Darienne

Thank you so much!!! I am indebted to you for directing me towards specific molds at a specific company. You are a doll! Just what I needed in the midst of my confusion. I know in time it will all become clear, but just now it is overwhelming. I looked at the molds and thought that they or some of the other ones in this catalog might well do. Have to start somewhere. Thanks again.

Thanks. That's a good point. So make that two molds times two. So, if you had only two of only two molds which ones from which distributor would be the most useful?

We are in Utah until early January with a lot of chocolate couverture coming on Tuesday and I still own no polycarbonate molds. I have just spent more than an hour looking through the dizzying world of chocolate molds getting more and more confused and less and less directed. I would like to buy just three polycarbonate molds to start and have them sent here. If you could have only three to begin with, what would you get and from which company? One pallet, and one or two not to elaborate molds which could be filled with creams, etc. Or a bar type. I have a polycarbonate 3D bunny and a lot of hobby molds which predate my eG days, but it is way past time to get serious about the mold buying. Some direction please?

Gotcha and thanks. Another learning lesson. Of course. It might explain why there are no recipes for syrup calling for 'chocolate' per se.

Perhaps it is anathema on this list, but I know that you can freeze cream. I have frozen whipping cream and used it later, although of course you cannot whip it.

This is for my DH who loves chocolate syrup on frozen yoghurt. In the olden days I used to make syrup with cocoa, but now the boss would like his syrup made with real bittersweet chocolate. Fine. But so far my attempts at chocolate sauce have ended up hardening when it meets the cold frozen yoghurt. And of course, it hardens when put into the fridge. Then it has to be rewarmed...but still hardens on the cold dessert. I don't mind the hardening, but Ed does. How does one make a chocolate syrup which is thick and rich and chocolately enough, and still it stays in a semi-liquid form when it meets the cold frozen yoghurt?

Greweling has a recipe for frappe and it doesn't take cream at all: dry albumen, cold water, glucose syrup and invert sugar...and I don't know what it is either.

I don't know about the anchovie part of it... ...but I do love those big preztel rods....coated in caramel...and then dipped in chocolate. Now that's a snack! Starbucks carries them and so does another candy store near where we live in Canada, but you can't beat making them yourself!

Here's the actual recipe given to me by one of the women: Ingredients: 1 20 oz. bag small round Tostitos ½ cup butter ½ cup corn syrup ½ cup granulated sugar 2 Tablespoons soy sauce 2-3 Tablespoons black sesame seeds Cooking Instructions: Melt butter on low heat and then add sugar, syrup, soy sauce, and sesame seeds and mix until the sugar is dissolved. Place ½ the Tostitos in large bowl, add ½ the syrup mixture and slowly mix thoroughly, trying not to break chips. Put into a large greased pan. Repeat with the remaining Tostitos and mix well. Bake in 250 degree oven for 1 hour. Mix every 15 minutes (do this or your snacks will stick into one big clump.) Turn out the chips onto a large surface and try to separate as many as you can during that short period between burning your fingers and the time the chips are too cool to separate. As soon as they no longer stick to each other, store them in an air-tight container...if they last long enough for storing them at all. Add shredded nori (seaweed) or rice seasoning for different flavors.

I don't know if I am allowed to add a salty snack which starts with a corn chip and then you add stuff. It's called Tostitos Kakimochi and it's a North American version of a Japanese snack. It was first served to us by a group of Canadian-Japanese folks who were taking a workshop from my husband and me. You start with small round Tostitos and add a syrup of sugar, corn syrup, soy sauce, butter, black sesame seeds and Japanese nori. Yummy. Bake in the oven. I made a huge bowl for a Pot Luck event today and they were all gone before I knew it. I put out lots of copies of the recipe and they were all taken too. You definitely cannot eat just one.

Thanks so much. It's always a treat to get a really good and proven recipe.

Congratulations! You go, girl!

Thanks Kerry. Tomorrow for sure I am making some!

Kerry's Buttercrunch. Yummmm... I see that the RecipeGullet is still not back up. Is there any chance that a kind soul will give me the buttercrunch recipe? Suddenly I have this urge for buttercrunch dipped in chocolate. Thanks. (That's supposed to indicate 'yummy')

Although I cannot go far afield for confectionary classes, I am hoping to take some classes from Kerry Beal when we return to Ontario in January. I too would like the buttercream recipe. Invert sugar is not hard to make and it keeps a very long time.

The Recipe section should be back in operation soon and I'll get it then. Thanks. And thanks for always helping me navigate this amazing organization.

I agree that the Greweling book is top notch and I am currently waiting to get the Wybauw book through the local ILL to see if it warrants my spending additional money right now. (I should add that I am a novice and feel I should learn as much as I can from my current books before indulging in buying others.) However, I am very curious to know why Schotts is out of favor. His is the first chocolate book I ever bought and although I prefer others to it, I would still like to know why he has slipped in favor.

I typed 'Kerry's Buttercrunch' into the eG search engine and got back more entries than I could deal with in a week. Pray tell, what is Kerry's Buttercrunch and how do you make it? Thanks.

I have ordered the Wybauw book through inter-library loan and then will decide whether or not to purchase it outright. I don't know what it costs, but I suspect that it is a lot! I just hope that it is available through ILL.

This thread is almost too much to bear. One scrumptious dessert after another. I have not made very many fancy desserts in the last decade...this whole idea of making delicious things again being new to me...but we have recently picked up one supper tradition which stands us in good stead. And tonight's the night again. About once a week, we simply have dessert for supper. Dessert and only dessert. Tonight's dessert will be orange flavored scones covered in fresh raspberries and whipped cream. Nothing special, but still, O so good. However, I am going next for that incredible looking peanut and chocolate pie by Lisa2K.

Then who is using anhydrous butter in their ganaches and is this something one might aim for?

As far as I can see, Greweling does not talk about anhydrous butter. In his section on butter ganaches, he mentions that the butter ganaches, as compared to the cream ganache, is commonly used in Europe and that it resists spoilage better because of the lower liquid content. And yet he does not mention making the ganache with anhydrous butter. Curious...unless I am mistaken. I don't know the book cover to cover. Do European confectioners not only make the butter ganache, but also make it from anhydrous butter?

I have visions of my DH and the two pups and myself, stomping the grapes in our bare feet... Of course, grapes are poison to dogs so I'd have to warn them not to sample the wares...lol Seriously though, it's a great idea and we just might try it. Thanks to everyone who sent ideas.

Thanks Kerry. Really interesting. I certainly do learn something new every day, particularly on this site!!!

Thanks so much. I have never had excess grapes in my life before...except for the one year of abundant wild grapes back home in Ontario, 1995, and we made grape jelly.