John DePaula

Kerry, did you ever find a source for the stencil/templates like we used in class? ← I have a large one with round holes, and the same size with squarish holes. Got them from Qzina. I'm going to look for the smaller ones at the PMCA in a couple of weeks. I suspect Tomric has them, and I'll bet they are made by PCB. ← Thanks, Kerry! ← Check out Tomric's site, confectionary utensils and supplies - supplies. They have a variety of rubber mats, but you can't tell shape from their description. ← Yeah, I found that. I just emailed them to ask what the dimensions are and if they have varying sizes since their web site doesn't really provide, you know... information! Also discovered that Chef Rubber carries what I'm looking for in varying thicknesses from 1mm to 2.5mm. Do you know how thick the ones were that we used at school?

Kerry, did you ever find a source for the stencil/templates like we used in class? ← I have a large one with round holes, and the same size with squarish holes. Got them from Qzina. I'm going to look for the smaller ones at the PMCA in a couple of weeks. I suspect Tomric has them, and I'll bet they are made by PCB. ← Thanks, Kerry!

Kerry, did you ever find a source for the stencil/templates like we used in class?

They are eaten just like that. It's just another way of finishing a center. If I'd taken the picture with the lighting right, you would have been able to see just how sparkly they are. Other things can be finished this way as well. ← I would just add that the technique yields an interesting texture to the piece, and I'm sure it increases the shelf life as well. And yes, they're sparkly and pretty!

Here's a cross-link to Kerry's sugar crystallization work in the Confections! What did we make? thread.

Wow, very impressive, Kerry!

Thanks, Alana. You guys were great fun! And with our collective 'sense of direction' we all certainly got in our exercise while in Chicago, eh!

To illustrate the Slam Fill technique, I have some pictures that really aren’t that great, but I’ll do my best to describe it. You start out by placing a large dollop of your ganache onto your tray of shells. J.P. admitted that the dark filling in a white shell might not be the best example of this but that’s what we had to work with. Then you use your offset spatula to spread it around and press into the mold making sure that you eliminate any air bubbles. Remove excess ganache using your palette knife. It’s very important to work cleanly. Scrape away as much ganache as you can. You’ll notice that the ganache is pretty much even with the top of the tray/shell. Obviously, you won’t be able to seal the bonbons properly without removing some of the ganache. And this is where the ‘Slamming’ comes in. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pix of this next step, since it happens so quickly! Tout à coup, SLAM! the tray on its side tilted at a 45 degree angle to the table. You’ll find that a little bit of the filling has spilled out of the shells. Now, you scrape again and then SLAM! again, but this time the tray is FLAT. Voilà! All of the filling in the bonbons has settled flat again and you now have enough room to seal normally. Do be careful, as we found that the slamming can dislodge some of the shells if you’re not careful. J.P. said that this isn’t a technique that he uses very often and I will probably not use it much myself, but it’s interesting to see. And clearly, with practice, it's a super fast way to fill a lot of shells quickly.

Hi Kerry, I'm about 95% sure that he advised using the spatula at a 90 degree angle in order to remove more filling (leaving a concave top) and that we shouldn't scrape with the spatula either tilted toward or away from the mold. This particular technique was being used when he was filling 'fruits de mer' (tempered gianduja filled seashells) and basically just poured the filling into the cavities rather than carefully piping or filling the cavities individually. Anyone else remember this tip? ← That's right, Alana. I specifically remember him saying to use a 90 degree angle. BTW, I took a break from the joyous task of getting my taxes together and will have some pix in my Public ImageGullet Album asap. I'll add a link(s) as I can. ETA: Voilà! (Hope this works...) J.P. Wybauw at French Pastry School - 2007

You're right, Mary; Alana's chocolates were gorgeous! She was marvelous at piping and decorating.

And if your recipe uses gelatin, is there something one my use instead?

I haven't bought it here in the states but I assume it's "findable." (Thought I didn't see it when I did a quick search). It's what we used in France - "poudre de Titan" I think...

Adding the oils to already tempered white chocolate will work fine. If I have any leftover, I just reheat until about 2/3 is remelted and stir to melt the remaining. You just need to heat enough to melt. The colored white chocolate doesn't have a problem with being too translucent. If you want to color cocoa butter with powders, you can use a palette knife to mash the powder and oil together over and over until well blended. Adding titanium powder will give more opacity.

On the other end of the spectrum, Giordano's pizza was certainly edible. Expecially since I hadn't eaten in about 18 hours. There isn't much else I can say about it, though the word "lackluster" seems to pop to mind. It was filling, though…

Well, the others were exploring China Town and I thought some of the restaurants looked a bit iffy. So I headed back into town to make up for the missed dinner at Frontera Grill. Walked in the door right about 6:00pm and was able to get a table immediately. It was lucky for me because they were filling up fast. I had the Pollo… something… sorry I didn't write down the exact name but it was a locally raised (I assume) chicken in a yellow Oaxacan mole topped with fiddle head greens. The chicken was flavorful and tender. Sauce was good too and with a kick but not overly spicy. One thing I liked is that they give you plenty of food but not enough to feed three people… For dessert, I had a Red Banana Flan which was just excellent (and frankly, I wouldn't mind having again tonight). Very nice execution.

My main purpose right now is to learn from this and see if it's fixable. Last night I remelted it, seeded with chunks left over from the Rev2 batch that appeared to be well tempered, and took several samples. My first sample was definately off temper with a spotted surface, so I added more seed and brought the temperature down further. I played with it from there, adding more chuncks and raising the temperature with a heat gun when they didn't want to melt out. It wanted to be somewhere around 92F to be the proper viscosity. Subsequent samples did not appear to be great temper as they did not have a perfect snap. However leaving them overnight fixed that. Even the first sample with the poor surface had a pretty good snap to it. I'm not sure why the overnight wait worked its wonder as I had the samples in the freezer for a few minutes for a complete chill (after a few minutes at 68F to start the setting) and then took them out for an hour before I tested them last night (to be sure they snapped at room temp). This morning the surface of the chocolate read 87.5F by the infrared thermometer, but it was an inch thick of stiff cap over something like a 1/4" of fluid chocolate on the bottom. It really wants to set up. I cranked up the thermostat a touch so it may melt out a bit more for tonight when I have more to dip. So it appears that I have a batch that loves to set up at what should be a working temperature that can never the less be tempered if I work it right and leave the result overnight. ← You never want to put your chocolate in the freezer. The temperature differential from room temp is too great and you'll end up causing unstable crystals to form.

I hope you meant 'Swiss Confiseur!'

Thanks for the update, Mark. Good to get feedback.

I agree with Kerry: that sounds like a pretty small amount of corn syrup. Recchiuti's Salted Caramel uses a 10:1 ratio sugar:corn syrup. Also, it just occurred to me to ask how you're getting the hot caramel from pot to slab. I assume you're just pouring it out onto the slab but do you also try to scrape the pot? If so, you will cause the mixture to develop crystals. When i'm making caramel, I like to pour it between caramel rulers sitting on top of a silpat silicone mat. Note: never cut anything that's on a silicone mat.

My favorite: Sauté some onions in olive oil until caramelized. Set aside. Peel and slice the squash; sauté with a little butter, salt and pepper. Add some grated Gruyere and mix. Roll out the galette/savory pie crust, add the onion then the squash. Top with a mixture of bread crumbs and gruyere. Bake. Serve with small side salad.

I don’t think you should feel bad at all about wanting more poundage per dollar. After all, not everyone wants an elegant and sophisticated chocolate experience. Not everyone appreciates the art and skill that goes into crafting a fine jewel-like piece of chocolate. For some people, all that stuff is just fluff. YOU know you’re getting your money’s worth when you can slap a “bonbon” on the scale and measure it in POUNDS. Bravo! --p.s. i think i’m done with this thread

I use a dental investment vibrator that I bought on ebay for not much money (~ $60). It works just great. I put my filled tray on the vibrator for, oh I don't know, about 15 seconds or so - depends on the viscosity.

chef rubber sells these pre-mixed with alcohol. i'm sure you can do the same using denatured alcohol which will evaporate after spraying. don't know what ratio though. enough to make a liquid? ← would there be any problem with clogging the nozzle?

Actually, they look pretty delicious; congrats!

I found a recipe for Puffs with Whipped Cream (Indianerkrapfen). Looks like your recipe is more or less identical and you should be fine with that amount of corn starch. Actually, the recipe I found uses a ratio of 1:1 flour to cornstarch rather than the 2:1 that you’re using… For the ganache, the glaze should set up just fine. The recipe has you mixing the heated ingredients with the eggs, and then adding that back to the remaining mixture. This is known as ‘tempering’ your eggs so that they don’t curdle i.e. so that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs. To address any health concerns, I think you could return the final mixture to a gentle boil, whisking constantly and then immediately off the heat continuing to whisk a few moments. Hope this helps.