lebowits

If you were willing to use a starch box, you could cast plaster into the mold and fasten them to a semi-circular "rod" to use for imprinting the starch. This would give you the spaces to fill with the liquor/sugar solution which would crystallize enough to dip.

Thanks for the last of your pictures Steve. I have a question In the photo showing Kyle making his own transfer sheet - it looks as though he's painting on a texture sheet. Is he? That would make a neat effect. Has anyone tried that? I also like the clever idea to keep the coloured cocoa butter melted. I don't have a microwave so was going to lay them in my yogurt maker. We're quite an ingenious group aren't we?! ← Kyle was painting the colored cocoa butter on the "transfer sheet". In this case, the sheet looked to be an acetate sheet sold in office supply stores for making "slides" for overhead projection. The acetate sheets I've bought so far can also be found in art supply stores and are larger format.

I gave this additional thought last night and now believe that the flexi molds might not work so well. The starch/sugar mixture could play an important role in the exterior crystalization of the pieces. Further with the pieces already being so fragile, they would very likely not survive the flexing of the molds to eject them.

Sometimes the most important skills are not technical but organizational. I'm not counting anyone out.

I haven't thought about a fixed date yet. Someone suggested that we look for a 3 day weekend. I would like to keep it to "spring" so we won't have to wait too long for the next event. Perhaps May 2010. We could shoot for the US "Memorial Day" weekend. This might be an issue with the places I'm going to be contacting. I'll know more soon.

The last of my pics are now up on Flickr. You can find them here. I'm sorry that there are so few from Day 3 that were worth posting. Enjoy!

You might also try "chocolate" dipped pretzel rods. You could use "compounded" chocolate that is more temp tolerant than couverture. After dipping in the chocolate, you could decorate with all sorts of nuts, candy "sprinkles", etc. which will appeal to many, especially kids.

The traditional way of doing this is with a starch box. This is a box filled with a starch/confectioners sugar mix. Impressions are made in the starch which are then filled with the liquor/sugar solution. The solution forms a sugar crust and these pieces are then dipped in chocolate. Another way would be to find a silicon flexi mold. You might check with Tomric Plastics or Chef Rubber. I have never done cordials this way and suspect that there might be a lot of breakage as the uncoated pieces can be very fragile.

For those interested in an event for next year, I've created a new topic located here. Please keep those cards and letters coming!

My current thought is to host this event in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I am hoping that we will be able to work out some type of arrangement with: 1) Albert Uster Imports and/or 2) L'Academie de Cuisine (my culinary alma mater). I have also contacted the Corporate Pastry Chef at Tomric Systems in Buffalo, NY to see if they would be interested in "sponsoring" us again next year. The responses I've received from folks so far are generally supportive of the event itself and the location. Gaithersburg, MD is near Washington DC and within range of 3 international airports. Hotels are near the proposed location as well. If anyone is interested in helping me organize the event, please send me a PM. I'm not aware of many folks nearby, but I'm hoping.

I have established this topic to being the planning for the 2nd (hopefully) annual eG Candy & Confectionery Conference. The first event organized by KerryBeal et. al. was a great success and now it is time to start thinking about next year. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN ORGANIZED THROUGH EG FORUMS BY MEMBERS BUT IS NOT SPONSORED BY THE EGULLET SOCIETY FOR CULINARY ARTS AND LETTERS OR EG FORUMS. YOUR PARTICIPATION IN ANY EVENT OR ACTIVITY ARRANGED ON OR DISCUSSED IN EG FORUMS IS AT YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE RISK. BY USING AND PARTICIPATING IN THE FORUMS YOU AGREE AND UNDERSTAND (1) THAT IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR PARTICIPATION IN ANY EVENT OR ACTIVITY, YOU MAY BE EXPOSED TO A VARIETY OF HAZARDS AND RISKS ARISING FROM THOSE ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS; (2) TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, YOU AGREE TO WAIVE, DISCHARGE CLAIMS, RELEASE, INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS THE SOCIETY, ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, AGENTS, AND OTHER PARTNERS AND EMPLOYEES, FROM ANY AND ALL LIABILITY ON ACCOUNT OF, OR IN ANY WAY RESULTING FROM INJURIES AND DAMAGES IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH ANY SUCH EVENTS OR ACTIVITIES. YOU AGREE AND UNDERSTAND THAT THESE TERMS WILL BE BINDING UPON YOU AND YOUR HEIRS, EXECUTORS, AGENTS, ADMINISTRATORS AND ASSIGNS, AS WELL AS ANY GUESTS AND MINORS ACCOMPANYING YOU AT THE EVENTS.

By far my most popular pieces are caramels. I generally enrobe them and decorate with sea salt (fleur de sel) though you will have to be careful in summer that the chocolate doesn't melt. My 2nd most popular piece is a white chocolate raspberry truffle.

I've just uploaded my next set of photos from day 2. You can find them here. I'll add the rest as soon as I can. It's was really tough going back to my day job today.

I've got all my photos on the computer and I'm in the process of uploading the first edited set to Flickr. These are just from the first day of our 3 day event. You can find the pictures here. Enjoy these and I'll get the rest uploaded over the next day or so.

First, thank you Kerry for organizing a great weekend. You really put together a first class event and I suspect that we all had a wonderful time. Second, I personally had a great time meeting everyone, putting faces to names, and comparing notes on business issues, supplies, and techniques. Of course we shouldn't forget simply hanging out with a bunch of cool people. Saturday dinner was one of the best I've had in a very long time. My favorite dish was the wild mushroom soup topped with truffle infused cream. You can't go wrong with truffles (wild or chocolate). Finally, I think I must have taken close to 300 pictures. As I just returned home a little over an hour ago, I'll get them onto the computer, sort out the cruft and post them very soon. I would like to pose three questions: 1. If you attended this years event, would you attend a similar event next year? 2. If you did NOT attend this years event, would you be interested in attending next year? 3. How important is location to you? The reason I ask is that I did indeed suggest in a conversation with Kerry that we do this again and that I would work on such a project. It is my intent to see if I could get my culinary alma mater and a local company to "sponsor" us and let us use their facilities in Gaithersburg, Maryland (near Washington DC). Please post your thoughts here or send me a PM. Again, thanks to you all.

We made the Wybauw too and also ended up with a really soft ganache. I think his method is supposed to create a fairly firm ganache because the chocolate never leaves temper (doesn’t Grewling also table his slabbed ganaches?). Greweling generally specifies tabling the slabbed ganaches until they reach the desired consistency. In several instances he specifies using tempered chocolate as well. I think the problem might have been the percentage chocolate we were using; if I remember correctly that bags said that it was a 55% chocolate. I think most of the dark recipes with 1:1-ish ratios are formulated for 65%-ish chocolate, so this might have caused the ganache to be softer. A bit more chocolate would have probably helped (or a bit darker chocolate). At least that’s my best guess. ←

My team did the Morato method which turned into a soft slab suitable for piping, but not really for enrobing. The method called for heating the chocolate to between 40C - 45C and adding the infused cream when it cooled to about 30C. I suspect if we ignored heating the chocolate to that high a temperature, and used tempered chocolate, we would have had a firm slab. I remember seeing the result of another team which had also done this method and had coated both sides of their equally soft slab. This allowed them to at least attempt to cut and enrobe the pieces.

I've made pistachio marzipan using Peter Greweling's formula and it was a great success. The color is a "soft" green, with a smooth texture. After nearly destroying my home food processor I bought a Waring commercial model which does much better with these types of products.

I'm looking for advice on making "Leaf Croquant". I remember successfully making this product when I took a class with Chef Greweling almost 3 years ago. In reviewing the formula and method, it seemed to come back to me as "medium" level of difficulty in execution. Here is my problem. I have successfully made the almond nut "filling" and have that set aside. I have the ingredients measured out for the caramel and a set of rulers laid out in an approximately 12 x 12 inch rectangle. I cook the sugar and add the glucose off the heat once I've reached the "medium amber" color he recommends. I pour the liquid caramel into the frame and it simply doesn't cover the entire surface inside the rulers before beginning to set. I've compared the quantities of the ingredients in both the book and the class notes/hand-outs and they match. The only thing I can think of is that the surface under my silpat isn't temperature "neutral" and that the counter top is simply drawing away the heat too quickly. Has anyone else executed this method? Do you have suggestions or advice? Many thanks.

Another option which gives you quite a few flavor options is to bake a "flat" biscotti. Biscotti will have a more crumbly texture, but you can shape it pretty much any way you want and since you cut them before the 2nd bake, you can control the size and shape.

Thanks for your post. I've had a Rev 2 for about 2 years and have enjoyed using it. I have 2 sets of bowls/baffles etc. and haven't had the problems you've reported. What I typically have to do is to watch the prongs on the baffle cross-member which plugs the baffle into the machine. If you're not careful, these prongs can be bent and require a bit of minor adjustment. Good luck with your machine!

Mmmmm! Sounds wonderful. Thanks for the post!

Would you please post the citation for book you got the fondant formula and method from? ← French Professional Pastry Series: Creams, Confections, and Finished Desserts by Bilheux and Escoffier. This is vol. 2 of the series. Many thanks! I've added it to my "must buy" list. ←

Would you please post the citation for book you got the fondant formula and method from?

Lior - Would you be willing to share your formula? It sounds delicious!