merlicky

I use E. Guittard 61% for many of my dark chocolates. It is a very fluid, slightly sweet chocolate that seems to mix well with most flavors. They have distributors all over North America. I’m not sure where you’re located, but if you call their customer service number, (800) 468-2462, and ask about distributors in your area they will be happy to help. Scharffenberger now belongs to Hershey so they have distributors everywhere. Their customer service number is (866) 608-6944. The only problem with Scharffenberger is that they don’t offer true bulk packaging. They also don’t offer much of their product line (like their 41% milk) in anything other than retail sizes. Also, if you really want to try Valrhona there are deals out there on some of their couvertures. See page 4 of this link for one example from European Imports Ltd in Chicago: Valhrona Deal. It's an old offer, but I think they still have special pricing on this product.

As someone above mentioned, this is not a problem specific to peanut butter. It can happen with any soft center that is rolled round. As chocolate firms up the fat crystallizes and begins packing together more tightly, kind of like a puzzle. This causes chocolate to shrink as it hardens (which is why it comes out of molds so well). So, when you have a soft center without a firm structure the chocolate constricts around it and squishes it in. And, when that center is round it pushes toward the center from every point. The pin holes are usually cause by air bubbles in the chocolate coating from dipping. The bubbles might not be visible on the surface, but can still cause a thin section in the coating. As the chocolate squishes the center in, the center will try to push back out. The first thing that will squeeze through any tiny hole is the liquid part of the center, which is why you notice the oily substance (the oil from the peanut butter – in truffles it is usually any liquid flavoring or part of the cream). Often times if there are no pinholes in the coating then the truffle will develop cracks or have the bottom break open (having the bottom break open is much easier to fix). I haven’t quite figured out a definitive answer for why this happens sometimes and not others, but so far my experimenting has led me towards how quickly the chocolate hardens. It seems that if the chocolate sets up quicker you are more likely to develop these problems. If is sets up slower it seems more likely to take the shape of the center. Some of the ways to avoid this issue are: -Leave the centers out, uncovered until the surface develops a skin or crust. This creates a firmer surface for the chocolate to set. -Pre-coat the center with a thin layer and let set for a few hours before dipping. This gives the chocolate time to harden and squeeze the center. Often times you will notice that the pre-coat develops cracks. Pre-coating acts similar to letting the center form a crust because it creates a firm surface for the rest of the chocolate to set. However, if your pre-coat is too thin then it will not have squeezed the center and you could still develop the leaking on final enrobing. -Hand-roll the truffles multiple times to build up your standard coating. If you don’t dip the truffles, but rather hand roll them two or three times to get your coating, then you shouldn’t see this issue by the final coating. ADDITION: Another thing, when you use the chocolate chips with paraffin you typically don’t get a real temper on the chocolate. The wax keeps the chocolate from forming bloom, and also makes it more pliable. Therefore, when you use this method you don’t get the constriction on the center as you do with tempered chocolate.

In my experience there are two ways to end up with lumps of chocolate that won’t melt. The first is to get liquid in the chocolate. The second is to overcook the chocolate. However, I have never had a problem getting either of these to emulsify in a ganache. If you have ever made caramelized white chocolate (the chocolate is heated to 200°-250°F) you would see the chocolate go through a phase where it is very chunky and grainy. However, with a bit of stirring and cooling these lumps go away. Also, I’ve typically noticed that overcooking causes grainy lumps as opposed to mushy lumps in the chocolate. The mushy lumps I’ve run into typically are from water getting into the chocolate. The water ends up binding the solid particles together and you get that peanut butter consistency you described. However, when more liquid is added to make a ganache you can typically get these clumps to breakup and emulsify…though you might need to use an emersion blender to do the trick. Bloom should not have this affect. The bloom is either the sugar crystals or the fat crystals being pushed to the surface. If it is left this way for too long the crystals on the surface can pick up off-flavors, however once melted they will reincorporate into the chocolate. So, the worst you could end up with is some not-so-nice flavor profiles.

From the brief description above I would say that both of you can claim handmade chocolates. I think what you need to focus on is not descriptive words regarding how the chocolates are made, but rather on the fact that you create truffles, pralines, etc... and do not just coat dried fruit. The word chocolate can be applied to any candy which uses chocolate...chocolate bar, truffle, coated nuts, etc... Just because two products claim to be handmade chocolate does not remotely mean they are comparable. Focus on your centers...handmade truffles, handmade pralines (not handmade chocolates).

Thanks! None of them lasted for more than 4 days so I couldn't tell what would happen. There was no crystalization, just a thickening...still good, still gooey...just not oozy any more. As long as they don't continue to thicken though, I'm fine with it. And, I really liked them with dark chocolate too. I used a 61% E. Guittards, but I think I might go with something a little darker next time.

I’ve got a few questions about the flowing caramels, which I made on Saturday. I filled the molds; all the pieces came out great. On Saturday and Sunday the caramel had a very vanilla-y taste and was quite fluid. By Monday, however, the vanilla flavor was a little more subdued and the caramel no longer flowed out of the chocolates when bitten. I actually liked the flavor better on Monday, but I liked the texture better over the weekend. I had been intending to save at least one for a week or two to see if anything else changed over time; however, leaving chocolates at home with my wife is not a very safe thing to do! Alas, I have no more pieces to test. So, my questions are: Is it normal for the caramel to thicken up over the course of a couple days? If so, does this process continue so that it would become a chewy caramel after a week or two? If so, is there any way to maintain the fluidity of the caramel? Obviously this is my first foray into the realm of caramel making, so any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

We made the Wybauw too and also ended up with a really soft ganache. I think his method is supposed to create a fairly firm ganache because the chocolate never leaves temper (doesn’t Grewling also table his slabbed ganaches?). I think the problem might have been the percentage chocolate we were using; if I remember correctly that bags said that it was a 55% chocolate. I think most of the dark recipes with 1:1-ish ratios are formulated for 65%-ish chocolate, so this might have caused the ganache to be softer. A bit more chocolate would have probably helped (or a bit darker chocolate). At least that’s my best guess.

See this post for answer. Also, that picture is not me (easy way to tell is that there is no ring on the left hand).jturn00, I believe the curry coconut recipe was the Madras from Grewling's book in the butter ganache section. The meal was pretty awesome, the stuff of legend as AnnaN describes. An excellent deal too since it cost me less than the fairly average meal I had the night before in Niagara Falls. Kerry, and everyone who pitched in and taught or helped organize, did a wonderful job. Thanks. And, keep posting pictures, since I didn't have my camera with me.

Thanks!

I actually got the idea for tabling from the Greweling book…I think he uses it for his slabbed ganache, but I thought I’d try it on all of them. When you add seeds to the ganache, what size chocolate pieces do you use? Is it chopped up into fairly fine pieces?

I believe that mine is right around 24x18x1. The local granite shop where I bought it had a minimum dollar purchase on their remnant pieces, so this was the smallest size that made sense (any smaller and I would have been paying more per sq. foot).This size seems to work well for me…it is big enough to work with batch sizes that I make, and, while fairly heavy, it is still light enough to move around. I like to work over it when I’m enrobing also, because it is easy to clean up.

I use a marble slab. I got it initially because I wanted to try some fondants and fudges (haven’t got a chance to yet), but decided to try using it for ganaches too.

Recently I have been trying to find ways to speed up production on truffles, and I’ve found that tabling the ganache really helps. Does anyone else do this? After emulsifying the ganache and adding any flavoring I cover it with plastic wrap. I leave it in the bowl and lay the plastic wrap right on top of the ganache. After letting it sit for awhile (while it is still semi-fluid, but not runny) I swish it out of the bowl and onto my marble. I work it back and forth for a little bit and then scoop it into a pastry bag. If it is still not firm enough to hold shape when piped, I let it sit in the pastry bag for a couple minutes and it firms up. Then, I pipe them out onto a sheet and after they set up a bit I roll them. I let them sit a little longer, after rolling, before I pre-coat and dip. I used to let most ganaches sit overnight before using them, so this method takes a lot of waiting time away. I can make several small batches (10-25 pcs each) of different flavored truffles and have them done in a few hours (varies depending on qty and how many types of chocolate I need to temper). Now, if only I can find more efficient ways to temper chocolate and dip truffles. Originally I was worried about what affect tabling would have on my ganache. Some formulations seemed to set up a little firmer than they did without tabling…however, the mouth feel was still about the same – same creaminess. There were a couple recipes that used milk chocolate that I did cut back the amount of chocolate (not only is it quicker, but it also costs less!), but most items worked as is. The tabling also helps some ganaches that took a long time to set up, like my vanilla bean, caramel, gingerbread, and Grand Marnier. A couple of these I’ve let set for two days before enrobing. But, by tabling them I have been able to complete them on the same day.

Not really a where question, but more of a how question... How much cocoa butter do you use when trying to cut back chocolate. I want to use some white chocolate for enrobing certain truffles, but it is way too thick to be workable.

Still early on to have any great stories, but I was making the malt honeycomb brittle truffle (or whatever it’s called) from Chocolate Obsession – and I poured the hot sugar on to wax paper instead of parchment paper…needless to say that when I went to break up the honeycomb brittle there was a wax backing to it.

Out of curiosity, what makes it more difficult to work with? If it is just that there is less alcohol content, I’ve used other liquid flavorings than liquors and have not had problems. I just rework my chocolate amount to maintain my ratios.

Has anyone made Grand Marnier truffles? Wouldn’t you treat the wine in the same fashion as the Grand Marnier? I don’t have my recipe on me right now, but my Grand Marnier truffles consist of chocolate, cream, butter, orange juice concentrate, and Grand Marnier. I change the ratio of cream to chocolate to make up the difference of adding the extra liquid of the oj concentrate and the Grand Marnier. I also do a Bailey’s Irish Cream truffle where I cut back the amount of cream to make up for the additional liquid of the Bailey’s. I believe that Grewling has a ratio in his book that is a good base for fat to liquid in truffles (at least I think Grewling is where I got it from).

I’m not in business (yet…hopefully) but in regards to logo and packaging design in the chocolates that I give to people… I created my own logo… I also rework/add to the logo for different seasons. The holidays for which I’ve given chocolates are Christmas and Valentine’s Day. So I have my standard logo, and one for each of these holidays… As to the packaging, I use the ballotin style box tied with ribbon and tag with the logo (kind of like a present).

Should this be done on cooled or room temperature mable?

Actually, I just got a marble slab and that is part of the reason I am curious about the flake. I’ve read the story about the cooling chocolate drizzling from the molds and creating the waviness of the flakes etc, but I guess I’m not sure about the technique to get them into bar form. If I start scraping the chocolate from the marble wouldn’t I end up with a bunch of smaller flakes, and not the thin flakey bar? Perhaps I just need to stop asking questions and just go try it.

I want to try and make something like the Cadbury Flake, but with chocolates that I enjoy much more than Cadbury. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to go about making these?

No bakes are one of my favorite type of cookies – especially the chocolate oatmeal variety – so of course I decided to mess with the recipe and try to improve it. They typically use milk fats along with cocoa powder to create a sort of chocolate, I wanted to try using higher end chocolates – cocoa butter and all – instead. However, I could not find a single recipe that did this, so I went to the kitchen. The first thing I found out is that you can’t cook the sugar as long or you end up with a dry, crumbly cookie. Honestly, most of the proportions were different from my standard recipe. It took a few tries to get the texture right, and a few more experimenting with different chocolates (various E. Guittard, Callebaut, Scharffen Berger, Michel Cluizel, and Valrhona chocolates). I ended up finding the Valrhona Le Noir Extra Amer 85% makes the best cookie (despite this chocolate getting poor reviews, it works exceptionally well in this application). So, if anyone is interested, here are the results of my experimentation… (makes 40 cookies) Ingredients: 7oz Valrhona Le Noir Extra Amer 85% 5oz Creamy Peanut Butter 2 cups Quick Oats 1 2/3 cups Sugar 3/8 cups Whole Milk 1 tbls Butter 1 tsp Imitation Vanilla (for whatever reason I found this to work better than the extract) Directions: -Melt and temper chocolate (even though the chocolate probably comes out of temper later, I found that the cookies turned out better if I did this – don’t know why). -Mix in peanut butter until smooth. -Mix in oats. -Melt butter in pan and add milk and sugar. Stir until combined. -Heat sugar mixture on medium to 220º-222º (using an infrared thermometer I heat the sugar until the surface area is covered with bubbles and reads 220º-222º all over). As the sugar is cooking heat the chocolate mixture back up in the microwave for about 7 seconds on high – to around 97º (again, don’t really know why this works, but it seems to help). -Remove sugar mixture from heat and add vanilla. -Pour sugar mixture over chocolate mixture and stir until consistent texture. -Spoon onto cookie sheet and let cool.

Tiny, When you made the butter ganaches (if you made any that required fondant) what was the consistency of the fondant and what method did you use to get it incorporated smoothly. I’ve made the lemon logs a few times and have had more trouble than I should getting the fondant to spread evenly throughout the batch. Thanks.

prairiegirl, congratulations. It must be exciting to be legal...kind of like getting your drivers license. Out of curiosity, when you wrote up the business plan, what sources did you use for your market research section? Thanks.

I would answer the question, yes and no. Since both are based on chocolate, they should set up the same if their percentages are the same. Chips are often semi-sweet, so would have to use a different amount of cream than you would with bitter-sweet or milk chocolate. However, I have found that chips produce a slightly grainier texture than covertures most likely due to the lower quality chocolate and the extra lecithin to help them retain their shape.