Some major, some minor happenings early in this week.  On the minor side, some of you have probably noticed the morning bakers are rotating fruits on the cream cheese danish.  Today’s offerings are cherry or peach.  On the savory side, I believe the soup of the day is chowder made with razor-clams.  I haven’t had it yet, but the batch yesterday smelled really good (I’m a big fan of chowder). 

On the major side- we get a new convection oven today!  Our Baxter oven is still plugging along, and we’ll have another show up sometime this afternoon.  As a bonus, the new oven will include a proof-retarder in its base.  In addition to the one we have now, that will make for a lot of pastry the morning bake can load up immediately. 

Another interesting happening is we are receiving a pallet, yes, a pallet, of chocolate sometime today.  We still get butter by the pallet, and now chocolate.  I will post a photo when I have one.  Basically, we’re giving Tcho Chocolates (tcho.com) a major try-out.  We’re getting both a 60% and a 68% dark chocolate.  Chef and I really like their flavor profiles, and we also like their business model (again, it’s better written on their website than I can do here).  Now…I just hope that it’s in drops/pistoles instead of 5 kg blocks (that’s a LOT of chopping). 

Ok, back to production.  We’re starting to gear up for Easter (eggs, bunnies and candies, oh my!), so there’s a lot to do!  It’s cold out, but enjoy the sun while it’s showing!

So, a few new things out recently (well, new to me anyway- they were probably out this weekend!).  First up, I don’t have photos of it yet, but for those of you who have been asking, we are finally making a dessert that has peanut butter in it.  It will likely be out this coming weekend, and I’ll get some more details out as I have them.

We also had a couple of new sandwiches out.  First was a cucumber based veggie sandwich.  It’s on ciabatta, with a cream-cheese and garlic spread, sliced cucumbers, olives, pickled carrots and provolone cheese.  We do have those out today!  The other sandwich is our Monte Cristo. 

It has ham and swiss, a dijon mustard sauce, and served on our pain de mie (a rich white bread, made in house, of course), which has been dipped in an egg wash and grilled, similar to french toast.  All as made by our grill master, Jane.

That’s not a small grill top either.  It fits completely over our four-burner range!

Also out today, as well as the weekend (I think) is the roasted beet salad.

It features spring mix with a drizzling of a balsamic vinaigrette, roasted beets, cucumbers, croutons, and a sprinkling of gorgonzola and hazelnuts.  The croutons and the roasted beets both being made by Jane.  Normally the croutons are on the bottom to help take up a little of the vinaigrette, but I missed that on the build-sheet this morning (sorry Jane!  I’ll get it right next time!). 

That’s the news for now.  Happy Wednesday all- it looks like the sun is trying to peek out.

So this showed up this morning:

Yep, that is an ice-cream station.  It won’t be out for quite a while yet, but we’re already looking forward to the warmer weather.  For me, it means I’ll have something to do when the chocolate season is over (it’s not really seasonal, but when you don’t have air conditioning, summer pretty much shuts you down).  For you, it means gelato, possibly sorbets, our take on an ice cream sandwich, as well as a few other ideas floating in Chef’s brain.  It’s also going to let us have a little fun with some of the mousse-based desserts.  For scoops, cones and malts though, you’ll of course still want to head over to our friends at the Husky Deli! 

We’ll keep you posted on what were developing and when we’ll be rolling the station out! 

Have a good weekend everyone!

I’ve been thinking a little about the Tcho Chocolate take on flavor profile over cacao percentage, and I’m really starting to like the idea.  Partly, it’s because that’s how we think of most everything else we produce (I do mean everything)- what’s the flavor profile?  For the breads, it can involve the type of flour, or even the producer of given type (where it’s grown, how it’s processed), how much yeast is used, the fermentation times, etc.  For the desserts, the flavor profile is designed.  If you look at wines, percentage of a given grape varietal are listed, but are somewhat less important than what the flavor notes are.  However, and I’ve fallen into this trap too, we seem to only consider cacao percentage in chocolate.  Why is that?

The cacao percentage is a measure of the total cacao solids in the bar- both cocoa liqueur (ie, ground nibs) and cocoa butter.  The proportion between the two can vary somewhat depending on what the manufacturer is aiming for, such as fluidity (important in shelling and coating applications), flavor or mouth feel, and different couvertures of the same percentage will be ’designed’ to work better for different groups of applications by adjusting the proportion of liqueur to cocoa butter.  So, percentage will tell you basically how dark your chocolate is, and give you a very general level of expectation in the flavor and texture, but doesn’t tell you a lot else. 

As a little experiment, find a few bars of different manufacturers and price ranges, all in the same percentage, and give them a taste test.  How are they similar?  How are they different?  Think of it like wines- some cabs are very fruit forward, some are tannic, and they can feel differently in the mouth.  Look for the same- what flavor notes do you pick up?  How do the mouth feels differ?  Some can be creamy, some feel kind of chalky, others feel like ‘chocolate’ (I know, it can get hard to describe).  Some are bitter, some sweeter, and the complexity can vary widely.  What do you like? 

In the end, I guess I think that it’s a good idea to consider overall flavor profiles and other characteristics such as mouth feel for all our foods.  As I learn more of what I like and ponder different qualities of food, I find I buy a bit more responsibly and care a bit more about where my food comes from (since that can really affect it’s qualities)- looking for my own, ever changing definition of ‘value’.  Of course, in this case, it also means you get to spend an afternoon enjoying some chocolate with friends (it’s always good to compare notes), and that sounds like a good time to me.

Well, late winter seems to have returned this morning, but it was definitely nice to have the taste of spring that’s on its way.  It’s a full shop in production today with the addition of a visitor- Anna, one of the pastry cooks from the Herb Farm (http://www.theherbfarm.com/) has come out for a couple of days to see how a busy bakery operates.  From the description of it, I would hazard the guess that being a pastry cook in a major restaurant is just about like being a one-person bake shop.  Breads, desserts, possibly chocolate work, all in a very small space, shared with savory cooks and chefs.  We complain about room, but really, we are spoiled compared to a lot of kitchens I’ve seen in the last year during cake deliveries.  We’re very happy Anna came out to visit, and it’s been very interesting talking shop with her (by the way Chef, her life would be so much easier with a small microwave). 

The last couple of weeks saw some other visitors too.  Some representatives from TCHO Chocolate of San Francisco stopped by (on my day off, darn it).  Very interesting company and a slightly different take on chocolate, which I am kind of in favor of.  Check out there website, www.tcho.comfor their background.  Like several newer chocolate makers, and some coffee roasters (Stumptown, for example) they are developing a more ‘relationship’ based business model in terms of how they interact with suppliers and growers.  As for their take on chocolate, it’s interesting to see that they talk more about flavor profiles, and less about cacao percentages.  Apparently all their bars are 70% but have different profiles based on the beans and blend.  Their website explains it better than I will, so give them a look. 

Ok…lots of filling to do (yes, salt caramels will be out later in the week), so I’d best get back on the floor.

I hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy the nice weather this weekend!  Judging by the amount of spent decor sheets I have to refill in the next day or two, quite a few of you were enjoying some chocolate cake along with the nice weather!  Thank you!

We’re in kind of a quiet in-between period in production.  We’ve come through the major winter holidays, and are now looking forward to the spring and early summer.  Expect to see some seasonal menu changes, probably a few sandwich updates (Jane made some test runs of Monte Cristos late last week).  Speaking of sandwiches, the muffaletta is just about gone.  We have just enough supplies for maybe one or two more days.   It also appears that the croque monsieur is making one of its occasional returns- ham, swiss and a béchamel sauce toasted on slices of sourdough with a little extra béchamel and some parmesan.  I’m the odd-man out in the bakery in that I don’t really care for parmesan (really, I think I’m the only one), but even I like this sandwich!  I’m not sure if it’s going to be a weekend only product or not at the moment, so keep an eye out!

Last, but not least today, I thought I’d show off another cake.  It was a wedding cake from the previous weekend, very simply decorated, and a nice reminder that spring is on its way.  Get out there and enjoy the sun, and happy Monday to you!

Today is Fat Tuesday!  It’s the last day we’ll have Paczki and King Cake until the pre-Lent season next year.  For those that are curious, Mardi Gras and similar celebrations evolved in Catholic regions from the parties and feasts held in the last days before the season of Lent, where Lent is a season of sacrifice and introspection in which various food stuffs are forbidden.  The feasts and seasonal treats went a long way to making sure food and ingredients weren’t wasted.   

We like to keep the traditional time lines since it adds a context to the foods, and also helps us to remember where they came from.  As noted yesterday, we feel this just makes the foods we prepare and eat more interesting.  

Jane is getting back to her roots as a savory chef from the south.  Today’s soup will be a traditional gumbo!  Chicken, sausage, okra, onions, celery and sweet peppers…

There’s also been the rumor of the introduction of a cajun meat pie- if it’s similar to the test pies last week, they’ll be hand pies (think empanada or pasty) and darn tasty.  If they’re not out today, they should be out soon. 

Another rumor is the possibility of a Zydeco band around noonish today.  For more information on Zydeco and Cajun music, check out this faq: http://cajunzydeco.net/NewFiles/FAQ.html

So it looks like we’ll be having a full day here at the bakery.  We might not have the parade, but we’ve got the food!  We have King Cake by the slice, and a few whole ones available.  For Paczki, we have banana, lemon, chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, strawberry and caramelized apple!  Victoria is ruling the fry station today, and will keep the Paczki coming…

So, happy Mardi Gras everyone! 

Just as a reminder, as with almost all bank holidays, we are open!  Paczki and King Cake are still available, although tomorrow, Fat Tuesday,  should be the last day for both!  We’ll have the muffaletta sandwich for a little while longer, although it’s currently not being considered a long term seasonal addition. 

We wanted to also give a great big Thank You! to everyone who came to the bakery over this long weekend.  We truly appreciate your business and hope that everyone had a great St. Valentine’s Day with friends, family and loved ones.   

On a side note, writing posts is usually in some way educational for me, and hopefully for you the readers.  It’s interesting describing processes, or sharing new product.  One of the things I’m coming to like the most though, is having to find out more about a product, where it comes from, and a bit of the cultural context behind it.  The latest examples being the Paczki and the King Cake in the earlier posts.  I knew they were related to Mardi Gras/Lent but didn’t know the rest of the background.  So, in the spirit of things, I looked up the muffaletta- I knew it was from New Orleans originally, and it turns out there is a sizable population of Italians in the city.  Most of us think about the Creole-French population, or  other aspects of Louisiana culture, so it was interesting to read a little about the Italian influences.  The sandwich is apparently purely in the Italian/Sicilian cuisine category and dates to the very early 1900’s.  It’s served year round there, and variations can include salami or other cold-cuts in addition to the mortadella (we are using ham in this iteration, we have used salami in the past). 

So, from time to time, I’ll be digging into some of our products and finding a little of the history or cultural context.  I’d encourage any reader that has a fondess for particular foods to do the same- it just makes the foods we eat that much more interesting.  If you come up with something interesting, feel free to share!

There’s a lot of chocolate decorations to restock, so I’ll wish everyone a happy President’s day!

A sandwich we’ve not seen for a while, the muffletta, is back for a limited time.  It’s our ciabatta roll layered with mortadella, ham and provolone, with an olive spread.  It’s pretty tasty!  

Ham and Swiss

Creamed Spinach and Manchego

We’re also continuing with the Paczki- the flavors I’ve seen so far are chocolate, vanilla, lemon, raspberry, strawberry and caramel apple, which is based on our tarte tartin filling.  They do look a little different still, from last year.  Previously, we had filled them by piping the filling in from the bottom side.  This year, we’re simply filling from the top. 

Vanilla Paczki

 I hear candy calling, so happy Tuesday all!