dmalouf
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Posts posted by dmalouf
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Does anyone have a lot of experience using the U.S. Post Office Priority Mail service to ship perishable products (chocolate) during the summer months? I just can't afford to charge customers the 2-day FedEx prices. I ship from L.A. so I'm especially worried about East Coast deliveries. I pack everything in mylar bags and use ice gel packs. Thanks!
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This is partly to vent but also a cry for help. I've read the topics on this here and I think I'm doing everything you guys suggested.
My coated truffles keep cracking. I'm doing everything you guys told me to do - my ganache is rolled and set at room temperature (68 degrees) and I'm using a tempering machine that brings my chocolate (72% eguittard) to 88.7 degrees. I dip quickly using a dipping tool and I allow the chocolates to set.
After about 10 minutes, when they've tricked me into falsely believing they're setting perfectly, the cracking begins.
I am just starting my business and am cutting my teeth on a 150 person wedding favor job due this Friday. I'd really be enjoying the work it if it wasn't for this problem.
I want to cry.
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Steve, thank you so much for the photo, this is very helpful.
David, I'm afraid I can't ask my friend any questions right now. He's having some personal problems. I'll try to respond when he becomes available again.
In the meantime I can take more pictures if that would help. Let me know what angles you'd like.
Thanks to all for your responses.
diana
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sorry for my delayed response, my brother and his wife had a baby this weekend and I am now officially an aunt!!
I've posted some pictures below. I hope these photos are helpful.
I've decided to cut my caramels by hand for now since I can't figure out how to make this work.
If you have any suggestions for how I can use it to cut caramels, I'd be grateful.
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I asked a friend of mine to build a guitar cutter for me. He is a professional fabricator and based his design on specs found on this website and other pictures I could find online.
It's a beautiful piece of equipment. The problem is that it doesn't cut through my caramels. I cook them to just below the hard ball stage then set them in a caramel ruler. When I try to cut them, the wires just don't make it all the way through, though it perforates enough where I can then follow the lines with a pizza roller.
So my question is this, am I having problems because the wires aren't right (I don't know enough to tell you what kind of wires they are) or do those of you with professional guitar cutters have the same problem??
Thank you
diana
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i really dig
pistachios + cardamom
dark chocolate + clove
honey + macademia nuts + coconut
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I too have tried using flavored oils for my ganaches but found them tasting too synthetic. I tried raspberry and orange. Maybe it's not so much the oil as the amount, the brand, or those particular flavors.
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Here is the big secret. You mix powdered food color in melted cocoa butter until it is the consistancy of, say, sour cream and then you use it to print on acetate (or mylar or polyethelene or polypropolene) using a silk screen. No special machines or hitech ink jet printers. But it will take a lot of trial and error to get good at it. I have been printing transfer sheets for about a year and a half, and I am just beginning to feel confident about acheiving consistant results.
Lloyd, thank you so much for that information. One question though - when you silkscreen, do you use a food-grade photo-sensitive emulsion?
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Does anyone know how caramel rulers work? They sell them at jbprince.com.
Many thanks
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I let my caramel sit at least 24 hours before slicing. It gets less sticky and easier to work with if you give it some time.
Thanks Trishiad. Do you cook them to soft ball or hard ball stage? Do you cover them?
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Greetings everyone. I'm somewhat new to this site and am inspired by the collective knowledge here.
I have been working on caramel recipes and have tried cooking them to firm ball stage like most recipes suggest but find that the caramels are just too hard.
When I cook them to softball stage, the texture is better but then they're too sticky to cut. If I refrigerate, cut, then dip them in chocolate, they leak out of the shell because the center's too cold.
Any advice on the best way to keep them slightly soft but still manageable? I've read about caramel rulers but don't understand how they work.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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I read about a chocolatier in Santa Cruz, California, Lloyd Martin, who uses his computer to make designs, then prints them onto sheets with food safe ink and transfers the images to his pieces. Check out the article in the local paper.
I know there are printers that cake bakers use with "icing sheets" that you can lay on top of the product, but Martin prints finely detailed logos and such to transfer to his chocolates.
Does anybody have experience in using this medium for transfers?
Cheers
I have also wondered about this. Can you use regular edible ink cartridges on a transfer sheet? Does it need to be a cocoa-butter based ink cartridge (do those even exist?). Sorry no answers, only more questions.
Trouble with Pulled Sugar
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I've made quite a few attempts at pulling sugar and each time I start pulling it, it becomes very firm very quickly and starts cracking before I can finish. I've watched YouTube videos where it seems like people have a lot of time to pull and shape the candy.
I've tried several different recipes, some involving more corn syrup, some with adding vinegar at the beginning or at a specific temperature, I don't stir it once I add the corn syrup. I've used a cool room and a warm room. My equipment is clean. I've been cooking it to about 310 degrees.
I appreciate any suggestions.