gfron1

I have no idea. My guess is the grind fineness, but really...don't know.

I think it is more an issue of a bad formula. His recipe is 100g white choco to 10g matcha. First, apparently there is culinary matcha and also drinking, and he didn't specify (I used culinary), and second if he's like most chefs he just added some and when it came time to write the recipe he guessed. It just needed to be cut down to 3-5g and I think it would have tasted okay.

I was much happier with my matcha/pistachio than I was with my gold dipped. Neither are things I'll do again so...moving on.

Tricky stuff because even though its cool and interesting, ultimately it still tastes like flavored dirt. Over the years I've used it to coat, paint or cake a number of items. As I matured as a chef I found that the novelty didn't hold up to reality - meaning, regardless of the technique it just wasn't that good (v. cool). Okay, but that said, the best use I found was making a kaolin batter that I mixed with local grasses to create my own version of adobe, which I then baked a fish that I had caught, caking the fish in the adobe and tossing it on the coals. That way you got an earthy essence infused into the meat without the grit and mouthful of dirt.

Again I say "candy cigarettes." Not the best thought out idea. That said, sorry if I drove things off topic. What was interesting with that assignment was the taping in tight quarters. Taping a half sphere is relatively easy, but in this tighter mold it was less so. I will say that electrical tape is more forgiving than painters tape so it wasn't terrible.

I'm pretty sure I saw this by other chefs before he did it, and I don't know that its really that big of an issue....sorta like the candy cigarettes. Its fadish so it will go away quickly IMO.

As a someone who ran an addiction treatment center for a number of years...I didn't. I cringe every time I see this design.

I only poured 12 because I will never make these again - I think its silly to put a ganache filled bonbon on a stick. Cute on a buffet line, but makes not sense from the perspective of the guest. Anyway, I got all but one out, and that one split at the seam not cracked. There was a subtle thing that he didn't mention but I saw him do and that was to push on the opening with his finger which released the chocolate from the mold. My shells were super thin too, so that wasn't the issue. OR...it could be that frigid room I'm working in at 18º 😛 I do think that accounts for my shine performance btw. I've been comparing the shine that I thought was great from the first few assignments to my last few and the difference is striking...and aligns with my drop from 20 to 18. Good thing I don't pay my utilities in this kitchen. Heading into the last few assignments my steam is dwindling. I feel like we're going backwards in required skills. He's known for his eyeball technique and incredible shine, so that should have been what we built towards. Dropping back into truffles and dipped chocolates holds virtually no interest for me. But onward!

A couple more assignments.

FWIW you're already targeting a small market, and within the chocolatier community we don't hear much concern about additiives, so it is possible that the niche or issue that you're putting effort into may not have payout in the end. The CW among chefs is that the trace amounts that are used in a product that is consumed as a luxury not a daily food is nominal and therefore insignificant. Now folks, don't yell at me, I'm just sharing what I hear. I would be all for a more natural product, and of course there are more applications than high end bonbons, but that's my two cents. BTW, @Kerry Beal has shared some info on additives to cocoa butters recently that I didn't know - things added not for color but other purposes. I'll let her share.

I was gifted a NWK chef knife for a private dinner I did in Napa earlier this year, and promptly passed it on to my spouse since I prefer Japanese steel and handles, but I'll tell ya what - that thing stays sharp and can take a decent beating. I think I've only honed it once and haven't sharpened it at all and it still glides right through ripe tomatoes.

It is very cold in my kitchen. I'm glad the landlord pays the utilities 😁

Holy crap look at the shine I got today! My room was 18°and the cocoa butter was loving it!

Really struggling with this technique but even the failures are cool.

He likes his room temp 18-20º, and I can tell you that my room is 20º and I've run into troubles with one of the designs and he wants me to lower the temp even more. And Rajala, for someone who seemed very resistant to this workshop as we were all planning it you sure seem to be paying attention. I would hope that if you find the information useful, you and others will consider supporting Andrey by taking a future workshop, as this knowledge is being shared with the understanding that he's trying to make a living by teaching it.

This is the effect that made me sign up for the class, and as he says repeatedly in his videos, this is his original technique. I saw a post by Melissa Coppel yesterday for a vanilla bonbon that I believe is following a very similar technique. Watch for it to explode very, very quickly across the globe in various formats.

Thanks @Tri2Cook and after all these years I've tried many others and still think mine is flavor and texture perfection. I wish people were more willing to buy them but I think unless you're from the south of the US its a hard sell.

Somehow I had missed that this existed until today. Anyone listening to The Slow Melt chocolate podcast?

My turn at the striped quenelle mold and the graphite look. All I see in the purple ones are the flaws. Ughh. I think I've been pushing/cleaning my mold surface either too hard or on too soft of a towel. The swoosh stripes were made with electrical tape. We're using what he calls PVC tape, but what we call electrical tape. For my graphite I accidentally ordered this high temp tape off amazon that worked great. Hard to handle, but once in the mold it was flawless meaning no seep and no residue. Here's what it looks like: and after splatter: And Then I had covered some of that tape with electrical tape to do a double strip seeing if I could remove one tape and not damage the second. It worked perfectly although I wasn't very careful in how I placed my tape:

Andrey refers to them as horizontal feed and gravity feed (side and top). I've used the horizontal feed for a decade now and it works just fine, but as we're discussing, the colder room definitely would exasperate the problem that already existed with horizontal feeds of the additional millimeters that the cocoa butter has to travel through, and be pulled through, versus the shorter distance of dripping into.

The funny thing about this to me is that with my old Badger I never could have pulled it off - not enough pressure. But now that I have the big ol' California Air Tool that YOU suggested I buy, I'm blowing through the gun with no issues whatsoever. I did also switch to a gravity feed gun at Andrey's recommendation and that i am sure is helping.

micro.

Here's a basic change that I have made because of this course - I now keep all of my cocoa butter in these plastic containers instead of all of those chef rubber bottles. So much easier to melt and use. Being a restaurant I have cases of these things, and I'm sure they're not hard to find.

Here's the thing about this course for me, and really any course - give yourself over to doing what the instructor is saying whether you agree or not and see how things turn out. That's a good way to expand your knowledge. I thought my tempering skills were pretty solid, but I've always had a few chocolates cling to the mold,, or cocoa butter pull off in the mold, or what I now know is not a great shine. This course has taught me so much about temperature control, and a side conversation with Kerry and Jim has reminded me of the inconsistency of thermometers. Each rough edge that I hone off (room temp, calibrating thermometers, time before fridge, to polish or not polish) have all upped my game little by little. But, I can still see a clear difference in Andrey's shine versus mine. Now, is that simply his photography skills or tempering...I think the latter. I think I can go even further with what he's teaching. Secondary comment - I'm not big on his fillings and quite frankly will stick to my preferred sources and my own arsenal.

I suggest buying a Pantene color guide...or hell, you could just go get a paint guide at the home improvement store. You have to understand the very basics of primary colors plus the use of black and white to darken/lighten/pastel. For percentages @keychrisis right on the mark although I would say a range of 5-10% or even 15% in some cases. Andrey Dubovic's class is covering this quite a bit and all/most of the colors you're seeing those of us in the class are making ourselves according to his ratios. Here is a black currant/purple that I made this morning. Could have used a bit more red to get it to where I wanted it, but still pretty.