Ceviz

Thanks Lebowits ... nut creams are indeed spreadable giandujas, and I think adding giandujas to these spreads would make them a little bit firm. I will try to add a little bit butter or very high percentage milk cream to obtain more creamy texture. Thanks for your interests.

Nutella for example ... as a hazelnut cream.

Hi friends, I've searched the forum but I couldn't find information about the cream (not paste) of nuts as fillings. Also, as far as I see, internet does not have so many recipes with them. I'm making mainly cream based ganaches so far, but now I'm thinking to make moulded chocolates with hazelnut cream, pistachio cream, almond cream etc. as fillings. I will not make them myself and use some commercial brands. I'm thinking to use them without combining any other ingredients, but I would like to learn your ideas about the recipes with those nut creams. Which ingredients can be combined with those creams in order to give more smooth mouth feel without shortening the one year self-life of these nut creams? Thanks ... and, as always, I'm sorry for poor English.

I'm sorry for the late reply. I'm not located in North America or Europe but I think I will have access to those brands. Thank you for your advises, I will search about that model of Cuisinart and about Thermomix.

I'm using Magimix 3200 food processor at the moment for emulsifying my bitter ganaches and for making small batches of marzipan. But, now I need to upgrade to the more professional type, mid-high end food processor for more larger batches. I will use it for the same purposes, that is, for emulsifying ganaches and making marzipans. I need your advises and helps. Thank you in advance.

Thank you prasantrin and Chris ... two great ideas. I think I have to explain why my chocolates have to be produced by hand and others not.

I'm producing handmade truffles, pralines, and most of them containing cream ganache. Other person, making chocolate covered dried fruits, names their production "handmade" as well. My shelf life 3-4 weeks at most, his shelf life one year. Besides, he's not spending labor like me. So, I want to stress the difference between us for my customers. How can I do that? My question is: What is the most distinctive feature of handmade chocolates? What is the handmade chocolate? It is just a chocolate made with real hands? ... or it is the chocolate that is not suitable for factory production? I will use your opinions as a part of my marketing strategy. Thanks in advance.

Eddy Van Damme has a more exact homemade invert sugar recipe.

I'm using glucose syrup (corn syrup) in my cream ganache recipes now, but thinking to move to handmade invert sugar (one measure sugar, one measure water, a little bit lemon juice, boil 20 mins). I would like to take your advises about the substitution ratio I should use in my recipes. Thanks.

I, too, want to thank you for all these excellent information.

My collection has 25 pieces, and most of them are cream based ganaches. I have averagely 4 weeks of shelf life for my pieces, and none of them below 3 weeks in my environmental conditions. After 3 weeks, I'm starting to taste for taking out possible spoilt ones from the shelf. At this point, my original interest was to find these bad ones with more reliable and certain method than my tasting. That is, I was looking for a affordable device that tastes instead of me, and will say "take out this one" or "not spoilt yet" scientifically when inserting into the piece Thank you Truffle Guy. I've learnt so many details about the increasing shelf life from your detailed explanation.

Thank you for books and the information.

Prairiegirl, thank you so much. I'm wondering about exactly that section ... how "another chocolatier (a member here) had his product tested after 12 weeks." It seems that there is no definitive, but at the same time low-medium cost way or a measurement device for a chocolatier for this testing for making in his shop. Tasting is the only way in this case.

Thank you, but if I'm not wrong, aW may indicate how long the piece may stay in the shelf. When finished the piece in the kitchen, if you know the aW of your piece exactly, you may decide by looking at the table (I suppose there is such a table) how many days that piece may stay in the boxes if all the other conditions are ideal. Humidity, room temperature, light etc. I don't know ... is there any critical aW level, below it, we can decide that our pieces are bad? But, let's say we don't know the aW of our piece at the beginning, or our environmental conditions are a little bit different. And, there are some pieces on my shelf and I want to decide which one is bad, which one is ok. Is there any device saying that? Or, the only way is tasting, lookin at the appearances?

Firstly, I'm sorry for my poor English ... I would like to ask a question about the shelf life of pieces. It is generally accepted that most of cream ganache filled chocolates have 3 weeks shelf life. I'm controlling my pieces at the end of the 3 weeks period, and trying to decide which one is bad, which one may stay in the boxes by tasting, looking at the appearances etc. I would like to learn how I can measure shelf life of my pieces more safely. Are there any device or definitive method to control and measure the shelf life of pieces more accurately? Thanks.