A few pieces of advice concerning products or techniques. Don't hesitate to ask for new advice.
Sugar
Always use caster sugar and not granulated sugar. Do not be fooled by Baker's Special Sugar, it is useless, caster sugar is more than fine.
Eggs
As a general rules, recipes count the number of eggs but eggs do not all weigh the same. I would recommend weighing the egg yolks and the egg whites separately. The average weight of an egg is 50 g, 20 for the yolk, 30 for the white.
So, if 4 eggs are needed in a recipe, count 80 g of egg yolk and 120 g of egg white.
Milk
Always use whole milk in your recipes, especially for your creams.
Whipping cream
Always use cold heavy whipping cream so as to obtain beautiful whipped creams.
Whipped cream
Always use cold heavy whipping cream. Add 20% of granulated sugar to the weight of whipping cream (ex: 200 g of sugar for 1 kg of whipping cream). Put your mixing bowl with the cream and the sugar in the freezer for 15 minutes before whipping it. You can always add some powdered cacao, vanilla extract or fruit syrup to add flavor to your whipped cream.
Whisked egg whites
To obtain stiff egg whites by hand or thanks to a mixer, you should use eggs at room temperature and with no trace of yolk in them. To obtain even stiffer ones, add a dash of salt at the beginning. Add some lemon juice to prevent granulating.
Zests
Always wash your fruit with cold water for several seconds. It is even better to use untreated organic fruit.
Chocolate shavings
Don't buy them, make them yourself. Take a bar of chocolate and use a peeler.
How to melt chocolate
The big question has always been: in the microwave or in a bain-marie...? In a bain-marie of course. Use a mixing bowl that doesn't touch the bottom of your pan and always melt it over medium heat.
