call the police

Sorry I haven't posted lately. Had a chance to get away to Wisconsin and I took it. Never pass up a chance like that.

Yesterday was not a good day. To much goin' on in the city. For the first time, that I can remember, there were vendors that didn't participate in the GCM. I come to find out that the majority of the parking down there is closed because of the air show. Air show traffic was a joy during a wedding cake delivery to twenty sixth street. When Mike left, we sent him with bottled water, blankets and canned food. we all know how Chciago winter's can be. We sold out of pastries early, and the girls came back with thirty or forty loaves of bread. Kinda unheard of. We even had bread left at our Evanston market. The customer count here in our store was down a little. We even had sandwiches left. We did however sell out of Toulouse, our breakfast sandwich. Mark said he even kicked them up a little. The past few Saturday's we were out early.

Yesterday, Chris showed us a new breakfast pastry. On Friday he mixed brioche dough. It's pleasing to talk to a baker. I asked him how much eggs, sugar and butter he was using in his brioche dough, out in Vegas. He replied "Fifty, tweleve and fifty". Meaning fifty percent and twelve percent, based on the flour weight. I said "Spot on". Him and I learned from the same source. Phillipe LeCorre, at the NBC. Chris was an intern there. He scaled balls of brioche dough at thirty grams. He placed three in a monkey bun cup. The cup we use is made in Italy, maybe three inches in diameter. An inch and a half tall. Thin brown, polished paper. He proofed them pretty good and brushed them with beaten eggs. Sprinkled them with pearl sugar, and baked them. On Friday we also made a hazelnut ganache with hazelnut paste, sixty four percent chocolate and butter. We are shooting for "Nutella". Once these brioche cups were cool, he injected them, from th etop with twenty five grams of hazelnut ganache. They were beautiful. Exepect to see them in our store on a daily basis, come cooler weather. What more need be said, brioche dough, crunchy pearl sugar and praline ganache. It's as far as you can go. You could be arrested for anything better. Warrants should be issued.

I'm gonna start buying up sugar. I told Patti, she might have to leave her car outside the garage until Christmas. I hear sugar will be scarce. Don't know if it's true, of course. lots of speculative emails goin' 'round. Could be the sugar players are long on sugar. Somethin' 'bout the government restricting imported sugar, bill on the senate floor 'bout changin' that. I do my best the understand compound interest in a savings account. I'm also a lot better with the Sox players batting avaerages'. We will pay what we need to pay. Thank God for the media,(in this case) my customers will be aware of the situation and be understanding if we need to raise prices.

I gotta end this. A customer is waiting in the store, for writing on a cake.