Bakery Nouveau

Sunshine, chocolates, and frozen treats

Thu, 17 May 2012 17:36:45 -0700

For those that might have noticed the macaron selection growing to take over the chocolate case- the recent, and very welcome, sunny and warm days have once again heralded the end of the chocolate season. We don’t have air conditioning in production (and won’t…we don’t even want to contemplate that kind of energy bill), so once we hit late spring, it just gets too warm to make them and keep them in good condition (melted chocolates just look kind of sad). However, saying goodbye (temporarily!) to one product group means some extra energy can go to another….

As summer is approaching, Chef is starting to look at frozen treats again. Gelato will soon be making its return, in macaron sandwiches and possibly a couple of other formats. In addition to the gelato, Chef is looking at traditional ice cream as well.

We’ll also be sticking with the sandwich format for the ice cream. The first set of flavors Chef is trying out includes chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream, peanut butter cookie with chocolate ice cream, and our new coconut-cashew cookie with coconut ice cream. The gelato isn’t out yet, but you’ll notice some items on a stick….on a lark, Chef made up some cheese cake pops. Our classic cheese cake dipped in white chocolate, and our mocha cheese cake dipped in dark. These are basically just for fun, and we might or might not expand on the concept. If you like portable cheese cake, let us know!

Currently, the ice cream is in really small batch production while Chef tries out flavors, so there may be a little variety over the next couple of weeks. We’re doing everything in house, starting with fresh cream, and developing the bases for the various flavors here.

That’s the brief update for today. Have a great close to your Thursday, everyone!

Surprise Tuesday photo post! Chef’s been experimenting a...

Tue, 01 May 2012 17:36:54 -0700

Surprise Tuesday photo post!

Chef’s been experimenting a bit with some classical pastry. One of which, the Kouign-Amann, we’ve experimented with before. There are some differences in the laminating and baking between these rounds and previous trials, resulting in a pastry that’s a little taller and not quite as dense. It’s still all about the caramel though. The sequence in these photos is pretty close to the method that we’ll be using for now (with more time and lots of repetitions, there might be future changes in method).

So, what is a Kouign-Amann? Buttery, caramelized goodness is the short version. The longer version is that it’s a Breton pastry or dessert, which can be made a bit larger (as a gateau- David Lebovitz has a detailed recipe on his blog) or a smaller pastry (like ours), and in either case is essentially pastry dough layered with butter and sugar which caramelize as it bakes.

We start with a round of dough and a layer of butter. The dough is folded over the butter and then rolled out. This layered dough is given a generous sprinkle of sugar, and the folded and rolled again. The folding and rolling is repeated once more, and then the dough gathered into kind of a pocket or purse fold. From here, it’s placed in baking tin (with a bit more sugar), and goes through a proof and bake, resulting in golden brown, caramelized buttery goodness (I’m probably overusing those adjectives, but seriously, I don’t know what else to call it). It is sweet, but more on the rich end of sweet.

Oh- if you noticed the black flecks in the sugar, that’s ground vanilla bean. We save the pods after scraping them out, and when ground, they provide a really nice, mellow vanilla flavor.

This version of the Kouign Amann has been added to our regular spring menu, so it will be around a little while. Have a great Tuesday evening everyone!

Easter Reminder

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:00:06 -0700

Don’t forget that tomorrow, the 5th, is the last day for placing pre-orders for Easter weekend. We’ll have lots of bread, pastry, hot cross buns and brioche, but if there is something you definitely want to have, I’d recommend ordering. Also, we will be closing early on Easter Sunday, at 5 pm instead of 7 pm.

Photo Friday, the shiny egg edition! So, as we near Easter our...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:39:03 -0700

Photo Friday, the shiny egg edition!

So, as we near Easter our attention continues to turn towards chocolate. Some of this week, we have been preparing egg shells for our Easter Eggs. What you’re seeing in the photos are stages in the process.

To start with, the molds are sprayed with colored cocoa butter. The spray needs to be held at 35 C, with a very tight range up or down. This helps the cocoa butter crystallize properly as it cools on the surface of the mold (this is analogous to tempering, although we don’t actually table or seed the cocoa butter- it’s all done by temperature control only). We then have a few options. We could fill the molds directly, or spray with a secondary color- both of which you can see in our confections case currently.

The other thing we can do is what you see in the photo- brushing in another color of chocolate. In most cases we use white chocolate for this, as it does a couple of things- where we have a very even coat of color, the white backing helps it seem more bright and really shows the color off.

Where we have an uneven coat, or where the first color layer hasn’t quite set yet, using the white can give us a nice marbling effect, showing a little depth in the shell as a darker chocolate fills in the gaps or shows through thinner layers. This is probably my personal favorite in terms of effects.

After the tempered white chocolate is brushed in and allowed to set, we then fill the shells with either milk or dark chocolate, and let the sides set to the thickness we want. We then cool the shells in the mold and give them time to set up and contract away from the sides of the mold so that the shell releases and lifts out easily.

For the red eggs, the detail photo of the satin or matte red shows what the cocoa butter looks like on the reverse side. On the shell or mold side, the crystals set and pattern off of the surface they are against- in this case polished polycarbonate. On the to-be-filled side, the crystals set in the smooth, satin layer. These were brushed with white as well, and when the large shells have set, they will show shine just like the small ones sitting on top of the mold (assuming we controlled our temperature correctly).

Have a great weekend everyone- it’s supposed to be sunny and warm (ish) so get out there and enjoy it!

Closing early tonight, 3/19

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:39:35 -0700

Just as a little heads-up, we’re closing an hour early tonight, at 6 pm, for a spring staff-meeting.

It looks like there’s a little sun out around West Seattle, so get out there and enjoy it!

Photo Friday, a dessert and chocolate edition! A few photos to...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:44:00 -0800

Photo Friday, a dessert and chocolate edition!

A few photos to start heading into the weekend. Starting at the top, we have a bit of new decor on the chocolate tart. Chef went with mini-macarons this morning, instead of the chocolate petals we did have. It’s a nice, colorful break in the case, and well, we’re starting to feel spring in the air around here (anyone notice the colorful carrot cake icing?).

Following is a photo of an eclair that was in the case this morning. Normally we hollow the choux out and pipe the pastry cream into it. Sometimes, like this morning, Chef goes for a little more visual presentation, especially for vanilla, since we use a creme Madame for the filling instead of straight pastry cream. It holds shape quite a bit better.

Next in line is the initial version of a dessert that’s tentatively called the Bora Bora. It has cashew sponge cake layered with passion fruit cremeux, coconut mousse and a light top layer of meringue. The glazing on top is a mild apricot glaze with passion fruit juice added. It’s quickly becoming a favorite of a couple of coconut addicted staff members.

Following are some chocolate details. If you have seen some of the ones out in the case, you know that we’ve been playing with different methods of using colored cocoa butter for decoration. Before this fall, our usual method was to use a small paint brush, or gloved finger tips, to brush the colors in. Sometimes we would flick them, which gives a nice, if uneven speckle. Lately, Chef’s been experimenting with a spray nozzle attached to a compressor. You can do a light spray, followed by other light layers, and get a layered-paint look like these shown here. You can also do a heavy spray and get a really shiny and even coat, such as the in the cherry cordial shown next. If you look closely, you can see the white spray just under the continuous, thin layer of red.

The last two shots are of chocolate tablets that were molded in bar molds for the display piece that Sean created back in February. I just think the geometric look of both tablets is pretty darn cool. They are also both good examples of everything being done very correctly in molding, which will be a topic for another day.

So, again, some photos for a little color on this cloudy afternoon. Have a good evening and a great weekend everyone!

Results of the 2012 Coupe du Monde!

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:04:23 -0800

The world of baking met this past week in Paris, France, for the 2012 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie. This is truly a global event, with a dozen teams from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, who all went through a rigorous series of regional competitions to both get on a team and to earn the right to compete in the Coupe.

The competition is all about bread and baking of course- starting in the strict traditional form using only flour, water, salt and yeast (such as the traditional baguette), and then branching out to include regional grains, ingredients and cultural specialties (the viennoiserie portion can be really creative with fillings and finishes). There is also an artistic portion, with showpieces created using a combination of live (yeasted) dough and salt dough (non-rising). Showpieces are built on an assigned theme, which typically showcases an aspect of a country’s history and culture.

All the teams are there to do their best, and to win, if they can, but at the end of the week, it’s all about baking, and by all accounts (including Chef Leaman’s personal recollection, and also the blog link to follow), bakers show off the best of what competition means- working hard, doing your absolute best, and leaving your ego at the door as it’s all about the craft. With three years between competitions, there is a lot of time and effort invested by each individual competitor as they have tried out and progressed through the rigorous training and unending practice it takes- you go all in, and respect and support the other competitors for having done the same.

With that said, we want to congratulate this year’s winners! Just announced today- Japan took 1st place, the US took 2nd, and Taiwan placed third. We’re especially proud of the US team, as our former sous Chef, Jeremey Gadouas, was representing America for viennoiserie (croissant, brioche and other pastry items). His teammates were Mike Zakowski for bread, and Harry Peemoeller for artistic design. They represent the strong and growing tradition of preserving and improving the craft of baking, and we’re proud of them! We hope that you are too!

For better discussion about the whole week, check out this 5-part posting by Jeffery Hamelman. Mr. Hamelman was in Paris for the event, and has great insight as he himself is a Coupe competitor and winner (Team USA, 1996), and King Arthur Flour’s bakery director.

Have a happy Wednesday everyone, and go out and have a loaf of good bread or a butter croissant to celebrate!

We got a new, mid-size spiral mixer- this one is a bit bigger...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:03:34 -0800

We got a new, mid-size spiral mixer- this one is a bit bigger than the small one we got last year. It’s efficient, compact, and, well, kind of looks like a stylized football helmet. However, it will handle all of our small/medium batch variety bread pretty easily, and there is a bit of room for growth.

Muffaletta!

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:59:07 -0800

Sometimes spelled ‘muffuletta’, this sandwich originated in New Orleans, probably in 1906 at the Central Grocery, where you can still find the sandwich (Barron’s, 4th Edition). The original version was served on a crusty french-style loaf, with salami, ham and provolone. The distinctive part of this sandwich is the olivetta spread- green olives chopped with a blend of other vegetables. We used to hold pretty close to the traditional- using our ciabatta roll instead of a crusty white bread, but keeping the toppings to ham, salami and provolone. Our version of the olive spread uses giardiniera for the vegetable mix.

We changed it up a little this year- in addition to the olivetta, the sandwich has layers of mortadella, coppa salumi, and sopressata salami, along with provolone and a bit of Swiss Emmenthaler cheese. There are some black olives in the layer too, and it’s served on rolls of our sesame semolina. Like the Paczki and King Cake, we’ll only have them around for a limited time.

Speaking of Paczki, in addition to the chocolate, vanilla and apple fillings, others that came out today and will be around through the weekend are raspberry, and sliced strawberry with vanilla creme Madame.

Have a great rest of your Friday, and a great weekend everyone!

Today’s photo post is brought to you by St....

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:05:00 -0800

Today’s photo post is brought to you by St. Valentine’s Day. This is a fun, playful holiday for us- showpieces can be a bit more whimsical, short-run desserts can have some extra decoration, and iced cookies can have writing from the sweet to the slightly naughty innuendo, to, well, sarcastic (probably would be fun for an office party). Essentially, we think this is a good holiday to share the love and have fun- it could be romantic, or it could be simply showing appreciation for those you care about.

Oh- we will be open regular hours, and will work to have the bread, pastry and dessert cases well stocked. If there is something you know you want, like any holiday, I’d recommend ordering ahead of time, just to be sure.

On to the photos- We have two display pieces this year. The first, with the hearts, was made by Chef, and is in keeping with the more traditional theme of the holiday. The second is the very first show piece made by one of our two Seans- if you are a weekend regular, our usual stocker, Sean C., has been exploring a side interest in chocolate and production. He had guidance from Chef, but the bulk of the work was his- I’d say he’s taking to it very well.

Following the showpieces is this year’s Macaron-for-Two. A base layer of our macaron, followed by layers of chocolate mousse and vanilla creme Madame. What you can’t see is that there is a thin layer of our vanilla butter cake (brushed with a little kirsch simple syrup).

In terms of having fun with extra decoration, we have added a chocolate flower top to our chocolate tart. This year, it’s a 4” individual tart, still made with our rich baked ganache. Be on the lookout for some chocolate hearts, colored icings (we have slices of carrot cake with pink cream cheese icing), and other decor.

We also have our chocolate boxes out now- 5, 20 and 40 count heart boxes, as well as what we’re calling a ‘Valentine’s Kiss’- milk or dark chocolate smiles with 6 pieces of candy inside.

Finally, I just wanted to show off the raspberry caramel heart again. They have been coming out really nicely this year- Chef changed up how we decorate the molds before shelling, and the shine from the cocoa butter is just spot-on.

So- again, for us this is a fun holiday with lots of playful options. We know that St. Valentine’s is usually considered a romantic holiday, but for us it is about celebrating the people you care about- spouses, friends, family…St. Valentine’s has a much wider connotation.

Have a great weekend everyone, and if we don’t get back to the blog before then, have a happy St. Valentine’s Day!

A little candy-action for your Friday photos. The first two are...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:52:05 -0800

A little candy-action for your Friday photos. The first two are our variation on a cherry cordial. They are a fondant-liquor cordial with a brandied cherry- potentially a bit messy to eat, but tasty.

The second type is our hazelnut praline. The top is textured as they are dual enrobed with a layer of crushed hazelnuts before the final coat. For the striping, they had to quickly pipe the dark chocolate over the milk chocolate before it set. This let the layers blend a little together, so that you have smooth striping instead of set-up stripes (most piping is done after a shell has set-up).

The last two photos are this year’s raspberry-caramel heart. Chef went with a red spray backed by white this year, as opposed to a red brush-in with or without the backing (brushing in gives a nice swirl effect). To get this effect (and for the cordials too), colored cocoa butter is held at about ~90 F and sprayed into clean molds held at about room temperature. The spray can be controlled to a smooth speckle, or a more thorough coating, since this is basically spray painting with colored cocoa butter. As we get into Easter Egg production, we’ll see other cocoa butter and coloring techniques.

Have a great Friday evening, and enjoy the weekend, everyone!

It’s getting to be that time of year again- our first...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:04:32 -0800

It’s getting to be that time of year again- our first foray into flooded heart cookies (that would be an excellent band name) is in the hot-pink and red category. Once again, we’ll be having a little fun with them- I’ve been told ‘sweetheart candy’ style sayings are on their way, and well… as the second photo shows, also a little sass (with hot pink, there has to be a little sass- it’s probably a law).

King Cake!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:56:16 -0800

Yep, it’s definitely that time of year. We have our slices of King Cake out, and whole cakes (~12 nice servings) are available by pre-order. This year’s cake is still rooted in the colorful New Orleans’ style crown shaped cake, with the colored sugar in green, yellow and purple. The dough is braided croissant dough, with a filling of our Tatin style apple filling (i.e., baked in brown sugar and butter and then pureed) and raisins. There is also a touch of cinnamon and sugar. It’s very buttery, due to the croissant dough, and nicely sweet due to the Tatin filling. I’d probably pair it with a nice cup of coffee or a darker tea to contrast the sweetness.

Like previous years, they will only be available until Mardi Gras!

The dessert case also has a little something new- we have a smaller all-mousse dessert out this week. Chocolate mousse layered with cherry creme Madam, with candied pistachios and brandied cherries. It’s one of our smaller desserts (the same size as our chocolate pot de creme, or our creme brulee, for those familiar with them), so a good size for those that might need a chocolate and mousse fix, but might not want a full slice of chocolate cake, or chocolate mocha cheesecake.

Just a quick update for this ever-so-slightly warmer Monday. I hope everyone had a great weekend, and is having a great start to the week!

It's been a little quiet

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:46:06 -0800

January is an odd month. There’s the shutdown for cleaning, maintenance and upgrades, decompression after holiday production, the January Slowdown, and then the ‘oh my, St. Valentine’s Day is in 3 weeks!’ panic amongst those of us who work with chocolate (well, not really panic, but some holidays just suddenly loom after lurking quietly on the calendar). Occasionally, there’s a snowstorm (and awesome coverage by the West Seattle Blog).

It’s also a good month- King Cake has made it’s return, injecting some sweet, colorful goodness into those early Seattle mornings. This heralds the imminent return of Paçzki, those tasty cream or jam filled fried bread, and the closest to a doughnut you’ll find here (they aren’t back yet- they’ll only be around for the two weeks before Mardi Gras).

Overall though, it’s pretty quiet. That means it ends up a little quiet on the blogging front as well. There are a few bits of news and some thoughts to put out there though. First of all- *ahem* We need artists for Art Walk! We have a couple of artists lined up in the year, but that leaves 9 months or so that need to be filled. Paintings, photos, and mixed media work well in our space- we don’t really have display space for sculpture/3-d work, etc. Food, landscapes, still life and city life are some of the areas of interest have for display purposes (no political based art please- while we enjoy discussions and encourage everyone to be informed, we also want our space to be a nice relaxing break from the news at large). Please also note that our display space is a bit higher up on the wall, so smaller pieces might not show well. We have a gallery-style hanging system (adjustable cables and clips). So- if you are an artist or you know someone who is, drop us a line (info (at) bakerynouveau (dot) com).

Regarding snow-days- on the off-chance that we have another round of real winter down in the lowlands here, so long as there is power to the building, we’ll be able to open the doors. We have several staff that live very locally, and bread and pastry aren’t really concerned with the weather, so it has to be baked off. The first serious snow in the area after we opened pretty much proved the resiliency of West Seattleites- it’s the first time I’ve seen people on cross-country skis on city streets. So, if you live in or around the Junction (or can ski to it), we’ll be here. Someday, I hope to have a photo of a bunch of skis racked against our front window and wall.

We’re also looking at a few small upates here and there on the website. Nothing major, but some slimming down of some text and some re-arranging of a few things perhaps (basically a refreshing).

And one last small thing- questions- does anyone have any? We write about things that we find interesting, but what do you find interesting or wonder about?

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Marble counters and a new floor

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:31:04 -0800

As posted previously, if it’s the first week of a new year, we’re going to be closed a few days. We need a short break, our equipment needs to be tended to (granted, equipment needs tending more than once a year), walls need patching and painting, and everything needs a darn good scrub. Also, it’s traditionally one of the times when Chef does a major re-arrangement of tables and equipment.

This year, we did a little extra upgrading in addition to our normal maintenance. The production-area floor got a new, industrial grade top-coat. Previous years had seen some attempts at using a top coat that we installed, and, well…it worked ok, but we needed to patch and reapply on a regular basis. The industrial epoxy coat that was installed last week should hold much better against what we throw at it. The floor is now a glossy grey as opposed to the kind of patchy cream color- it also looks like it was painted with sand thrown down, because it essentially was. The sand-looking texture improves traction and reduces slipping, which is always a good thing.

What should be more immediately noticeable is in the cafe space. We had marble installed to cover or replace some pretty beat-up wood tops. We went for a classic look using Carrera marble instead of granite or a composite (our stone surfaces in production are granite). It has a honed finish instead of polished, as the glossy polished look would eventually show a lot of wear and turn matte anyway. We like the lighter color and somewhat more classic look to the stone, and marble is just such a nice, relatively easy upgrade to make.

The bulk of time for the shutdown was required for the floor- between cleaning and texturing the underlying concrete, and applying and letting the floor cure (it was a low VOC, quick cure), it took the better part of four and a half days. We then needed an extra day for ramping production back up. The marble installation went remarkably quickly, taking well under half a day (for stone, it seems the bulk of time required is for cutting and polishing to the correct finish).

For those that are interested, the marble was cut, finished and installed by Sam Clark (http://clarkstoneinstallations.com/), who is local to West Seattle and also works on home installations. The production floor was coated by Coatings Unlimited, Inc. (offices in Kent, WA, and I’m pretty sure they are industrial or commercial only).

As for the re-arranging of the production space, we have actually returned to a more linear arrangement, with several stations trading places. We also freed up a little production space by removing an under-utilized two-door cooler, and shifting a chilled table to that spot. Why all the shuffling? The basic answer is efficiency. Which mixers are being used mostly by what station, who needs to be closest to the gas range top, what needs to be closer together, or possibly farther apart, who might need to be able to work from a number of racks at a time- these and others are considerations that are being continually evaluated. The general production areas (dessert, bread, pastry, and savory) are pretty well marked out at this time, but as our team grows and our product mix adjusts to our sales, different production groups end up with modified needs. A shut down is a good time to make adjustments based on the previous several months’ production.

Since everything was taken out of production for the floor coating, it was a good time for a radical adjustment. The space flows much better now, with less congestion in some areas. We’ll have to sit on it for a few months to catch a couple of really busy cycles, but so far, it seems to be working well.

So, that’s a brief recap on what happened during our close. We’d like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding!

Annual shutdown- Jan 1st-6th

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:42:17 -0800

So, our little shop gets a bit frazzled by the end of the year, and we tend to like to close the first week of January in order to clean, make repairs or updates, and generally take stock of things heading into the new year. This year we’re closing for the 1st through the 6th.

We extended it a couple of days this year over last, as we are finally putting down an industrial strength floor-coat. Hard wearing epoxy paint just hasn’t quite been working as a solution, at least long term, and we’re starting to see some wear and tear in the concrete, so we’re are having the floor professionally prepared and resurfaced. It will be easier to clean, safer for the staff, and much more resistant to the dropped sheet pans that life in the bakery occasionally provides.

Also, we’re getting some marble accents installed. There are a few areas that have been looking a little worn, and we thought a nice update would be a bit more fun than sanding and refinishing the current wood surfaces.

So- we apologize for any inconveniences our annual shutdown will bring, but it will let us start the new year right- our staff gets a little rest, and our bakery gets some much needed TLC.

Have a great start to the New Year everyone!

Just as a reminder, we will be open regular hours today, and...

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:19:43 -0800

Just as a reminder, we will be open regular hours today, and from 7 am to 4 pm tomorrow. We will be closed the 25th and 26th.

Have a happy holiday everyone!

Phones work!

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:54:17 -0800

And they are back up and correct! The simple fixes are the nicest!

Phone issues

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:49:55 -0800

Our phone line is acting very strangely, with static and dial-tone overlay. We do have a technician scheduled for late this morning or early afternoon. We apologize for any inconvenience.

We’ll do our best to field questions either over twitter (@bakerynouveau) or via email, and let you know when they are back up and working properly.

As a quick FAQ-

1) We do not take orders over email, but we can answer questions about product and ordering.

2) Orders for tomorrow and Saturday are closed and our production schedule being set, so we cannot take any further orders for this week.

Thank you, and again, we apologize for any inconvenience.

Early Closing Today, 12/19

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:55:25 -0800

We’re closing early today, at 5 pm (originally was to be 6 pm), for a private anniversary event for staff, vendors and extended bakery family. We normally hold staff events off-site, but wanted to be in the shop for it this one. Thank you for your understanding.

We will be open regular hours on Tuesday.

Have a great Monday afternoon and evening everyone!