ejw50

Thanks for the info. Well that kind of pisses me off. I emailed them on Sunday about the switcheroo, and they didn't get back to me at all. It was only after I called them that they answered my question. They substituted gel glace for cremodan last time (maybe they are the same I don't know) but now this is twice. Ugh. Anybody have a different vendor that they like?

I'm gonna retract my recommendation of l'epicerie. They recently substituted dextrose for atomized glucose without telling me (3 bags!). Then I emailed them but didn't get a response for 3 days. When I finally called them, they told me they were the same, but they're not according to a thread where I asked about it. @$@$@$@#$@#$

I recently bought Atomized glucose from L'epicerie in New York. They sent me Dextrose (labeled D-Glucose Pure) instead. When I called, they said it was the same thing, except one was from wheat and one from something else. Is this correct? Do they have the same sweetening power? I am a little annoyed that they didn't email me to tell me at least.

lol, I would've suggested poached fruit but I like this idea better!

I second this line of thinking. Find out who your audience is. Find out what they like or decide what you are trying to get them to like. Tune your choice for that.

Yeah, I tried that, but had problems getting it to work when I tried it. Maybe my temperature was too low. I tried a 2:1 chocolate:cocoa butter ratio. I've gotten straight cocoa butter to work on chocolates. But maybe (probably) I was doing it wrong . Will try again sometime.

I have a can that I still haven't used. question on cost. Does anybody else use the el cheapo Badger airbrush that Norman Love uses? Have any of you gotten a chocolate + cocoa butter mixture to spray from these to get the velvet effect? It didn't work for me, but maybe I was doing it wrong. Rather than buy a whole new brush, I just bought a can of the velvet spray stuff.

I have a 6. I estimate it's about about 12 molds worth that you have to do each time for an ideal amount of chocolate. This way, it's a good pool that stays tempered, you have enough chocolate left in the pan afterwards to melt and seed and do 12 more molds and repeat the cycle. As said before, if you do less, I don't think yo uhave an ideal pool of chocolate. If you have a 3, you can still do molds, just dump the excess onto parchment or marble sheet. Or else dump the excess into a really big bowl. Then dump back into the melter being careful of overcrystallization. Or else just reserve the chocolate for later use. This is what I did when I used my ACMC table top temperer.

I would not recommend stevia as it adds a distinct grassy flavor that would be out of place in most sorbets (and, I think, is out of place in just about ANY dish). If you can use palm sugar, that's great and while it also has a flavor to it, it's not nearly as discordant as stevia's -- it's almost caramel-like. I'm surprised that palm sugar is okay but cane and beet sugar aren't, but if that's the case, that would be a good substitution. --Josh ← Well stevia might be OK if you are making Vernors sorbet or root beer sorbet or something like that. Vernors is a type of ginger ale sold in Michigan. Though, isn't it illegal to use stevia?

I don't sell, but I gotta think that competition is a bigger threat than the economy. Used to be Norman Love was one of the few people airbrushing his chocolates. Now everybody does it. The general techniques are getting more known and now we have 2 great books in English (Greweling and Shotts), one of which costs only $20 or so. As people know the techniques, they are going to open up shops. Even I can do those basic techniques, and I work long hours in an engineering job. To me, that effect is much greater than that of the economy.

Thanks for the pics!! I also noticed from your pic that you don't need some fancy and hard-to-maintain guitar. You can just buy one of those rollers that they sell at JB Prince instead. It costs a lot less money and can also be used for cutting Joconde cake! Thanks again!!!

I second YLee's idea, you can make a white chocolate/lemon ganache that is not too sweet. Could you pipe a thin layer of curd into the mold, let it set a little, then pipe a layer of semisweet dark ganache and let that set before backing? Would that work? If those two layers mixed a little bit, it's not a big deal. It is a different flavor from pure lemon , inspired from Pierre Herme's Mozart cake.

Oleana doesn't have the $100 - $150 testing menus (not that I remember), so I guess I'd put it in middle-expensive. I"ve only been once, but Oleana does have excellent food. In particular, I appreciated the dessert menu which is a little adventurous but not weird. It's not one of those creme brule, chocolate cake, and ice cream dessert menus. The flavors on the two we tried were outstanding. On the topic of dessert, Finale is totally overrated (IMO as always).

I had a good time. Food was not out of this world, but was good. Service was excellent and Ming was there and was a great host. Pricing was reasonable for Boston. The food tasted to me as if you would make it at home. That is, sometimes in restaurants you get the super rich meal or something super complicated. My experience was not like that. To me, if I did the fusion thing at home, that is how it would've tasted.

expensive (my picks) L'espalier, No 9 Park, Radius cheap - Rod Dee (either location), Pho Pasteur (Chinatown location) Nothing really stands out in the 'middle' category at the moment.

another vote for Christina's from me. Herrell's is also great. To me, JP Lick's is a little less expensive and they give you more, but not quite as good (to me). Tosci's closed for a while because the owners didn't pay taxes. After a "save tosci's" fundraising campaign, it reopened.

I second this, for the same reasons. Related, I hate cleaning the kitchen period after making chocolates. I'm not that clean so it's always everywhere - the counter, the drawers, the floor, the microwave, the window sill - everywhere.

great thanks for the report!

it's only 50g of emulsifier, not 1500g. 1500g is the eggs. A few points - "Larousse des desserts" by PH has a the same recipe without the emulsifer - "Pate a genoise a l'amande". I think you can skip the emulsifier. - "Larousse" also lists the more 'classic' genoise right before, so PH thinks the classic one is good enough to list in his book. - Larousse mentions a double boiler for the 'classic genoise' (with photos) and mentions the double boiler for the almond genoise too. I substitute regular genoise for the almond one with no problems. Up to you if the almond genoise is worth it. You can get most of the equipment in the book's photos (except the salamander to do carmelized joconde) from jbprince.com. I can second alanamoana's pointing out l'epicerie as a food vendor. You might also consider just doing substitutions - ie instead of making that ganache w/invert sugar just make a regular ganache.

Valrhona is my favorite when I want the white chocolate flavor in a dessert or chocolate Straight, I like El Rey. But to me, it has a different character than other white chocolates.

thanks for t he vid link!

Wybauw, in his book and his classes (according to reports here anyway) says if you are able to learn your melter calibration, you can do what you did, give it a quick stir, and have it ready to go. That is, the bottom will be undercrystallized, the top will be overcrystallized, and if you mix it all it will be just right providing the temperature is set correctly. I have never gotten that to work so I just bring it up to ~110 or so. Wybauw, in his book and the class reports here, also says you keep increasing the temperature by .5C increments up to a max of 93.5F I think. Alternatively people on here use a heat gun/hair dryer or dump in more melted uncrystallized chocolate.

Hey David How do you draw a pencil thin line with the 250? Or are you saying the 100LG won't let you draw a pencil thin line either?

You can optionally torch Italian meringue. In one of his books, PH has a pistachio mousseline cream/strawberry cake with genoise covered with Italian meringue. He torches the Italian meringue.

I think the best way is to be prepared beforehand. Make in quantity beforehand, freeze in vacuum bags (such as David J. has shown in previous threads)