GNV//PDX

Thanks ya'll-we'll see where this goes

paulraphael, Im going to avoid using the cream so that it dosnt coat the palate, thus leaving only a clean, intense chocolate flavor and a preferable mouth feel (making a regular chantilly and adding cocoa powder would obviously be easier), although stabalizing w getatin, agar, xanthan, etc might be the only way to hold its peak and thus leaving me able to pipe the finished product...i'm gonna play around with that. thanks mkayahara for the insight into the molecular process, i'm going to try to use a stick blender to whip and incorperate a greater amount of air, quicker, thus hopefully yeilding a lighter product. Playing with the cocoa butter is interesting...I wonder what adding a bit of cocoa butter to the melted chocolate/water would do? maybe create a stronger emmulsion between the fat/water=a more stable product??? If I was to try and stabilize it, when yould I add the stabilizer?

A few days ago I was thumbing though my copy of Heston Blumenthal's fat duck cookbook and ran across a mention of Hervé This's Chocolate Chantilly that I guess Blumenthal subsequently used in his restaurant. I searched the web and found a formula for it, seemingly much easier to make that I thought, as it requiered no speacial chemicals, compounds, or equipment. Infact it only called for a bit of chocolate and water. 200 ml water 225 gr quality bittersweet chocolate (a scant 8 oz), chopped coarsely Place the water and chocolate into a small heavy saucepan over medium heat to melt. Stir the chocolate in the pan until completely melted. Have ready two bowls, one that will sit inside the other. Into the bigger bowl, put some ice and a little water, and place in it the smaller bowl. Pour the melted chocolate into the smaller bowl and whisk over ice - the mixture will gradually thicken and take on the appearance of whipped cream, at which point it is ready to serve. I used a hand-held electric mixer with a whisk attachment and it took 3 minutes.Be careful not to over whip it, but if you do simply put it back into the pan and start again. I followed this exactly save the use of the stick blender w wisk attachment ( i just wisked by hand. I've made a bit of mayonaise/hollendaise in the past) which man have been my issue. The chocolate would whip up to beautiful soft peaks and then when coaxed any stiffer, it would completly break down, back to its totally slack state, but couldnt be whipped up again till brought back up to the total melt point. I was wondering if anyone has had better luck with this and also if anyone knew a bit more about the molecular basis of this technique. Really all I know about chocolate and water, is when i've worked with chocolate, esp. tempering chocolate by hand, getting water even close to your chocolate is bad news, as even a drop of water thickens the chocolate and makes it impossible to temper, so obviously this technique uses that reaction to its benifit. Is it the incorporation of air with wisking? the aggitation? the heat to cool?

I don't think that the stone would be necessary. The pan sould conduct and distribute the heat just fine, although you might try heating the pan as you preheat the oven, and then (carefully!) put the dough in the already hot pan and then back to the oven. I know that the preheat of the pan is a technique that some "no-knead" bakers in NY use, but they bake in ceramic pots as opposed to loaf pans... I'd be curious how it turns out...I bake alot of hand shaped loaves but havent baked alot in pans. good luck!