
mostlylana
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Everything posted by mostlylana
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My goodness Kerry and Ruth... what a labour of love! Congrats on a fabulous display. Amazing!!What a great event. How fun would that be?! I took a look at the links you posted - lots of creativity. On the 2nd link you're able to scroll through some photos. Do you remember what product photo 8 of 12 is? It looks like some sort of dense, rich square. Yummmmmmmm...
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Good to hear about infusing chocolate. I'll have to try it. I'll also try the essential oils. I find essential oils too stong in ganache but probably a whole different story in bars. Pringle, I found a great source for essential oils - awesome quality. Here's the link: http://www.anandaapothecary.com/therapeuticgradeessentialoils.html Here's their link on using the oils internally: http://www.anandaapothecary.com/articles/essential-oils-safe-for-ingestion.html
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I have had a request for orange flavoured bars. Being a 'purist' I would like to do it naturally. I got out my labels from my long eaten Paul DeBondt bars from Italy. He does tons of flavoured bars. On his ingredient labels he would have, for instance: 'mint, mint oil' / 'fennel, fennel oil' / 'cardamom, cardamom oil' / 'crystallized orange peel, orange oil'... That all seems straight forward enough - although I'm wondering about the pieces of mint or fennel in the bar - I don't remember these bars and the texture unfortunately... But I'm curious to know what other techniques are used to flavour bars?? I have heard that you can infuse cocoa butter with a flavouring - eg. orange zest - then strain, add the cocoa butter to the chocolate and proceed from there. Not wanting to add additional cocoa butter, I'm wondering if I can infuse the chocolate itself for a day or 2?? Can't see why not?? Also, continuing with other flavours - eg. cinnamon and chili pepper - most artisan bars just add the spice directly to the chocolate but I see that the Lindt bar uses chili extract... most likely to keep the smoothness of the chocolate. What does everyone think about adding spices to the bar? Does the 'grit' detract from the chocolate experience? Looking forward to hear what everyone has to say on this topic. I've been pondering it for awhile.
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Thanks so much everyone - very helpful. I keep hearing of the DDL and coffee combo. It makes sense! Kerry, thanks for the recipe. I was thinking of the same thing - adding some cream to soften the 'plastic'! It's weird though - I do a caramel ganache that is just fine - no plasticine texture. I've also decided to keep the ganache soft so the plastic texture isn't as prevalent. I used the Schott's technique of freezing the slab for 1/2 hour before cutting. Worked great for cutting but was a pain to get off the acetate. Next time I'll use the Valrhona chablon bottoming technique before slabbing and freezing and then all my problems will be solved!
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Boy, they must be tasting good... I was thinking the same thing about butter content. I'll give you a few websites to look at. The first is a mistake someone made in making caramels that turned into a good thing. To summarize, the mistake was that the milk curdled and she strained out the curds (that would leave less fat in the caramel). To compensate, she added lots of butter! Her result was apparently the best caramels she's made. http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2007/11/do-it-yourself-.html Then I came across this recipe: http://www.grouprecipes.com/8644/french-caramels.html where half and half cream is asked for with the specification of 'no substitutions'. But take a look at the amount of butter! This would be similar to the first 'mistake' recipe where a lot of the fat was strained out of the cream. I guess in this way, you're able to add more butter (and get the butter flavour) without the added fat in the whole cream.
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I just finished my 3rd trial of Dulce de Leche ganache. Usually my trials consist of "oh I want more of this, less of that, I'll do this instead of that..." I might not be happy with the 1st one but I get ideas for subsequent trials. But this Dulce de Leche ganache has me completely stumped! I wasn't expecting this. I thought it would be any easy one. So first trial consisted of 750g. milk chocolate, 650g. dulce de leche (traditional recipe with milk and a little cream made in the thermomix), and 50g. of butter. The texture was like plasticine. It was so odd. And the flavour was pretty much non-existent. Second trial was with much less 70% chocolate. Too thin as I am looking to slab the ganache. Better flavour. Third trial was 650g. of chocolate consisting of equal parts 70% and milk chocolates. Dulce de Leche was 750g. and butter was 125g. (I figured the low fat in the dulce de leche might be contributing to the odd plasticine texture). This one was better but STILL had the odd texture - just not as pronounced. So I'm coming for help... Has anyone tried a dulce de leche slabbed ganache? Can it be done?! What do you think is contributing to the weird texture?
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Take a look at this link: https://amellacaramels.com/Ingredients.html And then notice in the nutrition facts here: https://amellacaramels.com/Nutriton_Facts.html that the cocoa butter is listed after the butter - so more dairy butter than cocoa butter...
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I was thinking the exact same thing!! Hmmmmmmmmmm........
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Adding a base (an alkaline ingredient such as baking soda) helps accelerate the Maillard reaction. Maillard reaction = flavour - yum!
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I found the site again and this time brought it up translated. Hopefully that will make it more understandable! http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.mortenharket-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php%3Ft%3D740%26start%3D0%26sid%3Dcd11e776eaa284da48eba10475cce0a6&ei=bO3cSuv_E5HQtgPLj5SZDg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&ved=0CAsQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DLa%2Bguimauve%2Bmorten%2Bjacques%2Bgenin%2Bmangue%26hl%3Den
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Interesting that someone said on the other thread that Genin's caramels stayed more solid at room temp. than did Kerry's. I wonder if this implies a higher sugar cooking temp. and perhaps more butter? I'm also wondering about something that David Lebovitz said in his Jacques Genin article when describing caramels: "Caramel is a combination of cooked sugar, usually with butter or cream added." It's that word 'OR' that's getting me. I have never heard of a caramel deglazed with just butter - no cream. Has anyone heard of such a thing? Could this be the magic?
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Also, did you noisette your butter as well? I did some more research and was determined not to give up until I found a recipe that was 'supposedly' his. Here's what I found (you need to understand french): http://www.mortenharket-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=740&start=0&sid=cd11e776eaa284da48eba10475cce0a6
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I'm just starting on the road to caramel making so am pleased with the timing of this post. I read through the link Kerry gave. David Lebovitz mentioned about him opening a store in the US but he was concerned about the butter. I think that points a finger to the 'magic' of his caramels n'est pas? Here is a link to a David Lebovitz archived article which talks about 'the butter': http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/05/chocolate_tasti.html
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I just reread this topic as I found it so interesting. Most likely dealing with viscosity problems in a semi-sweet couverture that didn't have these issues in the past really made the topic pertinent. As I reread I caught something you said Sebastian and I just want to clarify. You were saying that any white chocolate - regardless of manufacturer will thicken over time. You mentioned adding a drop of liquid lecithin to help thin things out. Now about the lecithin... is this just ordinary lecithin I can get at the health food store? I believe they come in capsules. Just pierce and drop? I also found your comment regarding purchasing from a distributor rather than the supplier interesting. I actually buy from the supplier as I buy in quantity - but it got me thinking. My supplier (Cocoa Camino - organic/fair-trade) buys from the manufacturer (Pronatec) in Switzerland. As I purchased a pallet from Cocoa Camino - I might as well be purchasing it directly from Pronatec. I know 'prairiegirl' was mentioning doing the same thing - except through a different manufacturer. Perhaps we should start a thread for those intersted in doing bulk buying. We could give such details as what couverture you are interested in purchasing, how much and where you live.
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Because it gets so hot here in the summer I thought I could make my display centers out of plasticine or something like that - they certainly don't need to be real. Then I would dip and decorate as I would for each flavour. Like I said, I would use the cheap wax based chocolate and add more paraffin wax to further increase the melting temp. I haven't tried this yet - I'd love to hear how others successfully 'beat the heat'. I've also heard of people using large poster photos of their chocolates to entice interest.
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Wow, I wish I could walk into the screen and browse around at all these booths! I'm trying to see everything and I just can't! Ilana, I see what you are saying about the open concept for food safety reasons but your display looks fantastic. I wonder if there's something to the Costco mentality (in case you don't have Costco Ilana - it's a bulk buying warehouse) where people are overwhelmed being surrounded by so much that they buy so much! If there's only 1 chocolate out it does suggest quality but maybe that scares people off? I'm thinking, when possible (it would have to be an indoor event), it might be best to do a refined QUANTITY display as Ilana has shown. I really have no idea - I'm just thinking out loud. Ruth, I notice you have 3 raised displays. It almost looks like chocolates behind glass... or are they large boxes of chocolates? You have 1 in the middle and 1 on each end... .
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Steve, thank you so much for sharing. Your set up looks beautiful and professional! I appreciate the 'behind the scenes' photos. As I said before, I have never done a farmer's market as I can't imagine how I would keep the chocolates from melting! Your Camcarrier is a fabulous idea! I really like your tile display. Do you find your display chocolates melt in the summer months? I'm in the Interior of BC, Canada and we have a dessert climate here in the summer - very hot. I was thinking if I ever did a farmer's market I would make my sample pieces out of that horrible wax based fake chocolate - and maybe even add more wax! Then I would have to pray that those sample pieces don't accidently end up in a box. Thanks again for posting your photos - it's so helpful for those of us who have yet to venture into the market scene.
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so true, so true... I wonder if a butter based ganache would do the trick for shelf life - and even going an extra step of 'coating' the bacon in cocoa butter or chocolate before adding it to the ganache???
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Thanks for posting the Bacon Truffle recipe. I just noticed it today. It actually sounds good! When I was in Chicago in the spring I tried the Vosges bacon bar. I liked it! Here's my question for those in the know... How would bacon in a truffle hold up for shelf life? I don't know how Vosges does it... I know they use real bacon - and the bar says "consume within 6 months"????? *edited to add the quote - forgot it.
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Steve, what a fabulous post. I thank you too! What detail... so helpful... I have never done a show or farmer's market. I keep scratching my head as to how to keep the chocolates from melting (at an outdoor event or farmer's market). I have been considering getting some of those Cambro sheet size containers. Do the lids fit very tight? I freeze my chocolates and so far have been boxing them in assortments and freezing that way. I'd like to offer more choice to my clients but being home-based I don't go through inventory like a shop does. I was thinking of using these Cambro half sheet size containers to store different flavours in my upright freezer. I'm assuming they would hold 2 layers? I'm quite confident that with an absorbent pad on top - and if the lid fits tight - the chocolates would be just fine. I can then dip into the containers as needed and get whatever selection is asked for and thaw appropriately. Whatcha think? Would it work?
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WOW!!! Beautiful!!
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Thanks so much for the reference Kerry. I've looked at this book before and marked it on my wishlist! It sounds great. I completely agree! This information is very helpful. Thanks! So your first recipe of butter and couv. is a buttercream? I guess back to my original query - I'm still vague as to what constitutes a 'buttercream'.
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Thanks for the video links Thermomixer. I watched the 2 on making ganache. On the cream ganache he just heated the cream and poured it over callets and mixed by hand??? I wonder why he didn't do it all in the Thermomix? On the butter ganache (rhum truffles) he creamed the butter and honey and then added melted/tempered chocolate and mixed again. Again, I wonder why he didn't do it all in the Thermomix? For the cream ganache I understand how to do it all in the thermomix - for the butter ganache I guess you'd have to do the first step (creaming butter and honey) and then remove that and then use the thermomix to temper your chocolate. And then add back the butter/honey and proceed from there. Anyone have a better idea for proceeding with the butter ganache?
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Wow, I love this forum. Thank you so much for clarifying this quandry for me. I can't say that I would do a lot of buttercreams but I can see the benefit of this center to showcase mild flavours. I also think it would be awesome with peanut butter. Is there such a thing as a peanut butter buttercream?! It looks like I need to get Geert's book... I am quite intrigued with the mazetta or mallow cream. I did a search and came up with pretty much the same result as my buttercream search - very little. Does the Geert book talk about this? Will anybody share their mallow cream recipe? One more question. What would be the shelf life of a typical buttercream? I imagine if it's made with cream and butter it would be very similar to a ganache shelf life??