gfron1

The first dip looks like white chocolate to me - tempered to give the mousse structure. The second is a napage or maybe just a caramel glaze. I think the first shake around is to make the sphere less perfect and more apple like. ETA: The more I watch it, the second glaze is definitely not napage or gelatin-based glaze. The bubbles on the surface suggest something more rigid, but it can't be hot/warm caramelized sugar which is what it looks like. That layer has me stumped.

My holiday collection: From Left to Right: Hanukkah: Ginger, honey Festivus: Black coffee Christmas: Cinnamon, nutmeg Las Posadas: Spicy roasted chile caramel Kwanzaa: Sweet potato pie

I found mine on amazon and purely based my decision on reviews, but I was very happy with both. PEELS. CHERRIES.

I never circled back to share the video I made: HERE ON YOUTUBE And here is my list. Note that just because it's on the list doesn't mean I particularly enjoyed it. Details are in the video.

This is one of the things I've been doing. Once I realized where the thermometer probe was I realized that not all of the chocolate was at temp. So I drop an additional degree and manually test at my spout and also center of the pool. With those three probe points I have confidence that I've hit temp.

Now I'm curious what troubles you've had. Like I mentioned any troubles I have had were related to needing to add or delete moisture levels to match my grains. I'm currently using Great River Milling organic dark (via Amazon).

I've been on a rye kick lately, although my attention span is not allowing me to do a starter. I've been using THIS book which is really, really good. I've mostly done my Finnish rye and Icelandic, but lately have been branching out. Most recently a hard apple cider rye. The biggest challenge for me has been remember, as with all bread baking, that flours vary in their milling and dryness. A few adjustments normally gets me back on track.

They're not MY pantyhose...they're my mom's (seriously)

I'm still in the group that strains through pantyhose

I've been saying for years I need to spend a week in someone else's kitchen, especially someone with a vertical wheel tempering machine who does painted molds. We all have such different circumstances that I have never felt competent, especially since I only make chocolates a few times a year in spurts.

CW2116

CW2116 Pain. In. The. Ass.

For me it depends on the room temp. If I remember your comment correctly, you keep a cold room like me (no higher than 20ºC). That means my color is set quickly so by the time I'm done painting/spraying I'm good to go on shelling - 5-10 minutes max.

I agree, and I bought the fancy french plums and some seed shards made it in so now I'm eating at my own peril. I would likely just just regular American ones next time.

Still lots to digest (literally and figuratively), but I just finished my ingredient analysis which I can share tonight: FruitcakeIngredients.docx

In a previous life when I was trying to become a professional climber/alpinist, I spent quite a bit of time down in Peru, and my hub was the Comboni monastery where their local cook taught me all sorts of recipes - all peasant food, not fancy. Aji de Gallina was one of the weekly standards.

For those of you on the edge of your seats, here are the ones I tried: Assumption Abbey, Ava, MO Gethsemani, Trappist, KY Sisters of St. Benedict, Ferdinand, IN My own from the NYT, Good Fruitcake recipe June Taylor Company, Berkeley, CA Frog Hollow, Brentwood, CA Abbot's Table, Conyers, GA Date Lady, Springfield, MO

Peruvian Aji de Gallina always uses day old bread. Right now I'm testing recipes for doing similar things with fruitcake. Ideas welcome

I dug in deep this year. I made the NYT "Good Fruitcake" sourcing each ingredient with the best I could find (meaning the best candied cherries, pineapple, etc). Right now It's wrapped with cheesecloth and dotted with bay leaves - something I stole from (If I remember correctly) Collin Street Bakery. But the other funny thing that happened is that my posts on social media (bizarrely) led to random strangers sending me money, so I've now bought 10 different fruitcakes that I'll be trying out next week. Since I now have a Patreon of Fruitcakes, I posted this ad this morning to thank them. For the record, I think this is funny and ludicrous

My last round all dark chocolate came out just fine, but my whites were atrociously stuck to the mold. I know exactly what I did wrong - didn't get the white to proper working temp and piped too cold. I won't do that again. And not to beat a dead horse because it's been covered sooooo many times on this forum, but when you spray, aren't most of you just microwaving, shaking and spraying...versus tempering (heat, cool, warm)?

I still struggle with this. 1) Cold room. 2) Proper temper. 3) Tempering my cocoa butter each use for spray or brush. 4) Alcohol polish. Not sure if all are needed or if I could let some of these habits go. I've had so many great teachers and they all do things a bit differently. Most lately I've been thinking that tempering my cocoa butter each time can be let go. Don't most of you just melt and shake?

Never could get it to work

I'm forcing you to do it again like the good ol' days. But be more patient. It's corn. It won't go bad. Worst case - you pitch it. But you know what sauekraut smells like so you'll know if it smells off.

Cleanliness and stable temperature seem to be the most important variables. Our sauercorn is fermented at room temp in our kitchen so around 71ºF

Sauercorn is simply lacto fermented corn. In the restaurant, our technique is keeping the kernels on the cob and instead of jarring/canning, we vacuum pack and store. By keeping it on the cob we have more options for plating - meaning strips of corn kernels v. individual kernels. You can control the level of sour by the amount of time you allow it to ferment (avg 2 weeks), and we love pairing it with traditional creamed corn, but mostly we use it on our version of pickle plates.