pastrygirl

I think it would be totally appropriate in that scenario to go out to the table and have a little chat, informing him that you cooked the duck and any issues with it should be addressed to you, and to please be respectful of your staff and other diners. I would be really uncomfortable if I was trying to enjoy a nice meal and some loudmouth kept complaining like that. I agree with the others, you can't ban a general group or even a habitual lousy tipper, but you can ban individual assholes if they are harassing your staff or interfering with your business.

Why use French words? Because much of pastry is French to begin with. What else would you call a soufflé? Because foreign words can sound sexier, or more exotic, which translates to sounding more expensive. I think coulis just sounds better than sauce. But I would name the fruit in English - strawberry coulis, not coulis au frais (or whatever) Because there is limited space on the menu and chantilly is shorter than whipped cream. But mostly to make things seem more exotic and fancy/expensive. I never use tarte, or tartelette unless it is a traditional French item like tarte Tatin. Why add the e when it is the same word? Comes off as trying too hard.

Very, very nice! What ganache recipe did you find that worked?

Well shoot, you didn't tell me there'd be sushi!

Jim, welcome to the wonderful world of guitar ownership! 1) I cut pretty stiff ganache, pate de fruits, shortbread dough, even cut some samples of (thin) tempered chocolate without (usually) breaking strings. As Edward J mentioned, it's the chunks of hard stuff that cause problems...once I tried to cut something with a very hard pretzel base and broke 8 strings at once. But you will need to learn how to replace strings eventually - a bummer when they snap, especially if they get stuck in the middle of a slab, but not the end of the world. 2) I don't have a specific recipe to recommend, but my truffles are based on Greweling's butter ganache - butter, liquid, tempered chocolate. Sometimes I have to put all of my weight on the frame to get the strings through the last bit - the guitar is really quite sturdy. 3) you do get a little more leverage placing the slab at far edge, not the closer raised edge. If I have a particularly stiff ganache to cut, sometimes I will do the first cut, then cut the rest of the slab half at a time, pushing it to the back of the cutter. Hold the slab in place with one hand as you get the strings embedded in the first bit so it doesn't side around. 4) I wipe the strings with a towel between cuts to remove the little bits that cling. When I'm finished, I run the frames and the base through a commercial dishwasher. Alternately, spray the base with hot water to get the bits out. I have never tried to do this in a home kitchen, though, that could be a little more challenging Maybe something thin like a toothpick or cake tester could be run between the slots in the base.

Maybe instead of changing the serving size, they should keep the info for what one serving should be, and put next to it the info for the whole package.

I'm not sure I agree with re-sizing portions to reflect what people actually eat. Seems like it makes it even harder for people to know what a reasonable portion should be. I suppose they are trying to make it so people don't have to do the math to know they ate 800 calories after finishing off the four servings of ice cream in a pint, but it also puts the stamp of approval on eating the whole pint. If a pint becomes a single serving, can I have two if I was good that day?

Thanks guys, I'll read up. It's kind of funny, because I've been harassing my new sous chef at the restaurant about freshness and not making too much and being super selective about quality, but yesterday not only did I find that the pate de fruits I was about to sell had gotten all weepy and syrupy in the box, but a customer e-mailed me when she got home that I had sold her a box of truffles with a use by date of today I'm sure they are fine or I wouldn't have sold them, but I should have been paying more attention. I think once I get production amounts dialed in better, shelf life will be less of an issue. I'll remind myself that even though most confections CAN spend some time on the shelf, doesn't mean they SHOULD.

I've been making chocolates in my spare time over the past few years, but have taken a few big steps lately towards shifting from pastry chef to chocolatier. I had packaging designed and made, cobbled together a website, rented space in a commissary kitchen, and am almost out the door at the restaurant. Yup, finally quit the day job! I've done two pop-up shops and will be part of another on Saturday, and today I exhibited and sold at the Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon. I'm learning a lot, but one thing I still need to figure out is how to determine shelf life and balance that with production. Products are filled bonbons, ganache truffle squares, bars with fillings or inclusions, caramels, and pate de fruits. My estimate of shelf life is around 2 weeks for bonbons and pdf, 3-4 weeks for truffles, and longer for caramels and bars. I guess I don't have a specific question, more looking for insight on how other confectioners & chocolatiers manage to have efficient production. Do you date your product? Refrigerate/freeze it? How do you determine your sell by date? How many orders/boxes of an item do you usually make at once, and how long does it take to sell? How much of a window before the sell by date do you think people expect? Is it better to have an earlier sell by date and risk people thinking it might be bad when it probably isn't, or have a later date and risk people waiting too long and eating things not at their peak? Your thoughts & experience are appreciated! Andrea

The restaurants I work for have an event space next to one of them, so I borrowed that - they get an excuse to advertise and get people in to look at the space and I get the exposure and sales. It's a cool spot in a vibrant neighborhood, unfortunately it was cold and rainy so we were not able to open the big roll-up garage door to attract foot traffic. We spread the word via our various email lists, social media, and I emailed our local eater.com editor and the hipster alternative newspaper. I'd guess somewhere between 50-75 people came and bought something. I think better weather would definitely have helped, and better signage to draw people in - getting posters printed was one of the things I really should have made a higher priority. Learn, learn, learn! I did make it all myself. I've cut my hours at the restaurants and moved my toys into a shared kitchen that I can use 15 hours a week, so all the production was at the new kitchen over the last 3 weeks. I have a lot left but mostly things that will keep and that I can use for my next event. I think I do get too ambitious about variety, I just have this crazy drive to try to make as much as possible.

keychris, those are fantastic. I want a chocolate tiger!

What did we make? What didn't I make! I created a pop-up chocolate shop today, having produced many delights over the past several days, here's the menu: Chocolate Bars Solid, with fillings or inclusions Caramelized white, almonds, salt Caramelized white, cashew gianduja Milk chocolate & pretzel Dark chocolate & toasted coconut Dark chocolate & cacao nib brittle Caramels – box of 6 Salty Vanilla bean & honey Espresso Maple syrup & pepper Apple cider Truffles – box of 12 Dark chocolate salty caramel Milk chocolate salted peanut butter crisp Dark chocolate, mandarin orange & cointreau Dark chocolate, hazelnut & frangelico Chocolate covered nuts Caramelized almonds, coated in chocolate & cocoa Macarons 3 French almond cookies with butter cream or ganache Pate de fruits – box of 12 Raspberry - key lime Pear – passion fruit Chocolate Rabbits Dark or milk, solid with inclusions -hazelnut -almonds & smoked salt -pistachio & candied orange -rice krispies -candied orange & grapefruit zests Bonbons Molded chocolates with a solid shell and ganache filling dark chocolate with -salted 38% milk chocolate caramel ganache -white chocolate toasted coconut ganache -68% & vanilla gaanche -49% & rosemary caramel ganache -white chocolate passion fruit ganache It was a lot of work, but fun and I'm happy with the sales and response. I'm looking for excuses to do it again soon. Maybe Mothers day... I'll see if I can post photos from my phone.

I wonder if some people might prefer letting the pastry cream soften the crust overnight so it melds together and is easier to cut. I appreciate a crisp dry crust as much as anyone, but you have to admit, getting nice slices of a crisp-crusted tart can be a challenge.

Was it Gateau Basque? Some recipes add cherries or cherry jam to the usual almond pastry and custard filling.

I guess those people probably don't have a chamber vacuum sealer either I vacuum pack dried fruit with a splash of liqueur before adding it to baked goods, works nicely.

When I make it, I use it as a layer in a dessert that is then refrigerated, haven't tried leaving it at room temp for long. Seems like too much oil would separate eventually, like natural peanut butter. Maybe lecithin is better when you have a fat and a liquid that you want to not separate, rather than fat and solids. What do they use to make other peanut butters homogeneous?

Depends on the apple. Some hold their shape better than others, though I can never remember which do what. IIRC, granny smith fall apart fairly readily, while honeycrisp can be caramelized in a saute pan and hold their shape.

Butter will make it firmer at room temperature than oil will. If there is already butter in the cookies, adding oil will soften the mixture. I make a few forms of liquid sable - either butter cookies and a little oil or graham cracker crumbs and more browned butter. They are quite firm at refrigerator temperature, more like raw cookie dough at room temp. After several minutes in the food processor, everything heats up and liquefies. Some sandy texture remains, so if you're OK with that, I'd recommend just going longer in the food processor rather than dirtying the blender too. Then I think your texture is just dependent on oil content. Peanut butter is about 50% fat, after all. You may want to add a little lecithin to help emulsify.

Are the molded shells filled with anything?

Cute! Those bunny molds are on my wish list.

Inspired by Enric Rovira! Charge extra! http://www.gastronomista.com/2011/01/enric-roviras-incredible-edible-eggs.html#.UzSkGl7Y2H0

Yes. I got two pairs, so I can make complete hollow eggs, was hoping to fill them. I'll play around.

Shoot, I have these molds, no halves about it. - http://www.jbprince.com/chocolate-and-sugarwork/egg-12-cavitiesities-1-piece.asp Oh well.

Kerry, how do you get the filling into the eggs? Melt a tiny hole, pipe, and re-seal, or something else? I recently bought some hollow egg molds, I did a trial run on the molding, which came out fine, now I'd like to tackle filling. Thanks!

You could forget the log and just roll and cut. Slice and bake is supposed to be easier, not more aggravating!