Spring

BritoJ: Iknow someone who has the 12k and divides it into 2 x 6 with 2 hotel pans, have u tried that?

It was my birthday last week and am treating myself to a chocolate book (wild or what?! lol) I have Greweling and cant decide between Wybauw 1 or 2. I was going to get them both but the third looks interesting and useful so want to get that when it comes out (amazon says october) Im leaning towards 2 because from what Ive read here he uses sorbitol which interests me. Any advice would be most welcome

Thanks for the replies. On reflection it was a stupid question and I apologise. FMS brain fog

Im bumping this because I really would like to know the difference between chocolate plastic/clay made with corn syrup or glucose syrup

Is there a difference between chocolate clay/plastic made with corn syrup or with glucose syrup and water? Also does anyone know if it is possible to make chocolate clay sugar and maltitol free?

Thanks again kerry for your advice. I made the pistachio gianduja (looks like baby poo as I used white chocolate), thought it was tempered but its still too soft, so Ill do it again Ana: you need to put small amounts at a time in the grinder (I used the santha) and be ready with to add a tiny bit of oil (depending on how oily the nuts are, I used pecan and they were a bit dry) otherwise it either clogs the grinders or starts rising up out of the bowl. I panicked a bit and added to much oil so the paste came out too runny

Thanks for your reply Kerry. I understand that but if the nut paste is added when at the same temperature as the tempered chocolate, for eg about a degree before the lowest temper temperature, then theory wise it wouldnt affect the temper. Maybe I'm being silly but it's just something that interests and bothers me. Its no problem for me to temper the gianduja as opposed to adding the paste to the tempered chocolate but it bugs me because I understand the explanation but it doesnt make sense to me.

I'm sorry if someone has already answered this, if they have I can't find it. Why can't the gianduja be made by mixing the nut paste into tempered chocolate as opposed to tempering after the two ingredients have been mixed together?

I made some pecan nut butter yesterday and because the nuts were a bit dry and I've never done it before and I did it wrong (didnt grind nuts and sugar before putting in the santha so it clogged)I panicked and added oil, too much oil, so now its runny. I made it to mix with chocolate for gianduja. Is it too runny for that? If so can I use it for something else? I thought that if its too thin for gianduja I could add more nuts and sugar to thicken it. Any advice? Thanks

The muffins look great, would it be possible to see one cut in half to see the texture? Elmo looks great, really fun, a lot of work though?

I too made pasta sauce with cherry tomatoes. Putting ingredients for 3 kilos of chocolate into the Santha, then turning it on without the lid on. A nd one Im particularly proud of: pointing a professional strength hairdryer, on high, straight at 3 kilos of melted chocolate.

Well you do now! Id LOVE to get the Thermomix so much!! I so nearly got it but its just too expensive for me at the moment (( I bought the Santha grinder a while ago and will be ordering a melter so no money left for the lovely thermomix. Have you got it?

LOL, yes i seem to be taking over the board lately The chocoalte course I did with Maya really got me back into the chocolate making (baking is my relaxation) I had loads of recipes for gf but a virus wiped everything out. I usually make my own mix of flours for 2 reasons, first the one we can buy here in the supermarket is horrible and secondly my husband cant have any carbs apart from corn. When I can be bothered i make a mix of the flours, usually cornflour, a bit of corn flour (the finely ground polenta) a teeny bit of buckwheat and quinoa (although not much as i cant stand the bitter taste) and tapioca. Im going to be a bit more adventurous and add teff and xanthan gum next time. You must use tapioca as it helps bind. Also add a bit more liquid as GF is drier. Once you have your flour recipe just substitute as you would for regular flour (apart from the added liquid) there is a great book available in hebrew, ive seen it in the supermarket for about 30nis, Ugot Barega (lol) or Easy Baking with Hana shaulov, great easy recipes that always work and she has GF egg free and sf recipes too, i highly recommend you get it. I bought xanthan gum and guar in gan shmuel. hth

Oh wow, YES. Really fond memories of my dad (who passed away a few years ago ) Thanks for the link

Today I made stewed fruit (with nuts and cocoa nibs); dark chocolate, banana and cranberry cake; gluten free banana, cinnamon and raisin cake and gluten free fruit scones (english); all sugar free. I also made sweet potato (GF) pancakes with cinnamon. I've never made any of them before (ie sugar free and gluten free) and am really happy as they all came out tasting great and with a good texture. Yesterday I made gluten free spinach and cheese tartlets which also came out great. I am on a roll!!!!!

Tapioca is a great flour to add but the best ingredients to prevent the crumbling are xanthan or guar gum. Not in high quantities as they become slimy hth

You are killing me. I LOVE Dobos Torte. WHen I was a kid we travelled a lot to Hungary and I remember we always bought Dobos Dorte form a fabulous bakery in Budapest. They would put my 1 slice of cake in a beautiful box with a ribbon and Id shlep it proudly around for a while. memories. sigh

They're nice sprinkled on the back of bars too

Its so great to hear about someone who shares my feeling of being unable to sell products that are 'bad' As mentioned you should look for recipes or information on sites or forums to do with low carb. As far as flours are concerned try high protein ones, almond is great but expensive so I would advise a mix eg almond, teff, spelt,oat(you can get gf) quinoa, buckwheat etc. If you use gf flours you need to add xanthan or guar gum or a mix of the two (not too much or they can be slimy). Another idea is to mix in some wholemeal flour. It might be a good idea to go for the gf, high protein flours as an extra selling point for low carb or ppl who cant have gluten free Now with regards to the sweeteners there are several options. Ive been researching this for about a year now as I decided to make my own chocolate (with the santha bought from Alchemist John) that is low cal and has little or no effect on insulin levels (you can read about it in my blog http://aviva-chocolateandmore.blogspot.com/ There are the sugar alcohols but they usually cause digestive distress. Maltitol is a great substitute for sugar but the problem is that it isnt that much lower on the gi than sucrose and therefore does raise the blood sugar quite a bit. You could include some fructose as it is released slowly and doesnt spike the bs; agave syrup is considered a good sweetener for diabetics but from my research its a bit iffy as it depends on the plant, where it was grown and conditions etc etc, you could also use corn or grape sugar etc There are the bulk sweeteners and the high intensity. Included in the high intensity group are sucralose, ace k, aspartame etc. You could use a bit of maltitol, fructose and one of the hi sweeteners. If you are making a fruit based cake then dried fruit, mashed banana, apple butter or applesauce are options (ie fructose). The hi sweetners are bitter in large amounts so you only need a tiny bit. Usually the splenda etc cup for cup powders have sucralose and maltodextrin as a filler, the problem there is that the maltodextrin is high in calories and raises bs. If you can get hold of polydextrin that would be good oh, dear this was a long post. I would have been more than happy to email you copies of my recipes and findings but a virus just wiped out my pc google is your friend and if you have any other questions you want to ask please feel free.

Depends on how much is left. With a small amount I make curls, medium I pour it onto a silicone mat and when set break up and store for later and if there is 50g plus I pour into bar moulds

They are beautiful

ME ME!!! they are beautiful Ruth

OMG those look fantastic

My friend melts/dissolves the resin completely into the cream, i would think it could be melted into/with the cocoa butter and then mixed with cocoa liquor or couveture/chocolate. He doesnt steep 'grass' in cream as he says it would be bitter but if that 'has' to be done, perhaps a milk chocolate would soften the taste. Id love to experiment but.......lol

A friend of mine makes hash truffles (Huffles? lol) I can ask him for the recipe but you could use the butter to make butter ganache