pastrygirl

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.

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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.

White chocolate shell with cookie butter gianduja - vanilla shortbread and cocoa sable pureed and mixed with white or dark chocolate, respectively. It's pretty firm but not as hard as a solid cookie.

The squared shape makes me think a paintbrush rather than a finger, but I agree. I think it's only 3 or 4 steps, not 8. Brush teal, brush white, a bit more thorough with the purple ... mold in dark The lower left one especially looks like a paintbrush. I think it's not that many layers, just streaks showing through.

Valentine's bonbons: salty caramel, hazelnut, raspberry rosemary caramel, milk & cookies, dark chocolate caramel maple & salted almond, coconut-rum, passion fruit. and truffle-filled hearts. these are about 3", 4 oz dark salty caramel and milk chocolate peanut butter crisp

Layers, but I'm not intentionally waiting around for it to set. I try to keep the airbrush moving to get an even application of color without a heavy build-up that can drip or puddle. If I'm spraying 4 molds, by the time I do a pass on the 4th, the CB in the 1st mold may not be 100% set/dry but enough to stay in place and not drip when more is added.

Yes, but after a thorough cleaning I was able to spray some 3" hearts with just a few passes. Crud on the needle was blocking flow. It had been irritatingly slow, much better now - still not massive, but enough. Now I'm the anal-retentive chef ... shiny and sanitized, of course!

I'm not sure what was clogging it. I think there was one day when I had a batch of CB with some scorched bits (probably had some white chocolate in the mix, I don't think I've scorched CB alone). Or maybe that's why some say don't clean with water, it could emulsify into mayonnaise inside the tool. There was a period in December when i couldn't be bothered to clean it and put it away, but otherwise leaving tools dirty just feels so wrong. (Clean as you go! I want to see my reflection in the stainless! Oui, chef!) I don't clean between colors, just at the end of the day. Usually I run hot water through then attempt to dry it by running it with the hairdryer aimed at the cup. I'll see how it goes, maybe leaving it dirty really is better than cleaning. Easter eggs and bunnies are my largest molds, so I'll really notice if the spray is weak on those.

Flames under the coil of an electric burner suggest a dirty stove top. It's obviously not a gas leak so there must have been some accumulated crumbs or oils that caught fire.

After how gunky mine was I blew some isopropyl alcohol through it. You think that's a bad idea?

You could use less. The guideline I learned years ago is 1 tsp baking powder OR 1/4 tsp baking soda per cup of flour is needed to leaven most baked goods. And try non-iodized salt (i.e. sea or kosher) to make sure that's not adding any chemical flavors.

Thanks! Yes, it's dark chocolate showing through the red.

Sooo, I have to take back my mediocre review of the Grex 0.5 and Point Zero 1/5 hp compressor combo. The last few times I used them, getting color on the mold was super slow - I even filmed one to share with y'all but it took so long that I ran out of storage on my phone. I wasn't even sure i wanted to spend time fussing with it today, but I did a little maintenance - pulled out the needle and wiped some gunk off, then clipped the tip that was bent. And voila! Plenty of CB coverage in no time. Vastly faster. Clean tools - who knew? (Usually I'm very clean in the kitchen, but i had not been taking the airbrush apart between uses, only rinsing with hot water.) Some truffle hearts - more red at the tops and bottoms than in the middle, intentionally. Red ruby on 60% dark. Gold splattered with the blow-while-dripping-from-the-bottle technique.

Speaking of a waste of time, Bakery in Brooklyn on Hulu. Most of the food stuff made no sense and/or was cringe-worthy (technique-wise) to watch. Two thumbs down.

that reminds me, I need to finish my Amazon order few of us are, Jim, few of us are. Maybe. iirc, it was set. Speed & angle of tape removal plus thickness of CB probably all have to be juuuust right. Persevere! pics from class ... I do recall rubbing the tape in for full contact. I was worried about getting the molds all finger print-y but it was fine.