schneich

we plated about 10 different desserts -+300 plates. world chefs day is a show with about 70 exhibitors and about 14.000 chefs attending from all over europe. in addition to that there was the "bocuse d'or" competiton going on. all in all it was quite decent, but besides a few german ***star chefs hanging out nothing really spectacular... cheers t.

me making mini desserts at "world chefs day" in cologne last weekend... me saucing passion coulis (xanthan based) cremeux jivara lactee, qumquat confit, chocolate macaron, chocolate sauce, coulis passion, chocolate soil, praline malto balls unmolding yoghurt microwave sponge plating sponge saucing another one

did you stack the molds or turn them upside down (cavities down) if so, you probably untempered the chocolate by trapping the heat from the exothermic crystallization. when you do molds you want to put em in the fridge right away putting them on the side.. cheers t.

@sebastian i am certainly not as science savy as you. but the lower aW reading with precrystallized ganaches compared to uncrystallized ganache is documented by the labs at callebaut AND valrhona ;-) cheers t.

the aW device we have is a rotronic handheld . its about 1.500 euros. moussewise although i havent tried it i could imagine that it simply sets your mousse a bit faster and makes it a bit more stable... cheers t.

chefpeon, really no offense intended ;-) but as with everything new and for the most "better" standards evolve. the same goes for working with chocolate.my posting was solely about a scientific approach, in clearer words: if you temper the cocoa butter in your ganache you will get a much more homogenous structure which leads to a better binding of free water in your product. a tempered ganache can therefore be stored longer whitout loosing its good texture. you certainly can precrystallize chocolate which isnt pure. as long as you have a cocoa butter portion it can be precrystallized from which the texture will greatly benefit. i am not saying that you do anything wrong, if your recipes work for you, fine! iam just saying that its not "state of the art" anymore.. cheers t.

sorry chefpeon but if you are a real pro you always want to temper your couverture when making ganache. EVERY pro in france i know of does it, and its no big deal cause if you are a pro you always have tempered choc in continous tempering machine anyway. besides a much faster crystallization, your ganache shows much less fat migration problems (makes your chocolates look really bad) AND improves shelf life by showing a lower aW reading by at least 0.05 points (i had it up to 0.10 lower) i did side by sides when i got my aW measuring device :-) cheers t.

hi, i think we can fix your problems pretty fast: first you NEVER let your mold sit filled with chocolate, especially not for 2 minutes, that is just plain wrong! if you have problems with release you have to mold the shell TWICE hence you gat a much better retraction, that is especially helpful with some molds who are notoriuos for sticking or suction RIGHT after scraping you put the mold in the fridge NOT putting the cavities down, by doing so you are in danger of capturing the heat thats developed by the crystallizing chocolate in an exothermic reaction inside the cavities hence untempering your chocolate :-( always put your molds on the side in the fridge to ensure good cooling... cheers t.

imet chef leroux on the prosweets fair in cologne, very decent and humble guy :-) one of the things i never heard is that he polishes chocolate with a damp paper towel, now i do it all the time it works just great... cheers t.

apropo blue cakes, this is a viagra cake we did ;-) cheers t.

sorry sebastian but cooling the mold is just plain wrong, because your NEVER EVER cool your mold. the opposite is right you have to slightly warm your mold to match the temp of the chocolate!! molding in layers ?? i have never heard of that technique either... ;-) t.

he had me remove a perfect shiny ganache from a frame, letting it crystallize in the fridge and when it already started to firm up at the edge of the bowl carefully mix it and again put it in a frame, it was cutable an hour later. if i didnt do it, it would have easily taken 24h to crystallize... usually one of the big rules is that thou shall never mix a ganache once its below 35c or it will split on you. on the other hand there are recipes that you can even whip up. WHAT ingredient or formula makes a ganache tolerate whipping without splitting... cheers t.

the exothermic reaction untempered your chocolate, put it in the frigde right away and pretty cold (about 4c) put the molds on a precooled sheet and you should be fine.... cheers t.

i attended a course in wieze, and i have to say that i learned a lot. our course was about "new recipes and techniques" but jean pierre told us that he likes to do the "beginners course" a lot more since he has a much more time to explain the theoretical side and go much deeper into detail. concerning the use of tempered chocolate i was under the impression that he thinks its most important to successfully precrystallize the ganache not by necessarily using tempered ganache, but to take the ganache to a point where it begins to crystallize before putting it into a frame. when i did it his way i was able to cut a ganache (NOT a butter ganache) that was only 1 1/2 hours old... i have made zillions of photos of the session but never really made it to u/l them here yet :-( cheers t. p.s. ...and YES if you have the chance seeing the old man go for it, he well passed his 60st birthday!

i meai really guys we arent we put things togehter and sell chocolate in canada :-) a frined of mine sells container space its really not that expansive... you would pay half if you FLY it into canada :-) cheers t.

its without tax since we dont have to pay any tax (EU wide) the tropilia has a lot more depth to it than the simple callebaut dark chocolate wich is quite one dimensional, even compared to the satongo, already quite a good chocolate its still better balanced...

puhhh... looks like a hard life :-/ here in germany i make one phonecall to valrhona, and 6 days later the schtuff arrives fresh from the rhone valley :-) what couvertures are you talking about, and what the price per kilo ?? here we pay around: € 10,- for felchlin maracaibo clasificado 65% € 10,- for felchlin maracaibo creole 49% € 15,- for amedei fondente extra 70% € 8,- for chocovic ocumare criollo 71% (--- our workhorse, great stuff!! € 6,- for belcolade caramel, simple 55% and single origin costa rica 38% € 6,- for valrhona tropilia 70% (--- our workhorse in the pastry shop!! € 10,- for valrhona equatorial € 14,- for coeur de guanaja 80% (---- we use it for SOME chocolate mousses cheers t.

at the mo were looking into a knobel omega with cooling loop and a mould pre warmer, closed circuit... this thing together with three 60 kg per hour tempering machines and a stephan vacuum mixer will be around 300 k € :-/ cheers t.

it fills a mould with the shell and the filling at the same time...

thanks everyone... :-)

we are in the market for a knobel one-shot mouding line. as far as i know we have to adapt our recipes to match the covering chocolates density, and to create a short texture. does anyone have experience in working with such a machine ?? cheers from cologne torsten s.

because the concept of the excel file was made by ramon morato in his big green book we should collect all the questions concerning his theory and write him a mail. i asked myself the same things that lior is talking about: influence of ph & alcohol levels on shelf life, how to create a much softer texture for moulded chocolates while still beeing inside the "safe zone". for moulded chocolates we use the "beer recipe" from wybauws new book as a base recipe at the moment, if i put it in the excel sheet it will come out not right, but wybauws aw reading says its allright... cheers t.

stephane leroux describes another technique in his new book you simply use a moist paper towel and polish the chocolate in small circles... cheers torsten

2 euros per piece (catering)

its a piece of an organic rose petal... cheers t.