DianaM

Beautiful chocolates, keychris! Are you using bee pollen granules? Do they give a bit of chew to your bonbon, is that why you use them?

They use paper bags here at the local bakery.

Love the cakigami idea! I will definitely try that biscuit. No, I haven't made French buttercream. But I'm biased, I am a huge pastry cream fan, so for me, it would be either a variation thereupon, or a ganache. Mixing buttercream with praline paste would likely taste very good, but maybe just a touch too rich? Just my 2 pence. Pastry cream can be lightened with whipped cream, and then stabilized with gelatin (this is called a creme chiboust). A bit lighter after a huge meal. This is what I use at home: http://www.dr.ca/small-u-log-9.html You line it with cling wrap, then with the biscuit, and you go from there building upwards in the mould. If I were rich and/or planning to make logs for many people and/or working as a baker/patissier, probably I would use this silicone mould: http://www.dr.ca/christmas-logs-silicone-mould.html Whatever you decide to do, please let us know, and maybe post some pics too in the Daily Sweets thread.

Thank you for the recipe link, Annie. I tend to fill and frost with ganache if I make the rolled variety, but I want to try something a bit more interesting this year. Something like this: http://www.foodbeam....laisirs-sucres/ I've recently been to a demo where the pastry chef made a buche filled with praline pastry cream and chocolate mousse. The biscuit was very thin, he even flapped it around to show us how flexible it needs to be. The theory is that the thin biscuit is there only to provide some textural contrast (bite) to an otherwise soft buche. He used a mould sprayed with chocolate, and the buche looked fabulous unmoulded. If you don't want to go the sprayed route, you can mould in a silicone pan, and just glaze with ultra-shiny chocolate glaze after unmolding.

Kerry, thank you! I'll have some ganaches ready when you return, so that we can measure aW. I can remind you of the boiling experiment with invert, and maybe we can do that as well. TCD: thank you for your explanation. The often contradictory indications in chocolatiers' books are definitely an issue for me, mainly when it comes to the tempered vs. non-tempered ganache issue. Of course the point you are bringing up about flavour loss is right on. When you evaluate for taste, do you also have a fresh bonbon for comparison? The muslin tea bag idea is elegant, but only useful when you are packaging a single kind. If you have a "tea collection" with 5-6 different flavours, things get complicated, non?

Annie, could you please post or PM me RLB's biscuit recipe? As it happens, I have a 12x17 and was just looking for a biscuit to fit this pan. I would be eternally grateful!

Oops - correction: butter ganaches are shelf-stable for 6-8 weeks, that's 2 months, not 3.

Yes, it is pretty firm (slabbably so ), but it's the ratio Greweling advocates on p. 83, in his ganache formulation guidelines (this both for slabbed AND piped pieces). He says this ratio is flexible, of course, depending on what result you want to achieve. However, he writes "in all cases, cream-based ganache centers stored at room temperature have a shelf life of approximately three weeks, unless a water activity meter is employed to ensure the safety of longer storage." (Greweling, Chocolates and Confections, p. 84. Also in water activity table on p. 38). I think what Steve does is equally safe - holding them, then cutting open to check for spoilage weekly. This discussion actually has got me to check the ratios in all of Greweling's cream ganache formulas. Next I am pulling out Wybauw (only got vol. 2), Curley (no shelf life info for his ganaches though) and Notter to see what their cream ganache ratios look like, I'm curious now. I am making butter ganaches in the meantime, 3 months shelf life, woo-hoo!! I agree. So far I have only used glucose, and it sparingly despite its mild flavour. Never more than 10% of the cream, and for milk and whites usually around 5%. Clearly this is not helping with shelf life, I just can't bring myself to add more than that to milk and white. I will try invert when I try Curley's formulas, really looking forward to that experiment. Sorry to drag this on, this just shows how much I have to learn still.

Thank you all for the information! (And sorry Steve for hijacking your thread! ) I normally do add liqueurs (Grand M, Frangelico, etc), but these are not pure alcohol. Adding 18% alcohol might impact the flavour too much, not sure I want to compromise on that. I have to dig up a shelf life thread on here, and read through, I'm sure that will help a lot. Thanks again!

Roll out, maybe season it, and make crackers? I second Mjx's idea. Grate lots of cheese on top, that will help with the taste, because plain pie dough tastes very bland.

Dave, those babkas look scrumptious! How is the chocolate filling made, with choc or cocoa powder?

How long will fresh yeast last in the fridge in a tupperware container? Dave, it depends how fresh it is when you buy/get it. I have kept fresh yeast in the fridge even for 3-4 weeks, when I bought a bigger chunk that I could not use up immediately. My grandma also kept hers in the fridge for weeks, and whenever she'd get a moldy spot, she'd just cut that off together with any dry edges, then use as normal.

Steve, sorry I don't have an answer, but a question related to what you wrote above. You were saying that for your cream ganaches you expect a 6-8 week shelf-life. I am usually building my recipes based on Greweling's recommendation of 1:2 ratio of cream+liquour to (dark) chocolate, and my understanding is that this ratio gives a 3-week shelf life to chocolates, even if glucose or invert is added to extend the shelf life. So my question is: what is the liquefier-to-chocolate ratio in your ganaches, so that they may last for 8 weeks?

That's so incredibly ingenious. Thank you so much for sharing!

Your mould painting technique is beautiful, and those chocolates look like gems. Really beautiful, keychris!

I plan to be there, so a "yes" for me too.

Hi everyone, I have a couple of questions too for this thread. I am planning on making profiteroles, and would like to make a caramel using maple syrup, to cover their tops (as one would do for a St Honore). I thought I'd just cook plain maple syrup to hard crack, say 150-155 degrees C, then dip the choux as usual. Is this doable? And has anyone figured out which maple syrup is the right one for toffees? Thank you. Diana

I use a Polder probe thermometer, that looks very much like the Pyrex Kerry has linked to. I'm happy with it so far, always use it to cook caramel. It has a pan-clip attachment that holds it parallel to the side of the pan, so the probe is not touching the bottom, and I can stir the caramel unencumbered.

Different and adorable!! Plus vanilla and black pepper sounds really intriguing.

Donna, those look beautiful! The windmill mold is adorable! How do you make your raspberry ganache?

I have a book called The Essential Mediterranean Cookbook, with a 44-page section on Greek foods. There is a recipe for galaktoboureko, I can PM it to you if you'd like. The Hungarian kremesh would not have been a bad choice either... yum!

Wow, they look amazing! Are you using Chef Rubber colours?

Are you talking about galaktoboureko?

You can make your own, using a coffee grinder or a food processor. The coffee grinder accommodates smaller quantities in one go, but yields the finest powder, in my experience. In trying to break the macaron code, I too, believed that the cornstarch in the sugar might be at fault. But then I read this blog post: http://bravetart.com/blog/MacaronMyths It was a breakthrough for me. I started using Bravetart's (a.k.a. Stella's) recipe, and have been successful in making them. Here http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/2011/04/how-to-make-macarons-whats-working-for-me-right-now/ is another post with step-by-step pictures, helped a lot. Lots of people are using powdered sugar with cornstarch in it, and their macarons are beautiful. The only logical inference, then, is that the cornstarch is not at fault for unsuccessful macarons. Good luck!

Both the brioche and the craqueline look amazing, Linda. I am now eyeing the Dannenberg book on amazon, but in the meantime, I think I will try Peter Reinhart's from his apprentice book.