ejw50

I also think 2:1 is the classic for the centers. If yuo're going to eat them right away you can go down to 1.6:1.

I think freezing is worth doing to learn the technique. Somebody who attended an Andrew Schotts class (Sote23?) said that Schotts said that EVERYBODy freezes. I use a foodsaver + bags from ebay. As Lior mentioned, you can use the reusable Reynolds bags (forum member David J does this). Greweling also has a blurb or two in his book about freezing. Wybauw has a shorter paragraph or two if I remember. Somebody (I think Schotts again, on here) said don't use a commercial vacuum sealer because you'll end up with mush afterwards. Just use an el-cheapo and you don't need or want the perfect vacuum.

I have an ACMC. Good machine, but as Wybauw says, hard to clean. Makes tempering very very easy. Also, makes filtering out the tiny unmelted pieces out very easy. I use my Mol d'art more now, but I give the ACMC thumbs up.

agree that closeups are always appreciated! Thanks for the description of the technique. Changing the angle of the mold seems so obvious after you mention it! Question on the red/orange ones. To get the red/orange to 'show' through, do you find you have to put a really heavy layer of cocoa butter? Assuming dark chocolate, I always end up spraying or painting white cocoa butter behind my reds/yellows to get the color layer to show up. but maybe I'm missing a trick.

Ditto what everybody else said. I've done the vacuum seal thing many many times.

John and Russell, thanks for those recommendations!

No, it's pretty much the recipe in Wybauw's book, except with paste instead of praline. I didn't make gianduja in the middle.

Very nice. Do you mind describing your technique. On the ridged domes, did you just spray half the mold? Did you have to block off half? On the yello/green ones geodesic domes same technique? Are the colored ones white chooclate? And the round domes, is that luster dust?

I use the Wybauw one. That's the 1:1:1 cream/chocolate/nut one right? I've tried it with both praline and pure paste for the ganache. I like it best with the paste, it gives a nice deep nutty flavor that counterbalances the sweetness of the milk chocolate. Maybe the pure paste is a little worse from the AW point of view, but I like the taste better. Either way, it is a soft and smooth center.

OK first thanks to Jeanne who got me some callets. I was lucky enough to see her production and she runs a clean kitchen with emphasis on taste in her products. She also went way out on a limb buying ~$300 worth of stuff for a person she knew nothing about! I made a batch of chocolates this weekend using callets. IMO, callets are actually *cheaper*. Not cheaper in materials, but cheaper overall. They're a lot cleaner than blocks (which spray chunks everywhere when I cut them), which saves cleanup time. Also they're faster when seeding because I"m not blowing time cutting them into small pieces. So basically the saved labor cost makes up for the increased materials cost.

lolol, love the bacon 'palate cleanser' lol. I did a similar test of my lab. Dark chocolate with Callebaut, trader Joe's, Valrhona, Ghiradelli, Hershey's, Lindt. In my test, Callebaut came out tops. Valrhona came out at the bottom. Valrhona has a stronger, more distinctive taste that experts can appreciate. But I think regular Joes and Joannes may prefer something more plain.

great find, I probably will subscribe

Any thoughts on how he makes a cheesecake ganache without killing shelf life?

woah lots of info here thanks for posting!

Hi! Was wondering if my fellow egullet posters could help me out. I'm going to Vegas in Feb and am looking at visiting some great pastry shops or places to get dessert. I see that Jean Philippe Maury has a shop in the Bellagio. Anywhere else I should be going? Thanks in advance!

thamks for review

I've tried this with rice flour, unsuccessfully. It just did not taste right. It tasted fine with glutinous rice flour, so I think the recipe was fine.

thanks for the story. It's important to hear reports of good customer service in addition to the reports of terrible customer service (l'epicerie *cough*).

There is a small chocolate shop here in Boston. I visited and was amazed at the budget saving measures she takes. Namely - No enrober - No melter (!) - Callebaut, not Valrhona or Felchlin or any of that ($$) - About 10 flavors (not 30) - Cutting ganache with a knife (not a guitar) - About 4-5 molds (not mold types, molds!) - sleeps and lives downstairs - No huge freezer with freezer energy costs - For efficiency, she cuts and dips ganache and minds the store at the same time. http://www.chocoleechocolates.com/ In a lot of ways, her setup was far more primitive than that of many egullet hobbyists. I'm sure she knows about the fancier setups. But she knew how much money was coming in and how much investment she could recover. A real eye opener.

If you have the book "Baking with Julia" Alice Medrich mentions her technique. You can also see a video here http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/meet/medrich.html# She shows her chocolate ruffle technique at the beginning and the 'wrap' technique about 4/5 of the way. Rather than using acetate, she uses plastic matting from the housewares department used to drain glassware or something like that.

lol

My friends and family get used to my stuff, so it's always the same set of chocolates - raspberry - dark chocolate ("palet d'or") - lemon - Pistachio/cinnamon - white chocolate vanilla - cherry - hazelnut crunch - coffee - caramel - hazelnut cream - peanut butter - passion fruit thanks for all on this forum who have helped me improve my technique!

what part is buckling? What about using straight acetate that is less flimsy than transfer paper? How tall is your cake?

got some chocolate dried on my spatula. Tried to use a knife to chop the chocolate off the spatula back into the melter. Realized after I finished the batch (of 350) that I had chopped off a whole bunch of rubber off the spatula into the melter. Said forget it and ate them/gave them away anyway.

Those are backed off beautifully. Thanks for the pics! I'll trust you guys on the mess factor. Maybe that guy in the video is just messy.