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Mette

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Posts posted by Mette

  1. I made 8 kg.s of seville orange marmalade and it was a bit of a rush job - and now it's too runny and won't stay on the toast, which is it's calling. How can I fix it?

    I see the following options:

    reboil for a thicker set - but will this destroy the pectin?

    Reboil and add pectin - how do i calculate the pectin ratio?

    Use for dessert sauce - we'll be eating the stuff till kingdom come :-)

    Help - sourcing the oranges has been very difficult and I really want to fix it!

    Thanks

  2. Very helpful photos. When I saw the picture with the filled cavities, I said to myself, "Aha, some of them are filled right up to the rim --and one appears to be a little above the rim--these will never work." But then you have a clean swipe, no filling showing, no ragged covering. A perfectly clean mold. I am in awe. I will keep trying, and I do very much appreciate your effort in taking these pictures. One question on equipment: Are your scrapers flexible or fairly rigid? I'm guessing that a flexible blade (such as I have) may tend to pick up and drag filling more easily. Probably grasping at straws.

    Jim

    Hi Jim,

    you're always going to be in some kind of trouble if the filling goes above the edge - either poor capping or filling mixed in with your chocolate - ideally it should be 3 mm below the rim of the shell (but honestly - who's measuring?).

    As already stated, you need a firm scraper (I use one of these http://shop.rockidan...plastskaft.html), warm chocolate and friends willing to eat the misfits. And then you need to watch the angle of the scraper - you want to keep it fairly vertical, but at a sligt angle towards the direction you are scraping, and be quite firm.

    It really is hard to explain, and quite easy to understand once you've seen it demonstrated....

    Best of luck

  3. Finally something post-worthy....

    The legendary Danish Othello layer-cake: Almond genoise, vanilla sponge, very rich pastry cream made with whipping cream instead of milk (and llightened with.....you guessed.....whipping cream) and finished with marzipan and chocolate - my hubby's 46 today :wub:

    photo.JPG

  4. The spoils of this week:

    Black currant cordial (Ribena), red current cordial, red currant/raspberry cordial, red currant jelly, white currant jelly, red/black currant jelly ('tis the time for currants in Denmark)

    IMG_0008.JPG

    Good year for cherries, too. Eating pounds and pounds of the little buggers

  5. This is great - I would have commented earlier, but just spent 2 weeks in Crete (away from the wet, cold Danish summer). It is so much fun to read an outside view on Denmark and the foods here. Even more so because I grew up in Århus (sorry, Aarhus :wink: ) and used to live just around the corner from the Market, and as a kid, we'd go to the harbour in Norsminde on a nice day.

    You might want to try all-spice in the frikadeller for a boost of flavour..... Lovage is traditionally used for very little, but pop a sprig in when you boil those 'aquarium' (scrubbed, not peeled) potatoes, and it adds a lovely, summery flavour. Your take on smørrebrød looks good. By husband, an Englishman, get grief at all family events for having heering on white bread and gravlax on rugbrød (black rye bead).

    Keep it coming !

  6. Elderbushes in full bloom now, so elderflower cordial.

    The easiest ting in the world: 30 elderflower heads, 1-2 lemons cut up, 1 kg sugar, 25 g citric acid. Mix with 1 l. boiling water, leave to steep 3-4 days. Strain. Bottle. Dilute w 3-4 parts water and ice cubes. Ahhhhhh.

    Note: Must be either kept in the fridge and used within a couple of weeks, or add a bit of conervation stuff to the bottles

    Note 2: always make double or triple batch. It dissapears really quickly

  7. Diana, those are beautiful.

    I've finally got around to playing with the new toy from the conference - the atomizer.

    The colours are red, orange and gold, to go with the mandarin orange filling. The red and gold are mixed from cocoa butter and PCB's powdered colours, and they came out nicely. The orange is Wilton colour powder, and it is very, ehmmmmmm, subtle.... Looks like I hit the temper spot on - my normal downfall

    My best shot with the mobile camera :rolleyes:

    photo.JPG

  8. Is that pistachio-flavoured marzipan?

    No, just dyed green with nasty chemicals. Same for this one: Number-one-son is into badminton, so he wants a badminton-cake to take to school. Could have made a cake-shuttle cock, but that is way to involved for a weekday

    IMAG0734.jpg

  9. Mette, those Smarties rounds are beautiful - as an adult I'd be drawn to them (though by the sounds of your other chocolates fillings I'd quickly be distracted back to the grown ups table!).

    Thanks very much - they went amazingly quickly (as did everything else) What a confidence booster to bring stuff to a celebration :wub:

  10. Not a great picture, and inquiring minds might like to now what all that chocolate is doing on the sofa, but:

    IMAG0719.jpg

    Chocolates for my friend's 40th birthday - I haven't had much time recently to do cool, drawn out productions so I went the easy way and purchased shells from PCB, filld and capped them. The quality of the shells i medium - not dreadful, but not brilliant either. Makes producting 500 chocs in 5 hours doable. The flavours are: elderflower, blackcurrant, Gianduja with marcipan, and espresso (as well as little smartie-rounds for the kiddies). The blackcurrant is tasty but to firm - my adaptions from a recipe to be slabbed did not add up, obviously...

  11. I was looking for something to practice the 'bouncey-bouncey-scrape'-technique on, and came up with these puppies. Its an apple-ganache piped on a crispy round of milk chocolate mixed with feulliutine. I'm pleased with the dipping, although there was a lot more than 2 bounces per dip :biggrin:

    IMAG0690.jpg

    IMAG0693.jpg

  12. Thanks all for a great weekend - it was definitely worth the international travelling - new friends and new techniques - what more could you want. I'm especially pleased with my atomizer (thanks, Kerry) - the poor man's airbrush. On Monday I went to the big craft shop next to the hotel and picked up a bunch of Wilton powdered colours to mix with cocoa butter to play with in the atomizer. Anybody have any experience in mixing your own coloured cocoa butter?

    I really liked the blood orange and habanero ganache. Does anyone know which Amoretti product was used for this? They had Artisan Natural Flavors, extracts, and compounds, and when I went to their website, they have all three in blood orange. I'd like to stick to more natural flavorings when possible. Which line works better in ganaches (and maybe caramels)?

    I did the blood orange - it was blood orange compound and habanero extract and a dash of Grand Marnier - the ratios were very much to taste (and I personally prefer bold flavours). I am not normally keen on orange flavoured chocolates, but the blood orange is very bright. Next time,I think I'll use fresh chili for flavour as well as a kick, and possibly some cracked black pepper - or substitute black pepper for chili (oh, no, the wheels are in motion....)

  13. tikidoc - thanks for the offer - I appreciate it.

    I'm all for getting the most out of the days Sat and Sun so put me down for an early start. And as I'm very much from out of town, any restaurant for Friday evening is fine by me.

    I'm sure I'll learn loads no matter what he topic, but i especially like the idea of breakouts.

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