John DePaula

If you do decide to purchase puff pastry, try to find one that is 'all butter.' You can find such products at Whole Foods in the Frozen section. ETA: Just occurred to me that your local bakery, assuming they make a decent puff pastry (many don't...), might be willing to sell you some puff pastry dough. Just a thought.

A couple of months ago I sent some chocolates to Germany via USPS International Priority which, as I recall, was supposed to take about 5 days (6-10 according to the web site). In reality, not to be confused with info on their web site, it took about 17 days. Caveat Emptor. ← Is International Priority one of the services where you get your money back if they fail to meet their standards? It seems everytime I ask the post office that (after it takes way too long for something to arrive) they somehow wiggle out of it. Only time I've ever got money back from the post office was when a package never arrived. (In retrospect it probably got lifted by US customs due to the mysterious white powder in bags - baby formula) ← Are you kidding??? There are no guarantees with USPS. Even their 'Express' overnight (to most locations) mail takes 2-3 days to reach rural locations. Still, it's about all one can reasonably afford since UPS / FedEx et. al. cost me about twice as much, but if you absolutely positively have to have it there on time...

These are two separate recipes, so you’ll want to adjust quantities for your needs. Chaussons aux pommes (10 to 12 servings) 500g Puff Pastry 1000g Apple Compote (recipe follows) egg wash Roll out puff pastry approximately 3mm (1/8 in.) thick. Cut out some fluted rounds using a pastry cutter approximately 12cm (4.75in.) in diameter. Use a rolling pin to elongate the rounds. Brush the lower half of the border with egg wash and place the apple preparation in the center. Fold over the top half of the oval and press lightly to seal. Turn the pieces over and place them on a sheet pan lightly moistened with water. Glaze with egg wash twice, score them decoratively with a paring knife. Cook at the beginning in a hot oven (220/240°C) then move to a medium oven. Just before the turnovers are finished baking, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and return them to the oven. Or, with a pastry brush, brush them with sugar syrup as they are taken out of the oven. Apple Compote 2400g Apples 250g Butter 200g Sugar Cinnamon (to taste) 2 Zests of lemon (optional) Peel, core, and chop apples medium dice (mirepoix) In a large skillet over a med-high flame, melt the butter Add the apples, sugar, cinnamon and zests. Toss from time to time and cook being careful to not cook too long so that you have chunks of apple in the compote.

A couple of months ago I sent some chocolates to Germany via USPS International Priority which, as I recall, was supposed to take about 5 days (6-10 according to the web site). In reality, not to be confused with info on their web site, it took about 17 days. Caveat Emptor.

Oooo that looks just great, Kathy! I did end up enjoying the last batch of this that I made (more than I did at the start) but think I'll prefer to not take it so far, i.e. a lighter caramel, next time. BTW, I served mine with a scoop of Chocolate Sorbet and it was really good together.

This looks like it'd be fine. My only suggestion is to add the chocolate after the cream is heated (to reduce the risk of scorching the chocolate). Remove from heat, add chocolate, whisk and continue as usual. Also would add, as Alana says, the choice of chocolate will make a difference. In my mind, a BIG difference. Why not splurge and try Valrhona Guanaja.

I haven't made this one yet but Wow! it's right at the top of the list. Especially if I get time to do all of David's suggested pairings for an updated banana split: Classic Hot Fudge sauce, Whipped Cream, or Marshmallow sauce, Candied Cherries and of course, I have to have some toasted pecans.

I made the French Vanilla Ice Cream (p24) for Memorial Day. I served it with homemade sour cherry pie* and, since everyone wanted to try it, some Rhubarb Sorbet. Ok, I admit it David: I’ve been unfaithful to you! I made someone else's Rhubarb Sorbet. But it was for a good reason: One of my guests was allergic to strawberries. So you see, I couldn’t make your Strawberry-Rhubarb Sorbet (p129). I’ll save that one for another time. Perhaps I could have substituted Raspberries or Loganberries? Anyway, I thought the French Vanilla was very classic. Smooth and delicious, not too sweet. Lots of little vanilla seeds floating around and a bit yellow from the yolks. Good flavor. This one must be foolproof since I did slightly overcook the custard – it was beginning to break. (I could vividly imagine Didier, my pastry chef at school, grabbing the pot, taking a quick stir, shoving it back at me with the pronouncement: ‘Refais!’ i.e. ‘Remake.’) However, I just soldiered on with the cooling and chilling overnight. As I said, it turned out fine and was very popular with my guests. I really want to compare this one side by side with the Philadelphia-style vanilla. By the way, someone asked me today what is the difference between ‘gelato’ and ‘ice cream.’ Thanks to David’s book, now I can answer that question with some authority! *Special thanks to Alana for helping out with a question I had about the pie. It turned out just lovely, Alana!

The instructions for the filling say to add rose syrup to finish, and the filling also contains lychees. I assume canned, since you can't get fresh lychees all year round. ← When he demonstrated this macaron for my pastry class, we used frozen lychee puree from Boiron. Also you'll want not only some rose syrup but also some rose essence to bump up the aroma. Sorry, don't have much time at the moment...

I second the votes for: Parc André-Citroën, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, & bois de Vincennes.

hi john, you say you use letter trays. I'm having trouble visualizing that. what is a letter tray? Luis ← roughly 9x12x2" stackable tray

Although I like the idea of reducing waste in the chocolate kitchen, I have to admit that this sounds kinda gross. I realize that each batch will be different but has anyone ever actually made these and if so, how'd they taste? Seems like you'd have to be really careful about what kind of "rework" goes into the batch.

Type something like café or Joël Robuchon in Word, then cut and paste. But a few years ago the Society issued a policy not to use accents in order to make searching uniform. See here: ← Personally, I agree with Abra and many of you out there: I cringe at typing the French words without the accents. It seems to me that the search engines need to be updated (read 'fixed') rather than the people who use the search engines... At any rate, Google (for one) ignores accents when doing a search. To satisfy all, I usually try to put both e.g. "I went to Café Gray (Cafe Gray) the other day." In my humble opinion. yada yada

So what you're going to have to do is coat the cookie bottoms with a thin layer of melted chocolate (or cocoa butter). Let that set before sandwiching the ganache into the cookies. This will form a moisture barrier between the cookie and the ganache. Hope this helps.

I've never done this before but a quick Google search shows approximately the following method: Cut rhubarb to the size you want Place in a lightly oiled roasting pan or cookie sheet Shift some confectioners sugar over rhubarb (or toss with some granulated sugar) Bake at 200C (~390F) for about 20 minutes or just until soft. Personally, I'd be tempted to stick it under the broiler for a few seconds at the very end to caramelize the sugar a bit more, if necessary.

I have never used one but have heard that the vacuum mixers "dry out" the ganache - and not in a good way. I'd definitely want to compare before jumping on the vacuum bandwagon.

Abra, what a wonderful experience for you! I know that you're going to have a wonderful experience there. In what part of France will you be living?

I finally received my book. How beautiful! And yet painful, too, when you realize just how much work goes into making these little masterpieces! Still, what a great price while it lasted.

For the Farmers' Market, I'm use this Igloo Ice Cube Max Cool 70 Roller, which I got at Costco for about half the price shown on the Igloo web site. The chocolates are in stacks of letter trays. I think I can get about 20 trays in there. The letter trays stack one inside the other but leave enough head room for the chocolates. When it's really hot, like over 100F, I will also mix in a few trays with sachets of ice (3x5 cello bags filled with water, sealed with my FoodSaver, and frozen). I can then include a sachet of ice to keep the customer's order cool enough while they're on the way home. The rollers make transporting the chocolates fairly easy since you're trying to juggle a lot of things getting to/from the market. Getting the trays out of a top loaded unit isn't that convenient. On the other hand, they stay cool.

Except for a few situations (mostly savory), I almost never cook caramel as dark as recipes looking for "on the edge of burnt" tell me to. I'm not big on bitterness as a dessert component. There's probably a pastry instructor somewhere that wants to thwack me on the head with a wooden spoon for that but that's how I do things. So far, nobody has ever said "ya know, that caramel really should be more bitter". ← Yes, I agree. I like caramel a lot but I think I just cooked this one a bit too far. Next time, I'll stop cooking much sooner.

I processed the Salted Caramel Ice Cream today and it is, in fact, too bitter. I guess I must have cooked the caramel too long. By adding the dark chocolate ganache, and then some white chocolate chips, it helped to sweeten it up a bit and mask the bitterness. I thought this one would be one of my favorites but I think that's going to be the Chocolate Sorbet.

This topic may be relevant: Will this mold work for me?, Filling and sealing a hollow sphere mold

Ok, so I just finished making the base for Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream. I know it's not actually in the book, but I think it is relevant and on topic. The custard must cool in the refrigerator for 8 hours, so I'll process it tomorrow. I'm a little concerned that it may not be sweet enough. This is just the base without the caramel praline included yet. The caramel was dark, and just beginning to smoke as instructed, but not burned. Hmmm... David suggests to mix in some Dark Chocolate Truffles for a variant. When I first read this, I thought it might be too cloying, but now I think they may be essential. Luckily, I have some dark chocolate truffles on hand... I think the truffles would be a good addition but as a separate experiment I may try to marble it with some leftover dark chocolate ganache squeezed from a piping bag. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Here you go: Clear Cello 4x4 Sheets from Glerup Revere Group. I bought mine from a local candy / cake deco store but these look identical. (I remeasured them and mine are 4x4" also).

Ha! I certainly feel your pain, Kerry! (And I have the carpal tunnel to prove it!) I can’t express strongly enough how much I dislike wrapping caramels. But I’ll try… Ok, seriously, I’ll try to explain how we did it at Genin’s shop. Our caramels were cut into rectangular blocks roughly 1.5” x 1/2” (4cm x 1.3cm) each. 1) Lay out your clear plastic caramel wrappers in a big grid. Mine are about 3x3” (~8x8cm). 2) Position a caramel centered and straddling the bottom edge of the square. 3) Roll up until you have all but the last turn done. 4) Proceed to the next one, and so on. 5) When you have 10 or 15 done, slide an offset palate knife under the column and transfer them to a cookie sheet. One caramel sits atop the little flap of the previous caramel, if that makes any sense. 6) When sheet is full, chill for about 15 minutes; retrieve from frigo and twist each end simultaneously and in opposite directions for a total of 3 times for each side. Voila! Caramel Accomplished!