[isaac]

wendy,


i will check with my pastry chef tuesday. good question.

i tempered chocolate, white that is, the other day using the table method. it worked. then i tried tempering a batch of dark chocolate for i didnt get a good temper. it seemed to be cool enough when i put the chocolate back into the bowl after working it on the marble but i didnt get a good set.

no one really knows how to temper in my class. heck.... wek now what it should do and all and what we need to do but when chef asks us to temper some chocolate... we pray to god first in hopes it will turn out, he he he ,

sometimes i hateb eing a cook. i know i need to spend more time in the bake shop. showing someone how to temper is a good thing but practising is the most important thing. that is what we lag at school. i would rather pay more and go longer then have to only been once. how annoying.

i do admit that it seems like us students and clinged to one way of doing something. for the most part.... on the cooking side, i understand that short cuts are needed. i forget there are needs for short cuts on the pastry side too.

i have been playing with pastiallge a lot lately. i am making my friend a box made out of it and then thinking of making a picture frame out of it too. we will see. i love working with it. its neat.

so i am wondering how you all pastry chefs out in the indrustry temper chocolate? i know ya all are pressed for time and always dealing with food cost and labor cost so i am curious how it is done in the field.

[isaac]

wendy,


so i am confused.... yes... once again.

so, food paste... just go into a store and ask for it?

glanz.... ask chef at school.... WILL DO.

take the food paste and put on plate...using a stencil in my case. i am no artist... thats my dads job. then spray the glanz on it?

is this right?


do you recomend drawing books for people who have no freaking artistic talent?

[W.DeBord]

Foodcoloring pastes, first you should have a copy of several pastry catalogs for purchasing retail and wholesale (just to become familar with product). Sweet Celebrations, Wilton and Albert Uster catalogs are good to start with. You probably could find them all on line and the first and last one I mentioned have free catalogs they'll will send you.

Sweet celerations has tons of food colors, pastes and powders and I'm sure you'll find many fun items you'll desire from them.

Food pastes are mostly what's sold unless you go buy the stuff sold at grocery stores, those food colors are liquid colors.

Actually I think not knowing how to paint might be easier than knowing....I prefer to keep the look underdone because when I get too realistic the painting looks like it's part of the plate (like you bought the plate with the pattern/item painted on it). Honestly, simple little flowers (like a 5 year old would make) look great! Stick drawings are GREAT (looks like modern art, ha). You could use stencils, yes, but it takes longer to position and get exact with them then to just sqiggle a pretty little pattern of dots or lines or try painting a bee (it's simple). Try bold colors they look great (use blue to create a shadow). Practice using the pastes very thick (hardly thinning with vanilla and thin to find the look you like). Spraying the image changes it. It does what artists call "bleed" the colors run alittle, that's a good thing it makes it look like a water color painting when the paint bleeds into the paper. Spraying the image twice gives it the moisture to bleed, then the protection
from touching and smudging.

I block off the rest of the plate so only the image gets shellaced. If you do many plates just cut a whole in a piece of cardboard the aprox. size of your item, then spray into the whole to avoid over spray around the rest of the plate. If you only have 1 plate put some plastic wrap over the empty part of the plate to keep your spray contained on the plate.

As for tempering chocolate, it does take time to become comfortable doing it and it's not an easy road in the beginning. You have to do it tons and tons to gain confidence. You don't have to know how in pro. pastry kitchens, like I said most of us don't have kitchens where it's practical to do it. Just do your best to learn all you can about it, everything will fall into place over time as you gain experience. Personally I use the seeding method, it's the cleanest and fastest way for me. But than I also ALWAY use the cooler to set. Have you tried what I'm saying? Maybe you could see the show Angry referenced to you it might surprise you how easy that method is....?

[oli]

Excuse me for a dumb question, since I am about to attemp to make the stripes ( once I find the tool ) with the cigarette paste for my cake, is it best to use food paste or food colouring to colour my cigarette paste?

[monpetitchoux]

Hey Wendy, what about using a pretzel curve dipped in chocolate for a 3-d handle? Unsalted for a smooth handle. But you would still get a flat foot of chocolate if it were set on parchment to set up. But there must be some way of attaching a toothpick/skewer (or something that can act like one) on the pretzel so that you can anchor it on a half of an orange after dipping, then you get a perfectly smooth surface (no feet) after the chocolate sets up. You'd still have to glue it onto the chocolate cup. Never tried it myself, but the idea just popped into my head.

[W.DeBord]

Oli buy food pastes there so much better then the liquid colors we all used years ago. Red Cake is the only thing I know of that requires liquid color. Everything else works wonderfully with pastes. You can also make colorful Joconde with-out using a comb for your cigarette paste....real simple:use a paper cone and pipe out a thin lined design on the silpat or use a bent handle spatula and make swirls patterns with the cigarette paste (there are tons of patterns and ideas you can do without a comb!). They look as good if not better then combed paste.

Last Mothers Day I did one of my buffet tables in a "tea cup" theme. I did a large tea pot centerpiece then all my desserts around it were tea cups or spoons. So for my mini chocolate cakes I used chocolate plastic I had formed into a handle shape and let dry. Then inserted into the side of the cakes. For my vanilla mini cakes I used royal icing and piped my handles and inserted those too. The chocolate plastic is a close as I've come to figuring out how to make the handle so it's 3d, and you can use gum paste too (but it's not as easy). I'm forever looking for the definative handle that's edible too, that's why I'm curious what your instructor will teach Isaac.

[oli]

Thanks W.DeBord, that's what I enjoy about this site, so much input and ideas flying about. That other site originally was like that, I just miss Gerard and that elderly baker, tj, I think, who moved to a village in France. I hope we can keep it this way.

[momoreg]

W., why don't you make a silicone mold of a teacup handle? That way you can mold it as often as you want, and it will always look the same.

[W.DeBord]

Great idea Momoreg! I've never made my own molds before (I'd love to learn), could you explain where you get the ingred. to make them and how you do it?

I've read about other chefs making their own but I haven't had the opportunity. Now would be a good time to learn. Do you know of any sources I could look at for a guide?

Darn, I'm pretty sure I saw this sold at professional baking site that even had a demo, can't think of who it was for the life of me now!???????

[momoreg]

Try Culinart. 1-800-333-5678.

[isaac]

mmm, whats does it take to make your own molds? isnt it expensive? i dont have a clue...

[momoreg]

No, it's not expensive. The stuff I used is 2 different "clay" type compounds. You knead them together, and quickly mold it around the item you want an impression of. Let it cure, and you have a permanent mold.

[isaac]

that is such a good idea. i would have never thought.

i have a friend at albert uster imports and we were talking one day and he was telling me that when he took classes at the cia, one of the chefs and him mad molds out of gelatine. of course it would take tons of gelatine to do this but it worked he said.

this is all so much fun!!!!

[W.DeBord]

The thing I don't get is... I'm picturing this mold to be kind of soft and pourous. Not something that you can pour tempered chocolate in a get a clean shape. Can you? Or do you have to go back and spray it with chocolate to finish?

How do you cut the mold open with-out damagaing the edges? Even with an exacto knive you'd have to be pretty gentle and exact to get a straight line so your mold is level. I'd think you'd have to choose very wisely where you make you cut, no?

[momoreg]

Hmm. I don't know about cutting the mold, but you can definitely mold each side of the handle, unmold, and glue the sides together w/choc.