jimb0

commercial descalers are often just citric acid anyway. when i descale the espresso machine i just put a few tablespoons into a couple of cups of hot water though undoubtedly the anova people can give better suggestions.

careful; you're gonna trigger @liuzhou with those references to eggshell membranes

thanks friend. this was kind of a seat-of-my-pants go, which is how a lot of my bakes are. i wasn't sure if using so much olive oil (~110g) would be overpowering but it really seemed to work.

i agree with @pastrygirl, my only comment would be not to let them soak too long in the brandy else you'll get delicious brandy and bunnicula fruit

it may bug you, but avian eggshell membrane is what academic papers use when they're discussing the two layers, so i think you're going to have to resign yourself to it

good man!! i'm not a croissant expert but if i can give one piece of advice it's to give them plenty of rest in between working the dough by putting it back in the fridge under plastic wrap or similar. that's helped me a lot. tbh though i always have an eye out for getting a dough sheeter on the cheap. then it's gonna be croissants all day erry day

continued from also included some buttermilk brioche doughnuts, half powdered sugar and half with a hibiscus-blueberry glaze. the doughnuts are a bit complicated and rich but worth it. the base recipe is from the ideas in food couple’s maximum flavour book. the gist of it is a millionaire’s brioche: 1:1 flour:butter dough, plus eggs, etc. i added 60g of buttermilk powder and i think this will be a permanent addition. i also used salted butter and upped the salt just a hair. the dough is stirred together then left to sit. a few folds and left on the counter for 24 hours, then put in the fridge where i leave it for another 24. it makes a lot of doughnuts so i halved the dough and put 1/4 each into two ziplocs in the freezer for later use. the dough is so crazy rich. i love the way both it and the doughnuts smell though; it’s like what every doughnut aspires to smell like. lovely stiff batter that has to be cold to be worked with. plus since there’s no real kneading you can work scraps back together and cut more doughnuts (after cooling again) with little loss in texture.

some easter baking making treat bags for the neighbours. olive oil cardamom hot cross buns with rum-soaked cranberries and lemon-vanilla frosting.

haha, true. i have pretty easygoing neighbours, generally; i figure i can probably get away with keeping three or four especially since ducks sometimes land in our yard anyway. though i'd definitely need to keep their wings clipped.

i don't sell chocolates at the moment, but food safety is something i think about and try to keep up in. i worked in a research lab for a while that worked with food safety microbes (mostly in water quality), though i generally worked with bacteria instead of fungi. if you search the forum, you can find a lot of posts talking about the moisture content and water activity of various confections. broadly speaking, the more water there is in something, the lower the shelf life is going to be (like, a bar of pure chocolate is functionally immortal, a chocolate covered strawberry will only last a little while). as @pastrygirl mentioned, items like caramels and gianduja will usually give less trouble in this area as they'll have much less water than something like a custard-filled bonbon. when it comes to longer-term storage of stuff, the freezer is really the way to go, as @pastrygirl again suggested. for the most part, it pauses the countdown on shelf life. this only applies to a freezer that doesn't auto-defrost. the defrost cycles in a freezer will degrade food over time (high fat, high sugar, and high alcohol foods are often the least impacted but it's still a non-zero effect); they won't grow microbes while frozen, but they may suffer taste or texture issues after an extended period of time. this effect will vary from freezer to freezer. something to think about: probably all of us have had something grow mould while refrigerated. the average fridge temp is around 4C, or 39F. if mould can grow at those temperatures, it will surely grow at temperatures above this (well, up to a point). still, the fridge will absolutely extend the shelf life of confections (both in terms of microbial spoilage as well as slower oxidation), though, usually up to several times what they might otherwise be

chickens and ducks are sadly banned here though i'm increasingly considering an illicit duck operation

yeah, buying happy chicken eggs is pretty important to me and i just put anything extra i spend down to the cost of doing business. commercial eggs are just kind of a heinous operation a lot of the time. i've used ten already: 2 went into a shakwich for supper last night for my so, and 8 more went into the buttermilk brioche for the doughnuts. the doughnut dough has been sitting out since yesterday; i'm going to give 'er another turn then put it in the fridge for tomorrow. i'll probably split it in half because i don't want to spend the entire day frying doughnuts: this is a big batch of dough, and it should freeze perfectly well. curious; it seems like ten minutes at pressure would be a long time for eggs. 10 minutes is what i put in for sausages and they come out very hot.

big shak fan over here. lately i’ve been cooking shakwiches where i make a scoopable, spicy tomato sauce early in the day or pull leftovers of the same from the fridge. then toast a long, thick slice of bread, butter it, spread on some tomato, slide on two soft yolk fried eggs, top with herbs, salt, and pepper. comes together in about five minutes and hits all the things i like about shak.

i hate running out of eggs. almost as much as i hate running out of butter or cream. so i just went and added 7 dozen to this week's farm order. it's not like they're going to go bad before i get to them. lots of plans for these eggs: gonna do some doughnut dough later today. thinking about some french coffee buttercream. maybe some cookies. and to say nothing of the fried eggs that are a several-times-a-week part of our general rotation. what do y'all like to do with your eggs?

as @JoNorvelleWalker mentioned, egg whites set at a higher temperature. typically they get done first in many preparations because they're acting as insulators for the yolk rather than exposing the yolk to the same levels of heat.

i haven't tried it but a concentrated liquid colouring is probably not going to do too much to impact what you're trying to do. i think you'd get more of what you're looking for by adding the colour to the liquid on the inside, though.

i'm of the opinion that the best butter is served as it is; using it as an ingredient inevitably tends to compress the distinctions between great butter and just okay butter. a good buttercream isn't a bad idea, though; especially french. croissants are an option. perhaps infusing other flavours into it.

that was not at all clear but the point stands that you should ask your local authority - even just chocolate is not treated the same from state to state as members here will attest.

agreed. but doesn't everybody have some kind of sweet stashed away in the freezer? there's like a bucket of creme puffs out in the garage filled with coffee creme pat. usually a few individually wrapped slices of cake, etc.

unfortunately these sorts of regulations especially for edibles, are going to vary between jurisdictions. you're better off reaching out to the local regulatory body and asking for either a point-by-point checklist or an example document you might be able to work from.

i was thinking the same thing.

incidentally really enjoying the proofing box for things like rolls - which are a pain to keep warm and covered without something like greased saran wrap so that it won't stick

i like big buns and i cannot lie you other brothers can’t deny that when a guy walks past that bakery case and a round thing in your face you get hung...ry brioche!

can you explain what the ultimate design looked like? maybe just make a small sketch and upload it in your post? it shouldn't be too hard to help you out once we can figure out what the cake looked like.

to be honest i always just make them with butter because i think they taste better. lard may be the tradition but a lot of people use butter these days. with that said there's no real reason you couldn't use vegetable shortening, or margarine, or even palm oil (if you get a responsibly sourced deforestation-free brand).