chefmoni

i've always just purchased my chocolate at the local baking store (NY Cake or in Chelsea Market), but it's very very expensive. And now that I'm starting to do more mass/retail production, I would prefer to spend less and buy more. Where does everyon else buy their chocolates (valhrona preferrably)? Thanks!

thanks for all the helpful suggestions! i can't wait to dive into this and i'll keep you all posted on the results....

haha thanks for the suggestions! definitely don't want something sickly sweet....

I think that I'd be inclined to reduce the orange juice and sugar to a thick syrup before adding to the ganache; otherwise, you may have too much liquid. Please let us know what you decide and how it turns out! Good luck. ← OH GREAT! that's definitely an idea to tinker with. i took a look at your website, and what proportion of champange do you use in your champange chocolates recipe? do you also use champagne extract or just champage?

oops forgot the butter too!

that's exactly what i was thinking, but not with the extract....but i'm not sure how much of everything to add. i guess i'll just experiment unless anyone has made this before! here's my ingredient list: white chocolate heavy cream sugar trimoline orange juice (fresh squeeze) orange zest vanilla salt champagne and the candied zest on top of the chocolate for decoration

hola! i want to play around with a mimosa ganache for some molded white chocolates i hope to make, so does anyone have a recipe for the ganache that they like to use for a chocolate filling? thanks in advance!

hello!! i'm new in posting my desserts to this topic, but an avid watcher of your dessert intake. anyhow, figured i'd finally pipe up and share what i made last night. it's an anise panna cotta with spice poached rhubarb and sryup and candied star anise. it was mighty tasty, especially since i'm on a HUGE rhubarb kick right now!! ENJOY! i wanted to upload a photo of my dessert, but how do i do that in a post?! any help would be great

thank you thank you!! can't wait to attempt...i bought some rhubarb today because i'm making rhubarb sauce and some poached rhubarb to go wiht the panna cotta

I'd like to attmept an anise flavored panna cotta and have a few questions. 1. what are some of your basic recipes for a panna cotta? 2. how much star anise would you infuse with the cream? 3. would you add vanilla or just plain anise to the base? thanks!

i, too, tried becca's pound cake today. purely delicious, but i baked it in a bundt pan and the middle fell a tad. also, only the bottom (well the top that baked in the oven, but the bottom of the cake when inverted out of the pan) had that wonderful crust. how would i get that crust all over the rest of the cake?

going with the pretzels and chocolate thing (i'm originally from pennsylvania), i'd "update the american classic" with maybe a chocolate tart using a pretzel shell and service with some classic vanilla bean ice cream. a few other ideas you can play off of: lemon meringue tart/pie -- maybe with some blueberries when they're in season apple pie peanut butter and chocolate anything pound cake woopie pies caramel popcorn doughnuts

thanks!! if you want the recipe i devised, you can find it on www.gildedfork.com enjoy!! I'm glad you reported back with your results chefmoni... these sounds wonderful. Now I'm struck with the insane urge to make more marshmallows *right now*! I have a bottles of cassis and framboise lambic in the cooler begging to be marshmallow-fied! ←

Ok so I experimented this weekend and made several batches of Champagne marshmallows, and they came out wonderfully!! I used nightscotman's recipe as a base, but altered it a bunch! the champagne doesn't set as well as using all water, so i had to decrease the total amount of liquid in the recipe by a 1/2 cup. but i used Champagne in both parts of the recipe -- blooming the gelatin and making the sugar syrup. i also added some vanilla paste,to the second batch, which was a great compliment to the Champagne. finally, i used onyl 2 cups of sugar since Champagne already has a sweetness to it. YUM-O!! they definitely tasted like Champagne! sorry I don't have any photos to post, but they look just like regular white marshmallows since the color is not altered. although, i wonder if they would be pink with rose Champagne....now that's another experiment.

hi!!! i'm new to the post, but i'm really interested in trying to make champagne flavored marshmallows. has anyone tried this yet or know if it would even work? how much do you think i should attempt to add to a recipe?? thanks for helping a curious mind....