lebowits

In concept, it doesn't really differ-you get the same result. OK, I am just confused about who is talking about what, I guess! Greweling has you use tempered chocolate in all his ganaches, and I find that many of them set up very quickly without tabling. But he does call for tabling some of his ganaches (for example, the coffee ganache in his "poodle truffles" on pg. 109) even when they call for tempered chocolate. So I guess I am still confused about when and how to table them. Does it always help, or does it depend on the recipe? ← Generally, I find that Greweling has you table ganache when you are going to roll the truffles by hand. This provides for a firmer product to roll. When I'm filling shells, I don't table but use the ganache as soon as it has come down to room temp. Then it crystallizes in the shells before I close them by topping with tempered chocolate. The only exception to this that I can think of is the Anise Sticks which are piped in straight lines after tabling. You can't wait too long though or else the ganache will be too stiff for the piping bag.

← ← I piped the ganache using a star tip onto chocolate disks. I made the disks using a 25mm stencil I bought from Chef Rubber.

I recently made the "Spiked Eggnog" pieces in Peter Greweling's book. This is a white chocolate ganache flavored with vanilla bean, fresh ground nutmeg, and dark rum. It tastes very close to eggnog (though you might miss the "egg flavor" the Kerry describes if you taste it critically. Overall, I like the way this ganache tastes and will continue to use it as it seems to have a good shelf life and texture.

I buy mine from Albert Uster Imports. They last a very long time with proper storage (cool, dark place). I've gone from relatively small batches (e.g. 125 pieces) to 1200 - 1500 pieces per 3 months. There is always a reason to make truffles.

An alternative to putting chocolate to your lips is to use metal bowls and place the inside of your wrist (behind your palm) on the outside of the bowl. The bowl should feel just a slight bit warmer than your wrist. Of course your body temp may vary a bit. In general, this temp is going to be near the bottom of the tempering curve (e.g. 82 - 84 degrees F). Depending on your chocolate, the working temp will be just a few degrees F above this. Thinking of it, i agree chocolate to lips isnt a very clean way to cook... From a cooks standpoint its just a nasty habit most of us have.... As you pastry folk work much much different from us outlaws. ←

Making kosher chocolate (confections) isn't necessarily difficult. You must have a set of pots, tools, etc. which are ONLY used with milk products (e.g. NOT meat). The difficult part is that you must have your kitchen declared kosher by an appropriate rabbi or work in an existing kosher kitchen. I've made chocolates and had them refused by folks who keep kosher because there were unsure if all my tools, etc. were only used for this one purpose. I would suggest you find a local synagogue and talk to the rabbi there.

Boiling the cans should always be a low risk operation. If canned correctly, the cans will be both very full and have had the excess air removed. At least I believe this to be so.

I should have made note of pate sucree in my original post. Sucree and brisee use 2 distinct methods, sucree with the creaming method brisee with a cold method which makes something akin to a quick or "rough" laminated dough. It's interesting that you've seen brisee with eggs. I've never encountered that. I'll have to research that. Thanks for the post.

When a friend and I were took our pastry classes some years ago, we were taught a dough described as "pate sablee" which was simply a sweetended pate brisee, using cold ingredients, the brisee method, but including a few tablespoons of sugar. In researching pate sablee recently, we find that formulae very but that most seem to use the creaming method and include egg yolks. I've checked several of my reference books and a few don't mention sablee at all. "Professional Baking", 3rd Ed., Cordon Bleu does and has an egg inclusive formula. How were you taught pate sablee? Does anyone recognize a sweetened pate brisee as something specific? Looking forward to your responses.

I watched most of these (on video tape) while I took Greweling's class in September '06. The videos are relatively short and are of Greweling and at least one other instructor. I seem to recall that the average running time was about 20 minutes. I found them useful in that you get to "see" what a product should look like in the stages of production. But like many of the other comments posted, I'm not sure I want to drop $200 - $250. They want $200 for the 3-DVD set (I guess it's ordinarily $250, this is a Valentines Day Special). That a bit more than the latest Hollywood blockbuster... and definitely quite a bit more than I typically drop on "cooking show"-type DVDs. I understand that this isn't one of those, but still... lotta money! Has anyone seen this set, or had any experience with the CIA's other DVD sets? I don't have the time or money right now for a real class on this stuff, so if this is a worthwhile investment I would be willing to spring for it, but I don't really know what to expect. ←

Which of Greweling's caramel formulas did you use? I've tried all of them and have settled on the formula which uses sweetened condensed milk. I slab the caramel and enrobe it with dark (63% Esprit des Alpes) chocolate and decorate with sea salt. I chose this particular formula for 2 reasons: 1) It doesn't take as long to cook since there is very little water in the formula vs. fresh dairy milk; and 2) the flavor and texture are very consistent and extremely popular. Of the pieces I have made, this is by far the favorite at about 99%. Of course I like them too, but I like everything I make or I don't serve it to anyone else.

I have been buying my bulk chocolate, cocoa butter, glucose syrup, colored cocoa butters, etc. from Albert Uster Imports (AUI Online Store). They have a variety of bulk chocolates available (now in 8 lb. bags) which in my view taste quite well in comparison to others at a reasonable price.

I would try a 2:1 or 2.5:1 ganache depending on if you're using milk or dark chocolate, temper the ganache to stiffen it, then spread it on the dough and roll it. I would also suggest that the ganache be spread such that there is 2 - 3 cm of space left around the edges so that the chocolate is protected during baking. Alternatively, you might have your friend try simply putting shaved chocolate on top of the dough. Chocolate "batons", which are sticks of chocolate, are often used in pastry, such as chocolate croissant but shaved or chopped chocolate will work well too.

In the end, the discussion isn't whether this is a valid technique or not. It is about how you want to make bread. Some of us will wish to be "purists" to the artisinal form. Others of us will understand that there are times when a quick method may not be only acceptable but preferred for a particular use or situation. I personally am rather intrigued in the "Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" method as it suggests very long, slow fermentation which should yield complex flavors. I'll let you know what my experiments produce when I get around to them. Choice is a wonderful thing.

How much do you thin the fondant? I know that it will still need to be somewhat pourable into the molded shells. Should it stiffen a bit before bottoming the pieces? Have you ever used Invertase to make the centers "creamier" over the next 7 - 10 days?

After spending some months working on truffles and layered confections, I would like to get back to working with molded pieces. One thing I loved growing up were the various "cream" center chocolates. I imagine these are all variations of flavored fondant. Does anyone have any suggestions as to techniques, favorite flavors, or pointers to existing formulas they like?

Gift? You think I'm giving these away? These things taste GREAT... such a shame all my friends are out of town for the holidays. I will try to keep my perfectionism under control... thanks for the encouragement. ← I've only just begun to sell mine. Selling them seems even harder than giving them away. I wound up sending out 16 or so 1/2 pound boxes and selling 12 for the holidays. Just enough to pay for my habit.

Unfortunately, I don't have any advice on an exchange, but I would like to know where you bought it from. I'm in the market for one.

Chris - Don't fret about this too much. I too have felt exactly what you are describing; that my truffles aren't perfect. It has taken me quite some time to accept that it is exactly these imperfections which tell people that our products are made entirely by hand. What better gift can you give (or sell) someone than your labor of love? I have to admit that in the interest of increasing my rate of production, I experimented over the last few months with pre-made truffle shells (see this topic here) and while it made me faster and my truffles more uniform, they don't have the same value for me. Be proud of your work. It screams "I made this!" and the people you gift these to will love you for them.

I have always baked my frangipane tarts in uncooked pate sucree shells. In the past I have frozen filled, un-baked tarts and then baked them directly from frozen. Both ways have worked without problems for me. I use a fairly standard "tart" pan with a removable bottom and fill the shells to within about 1/4" of the top of the pan/crust. I roll the crust about 1/4" thick and refrigerate pans/crusts while I make the frangipane. This gives the dough a chance to firm up before baking. As a last resort you might try creating foil "covers" for the edges of your pan that will protect the crust towards the end of the bake. When the tops of the crust look nice and golden, place your pre-formed covers on top and let the tart finish. I do this with more traditional pies as well.

Hmm.... I learned the how much I love marzipan, especially fresh marzipan. This led to the lesson on NOT killing my food processor while making marzipan. I also learned about caramel rulers and how to use them for wonderful multi-layered confections (thanks Chef Greweling). Then I moved on to learning about pre-made truffle shells and using softer ganaches to fill them. And most amazingly of all, I learned that people are actually willing to PAY ME (who knew? ) for my products? I'm sure there are many other lessons learned this year. This just makes me want to learn even more. Happy holidays to you all.

I'm with Rob on this one. I want people to want what I make. I also want to be proud of the way my product looks and tastes. I don't add ingredients which serve no purpose in the finished good. That being said, I've come to appreciate what commercial glucose syrup does for the quality of my ganache. The rise of "high tech" food such as that created by Wylie DuFresne and others is bringing chemistry back into great food when we've spent decades getting chemicals out of our food. The fundamental difference is that we can now make the choice.

I listen to music or the radio (usually NPR). If I'm working on Saturday as I often do, the Saturday NPR shows keep me pretty entertained.

It really makes me wish that folks ONLY loved dark chocolate. I have way too many requests for white chocolate pieces.

Oh, I hear you on that one! ← Speaking of dipping... Has anyone noticed differences in the viscosity of milk vs dark chocolates at "working" temps? The particular milk chocolate I am using seems to have a much higher viscosity at nearly the same temp.