Lior

Oh and thanks for all the welcome home greetings!! It was a bit of a short trip but it is only about a 4-5 hour flight and one hour time difference so that helps a whole lot. We had a girl from Kenya (nairobi) called Rupa- lovely lady- and another that was also in my previous course and is just lovely- Elenice, from Brasil- so it was wonderful to see her again. Then we had Martin from Denmark, someone from Russia, Jasper from Norway, and a few from Israel. So more: If you are tempering the ganache by the cooled cream/melted tempered chocolate method, then it is highly suggested to add the butter to the cream while hot. So we first worked on slabbed ganache in frames. JPW used frames that he had made from some material like plastic- he said small and thin is in, so the frames are thin- about 4-5mm in height. He puts an acetate sheet on a flat tray and sticks it on with melted chocolate. Then he sticks the frame on with melted choco. You pour the tempered ganache into the frame and smooth it out. If it is thick and starts setting- which it has a tendency to do as it is tempered- you can smooth it out and flatten it by putting an acetate sheet on the ganache and use a rolling pin to roll it even and flat.. If it is in a frame or tray and is lower than the rim of the frame you can even it and flatten it by using an offset spatula that fts just within the frame and it works beautifully. Always start with the layer that needs most to cool down Pictures coming

Hello! So I arrived in Aalst Tuesday evening. This is not tourist season so shops and even restaurants closed rather early compared to when I was there in October. I had a hard time finding a restaurant! Here is the view outside my "Best Western" Keiserhopf hotel: Lovely! Well after a dinner of pommes frites and tomato soup and red wine, I walked back to my hotel and went to bed while it was still light outside. It gets dark very very late! I woke bright and early as the pick up was at 8am. First we all go to the coffee bar in the academy- just outside the lab. We all chat, have coffee or tea and chocolates. JPW and Sonja chat with us too. We then went into the lab, with our net caps, and lab coats. Wash hands, rinse with alcohol and go up front to JPW's table for a short lecture and demo on ganache. Main points: Ganache must be tempered to be stable. This is for consistency in texture, extended shelf life, holding flavour and mouthfeel, keeps moisture better and is more resistant to temp fluctuations of day and night. One can experiment by making one ganache tempered and one not and follow up on the two daily for 2 weeks or so to see the differences. Two ways to temper ganache: a. Pour cream over chocolate callets and make the ganache as usual. Pour onto a tray and put in fridge until you can identify the ganache setting at the rims. then give a short mix on the counter and bring to room temp befor using. I mixed in bowl.... b. JPW said this is his preferred way lately: Heat cream and infuse if necessary, cool down to room temp and then add to melted and tempered chocolate. This is the way we mostly made our recipes. More on ganache: Shelf life: 1. temper ganache 2. Sugars for shelf life extension: isolates or binds the water a. Honey and invert sugar are one and the same - save the flavour of the honey, of course. Rating of 125 on the sweetness scale ADVANTAGES: moisturizer- prevents ganache from drying out. Increases shelf life and acid inverted over enzyme inverted is more stable DISADVANTAGES: too much is too sweet and makes ganache too soft. At 70C or higher it loses all advantages but the sweetness stays. b. Glucose/corn syrup: Rating of 70-75 on sweetness scale ADVANTAGES: increases shelf life. Retards crystallization of sugar DISADVANTAGES: too much makes for a sticky ganache c. Sorbitol (all "ol" sugars have smaller molecule size so shwelf life is better due to surface area): Rating of 60 on the sweetness scale. ADVANTAGES: Increases shelf life. Not so sweet. Available in dry powder form . Moisturizer. DISADVANTAGES: too much has a laxative effect!! d. Glycerol: Rating of 55-60 on the sweetness scale ADVANTAGES: moisturizer. Increases shelf life, soft mouthfeel. 3. Alcohol- problem in Canada, U.S.A. and Arab countries due to restrictions. 17% alcohol will give a shelf life of one year. If stored in such a way as nothing can evaporate. Basic recipe: 2000g chocolate, 1000 g cream (about 60% water) for a total of 3000g which has 600g water. So add 17% of alcohol - based on the 600g water- to get fantastic shelf life 4. Adjust acids to get at least a Ph of 4.5. This can be lemon juice, acidity stabilizers for a shelf life of a few months 5. Salt also adds shelf life and reduces sweetness. Use a touch of Sodium Bicarb- be careful and few grains too much will make it taste awful. 0.9 Aw- 3 week shelf life 0.7 Aw- 2 months 0.6 Aw - very stable against bacteria up to a year Other ganache issues: use a whisk not a spatula- breaks less due to smaller size particles. Homogenize with high speed makes even smaller particles and this adds to shelf life also. Always process or "refine" whole spices, dry berries etc to get aroma and flavour out before infusing. Always pass through sieve (dah!) There is a nice gadget to measure Aw it is called an Aw meter and takes a short time. More to come later!!

Hi all! Back from Belgium and all things chocolate!! I am working on resizing pictures and uploading them to Imagegullet. I will start tomorrow with pictures and descriptions. All in all it was a good course, too much in too short a timeframe and believe it or not, stressful!! I felt like Lucille ball in that chocolate factory scene when she ate chocolates to prevent them from falling off the belt. Do you know that scene??!! I also will tell about chocolate world. Good night for me at least!

Tomorrow I will be in Belgium for the course. I will take pictures and etc. I will also go to Antwerpen to Chocolate world. Will report back next week. I hope to have time to see Burie and a few others in Antwerpen..

Please note a mistake- I am soooo sorry: Cheesecake: That would be: 225 x2 gr cream cheese 30% fat natural flavour 200 gr x2 15% cream. If you don't get different percentages I am sure half and half is fine. Here each container is 225 and 200 respectively- I forgot to say it was 2 containers so those amounts should be doubled. Hope no one had a flop. Awfully sorry!

Just to follow up and complete the circle I took some pictures and want to make some comments. 1. The pear juice must be squeezed out very well. I had difficulty with this and so I made them more like pancakes than like patties. But everyone really loved them so all's well that ends well. The cake needs to be in the oven 2 hours I think as the center was still wobbly the following morning! Quinoa salad: up close to see the colors of the quinoa quiche cheesecake patties

I posted a picture over on food culture and tradition...

squares and truffles up close:

Hi. I posted an interesting one over in food traditionsand culture, under the title of Shavuot- last page- if you are interested!

You are certainly welcome!!

Thank you Lisa!

Very very nice! Thank you ever so much!! I guess he should have written: "heat sugar syrup" not liquour, to 119! I am glad you cleared that up for me! Thanks for the pictures! It seems an amazing course! I wrote to him and asked if he could come here and he actually answered me! I hope it will work out!

I will look into that green idea! Clever! Well here are my pralines before dipping: and marbled- extra and in between pieces after cutting out (hence that flexi Pavoni ganache mould would be handy) : and finished. The top Pistachio layer kind of drooped a bit due to the warm chocolate.: Recipe: 250 g raw pistachio nuts- I shelled and that's it. I think if I blanched and peeled the outer thin peel my color may be better. 62g of almonds, bought blanched broken pieces and ground 125g sugar 3g water First I ground the almonds in my little coffee grinder (2 batches) Then I did the same with the Pistachios- in small batches! Then I put it all in the food processor as I thought it may work just as well! I put the water and sugar in a small pot and mixed and stirred and wiped down sides till it reached 121C It quicky passed that by a few degrees... be careful and prepared! So mine was a golden colored syrup and I think it should have been opaque. So my pistachio paste has a slight caramel tone to it- not at all bad! I added this to the food processor while it was working. Then I just continued grinding till the machine heat up. I wold allow the machine to cool down and I would then continue. Until it was too much! The rest is history recorded above! Enjoy! editted for space bar issues!

pine nuts and pomegranates. I think I will have to try this!!

I am still marveling over the colors... The greens and potatos are my style- yum!

That could be a good idea! But I guess it would have to be added at the beginning. In the end Imade a layer of almond marzipan and a layer of my pist marzipan. I willpostpicslateron. They taste very nice but I think the almond marzipan outdoes the pistachio layer.

If it is from chocolate world, I can get you one and pop it in the mail if they can't send it or if it costs a ridiculous sum!

All the vegetables look so perfect in color and shape! Are they genetically influenced or something? Everything seems soperfect thatit seems unreal! Wow! DO they taste as wonderful as they look? Do you eat broccoli sprouts?

Excellent!!! Lucky you!!

Well thank you so much! I will keep it cool next time! I just cam eto post updates when I saw your tips! They relate tomy very problems! Anyway I took the drippy brownish greenish goop out of thefridge this morning to figure out what to do with it. I added teaspoon byteaspoon of 96% spirit to it until Ihad added about 6-7 tsp and... WALLA!! It emulsified and came together like playdough! I was fascinated!! It is still a bit oily and the color can take your mind off pistachio paste to other undesirable places but I have what I need!! and:

Thanks for the suggestions! I really want it for chocolate though! Maybe just mixed with chocolate, slabbed and dipped? I will look through my books and see if I get ideas! Thanks anyhoo.

Pineapple is different and goes with a lot of things. CLoves? CHile?

It tastes delicious, but looks greenish=brown and is not the right consistency!! I guess that how it is with experimentation!! Maybe I will find a use for it - in a ganche or something! Thanks Gap!

oh dear!! So that must have been what happen. No way to repair? I put it ina bagin the fridge... It is also less green...

Just thought to update those following this. I have been processing on and off all day!!! I am nuts!! WHen the machine heats up I wait for it to cool... Anyway this last time a change occurred. It suddenly became a paste- really quite soft, too soft to mold like dough!! Now it also got hot! Perhaps that is why! I hope this heat did not ruin something! Now I am waiting for it to cool down.