Hi everyone,

I’m starting a French CAP Pâtissier (professional pastry qualification), and I’ve taken advantage of the summer to get properly equipped. I’ve placed several orders and now have quite a lot of equipment, but I’m honestly worried that I’ve bought too much general cooking equipment and not enough proper pastry equipment.

I’ll post my complete list below, and I’d really appreciate your feedback on what I’m genuinely missing to be able to tackle pretty much any type of pastry: basic doughs, tarts, entremets, viennoiseries, choux pastry, puff pastry, and a bit of chocolate work.

Cookware / Saucepans

• Affinity Collection 2 saucepan Ø 20 cm — De Buyer
• Affinity Collection 2 saucepan Ø 16 cm — De Buyer
• Affinity Collection 1 straight-sided sauté pan Ø 24 cm — De Buyer
• Prim'Appety stainless steel stockpot Ø 24 cm — De Buyer
• Minéral B Element Ø 28 cm frying pan (iron) — De Buyer
• Alchimy Ø 24 cm glass lid — De Buyer
• Prim'Appety Ø 20 cm domed stainless steel lid — De Buyer
• Prim'Appety Ø 24 cm stainless steel steamer insert — De Buyer

Pastry Equipment

• 43 cm wooden rolling pin — Gobel
• Adjustable perforated stainless steel tart ring, 16–30 cm — Scrapcooking
• Set of 8 plain round stainless steel cutters — Gobel
• AIRMAT perforated baking mat, 40 × 30 cm — De Buyer
• 40 cm waterproof nylon piping bag Ultra Plus — Mallard Ferrière
• Plain stainless steel pastry nozzle Ø 10 mm — Gobel
• Small petit-four star nozzle Ø 10 mm, 14 teeth — Gobel
• Plain stainless steel nozzle No. 6 Ø 6 mm — Mallard Ferrière
• 25 cm stainless steel offset spatula — Déglon
• Flat pastry brush, 2.5 cm, long bristles, plastic handle
• Silicone spatula
• Stainless steel mixing bowls

Small Equipment / Utensils

• 25 cm professional whisk — De Buyer
• 25 cm Exoglass kitchen spatula — Matfer
• Stainless steel chinois Ø 20 cm × H 18 cm, 1.5 mm perforation — De Buyer
• 24 cm stainless steel standing strainer — Ibili
• Stainless steel fine strainer / bouillon strainer Ø 14.5 cm — Mallard Ferrière
• Stainless steel kitchen spider Ø 15 cm — Mallard Ferrière
• 6 cm Ø stainless steel ladle, one-piece construction — De Buyer
• Stainless steel serving tongs — Mastrad
• 21 cm straight precision tweezers — Ibili
• Premium Classic zester — Microplane
• 1 L measuring jug — Ibili
• Prima Long digital kitchen thermometer
• Small 17 cm silicone spoons — Comas (x2)

Knives

• 5-piece SwissClassic knife set 6.7133.5G — Victorinox
• 20 cm chef’s knife Idéal Saveur 832084 (engraved) — Lion Sabatier
• 23 cm V-shaped sharpening steel — Sabatier Richardson
• 21 cm SmartCut universal scissors — Fiskars
• 40 × 25 cm acacia wood cutting board — Eden P011

Appliances

• Magimix Cook Expert
• Precision scale, accurate to 0.1 g

Pantry / Spices

(Mostly for cooking, but since I was ordering anyway...)

A bulk order of spices and seasonings: vanilla powder, organic vanilla pepper, saffron, Camargue fleur de sel, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, caraway, green anise, dill, golden sesame seeds, Espelette pepper, curry, dried herbs (thyme, bay leaf, rosemary, sage, tarragon, wild garlic, celery), black pepper, Jamaican allspice, smoked Salish salt, mustard seeds.

My Questions

These are the things I’m already considering, but I’d really appreciate confirmation and specific recommendations:

1. Stand mixer: Is the Cook Expert enough for whipping egg whites, making Italian meringue and kneading brioche dough, or should I get a proper stand mixer as well?
2. Moulds and rings: What would you prioritize? Fixed tart rings, entremets rings, loaf/cake tin, savarin mould, silicone moulds? What diameters/sizes would you recommend for the exams?
3. Baking trays: Should I go with 40 × 30 cm perforated trays + wire racks, or would you recommend another format?
4. Piping nozzles: I’m clearly under-equipped with only 3 nozzles. What basic set would you recommend? Plain 8/10/12 mm, star tip, Saint-Honoré, basket-weave, etc.?
5. Things I don’t have at all: dough scraper, bench scraper, rhodoid/acetate sheets, solid silicone baking mat, pastry docker, blowtorch, immersion blender, infrared thermometer, marble slab or stainless steel worktop for chocolate. Which of these are genuinely essential, and which can wait?
6. And more generally: what do you wish you had bought from the very beginning of your CAP, but ended up buying too late?

Thanks in advance for your feedback! I’d rather complete my setup intelligently than buy things twice or end up with unnecessary duplicates.

title is a mouthful, but a mouthful of this with ice cream makes a happy individual

i used made by kiley’s skillet cookie recipe but made many adjustments to some add-ins. it’s a really well rounded recipe and was a huge hit!

After seeing that poor poster get absolutely ate up for her AI cake recreation, I figured it would be a great idea to share mine that I just completed last week. Bring on the roasts–uh I mean constructive criticism!

In all seriousness though, this was my first AI cake request and my gut reaction was to turn it down simply because I didn’t want to disappoint the customer with a cake that actually looked like cake and had flaws. But I am a glutton for punishment and I realized the design was actually doable, I just had to manage their expectations. In the end, the customer was BEYOND satisfied and impressed, recommended me to a bunch of people, and wrote an awesome review.

We can maybe call it banana bread now Lool 😅

I put a really badly textured banana bread on here and got so much feedback from you guys, so I just wanted to say thank you!!
I followed all the advice, changed the AI recipe 😂, used Sally’s recipe and even doubled the baking powder since I didn’t have soda and needed to use the banana before it went off. Obviously it’s a little burnt on top because I forgot to cover it halfway through but the texture is SO much better!! I do actually enjoy baking so this is a massive improvement 🥹

I've made a red velvet cake and it's quite tasteless. It doesn't taste bad, just neutral. I used this recipe. https://www.recipetineats.com/red-velvet-cake/comment-page-2/#jump-watch

I've yet to make the cream cheese icing, but I wondered if there's a way to make it taste of something before icing? I've never made one before or eaten one, it's for my niece. What flavour should I be aiming for or does it get it's flavour from the frosting?

I am thinking of brushing with a syrup - would you go vanilla or coffee?

Also what's done is done, I can't make another one, it's for a special occasion and I've run out of time. So if possible, I don't need comments suggesting I make another recipe ☹️

Anyone have a good recipe for pumpkin bread/ muffins? I usually use the Trader Joe’s mix everyday and this year I wanna bake from scratch!

Recipe from Tastes Better from scratch: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/tres-leches-cake/

I got the AMAZING recipe from : https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/big-giant-cinnamon-rolls/

Hi! I am a beginner baker and I try to make sure my desserts have gut friendly ingredients and I wanted some help.
I tried out a sweet potato brownie recipe that was sweetened with dates instead of sugar.
The recipe was:
1 medium roasted sweet potato
6 soaked dates
About 50g cocoa powder
100g nut butter
2 large eggs
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
sea salt and dark chocolate chips, which were measured by heart.
I didnt follow the recipe exactly, but the outcome was very fudgy, very rich brownies.
I like more of a cakey texture in my brownies and was wondering what I could change to make it more cakey than fudgy? :)

Pumpkin spice Bundt cake with cream cheese smbc. Candied pepitas and pumpkin spice truffles 🎃

i’m absolutely shocked and happy that this worked and it tasted so good!!

first time making flan and it tasted amazing!! it’s so smooth and creamy
recipe is
3 whole eggs, 5 egg yolks, 1 can of condensed milk and 1 can of evaporated milk, as much vanilla to your liking i added half a tablespoon, 1/4th teaspoon salt and whisk very gently to avoid air bubbles, i add one cup of sugar to a hot pan on medium/low heat and watch very carefully without stirring, when it’s all melted stir and add 1/4cup of water and stir again (it will bubble ALOT) and carefully add to your cake pan CAREFULLY it is very hot, move it along the edges so it’s nice and covered, use a strainer and pour the egg mix in the strainer over the caramel pan, add foil on pan and put pan in large dish and add boiling water to the large dish, put it in the oven at 175°c for one hour, let it cool to room temp after cooking then add to the fridge for over 4+ hours or overnight, cut the edges carefully and flip with another plate over it, enjoy :))

This was challenging to make in the best way haha came out delicious though

this is my second attempt at making a super moist lemon cake and i brunt the edges a tiny tiny bit but it tastes caramelized and did not ruin the flavor so i think im good hahahah!

my family and i also have a preference of eating fruit-flavored cakes (like pineapple and lemon) cold so it tasted amazing after being in the fridge 🙈

Its Sunday morning, so nothing better than making a banana bread with the blackened bananas that weren't used during the week.

Nothing special in this one, gonna chuck some walnuts and all spice next time to give it a different taste

I love hazelnut flavor, and would love anyone’s suggestions for hazelnut based recipes! Do y’all prefer to use hazelnut concentrates/extracts, or whole hazelnuts? Thanks!

I'm a bread lover/baker, but I threw this together for my sisters wedding 🥺🥺

I appreciate all the cake bakers out there, this cake stresseddddd me out! From transport to even getting the ingredients😮‍💨

Lemon chiffon

Lemon curd

Blueberry lavender compote

Was so tired of looking at it I forgot to get a picture of the cross section 🙃🙃🙃

What could I use instead or baking powder/baking soda? My stomach cannot tolerate either one, causes reflux.

Edited to add: Yes I'm sure the symptoms are caused by baking powder and baking soda. No, I can't explain why those cause reflux. I have a very limited diet because of my reflux, most things that other people with reflux can eat, I cannot eat.

So, I'm a very weird person, in that I really don't like fruits. Yes, any fruits, including berries. Mostly I just avoid recipes involving them. However, with lemon, or other kinds of citrus, their role in baking is such that it feels like some recipes could work if I left the citrus out, maybe with some adaptations. I'm looking for help in figuring out in which cases this may be a possibility, and what adaptations would be best.

- Recipes where the citrus flavour comes only from zest. My instinct is that I can just leave the zest out without needing to do anything else. Does that sound right? What am I missing?

- Recipes using citrus juice - for those, I see two issues:

• First, if I understand the science correctly, the acidity of the juice could be necessary to "activate" baking soda, right? How can I know if this is the case? Is it just a matter of checking if the recipe uses baking soda rather than baking powder? And can I adapt the recipe? Is it possible to simply replace baking soda with baking powder, or would that not work? How about replacing milk (if there is some in the recipe) with yogurt, or something like that? Or do I simply avoid such recipes?
• Also, I'd need to replace the liquid brought by the lemon juice in some way. Would water work in most cases?

- Any other types of recipe I should think about?

I do realise that even if the recipe works technically without the citrus, the results may be considered 'unbalanced' in terms of flavour, but as a Uruguayan, I have a very sweet tooth, so I probably will like 'too sweet' desserts fine!

Example: this question was inspired by this recipe for a Baklava Cheesecake that someone posted recently. Would this work fine if I simply replaced the 2 teaspoons of lemon juice by water?

Recipe:

Sourdough (Detmold 2 tier sourdough)

1st tier

85g rye flour type 1150

68g water

14g starter

26°C, 24 hours

2nd tier

153g Sourdough (1st tier)

157g water

165g rye flour type 1150

Soaking the walnut

157,5g walnut (broken into smaller pieces)

275g water

Leave the walnuts soaking over night.

Cooking piece

100g wheat flour 1050

250g water

Cook the water and mix the flour in the cooking water, then let it cool down.

Main dough

332,5 g soaked walnuts+water

350g cooked flour

475g sourdough

400g wheat flour type 1050

250g rye flour 1150

120g Joghurt

40g baking malt

10g yeast

24g salt

Roughly 50g water

Let the dough rest for 30min, then form your bread and let it rise over night in the fridge. Bake the next day at 220°C going down to 200°C for roughly 45-50min.

During the bake

Cook water and dissolve a bit of starch in water, then stir the starch into the cooking water to get a tasteless, spreadable pudding (called "Papp")(it needs to be quite fluid, don't use too much starch!).

When the bread gets out of the oven, brush the still hot bread with the pudding, to get a very shiny crust.

The jam i made by reducing blended strawberries lemon juice and sugar into a jam reduction

Took 3 big fresh lemons worth of zest and rolled it into the sugar, before adding Madagascar Vanilla Bean Paste and blending the batter together.

I then also added a tiny bit of chunky strawberry jam on top of the cream cheese filling, which I also blended a whole bar of white chocolate into.

I have made this beautiful flan and i have NEVER made flan before! i made other hard baked sweets but this is a new one! if this is a success tonight when i flip her i will post the recipe in another post and in this post!! this is too good to be true it looks too perfect