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rikibethSo, did I mention it was slow at work?
No, really. This should come as no surprise to anyone who's worked in the catering business. Holiday parties are over, and businesses aren't doing that many catered meetings, and... it's slow.
Made my last king cake of the season yesterday. The plastic babies came out even. I'll have to buy more next year.
Monday was "make bar cookies day." Cream cheese brownies, regular brownies, blondies, pecan bars, coconut macaroon bars, lemon bars, turtle bars, oatmeal jam bars, and krispy treats. Those are the ones I'm currently keeping as regular stock at the kiosk. That took up a day, but that was also the week's worth of bar cookies.
Yesterday was... huh, what did I do yesterday besides the king cake? Oh yeah, biscotti. And tedious but useful things like cutting out scones and forming up sticky buns for the freezer while the biscotti did their long bake.
Today there was basically NOTHING I had to make for the kiosk. However, there's a small breakfast meeting tomorrow. One that doesn't want bagels. So we have to give them more foofy little goodies. I always do muffins, mini coffee cakes, and mini scones, and we order in mini croissants; Eric asked if I could do some other little whatsits. Sure. I've got a bucket of apple filling that I cooked up last week, and another bucket of frangipane; they can have turnovers and almond bearclaws.
Aaaaand... no frozen puff paste in the house, which is what I usually use to make those last two, because it's handy. Luckily, I am NOT out of flour or butter. (Last week was a hell of a week for out of ingredients -- Friday morning I actually went to the grocery store for baking powder, confectioner's sugar, and six pounds of margarine. Baking powder is in now but we're still waiting on the confectioner's sugar. Tomorrow.) I do not feel like fighting with gluten for true puff pastry, and, let's face it, these are breakfast turnovers, they don't have to be as flaky as a Napoleon. Blitz puff time!
Blitz puff is pretty simple -- equal weights of flour and butter and half that of slightly salted cold water, prepare as if for piecrust, give dough 3 4-folds. It worked up beautifully supple, with only a 20-minute rest between folds, and I could see the layers as I was forming up the little pastries.
If it works out as well as I suspect it will, I'm going to ditch using frozen puff. If I make it myself, it's all-butter, and the frozen stuff is shortening/margarine based, bleh.
Because I didn't really have anything that needed doing during the dough rests, I cleaned. Scraped a lot of carbonized gunk out of the oven, scrubbed down the window -- now I can see through it again! Awesome! -- and cleaned the shelf under my worktable. My hands are very dry now. Time for lotion.
Tomorrow I'll be busy again -- a cookie/brownie platter for 45 for lunch (I have already scooped the cookie dough and they're on sheets in the fridge ready to bake off), and apple crunch tart for 72 for evening. A full sheet and a half sheet ought to do it. Say forty apples. Not so bad.
If I'm bored again on Friday I may see what happens if I make marshmallows with flavored gelatin. Raspberry ones, cut out with a heart cutter, and stuck on a chocolate cupcake ought to be Valentiney, right?
Or I could always make lemon curd. I'm sure I could think of something to do with lemon curd once I made it. Besides sit there and eat it with a spoon!
No, really. This should come as no surprise to anyone who's worked in the catering business. Holiday parties are over, and businesses aren't doing that many catered meetings, and... it's slow.
Made my last king cake of the season yesterday. The plastic babies came out even. I'll have to buy more next year.
Monday was "make bar cookies day." Cream cheese brownies, regular brownies, blondies, pecan bars, coconut macaroon bars, lemon bars, turtle bars, oatmeal jam bars, and krispy treats. Those are the ones I'm currently keeping as regular stock at the kiosk. That took up a day, but that was also the week's worth of bar cookies.
Yesterday was... huh, what did I do yesterday besides the king cake? Oh yeah, biscotti. And tedious but useful things like cutting out scones and forming up sticky buns for the freezer while the biscotti did their long bake.
Today there was basically NOTHING I had to make for the kiosk. However, there's a small breakfast meeting tomorrow. One that doesn't want bagels. So we have to give them more foofy little goodies. I always do muffins, mini coffee cakes, and mini scones, and we order in mini croissants; Eric asked if I could do some other little whatsits. Sure. I've got a bucket of apple filling that I cooked up last week, and another bucket of frangipane; they can have turnovers and almond bearclaws.
Aaaaand... no frozen puff paste in the house, which is what I usually use to make those last two, because it's handy. Luckily, I am NOT out of flour or butter. (Last week was a hell of a week for out of ingredients -- Friday morning I actually went to the grocery store for baking powder, confectioner's sugar, and six pounds of margarine. Baking powder is in now but we're still waiting on the confectioner's sugar. Tomorrow.) I do not feel like fighting with gluten for true puff pastry, and, let's face it, these are breakfast turnovers, they don't have to be as flaky as a Napoleon. Blitz puff time!
Blitz puff is pretty simple -- equal weights of flour and butter and half that of slightly salted cold water, prepare as if for piecrust, give dough 3 4-folds. It worked up beautifully supple, with only a 20-minute rest between folds, and I could see the layers as I was forming up the little pastries.
If it works out as well as I suspect it will, I'm going to ditch using frozen puff. If I make it myself, it's all-butter, and the frozen stuff is shortening/margarine based, bleh.
Because I didn't really have anything that needed doing during the dough rests, I cleaned. Scraped a lot of carbonized gunk out of the oven, scrubbed down the window -- now I can see through it again! Awesome! -- and cleaned the shelf under my worktable. My hands are very dry now. Time for lotion.
Tomorrow I'll be busy again -- a cookie/brownie platter for 45 for lunch (I have already scooped the cookie dough and they're on sheets in the fridge ready to bake off), and apple crunch tart for 72 for evening. A full sheet and a half sheet ought to do it. Say forty apples. Not so bad.
If I'm bored again on Friday I may see what happens if I make marshmallows with flavored gelatin. Raspberry ones, cut out with a heart cutter, and stuck on a chocolate cupcake ought to be Valentiney, right?
Or I could always make lemon curd. I'm sure I could think of something to do with lemon curd once I made it. Besides sit there and eat it with a spoon!
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 06:24 pm (UTC)mix it with marscapone then lighten with whipped cream,it makes a lovely mousse
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Date: 2008-02-06 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 06:51 pm (UTC)BTW, we should talk about the plan the girls are cooking up for Feb 15 (I think). What's a good time to talk? You can send me an e-mail, persis at love song dot com.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 07:02 pm (UTC)Just thought you'd like to know! :)
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Date: 2008-02-06 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 07:22 pm (UTC)Anyway, sometimes your entries make me hungry. I love reading about this, it's fascinating -- and it's about baked goods! Nom nom nom. Makes me happy...but now I want pastry. Gah!
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Date: 2008-02-06 07:24 pm (UTC)But all is not as it seems, and the cake is a lie...
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Date: 2008-02-06 07:27 pm (UTC)Yes, I had an Atari 800 that played all the 2600 games.
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Date: 2008-02-06 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 07:47 pm (UTC)DAMN YOU, I'm HUNGRY now.
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Date: 2008-02-06 08:06 pm (UTC)Lemon curd halloweth any cause. ;-)
And thanks for the description of blitz puff. That sounds as if it could come in handy on occasion.
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Date: 2008-02-06 11:11 pm (UTC)How *does* one make lemon curd, anyway?
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Date: 2008-02-06 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 01:57 am (UTC)???
no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 02:58 am (UTC)