Kerry Beal

I was very taken by Tikidoc's dragon molds at the workshop - and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! So tonight used the EZtemper to make some fire breathing dragons - meltaway made with senape. You can see the difference between the meltaway emulsion on the top of the spatula and the bottom after the silk has been added. The mold filled with meltaway 10 minutes in the fridge was ready to be backed off - 5 minutes after that 'here be fire breathing dragons'!

Second go at custard tart - was looking for something a little less creme brûlée in pastry than the last attempt - wanted more flan in a pastry. Spent the day at Goûter with @alleguede - played with the sheeter to roll the pastry. I do love toys! The custard didn't seem to be setting after a whole lot of additional time - turned out the gas was not on to the convection oven! Was able to bake for about 30 minutes before I had to pop it in the car for the ride home - gave it another 40 minutes but it was still very jiggly. Cut it anyway after refrigeration - I think it might actually have been a little overcooked judging from the bubbles. But it is more the texture I was after - flan like.

Good idea - bet that would help with my straight line deficit!

I think that's what I discovered with this experiment. Next time if i was working in a cooler environment it probably would work a little better - this time it dripped back into the line I made.

You can't just lay something in the mold - it will blow off with the air from the airbrush unfortunately.

Quite the trip. May have missed it at the beginning - but where will the happy couple be living?

Don't know - perhaps a bit more set up than this was.

I shall get it on it's way to you tomorrow am.

Over on the report for the 2016 workshop thread we have been discussing how Morato makes a nice fine line on one of his pieces. Workshop thread So I set out to see if I could duplicate his technique. I had thought that perhaps painting a straight line on the mold would be sufficient. Nope! On the left you see my attempts to draw a straight line - on the right you can see that dragging a tool through wet coloured cocoa butter spray produces a much finer and straighter line. I also played a little with his layered colours on a couple of things - These I sprayed first with 50% dark chocolate in cocoa butter, then backed with a variety of colours of luster dust - then sprayed with red cocoa butter. Sprayed these first with a dark red cocoa butter mixed with additional cocoa butter, then again some different luster dusts behind (bronze, red, silver), then sprayed orange cocoa butter behind. A had a little Alice Cooper eye trouble with a few because of the heat in the room after I painted in the eyes. These were sprayed with 50% dark chocolate in cocoa butter, then some were backed with bronze, a couple with gold, a couple with silver and the rest with nothing. Then molded in milk chocolate. Filled with hazelnut gianduja.

Trials of stripe. Will put more details over in the showroom finish thread. On the left we have my attempts to paint straight lines - did I ever mention that my kindergarten teacher gave me a crying elf stamp on my straight lines. On the right I have the scraping out after spraying trials. Interesting how much straighter the lines are. It was exceptionally hot in the chocolate room the day I was playing with this so after I scraped (using a clay tool) the lines filled back in on the centre of some. Not going to quit my day job anytime soon! Clay sculpting tool.

You are correct - but they do fine in a butter ganache. I use my a milk chocolate butter ganache with the caramelized cocoa nibs and they stay nice and crisp.

Oops - missed that. The first stage they go through when you caramelize them is for the sugar to dissolve, then it crystallizes again. Stopping there would give you candied nibs.

I come out of my little room with food sometimes - and I've dragged a few people back there to see it. Now sure if anyone has bought one yet.

For several years now I've been in search of a recipe for Portuguese almond tarts that are like the ones I used to be able to buy at a bakery in Hamilton. The didn't have a crust - were more like a dense little muffin with slivered almonds and a glaze on top. Every Portuguese person I meet would have to bring me their mother or grandmother's recipe for almond tarts in hopes that one day I would find it and be able to duplicate it. Yesterday one of the paramedic students who was doing a rotation in the ER mentioned that she was Portuguese and of course that got me going again! I described what I was looking for and she said perhaps they weren't almond tarts but instead were actually quejadas de laranja (orange tarts). A quick google showed pictures that looked a whole lot more like what I was after! So this morning - my first quejadas de laranja - more testing of more recipes will have to be done to duplicate the one I'm after - but I think I'm finally in the right ballpark.

Here you go

Might - but the question would be would that be a bad thing? Salt's not going to melt so perhaps the heat will just spread the wax more on the surface.

My settings are fine as far as I can tell - I'm getting PM's from other people with no issue. Never seen jelly beans lose their surface in heat so I think that an ice pack would be wasted additional shipping cost. I did blast some hot air into the pan in the process to try and spread the wax more over the surface so this salt has already been exposed to significant heat.

PM an address. I'll be crossing the border later in the month and I'll mail it from the other side. Shipping various powder type things across the border is never a big success.

So experiments happened yesterday - I panned some rock salt and some large grain sea salt. The salt looses it's shine and gets a little yellowish with the carnauba wax. On the right is unpanned salt, panned on left. 10 grams of salt with 15 grams of water added and let sit for a while to see if less dissolved. Hard to tell with the wax scum on the surface. Now I need someone to bake some pretzels with it. Not going to be me. Anyone?

A quick trip to Sobey's grocery store before work this morning produced this chunk of meaty beef back rib. Browned in IP, put on rack over around 1/2 cup of stock, pressure cooked for 20 minutes with 10 min release. Browned again. Not quite as good as had they been roasted in the oven - but still pretty damn good for cooked at work.

Yesterday I spent the day at @Alleguede's shop Goûter. I did some experimenting with some mold decorating techniques, played with a Nutrichef oil extractor to see what it could do to make cocoa butter, pan coated some salt with carnauba wax and made this custard tart inspired by something I saw on either eG or Facebook recently.

No numbers on posts now - date?

A bit of followup around some questions that came up - The following chefs are doing courses in Montreal and demos in Toronto this year. Guillaume Mabilleau Matthieu Dierinck Andres Lara http://www.chocolate-academy.com/ca/en/newsletter_subscription A Cacao Barry vendor in the US for those having trouble getting product - Vanilla Food Company _ online source for a wide variety of Cacao Barry products. They have many US customers currently and there is no problem getting product shipped out. http://www.vanillafoodcompany.ca/Cacao-Barry-Chocolate-s/84.htm The important thing to remember is that shipping chocolate for these next few months can be difficult as melting can be an issue. If chocolate will be crystallized before use it's probably not such a big issue. But it's important to be aware http://www.vanillafoodcompany.ca/category-s/17.htm NOTE TO U.S. CUSTOMERS from Vanilla Food Co. All pricing on our website is in Canadian (CAD) dollars. When you make a purchase, your credit card company or Paypal will automatically charge you in U.S. dollars (USD) based on their existing exchange rates. Generally, USD $1 = CAD $1.20. So USD $100 would purchase approximately CAD $120 worth of product from our store. Currency exchange sites such as www.XE.comcan provide you with a good approximation of constantly changing currency rates. All shipments originate from warehouses within Canada. Generally, purchases less than USD $800 are not charged import duties or brokerage fees when crossing into the United States. However, we cannot guarantee this. Please be aware that U.S. customers are responsible for any additional import duties, taxes or fees charged by U.S. Customs. For any food-related shipments to the U.S., Vanilla Food Company complies with F.D.A. Prior Notice regulations to expedite shipments across the border Morato demo recipes - DEMO Morato - Chocolate Flavour Expertise-recipes.pdf

Of course there is more rhubarb in the garden that I could bring since I missed your hint that I was supposed to make it!

Can you put a picture of or link to the tape?