tikidoc
-
Posts
645 -
Joined
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by tikidoc
-
-
Vacation time requested!
-
1
-
-
I like gfweb’s idea. When the weather is dreary and cold, a nice summery truffle would make a good pick me up. A taste of the tropics when it’s cold and snowy. If you like how that truffle turned out, embrace the summer.
-
3
-
-
On 8/26/2018 at 6:21 PM, Kerry Beal said:
Here are my purple dendrite studies.
Some were dilute chocolate - other's black cocoa butter. Cocoa butter alone is fine - just make sure it's over tempered.
What do you mean by “overtempered”?
-
Thanks, Kerry!
-
I received the replacement bowl, and I think it is fine. Supposedly it is a different bowl, but it appears that the plastic at the top of the stalk in the middle of the bowl where the wheel assembly sits has been shaved down, allowing the wheels to sit on the bottom of the bowl. Have not used it yet, but I anticipate it will work fine.
Which brings me to another question. People have been discussing using sugar or other things in the bowl prior to making chocolate, to “season” the bowl. This was not an issue with the full sized bowl that came with the machine, since it was used at the workshop. I was not able to find any instructions for this on the site, and the bowl did not come with any paperwork. How much should I use and for how long?
-
Hmm, would Silly Puty work, I wonder?
-
Where do you find metallic colors? Which powders are everyone using?
-
There has been a lot of talk lately on the forum regarding using home made colored cocoa butter. I’d love to learn how to do this, preferably with basic materials available on Amazon and other websites. I’d like for this to be another “share your experience” thread, so feel free to discuss the “flowers” designed for this use, but I personally would rather start with less expensive options. What products do you use? How much do you add to the cocoa butter? Do you strain it, and if so, how? I’m thinking I would try the pantyhose idea since I have a clue unopened packages of them in a drawer somewhere, and they (happily to me) seem to have gone out of style.
I have done a few google searches, with very little success. It appears there may be some info on YouTube, but I have painfully slow internet at home, limiting streaming (we live in the country).
-
33 minutes ago, Jamal12 said:
Thanks for that we have IKEA not that far away I can may be pop in an get it.
Pretty sure it was from 2016, from what I could find. It’s not in their current catalog, which is why I checked eBay. I didn’t find any chocolate molds at all on the current ikea site.
Also, if you search this forum, you can find links to a number of websites selling molds (polycarbonate) that are likely much higher quality, which will last about forever if you take care of them. Many of these sites have literally hundreds of different molds.
-
-
2 hours ago, pastrygirl said:
@tikidoc which melanger do you have that’s not compatible? My mini bowl has been shipped so I guess I’ll find out soon enough if it fits mine ...
To clarify, the problem is how the wheel assembly sits in the bowl, NOT the machine. It is supposed to work on either machine. When I notified them of the problem, they attempted to troubleshoot and asked me for photos. Their initial theory was the scrapers were too long (they weren’t), then that the problem was the fit of the bowl on the machine (not that either). When the wheel assembly is put in the bowl, it sits too high and neither the rollers nor the scrapers touch the floor of the bowl. There is probably 2-3 mm clearance. So there is no way it would grind stuff. The fit was the same whether it was sitting on the table or on the machine with the spring loaded screw attached.
-
1
-
-
Slight update on the small melanger bowl. At their request, I sent some photos. They initially thought the scrapers might be holding things up, but the scrapers actually had more clearance than the wheels. I think the issue is in either the height of the tube in the center of the bowl or in the plastic part in the center of the wheel apparatus. They also had a concern that it was not fitting correctly on my machine, but the problem was apparent before even setting the bowl on the machine, and the spring loaded screw did not help.
So I sent the bowl back yesterday, and I am awaiting a replacement. I’m glad I asked them to hold a replacement early in the process of troubleshooting, as they are now sold out. Given how fast they sold out, I would expect they will be making more...
-
I got mine yesterday. Unfortunately, the wheels don’t make contact with the bottom. There is 2-3 mm clearance. I have emailed and am waiting for a response.
-
Lucky Peach did an alkali noodle recipe. This is a link to an adaptation.
-
Bhavani said it would be on the website soon.
-
1
-
-
21 hours ago, gfron1 said:
As a someone who ran an addiction treatment center for a number of years...I didn't. I cringe every time I see this design.
Me too. As both a parent and a physician, I found it cringe-worthy as well.
-
Paprika here too. And books on kindle.
-
2
-
-
-
I ended up adding some milk powder and cocoa butter and the astringency mostly went away. Made a few bars, which were not terribly shiny, but I anticipated I would have issues because it’s just too warm in my work space right now. I mostly wanted to get some in an easily edible form. I may throw in some peanuts next. Got some nice Virginia peanuts at Costco. I just scraped what chocolate I could out of the melanger bowl, and I figure a little chocolate wouldn’t hurt the peanut butter...
-
3
-
-
We really love our Lacanche. They have several options for cooktops. We have a ‘French top” which is an 18k burner with a large solid cast iron plate over the burner, with a cutout circle in which you can put the included wok ring. With the cutout in place, it is great for things like big pots of tomato sauce or stacks. There are also several options for the other burners including one that gets very low. It comes in a 28” version, with either one oven and storage drawer or an oven and a smaller second broiler oven. We have a gas range with electric convection ovens and love it. I also like that there is minimal technology involved. No computer electronics, just excellent build quality to last a lifetime. And it comes in lots of cool colors, if that matters to you - was not part of our decision to go with this range, but I do like the look of the blue in our kitchen.
-
4
-
-
There is an AUI rep in my area, and as long as I’m not in a huge hurry, he will either meet me somewhere locally or drop off orders to my office when he is coming to visit other customers in the Richmond area. Handy when getting frozen purées. I don’t spend a whole lot of money, maybe $200-300 once or twice a year, but he has been very helpful and supportive.
-
1
-
-
Albert Uster sells Felchin. I really like the Maracaibo for dark and milk. The Eidelweiss is an edible white (I consider most whites to be not really edible, so that’s a pretty high compliment for a white for me).
-
On 7/6/2018 at 4:33 PM, Jim D. said:
Yes, the cost is 1400--but that is in Belarusian rubles. It converts (at the moment) to about $725 US.
Hmm. Maybe in the fall, if he continues to offer it. My work space will be cooler, and my partner at work won’t have vacation, so I won’t be getting slaughtered at work. It’s what I hate about summer...
-
Since several of us bought melangers at this year’s workshop, I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread where we could compare notes and troubleshoot. There has been some discussion on another thread but i figured having dedicated thread would make the information easier to find.
With the high heat and humidity recently, I have not messed with chocolate much lately. In anticipation of a (finally!) cooler weekend, I started a batch of chocolate in the melanger on Thursday, so I could play with it this weekend. I started with some nibs that I got from royalcacao.com. They are pre-roasted, not raw, so I did not roast the nibs. I made a 70% dark, simple 2 ingredient chocolate. It’s still in the melanger, but as of yesterday when I got home from work, it was quite smooth and the flavor up front was good. It had a slightly bitter aftertaste, and a hint of an astringency that I didn’t like, sort of like a much milder version of the feeling you get in your mouth when you accidentally get some of the stringy stuff from the inside of a banana peel in your mouth. Mildly puckery. I’m going to just let the melanger run until this afternoon when I have some time to mess with it, hoping this will fix it.
So, should I have re-roasted the beans? Is that the problem? The website says “these nibs are made from sun-dried and roasted Arriba cocoa and have their husks removed.” I did taste them before putting them in the melanger, but my palate is still pretty poorly educated when it comes to nibs. It did not taste dramatically different from the nibs we roasted at the workshop, but nibs in general taste kinda lousy to me. The ones I brought to NOTL were advertised as being “raw nibs.”
If the astringency is still there this afternoon, I was thinking of adding some cocoa butter and milk powder to make a dark milk (I’m not a huge fan of milks, but I do like some dark milks) in the hopes that the creaminess will help. Thoughts?
Lastly, opinions on lecithin? I am a hobbyist, not in business, so the chocolate will likely be used to make bars and, if workable enough, bonbons for friends and family, so I don’t feel the need to be an absolute “no additives” purist. Will I have better luck working with this stuff with a little lecithin? What is the percentage? Do I just add the granules directly to the melanger, or should I blend in to a little melted cocoa butter first? As a hobbyist who does not do this stuff anywhere as often as I would like, and who also does not have strict climate control in my work area (basement), the less finicky the resultant chocolate is, the better.
So, any suggestions would be appreciated, and please share your own notes, so we can all learn from each other!
-
1
-
Chocolates with that Showroom Finish, 2012 –
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I had a friend and her daughter over to learn some basic chocolate making today. I was worried that Florence’s humidity would hinder tempering, but between the dehumidifier in the basement and the EasyTemper, we did ok. I played with the dendritic stuff a few days ago and finished them up as well. I was pretty happy with the results! The dendritic ones were molded in a chocolate I made in the melanger, the first time I have used it to make shells, and they came out well! Nothing fancy for fillings (PB/chocolate) we were concentrating on learning about tempering and shelling.