gfron1

The dotted circle is a pastry tip. And the problem with the red seal for me is that you have to add so much colorant to get that waxy color that it becomes bitter to my palate.

that's exactly what those were - letter seals that you can buy online. I don't remember why but I bought them for a chocolate project ages ago. And I really just wanted to get this assignment over with. I hate hand-dipping. I don't hand dip. I won't hand dip in the future. So I let some feet show up on some of them. Really the only thing I was interested in was to see if the seal would easily release from the red chocolate, which it did.

Final assignment. Not sure why this is last instead of first. But now I can circle back and start working on the eye design.

Latest assignment for me. One more, then I'm going circle back and work on the eye.

Hope you enjoy it. I was happy to hear that Barnes and Noble in the bar area still has it on the shelf. Pretty great considering we're two years out from release.

Word has it that I get the honor of welcoming our humble crew to St. Louis in 2019 for the next workshop. I relocated to St. Louis about two years ago (born and raised here, but gone for 30 years), and already know all the chocolatiers and culinary school staff, so this should be fun. At this point I'd love to hear your thoughts on a few things: 1. Dates. Typically in May. Often there are conflicts like the NRA convention and weddings. The facility may drive this answer but I'd like to hear what you all would prefer. 2. Content. What would you like to see covered and what maybe hasn't worked so well in the past? 3. Here in town we have Rick Jordan and Nathaniel Reid in addition to a bunch of casino chefs and other artisanal chocolatiers. Christopher Elbow is across the state (5 hours). No question, just throwing that out. 4. Does anyone live nearby who can help with planning, or even if not close can support the planning from afar? I know that when Ruth and I worked on Vegas neither of us were on-site, but Ruth made a few trips so the work can be done from anywhere. 5. Any must or absolutely nots from previous events? As always I hope we have a great mix of new and old, experienced and novice. St Louis is central, and being a secondary airport you can normally get really cheap flights!

Someone on here convinced me to buy the Breville Assistant (many people on here have convinced me to buy many pieces of equipment) and I would most likely not recommend it for a variety of reasons. I say go get a refurbed robotcoup and be done with it.

Generally leaves are 2-2.5 g I believe. I know my silver are for sure. As for what the recipe is calling for. That would be 10 sheets of silver...I can't imagine doing 25 g powder in that recipe. You'd have a brick. Even 10 sheets seems high to me but maybe not. For comparison, here's a recipe I use often: 60 gm of sugar for a dry caramel 360 gm of heavy cream seed from 4 vanilla beans 120 gm yolks 3 gm of gelatin So that would be a sheet and a half (mas or menos) silver for 540g recipe (actually I would consider it a 480 g liquid recipe). A sheet a pound (very crudely). BTW, this is a huge pet peeve of mine with professional recipes. Be clear on your gelatin, cream, butter %, etc.

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.