Kerry Beal

Anna and I are always spoiled rotten at the Reuse Centre (read - get a reasonable discount) - but nothing comes without a cost! So I'm putting together a basket for the mom of one of the girls who works there - we provide chocolate and occasional medical advice. So added to a few odds and ends I had around - I decided to make some peaches and cream bark with freeze dried peaches and ice cream. Freeze dried parts 1% seed added to 34º C dark chocolate 10 minutes later!

Couple of projects so far today - the first was making some hazelnut gianduja. 1400 g milk chocolate, 600 grams pure hazelnut paste stirred together and cooled to about 28C. 1% seed added and stirred in note the change in the appearance as the mixture crystallizes poured into a couple of 500 gram bar molds Some used to engross roasted hazelnuts, finished with some milk chocolate - was going to put a powder on but I love the appearance I got without.

Shells (and bars) do best if put in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes at the point where they are rapidly crystallizing. It's that latent heat of crystallization that causes streaks by overheating the chocolate next to the bits that are crystallizing quickly. I suspect the better the temper - the more rapid the crystallization - the more heat produced.

Rob - do you cool in the fridge after you have poured?

Thoughts on length of course, cost etc?

Mark Heim, who was one of our star educators at the Confectionery Workshop this year, is a member of the PMCA's (Pennsylvania Manufacturing Confectioners Association) education committee. I have attended a couple of PMCA courses for professionals over the years - Panning, which was held at Madison, WI, Premium Chocolate Centers (with Peter Greweling), as well as attending the PMCA annual production conference in Hershey, then in Lancaster, PA more times than I can count. Up until now the PMCA has offered courses mainly aimed at folks who work in the large confectionary companies - 'big chocolate and candy'. The artisan confectioners that have attended their courses often find themselves learning more theory and science than they hoped - and learning how confectionary is made with big machinery rather than the smaller equipment or handmade that most of us use. Mark wrote to a few of us asking for our input - he stated that "In the PMCA education committee meeting we discussed developing a series of courses specifically for the artisan confectioner. They would have less of the chemistry and production equipment, and more the the technique, unique ingredients, target more specific confection types, and how to take existing or new recipes in the direction they may want, including troubleshooting. They could also be shorter in length so owners wouldn't be away as long and at less cost." They are hoping for suggestions for topics, what you would like to be taught, course length - essentially any input that would allow them to create and offer a course relevant to artisan chocolatiers and confectioners. Let's hear it - if you could attend the perfect course for the artisan chocolatier or confectioner - what would it be?

I want one about 1/4 the size to take up north with me.

Freeze dried are fabulous - but moisture changes all that!

Thrilled for you Rob!

Today I had the pleasure of having a Dim Sum lunch in Toronto with Franci and her lovely family at Crown Princess Fine Dining. No little carts at this establishment - instead the order is committed to paper and circled when it is presented to the table. Lovely savoury bits of fried octopus tentacles in a birds nest Spare ribs with black bean sauce Squid in curry sauce Steamed buns Rice rolls Har gow Tripe Lotus leaf sticky rice Close up tripe Fried taro mushroom stuffed dumplings I neglected to take a picture of the mango pudding in carp shape or the little coconut jellied puddings shaped like flowers.

Give it a try - maybe add some freeze dried red pepper too - it's quite wonderful!

Used the EZtemper to temper some dark milk chocolate to make freeze dried corn bark last night. This is amazingly tasty stuff. And ready to be packaged up very shortly after making it.

Gotta say with the scroll pump removing the issue of oil changes from the equation I am more likely to fire up the HR to FD a batch of something. And of course all the fresh stuff at the market calls out that much more loudly. Basil Three trays of ripe peaches

I think those bigger ones are called Trade Paperbacks.

Fresh Corn, Tomato, Avocado and Basil salad - thanks to David Leibovitz. Added a chopped slice of Vidalia onion not called for - I think it was a perfect addition.

These are coffee flavoured chip nuts (peanuts covered in potato crust) with milk chocolate and espresso powder - finished with dark chocolate and freeze dried coffee granules. I was actually aiming for the bumpy finish - so I'm rather pleased with how they turned out. Tried out a new polish and shellac - really impressed with it.

Back when I was using the oil pump - I would lift it up and put it on the front of the cart when I needed to remove the oil. I have a piece of penrose drain (think rubber tubing) that I used to provide traction when I was opening the drain plug. I put something under the back of the unit to tilt it forward to aid drainage. No pictures sorry.

That has happened to me as well - not consistently though.

Latest batch - started Tuesday evening, freeze cycle finished around 8 am. By the time I headed off to bed it hadn't entered the drying cycle - I hadn't set the drying cycle to 12 hours so it was at the default 5 hours. When I woke to a screaming child at 4:30 the beeper was going - so I went down and reset to dry for another 5 hours and crawled back into bed. Short of time while heading out to a funeral this am - I just dialled it up so it would finish around noon. Everything perfectly dry. Okra 2 1/2 dozen raw eggs Dill

As long as the total thickness is not too much - you'll be fine. i usually freeze between 9 and 12 hours and dry for 12 - changing the drying time once i figure out when it's going to finish.

There was a rather nice breeze though. Michael Olsen was telling me that his latest kick has been finding old metal platters etc and getting them powder coated with food grade coating. He get's some really nice looking stuff out of it - his stuffed jalapeños were served on a lovely platter.

I'd send an e-mail to HR to ask their opinion.

I have a large and a mini at home - I have a mini up north. We cooked on 2 larges for the eggfest.

Niagara Eggfest at Hernder Estates Winery again this year. We decided to keep the number of dishes down this year - and I think it was a good choice. Anna's daughter helping get things started before the hordes descended. We were housed next to Celebrity Chef's Michael and Anna Olsen. They had a bushel of jalapeños that actually had a bit of heat to them. They were making stuffed jalapeños, a pork sirloin taco with peach salsa and s'mores. We started with ham and cheese rolls. A sausage and green chili frittata. Bahn mi - under construction - layer of pork pate, siracha mayo Pork loin - sous vide, then browned with caramel sauce - a little more caramel sauce on the top, pickled veg, cilantro (just about killed me to put that on there), a little more siracha mayo. Brazilian cheese puffs - must have miscalculated on the amount of tapioca - they weren't really puffs - but they got eaten anyway! Peach summer torte - our most popular offering today I'd say. Second batch ended up a little dark on the bottom - Anna's daughter trimmed it up and it went just as well as the first batch. We had a couple of peaches left over and decided to grill them - people seemed a little annoyed when they asked when we were serving them and we said we weren't - they were the cooks treat!

Replacing the cream with puree and 35% oil to mimic the composition of cream.