rio marie

OMG 2000lbs wow I'm amazed to say the least. My roommate bought me a pan but it won't work. It's 6.5 liter, I don't know metric measurements but it looks to be over 4 qts. It's to bottom heavy. But I will take all of you suggetions that I got and work with them again. I have to get this down I already sent our my price list and Toffee is on there. Oh well, I really appreciate all your responsed and glad I'm not the only one that makes mistakes . Thanks everyone! Rena

Hi Everyone, I like those molds too but I'm here in the states too and think that shipping would be a bit much. Lior, I saw your comment about fruit powder I may have a name to give you to call but I don't want to just give it out. Can you email me? I was able to source some free samples of fruit powder. If you are interested dropped me an email and I'll give it to you and that's for anyone interested. I made some buttercreams and they are very good........

Hi Everyone I'm starting to make my holiday candy and last night I made English Toffee well now it's a mass of sugar and alomonds with the consistency of brown sugar. It's the reciepe I got from the class I took in October. The first time I made it it came out great! The second time it was a little different and then last night a total failure. It totally crystalized on me it didn't even go toffee brown but stayed a light blonde color.. I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong. My first mishap was using a 3qt instead of a 4qt sauce pan. I saw the crystals on the side but didn't wash down.... I didn't because I didn't have room it was on the rim and the mixture was going to boil over which I averted by stirring. I think that was a booboo too. Do you or do you not stir. The recipe says once it recahed 260 degrees add the nuts and stir stir stir which I did but at that point I think it was lost, I was just hoping for a miricle . So any suggrestions? I"m going to WalMart after work to get a 4 qt pan. What should I do with my bronw sugar with almonds? It's now residing in a tupperware container. I appreciate all your responses and suggestions. I did cook it to 305 degrees but at point nothing was going to work..... Have a great Holiday! Rena

Thanks Kerry I appreciate that! I live in the San Francisco Bay Area in a town called Hayward... I called one place but they haven't called me back yet.

Here's the recipe for 'Hand Rolled Strawberry Cream' centers: Place in a 4qt pot: 1.)sugar---2lbs. and 4oz 42DE Corn Syrup, regular---1 & 1/4 oz water---11 & 1/2 oz 2.) Cook to 237f and add: Heavy Whipping Cream---8 & 1/2 oz 3.) Cook back to 237f 4.) Pour onto cold table, sprinkle with water and cool to 95F 5.) Start agitating with hand scraper When batch appears opaque add: Invertase---3/8 tsp Strawberry Powder Freeze Dried, Seedless---2 & 1/4 oz Frappe---5 & 1/4oz 6.) Continue creaming and beat through second stage of plasticity 7.) Roll into bite-size pieces (3/4" patties) 8.) Leave uncoated overnight but wrap loosly with plastic wrap over top. 9.) Dip in milk or Dark Chocolate. Here's the recipe for 'Hand Rolled Butter Cream' Place in a 4qt cooking vessel (pot) Sugar---2lbs and 4oz 42DE Corn Syrup, regular--- 2oz Water---11 & 1/2 oz Cook to 242f and wash down side AT BOIL and spatucula too 2.) Pour approximately 1/2" thick layer onto a cold table ( DO NOT SCRAPE OUT PAN) Sprinkle with water over top. Cool quickly to 95f. 3.) Add and start agitating with scarpers Dairy Butter, salted---7oz 4.) When batch starts to look opaque add: Invertase--- 1/8 tsp Vanilla---1/4 tsp Pecans finely chopped---6oz 5.) Continue agitating until batch replasticizes 6.) Roll cream into small bite size pieces (3/4" balls) and allow to crust over night then dip in dark chocolate. Creams can be left uncoated overnight, but place saran (loosely) over top of tray. I haven't tried these yet because I'm finding it diffcult to source the 42de corn syrup. I might just order glucose from Sweet Celebration. He did say do not use the corn syrup you by at the store. Hope this works for you guys.....

Thanks for the info on the de42 corn syrup and butter. Now onto the class. We started everymorning out by making our chocolate to dip by tempering. While I've been spoiled by my tempering machine these past few years it was nice to do it the old fashion way. He has a method that works. I'll try to keep it as simple as I can. It's kinda lengthy. Place chocolate previously melted to 120-125 in top of a double boiler. Place 70degree water in bottom of db Insert top boiler to bottom and cool chocolate from 125 to 95F Once cooled to 95F (92F milk) change water temp in bottom db to 95-100F to maintain warm chocolate. Once chocolate goes to 92f (90f mmilk) pour out 20% of chocolate onto formica board or marble slab and mush the chocolate by moving the chocolate back and forth with a scraper taking care not to form hard lumps. Maintain the chocolate in the pot at 92f by stirring it occasionally not letting any lumps form on the side either, When the mush has taken on a mat appearnce (shine has gone away and consistency is that of frosting) transfer back to the main body of chocolate in the db. Mix in well scraping the sides of the top db. Do Not incorporate air into the chocolate. If your water goes cold change it. You must be constantly taking the temp and going on appearance as well. Once chocolate goes to 90F (88F milk) take a sample put on a piece of foil and place in front of a fan on Low. Fan should be blowing just over the chocolate not right on it. It should set up within 2 to 3 minutes. When set, check for the snap and the shine. Also check to see that there are no hot streaks. Hot streaks being like oil in water you should be able to see it at the top of the sample. Terry said that means you just need to stir the chocolate more. Once your sample is good to go then you are ready to dip. You must keep the water constantly at 95 to 97f and keep stirring the chocolate and taking the temp. So that's it on the tempering. I know most of you have melters or know how to do it the old fashion way but I thought maybe there was something here you could use. His class was very through we used funnels, heat guns, funnel depositors, bars. Everything that the 3 chocolateiers use (Wybauw, Greets, Greweling) and the confections were fantastic. I finally have my recipe for buttercreams. One recipe uses whipping cream for fondant while another uses butter. The caramels recieps came out really good. I've been purchasing my caramel through Sweet Celebration because I couldn't make it on my own. I'll try his reciepes this year heck may as well I paid enough for the class. He uses invert sugar in most of his recipes and Invertase which is the same thing I think please correct if I"m wrong.. For the 'Rich Creamy Caramel' he uses an ingredient called '25% Disodium Phosphate Duohydrate' which he said gives it a smoother texture. We made 2 batchs of this reciepe one with the disodium and one without. The one without came out firmer and was able to put in the bars and cut and then dipped the next day. It had the same consistency as the Kraft Caramel you buy at the store. We also made Turtles from this recipe too. As for the Jellie, he did something interesting. We used Black Current Jam by Robertsons ( he adamatly said do not use Smuckers or Knotts Barry Farms brands) and he also used Motts unsweetned applesause for the pectin. We cooked them to 235f and poured into a pan lined with saran wrap sprayed with PAM. We then placed a pecan half set one inch apart then sliced when set. We did the same with orange marmalade using Brand called Dundee which you can buy at Trader Joes. My favorite is the Strawberry Buttercream. He used freeze dried strawberry in the fondant. I wish he would have the class again. Maybe if he gets enough people asking he might have it again. This guy knows his stuff. I"m thinking of taking the Confectionary Techonology class. I want to know more!! That's it for now. If you have a question on a recipe let me know and I'll see if I can help. OH we also used a Refractometer too to check for solids in the Jellies. We also used alot of Liquers....

Hello. I finished the Gourmet Chocolate confection class given by Richardson Research labs this past week. It was a week long class and basically we made an assorted box of chocolates. Besides Terry Richardson there were 2 assistants. Thalia from Guittard and Peter who works in Reseach and Developement in the candy industry. They made the centers while us ,the students, did all the tempering by hand and hand dipped all the confections. I took a load of pics but haven't had the chance to load them onto my computer. We made everything from Nougat, Caramel, Toffee, Jellies, Truffles, Nut Clusters, Molded Chocolates, ButterCreams, It was a great class. We were given the recipes to all. There are a few ingredients I may have a problem getting. He used Anhydrous Butter and the corn syrup he used was 42de grade. Have any of you herad of that? I was quite humble doing the hand tempering since I have a Hillards Little Dipper it brought me back to the basics. I had a great time. There were 10 of us. I'm also known as Renam but decided to use my home computer to post for now on so that why I have a different name. Unfortunatly he is not offering the class anymore. He does have 2 other classe's he will teach-Chocolate Technology and Confection Technology. When I get the pic on my computer I will post them... Rena