mostlylana

Wow Kerry - you're my hero - you're such a do-er! I am aptly named 'Lana' as backwards it spells '----'... and that's me. My husband keeps wanting to set up the guns and compressor and experiment but I can't until I understand everything! I'm getting there... It will happen... I am so impressed with your results Kerry. Now I'm wishing I got that system. My gun has more gauges and regulators it seems. Can you control the cup pressure and air pressure to your gun separately? I can on mine but I need to find out what the max pressure on the cup is. The guys at the tool place scared me by saying too much pressure could blow up my cup! All of this talk about blowing up is unnerving. Cups blowing up with too much pressure, houses blowing up with compressors. Geez! What kind of system are you getting John? The one shown at JB Prince?

I receive the love... glad it worked so well!

I can't wait to see how you do with your gun! I brought my guns into our local tool place to get hose and fittings. They were boggled by the gun - they had never seen one like it - so they kept calling people over "hey Stan, have you ever seen a gun like this?" Between a bunch of them they had it kind of figured out. They were really surprised that no instructions came with it - they thought I should have gotten a DVD. Fortunately they were very knowlegable about guns and compressors in general so they helped me out a lot there. I'm going to call the salesman who sold me the guns on Monday and get him to walk me through it. The saga continues...

I like that idea - how clever. I was thinking of setting something up on a cart in a little used bathroom and utilizing the fan in there. However I would much rather be in the kitchen! I'll give it some thought and discuss it with some handy people and see what transpires.

Ouch - that's one of my biggest fears working with sugar. I bought some sugar gloves at www.dr.ca and they look like a pair of playtex gloves only more professional looking. I haven't experimented with putting my hand in hot sugar yet! Anyone have experience with sugar gloves?

Kerry that's awesome. Now we can trade gun stories. My hubby isn't handy at all so we're both looking at this spray gun and compressor while scratching our heads. I read the instruction manuals today. The compressor said in bold writing to not use indoors as it might cause your house to explode. Lovely. I called the salesman and he told me not to worry about it. Well - still a little worried. I then talked to 2 compressor using friends and they said the same thing - don't worry. OK, not worried anymore. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who's used a pressurized gun before. I have more gauges than I know what to do with! The instruction manual for the guns is not at all helpful in terms of usage. I'll have to do some online research and see how it all works. Ah the joys of chocolate making!

Thanks so much Kerry! I can't wait to see what I can do with them too! I'm making my 'to do' list today so I can be ready for Valentine's. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave me a lot of play time with my new toy. I'll be using it for basics (hopefully!) for my Valentine's Day products. I'll post photos when I get there.

Just got my guns today. Having never used these large guns - they look a little daunting! I also purchased my compressor a few days ago. I now have to bring my guns in to purchase the fittings etc. So after I read all my instructions I should be ready to start spraying next year OK - maybe a bit sooner... I have a simple question which I can't seem to find the answer to. When I want to change colours in my gun - or to change chocolates - what is the procedure for that? I read somewhere to use hot cocoa butter or hot oil to clean the gun out. I'd love to know what others do. I don't imagine you wash with soap and water at this point do you? Speaking of which, to wash at the end of a session - do you always use soap and water? How do you dry the gun or do you just let it dry on it's own? Or can you just put it in a warm place and leave it 'chocolatey' if you'll be doing another session the next day? I've only used an airbrush in courses and I never had to clean them!

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I am using a copper pot for my caramel so haven't added an acid. Perhaps that's something to try. I'm thinking I will add more glucose than I originally had added and perhaps less cream. There is quite a high water content in maple syrup. I had looked at the Greweling 'doctor' remedies and was thinking of adding invert sugar at the end. I'll keep playing and see what finally works! There's such science to all of this isn't there?!

That's funny!

Wow, this is the first time I've looked at this thread - amazing accomplishments! Emmalish, if you're not a professional photographer you should be - your photos are SO GOOD! I've never done a search on this forum for how to do food photography - that would be a good thread... I got some snowflake cookie cutters for Christmas - can't wait to try them. I love your white design... how did you do it - is that piping?

After experimenting, I'm going to go with a basic caramel recipe with some added maple syrup. I have a problem with this... the sauces I make this way are slightly grainy. I don't even like to use the word 'grainy' as it's more of a 'not completely smooth' sensation - I don't actually notice 'graininess'. So here's my recipe and this is how I do it: 200 g sugar 75 g glucose (corn syrup) 125 g maple syrup 275 g heavy cream 75 g butter Carmelize sugar (dry method). Add glucose and maple syrup. When liquid again, add hot cream. Cook to 220F. Take off heat, add butter. My regular caramel (similar recipe without the maple syrup) always turns out smooth and perfect. I'm wondering if adding the maple syrup at the same time as the glucose is the right time to add it? Maybe I should add it at the end?? If I do add it with the glucose, should I be bringing it back up to a certain temp. before adding the cream?? I'm not a caramel expert so any tips would be much appreciated.

No, I don't have them yet! They were being sent from Italy as I ordered one with a special nozzle. I'm sure they'll be here any day now... Once I've had a chance to play with them I'll post some photos.

Thanks for the input. It's always helpful to get other people's takes. I have been meaning to try that Cook's natural maple extract as well. I think I'll order a few different natural ones and try them out. The maple caramel I made was an adaptation of a recipe I got at the first Callebaut course - Discovering Chocolate. Here's my adaptation: 500 g pure maple syrup 250 g heavy cream 100 g glucose 100 g butter Cook together maple syrup, cream and glucose to 220F (you'll have to play with that temp. depending on the consistency you want. I went higher - 225F - and it was too thick for a sauce.) Remove from heat, add butter. I'm now experimenting with different maple syrups - I've tried dark, amber and medium. I found the dark tasted too much like molasses. I like the amber - it's strong but still maintains that maple flavour. Have fun playing!

Thanks Kerry, I'll do that. I contacted the hazelnut marketing board in Oregon but they didn't know of a source. I was told that American hazelnuts don't blanch well so most blanched hazelnuts come from turkey. Interesting...

I am wanting to do a double layer filling for a molded chocolate for Valentine's day - maple caramel and dark chocolate ganache. I've been experimenting with maple caramel recipes and haven't found one that is perfect yet. I need help! The one I just finished making is just maple syrup, cream, glucose and butter. Very nice but very expensive. I tried another at the other end of the spectrum - a basic caramel recipe with maple extract added instead of vanilla - no maple syrup at all. Not bad but seems to lack the richness of the all maple syrup recipe. I tried another - kind of in the middle - with some maple syrup added but mostly sugar. I then added a little maple extract at the end as well as some vanilla. Not bad. Anyone have a winner that they would recommend? I know that there is a thread on Maple extracts but no winner seemed to rise out of the pack. I'm a natural girl so I'd love to find a tasty 'real' extract. Thanks!

I agree - I'd happily pay extra for blanched hazelnuts... anyone know of an organic source?

Kerry - you're a trooper!!

Here's a good way to skin hazelnuts. I've tried it - it's the most effective method I've tried. You do need to toast them afterwards to dry them out. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/504535

Wow, that's awesome! I decided to process all of the hazelnut butter I had on hand and I added the stuff I had already processed to it. I did it all a total of 3 minutes. MUCH smoother than the photos I showed earlier. I could barely feel any grit. It poured out like a smoothie it was so runny. I think the larger amount in the Vitamix made it work more efficiently. Seems to be the opposite of the Sumeet. I have 2 kinds of commercial hazelnut paste on hand so I rubbed them all between my fingers. The commercial stuff is like handcream. There really is no grit to it at all. I think mine was passable but I did feel minute grit. My husband didn't notice anything on his tongue however. Tammy, I had inquired with John Nanci about making hazelnut praline using the Santha. This is what he said about using carmelized sugar: "The main problem with the caramelized sugar is that it is a vitreous sugar, and vitreous sugars are highly hygroscopic making them difficult and messy to work with as they absorb water and get sticky. Vitreous sugars, being amorphous, are more difficult to grind as they lack a crystal structure so tend to 'slide' instead of refine. Flavor wise, I did not find that the caramelized sugar added perceptively to the praline. It could have been my technique, but all things being equal (flavor vs work) I preferred just granular sugar."

I finished my little experiement with the Vitamix. I first processed some hazelnut butter that I purchased that was quite chunky. That was pretty quick work and it became quite smooth and runny. Next, I used whole hazelnuts. I used 1 cup hazelnuts and 2 tsp. oil. I had to stop and scrape several times at first as the pasty nuts would cling to the sides of the container. Once it got blended enough it was much easier. I processed for 3 minutes at this point (1 minute at a time so as not to overheat the Vitamix). After the first minute it was smooth but more like peanut butter. After the 2nd minute it was much more runny and thin. The third minute didn't make as much of a difference. According to the the chocolatiers I spoke with in Italy there should be no discernable grit between the fingers in order to make a smooth gianduja. Unfortunately, I can feel slight grit between my fingers even though the butter is smooth. I don't think any amount of processing would get rid of that. Perhaps this is where the Santha would come in. I'm going to try using my 'dry' container for the Vitamix to grind up my sugar into a powder to mix it with my hazelnut paste to get a fake hazelnut praline. I think I'll try your Almond paste recipe as my other experiment. I'll post my results when I do the experiments. Here's a photo of the 2 different hazelnut pastes. Was yours about this consistency in the Sumeet Kerry?

That's wonderful! I'm looking forward to seeing how you like it. I'm just now playing with my Vitamix. I was preferring to not have to add oil to the nuts to get butter but so little is needed according to the Vitamix instructions. I'll post my results when I have them.

I read a few posts here and on other sites that say they can't get it here in NA. Apparently the site always says 'temporarily out of stock'. See here: http://www.sumeet.net/ and click on 'models' on the menu. One person ordered one and a year later is still waiting. I think I'll call and ask.......

Kerry, thank you so much for such a thorough experiment. Your gianduja looks beautiful... I want some! It seems by what I read that the Sumeet Multi Grind isn't available anymore. I will call and ask to be sure. It seems like the Asia model is just a more complex and bigger unit that will do just as well as the Multi Grind. Would you have any idea of how a Vitamix would work for this purpose? It has a very powerful motor but I don't think it has the proper blades to get the smooth effect that the Sumeet gets. Thoughts anyone? .

I think you're right Kerry. I think half the battle is getting those darn skins off the hazelnuts. I have sourced some beautiful roasted organic hazelnuts grown here in BC but a lot of the skins are still adhered to the nut. I have tried in vain to find blanched organic hazelnuts. Anyone? I think I'll try the soda method to see if I can remove the remainder of the skins. But I guess that means roasting again...