eG Foodblog: Wendy DeBord - Dessert, the most important meal.

[Wendy DeBord]

Off topic a bit did you buy a proof box or build one. I did the cardboard box thing and I don't think I got the results I should have. Problem is I am too clueless to know any better.

I forgot to mention that I do my bear claws as two toed claws........It's all the same process you just cut bigger strips, wider strips and cut four toes instead of one down the middle. A regular four toed claw is too big for my platters.

I do NOT use a proof box, ever. I like long slow rises. I love to retard my doughs in the cooler.

I do freeze my danish dough after I make it but before I shape them into pieces. If you get the "Baking with Julia" book (the Julia is referring to Julia Child. It's very famous chefs baking with Julia and all their great recipes), I promise you can make great danish. It's REALLY well written and very simplified. AND I can tell you a HUGE BONUS............Dorie Greenspan the books author, has been regularly visiting and posting in the Pastry & Baking Forum and you can ask her dirrectly for help if you want. That tip is more then worth the price of admission to this blog.

[helenjp]

Hmmm...salty and sweet, I agree. I accidentally put some coarse salt on top of my shortbread, and some remained even after I brushed it off and replaced it with sugar crystals but that salty-sugary topping was the best yet!

Bees and other garnishes...if you are cooking for a club, I imagine you have a fair number of children coming through??? I'm amazed at what an impact the really colorful or elaborate garnishes have on kids. My kids still talk about stuff they had as preschoolers...your hard work could be preserved as a delightful lifetime memory for somebody!

(And since my husband and I had no wedding reception, both our kids were with us when we finally had a party. The photo shows me beaming at our guests...while my husband and our baby sons are totally mesmerised by the cake!)

I'll be back to read more of your blog - I got an ultimatum on my son1's 2-month overdue birthday cake last night, so one Airbus A380 twindeck long-range jumbo jet birthday cake is now in production. During the time I spend making a hash of that, you will probably produce 1,000 spectacular desserts!

[JeanneCake]

You go, girl! I'm having so much fun reading your blog, thank you so much for taking the time to add this to your already-busy day. It feels like reading my favorite book; I stay up way past bedtime to read and read and read!!

And, I'd love to have more details - in the P&B forum - on the tart shells and choux paste. Are you using Annie's (chefpeon) formula for the choux? I never get such beautifully round puffs, mine look more rustic and craggy. And I'm still having trouble finding a better recipe for pate sucree. And defintely I'd love to hear more details on the minis - my biggest restaurant client wants 75 dz minis for Mother's Day brunch and they really want one-bite things that don't have to be presented in cups (they want stuff in tart shells or eclairs or cream puffs, this chef doesn't want cuts of lemon bars but I think they'd love the joconde/cookie)

Your work is marvelous - stunning - creative. Thanks for sharing!

[JSkilling]

I am so sad this is almost over! Wendy, it's been so much fun to see all your work and hear about your day. Girl, you need a vegetable in there somewhere!!

[Wendy DeBord]

Girl, you need a vegetable in there somewhere!!

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I know.........that's why I wrote that stupid warning in my first post. I do take a multi vitamen and extra calcuim everyday. Believe it or not I sort of get a work-out all day at work. I'll let another bomb drop about my life...........I haven't converted all my recipes into weights because I think I get a workout bending and dipping into my bins with my one cup measurement. If you do it right, you don't fill your bins, keep them low, so you really have to bend to get the ingredients out..........20 plus cups of sugar, 20 cups of flour, 30 cups of xxxsugar ..................hum or maybe it's my age catching up to me, but that feels like a work-out to me.

Jeannecake, I feel like I'm getting pretty good at doing large volumes of mini pastries. I'm sure I could help you knock them out with-out much fuss. Can I tell you a story? Once upon a time, I attempted to partner with someone who owned a bakery. That didn't work out because of personalities, blah, blah. So I get my current job and my Chef is all familar with this person I was trying to partner with. He told me her work was really good! He wanted to buy from her so he asked her about pricing so he could order from her. She wouldn't price any mini under .75 cents wholesale. She was locked in to the mini's she had always made, traditional choux puffs stuff, bought in tarts, bought in cannoli shells and such (and those cost her money so she barely was making a profit once she added her labor and expenses). My Chef went round and round with her asking her if she could do anything less expensive cause she didn't fit into his budget, NOW. She got pissy and didn't deal with him. So he hired me part-time to make him mini pastries that were in his budget price wise. She lost out on TONS of perspective business (and eventually every other country clubs in the area, by pricing too high and not bending to make what they could afford). It could have been the start to making her bakery profitable.

I'll give you a little peak at what I've done to make mini's in high volume. I do alot of sheet pan baked items then throw in some more labor intensive items to give some splash and the customers still love what you've got. Their bottom line is always taste..........so as long as your taste is there they don't care if every mini is a piece of art or not......you make a profit. AND the beginning to 9o% of my mini's start as left over product. Everything thing I make, every mousse, every cake, every basic component like pastry cream, lemon curd, caramel............. I make extra. For two reasons. First you don't want to run out of something and have to go back to make more. Second I want the left overs. I waste NOTHING! If I have some caramel left over I throw it in a mini chocolate shell, find some mousse and top it with that, if I don't have any mousse I'll use some left-over whipped cream, then I slap a little garnish ontop and I've now got a bunch of mini's out of left-over components that might have gone to waste.

Believe me, I've eaten all of these, it's my most important meal......................this is just typical daily grind stuff.

[Dejah]

Thanks so much for sharing your garnish cabinet! I have not advanced beyond "retro"... but they still impress people who ask me to do cakes.

I will be referring back to your pictures often, for inspiration. They will never turn out like yours, but it will be fun trying to duplicate!

[M. Lucia]

Oh my goodness, the photos!

I love all these mini, especially those poppy seed cakes and the beautiful meringues.

[Richard Kilgore]

Beautiful work, Wendy. Thanks for sharing. You're visual arts background is apparent.

[Behemoth]

I'm a pastry whimp. It involves measuring and math and patience of which I have little.

I asked for the bread baker's apprectice for Christmas but I think my wife decided to save me from a world of dissapointment.

No no no no no! I was the same way -- I hate measuring. But then I got a kitchen scale and it makes everything much easier. For the first time I've really gotten into baking. Oh and it makes you a popular dinner party guest, BTW. Next Christmas, ask for the scale and buy the book for yourself

[daniellewiley]

This is amazing, just amazing. Your photos are breathtaking. I was just showing my husband, and he refused to believe that they are actually your photos!!

He kept saying, "no way, those are stock photos. no way. no way."

He has no idea of the talent we have here on eGullet.

I'm in awe...

[Wendy DeBord]

Hello again. I'm starting to wonder what other bloggers thought as they did this. I like attention just like everyone, but it's really weird to come and just write about yourself and your eating. I guess I lead a sheltered life because I read so much only in the P & B Forum........I'm feeling like a fish out of water trying to do this. My life is just so much work and sleep that I'm lost if I have to talk about anything else.

I started my day just like everyone before it. I do live near the actual town they filmed the movie "Ground Hogs Day", with Bill Murphy in........it's scarie how much my life must mirror that film.

For some real excitement I drank my cappuccino is a different mug this morning. The 'mug' was an issue my husband teased me about when I told him I was doing this blogging thing. I began to go into panic mode the day before I was to blog, thinking I'd have to quick go out and buy a nice sippy cup. Certainly I couldn't show you what I really use. I've got dishes coming out of my ears, nice dishes actually. I've got a thing about having nice dishes..........more then having nice undies. I wierd out when at freinds homes if they hand me a ronald mcdonald cup or something discarded from their long gone jelly. I'm very particular about labels. I don't wear clothing that anounces labels intentionally either. Yet every darn morning of my life I drink out of these god aueful ugly mugs with store names on them. Here I am broadcasting, world wide, my dirty little secret/secrets. Good god!

I figured out how to show you (while I was still not awake) what I'm drinking with-out letting you see that the front of my cup had some construction companies name on it.

Saturday in the food biz is our busiest day. And today was busy at work!! Since I've been blogging I've been staying awake very late to post and now every morning I'm running late getting to work. It's o.k. my Chef doesn't really care as long as I get my work done. But I had to hussle today. The lunch party was for 191 people. I only had creme' brulee' to serve but it does take a while to torch that many off..........while taking photos during your day. My darn coolers have so much condensation happening that I have to dry off each brulee before I can sugar it and torch it.

So I'm rushing and rushing, you can't miss your "show time". And well........I figured out how to speed things up. This worked GREAT! I'm more ambidextrous then most people and well:

this is the result

I thought it was pretty funny and I asked one of the guys to photograph me with my own camera. I had to crop my face (and more) out of the shot because I was laughing so hard, you'd think I did this as a prank. But I really was doing this first and then thought it would be a good shot.

Crazy days bring crazy eating habits. While I was running thru the upstairs kitchen I grabed these:

Normally I'd have eaten them on the elevator ride down to my room. But I saved them to show you all. Notice the darn h20 again. I'll be going to Sam's club tommarrow on my day off just to get a fix of the other flavors. Maybe on Monday I can excite you with a photo of a lemon h20, whoo hoo.

While I'm upstairs gathering equipement I always have to check my cooler and see what I need to replenish for my ala carte desserts. I might have needed to retaste what was left of a couple items, just for the sake of knowledge..........you know, how long your pastries keep before theres flavor lose. So I might have eaten some of this.........

Good news........they all still tasted great. I worked on replenishing my items and we have a champangne brunch tommarrow morning so those events took up most of my day. The cakes I put out for brunch are left-overs from other events. Well taken care of and still fresh and tasty..........but nothing to write home about. If I recall correctly I had a lemon mist cake, chocolate brownie torte, orange mousse cake, danish, some candies (which I can't spell), a cheesecake and one peanut butter pie ready to go for tommarrow. When I'm not there. YEH< I've got Sunday off. I'm so excited to have the day off, I'm more tired then usual and need some down time. I should cook for you...........but don't get your hopes up, the odds are bad.

Around 2:00 I stopped for lunch. It was left-overs from the lunch party, pasta alfredo with roasted veggies. In my hast to upload photos tonight I accidently deleted that photo. Sorry. You can trust me that it wasn't a memorable meal. Normally our guys make the best alfredo you can imagine. But I think they took a total shortcut to manage this for 191 people. The sauce wasn't reduced cream, the cream wasn't at all reduced.........so that blew. Instead they used too much cheese to thicken it, which is way wrong and throws the flavor out the door. I felt deprived and well again for the sake of science and my job I thought I needed to sample my creme brulee just incase it wasn't up to pare.

It was up to pare and I snarfed it down with-out thinking about you all. That was all I had left by the time I remembered you.

Toward the end of the day I resumed making the petite fours I had started yesterday. We had a tasting for an upcoming wedding tonight and I didn't have enough variety in my freezer stock, so I made a small amount of the following to meet tonights demands.

These are the anise shortbread cookies I was eating earilier in my blog. They are far too thick for this purpose.........but it tasted pretty darn good so I used them anyway.

[fou de Bassan]

Wendy,

I have no questions because I, like so many other readers, am so impressed. Not only the design but the quantity!

My 8 year old son is a devoted reader of your blog now and has asked me to put it in his 'favorites' list. So, you have two fans in this household.

Thanks for the time and effort you've put into this.

[Wendy DeBord]

TWICE now I wrote a paragraph or two and when I came back from obtaining photos my page had expired and I lost what I wrote. Sorry, but I just can't re-write it again this moment. But I will post the photos and tell you it's about how to make petite fours in mass by coating the bottom of your item in chocolate as a "foot".

and this:

is the finished product..........you can whip out 75 dozen mini's in like 6 sheet pans (probably less) and that's a breeze.

Gosh I'm beginning to get tired...........I had to make 1 b-day cake today and this is what they got:

The end...........of work that is. You'd think after eating all those sweets today I wouldn't be hungry for dinner, but I was. We were going to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant but once we were in the car and observed the clock, it was fast approaching 7:00 pm and we just didn't want to eat a big meal and then lay around tonight. We wound up compromising and going to Taco Bell for dinner. Now I admit I eat poorly but we have only eaten dinner at Taco Bell once before in 16 years of marriage and that's cause we were out of town and didn't know what else there was. I'm going to figure that almost everyone in the world knows what a hard shell taco looks and tastes like...........so I didn't photograph my dinner. I did however drink plain water and asked for light sour cream on my 2 taco supremes.

That's pretty much my day. Kind of a jip. So maybe I should post more photos to give you value for what your paying for here........I'm sad to see hardly anyone is posting to my blog. I'm thinking I've failed.

[Wendy DeBord]

Oh, I want to acknowledge the nice comments some of you have written, Thank-you..........I appreciate them.

Here's some more photos..........just more random stuff as I look back thru my photo files. I'm beginning to forget what photos I have and haven't shown.....so forgive me if you see any re-runs.

Can anyone guess what that last photo is? I'll give you a clue..........it's from my halloween buffet.

[Pan]

Wendy, you haven't failed! I just think many of us have no idea what to post other than that your creations look great, wonderful, and other such-like adjectives, and that we're amazed you can upload and post so much after a full day's work. I'm not sure people know what other line of discussion to broach. What kinds of things would you want to discuss in this blog, not only in Pastry and Baking?

[Pam R]

........I'm sad to see hardly anyone is posting to my blog. I'm thinking I've failed.

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Please don't be sad! We may not be posting a lot, but we're all reading and enjoying.

I asked a question earlier that you missed (I think), so I'll re-ask it now.

You mentioned using the airbrush to cover your tiramisu with chocolate. How do you do that? So you mean regular chocolate that you melt and airbrush on or is it some other type of chocolate?

[Behemoth]

Are those supposed to be brains? Awesome.

I don't know if they still have it, but Archee McPhee used to sell a brain-shaped mold with a recipe for greyish-colored jello. I always wanted one, I must admit.

[Dejah]

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[SushiCat]

Wendy,

I was just catching up on your post and saw your note about feeling that you had failed - OH NO! I had to post immediately! Your blog is VERY interesting and I think everyone is in awe of your creatings, the amount you produce in a day/week as well as the very beautiful and inventive things you do for holidays! Us home bakers can only dream of having our baking turn out properly when guests are arriving for dinner ...

It is a very different blog from some I have read where there can be more general discussion or just general posts e.g. flavors of Pocky or just 'chat' (banter, if you will) between the blogger and us blogees

So from my perspecitve your blog is very successful as you are showing us so much of what is possible and what a blog is all about in my mind - insight into your day. Thanks again, so far it is great! I do think we should work on converting you to real coffee, it would go so well with your pastries!

- purr

[helenjp]

Ditto...over 8,000 views and you're not out of the weekend yet. People are watching what you post, never fear! At present though, we are at the stage where our lips are moving as we spell out what you are posting, but give us time, and you'll see that you've inspired some of us to make our way to the pastry forum to see what else we can learn.

Don't forget, too, that you have to post after work, when most people in your time zone are starting to move away from their computers - so they are more likely to be looking on without posting. They're there though, so don't go posting photos of you in your knickers in the assumption that nobody's looking anyway .

If you have a mo, perhaps you could show/tell your knives and cutting equipment? I've always thought that even if I could ever bake a beautiful dessert, I could nevernevernever cut and plate it nicely! So how do you get your joconde biscuit sliced so thinly and evenly and rolled round your mousse into such a perfect cylinder?

[Wendy DeBord]

Wendy, what is the "green cylinder" on top of the shortbread?

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The green exterior is cake, joconde cake. In it's center is keylime mousse.

[Wendy DeBord]

I asked a question earlier that you missed (I think), so I'll re-ask it now.

You mentioned using the airbrush to cover your tiramisu with chocolate.  How do you do that?  So you mean regular chocolate that you melt and airbrush on or is it some other type of chocolate?

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Sorry. Well theres two ways to spray chocolate (that I'm familar with). I use a badger airbrush to spray details with. Typically it's colored cocoa butter, it's never chocolate as that would be too thick to airbrush. The other method is using a wagner brand paint sprayer........exactly what you buy at the hardware store to paint at home. When your using that type of spraying you can use real chocolate, but it must be 50% chocolate to 50% cocoa butter to thin the chocolate down so it's very liquid.

I'll show you an example of each.

The chocolate coating on this is applied using the Wagner paint sprayer method. i should mention that it's applyed to frozen object, that's how you achieve the velvety appearance.

This next photo, if you look closely you can see that it's a pistachio mousse (it's green) under the chocolate coating.

In the next shot the white swirl pattern is applied using a badger airbrush and a stencil.

[tejon]

How do you make the chocolate cylendars that top many of the smaller desserts?

[Wendy DeBord]

The chocolate cylinders, if I'm following you, are called chocolate cigarettes. And thankfully that's one garnish we do buy in! They come in a wide variety of colors (currently) and you probably can buy them from internet sources. I get them thru wholesale sources at work. If you like you can post a thread in the baking forum asking about where to purchase them retail and I bet you'll get tons of sources.

[jackal10]

Its amazing! One of the all time great blogs, informative as a well as inspiring. Wouldn't surprise me if you get job offers..You've made it very hard for the next bloggers...

How do you get the coloured patterns on the outside of the joconde? Airbrush and stencil?

Edited April 17, 2005 by jackal10 (log)