pastrygirl

I really want to try that, thanks for doing the R&D work!

It's not normal, and like Shelby, it would never occur to me to ask to sample the sauce a meat was cooked in, etc. I might remember to ask a server if something is sweet or not, but needing a sample? Not yet!

Sophie, both Valrhona and Callebaut have good basic information on their websites. I'm sure you can search and get more in-depth. http://www.valrhona-chocolate.com/shop/About-Chocolate.php http://www.barry-callebaut.com/3

jmacnaughton, I agree, though it is fun to experiment with once or twice. Heck, I find myself wondering why most of the small bean to bar producers even bother, very few of them please me. Personally, I highly doubt that I'm going to make anything approaching what any of the producers who've been doing it for 100 years and conching for days are making so I stick with Valrhona and Felchlin. But I also support playing with it in order to understand why Valrhona makes it so much better than we will at home As for sugar, I believe fondant sugar is equally as fine as icing sugar but without starch.

If you want to try making chocolate for real, start with cocoa nibs or beans. I'm not sure what you mean about 'so many additional ingredients', most good chocolate is made from only cacao and sugar, with a little vanilla and lecithin, though some makers don't even use those. Agave nectar, being liquid, would give you more of a thick ganache (or even modeling chocolate, which mixes chocolate and corn syrup to make a malleable chocolate) than a true chocolate bar. Solid chocolate made from the bean or nibs has no water. If you're trying to make chocolate by mixing cocoa powder and cocoa butter, try powdered/icing sugar to sweeten - the particles are fine enough that you won't get grittiness, and you're not adding liquid.

Sifting will change the weight of a given volume because it adds air. Kim, I don't know what to tell you. Split the difference and use 4 oz per cup? If it's for an icing, you can start at the low end and add more to your desired taste/texture, but not everything is so forgiving.

I make my truffles with slabbed ganache cut on a guitar. For the chocolate festival a few weeks ago, I made a batch of each flavor and cut it into quarters for samples. Molded bonbons get cut into 6 or 8 and are the rejects of the batch. You don't have to give full pieces a la See's, and you can make people ask for samples and dole them out individually instead of leaving a bowlful. I've also seen people use a dab of ganache piped into a candy cup or scooped with a stir stick. You also don't have to give samples of every item.

Honestly I don't remember, it was back in March. I'm pretty sure I used my usual genoise recipe, with blood instead of eggs by weight. I made a birthday cake for the sous chef and served it at staff meal

Me too.

When I heard about blood's foaming capabilities a few months ago, I had to make blood genoise. Beautiful color while whipping, but it baked up brown. You couldn't really taste the blood with all the sugar in the cake and chocolate glaze on top, but it was fun to try.

Chocomom, what would you estimate the attendance is at this craft show? I think that's an important factor. OTOH, there is a limit to the number of people you can talk or sell to per hour, so at an event where there are 5000 people, you will still probably only talk to 500 of them. I've only done a few events so far, but I agree they are a crapshoot, and what you sample tends to sell. Also consider shelf life and whether people will be buying things and trying to save them until Christmas. People need a little education about preservative-free confections.

Almost always chocolate cake, with either chocolate, orange, or raspberry filling. My siblings still give me a hard time about the year I requested raspberry pie and denied them their share of chocolate birthday cake.

You mean keep it warm for a full extra day? Wouldn't you be better off cooking it as originally planned then chilling until needed?

Try Rick Tramonto's book, Amuse Bouche.

You can make a large batch of soft ganache and warm small amounts when you need to fill shells, or make firmer ganache that sets up quickly. Butter ganache sets up very quickly, you could fill and cap in an hour. Greweling's book has a section on butter ganache, you mix tempered chocolate into butter, add liquor or flavor, and pipe or slab. Gfron1is right, adding a few non-molded items will make it easier on you. Nut clusters, mendiants, and dipped candied peel or dried fruit are easy ways to add variety.

If you're talking about baking at home, by all means play with sugar ratios. A lot of recipes have room to cut the sugar without compromising texture - your pie is a good example. Fat is no longer the enemy, but you still probably want to work on portion control and stick to "healthy' fats (I don't think butter has anyone's approval to be eaten with abandon, unfortunately). If you're talking about putting together a restaurant dessert menu, you want a range. You will have customers looking for that over the top indulgence that they've been waiting all week to splurge on. Rich chocolate desserts are always going to sell, and people do still appreciate a small portion of something rich. At the end of a nice meal with wine you don't often want a huge dessert, even if it is lighter. But you also should offer something light and something on the less sweet side, and make sure you have at least one gluten free option and ideally a vegan option. A sorbet dressed up with multiple garnishes and plated prettily can still seem fancy for people on restricted diets.

Thought I'd update on the bars. I made all three of my bars with inclusions today - Dulcey with almonds, 72% with candied orange, and layers of both of those chocolates with cocoa nibs. For the almond and orange bars, i did not let the first layer set, instead filled, dumped, added bits, filled and leveled. the inclusions seemed to stay in the middle well enough, and i only lost one bar in unmolding out of 96 total. With the two layer bar, I did let the white layer set first, as I had to re-temper the dark. They held together fine for wrapping, but I suspect the layers will still try to separate on any that I cut into samples at an event this weekend. Though as long as they get to the buyer in one piece I don't care what the samples look like. Back at Easter I was making some pretty deep bunnies with whole hazelnut or rice krispies inclusions. Both of those are hollow and tend to float, so I somehow assumed that all inclusions needed to be glued down. Not letting the first layer set went a lot faster and worked better, so I'll be doing it that way from now on!

The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum is an excellent reference on how and why cakes work, I'm sure most bakers here would recommend it.

Hi Brooks. Do you intend to bake the full mammoth 12" carrot cake, or scale it down? Carrot cake should be very moist, and your suspicion is correct, the tooth pick may not come out pristinely clean. I also touch the top of the cake with my finger tips, if it springs back and doesn't sound wet - should not make a sound, that is, underbaked cakes have a squishy, wringing out a wet sponge sound - it's probably ready. Cakes will also begin to pull away from the sides of the pans when they are done. I think batter depth has a more significant effect on baking time than pan diameter. A carrot cake layer 2" deep in a 9" pan is usually going to take at least 30 minutes. Also depends on your oven, if you have convection... but start checking around 25 minutes.

I think if they are above 40 for all six hours it could be risky, technically, with rice being a nice growing medium. On a practical level, I doubt anything too nasty would grow in 6 hours, or that wouldn't be neutralized by thorough re-heating. I'd find some ice packs that could be put between the pans, then wrap them together and try to keep them in a cool part of the car.

I don't recall which model I have, but I primarily use it for cleaning the tables after I work with chocolate. A pass with the torch in one hand to melt the hardened bits followed by a wiping towel in the other hand, and done!

Are you using your isi to carbonate with CO2, or do you mean N2O for whipping? I have not noticed a difference in N2O brands, can't speak to CO2.

Who the hell buys sprouting potatoes? You're right to be annoyed.

That's a beautiful label. Way to go eliminating the middleman.

I love all things coconut. I really want to try that!