John DePaula

I know that Slitti makes a higher-percentage milk chocolate, though it's one that I don't really care for, myself. Don't know if they make it in couverture.

Yup, but if you are working with really small amounts in a big mixer you might find mixing more challenging. ← And for heaven's sake, please don't forget to oil your tools as I did the last time. It was quite a sight watching me try to spread the marshmallow... And about that... there's got to be a better way to evenly spread the marshmallow. What about oiling a marble rolling pin? Do you think that'd work?

How did your trip turn out? And how was the class at Bellouet?

No pastry bags? Yikes! Wouldn't want to go there. Pastry bags are easy and disposable. I often use a big glass to hold the pastry bag while I'm filling it, and then use a "chip-clip" to clamp the top closed. And you can use a corne to every last bit down to the tip. I for one couldn't do without.

I was 43 when I went to live in Paris while going to pastry school at Ferrandi. This was a career change for me, as I was formerly a windows application developer. Now I make chocolates for a living! Whether you choose to go to school or not, you CAN do it if you really want to. Some useful links... ESCF Ferrandi Culinary School Ecole Gregoire Ferrandi

Well, I took this week as a “domestic” one and experimented with some ice creams and sorbets. The flavors I played with this week were Kinako (mentioned in The Perfect Scoop) and Mesquite (mentioned recently on David’s site A Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe with Two Secrets ). I had two starting points for the basis of these experiments: Chocolate Sorbet and the Philadelphia-style Vanilla Ice Cream. Here’s what I made: Kinako in the Philadelphia-style Ice Cream base I thought this one was a surprising success given that I didn’t really care for the base just after mixing it up. I used the same amount of Kinako as David used for his French Custard style version in the book. The flavor of Kinako is very subtle and peanutty. If you’re allergic to peanuts, this might well be an ideal substitute. Nice smooth texture. Delicious. Kinako in the Chocolate Sorbet base This just didn’t work at all. Grainy and “annoying,” the flavors just didn’t meld. Blech! If I never taste Chocolate Kinako again, it’ll be too soon. Yuck. Mesquite flour in the Chocolate Sorbet base Wow! I loved this one. (I can tell you that mesquite is soon going to make an appearance as my newest bonbon flavor.) A little smoky and sweeter than expected, the flavor blends well with dark chocolate. The texture on this one could have been better and I suspect that I might actually prefer a French custard chocolate base; more experimentation is needed. However, I’d certainly order this at an ice cream parlor even though it was a little “dusty.” Transcendent. As an aside, I will say that I started out by reducing the sugar by 50% since the mesquite flour is somewhat sweet. Then I kept adding a little more sugar syrup, and a little more until I was back at the original 200g of sugar. Funny. That final addition of sugar just made the whole thing blossom; the mesquite really opened up. Love it!

That's just beautiful, Deborah!

Ah, yes, mine is 110V... didn't think about that. But I hope you can find it. The compressor does make a little putt-putt noise, but nothing so bad that I'd be afraid to use it late at night even in an apartment complex. A big compressor is liable to be loud. Of course, I learned that even with a "work box" to do the spraying in, it's probably better to do it outdoors. A fine mist of cocoa butter & white chocolate floated through the air as I was working. Thanks for posting your Wybauw pictures. I even learned something about the dipping fork from it. ← And as Kerry said on another thread, that cocoa butter mist is probably not something you want in your lungs.

Yes, that's right: chocolate drops covered with sugar sprinkles.

You might try an oil-based maple flavor by, for example, Amoretti or Lorann. These may or may not be artificial, so check if that's important to you. Another option, might be to use a higher-percentage dark chocolate to coat them.

Chocolate Source is one that I can recommend. Gourmail though I've never purchased from them.

Since this is somewhat germane to the discussion at hand, I thought I'd include this post. A few days ago, I stumbled upon this recipe site Cooking for Engineers. The web site itself has a ghastly style-sense circa 1993, but what's interesting is how the recipes are presented. Check out, completely random choice, Cream of Mushroom Soup. Scroll down to the middle of this long page (just after the pix of individual steps) and look at the way the recipe is presented. Very elegant and compact way to present ingredients along with how they're prepped and combined. Perhaps related in some small way to how K8 writes her own recipes, grouping ingredients and instruction together.

That's right, stick = immersion. Can't help you about the which to buy, though. Mine is a Braun that I bought in France. Had to be a whopping voltage converter to use it here in the states...

gap is right, there's not a lot that you need. A hand-immersion blender can be handy. I have one but only use it very infrequently. When you need it, you need it, and it can save a ganache that's splitting. 99.9% of the ganaches that I make can be made with a spatula. If you're having a lot of trouble with the ganaches, then it might be a) the recipe you're using, or b) the chocolate.

I'd just add that blends are also a way to even out the variability from one batch of beans to the next. When you want ValSharfenTtard to taste exactly the same from one year to the next, you get that with blends. My 2¢.

That's just lovely!

You could try Chocosphere.com for online source of chocolate.

And if you've ever had to cut a 100kg of carrots or potatoes into those little torpedo shapes (tournee) ... need I say more.

Absolutely. Freeze then bake.

Not too long ago, I made a Raspberry-Fig Crostata from Julia Child's book Baking with Julia. It has a toasted sesame-almond crust that's easy to work with (i.e. easy to patch) and delicious. You can sub just about any combination of fruits and it's still wonderful. This recipe can be found online: Raspberry-Fig Crostata

From the article linked above:

Is this not the same stuff? DFG Ready-to-use Glaze

I need to checkout that Charleston Receipts... For me, the one that I often turn to is, believe it or not, the Southern Living Annual Recipes 1979 edition. Most of the other years were kind of so-so, but '79 was especially good. Another one, more recent, is the Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook. Pretty good one. I like that they give you alternate versions of a recipe e.g. Tuesday Night Collards vs. the extra special (and more time consuming) Sunday Night Collards.

Thanks for the link. That's exactly what I was looking for! ← Glad I could be of help, David. Last Thanksgiving, I made a cake similar to the ones you made in Norman Love's class. Took me about a year to gather together all of the obscure ingredients and then another 3 days to make all of the components (I'm not very fast in the kitchen...).

David, I've ordered DGF Ready-to-use Glaze from L'Epicerie.com. It's inexpensive and I only had to order a 22oz. pail, though they do have larger sizes available. HTH