lebowits

It might also be good with a mixed milk/dark chocolate ganache. I think a white shell or a dark shell decorated with white/orange/green would be a worthy experiment. Confectionery partner, Barbara, and I are making the ganache tomorrow along with Greweling's mixed color hard candy from the big book (a la Minas6907). Busy day ahead. Probably won't get the ganache dipped though. Barbara is bringing the white chocolate. Of course all of this depends upon whether or not we get the threatened freezing rain!!! So?!? Results please! Alas, we got the freezing rain. If the school buses are cancelled...then you don't bother. We live about 45 country minutes apart. Rats. I need a cooking/baking/etc next door neighbor. I will report back when we get it done. In the meantime, did you try your own recipe? Tastes would be better than photos, but photos will have to suffice. I haven't tried it yet, but I figure I'm going to wait for the eG chocolate workshop in a couple of weeks so I can share it with the group. I'll report back then.

It might also be good with a mixed milk/dark chocolate ganache. I think a white shell or a dark shell decorated with white/orange/green would be a worthy experiment. Confectionery partner, Barbara, and I are making the ganache tomorrow along with Greweling's mixed color hard candy from the big book (a la Minas6907). Busy day ahead. Probably won't get the ganache dipped though. Barbara is bringing the white chocolate. Of course all of this depends upon whether or not we get the threatened freezing rain!!! So?!? Results please!

Two things when "footing". First, you're just going to have to get comfortable spreading a really thin coat with a pallet knife. I remember hearing this from another eG'er years ago and trust me, it just takes a little practice. Second, many people use UN-tempered chocolate for the foot. It takes longer to get firm enough to touch, but it won't crack and break off anywhere near as much. I've reached the point where I just don't have time to deal with untempered chocolate. I've got too many other things to get done. So I spread a really thin foot, and cut it as soon as it's dry to the touch. I do this on my slab caramels which are cut by hand and with ganache slabs which are cut on a guitar. Don't fret. Practice and enjoy the remnants!

Naaah... A little clever marketing ('hand-crafted!' 'exclusive, very limited edition!' 'heirloom style'), and jacking up the price to about 250% of the cost of the ones that came out right, would have these bad boys flying out the door. There's one born every minute... OK, OK, so you could sell them. That doesn't assuage the misery when, after spending hours making the damned things and thinking they were perfect, you go to pop them out of the mold and they leave behind the top layer of cocoa butter: believe me, I've done it, several times. It sucks. It's not over-perfectionism, it's failure. I throw them away. Wybauw would recycle them into caramels - Black Devil's I believe they are called. You could sell them at a reduced price as irregulars/seconds. I know at least one chocolate shop that does this and they seem to sell really well. Most people LOVE a "bargain"!

And I'm looking forward to tasting it! Don't worry if they're not as pretty as others. Flavor first, beauty second! Not to mention that it takes a bit of practice to figure it all out.

It might also be good with a mixed milk/dark chocolate ganache. I think a white shell or a dark shell decorated with white/orange/green would be a worthy experiment.

RobertM - Don't put me down as a definite for Friday afternoon yet. I'll definitely see you Friday morning to drop off some gear, but I then have to pick up a couple of folks at the airport. Not sure what will happen then. Is there a definite plan for Friday afternoon? I seem to have missed it in the forum.

I too have suffered from less than beautiful results on far too many occasions. No pics yet, but wait for it; they'll come. One of the phenomena I've routinely experienced, especially when molding plain chocolate shells (e.g. bittersweet 74%) is that some of the cavities come out looking stunning, while others have a dull finish. The cavities in the mold have been treated pretty much identically during my use and cleaning/polishing. Is it likely that I either abused the molds in some way to get this or that perhaps some of the cavities weren't perfectly smooth to begin with? I'm considering ordering a new set just to see what I can get out of them.

Seems to me a white chocolate ganache flavored with lemon zest/juice, lime zest/juice, orange zest, grand marnier, and a bit of tequila would create a very nice flavor. The lemon & lime would substitute for "sweet & sour mix", orange zest for the triple sec, and the rest is straight from the drink recipe. I would use 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1/4 to 1/2 an orange for zest (depending on your taste), and grand marnier and tequila to taste. I'm going to have to work on this one. It sounds good.

Forgive the nagging... Is there a specific room we should look for?

RobertM - Would you please post the street address for the conference location?

It will take you more than an hour to make the trip. BWI is close to Baltimore and you're heading south into Virginia. My guess is that it will take 90 minutes or more depending on traffic. Fortunately, you should be able to get ahead of the Friday rush hour traffic.

What size and thickness do you cast the slab?

I would also be curious to hear a description of your technique for achieving that particular decoration.

I make a hard crack caramel to which I add a bit of peanut butter right at the end before pouring it out in a thin slab. I suspect that this technique could also be used to make a softer slab of milk/butter caramel. The peanut butter would simply be a flavoring agent. When I make a caramel for enrobing, the final temp is about 243F which shouldn't burn the peanut butter. You'll just have to calibrate the amount of peanut butter to add according to your taste. If you're worried about the oil separating out, add a touch of liquid lecithin to the the pot while cooking the caramel. That should help keep everything in emulsion.

Think you could pack a small party keg of beer?

I actually just made the Wybauw formula this weekend. I had been searching for Marc de Champagne for some time and finally got a lead from someone I met in a class to pick it up from EuroGourmet in St. Louis (ask for Didier). Marc de Champagne is a very concentrated flavoring "gel" which pours and smells very strongly of wine. After making the ganache I tasted it before it and was a bit underwhelmed by the flavor so I doubled the Marc de Champagne (60 grams vs 30). That greatly improved the flavor. The result is still a very soft ganache which requires truffle shells. I expect that the product could be tightened up into something which can be rolled, but you might have to boost the Marc de Champagne again to punch it up over the taste of the chocolate.

I also recommend at least 2 of the 3 Wybauw books. The third is a much more scholarly discussion on ganache formulation and shelf life but the first two have plenty of formulas which are just ripe for experimentation.

Those look really nice. I had problems with this mold the first time I used them, but have had good luck since. The only thing I have trouble with is that the air bubbles are really hard to get out. I have more trouble with that than cocoa butter sticking. I had a few pieces with air bubbles as well. My usual method of aggressively tapping the sides of the mold with the handle of my spatula worked reasonably well. I had more issues with the milk chocolate itself behaving rather poorly. This was likely due to the weather conditions. Overall, I was very impressed by how cleanly the pieces came out of the molds. I only had to buff a few small places to wipe out excess cocoa butter that was left behind.

Lisa - May I ask why you use this mixture to grease your pans? I'm curious to understand if the lecithin serves a specific purpose.

I recently purchased a compressor and air brush. This is my first attempt at decorating molds before casting the shells. The piece is a "Grand Marnier Caramel". The mold is decorated with "sunrise orange" and yellow cocoa butters. The center is a 1:1 caramel with a bit of butter added. Melted, untempered milk chocolate is added to the cooled caramel in a 1:1 ratio with the weight of the completed caramel. 1% of Grand Marnier by weight is then added and I also put in a bit of orange oil to punch up the flavor. I don't know if it is coincidental or not, but this is my first time using this particular mold. I've read recently that people have had issues with pieces not coming out of new molds easily. Either this is a really good mold, or perhaps the cocoa butter sprayed into the cavities allowed the pieces to come out very easily. Either way, the pieces taste pretty good and they don't look to bad for a first attempt.

I should be able to bring my compressor and air brush too.

I've also had the "implosion" with that exact same mold. It doesn't happen immediately, but after a couple of weeks. It is my belief that this particular mold casts very thin shells on the sides and as the center dries out, sucks in the sides a bit. If you cast the shells twice, you should get a thicker wall which will eliminate this problem. Interesting. It does look like the sides with the white chocolate stripe did not implode, so I guess the extra layer did add strength there. I haven't been using my smaller molds lately - been making solid bars instead - but will get back to it soon. I spent a few hours yesterday with a local chocolatier who stressed tempering the ganache, although they do only slabbed & enrobed ganache, not filled pieces. She did some on the marble slab and some in the robot coupe with the liquid at only 145F so the chocolate wouldn't overheat. There are a lot of things in cooking that you can fake your way through, but not chocolate It could also be the relative material strength of dark chocolate vs white chocolate. My pieces which implode are white chocolate.

I've also had the "implosion" with that exact same mold. It doesn't happen immediately, but after a couple of weeks. It is my belief that this particular mold casts very thin shells on the sides and as the center dries out, sucks in the sides a bit. If you cast the shells twice, you should get a thicker wall which will eliminate this problem.

Absolutely yes! Having taken a class at Callebaut (Chicago) early this year, I'm very excited at the thought of learning more technique.