John DePaula

Unfortunately, I think you're really going to need a refractometer to measure the BRIX accurately. Sometimes you can pick one up on ebay. jbprince has them, too.

Good point. They were sugared just after demolding and again right before packaging.

Drying Test I allowed the Pates de fruits (PdF) to rest open to the air to dry for a total of about 4.5 days before packaging them in clear (almost airtight) acetate rounds. In the end, it will take several weeks at the earliest before we’ll know if this was sufficient to eliminate excess moisture. Here are the results of the drying test: Executive Version: The PdF lost about 3% of their initial weight over the course of the test. Presumably, this is moisture that would have been trapped in the box and allow the PdF to "weep" thereby melting the sugar coating and forming sugar syrup around the base. Details: I used round drying trays from a dehydrator. These are plastic grills that allow free movement of air above and below. I loaded up 3 trays with PdF molded in a silicone form (~14g each): Trays #1 & #2 in the dehydrator, and #3, as a control, open to the air but not in the dehydrator. For the 2 in the dehydrator, I’d run the machine for a couple of times a day to heat up / change the air but I didn’t leave it running all the time. Once the temperature rose above 40C, I didn’t think it would benefit the PdF. If I could have easily run the fan without the heater, then I think that would have been ideal. As it was, I think my dehydrator just ended up trapping a bit more moisture than it should have. Trays #1 & #2 lost ~2.7% total weight; Tray #3 lost ~3.2% . Therefore, leaving them out to the open was the most effective (and the simplest). ETA: The PdF were sugared just after removing them from the mold, and again at the end just before packaging for a light touch up. There was a very slight degradation of the sugar coating on the ones in the dehydrator.

Yikes!

Whoa, good tip! I didn't know that there was an alternate version.

The Cook's Book is WELL worth $23 - a steal, even, at that price.

Wow, I totally can't stop looking at that. It's so... surgical. And are those sausages on the table, or some sort of confection? ← I bet that's the chocolate sausage made with figs and chocolate as I recall. There is a similar egg in one of the books I have - can't recall if it's a Wybauw book or one of the showpiece books I have. ← I think it's in the Wybauw Chocolate Decorations book.

Hey, thanks! Very nice molds, L.

Based on the translation of the title into English, I'd be inclined to buy the French version...

Took a bit of searching but I found it: Wybauw's 'Black Devils'

You can make JP Wybauw's "kitchen sink" caramel.

Although that seems like a lovely recipe, it's doesn't fit the bill (to me) for a sweet potato pie. I'm in the camp that says, Pumpkin Pie spices are for Pumpkin Pie. Sweet Potato Pie is a different animal. And of course, this is very subjective. I just don't like the spices getting in the way of the delicious sweet potatoes. Here you go: Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Pie

There's a good topic on this that I read before buying a Rosle Food Mill: Raspberry Puree. Kerry Beal recommended it and that's good enough for me! P.S. It's a Christmas gift so I haven't use it as yet.

A friend of mine has asked the following: What would you recommend?

I want to add a relevant link to this topic: Closing Molded Chocolates, How do you do it?.

Don't know what kind of fridge you have but I have found that with my glass shelves it is worth putting a cooling rack in there to hold the molds off the glass and ensure good circulation all around. Just a thought. Edited to add: Another thing that helped with splotchy surfaces was to put my empty molds under a reading lamp dragged over to my working table - keep it at about 60 w incandescent and about 2-3 feet above the molds. This seems to keep them warm without getting them hot enough to throw the choc out of temper. ← Thanks, Anna, that's a good idea with the lamp. My 'fridge has wire shelves so I think the circulation is good. Bars were not working at all for me until I added the little fan in the refrigerator.

Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Pie Serves 12 as Dessert. This is a simple Sweet Potato Pie that is decidedly NOT a Pumpkin Pie. My mother always made one of these at Thanksgiving, and it's just not the same without it. Ingredients 3 large sweet potatoes 8 T butter 3 eggs, beaten 5 fl oz evaporated milk 2 c sugar 1-1/2 T cornstarch 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp lemon zest 2 9" Pie Shells (PÂTE SUCRÉE) Peel sweet potatoes, then boil them whole; drain water. Mash potatoes with butter. Lightly whisk the eggs and milk; add to potato mixture. Combine sugar with cornstarch; add to potato mixture. Finally, add vanilla extract and lemon zest. Pour into pie shells. Bake at 350F (175C) until just beginning to brown. Makes 2-9” (2-23cm) pies. . Edited to Add: This pie freezes very well. Bake, cool, wrap in plastic wrap well, cover with foil, transfer to refrigerator for 1 day, then to freezer. To thaw, reverse the process and allow to warm to room temperature before removing the plastic wrap. This avoids condensation problems. Keywords: Easy, Dessert, Pie, American ( RG2151 )

An 'astuce' is a clever way of doing something or solving a problem.

I tried heating the molds with the hot air gun and my bars turned out splotchy. Maybe I did it too much or maybe with my gun it's hard to do it evenly resulting in hot spots. I think I'll try placing my molds in a spare melter overnight to gently warm them up close to working temp... After ladling in some chocolate, vibrating and scraping with a palette knife, I whack them once on the table to resmooth the back. In the end, they're usually pretty nice looking. ETA: After filling, I place the trays in the refrigerator with a small computer-type cooling fan running to keep them evenly chilled while crystallizing.

Typically, I'm doing more than 40 at a time so it can be difficult, as you say. I haven't tried hitting the piping bag with a heat gun because I always thought it would throw the remaining chocolate out of temper causing the bars to be streaky. But now I'm going to give it a try.

I've tried that to but it hasn't worked too well for me. The chocolate sets up quite fast in the bag, after only a couple of trays, then I have to switch to another bag; otherwise, I'll get bits of crystallized chocolate messing up the finish. I could go through a lot of bags for a run of bars. So, I'm guessing that my molds at room temperature may be too cold. How warm is the room where you're working, Lior? My room is about 20-21C (~68F).

I think spraying could certainly be faster. Not sure about the paper towels, though. Wouldn't that scratch the molds? ← Sorry, didn't explain well, meant wiping the surface of the sprayed mold with paper towel as in this picture. ← Ah, now I get it! Thanks, Kerry.

I think spraying could certainly be faster. Not sure about the paper towels, though. Wouldn't that scratch the molds?

I've been making lots of chocolate bars and want to learn some things to improve speed and / or quality. Currently, I prep the molds by painting in a thin layer of chocolate first - just as I would for a bonbon. But this is very time consuming and I want to be able to make the bars by omitting this step. In my last experiment, I tried and ended up with a very splotchy uneven finish. Luckily, I only did a few that way and I can reuse the chocolate. (The ones that I painted-in, from the same batch of chocolate, are brilliant and glossy.) What I did was to ladle tempered chocolate directly into the bare mold. If my infrared thermometer was accurate, the mold was 21C (70F). According to the Ramon Morato book, my mold may have been too cold. He recommends that the mold is only a couple of degrees below the working temperature (say 30C for dark). Do you think that a cold mold was my problem? If so, what would you recommend to warm up the mold properly?

The trick to minimising mess is to use the minimum amount of chocolate that allows you to scrape across and get the acetate to stick - you usually get the amount right in 3 or 4 moulds ← I tried this technique tonight and it does require a certain level of experimentation - not enough chocolate and you don't get the smoothness, too much and you get a mess. Tonight I did not leave enough chocolate and hence had some "dips". I will try again tomorrow. ← It really looks tricky to me, Anna, but I want to try it soon. Please let us know if you come across a good method. ← It really is not difficult. I did it again this morning using a transfer on the back of a mold of solid chocolate. However, I managed to get a wrinkle in there! I would have shared a photo but my daughter borrowed my camera! I am not esp. interested in getting shiny backs but very interested in putting a transfer on the back of some molds. Next challenge will be to try and back off filled chocolates in a similar fashion but I will use plain acetate for that. I'll let you know how it works. If you want to try it and you have a thin mold that is good for solid chocolates I think you will find it easy to experiment with techniques. If you use plain acetate you have nothing to lose - just re- temper and try again. ← I am interested in trying this technique especially for bars. When I make a chocolate bar that's just chocolate (no inclusions like nuts or fruit), it's difficult to keep the very fluid chocolate from spilling over and ruining the edge. You have to keep the mold absolutely level until it begins to crystallize a bit. Using the acetate would definitely solve that problem.