Tri2Cook

That might do it, I haven't tried it since. I started doing my PB&Js as shell molded pieces with actual jelly and peanut butter ganache. If I ever get to a point where I need better shelf life, I assume I'll have to find something to replace the jelly which is why I've kept a close watch on Jim's posts about his piped PdF experiments.

I understand, for the purposes of the class, he has to evaluate results based on what he's trying to teach and how he expects them to look (although they look shiny to me). But I like the natural look of it. I personally, outside of doing what was asked if I was taking the class, would omit the stripe and let it look like a chunk of granite... but I'm not sure if that's for the rock effect or out of plain ol' laziness in not wanting to have to tape all those molds. Rob posted one of his pieces in this thread not too long ago that had a natural rock-like look to it, albeit a shiny, well polished rock, that I really liked. I've never known myself to have any particular affinity towards rocks but for some reason I really like the look on the chocolates.

That's the problem I had with Greweling's PB&Js. I tabled the peanut butter gianduja to temper (this was pre-EZtemper) and poured it over the PdF layer. When I tried to cut it once set, most of the cuts just shattered.

That's ok, I don't really see me getting into it anyway. I can't imagine it would be as simple as I made it sound to do it legally.

Welcome aboard. While cannabis is of no recreational interest to me and no medical need for me, it'll still be interesting to see what you do. With the news that it will be legal for recreational purposes in Canada as of Oct. 17 of this year, I could see cannabis confections becoming a lucrative venture here in the near future.

Those are really nice. I especially like the granite look of the first one.

I really wish I liked sponge toffee more than I do, it always looks fun to make. And look at those 28 year old chocolates... none of that 7 gram stuff!

I'm imagining the scandal among the local red hat ladies... they always show up in fully synchronized red hats.

I used 200 grams of the freeze dried corn, 250 grams of cocoa butter, and 100 grams each of the butter powder and sugar plus 5 grams of salt. I haven't done anything to temper it yet but the batch of milk chocolate I made before this hasn't been tempered yet either and it's solid, not soft at all. This stuff is literally like a really nice soft ganache. I asked the question regarding high milk fat levels from using butter or heavy cream powder having negative effects and was told by someone who does the bean to bar thing as a business that they haven't observed any negative effects caused by that. Edit: So with pastrygirl asking about the cocoa butter amount I used and another person (Rob... aka: gfron1) mentioning the same thing on my Facebook post, I think I'm going to give upping the cocoa butter level a shot. Nothing to lose at this point, it's not going to do what I want it to do the way it is now and the entire purpose of this batch was to learn.

I'm not calling it a solved mystery at this point but, unfortunately, I may have some evidence to present on the problem with starch. I can't remember where we were discussing it but there was a post regarding Michael Laiskonis running popcorn through a melanger with other ingredients and mentioning that it shouldn't work. We were puzzled why that would be a problem as long as there was sufficient cocoa butter present. While I don't know what the difficulties he was alluding to were since he never specifically said, I've encountered a difficulty with my little corn experiment and I can't think of anything to pin it on other than the starch in the corn. Everything I did is a proven process other than using a starchy item as the base. Regardless, after over 10 hours out of the machine, this stuff is still the texture of a nice ganache. I don't think there's much chance it's going to set up any more than it already has.

I don't know, I'm a fan of making the observer use their imagination a little bit every now and then. Besides, it got three (that we've seen so far) lessons out of one mold... so efficient too.

Not actually chocolate but I'm putting it here anyway... Freeze dried corn (a gift from Kerry Beal that inspired this idea), cocoa butter, butter powder, sugar and sea salt. The live action shot. It's actually out of the machine now and tucked away to cool. After about 20 hours in the machine, the final color isn't as nice as I'd hoped (picture the above with a slight grey-ish cast to it) but this was just an idea test anyway, there are ways to solve that problem if I decide the buttered corn bar is worth doing again once I get it tempered and molded. Assuming it will temper and mold, it's still pretty soft right now after 4 hours out of the machine.

Doesn't look like a little too much to me, looks just right.

Ingenuity, yes and they do look delicious... but I was thinking more along the lines of only Kerry would get a short break in a long and busy shift at work and spend it seeing if she could find herself some more work to do.

I enthusiastically searched a few recipes just to see what I would be getting into because I don't have a whole lot planned for today unless the rain moves out. And then I saw that I would be laminating dough and decided to file it away for fall or winter... or not at all.

I was thinking "have I ever had a buttery what?"... ...and then I saw that it's not a buttery anything, it's just a buttery. So nope, never had a buttery.

I don't think you need to worry about an apology for that. At least, if you do, then I owe a whole lot of people a whole lot of apologies. This particular topic is like a bullet train. You turn away from the computer long enough to take a drink of your beer and when you turn back, it's moved forward 3 or 4 pages. Add in me forgetting to check in on it for a couple days and I have to play catch-up all the time.

Guess I'll have to look back through those pictures again... I thought you were.

So much shiny...

That's awesome. Doesn't apply to me since I wasn't at the workshop (and I don't need more colored cocoa butter at this time even if I had been) but that's a really nice thing for him to do.

I've eaten a whole lot of fiddleheads foraged by my late wife and her sister over the last 20 years. We'd eat them often when in season plus there were always numerous bags of them in the freezer for later consumption... no damage to report so far. I didn't make it out to grab some this year so I suppose we can see if I'm in better health going forward and just didn't know they were damaging me all along.

While I have pretty much zero interest in recreating fried chicken from any chain, I've done more than a little bit of attempting to duplicate food from other fast food places I used to visit before I moved to a place where none exist. The difficulty in doing it, for me, is I don't want an upscale eGullet-worthy "better" version of those items. I want authentic tasting to the nastiest nitty-gritty. That's not as easy to accomplish as one might think. I've had results I could live with but none that got me where I was trying to go.

I have two SS tables that I was able to get at a good price when a local restaurant was closing and I just recently acquired a 28" x 25" x 1.25" thick slab of marble that is going to stay on one end of one of the tables once I get everything set up the way I want it. But I'm not entirely sure I needed the marble, I was just able to get it at a good price as a remnant from a local contractor so I figured I might as well have it as an option. I can't think of any reason SS wouldn't be fine but I'm certainly not an expert in the chocolate field. I did any chocolate work (which was mostly dessert and decoration related, not molded or slabbed chocolates) at a restaurant I used to work at on SS tables. It's what was there so it's what I used.

I wasn't thinking the word silly would offend anyone. I wasn't thinking anyone would actually be offended by anything said. I was just thinking the class is available to all who want to take it, not sure it's fair to expect a few to spend the money to take the course and then come here and tell the rest of us how everything's done. Not really fair to the people paying for the course or the person selling the course. No harm in asking, just don't agree that it would be silly of anybody to not want to.

I agree with you on reading all of the reviews. I read the negatives as well. I just generally try to weigh the good against the bad. When they start getting balanced or even in the general neighborhood of balanced, I really take note. But when the large majority are positive, I start considering the possibility that you can always get a lemon even if there are 100% positive reviews. I also tend to portion a certain amount of the really bad reviews, when they're surrounded by a majority of positive reviews, as potential sour grapes over something. That's just my approach, not suggesting others should shop the same way.