mostlylana

Rich, I'm loving the Gold Egg... how did you get that effect? Congrats on awesome work!

Can you expand on this? I've never heard of alkalized cocoa mass. Interesting...

Cool texture sheet... what company is it from? I've never seen it before. My goodness, I don't know why I don't look at this thread more often. Everyone's work is amazing! Ruth, love your eggs. Steve, the Guiness bonbons are awesome and keychris - those zebra hearts are so cool! ...and that's just this page! I'll have to figure out how to post a picture again and come out to play

Oh my gosh!!! I can't believe you got the secret!!! THANK YOU so much for sharing! I'm pretty excited as you can see. I've never cracked it and can't imagine we could have with those precise parameters. I can only imagine how thrilled you were when he started talking about it. HA! Needless to say - I would love the recipe. I do a hazelnut butter ganache with an airy texture that can also crumble when cutting. It sets quite quickly so I watch it like a hawk and cut it at just the right time. If I wait too long I might as well just start all over as it will crumble all over the place. But if I get it at the right stage of setting up, it cuts beautifully. I have heated the wires of my guitar for caramel based slabs and it does help. Maybe it would help in this case too. Oh, I'm just so excited! Thank you again lironp.

In researching how to invert sugar using invertase, most sources say after the sitting period, to further reduce the syrup. This, of course, entails cooking. When making ganache I didn't used to heat the invert sugar over 70C, but now, after researching how it is made, I don't adhere to that. Here's what Minifie says about making invert sugar in Chocolate, Cocoa, and Confectionery: Science and Technology: 50% concentration of syrup. Bring to 140F. Adjust pH to 5. Add invertase at 0.15% of the syrup. At these conditions, inversion should be complete after 8 hours. Can now further reduce concentration to 75% for storage.

When I make bark I temper the exact amount in my melter as I make so much of it and don't want to scale it out. Of course, bark isn't really exact... Some tricks I use is to try not to add too much seed. I try to get the seed to melt out at around 33C, then I just do a lot of stirring to increase the amount of Beta 5 crystals. I watch and either keep the pan in the melter or take it out depending on how fast the seed is melting (ie. cooler or warmer environment to control the melt). If you do end up with too much seed, use a heat gun or hair dryer to melt it out. You will have more control than putting it back on the heat and heating up the whole bowl which will retain heat. If you just have a little seed left, try a stick blender. Not only will it eat up the seed, but it will help in tempering your chocolate due to the super fast stirring! All that being said, I agree with the above posters to temper more chocolate than you need for your purposes. Much easier!

I think you're right Kerry! You've just turned my Boo Hoo into a Woo Hoo.

Of course you want the Creative! That would be an amazing machine. I was pretty excited about this machine but had an 'oh no' yesterday as I was daydreaming about it... The caramels I make have sodium bicarbonate in them (see the Jacques Genin caramels thread) and they froth up A LOT as they are cooked. I don't think that little 2L bowl could handle a recipe for a frame of caramels. I think the baking soda plays a few roles in that recipe but the most important one I would think is the boost in the Maillard reaction as the caramels cook. I wouldn't want to omit it. Boo Hoo!! When you get your machine I'll get you to try out those caramels to see if the machine can handle it.

Kerry... do we need a new toy? I think we might! I would love a machine with the capability to make caramel. I use a lot of butter in my caramels so need to do a lot of stirring. The Hotmix Pro increases in temp. 1 degree at a time. It's the perfect caramel making tool! I haven't done a lot of research but found these technical specs that state that the Gastro IS available in 110V. I won't be running out to buy it tomorrow but it's definitely on my wish list (she says massaging her poor sore neck from too much stirring....) http://www.hotmixpro.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=385&Itemid=105〈=en Thanks for pointing out this machine!

Perfect will definitely ship to Texas. The price for the Perfect Air 2 and Enro 2 (tempering machine and enrobing belt) will be approx. $11,500. Contact them - they speak english and are nice people to work with.

I'm thinking the stirring is because of the higher butter content in the recipe. You could try adding the butter AFTER you add the cream (and then stirring like crazy after each addition). That way you can get away with hardly stirring in your first step and the stirring you do is just to incorporate the butter. Another idea would be to use a stick blender. Someone suggested that in the Jacques Genin caramel thread and I have been doing it ever since. My stick blender has several speeds and I use the low one. Sure saves the arm...

I got the ingredients off of the 'maison' website. It's a boxed assortment ingredients list but you'll see there's no egg product or gelatin... This assortment includes the caramel mousse and the milk chocolate/hazelnut mousse. It was the caramel mousse that enthralled me - both theirs and Patrick Rogers. Stupidly good and sooooo light. "Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, cream, sugar, butter, hazelnuts, almonds, invert sugar, fruits pulps, mint, orange extract, whole milk powder, glucose syrup, alcohol, citrus fruits rinds (orange, lemon), sweeteners (maltitol, sorbitol), colors : E100 curcumin, E160c paprika"

Could they be served in paper wrapper to avoid touching them with fingers? I love yours Salted Muscovado truffles, how did you achieve that effect, if it is not secret? I was experimenting with big demisphere moulds and aerated chocolate, this is result: Aerated! Is that aerated chocolate or aerated ganache? Some time ago I started a thread to figure out how to do a mousse ganache that resembled the ones I had at La Maison du Chocolat and Patrick Rogers when I was in Paris. So light and airy! The answers I got were whip the ganache when cool (poor shelf life life this way as it collapses) or use a frappe. There are no frappe ingredients on the ingredients list of the ones mentioned. I kept one of the maison du chocolat mousse ganache chocolates for months and it held up without collapsing. Anyways, after all that ramble... if you're doing an aerated ganache, how are you going about it? I would love to perfect this type of ganache...

Very Cool! (pun intended)

Does anyone remember this? I found a french site where a fellow posted a recipe that was supposedly Jacques Genin's fruit caramels. I didn't copy it or write it down It looks like the site is no longer and I wanted to see it! Did anyone write it down? If so, can you PM me? Thank! I had forgotten about his book... thanks for the reminder. The link I posted about was for his fruit caramels. I don't know if this fellow was a renegade employee or what Your recipe sounds delish.

Thanks. It is melted white chocolate and 2% freeze dried raspberry powder. I used one from http://fresh-as.com/index.html. Powder melts only partially in the chocolate, producing this effect. Similar one with ground coffee: Thanks! What a great way to speckle - and add flavour

I love it! Did you just add raspberry powder to white chocolate to get that effect? The 'speckles' look too perfectly spaced for that... care to share your secret?

Does anyone remember this? I found a french site where a fellow posted a recipe that was supposedly Jacques Genin's fruit caramels. I didn't copy it or write it down It looks like the site is no longer and I wanted to see it! Did anyone write it down? If so, can you PM me? Thank!

Hi Kerry, Thanks for the container info. I seem to remember that conversation about those Tomric bulk boxes - I'm thinking those are the liners from those boxes?? Your peeps are adorable! I'm glad you got your detailer worked out. About your bad bottomed bonbons I wouldn't redo them. If there are rough edges where you've trimmed, try smoothing them with a gloved hand just at the edge. The bottoms themselves are OK though, right? Hey, maybe you could bottom them in a different chocolate! That might look cool... And you'd get to play with your bottomer...

Great idea! Ruth had a similar idea with metal sheets for take-off from the enrobing belt. So smart! Kerry, I'm looking at your storage boxes... they look like rubbermaid boxes with a liner of ?? Those liners look specific to chocolate. Tell all...

Kerry, another chocolatier that I know with a Selmi has 'tails' issues. I wonder what's up with that? Ruth, does our beloved Perfect have 'tails' issues?! For those of you who dip with a fork, Wybauw gave us a trick in one of his classes to avoid having to trim. I love it! When depositing a dipped bonbon onto your sheet, the issue is usually the little drag that happens when the fork is removed. This can leave a little line of chocolate at the top of the bonbon. He said when you are pulling out your fork - just at the finish - you push your bonbon ever so slightly so it ends up covering up that line. It's really quite simple to do and I do it without thinking now. Haven't trimmed since then. Best trick I got out of that class!

Edward, you always have the most clever ideas!

Try ebay for small quantities of cocoa butter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-LB-DEODORIZED-COCOA-BUTTER-UNSCENTED-/190413164829?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5582511d I've linked to a deodorized one as the undeodorized will change the flavour of your chocolate. White chocolate, due to the milk powder present, will not provide thinning. Usually white chocolate is much more viscous than dark chocolate.

Ditto cocoa butter. Don't use veggie oil if you need the chocolate in temper. Adding another fat will make tempering more challenging. It's definitely do-able, but if you're new to it - keep it simple!

Fascinating Lisa! I've been reading about traditional 'soft brittle' which isn't really soft but rather flaky and airy. Apparently it's much easier on the teeth The way they do this is by adding more soda to a more acidic mixture. I guess in this case, copper would be ideal. The science of sugar is so cool!