Kerry Beal

Chef Rubber used to sell cans on cocoa butter spray - they don't anymore sadly - but I have used it to back molds with liquidy fillings

So wiping it on my dirty apron isn't recommended?

Come visit us - we'll take you to lunch!

Welcome Sander. The combination of chocolate and graphic design should make for some nice looking products. Hope you'll post some pictures. Are you familiar with the thread Chocolates with that Showroom Finish?

Don't know - there isn't chocolate in there to temper - I suppose the butter might?

I wonder if a spray of cocoa butter alone behind the caramel might help. Leaking caramels are pretty common in my world!

Essentially you take goats milk - heat it to around 74º F - add a bit of rennet (I used the junket tablets), a bit of culture (you could use some buttermilk) and let sit for 18 to 24 hours. You want the pH to get to 4.7 or so (you can test with pH paper or if you happen to have a meter...), strain through cheesecloth overnight.

Indeed

Also - wonder if you could use the film strip to make a transfer on on acetate strip. I'm trying to picture how to say what I'm thinking - you have the little holes along the side of the film strip - could you cut the squares out to make the individual frame squares then use that as a negative to paint white cocoa butter on your acetate.

From the McGill University Blog - Office for Science and Society - "Separating Sense from Nonsense" "Celery has a very high concentration of natural nitrate, and treating celery juice with a bacterial culture produces nitrite. The concentrated juice can then be used to produce “no nitrite added” processed meat. Curiously, regulations stipulate that the traditional curing process requires the addition of nitrite and thus “organic” processed meats that are treated with celery juice have to be labeled as “uncured.” Such terminology is confusing because most consumers look to “organic” processed meats in order to avoid nitrites, but the fact is that these do contain nitrites, sometimes in lesser, sometimes in greater amounts than found in conventional products. That’s because the amount of nitrite that forms from nitrate in celery juice is hard to monitor, while in conventionally cured processed meats, the addition of nitrite is strictly controlled by regulations designed to minimize nitrosamine formation and maximize protection against botulism. This means any risk due to nitrosamine formation or bacterial contamination in the “organic” version is more challenging to evaluate." At least you know how much nitrate you are getting in pink salt cured items.

Mine's here!

All this talk of rice pudding got me thinking it was cool enough outside to make some.

Maltaise?

Wonder if you tempered your ganache with the coconut oil if you could get rid of the grainy?

Interesting idea - cooking the semolina in with it might leave the texture but avoid the issue of sandy bumps.

Nap? Hell - that was a meat coma!

Or a 20 km trip to my house!

For a water ganache - I take a regular recipe that has a decent shelf life - replace the cream with 65% water/fruit juice/wine and 35% neutral oil such as grape seed. Don't know about working with the vegan milk and white chocolate - here is what is listed as the ingredients in the Plamil Milk - sugar 35%, cocoa butter, soya flour 22%, cocoa mass, sunflower lecithin. White has cocoa butter, rice powder (rice syrup powder, rice starch, rice flour), sugar, vanilla. I can see those ingredients might not emulsify well when added to other ingredients. Are you hoping for a chewy caramel or a liquid caramel for filling. The chewy is a challenge, but the liquid you could caramelize sugar with glucose then deglaze with coconut cream.

I combine the Cook's Illustrated salting method with sous vide for eye of round. Salt the trimmed eye of round - 1 tsp per lb of kosher salt. Let sit salted and in bag for 24 hours. Bagged and cooked at 58 C for about 36 hours. Cooled and browned off on the Big Green Egg.

If I make buttercream in the food processor (which is my preferred method) - I put the fondant and room temperature butter in and process together, then drizzle the melted chocolate into the feed tube (doesn't need to be tempered but around 30º C is best), then the flavourings.

Tell me more about the vegan chocolates you are making. Are you using a water ganache? I'm interested in your weird texture and wonder if we can make that more acceptable to you.

Butter won't necessarily give you a worse shelf life than shortening. It's the amount of available water that is the issue. You keep that down (by using fats rather than liquids) - you get a longer shelf life.

Coconut shoots?

There's a thought! I'll ask.

Good price! Wish we got it in those big containers - perhaps I need to look at a commercial place.