cmflick

Wow! Spectacular! Did you pipe the stripes in?

Very nice. I really like the decoration.

Beryl's will sell them to you by the each with a five sheet minimum. Also Sugarcraft will sell you five assorted sheets, their choice.

I have a Sper infrared thermometer that I got from JB Prince and have been very pleased with it.

Do you know of a source of information as to the safety of the propellants in canned air relative to food? I have done extensive searches and the only hazard that I can find associated with either of the propellants in canned air is inhalation and as a fire hazard. Everything that I have seen says that contact with food is generally recognized as safe. On the other hand, I have heard other people say that the propellant in canned air isn't considered food safe. It's probably not good for the operator to use it a lot, but I can't find any negative reports on contact with food. I'm confused (and rambling). Probably my science background getting the better of me. I'm looking for a compressor anyway, just to get away from the annoyances of using canned air and it gets expensive after a while. ← Ok, here you go. Only "partial" info but we've posted about this before. Special Thanks to Lior, who actually contacted Badger for info. Short answer: the propellant cans are not food safe. Airbrush for Chocolate - post about Badger propellant food safety ← I looked at the previous posts relating to canned air and emailed Badger to see what they have to say. I just want to know what in the propellant is not "food safe". Like I said before, the science background is catching up with me and I get obsessive about these things. From what I can find out, the tests have probably not been done (or published) to evaluate our use of the propellants, so it's probably best not to use them. Inhalation is definitely a bad idea, though and enough reason to switch to a compressor.

Do you know of a source of information as to the safety of the propellants in canned air relative to food? I have done extensive searches and the only hazard that I can find associated with either of the propellants in canned air is inhalation and as a fire hazard. Everything that I have seen says that contact with food is generally recognized as safe. On the other hand, I have heard other people say that the propellant in canned air isn't considered food safe. It's probably not good for the operator to use it a lot, but I can't find any negative reports on contact with food. I'm confused (and rambling). Probably my science background getting the better of me. I'm looking for a compressor anyway, just to get away from the annoyances of using canned air and it gets expensive after a while.

Pre-mixed. I don't recall the brand (I'm at work). It's not from Chef Rubber. It's canned air. I'm using the Badger 250 airbrush which seemed to be used successfully by a lot of people earlier in this thread. ← I've been using a Badger 250 airbrush as well with canned air. I've found that I have to warm the canned air can to keep the cocoa butter from clogging up the airbrush. The air from the can gets very cold very quickly after you start spraying. I place the can in a pan of water at about 115F while I'm using it. That seems to really help. The can has a warning not to go above 120F, though. I also dry the can off really well when I'm done so that it doesn't start rusting around the bottom.

Are you using a compressor or canned air? If using canned air, it gets very cold and can cause clogging problems.

Ouch! I'd try retempering some and see what it's like. I think that you would have to go higher temperatures than what you cited to ruin the chocolate, at least for dark chocolate. But if it's been at that high of a temperature for a long time it may be a bigger problem. I found this description of rescuing over heated chocolate on the web. It might give you some ideas. Good luck!

I haven't heard about running vegetable oil through the airbrush. When I'm done spraying, I run lots of very hot water through the airbrush, soak it in hot water and then run lots more hot water through it, using the hottest water that I can get out of the tap. I also try to get as much cocoa butter out of the siphon tube as I can. I use a thin wire to scrape around in the tube while it's submerged in hot water. When done scrubbing, I run lots of air through the airbrush to try to get it as dry as possible.

Did you check the adjustment of the paint tip on the airbrush? I've had times when nothing was coming out, but if I played with the height of the paint tip I could get it flowing.

I would also recommend warming your airbrush.

Well, I've learned a lesson about making pate de fruit. In my first attempts at cooking pate de fruit using the Boiron apple juice recipes I relied on two thermometers to tell me when I hit the goal of 107C. Both batches were much, much too soft. I finally broke down and bought a refractometer and tried a Boiron apple juice recipe again. I had to cook to 110C in order to get 75 brix! This time the consistency of the pate de fruit seems to be excellent. I had tested both thermometers at the boiling point of water and they appeared to be pretty accurate (one reads off by a degree and the other is dead on). So, I guess that I'm a convert that you need a refractometer to make pate de fruit.

I'm back working on the new apple juice Boiron recipes yet again. I noticed that the Boiron pate de fruit recipe calls for "glucose". Other recipes on the Boiron website call for either "atomized glucose" (e.g., sorbets) or "glucose syrup" (e.g., fruit ganaches). I have been using glucose syrup in making pate de fruit, but am wondering about the ambiguity in the recipe just calling for glucose when other Boiron recipes specify either atomized glucose or glucose syrup. Is glucose syrup the right thing to be using? This will be round 3 with the apple juice recipes. I got a refractometer from ebay (one of those inexpensive ones from Hong Kong), so this time I'll be checking both temperature and brix.

Never with pure fruit juice. I've used a neutral puree as the base, then wine or other non viscous liquids in the second stage. 112ºC for first stage 107º C and 75 Brix for second stage. ← Any idea as to what the purpose of the two stage cooking is?

Never with pure fruit juice. I've used a neutral puree as the base, then wine or other non viscous liquids in the second stage. 112ºC for first stage 107º C and 75 Brix for second stage. ← Do you have a recipe for making wine or other "non-viscous" liquid pate de fruit, i.e. the two stage process? There used to be one on the Boiron site, but it doesn't seem to be there anymore since they posted the apple juice recipes.

Thanks for the interesting information. Do you have any photos of your experiment?

Ideally I wipe while wet - with paper towels laid flat, I just place the mold face down and push it across the surface. Kerry, thanks for the tip on how to clean off the overspray. I tried it this morning with ordinary kitchen paper towels and it worked like a charm. It makes clean up later a whole lot easier.

When I was first molding, I painted the chocolate into the molds, usually 3 coats. That's the way that I was taught in the one and only course that I took. This works very well and you don't have to worry about air bubbles. It's also much neater than filling and dumping, too. But, it's a gigantic pain and takes a long time. I abandoned that technique a while ago in favor of filling and dumping. I do a one shell molding. My shells are thin, but just thin enough. I don't have a problem with them cracking or anything. I did find that if I tapped for too long while draining the chocolate out that my shells were too thin. I try not to tap for more than 10-15 seconds. I suspect that the chocolate that you use will influence how thin your shell is, because of differences in fluidity between brands of chocolate. You can also adjust the temperature of your chocolate to adjust the fluidity. I don't let my chocolate sit for a minute or so in the mold before dumping. I bounce my molds around on the counter for about 30 seconds after I fill them with chocolate to get rid of air bubbles and then I dump the chocolate. I just kept practicing and experimenting when learning how to mold shells until I found something that worked for me. Come to think of it, I'm still experimenting. I'm always looking for shortcuts or easier ways to do things!

I just about always fill the shells before they can be released from the mold. By the time the filling crystallizes and they are backed off and that crystallizes, I get good release. I only seem to have release problems if the chocolate wasn't tempered well in the beginning or if I get hot spots when I try to warm up a mold before making the shell (my molds are stored at about 55F) or I add a filling that is too hot to the shell. I've learned all of these the hard way.

Sure. I have a yogurt maker - cheap, cheap one that I picked up at a thrift store. I put my cocoa butters in there the night before, cover with a couple of kitchen towels to keep the heat in. I seem to recall when I checked the temperature that they were around 45 degrees. I just pour a little into the gravity cup and spray when I'm ready. By the time things get organized the temperature has dropped. If it blocks up, I hit it with the heat gun until it sprays again. If necessary I take the top off the gravity cup and use the heat gun inside the cup. I'm putting very little coloured cocoa butter in at a time. If possible I wipe the overspray off the mold as I go along. I just keep the molds at room temperature, no trips into the fridge. Around here room temperature is about 22º C.(about 72º F) When I get around to it (usually not the same day as I spray), I temper some chocolate - trying to keep it was warm as possible then pour the molds. I wait until the shine starts to go off, indicating they are crystallizing, then put them in the fridge for 10 minutes or so, until the chocolate is fully hardened. I fill, back off, wait for crystallization, then back in the fridge for another 10 minutes or so. Once backed off, I make sure the backs are properly scraped - I've found that failure to unmold often relates to poorly scraped molds. I look at the molds at this point to see if the chocolates have separated from the mold. If not, they may get 2 to 3 minutes in the freezer. I know there has been some discussion about leaving the chocolates in the molds overnight before unmolding as it seems to give better shine. I'm pretty sure it was Desiderio who noted this - and I've found it to be true. All the chocolates I've done recently have been taken out of the molds as soon as they are separated however. I know I added 30% cocoa butter to the dark chocolate in the first spatter experiments. But I used it to spray a frozen item only (and it was at about 35º C or so when I did that - it should have been at about 50º C). I didn't actually try to spray that chocolate. In my latest experiments I'm not sure how much cocoa butter I added, and it was pretty cool by the time I got around to spraying it - I actually had to use the heat gun to melt it in the container (since I didn't plug in the yogurt maker when I took it downstairs) - so I'm not sure what the temperature was when I sprayed my frogs and mice - but they came out nice and shiny. ← Thanks for the detailed info, Kerry! But, of course I have a question now (and some comments). Are you backing off the molds the same day that you fill them, i.e. how long are you allowing for the filling to crystallize? I seem to get "leakage" from the chocolates unless I leave the filling overnight to crystallize before backing off. I completely agree that failure to scrape well after backing off is a major cause of failure to unmold. I always scrape as I'm backing off and then again when I get them out of the refrigerator. If I have chocolates that don't release from a mold, I usually go back and scrape around them some more until I can get them to release. I suspect that the relationship between leaving the chocolates in the molds after taking them out of the refrigerator and shine may be related (at least in part) to humidity. I've found that when the house is really dry (like now in the winter), I can unmold the chocolates pretty soon after they come out of the refrigerator and have great shine. When the humidity in the house is higher and I do the same thing, the chocolates are noticeably duller. Of course, either way they taste the same...

That is sad. I went on the Scharffen Berger tour a couple of years ago and it was really interesting. That's the only tour that I've found that actually took you through the factory from beans to bars.

Very nice. They look like marble! I noticed that you've done a lot of "splatter" with your new spraygun. Can you do fine spraying as well?

Anyone have any tips on the best way to store nougat? I made a batch of Montelimar nougat using Greweling's recipe yesterday and it's the perfect texture. I'm only trying to store it as long as it takes to eat it, usually only a week or two, and I'd really like to maintain the texture that it has now! Help please!

The main difference I find between the Badger and the Fuji is the amount of aerosolized cocoa butter in the air when I'm done. With the Badger I am covered with a fine mist in just a few minutes. Before the Fuji I dreaded airbrushing. ← Ditto the aerosoling with a Badger. What I really notice is that my glasses get a film of cocoa butter on them pretty quickly when I use my Badger!