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Chocolot

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Everything posted by Chocolot

  1. I use a Robot Coupe R2, but a supplier has suggested a Blixer. I like the R2 just fine and have good success with it. Just wondering if any of you have experience with the Blixer. It is about twice as much money as the R2.
  2. This weekend, I was in Denver for the Colorado Chocolate Festival and had the honor of meeting our very own Desiderio (Vanessa). She is as beautiful as her chocolates!! She uses a molded plastic tray and folding stock boxes to store her chocolates. Looks very nice and easy to transport. Got me wondering what you all use. BTW she won the Grand Championship for her wonderful truffles.
  3. I scrape them one way - then turn them over on the other side. It balances out - they are never thicker on one side. ← What is the advantage of putting them on their side?
  4. You just need to pour it out (without scraping) into or onto something that will let the solution spread out to an even, THIN layer. It should be ready to stir quicker than when left in a deep layer in a bowl. You are correct about the larger crystals forming on the surface. If you do it this way again, as the solution is cooling, sprinkle it with cold water. It turns to steam and takes some of the heat with it. The small amount of water left will not hurt anything.
  5. Once you come up with a name, run it through a search at the copyright office to make sure it is available. I am in the process now of registering my name.
  6. It is hard to say without knowing your thermometer. Did you test it in boiling water to check the boiling point? I'm guessing you are pretty much sea-level. Whenever I do chocolate fudge, I cook it about 2 degrees under soft ball. The chocolate tends to dry out the mixture. Also, 5 minutes isn't enough time for the syrup to cool. Let it cool undisturbed until it reaches about 100 degrees before stirring. If you stir it while hot, you will form large sugar crystals instead of the finer ones you will get when you let it cool more.
  7. It's more a matter of taste. If you cook the chocolate with the sugar solution, the chocolate will take on a more cooked flavor. I like to add melted chocolate while I am stirring the cooled sugar solution. This way, the chocolate actually helps seed the mixture and you don't have to stir as long. The fine particles of sugar cause the fudge to grain nicely. This won't happen if you use straight liquor. You need the sugar in the chocolate to make it grain.
  8. to make Brésilienne Chips, where can I buy oval-shaped stencil mentioned in the recipe box I'm guessing you can make the chips with pvc pipe cut in half horizontally. Spoon or drop with funnel, tempered chocolate on plastic sheets. Place in the half pipe to form the curve, and sprinkle with Bres.
  9. Thank you so much for sharing all this. It just makes me sooooo green.
  10. What I found was that you really need to use a pastry bag to place the milk choc on top of the white. I used a toothpick to streak and wiped the pick clean after each pass. I could only get one good bowl from each streaking. I then stirred the milk choc into the white to get a clean "pallet" and started with fresh milk choc. After, I just poured it all back into the white melter. It didn't change the color that much and the flavor can only be improved IMHO Don't know what I will do with them, but they are sort of cool.
  11. Here is my first attempt at "The Bowls". I haven't trimmed the tops yet and I used 5 inch balloons.
  12. Chocolot

    PDF texture

    Thank you! I'm thinking I need to cook just a bit more. Actually, I cooked to the equivalent of 222F I live at 5000 feet, so I subtract 10 degrees. I tried to tear a piece to test for how firm it is, and I can tear with some resistance. The tougher pdf my friend makes, can't be torn with your fingers. Thanks for your input.
  13. A huge congratulations to Art and Clark at Amano chocolate. They won a lot of categories.
  14. I know I am late to the PDF party, but I am here now I made a fresh strawberry PDF using PDF pectin. It is nicely firm, but not tough. I took a sample to my favorite trained pastry chef and she said while the flavor was nice, it was too soft for her tastes. She cooks hers to a soft ball which makes them rather firm. It got me thinking that I don't really know what the texture should be. What do you all think? Mine is about the firmness of egg white in a hard-cooked egg. I cooked them to 211 F but at sea level that is the same as 221 F. I don't have a refractometer. Thanks for any input.
  15. Everyone advised me not to cut caramels on my guitar or I would break wires. I just got my Dedy last month and sure didn't want to mess anything up. I made 2 frames of caramel, one plain and one with Marcona almonds in it. I cut and dipped the Marcona caramel the other day. I kept looking at the plain caramel and decided today was the day. I took it to my chocolate room to cut and kept looking at my guitar. The caramel was soft, but holds its shape. My intent was to use the guitar frame to mark each end so I could cut straight. As I pulled the handle to mark, it just kept sliding through the caramel!! I removed the slab and cut it in half so it wouldn't have to work as hard then I just let it cut through the caramel, using its own weight. I did bottom the bottom and top of the slab before marking. I think by coating both sides, the caramel stays a little more square. Anyway, the guitar cut through the caramel without a snag. YIPPEE!!! I hate cutting caramels. I did have to separate the pieces so that they didn't glue themselves back together. They dipped wonderfully and kept a nice square.
  16. I have been making one based on Greweling's beehives. I put a drop of wildflower honey in the bottom of a shell, then pipe a honey ganache on top. The problems I have had--If I put too much honey in the shell, it oozes up around the ganache. Also, I have had problems with the honey crystallizing in the shell. I have also had the problem of migration. I thought this only happened with fats, but it happened with the honey, too.
  17. Just wondering if they can be frozen. In Shotts book, he has you freeze for a short time to make handling easier, but I am wondering if you can freeze the finished product without having them weep. Also, in one of my resources it says to use pectin that is not more than 6 months old. What happens after that time?
  18. Thanks Kerry, but I want one that is about 15 gms. Maybe they just don't make them that small.
  19. I am trying to find a source for a bon bon sized half Easter egg mold, such as Joseph Schmitt uses. I basically want the pointy end. Anyone?
  20. Today I tried out my new Dedy guitar. I made Grewelings Dark and Stormies. The guitar was flawless, unlike my dipping!! 50 years of hand dipping and 5 months of fork dipping. It is sooooo much faster to hand dip, but I will keep fork dipping until I am good and fast! I also see finger prints. Will I ever learn???
  21. Thanks, Chocolot, that was the first recipe I tried; it seems to be the most widely published recipe on the net, but it's too peanut-buttery, and suffers from the aforementioned lack of sweetness... ← I use commercial peanut butter such as Jif that has added sugar, rather than an organic one. When you stir in the sugar mixture, pull up the mass on the spoon and let it fall back into the bowl. This sort of stretches the candy into the peanut butter and sort of makes layers. Hard to explain
  22. This is a pretty good copy of the original. Ingredients 1 cup peanut butter 1/3 cup corn syrup, light 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup water 1 x chocolate melted Directions Cook corn syrup, sugar, and water to 310 degrees F., remove from heat, stir in warmed peanut butter until completely blended. Pour onto greased cookie sheet and score into pieces. When cool and hard, dip into melted chocolate.
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