tammylc

I've also found that he makes some claims that just don't seem right to me, with my small amount of experience so far. For example, he says you can't make a ganache with melted chocolate, or it will break. I make ganache with melted chocolate all the time, and have never had a broken ganache. He proposes an odd method for tempering. He has you use the seed method, but to take the temperature all the way down to the bottom of the tempering curve, then back up to the working temperature. I thought the great advantage of seed tempering was that you didn't need to go down and then back up. And nearly all the recipes call for small amount of 2 different chocolates. Which probably produces more complex results in the finished ganaches, but seems a little silly when it's something like half 60% and half 80% - why not just use 70%? But perhaps I just don't have a discriminating enough palate... Lots of great ideas, though, for inspiration. I think it's a book that's not sure of its target market - it has a lot of basic information, including an extensive piece on how chocolate is made. And the recipes make small quantities (with strict instructions not to double or triple batches), which points towards it being a book marketed at ambitious home cooks. But then he calls for ingredients like g pectin, with no explanation or source listed. Odd. We've been discussing the strawberry balsamic recipe in some detail here. It has some problems.

As I mentioned to Kerry in PM, the recipe calls for freezing the pate de fruit/ganache combination for an hour. Then you remove it from the freezer and add a foot of melted chocolate on top of the ganache layer. Then freeze it for another hour. then cut into squares, which are supposed to set up at room temperature overnight to dry. If I can master a strawberry pate de fruit, I'll try making a variation on the theme by using my regular dark chocolate balsamic ganache as the ganache layer. Is the kind of fruit jelly you make with gelatin (like the one in Carole Bloom's book) a possible substitute for this application, or would the gelatin not cope well with the temperature of the dipping chocolate?

I haven't made anything from it yet. Kerry's made two things from recipes I've sent her, and doesn't seem very impressed. He makes some claims that just don't seem right to me, with my small amount of experience so far. For example, he says you can't make a ganache with melted chocolate, or it will break. I make ganache with melted chocolate all the time, and have never had a broken ganache. He proposes an odd method for tempering. He has you use the seed method, but to take the temperature all the way down to the bottom of the tempering curve, then back up to the working temperature. I thought the great advantage of seed tempering was that you didn't need to go down and then back up. And nearly all the recipes call for small amount of 2 different chocolates. Which probably produces more complex results in the finished ganaches, but seems a little silly when it's something like half 60% and half 80% - why not just use 70%? But perhaps I just don't have a discriminating enough palate... Lots of great ideas, though, for inspiration. I think it's a book that's not sure of its target market - it has a lot of basic information, including an extensive piece on how chocolate is made. And the recipes make small quantities (with strict instructions not to double or triple batches), which points towards it being a book marketed at ambitious home cooks. But then he calls for ingredients like the g pectin that inspired this post, with no explanation or source listed. Odd.

In the fabulous new Andrew Shotts chocolate book, he's got a recipe for a strawberry pate de fruit that calls for "g pectin." I've never used pectin before, so I have no idea what "g" pectin refers to. The only pectin the store I was in yesterday had was something call universal pectin, which uses some sort of additional calcium liquid to gel, instead of just the sugar (or at least that's what the package insert says - it's supposed to be ideal for low sugar jellies, etc). What's g pectin, and where can I find it?

Thanks! Right now I think I'll still just focus on occasional chocolate sales (right now about 4-5 times a year), which means I'll end up taking the summer off. But who knows? I have a job and a toddler and those 40+ meals for my community, so I'm definitely planning to start small. This is just one piece of a larger business concept I'm trying to get off the ground (http://www.tammystastings.com). But it's the most tangible piece at this point. Fortunately it's just a mile or two away from my house, so it's easy to go home for a while and come back after things have set up.

Well, that worked out very well! They're very willing to have me just pay a percentage of my sales rather than a set hourly fee, which works really well for me as a start up. Also very interested in co-marketing opportunities and selling my wares. I'll be doing my Valentine's Day work from there, so that will be a good trial run for the future. One more question for you all, however. Since they're a startup themselves, they're working on keeping their own costs low. Which means they keep the kitchen at about 62 degrees. That's a few degrees cooler than optimal chocolate temperature - what compensations will I need to make in that environment? Obviously things will set up faster, so I'll have to work especially quickly with the molds so my shells don't get too thick. And it'll be harder to keep my chocolate at working temperature. Any other considerations? Or work-arounds?

Thanks Mark - that's really helpful information. Right now I'm hand tempering my chocolate, although if I do actually follow through on this and establish myself as a business, I'll probably buy at least a small tempering machine, as I can then write off the expense. The kitchen I'm looking at using is in one of those make-ahead meals places, so I would already be working around their schedule and using it mostly during their off-hours - the same kinds of issues you mention for a church setting. Well, I'm meeting with them in an hour, so I'll have some better ideas when I get back! I'm thinking of beginning the conversation by offering a profit sharing idea or a percentage of total sales, rather than an hourly rate. That way, as my business grows, so do their earnings. And that would probably give them some good incentive to act as a retail location selling my wares to their own customers!

I've just broken into the world of molded chocolates, and am having lots of fun with it. But I have some questions. How long do you recommend leaving the filled chocolates to setup before capping? Obviously this will vary based on the consistency of the filling, but is there any sort of general rule? On a related question - I know Kerry Beal recommends long room temperature setting times for rolled truffles. Do other people do the same thing, or do you find you can still get good results with other methods? And what are they? The reason I'm asking is that I'm trying to really make a go of having a side business making chocolates, and Michigan law requires that all food preparation must happen in a commercial kitchen. I think I've found a kitchen that I can use, and I'm meeting with them today to talk $$$. But since time equals money, I need to figure out ways to minimize my kitchen time, or else it will quickly eat into my profit margin to the point where there won't really be any point in my doing it. In my limited experience so far, it seems like molded chocolates are more time efficient (and also potentially more beautiful!) than truffles, and that would be even more true if I invested in more molds instead of having to reuse. Any other ideas or thoughts?

Good luck - sounds like a big job. And the army of volunteers makes it a little more understandable now!

That's a huge amount of volume, Kerry! I'm impressed. Can you describe a little bit about how you're going to handle production and how long it will take you? IIRC, it's not like this is your day job, right?

But how many of us have to live with our coworkers 24 hours a day, with nearly no access to the outside world and no opportunity to do anything alone or unfilmed? Yes, they signed up for it, but they're in a pathological environment, so we shouldn't be surprised to see pathological behavior.

Having spent some time yesterday wandering around a kitchen supply store, I can say that at least from the are labeled there, china caps have small holes in stainless steel, while chinois have a very, very fine wire mesh. Only a chinois would get the silky smooth texture Tom et al were looking for.

I'll be offering four flavors of truffles and bonbons - strawberry-balsamic, fleur de sel caramel, hot cinnamon, and white chocolate rose. I think. I haven't sent out the announcement yet, so I could still change my mind.

I'm glad to hear the reviews are good - I'm waiting for my copy to arrive!

Kerry - can you talk a little bit more about using Rose Otto for flavoring truffles? I want to make some white chocolate rose bonbons for Valentine's Day. I made some for a friend a while back, but it took a lot of rosewater to get any appreciable flavor, so I thought the oil might be more effective without watering down the ganache. Thanks!

You get a week, so since you were officially tagged on Monday, you're supposed to finish by Sunday. I love all the ideas you've come up with so far! Very creative.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. When people complain about the flavor, they're not comparing apples to apples. Easy to do, since this looks like - and has the crust of - a fine artisanal loaf. But few if any of those are made using only commercial yeast rather than a starter of some sort.

I'm a convert to the parchment paper trick - that solves your first complaint completely. As for the second - I'll be curious as to the results of your experiments, because I'd like to get more flavor too. I've started adding semolina, and that's definitely an improvement, but there's still a long way to go.

Beautiful loaves, everyone! For my New Year's loaf, I finally tried the parchment trick that somebody recommended upthread, and it worked great! Very easy, and I got a nicer looking loaf because I didn't make a total mess transferring it to the pot.

Sadly, I found out tonight that Ric Jewell has moved on from Zingerman's, so there probably won't be anymore amazing wine dinners to report about. Maybe Ric will finally delurk to tell us all about his new venture!

Thanks. It certainly was tasty. The recipe is here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/1234/

I have a lemon of a Jenn-Aire range. I've had it repaired about ever 6 months since I purchased it 3 years ago, but it never stays fixed for long. And so far I've been unable to get them to replace it. In March the Maytag Man AND the Maytag Man's boss came to fix it. They replaced a bunch of parts and redid a bunch of wiring. I bought the $200 extended warranty so I could stop arguing with Maytag each time about who was going to pay for the repairs. And I was counting on Murphy's Law - I figured as soon as I paid for the warranty, I'd never need to use it. For 9 months, that trick seemed to work. Until last night, when I had 8 stuffed and prepped quail sitting on a sheet pan waiting to go into the oven. I turned it to preheat, and it crapped out on me. The computerized control panel started beeping and throwing error codes. Fortunately, I live in a cohousing community, so I was able to run over to the common house and use the oven there, and dinner was saved. I don't know what I'd have done if I didn't have that - pan roast, I guess or fire up the grill real quick!

Sadistick, I hope your New Year's dinner went off without a hitch. Can't wait to hear the report! Mine turned out great. The only problem was that my cursed stove decided to crap out on me just as I was preheating it for the quail. The stovetop still worked, but the oven didn't. (It's a Jenn-Aire with a computerized control panel, and it's a total lemon that Maytag won't replace. But I digress.) Fortunately, I live in cohousing, so I was able to run over to the common house and cook the quail there. Scallops with leeks, trout roe caviar and champagne cream sauce Wine: Jaillance Cremant de Bordeaux Cuvee de L'Abbaye Brut Non-scallop alternative for Sue Butternut squash ravioli with rosemary oil Wine: Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Dry Riesling Mushroom stuffed quail with risotto, haricots verts, black poplar mushroom garnish Wine: 2001 Colognole Chianti Rufina I forgot to photograph the cheese board. We had three Italian cheeses - a Pecorino Tuscano (sheep), Maccagno (cow), Robiola Fia (goat) - and a loaf of no-knead bread, which we used for sopping up sauces in the earlier courses as well. Caramel-hazelnut-chocolate tart with creme fraiche whipped cream http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1167651337/gallery_7436_3666_32627.jpg The kids (ages 8, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, and 8 months) were pretty good about letting us eat in relative peace. (They had hotdogs, macaroni and cheese, and peas as their dinner.) The house is an absolute wreck this morning though - toys strewn everywhere!

The next challenger is Kouign Aman. The new thread is here.

It's a New Year, so it's time for a new Supreme eGullet Pastry and Baking Challenge! For round 13 I challenge Kouign Aman. When I was looking for inspiration for her challenge, I came across this post (update on 2006 Culinary Resolutions). She made some great progress on her 2006 resolutions, and given the timing of this challenge, it seemed fitting that I should help her continue that progress in 2007. So, my challenge to Kouign Aman is to make a dessert from/inspired by an ethnic cuisine you don't usually cook and that incorporates at least one vegetable. Bonus points for actually using your "good and accessible source of interesting produce." Good luck, and have fun! For future reference, these were the previous challenges: Round 1 (Kerry Beal challenges Ling in Vancouver BC)- Take pineapple upside down cake and bring it into this century Round 2 (Ling Challenges Gfron1 in Silver City NM) - Make a dessert containing an animal ingredient or product other than lard or bacon Round 3 (Gronf1 challenges Mette in Copenhagen Denmark)- Create a deconstructed beer dessert Round 4 (Mette Challenges Shalmanese in Seattle WA) - Create a dessert tapas plate consisting of 7 items in 7 days, using local and seasonal flavours Round 5 (Shalmanese challenges Chiantiglace in West Palm Beach FL) - create a dessert involving smoke that evokes Autumn Round 6 (Chiantiglace challenges K8Memphis in Memphis, TN) - create a dessert using Southern Sweet Tea Round 7 (K8Memphis challenges SweetSide in rural CT) - create a desset using 5 kernels of corn representing the 5 blessing of the Pilgrims Round 8 (SweetSide challenges alanamoana in the Silicon Valley, CA) - take fruitcake out of the land of the misfits and show us the beauty that lies within Round 9 ( Alanmoana challenges Dejaq in Nation’s Capital) - make a dessert using Champagne and at least three Citrus Fruits, along with Agar Agar. Round 10 (Dejaq in Nation's Capital challenges Kerry Beal in Ontario, Canada) - make a dessert utilizing white, milk and dark chocolate, along with a tea of her choice and a fresh seasonal pear. Round 11 (Kerry Beal in Ontario, Canada challenges Chufi, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to make a dessert that evokes the spirit of Sinterklaas, uses speculaas spices and includes a seasonal fruit or vegetable. Round 12 (Chufi in Amsterdam challenges tammylc in Ann Arbor, MI to make a dessert that incorporates at least 2 wines and 2 cheeses.