1754 replies to this topic

[Kerry Beal]

Those all look great Dave.

[RobertM]

These are the chocolates that I did for Christmas this year. Top left to right - we have a Cabernet Sauvignon; Buckeye; Lemon-Mint; Cherry Cordial; (second row) Apple Pie; Ginger Rum; Orange; Creme Brulee; (third row) Habenero; Buckwheat Beehive; Cabernet Caramel w/Cabernet Ganache; Chi Tea; (fourth row) S'More; Raspberry; Mocha/dulce de leche; Coconut

[Darienne]

Oh my! How I would like to be the recipient of such a wonderful array! So beautifully done!

[Darienne]

Candy Tray Lychee Gels. Never heard of them before. Delicious little gems. Here they are sitting in a pile of sugar waiting to be transported to our Third Annual Chinese Feast.

They should be rolled in sugar at the last minute, but I have already given them a preliminary sugar rolling and will give them a last minute shake before dessert is served and hope that this will work out fine.

One of my fellow cooks loves lychees and normally I would make lychee ice cream but I don't have an ice cream maker with me. Was just googling around last evening and found this recipe under Chinese New Year Candy Recipes and thought Aha! I couldn't be more thrilled.

And thus...

[Darienne]

OK. If there is any way to screw it up, I'll find it. Left the sugared lychee jellies sitting in a container of sugar. Yep. The sugar is all soaked and so are the jellies. Well, I know, you could have told me that. Learn, learn, learn.

Took the jellies out. Patted them all dry. Will shake them in sugar (in a separate container) at the last moment before we eat them. Just grateful that I checked them before we left.

Edited by Darienne, 06 January 2012 - 10:28 AM.

[lebowits]

I recently purchased a compressor and air brush. This is my first attempt at decorating molds before casting the shells. The piece is a "Grand Marnier Caramel". The mold is decorated with "sunrise orange" and yellow cocoa butters. The center is a 1:1 caramel with a bit of butter added. Melted, untempered milk chocolate is added to the cooled caramel in a 1:1 ratio with the weight of the completed caramel. 1% of Grand Marnier by weight is then added and I also put in a bit of orange oil to punch up the flavor.

I don't know if it is coincidental or not, but this is my first time using this particular mold. I've read recently that people have had issues with pieces not coming out of new molds easily. Either this is a really good mold, or perhaps the cocoa butter sprayed into the cavities allowed the pieces to come out very easily.

Either way, the pieces taste pretty good and they don't look to bad for a first attempt.

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[RWood]

I recently purchased a compressor and air brush. This is my first attempt at decorating molds before casting the shells. The piece is a "Grand Marnier Caramel". The mold is decorated with "sunrise orange" and yellow cocoa butters. The center is a 1:1 caramel with a bit of butter added. Melted, untempered milk chocolate is added to the cooled caramel in a 1:1 ratio with the weight of the completed caramel. 1% of Grand Marnier by weight is then added and I also put in a bit of orange oil to punch up the flavor.

I don't know if it is coincidental or not, but this is my first time using this particular mold. I've read recently that people have had issues with pieces not coming out of new molds easily. Either this is a really good mold, or perhaps the cocoa butter sprayed into the cavities allowed the pieces to come out very easily.

Either way, the pieces taste pretty good and they don't look to bad for a first attempt.

Those look really nice. I had problems with this mold the first time I used them, but have had good luck since. The only thing I have trouble with is that the air bubbles are really hard to get out. I have more trouble with that than cocoa butter sticking.

[lebowits]

I recently purchased a compressor and air brush. This is my first attempt at decorating molds before casting the shells. The piece is a "Grand Marnier Caramel". The mold is decorated with "sunrise orange" and yellow cocoa butters. The center is a 1:1 caramel with a bit of butter added. Melted, untempered milk chocolate is added to the cooled caramel in a 1:1 ratio with the weight of the completed caramel. 1% of Grand Marnier by weight is then added and I also put in a bit of orange oil to punch up the flavor.

I don't know if it is coincidental or not, but this is my first time using this particular mold. I've read recently that people have had issues with pieces not coming out of new molds easily. Either this is a really good mold, or perhaps the cocoa butter sprayed into the cavities allowed the pieces to come out very easily.

Either way, the pieces taste pretty good and they don't look to bad for a first attempt.

Those look really nice. I had problems with this mold the first time I used them, but have had good luck since. The only thing I have trouble with is that the air bubbles are really hard to get out. I have more trouble with that than cocoa butter sticking.

I had a few pieces with air bubbles as well. My usual method of aggressively tapping the sides of the mold with the handle of my spatula worked reasonably well. I had more issues with the milk chocolate itself behaving rather poorly. This was likely due to the weather conditions. Overall, I was very impressed by how cleanly the pieces came out of the molds. I only had to buff a few small places to wipe out excess cocoa butter that was left behind.

[Sue Casey]

lebowits - your Grand Marnier Caramel chocolates look fantastic. I've had trouble with molds at times and when I used a spray of cocoa butter they popped out.

[RWood]

So, the caterer I work for wanted to offer Valentine chocolates and since they wouldn't be under my name, I went with the easiest way to get them done. Transfer sheets and simple decorations. But, they still came out cute :).

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[curls]

RWood, very cute chocolates. My favorites are the pink hearts. What are the flavors?

[RWood]

RWood, very cute chocolates. My favorites are the pink hearts. What are the flavors?

Thanks!
The hearts with pink are Passion Fruit, the dark red are Mexican Coffee, the rectangle with hearts and lines are Ginger, the rounds with pink are dark chocolate with vanilla bean, and the heart leaf is Raspberry. I also did dipped caramels with pink salt, but didn't post a picture.

[curls]

Playing around with various decorating techniques. Some far more successful than others. The chocolates are a yuzu ganache and a mango rum ganache.

Edited by curls, 02 February 2012 - 08:16 PM.

[DianaM]

RWood, the chocolates look beautiful! Those transfers look festive without being cheesy. May I ask where you source them?

Thanks,
DianaM

[RWood]

RWood, the chocolates look beautiful! Those transfers look festive without being cheesy. May I ask where you source them?

Thanks,
DianaM

Thanks! I believe I got some of the transfers from www.bakedeco.com. They have a large selection. Most of them are PCB transfers. I think they only sell them in large packs though.

Individual sheets I've found here. They told me they could sell me larger packs of them if needed.

[DianaM]

I checked out Bakedeco, and they have great stuff, plus I know they ship to Canada.

Thanks, RWood!

Diana

[YetiChocolates]

Here is my Valentine's line-up! I got a new air compressor so I was finally able to do some airbrushing with my chocolates this time, yeah!



Clockwise from top left: Raspberry lavender, lime, kahlua and espresso, toasted coconut, cinnamon chipotle, and maple pecan caramel.

I wish I would have read the thread on maple caramels before setting out on that adventure, mine as well as others came out more grainy than I would have liked, but the flavor is nice, so I guess I'll take it!

Edited by YetiChocolates, 09 February 2012 - 04:33 PM.

[Kerry Beal]

Those look fabulous!

[YetiChocolates]

Thanks Kerry! I was really pleased with how they turned out. Cocoa butter can be a finicky thing, but I think I've finally got it figured out!

[RWood]

I checked out Bakedeco, and they have great stuff, plus I know they ship to Canada.

Thanks, RWood!

Diana

You're welcome, glad it was of help

So, I finally had a chance to showcase my stuff at the Monterey Museum of Art last night. It was to try to get the catering company I work for on the list of caterers they use. This is a picture of my table set up. Pistachio and Chocolate Raspberry Macarons, Triple Chocolate Drop Cookies and assorted chocolates.

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[minas6907]

Very beautiful display, I love the slabs of marble, very clean looking.

[DianaM]

I hope everyone's had a good Valentine's Day! I hesitated to post, since everyone's chocolates look so amazing, but here we go.

My Palet d'Or filled with a simple dark choc butter ganache:


White chocolate, bay leaf and vanilla bean ganache.

Edited by DianaM, 18 February 2012 - 03:09 PM.

[lironp]

RWood- this looks amazing, as usual!
DianaM- I love your pictures, and the palet d'or looks like it has a great texture

[lironp]

My husband's business school had a chocolate & Wine tasting event sponsored by Hershey's, which I helped organize. Apart from the actual tastings (for which we chose Scharffen Berger and Dagoba chocolates), they sent me 6 lbs of chocolates beforehand, from which I made some chocolates:

The chocolate in he mail:


PB&J chocolates before dipping:

I used Greweling's recipe for this, and the peanut butter/chocolate ratio was way too low, and I overtempered it, so the chocolate layer broke a bit from cutting

Chocolate in the event:

Caramel & 62% dark chocolate ganache, milk chocolate-Whiskey truffle logs, PB&J (raspberry PDF and Peanut butter Gianduja), decorated with raspberry powder and icing sugar

Chocolates brought by Hershey's:


and the tasting map:

[YetiChocolates]

I hope everyone's had a good Valentine's Day! I hesitated to post, since everyone's chocolates look so amazing, but here we go.

I don't know why you're hesitating, those chocolates look amazing! Very elegant, nice work!

[DianaM]

YetiChocolates and lironp, thank you!

lironp, your dipping skills are great, those finished PB&J's look awesome!

[JenBunk]

I have never posted before, but I really enjoy seeing pictures of everyone's chocolates so I thought I would share mine.

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[Kerry Beal]

Gorgeous Jen - thanks for sharing - and welcome to eG.

[JenBunk]

Thanks Kerry! Really enjoying eG. Love the sharing of knowledge.
Jenny

[RobertM]

Jen - those are beautiful...out of interest, what flavors lurk underneath?