stscam

Kalamansi is a small lemon-lime found mainly in the Philippines. It is strongly sour, but has terrific citrus flavor. When I lived in Philadelphia our local Asian supermarkets carried canned Kalamansi drink (juice and sugar), but I never found any fresh fruit. Boiron produces a Kalamansi puree (I've got a kilo in the freezer, but haven't gotten around to using it yet). This may be your best bet, unless you can find fresh. It seems to me it would make a great sorbet or ice cream, or perhaps a custard with pastry. Keep us posted. stscam

Patty - I looked at the cutting plates on the PCB website and to me they look like boards you'd place on top of the ganache, stick the (included) knife through the slots and cut. They're cheap, but figure a guitar is a lifetime investment. Cheers, stscam

As you suggest, Patty, it might be that an all-metal guitar will be more durable, but you shouldn't get the idea that a plastic-framed guitar is made like a Benriner mandoline or something. The side frames on my unit are 1/2" thick and the platform is made from dozens of molded pieces, all bolted to the frame. The rest of the guitar is all steel. Good luck, and cheers, stscam

I bought one last summer from Previn in Philadelphia. They had to special order it from France, and it took about 6 weeks, but I paid less than $1400. It's a heavy duty steel unit and comes with three frames. Click here: Previn or call: 215-985-1996 Cheers, stscam

I'm making raspberry valnetine tartlettes for a couple of restaurants. The berries are so fresh and fine it seems a shame to glaze them, even lightly. Do most PC's glaze berry desserts, especially ones made a couple of days prior to serving? Or is it ok to go with just the plain berry?

What's your ratio of chocolate, cream and the juice when you make the truffles? Do you add a little invert sugar or glucose?

The almond joconde works really well in an Opera, but it's darn hard to make totally from scratch. Instead of making my own powdered almond, I use one that's commerically milled. The texture is much finer (though still a bit coarse, which is good). I remember to this day my first encounter with Opera - about 20 years ago at a restaurant in San Francisco (the cake was memorable, but, alas, not the name of the place). It was an eye-opening treat. The combination of flavors appealed then, and appeals now - despite changing times and enlarging waistlines. Cheers, Steve

'Round these parts of Montana some folks like to put paraffin in their chocolate bon-bons. Seriously. Don't know why the wax. Maybe it mimics a tempered finish. Anyways, I thought paraffin was for surfing and canning.

I'm curious what film you use and why. I've seen references to "guitar paper" but no one seemed to know exactly what it was. I'm "guitar-challenged." When I make pate de fruit I sugar the uncut sheets before laying them on the guitar base, so they don't stick. The first cut goes pretty easily, but the second cut, with a 90 degree turn, can get very messy. Is there a better way? Steven

Absolutely - use a clean, hot knife for each cut. I just run hot water over the blade and wipe it clean before slicing. BTW - when you've finished the assembling the cake it's going to look like a mess. Use the hot knife to square it up and make the sides neat, tidy and attractive to look at. Good luck!

I've had a lot of success with the recipes in Wayne Gisslen's PROFESSIONAL BAKING, but I punched the flavors up a bit. The joconde is not very tasty on its own, so try adding rum and coffee to to syrup, and brush it on to soak the sponge well. Also, adding espresso powder to the buttercream, and some to the ganache, will harmonize the overall flavor. Take care not to make the layers too thick (1/4" is fine). As for the topping, some recipes advocate a ganache-style icing. Gisslen has a one for Opera Glaze, combining couverture and peanut oil that works pretty well. The idea is to have a smooth, almost shiny surface that can be cut easily with a warm knife. Opera takes a lot of work, but it's fun and can be well worth the effort. Good luck.

I've got an odd truffle problem maybe somebody can help with. I'm using a standard 2:1 ganache receipe (Cacao Noel 58%). As a flavoring I'm adding extra strong espresso made from a local cherry/coffee blend to the cream - lowering the amount of cream by 30ml but adding 60ml of coffee. The result is an amazingly rich, flavorful, but softish ganache. Here's the problem: when I dip the the truffles (rolled into a ball by hand) and let the couverture harden, the confections are cracking, and then oozing what appears to be some of the espresso liquid. I've found that if I wait a day and re-dip, the problem does not recur. Any thoughts on why this might be happening? Is, perhaps, the ganache expanding under the shell? If so, why? Temperature? Maybe if I followed Leslie C's methods I might get better results. Cheers, Steve Smith