r/pastry

Mexican Pan Dulce- Conchas , vanilla and chocolate

Recipe in the commends

Does someone know why my cannelés almost immediately pop out of their mould when I bake them?? I’m flabbergasted.

Im not putting too much batter: these were halfway filled, they‘re not overflowing, they are popping out and then cooking really short out of the mould.

I’ve tried two different recipes, though most amateur recipes seem similar. I use AP flour, and a mould for small cannelés from De Buyer which I’ve seen use in videos of successful cannelé making. Ive tried different temperatures, starting from 190C to 235C, and finish cooking at 160C.

Theyre still delicious but look ridiculous 🫡

Edit to add the recipe:

Whole milk: 260g

Vanilla extract: 15g

Unsalted butter: 25g

Sugar: 90g

Egg yolk: 20g

Whole egg: 35g

AP flour: 60g

Salt: 1 pinch

Rum liquor: 30g

Mix egg yolk, whole egg, sugar, flour, salt together in a bowl with whisk. Heat up milk, vanilla extract, butter until butter is all melted. Mix milk mixture into egg/flour mixture gradually. Add rum and mix well.

Let batter rest in fridge for at least 24hr, up to 48

Convection oven:

Bake at 190C for 5 minutes, then 180C for 15 minutes, and 160C for 35 minutes.

Immediately flip pastry over and demold after baking, transfer to a cooling rack. Pastries will be soft at first but will crisp up as they cool.

Made a cake after long time.
I am trying weird/uncommon ingredients

I wanted to mix European and Asian tastes in this entremet. The main taste profile is avocado and tahini with a touch of miso.

The layers are the following:

• Macadamia/Almond and Miso Dacquoise
• Crunchy sesame and black sesame thin layer
• Avocado/Tahini mousse
• Matcha/Lime namelaka

I realised too late it looks like a mosquito repeller 🙈

Strawberry Rose London Fog TeaCupCake, Yuzu and Berry Cream Cake, and some Chocolate Strawberry Tres Leches. Thanks for looking!

Such a simple elegance to these little guys. The buttery sweet richness was the perfect compliment to a morning cuppa. Tiny joys.

Hi everyone! I'm quite new to this, so apologies if some of these problems are obvious. I'm mainly trying to understand what went wrong and how I can improve.

I was making an Almond-Lemon Entremet Tartlet:

pâte sucrée → almond praline ganache → vanilla white chocolate mousse + lemon gel insert → neutral glaze → candied lemon & almond garnish

TL;DR

Pâte sucrée: difficult to work with in my ~32°C kitchen; thin walls/thick base and uneven browning.

Almond praline ganache: worked well.

Lemon gel: worked, but initially far too sour.

White chocolate mousse: complete disaster. It behaved like ice cream, wouldn't unmold and collapsed after thawing.

Glaze: haven't attempted yet.

Looking especially for a proven agar-based mousse that can freeze → unmold → thaw while retaining its shape, and a transparent agar glaze.

1. Pâte sucrée

The dough became unworkable very quickly in my ~32°C kitchen. I couldn't transfer the rolled dough into the mold like I see in tutorials and ended up pressing it directly into the mold. This resulted in thin walls and a thick base.

I also started baking at 180°C but reduced it to 160°C because it was cooking too quickly. Even at 160°C, the top edges browned before the base developed much colour, so I had to remove it earlier than intended.

I also made it without almond flour.

Recipe

75 g butter

50 g icing sugar

30 g beaten egg

150 g maida

Vanilla

I used a hand mixer for the butter + sugar and egg, then incorporated the flour by hand.

I'd appreciate advice on working with pâte sucrée in a hot kitchen and getting more even baking.

2. Almond praline ganache

This was the component that went most according to plan.

Almond praline paste

70 g almonds

40 g sugar

12 g water

1 small pinch salt

Ganache

75 g almond praline paste

45 g white chocolate compound

65 g Amul Fresh Cream

1 small pinch salt

The praline took quite a while because my grinder struggled, and the almonds released quite a lot of oil, but otherwise this component was good.

3. Lemon broken-gel insert

This worked structurally as expected, although it was initially far too sour, so I had to adjust by making the same gel without lemon to dilute it

Recipe

50 g lemon juice

35 g water

20 g sugar

1 g agar agar

I mixed the agar with the sugar, added the liquids, brought it to a proper boil and continued boiling for about 60 seconds while whisking. After setting, I blended it into a smooth gel for the insert.

This component is fine now.

4. White chocolate vanilla mousse — the disaster

This is where things really went wrong.

I wanted the mousse deliberately less sweet, so I reduced the white chocolate. I also had to use agar because I cannot use gelatin.

Recipe I used

120 g whole milk

120 g white chocolate compound

190 g 35% whipping cream

1.5 g agar agar

1 tsp vanilla essence

I infused the vanilla in the milk, then added the agar.

The problem was that the agar mixture started setting before I could properly incorporate the whipped cream. I reheated it and broke the gel back down with a hand mixer, then folded in the whipped cream and filled the sphere molds with the lemon insert.

I froze them for around 12 hours.

Even after freezing, the mousse wasn't nearly as firm as I expected and wouldn't demold properly. After thawing in the refrigerator it essentially turned into a soft, ice-cream-like blob and completely lost the spherical shape.

In hindsight, reducing the white chocolate may have been a mistake because it wasn't just contributing sweetness — it was also contributing structure.

I'm particularly looking for advice on:

white chocolate + vanilla + whipped cream + agar → freeze → unmold → glaze → thaw while retaining shape.

I don't mind a different mouthfeel from gelatin mousse. I just need the sphere to actually survive thawing.

5. Neutral glaze

I haven't attempted this yet because the mousse sphere was a disaster.

I can only use agar agar. I don't have Pectin NH, and I'm okay with somewhat less gloss or a different mouthfeel.

What I need is a transparent/neutral glaze suitable for a frozen mousse sphere.

I'd particularly appreciate an actual tested agar-based recipe, rather than simply replacing gelatin with an assumed amount of agar.

6. Candied lemon & almond

These are done and turned out fine.

Unfortunately, they currently have no mousse sphere to garnish.

Any help is appreciated, but especially advice or proven recipes for the agar-based mousse and transparent agar glaze. I'd really like to avoid making another experimental batch after this one!

You can’t be happier than happy. Scrum-diddly-umptious!

It was good.

I've seen quite a few bakeries now making this triangular shape of pain suisse / cross-laminated pastry (example photos are from Lune in Australia) but my iffy spatial intelligence means I'm struggling to understand how I would cut a cross-laminated dough to achieve this shape. This would really suit an idea I have for next month's special!! Any tips?

When there’s a natural disaster at home & the husband has a hotel across the country for work, you drive there & eat all this to feel better. Mission accomplished 😊

First I have a lime tart with almond sponge, lime curd and lime infused white chocolate mousse.

The second is a gateau with miso caramel, peanut cremeux and white chocolate

After that a gateau with pistachio and cherry

Next a tart with mango, coconut and lime

The fifth is a tart with caramelized apple, almond and beurre noisette mousse

And the last is a strawberry tart with pink peppercorn

I have a subscription to pastry arts magazine and it's decent but some of the articles really leave me scratching my head. The author of this claims that in Nigeria they don't use thermometers and the rest of the world could learn from it. Now, with 20+ years of experience I can tell you when a syrup reaches rhe softball stage just from the change in sound so I disagree that they are unique in that skill. But what I really don't understand is the idea of listening when making caramel. The recipe they provide is just sugar and water. When making a caramel you're looking for colour, not temp or sound to determine when it's ready. Is this just a fluff piece or does this make sense to anyone?

Recipe is from the New York Times.

Wanted to make a fruit tart but with seasonal fruit. I think I was too restrained in how much fruit I used. Next time, it will be a lot!! I over baked the crust a bit. But it tasted fresh and summery! I used a whole wheat pastry flour, but next time I’ll just stick to a classic white pastry flour. It was quite dense. Still practicing!