan on doing, fruit kabobs cut into flowers, loosely (since I don't have molds for this) flower shaped stuckers, cookies on sticks and marshellows (Nights sb flavor this time) flowers. As a avid gardener this posses some delemia to me because I don't intermingle my flowers-we'll see if I can break away from doing arranged groupings.......... Anyway I plan on making butterflies out of melted candy coatings (so their strong) and attaching them to wires which bong in spirals above my flowers. The butterflies will be carried through-out the whole table into my cakes, tortes and etc.... I have a bunch of sugar molded eggs left over from last year-but naturally I don't want to use them-that would be too convient-no I don't think they fit into this...........yet.........but I'm thinking.... possibly putting them in a huge easter basket cake as a centerpiece. (But they do a double seating and I don't want to make duplicate elborately decorated cakes-so that's not resolved) Then my brain practically freezes with all the possiblities. I know I will have to make traditional favorites like carrot cake and NY cheesecake- thats fine. I'm going to make 3 selections from P D & A's competition issue, so I'm excited to work those. A champange brulee over strawberries. I'm also thinking about doing a raspberry faniciers and meringue nests with passion fruit curd (they'll get marzipan bees for garnish). I want to use my oval petite four molds-but as of yet haven't desided upon a look/goal. I want to do something cleaver with my joconde (color and print/drawing) and perhaps marble the tops-but.....I can't get a visual in my head on it yet. Any ideas on that...how to pull off these to look like petite eggs?? But (well you knew I'd have a "but").........I'm still looking for inspiration. Are you doing anything different or do you like your traditional pastries on this day? What are you planning? P.S. Specificly, I'd love to here what your kitchen is planning Neil? I'm sure it will be amazing.

I thought about giving some heat on this sub-topic. But I don't feel strongly enough to put up much of a disagreement. I think his book has a place with students and it's a decent reference book. Nothing excites me, yet it's all solid. I use his conversion charts in the back regularly. But I'm in the camp that doesn't open it really...and I have two additions (they do fill the book cases nicely though). Glissons book is far more useful in comparision. BUT Nancy Silvertons books don't inspire me either! I think I own all of her books-but I don't touch them anymore then Friebergs.

Highland Park-good for you!!!! Location, location, location.........you picked a great one..........don't see how you could loose there! Thats auesome! You should have tons of opportunities for wholesale if you wanted that too. I worked in that area catering (years ago). We got some highly creative work from that area, which is fun. Hat's off to you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey if you ever need another hand.........drop me a line.

I bought pectin nh years ago thru Classic Gourmet...............so possibly European Imports has some.

My audience would definately expect a layered dessert in a container of sorts. I think there would be an element of supprise (not good) when they discovered their parfait was frozen.........so I'd label it as frozen too. But now that we've gotten people to know what a semi-freddo is- isn't it doing harm to rename it and confuse the public? I'm all for progression but don't we need to be consistant too? I like the idea of calling similar a sundae, thats interesting! It would have huge sales at my clubs............you got me thinking.............see the smoke...........it could stop my only competition on dessert sales (purchased ice cream). Oh baby.......

Great! I'm happy to read that you've got things figured out. I've never worked with a steam injecting oven but I don't believe you want to use that feature on your cheesecakes. I'm really only familar with it being used for breads in regards to it's crust. I also recall A. Uster using steam for their frozen danish. When you get ahead of schedule and have some free time- you might want to start a thread and ask about the uses of a steam injecting oven..........I think it would be very interesting and educational. Your lucky to have this feature and I'm sure theres alot of product that could be enhansed using it. I put a pan of hot water on the bottom of my oven to make it a more humid atmosphere. And or you can bake dirrectly in a waterbath, but use cake pans not springforms (their a hassle).

This is a really hard challenge Brian. I'm a Herme' follower too and use his mousse recipes the most frequently. Other fruit mousse recipes I've used actually use more fruit puree because the often don't contain whites only whipped cream. The only thing I can think of to cut costs is to stop buying instantly ready purees and to make your own. With certain fruits it will save you money, with others it's so time consuming that I bet you wouldn't save anything. Until this past year, I never had purchased purees available to me. But I also have never done my own purchasing to break down the cost of the fruiit plus my labor to figure out what the real costs are. If you look at The Roux Brothers book and Michael Roux's solo book and older pastry books written by top professionals you'll notice that they didn't have instant purees available and they give you formulas for making the fruit puree called for in their mousse recipes. I recall making apricot, lime, banana, pear and apple (just to name a few) from these two mentioned books and I think their recipes are every bit as good as Herme's. The problem is-it takes more of your time. I guess if I was you, I'd look to discount grocery stores and talk to their produce managers. I know of one bakery in my area thats got an arrangement to purchase all of the stores left-over strawberries. They use them as cake fillings, but you can certainly take that further and process them into purees yourself. Do it as part of your production schedule....freeze your cheap buys and when you have enough make batches of puree, then refreeze them into usable amounts to make your life easier (just like the containers of purchased purees). My experience using compounds to fortify flavors is, it isn't a perfect solution either. There are some flavors where the compound will help you and others where the flavor is so articfical they'll ruin your mousse. Then it all comes down to the quality of your compounds and typically they aren't cheap either! Extracts are cheaper (I believe) but I use them less and less as I mature as a chef.

This is the point I was making in my previous post. You should see that your ovens are correctly calibrated. BUT the simple fact is it doesn't ultimate make that big of a difference because no matter what, if it's a convection oven you will need to learn how to adjust to it. A perfectly calibrated convection oven bakes much differently then a conventional oven due to the increased air flow. The air flow isn't a factor you can punch into a calulator and find a magic answer that will apply to every convection and every item you bake. How much your air cirulates, hot spots in the oven, outside edges, whether the oven is stacked or not, what it's next to in the kitchen, it's humitity, all play into how your baked good turns out. It could also be calibrated perfectly and the oven fan may not be working properly (maybe too frequently, maybe less) and that would effect your baking too. The settings you choose on the exterior will be a factor. Do you use a high fan or low, do you use the cool down button at all? If you could go about calucating as suggested you'd have to conduct endless experiements because you also have to factor in the temp.s of the other items (were they frozen and letting off cool air) in the oven, how many times you'll open your doors, how dense the other products are in the oven taking up air space, how big every items is blocking air flow, etc... But I don't understand how the weight makes a difference, unless your refering to density and how an item blocks the air flow? It can't be done perfectly. Ultimately it comes down to being a good baker. Knowing your ovens you begin to gain a 6th sense, you just "know" when items are done compared to the countless other items you've baked in that oven and your basing that judgement considering size, density and all your past experience, etc.... I bake using an oven on a different floor from where I prep and I've yet to burn anything (knock on wood), even with out scent you do gain this extra sense/knowledge........those who don't have it.....usually aren't bakers for long or live off of timers. I've never thought about the paper trick you mentioned Wesza but I'm darn curious about this and will have to give it a try next time I bake a cheesecake. Thanks for the tip, can I ask where you learned that?

Oh, I thought of something else. It's my opinion that the denseness of your final results is based on your recipe more then the method in which you baked your cheesecake. A ny baked in a waterbath is still going to be dense.

Don't worry it can be done successfully. I bake cheesecakes in the convection all the time-although I'd prefer a non-convection...it's do-able, very do able! First things first-forget what the temp. on your dial says with confections! If you baked according to the dial you'd ruin most baked goods. Typically you set you dial 50 degrees lower then what you want when using a convection. An example: for 350f oven set your dial on 300f. BUT heres the tricky part-EVERY oven is different and you do have to do some baking to experiement and find the small variables with yours. The ovens I use at one club run 75 degrees hotter then the dial-regardless of the fact that the ovens have recently been calibrated. I work in a different oven thats stacked ontop of the first example the same brand oven at the same club and it's off 50f only. Convection ovens are NOTHING like home ovens! I've run into countless professionals that don't know this. I "find" my ovens 350f by baking cakes that I know really well. For example I know when my cake is baking fast just by looking at it (later by taste and smell) and that innate bakers clock my brain has developed over the years. So find a recipe you know better then the back of your hand. Then bake it multiple times judging how fast/correctly it's baking and adjust your ovens temp. up or down according to your findings. TRUST yourself, trust your recipe and find your ovens temp. THENnnnnnnnnnnnn, everything works up or down from there. Example: you now know that 275 on your dial seems to be 350f in reality. The next time you bake a cheesecake dial down accordingly. So if you want a 200f oven you would set your dial on 75f. So what you found happened to you was normal and you were right! You were probably baking way too hot for a cheesecake and it was boiling. Surely you must have noticed other problems or inconsitancys in known products? Your cakes were probably over baking on the sides? So after you get your temp. right you can do other things to aid in baking cheesecakes in convectional ovens. I always put a hotel pan of hot water on the bottom of my oven to increase the humiditty. Waterbaths are absolutely painless if you learn how to bake a cheesecake in a regular cake pan (which you should do anyway). Hopefully you'll be on your way shortly. Keep at it, again trust your knowledge and work out from there. If you still need help, just come back. There are many experts hanging out here and your welcome to come hang with us anytime.

OH, wait-I thought Sherry co-authored those with Mary? If not, my appologies. Gale Gand-hum.... I own her first book and barely worked from it, and I haven't been entised to buy the following ones. They just don't speak to me, at all. I'm very very interested in her work at the restaurant and I even have enjoyed her foodtv show (she has some top notch freinds that visit her too!!). My impression of her is very very favorable-she seems really amazing/cool/deep, she's VERY good on tv, etc....In alot of ways were both from the same area and around the same age-so I really relate to her and I'm thrilled with her sucess. Shes like a local hero!! My only real complaint is how dumbed down her books are-coming from HER because she's NO DUMMY!!! Maybe it's just me, that's why I wanted to hear other peoples opinions. There might be one or two recipes out of each book I'll find interesting but the bulk of her books don't seem to contain info./recipes I'd use or want to. I wish the publishers would want her to do a serious book. She's certainly capable-she should have a top book to win a Beard award! Thats my opinion-and I wondered what others thought. On the other hand I think Sherry Yard put forth a educational and interesting book full of recipes that I do want to try. It's unique and presumes her reader is smart.

Well on first glanze I'd have to see how well you were pureeing and straining your blackberries. I'm wondering if your getting enough fruit left after pureeing, cause I'd probably use a whole 2 c. of puree to those whites and cream-you might only have 1 1/4 c. of puree left after straining (have you measured what you get?). The best part of the puree is the hardest to get....once your easy juice is strained out you have to really work the seeds left, because they have a thickening and dense puree you have to work from them. If it's possible, buying in fruit puree is a better way. As far as the brand of chocolate, I'm not that crazy about Callabaut-have you looked thru other threads lately theres been alot of talk about which brands of white are better and best. My recipe for a coating white choc. ganche is 7 oz white choc. to 1/4 c. heavy cream. It could handle up to 1 tbsp. of corn syrup if you want to experiment. HTH?

As I've disclosed before I have limited access to specialty ingredients.........so I'm very interested in something Neil just highlighted. I'd love to know more about apple pectin and how it works and influences results, anyone? And how is apple pectin different then other pectins?

Good for her, I think she is a huge positive to the baking world in general! I'm glad you shared that info. Suzanne, thanks. A tangent: Anyone dare compare this book by Yard to the recent one Gale Gand released? They're like night and day! I'm very sad that Gale doesn't publish a higher level of work.........and please-it doesn't NOT have to be that low to pander to the non-baking public and still sell well.