Skwerl
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Posts posted by Skwerl
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My Rev1 does a great job with E. Guittard chocolate when it decides to work, but I've been told that the Rev2 would be a better choice if you're using El Rey or Valrhona because they require a slightly warmer temperature than the Rev1 defaults to. Aside from being able to adjust the temperature and pause the bowl, there isn't a huge difference between the two models. I really need a larger tempering machine, but the next step up is 10 lbs which is too big. Other companies' temperers that I have seen are more expensive than Chocovision's. I haven't used them, so I can't say anything regarding their quality, but as with anything (as the old cliche goes), you tend to get what you pay for. As far as transfer sheets go, I have gotten most of mine from Kerekes (linky), but it looks like they've raised prices quite a bit. I think JBPrince has them, too.
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Hi Truffle Guy! You mentioned the large number of refurbished machines, and I think I have an answer. Ian from Chocovision told me I had a year after purchase to upgrade my machine with them. They'd apply what I paid for my machine to a larger model. That's probably why there are so many refurbs. With that said, I'll mention that my Revolation has gotten to be VERY loud and has a habbit of just shutting itself off in the middle of tempering, or telling me the chocolate has been tempered when I've only just put the seed chocolate behind the baffle.
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I had an Italian stlye cracker-crispy flatbread at a restaurant called Brio (a chain) a couple weeks ago. It was covered in rosemary, sesame seens, flaxseed, and I think there was some sort of cheese on it very lightly. I went nuts over it, so I have been trying to duplicate the recipe ever since, with mild success. If anyone has tried the same flatbread and has a similar recipe or any cracker recipe that you're really fond of, please post. I really hate bread, but I've started getting into crackers, so I can always use some more recipes. Thanks!
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Thanks for all the nice compliments, everyone! Once again, I wanted to express my appreciation for all the recommendations. As for specifics, here's the run-down. I used all E. Guittard chocolate(Dark: Premiere Etoile, Milk: Soleil d'Or, White: Creme Francaise) for molding. The Guittard seems to be a fairly easy one to work with.
I used a Revolation 1 tempering machine from Chocovision. The machine was only $360, but it has saved me HOURS of work. I am unconvinced of the unit's quality because it's extremely noisy and occasionally stops for no reason. It's probably defective, but it does temper all three of the Guittards I have, relatively unattended. The major drawback is that the capacity only allows for only one mold at a time. I wish there was a model between the 1.5 and 10-lb ones.
For molds, I used polycarbonate ones I bought from Kerekes (www.bakedeco.com). These worked beautifully.
I started off by buffing the depressions in each mold with a cotton ball. I then dipped a cotton ball into melted cocoa butter and spread a thin layer into each depression. One to two dips was usually enough for a full mold. I found that adding just enough to "grease" the depressions but not make them cloudy was the perfect amount to use. I rubbed the depressions with enough force to get any extra cocoa butter out of the patterns in the molds so it didn't pool there. At this point, I added the vartious luster dusts to the molds. For the gold ones, I used 24 karat gold dust. To achieve the speckled look, I dipped a soft, springy paint brush into the gold dust and tapped the hadle to make chunks of dust fall off and hit the mold. After dropping dust on each depression, I popped the coated mold into the refrigerator for a couple minutes to set the cocoa butter. After it was set, I inverted the mold and shook out the extra gold dust. That way not as much of the gold stuck to the cocoa butter and the speckles from the clumps were retained. I used an extra springy empty coulis bottle to blow any extra dusts out of the depressions. The piece in the photograph is not one of the best examples of the speckling. For the purple one, I froze the cocoa butter to keep it cold so it wouldn't melt while I added the dust. With a very soft sable paint brush, I thoroughly brushed the metallic purple dust into each depression in the mold. This made the distribution very even and gave it the auto paint look since the color was underneath the cocoa butter "clearcoat" when the chocolates are turned out. The green ons were my favorite. I started them the same way as the gold ones, but I used green and blue luster dust clumps. After dusting the molds, before refrigerating them, I spun them around a couple times, Harlen Globetrotter style (No, not really) or slammed them onto the countertop. The spinning gave the chocolates a spacey look, since the different dusts seemed to move at different speeds when spinning. The blue hardly moved while the green spread out nicely. Slamming produced a really nice effect too. It made streaks of the metallic dusts on the chocolates, adding a lot of action to them.
From there I just filled the molds with tempered chocolate and inverted them before scraping and filling. I had soime larger pyramid molds that I painted with chocolate with a brush instead since the small capacity of the Revolation didn't produce enough to adequately fill the mold and dump it only once. I made sure I shook the molds and rapped them on the table plenty of times before inverting them, but I still got a good amount of bubbles. I am wondering if I need to paint all the non-plain molds with a layer of chocolate before filling and inverting.
I bought my luster dusts from AJ Winbeckler (www.winbeckler.com/dusts.asp). It might be worth mentioning that some of the dusts (mainly blue, green, violet hues) contain small amounts of chemicals that can be toxic. I did some research over a couple days on both chromium oxide and ferrocyanide(a.k.a iron blue). For you chermistry buffs, chromium oxide is a chromium state 3 salt which is 1% the toxicity of chromium salts in oxidation state 6. You'd have to ingest 100-300 grams of the stuff at once to poison yourself. Ferrocynaide is safe in products like cosmetics but can be toxic when ingested over a long period of time (water supply). Doses of ten grams per day have been well-tolerated according to Micromedex, and the substance is used as a post-radiotherapy and radiation contamination treatment. For the here-and-there chocolatiering I'll be doing, I am not too concerned, but for real production this might need a little CYA disclaimer on ones that use the indicated dusts, or avoid those particular colors altogether.
Hope this helps any of you that are also diving into the chocolate world!
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No one laughed at my joke. I won't quit my day job...
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Just to add to the sources for acetate, BakeDeco.com has acetate sheets in quantites of 50 and 100 for around $25 and $50 respectively. I'll second Wendy's comments about the powdered color. I haven't been able to get them to dissolve completely in cocoa butter, although this isn't a really visible problem once it has solidified. The colors don't look as vivid as the premixed colored cocoa butter products either, and seem to only function relatively well on white chocolate. This is only my experience, and I've only had a few weeks working with the stuff, so take it for what it's worth. :)
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Hi guys! I have myself a Revolation 1 temperer, a bunch of polycarbonate molds, and 66 lbs of chocolate now, so I am ready for action. I've only used it a few times, but the Revolation seems to be a little flaky. If I melt some chocolate with it, and later restart it with the same melted chocolate still there, the machine just spins for a minute, beeps, and shuts itself off, never going through the tempering cycle, despite the fact that the instructions say to just restart the process if the chocolate thickens. Out of four batches of chocolate(E. Guittard dark: Premiere Etoile), one tempered properly. It's been three days and there's no bloom, but the snap isn't as nice as it could be. I am wondering if this is because I need the Rev 2 so I can tinker with the temperature a bit or if the convenience trade-off for a tempering machine is a less snappy temper no matter what machine is used. Any thoughts or specific information regarding this particular chocolate/machine combination?
Also, I've been trying some of the techniques suggested for extra glossy finish, and I have had mixed results. The cotton balls do seem to help, but I haven't quite gotten the cocoa butter thing down quite right. I've tried using brushes, my finger, etc. to get the cocoa butter in there, and I can't seem to get a thin enough layer. I especially have trouble with the molds that have patterns like swirls in the bottom. The cocoa butter, no matter how little I have on my finger, always pools there. Is there a good way to get the right amount of the stuff spread evenly in the molds, or should I have gotten just the plain domes?
My final question relates to the cocoa butter as well. I can't seem to do ANYTHING with the stuff that doesn't make my chocolates look like hell. When I color it, it is too transparent no matter how much powdered dye I use. It's not so bad when I use it on white chocolate, but anything else doesn't look so hot. When I mixed it with some luster dust, the stuff is too opaque and looks like frozen spit. Are there different grades or types of cocoa butter? Or do I just not have the right technique down for using it? Thanks so much for suggestions once again, guys. :)
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I'd give you my recipe, but someone took it!
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My supplier (Assouline & Ting) has ran out of Champagne extract, and doesn't expect to have any in for months. This is inconvenient right before Christmas and New Year's, so I need to start working with another supplier or two. The product I need in particular is a Champagne extract from Liquor La Francaise. A little goes a long way, and at 32 oz for around $15, it works extremely well for the price. I haven't found it sold anywhere else in the U.S. If you have suggestions for vendors that sell this or similar products, let me know. Thanks!
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Thanks for the info, Wendy. I think part of my problem in the past (much to my chagrin) was that I was trying to mold chocolate withmy enormous collection of flexipan molds. They looked slick inside, so I thought they'd be fine. Apparently not! Last week I ordered a bunch of polycarbonate molds from Kerekes (Bakedeco.com), and I bet that will help a lot. They're transparent, so I hope they're the same kind that norman and you use.
The part about agitation is also a surprise. I've been told to keep the stirring to a minimum when working with chocolate because too much stirring causes it to permanently thicken. There must be a happy medium. Can you recommend a vendor for the PCB cocoa butters, preferably one that will sell in small quantities?
Thanks,
Josh
Norman buys his molds either from Chocolate World or Chocolate Chocolate companies. He likes the type that have magnetic closures. If you noticed, there are clear molds and opaque professional molds. After much experimenting he insists that the clear molds do provide as better shine on your chocolates, even though no one can figure out why that is.He thinks most people under heat and under agitate their chocolate while tempering. "Don't be scared and your MUST move around your chocolate to develop the good crystal."
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Hi DuckDuck! :) You can get an airbrush with compressor for about $100 on Ebay. I am thinking of getting one myself for my chocolate projects. Did you make one of those "scary women" pieces that we had on the tables at the banquet?
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Thanks, everyone. I'm going to try a couple of these recipes tonight. Just for kicks, I made Bo Friberg's caramelized apple pie last night. It was basically pan-caramelized apples (Grannies, cinnamon, sugar, orange liquer, lots of butter) with heavy cream added at the end, put into a pate brisee shell. It's very tasty. Let me know how the mile-high pie turns out, Patrick.
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And the luster he gets is from spraying the chocolate molds with colored cocoa butter using an airbrush, and then dusting with gold or silver powder. The thin layer of cocoa butter is actually quite transparent, so the metalic dust makes the colors really pop out.
Thanks, Neil. I thought that's what might be involved. I have tried that cocoa butter trick before, but I do not have an airbrush so I tried to "paint" the cocoa butter on the molds. The result looked like absolute hell, so the layer must have been too thick. I must be doing something wrong when I try using cocoa butter with colors. The finish comes out dull and the colors are often murky. I am under the impression that cocoa butter just needs to be melted, in no specific way, as long as it doesn't get too hot. Is there some voodoo magic I can work to make my cocoa butter have mojo?
Thanks,
Josh
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Norman Love does some exquisitely beautiful chocolates that are glossier than a new Ferarri. Mine have the finish of a 1995 Mustang that hasn't been waxed- Not bad, but nothing like Norman's. A lot like a plain old Godiva, in fact. How can I achieve that beautiful luster? On a separate note, what dyes do you recommend using in cocoa butter? The stuff I have (powdered, from Chocovision) doesn't dissolve well in cocoa butter, the colors are drab, and the results are less than wonderful. Thanks for the suggestions, guys and gals.
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I had a wonderful piece of apple pie at a restaurant last week that had caramel inside with the apples. The sweetness of the caramel was perfectly balanced with the tart apples, and I'd really like to learn to make this. I thought about just making caramel and drizzling it over the apples before putting the crust on, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the caramel would be dissolved. Naturally the flavor would still be there, but one of the parts I liked most about this pie is that the caramel was distinguishable as a discrete ingedient, still whole rather than just a flavor. Does anyone here have a recipe for this or a suggestion for what type of caramel to make that will "stay together" during baking? Thanks in advance!
Josh
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Made a mistake, guys. Mary's handle is 2010- not 1020. Here's the list of us in the photo:
FWED (Fred), DuckDuck (Pam), Skwerl (Josh), Christina, BakerKel(Kelly), and 1020 (Mary)
By the way, this group was a lot of fun, and we were the last "civilian" table to leave at the Gala. Feel safe in knowing that eGullet was represented by the rowdy table. :)
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Can you put names with the faces for the 'gullet party pic?
Would love to put it together.
Also, whu are all these teams pissed?
More suspect stuff from the Schneider crowd?
Not an indictment!
Just curious...
From left to right:
FWED, DuckDuck, Skwerl, Christina (real name), Kelly (real name), and 1020
I forgot a couple of the eG handles!
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Well jeez, the French are pissed. What a shocker.
Guys, I tasted virtually everything but the plated desserts, not knowing what was what at the time, but after reviewing photographs I have been able to piece together the origins of some of the things I tasted. Everything from the U.S. team that I now recognize was excellent. Nothing aside from the salty entremet that FWED mentioned stood out as being truly *obviously* inferior to the U.S. team's work, but I am certainly no expert. I didn't feel that any of the teams went out of their way to create any "new" flavor combinations, though. It was all pretty safe stuff- coffee, raspberry, hazelnut, chocolate. I found the petit gateaux from the two protesting teams were all too sweet, but this was after eating 30+ bonbons for breakfast. In normal situations, they might have been just fine. Michael Schneider seems like a decent guy and I have absolutely no doubt that he, Norman Love, and the rest of the Carymax folks did everything they could to ensure that the judging was fair and unbiased. For each judging, the highest score and the lowest score are each discarded. The judges also were unaware of the order in which the desserts were brought to them, and were located in a different room altogether. The judges were also divided into two "juries," of which each tasted different items. The juries' memberes were seated 1-2-1-2-1-2... down the table so that judges tasting the same item could not talk to one another. At the awards ceremony, Schneider came right out and said that the top teams were very close in all but one category- degustation. The United States' team held a comfortable margin above the others in that category. I don't know all the details of exactly why the French and Belgium teams were so irritated, but I do know that Michael Schneider told at least one of the teams that they were behaving like boys and it was time to grow up. I'm sure they didn't enjoy hearing that, but after experiencing the chefs' arrogance first-hand, I doubt Mr. Schneider said anything that was not deserved. It sounds like egos were bruised and two teams' hubris have gotten them into trouble. At this point I am wondering if any of the instructors from the forum and some of the judges from France and Belgium might boycott the event either next year or the following year's world competition. Certainly the show must go on, but I'm curious. If the aforementioned teams do not want to compete, that will leave spaces open for two other countries. I would be interested in replacing them with teams from South America, since that was the only continent not represented this year, Antarctica excluded. My two cents...
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Hi guys! Just got home and I have to get up early to go out of town again, but I wanted to post a few pics from the competition really quickly before I go to bed. The quality is poor since I had to use a flash (left my tripod at home) and I was trying to sneak snapshots in while trying to beat people off the showpieces. I have recompressed them so they're a manageable download at the cost of detail. Sorry I don't have time to "captionize" these, but at least they're something to look at! I wish I had gotten decent photos of the US and Japanese sugar showpieces...
The Netherlands' chocolate showpiece
Australia's chocolate showpiece
Poor photo of Japan's sugar showpiece
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What a sickening thought. I hope the result of this will at least go in the direction of pastry chefs opening pastry kitchens to service a small number of local restaurants, perhaps specializing in different desserts for each. This might have a lot of positives involved like having independence and a complete pastry kitchen. I hope chefs start to go this route if they can't find a home in a good restaurant that will respect them. I could chew on that more easily than the idea of having Wal-Mart Pastry making desserts for 98% of the country's restaurants.
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Well, no, I haven't had any of my showpieces destroyed because I haven't gotten to make any yet. I'm afraid showpieces just aren't in my repertoire yet since everything I know is self-taught and I haven't had time to practice sugar techniques beyond basic pulled decorations. Maybe I was just raised to not touch things or tear stuff up, or perhaps I have an intrinsic sense for what not to touch. It just blows my mind that people will tear the hell out of a showpiece but not a croquembouche. I could understand them not touching either, but a showpiece and not the croquembouche?
I had heard that the Beaver Creek ordeal was a real mess, but I wasn't there since that was before I really got into pastry. I hope you found the parents of those kids and bent kid and parent alike over your knee and gave them all a spanking.
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Wendy, this issue did have a "Batter Up" column talking about the changes. Like you, I found the column on prepared desserts a bit surprising. I realize that costs are naturally important to restaurants, but are prepared desserts something that we want to further promote in an industry trade magazine? I understand taking shortcuts using premade gianduja and fruit purees, but if a pastry chef is buying premade desserts, who needs the pastry chef? I could see a chef start to purchase a premade dessert here and there, and eventually management would decide to cut out the pastry chef and pass the savings on to themselves.
What about the consumer's perception of a restaurant after he recognizes that Le Foux Nain, Cafe Avant Lard, and Hooters all have the exact same tart (I don't mean the waitress)? I can't speak for everyone, but I would much rather have a hand-crafted dessert instead of some thawed factory-molded thing and I would gladly pay more for a "real" dessert.
Dessert is something very special, and I hate to hear of chefs cutting costs by using prepared desserts. IMO, any pastry chef purchasing prepared desserts is damning the next generation of chefs. I fear seeing a trend in moving toward manufactured desserts. I don't want my dessert from a Super Mega Wal-Mart of the pastry world. I hope Pastry Art & Design will drop their column on prepared desserts and replace it with one discussing how to raise people's appreciation for fine pastry.
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I am really shocked that people started to eat you guys' showpieces! Is this really a common thing that happens? I can imagine certain groups (little kids, senile country folk, Joe Dirt) doing that, but I can't conceive of many grown adults, at least partially educated, that would have the audacity to break a piece of chocolate off a showpiece and put it on their plate. Of course I suppose it would only take one dufus to confidently tell a whole group of dufuses "that's what it's for" and they'd all be nibbling on Santa's spun sugar beard and Mrs. Claus' white chocolate panties. Maybe a pastillage sign saying, "Please don't eat me," would prevent destruction...
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I tried them too, and they were great, but not quite the butter cookie recipe I was looking for. I think my favorites this year are coconut thumprints with apricot jam. I've made more than one meal of cookies this week.
Josh
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Jean Philippe Maury Patisserie
in Southwest & Western States: Cooking & Baking
Posted
I thought I'd chime in since I just got back from Vegas. I made sure I took a few trips to JP's while I was there, and everything was delicious. The Exotic was by far my favorite, with the "Intense" being second, followed by the charlotte and finally the carrot cake. The Exotic's flavors were diverse and went together extremely well. The spices in the center added an especially pleasant dimension and complexity. The cremeux sphere on top was FUN to eat (you've GOT to try this!) and absolutely delicious to boot. I'm guessing the frozen sphere is rolled or molded in a gelatin solution to form the skin. Every bite of the Exotic was intriguing.
As far as the store goes, the help was very professional and polite. On my last visit there, I noticed that the guy who waited on me had "Chicago" written below his name. Are the counter staff also pastry chefs, Neil? The chocolate fountain is an impressive piece of artwork, but the color of one of the chocolates, which looked like a sickly blend of white and milk, was a real turn-off. Chocolate just doesn't come in that color and it looked like latex paint, or chocolate milk at best.
The shop's floor was GORGEOUS. You can't see it in the photo, but in person it looks like thick, textured glass tiles overlaid onto a copper base. TOO COOL! I got a kick out of the disposable plastic dinnerware there. Until you pick it up, it actually looks like real silverware. :) I regret that I didn't have more time to try the rest of the desserts, and I completely missed the gelato altogether. The crepes looked like they were a big hit, but again, I didn't get to try those either. When I ordered the Exotic dessert, I was asked if I was referring to the crepe or the dessert, so apparently the same flavors are used in a crepe of the same name.
Every time I went, there was a decent crowd in the store, and a diverse one at that. I think it's wonderful that putting this caliber of pastry in such a high-traffic touristy place will help to bring a lot of awareness to a portion of public that might otherwise never experience pastry in this way. I just wish there had been one in the MGM Grand, as well... :) Two enthusiastic spatulas up!