pastrygirl

Alex, our friendly West Coast Valrhona rep stopped by with another wholesale rep. I've been buying Felchlin through Peterson, who has a warehouse here, but Albert Uster had taken on Felchlin last year. I'm not sure if it was planned to have AUI be sole US supplier of Felchlin or if they are doing something else to push the competition out of the game, but when I placed my order today I found out Peterson was phasing out Felchlin and would be carrying more Valrhona instead. So they were going around to all the Felchlin customers with suggestions on which Valrhona products would be the closest in flavor. I have an account with AUI so I can still buy what I need, but I have been considering finding a less expensive milk chocolate than Maracaibo Creole. Though Varhona is rarely the answer when it comes to increasing my profit margin Exactly. I've been skeptical of the caramelia and the azalea as flavored chocolates, but these being fruit-based is more unique. Also, I've been making a raspberry white chocolate with freeze dried raspberries (after seeing other chocolatiers like Soma make fruity bars), so I was excited that Valrhona was doing the same thing. I've used my raspberry in decorative ways (like drizzled on a cookie) but haven't made shells out of it., it's too dear. Once the fruit is powdered, is has very little volume and there is not much yield, so this might actually be more economical to buy.

I had a chance to try a couple of Valrhona's new "inspirations" flavors today, the passion fruit and the almond. The almond was good but I'd probably add salt. The passion fruit is intense and delicious, I bet you could cut it with a sweeter white chocolate and still get good flavor. They also have strawberry. These are cocoa-butter based so can be used for shell molding. https://inter.valrhona.com/en/inspiration-valrhona-innovation I could definitely see using these. Passion fruit is one of my favorite flavors, and I already indulge in the convenience of Perfect Puree so I don't think this would compromise my integrity Just wanted to share. Available soon, probably expensive

Maybe it is! Personally I think trying to get an even line with a tiny brush would be the greater form of painstaking tedium, but you have a good point about the heavy spots that could be brush stops and starts. Oddly enough, another chocolatier has something similar on Instagram today ... And aside from the leech-iness, what boxes do these fit in?

Maybe a wooden toothpick?

Am I the only one who thinks, "mmm, chocolate leeches!" every time they see this mold? I do like this design, though. Electric leeches! I'm thinking splatter black, spray blue, scrape the line clean and back with yellow?

Not usually. The gym I go to has little motivational games so I’m trying not to eat sugar for a week in order to earn a bingo square. I might try to keep that up, but more to lose a few pounds than for Jesus.

I have a grex tritium airbrush that I picked up at Chef Rubber. It came with the 0.3 nozzle, but I swapped it for 0.5.

@daniel D - no modifications, just plugged in Not sure, it might be slow going doing a lot of heavy color. I'll have to try spraying some of my larger pieces for Easter and see how impatient I get. I mean, this blue dome got just a pass or two at one side of the cavity and went quickly, while the red hearts took multiple passes from different angles and 12 of those would be slow going.

I agree with Jim, the compressor kicking on while working hasn't been an issue. I think my small PointZero is set around 60psi and turns on to re-fill the tank at 40. It's fine for a few molds at a time; I spend more time fussing with the CB and warming my airbrush than thinking about psi.

I don't know, I was using invert sugar as a general term - glucose syrup, corn syrup, cane syrup (I use Lyle's now but I've also used the darker Steen's), honey, maple syrup - all those liquid sugars seem to work in caramels. Maybe I'm using the term wrong, but I meant the overall category, not specifically Trimoline or another product.

Agree with minas6907. I cook caramels to 258F, I think you need 255-260F depending on the formulation to have something that will stay solid-ish. And you will want some invert sugar to prevent crystallization as well. Glucose doesn't add flavor, or I like Lyle's Golden syrup because it adds its own caramel notes.

I'm not sure they exist. Bigger than a revolation but presumably still tabletop, with a vibrating table? 20kg capacity, 50? I'm always amused when I look at chocolate equipment and wonder why there isn't more in the 10-20kg capacity range. 20-50 kg seems so huge when you do everything by hand, then I scroll down to the giant industrial melting tanks and realize that even 50kg at a time is still really small scale when you think about it. There are some smaller Selmis or similar continuous tempering machines, but not in that price range.

Yeah, I got a quote last month, had some holiday cash flow to splurge with, but with a base price of $2400 plus vials, sample cups, and sales tax, I opted for bar codes, an EZ Temper, AND a 24kg melter instead. This, to infinity. Yes, we probably all should have water meters and err on the side of caution with best by dates. I'm limiting my wholesale line to bars, gianduja, and caramel that I'm sure are safe and keeping the bonbons in the fridge to sell directly. It's still on my wish list, but the other items were more useful for my current production.

Was the original recipe too soft, or why did you reduce the liquid so much? I'm just curious, I'm sure it's delicious, but 8 oz chocolate and 2 oz liquid will be a very thick ganache that may even break when mixed, could be a challenge if someone else uses darker chocolate or isn't as practiced at folding. Though 2 cups of milk sounds like it would end up soupy ... whatever, as long as you start with good chocolate, it's hard to go wrong!

Is it baked? Sounds very mousse-y. I've always thought of pot de creme as a baked custard, basically creme brulee in a deeper dish without the caramelized top.

Does my cursed Instant Pot mock God? Yes. Summoning the powers of a profane occultist nightmare to save time in the kitchen is an abomination and an affront to God. If this concerns you, please consider one of the many non-cursed Instant Pots available on our website. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-your-new-cursed-instant-pot

What kind of paper are you using to wrap them? Some people like waked paper, I use cellophane. You can try cooking them a few degrees hotter if they are too soft. If the texture is good but they are too sticky, you an try more invert sugar and/or more butter.

Yes. If you have the aW numbers, Wybauw has corresponding shelf life estimates.

Though you could make this and then fold in more crumb-sized cookie bits. But not sure how that would guitar, baked cookies might be hazardous to the wires. Or do a more traditional gianduja or meltaway. I disagree about the unpredictability of nut pastes. Sure, the first time, but you can adjust. For extra softening and to go with the cookie flavor, try browned butter. I don't know how much you'd have to add to get it as soft and scoop-able as ganache, that would depend on if you're also adding nut oil. I make a blondie topping with Dulcey and browned butter, pretty firm at 4:1, softer at 3:1. Are the cookie pieces vanilla or chocolate? I'm envisioning something like dulcey with pecan paste and browned butter with chocolate cookie crumbs and cacao nibs mixed in being pretty good ...

Yes. There's not much crunch, more of a sandy texture. Definitely a different experience from solid cookie pieces.

Oh, we can make it harder ... How about this: make shortbread with dark brown sugar and bake well. Process to a paste and add melted white or blond chocolate, 1/3 to 50% of the weight of the baked cookies. Temper and pour into a ganache frame to set. Cut 15mm cubes of cookie butter gianduja. Carefully smear dark chocolate ganache onto all sides of the cube then roll spherical and dredge in a mix of finely chopped pecans and cocoa nibs. One restaurant I worked at had these cheese and grape "truffles" - you'd have to carefully smear soft cheese (blue or goat, I don't recall) in a thin layer to cover individual grapes, then roll in sliced almonds. Tasty little bites, but tedious.

To get reasonably uniform small cookie bits, you can chill or freeze your cookie dough then grate onto parchment via a box grater and bake.

But the ring appears matte, as if it was not tempered chocolate against the mold. Maybe a small round tool dipped in dark chocolate and applied after de-molding?

But you still have to clean your airbrush. If you're a person who does that ... The beauty of splattering the drips from the bottle is that the airbrush stays clean.

Lol, it's really not that messy! Do it over parchment and try to coordinate bursts of air with each drip.