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escry

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  1. Hi Guys

    It is a very long time since I last visited egullet and even longer since I my last post. Fredric Bau of Valrhona has just posted four videos on youtube. Go to youtube and search on 'Valrhona chapter 1' then view chapters 2, 3 and 4. If you are quick you can be the fourth person to view chapter 1 (I was the third!)

    Despite this lack of immediate popularity, these videos will give food for thought (and comment).

  2. I've noticed a difference between using butter (82% butter fat, 16% water) and anhydrous butter (99% butter fat) (aka anhydrous milk fat, AMF).

    Anhydrous butter gives a much softer ganache. I mixed the AMF with melted chocolate then emulsified with cream. When does Ramon Morato introduce the anhydrous butter?

    For information

    The comparison comes from a recipe otherwise identical - ie 20% water, 21.3% cocoa butter (from Valrhona Caraibe), 21.3% butter fat (from cream (39% butter fat) and butter, or cream and anhydrous butter), 13.6% cocoa solids (from Valrhona Caraibe), and sugars 22.8% (sucrose from Valrhona Caraibe and Glucose Syrup 42DE).

    Theory

    Butter fat softens ganache by 1) introducing a lower solid fat content fat at room temperature and 2) by an eutectic effect between AMF and cocoa butter. I've seen on the web an excellent graph - I'll try and find it again and post link. The eutectic kicks in at 40% AMF:60% cocoa butter, and is greatest at 50:50 at room temperature.

    Perhaps the butter fat in AMF, not being in emulsion, is fully available to form an eutectic with the cocoa butter? Any food scientists out there?

  3. Truffle Guy, thanks for sharing your choices.

    Typically, I use a blend of 66% Caraibe and the Valrhona 61% which has a much more basic taste. I think the flavor is very good and the consistency is much better than other chocolates I've used in the past. It also is much more consistent (for me and my conditions) when it comes to tempering and getting a good shine.

    I must try this blend, I have tried blending Valrhona couvertures in the past with appalling results, however Caraibe and Extra bitter sounds a winner. Which percentages do you use, 50/50?

    I absolutely agree, Valrhona's couvertures are the most consistent of all the couvertures I have tried, and produce the most stable shine. (Apologies to the US manufactures - I have not tried most of your couvertures.) It's just I have yet to get the right balance in a Valrhona couverture for my ganache formulations, which ironically are mostly based on Valrhona chocolate.

    For white, I just have not found anything that comes close to the Valrhona white in flavor and workability (I wish I could as it isn't cheap). It also is a very fluid chocolate and I never have problems with it when doing molded pieces.

    I love El Rey's white chocolate, Icoa. I believe that its superior taste is partly due to their use of non-deodorised cocoa butter. I have only enrobed with it once at a demonstration (nipples of venus for a hen party), so cannot really vouch for its performance as an enrobing couverture. However it is flavour is really superb (for a white chocolate). And its much cheaper than Ivoire!

    ---

    Lior, Amedei 9 is 75% cocoa.

    ---

    Some years ago I created a cinnamon ganache using Valrhona Caraibe (blend of Trinitario from the Caribbean Islands, 66% cocoa). My audience found it one of the weakest in my collection and it soon disappeared. When Valrhona launched Tainori (blend of Trinitario from the Dominican Republic, 64% cocoa) I made a cinnamon ganache with it. The ganache is incredibly good, with strong overtones of banana.

    These two chocolates are very similar: same manufacture; similar percentage of sugar; same cacao variety; and both from the Caribbean. Yet the subtle difference in the flavour of the two chocolates leads to very different flavour pairings. Tainori and cinnamon; Caraibe and Lombardy coffee.

    For me its all about finding infusions/inclusions that complement the chocolate. At least it is now, twenty-five years ago I produced 25g alcohol-laced truffles using Callibaut. As Lior said above, and many have echoed, the audience for "Belgium truffles" remains large. But the market direction is definitely towards greater knowledge of chocolate and cacaos, and towards an appetite for the unusual ...

    ... Oh, and the healthy.

  4. For a couverture it is always easy to add a percent or three of cocoa butter, but (practically) impossible to remove cocoa butter.

    For the ganache chocolate, it is easy to add more sugar, but (practically) impossible to remove sugar.

    When I first returned to chocolate five years ago, I wanted a range of origin 100% cocoa paste / liquor / chocolate, ie 54% cocoa butter, 46% cocoa solids, 0% sugar. Two years ago Valrhona introduced 100% Araguani, 100% Alpaco, 100% Tainori, and 100% Manjari.

    From these one can produce a couverture of the required sweetness and fluidity: at first by mixing say 72% Araguani with 100% Araguani, then by adding more cocoa butter if required.

    And, of more interest to me, create ganache from 100% origin pate de cacao using alternatives to the usual sugar/invert sugar/glucose syrup, such as erythritol, inulin, polydextrose, ...

    ---

    When I first started selling my chocolates I was asked repetitively, "What makes your chocolates different?" The easiest, most engaging, and convincing answer I found was to say, "Compare these two chocolates [callets]." One being Valrhona Araguani (which I use) the other Callebaut (which I otherwise do not).

  5. What a great thread and so well intoduced by Lior.

    First off, if whisky and coke is not your thing, how about a vodka martini? I agree with Edward, if you are introducing strong flavours then a good quality, bland chocolate for the centre is the way to go. However if you like your vodka martini VERY dry and your ganache infusions subtle, then a fine country specific blend or estate chocolate delicately enhanced by an additional flavour (infusion/inclusion) is my choice.

    Picking up on Lior's Manjari comment, I do a confection: Manjari ganache infused with freshly cut lemon verbena. It's fantastic. The obvious enrobing is Manjari, however taste panels prefer a good quality, but neutral/bland couverture for the enrobing. The best such couverture that I have found so far is Amedei's 9. A blend of nine cocoas. However be warned Amedei 9 is expensive, about $12-$15 per pound, compared to $8-$9 for a pound of Manjari.

    In addition, one good quality, neutral/bland couverture for enrobing greatly simplifies production.

    I found a lot of people don't coat in high cacao percentages. Many use 55-60%. I like 64% and 70%. But then perhaps this hides some of my ganache tastes.

    Many chocolatiers in Europe use Valrhona's non grand cru couvertures for enrobing, such as Equatorial Noir (55%). I find these too sweet, the sweetness hiding some of the ganache taste. However, sticking with Valrhona, Guanaja (70%) is too intense, and hides some of the ganache taste. My holy grail is a good quality BLAND couverture that matches the blend characteristics of Valrhona (the chocolate I use most for my centres), but at a lower cost than Amedei 9.

    Michel Cluzel's Noir de Cacao (72%) is a magnificent good quality bland couverture, but Cluzel and Valrhona don't mix.

    Much more I could and will say, but in a later post.

  6. Dip with your fingers: having coated your round truffle centre in couverture, hold it in your first two fingers and thumb and place it on an acetate sheet ... as you let go twirl your three fingers round in the air just above the truffle letting the drips form your desired swirls.

    Keep practising, it does work (eventually), and becomes less messy and really fast.

  7. I have successfully frozen and defrosted a dual layer ganache and pate de fruit enrobed confection.

    Just follow usual rules of 1) tight packing and suitable wrapping; 2) put in the fridge for 12-24 hours then into the freezer on the way in; 3) put in the fridge for 12-24 hours from frozen on the way out.

  8. I work with a 20kg melter, though neither a Mol D'Art nor Prefamac.

    Once upon a time I used a hairdryer periodically to overcome overcrystallization, heating the top layer of chocolate to, I guess, 40 degrees Celsius, and mixing in.

    Then I took to using a heated vibrating table, primarily to remove excess chocolate from my just dipped centres. In addition the heated plate heats, continously, just enough chocolate, to just high enough a temperature, such that as this excess chocolate is swept back into the bowl, it neutralizes overcrystalization.

    This may not help you choose between the two makes, but if you were able to recreate my accidental discovery, then it may transform your opinion of working with large volume melters.

  9. A simple and effective chocolate sauce can be made from drinking chocolate powder (or cocoa powder plus sugar) and water. Just add some freshly boiled water (about 50:50 water to cocoa), stir and cool. Intense chocolate taste, the consistency of paint, and quick.

  10. First of all try to locate some powdered apple pectin. Steve (stscam) recommended L'Epicerie in his recent post.

    My experience of pectins is that different manufactures' (and indeed different formulations from the same manufacturer) all provide noticably different results. Keep experimenting until you get it right. For initial formulations use Boiron's formulations.

    It sounds to me as if you may have over cooked you first pate de fruit. If you are going to make pate de fruit regularly invest in a refractometer. You should be able to find one for $150 on ebay. Otherwise, weigh all your ingredients into your pan, calculate how much water you need to evaporate to reach 75 Brix and keep weighing your pan whilst heating until you have evaporated away just the right amount of water.

    As to your substantive question: Can pates de fruit be not THAT sweet? The answer is, yes. There are two ways.

    1) Substitute polydextrose for some of the sucrose. Polydextrose has virtually no sweetness.

    2) Evaporate less water (you may have to add some extra water, or fruit, or reduce some of the sugar). However if you go below 67 Brix you will need a different (low ester) pectin, as regular (high ester) pectin will not set below 67 parts per hundred sugar solutes in water.

  11. I decorate chocolates with luster dust from PCB. The only ingredient is iron oxides (E172 to those in the EU). "Naturally occurring pigments of iron, which can be yellow, red, orange, brown or black in colour ... toxic at 'high doses', banned in Germany." read more

    I spoke with the manufacturer who assured me, "how can I put this delicately? It comes out just the same as it goes in." Ok, so the manufacturer says its inert.

    I further assured myself with a quick calculation: for a consumer to eat 1g of luster dust they would have to eat 32kg of my chocolates. After which luster dust would be the least of their worries!

    PS: Note my avatar

  12. Hi nduran

    I second Kerry, try a low ester pectin (such as X58). This sets up in the presence of calcium, ie from the cream, milk and / or butter in the caramel and does not require the high (67 Brix) soluable solids of a normal high ester pectin.

    The one thing I have noticed with all pectins is that they vary considerably from producer to producer. So if at first you don't succeed, try again and then try someone else's pectin. I have had most success with a pectin from Degussa.

    I want as thin of a shell as is possible

    Here's a way out suggestion - try spraying each individual candy with a strong (probably about 5%) agar solution before dipping. I keep meaning to try this with a lemon foam, but have yet to get round to it.

    It will probably be an unmitigated disaster ... but you never know

    Best of luck.

  13. I have developed a perspective on the percentage of fat in the cream used to make ganache, and correspondingly to the replacement of water lost through evaporation and cream through absorption.

    To my taste, I like a ganache which has a ratio of dairy fat to cocoa fat of 0.80, and a moisture (water) level of 24%. I then ensure total sugars such that the sugar water syrup is 50 Brix. By using sugars of different relative sweetness, and some of a non-crystallizing nature, I can achieve any relative sweetness (9% being my favourite) and retard sugar crystallization.

    OK, the maths sounds somewhat more complicated than a usual recipe. However, I have found the formula works pretty well for couvertures of different percentages (including milk chocolate) and across different manufactures. It has also guided my "what if" experiments and helped me decide on the percentages that suit my palate (or rather my customers palate).

  14. I infuse cream alot and use whole spices never powders, including whole chiles.

    I too replace water lost through evaporation. With a lid, five minutes infusion and a moist herb or spice (rather than dried) it is rare to lose more than 5% by evaporation. (Perhaps more with smaller quantities).

    With a dried herb or spice (which for me is ancho chile by preference, and others only when I cannot get fresh) the infusion will soak up alot of moisture and some dairy fat. Using milk to replace the lost weight is a marvelous idea here. I'm going to give it ago. I have used water and cream and kind of guessed on how much of each. I guess one could also hydrate the infusion first - though I have yet to try this.

    By replacing evaporation one can achieve consistency across batches and by doing the maths ensure water activity is kept under control.

  15. After reading that LMDC's ganaches have an unusually high amount of lecithin I tried several experiments

    I too read that LMDC used 2% lecithin in its ganaches. I think I read this on chocophile.com. And again I tried to repeat the LMDC formulation, using Valrhona 82% cocoa couvertures, as specified, 29% fat cream, and with varying amounts of additional lecithin up to and including the specified 2%.

    Beyond 0.5% the ganaches became too stiff, the emulsifier having the opposite effect to that one might expect. S Becket explains the role of lecithin within solid chocolate in his book "The Science of Chocolate"(?). Here again there is a 0.5% threshold beyond which adding more is counter productive.

    I came to the conclusion that the 2% must have been a slip of the tongue, a mis heard comment, or a slip of the finger when typing. Perhaps LDMC use 0.2%? If so they would happily rely on the constituent lecithin within their couvertures and not have to add more.

    Can I think of any instances were adding soya lecithin to a ganache make sense? Yes, when using cocoa paste (100% cocoa, 0% sugar 0% lecithin) or when using couvertures from Amedei or Cluizel or any of the others that are moving away from adding it to there chocolates.

  16. A good rule of thumb is to add at least 25% water.

    Spot on. If for any reason you wish to add somewhat less than 25%, then you can get away with it. Carefully cut the water into the chocolate (both at the same temperature). Don't even begin to overstir, if you do you will encourage the solid particles to stick together and form agglomerates, ie seize.

  17. I'm curious, what kind(s) of candy have you been making with polydextrose?

    I've just about prefected a pate de fruit:

    950g infused water (eg saffron)

    (-150g evaporation)

    900g polydextrose

    100g fructose

    40g pectin (low methoxyl)

    I like the fruit notes of fructose, and the fact that its sweetness disipates quickly; a fanfare for the 'savour' flavour to follow.

    Note that the above recipe produces a 57 Brix jelly. I made a 75 Brix pate de fruit (90% polydextrose) and used low methoxyl pectin - having been advised that "pectin does not consider polydextrose as sugar", therefore a LM pectin would be appropriate. It did not set! I have yet to try the obvious, ie use a standard HM pectin.

    This evening I am working yet again on a polydextrose nougat. (During these experiments I have found a mix of 80% polydextrose, 10% glucose, 10% fructose produces a very good caramelized sugar.)

    It may be a bit off topic, but any wise words on polydextrose confection would be most welcome.

  18. Let me preface my post with an admission, I don't do cakes. However, I do do confections, so I am aware of the texture, shelf-life, flavour-enhancement, and other characteristics of various sugars in confectionery.

    Glucose was mentioned above by Scott123 because it has a sweetness relative to sucrose (table sugar) of about half.

    With regard to the properties of various sugars, including glucose, I strongly recommend having a look at these documents on the Danisco website (particularly the second, though a speed read of the first might be a good starting point):

    The Functional Properties of Sugar

    The Functional Properties of Sugar - on a technical level

    In addition, consider polydextrose (10% sweetness of sucrose), often used as a bulking and texture agent with high intensity sweeters by the low carbohydrate clan. I have been experimenting with this to produce savoury candy, and the one web resource that has proved most useful to me is:

    Low Carb Friends - Polydextrose Recipes

    led by a certain Scott123 (the same Scott123 as our egullet participant?)

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