pastrygirl

@Jim D. her concern was with a box of bonbons packaged for retail. I think the theory is that when buying from a bakery you can ask the maker but when a product is on a shelf in a store it needs to have all the info because even though it's not a top allergen, people have "sensitivities". I did recently have someone who said red food color gave him heart palpitations. At the time I did not check the specific colors, he bought bonbons anyway. I don't think it's serious enough that they'll make me do a recall, more of a 'you really should be doing this' (I hope). I haven't gone through all my CB colors ingredients yet, but I'd guess it's all the same several pigments in different proportions. Red, yellow, blue, black, white. Currently to save space & redundancy I list all the bonbon ingredients together, so listing all the colors once wouldn't be that bad. I've been thinking about creating a bonbon guide with separate ingredients for each flavor, that's going to take A LOT more space. Another thing we should be doing is tracking our raw ingredients so that if one of those gets recalled we know what batch of our products to recall. I can sort of wrap my head around this for single products but can't quite compute how to do that with an assorted box. Probably requires software and QR codes ...

Do you list the individual colors on your ingredients? Apparently we are supposed to ... https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/color-additives-questions-and-answers-consumers My dept of Ag stopped by today & told me that - I think I wasn't using so many colors at my last inspection, never thought much about it since they're not on the allergen list.

More vegan experiments. I found oat and soy milk powders without extra ingredients. Close to equal parts by weight sugar (1/2 of it brown), CB, and oat milk powder with a touch of salt. Pretty sweet, mildly oat-y, medium fluidity. Valrhona Orelys for color comparison. Used it to make bonbons with strawberry ganache. (valrhona fraise, more oat white, a little cranberry concentrate, oat creamer) They're not bad. It's pretty tasty on its own and I'd pair it with dark chocolate but the oat could be distracting in some uses. soy milk powder batch, Valrhona Dulcey for color comparison I reduced the sugar slightly, maybe if I hadn't there wouldn't be the very slight bean-iness. But less bean-y than the oat is oat-y so pretty bland in a good way Did not try any shells or ganache with it yet. I ran these both for about 7 hours, how long do other people melange white chocolate for?

I've had issues when the burner is smaller than the pot and the sugar doesn't heat evenly.

mini baguette giant eclair puffy coat

I guess nobody told him to smile? 😉

I'd say no, or not immediately. Work full time for a few years then see what you still need to learn. I don't know how much culinary school teaches about the business side, but business is another set of skills and college can also be useful.

I agree that it looks doughy and under- baked

No problem. It took a ton of cocoa butter to get moving and was ... interesting. Could be good with real butter or peanuts & caramel a la Cracker Jack. I didn't end up using it for that particular project (which was dairy-free, nut-free) but there's potential.

Unfortunately you may have to eat some directly off the dasher.

Trader Joe's Indian foods tend to be pretty good, both the shelf stable packets and frozen. I also like TJ frozen falafel patties with a bit of yogurt and some greens or crudite. TJ's frozen tamales are just ok, I like these better https://tucsontamale.com/pages/store-locator

I keep a few of these around for work lunches, can vouch for chicken-feta-farro, chicken sausage-barley, green goddess. If I'm hungry I might add an egg or two. Salt and hot sauce to taste. Grocery Outlet usually has a couple varieties for around $2.50 each. https://www.healthychoice.com/power-bowls-products

do you remember how recent the issue was? there's a sebastien lesage in January's issue ... https://www.lejournaldupatissier.com/recipe-index https://www.patisserie-lesage.com/fr/chocolats-annemassse-74.php

It could be something like the Sosa lime crispy ... https://secure.auifinefoods.com/lime-crispy-300g-6720870000

huh, no results for the company 'boudina' either whose recipe is it? Maybe you could message them via Insta or something

Today's experiment was freeze dried banana, it seems to have worked I melanged in some hemp seed for giggles and used hemp milk to make a ganache that turned an unfortunate greyish-green. Maybe it should have been a milk chocolate, browner would be better 😆

First ingredient (and only fat) is cocoa butter, could be worse? plus, I need to deliver this order by Friday so … making it happen!

In some kind of Canadian serendipity, I went to the natural market to look for powdered soy milk (as suggested by Kerry in a pm) and found this instead (made in Toronto). Sweet, no strong flavors, melts nicely. I’ll make it work for the moment.

I have a huge special order - 850 four piece bonbon boxes but they want 50 of them vegan/no nuts. For what they’re paying me, it’s worth figuring out a couple of flavors! I do enjoy experimenting though The shells will be dark but I want some lighter vegan centers. Getting the fats right is a challenge. If I’m happy with the vegan flavors I’ll add them to my regular offerings and see how they do.

I've been doing a little melanger experimentation of my own lately, in a quest to create a vegan, nut-free white chocolate substitute. Toasted oats seems promising for an oatmeal cookie flavor. White rice flour is appropriately bland. Popcorn took a lot more CB than the others, would be better if I could use butter. Not sure how the various starches are going to act in ganache. I may add hemp seeds to some of the rice one for a softer fat blend.

I think it's risky. If the paste is sticky from the sugar having absorbed humidity aka water, it might not be something the melanger can help with. Don't you keep your CB warm in a dehydrator? Put some praline paste in there overnight and see if it changes anything.

Hm, does it fit inside the drum? Maybe a splash guard for above the wheels, so you can add stuff while the machine is running? Because it can fling bits all over when running without the cover …

@Jim D. I have old ones, curious how the new ones are different. Got pics or a link to the video? Or a pic of the unidentified part?

did you ever get the corn worked out? I’m experimenting with oats, want to try popcorn.

Anyone have success with vegan ganaches they'd like to share? I just confirmed a large custom order and promised them two vegan, nut-free flavors. I've played around a bit before but nothing made it into production. I'm thinking one dark chocolate with olive oil and salt or salted caramel and one strawberry or raspberry inspiration, maybe with oat milk and extra cocoa butter? Maybe I could do something with vegan marshmallows?