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justDeb

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  1. I've read elsewhere that it helps to pop the filled mold into the freezer for awhile. Then, after removing the bonbons, let them come to room temperature. Can't say that I've tried it though.
  2. Actually, the 'organic evaporated cane juice' is sucrose you're absolutely right; missed the evaporated part.
  3. It can certainly be done. In fact, JJ's Sweets in Boulder Colorado (JJssweets.com) has a line of them, and calls them Cocomels. I think I saw them at the last Chocolate Salon in Los Angeles, but didn't taste their samples, so I can't speak to what they're like. The ingredient label for the original recipe lists: Coconut milk (coconut extract, water, citric acid, sodium metabisulfite), organic brown rice syrup, organic evaporated cane juice. No butter or additional fat. Don't know if this is at all helpful since it doesn't use regular sucrose either.
  4. I've not heard of anyone carmelizing glucose by itself and I always add the glucose to the sugar at the beginning then carmelize the two. Maybe you should try it that way, as I haven't experienced a "stocky, hard mess."
  5. Tomric has the same Chocolate World mold (I-1241) as Kerry is pointing out and it's probably less expensive to get them there if you're in the U.S. (as Chocolat-Chocolat charges like $16.95 plus 10% for duty/tax).
  6. Costa Rican food is very plain. Typical Costa Rican food is not spicy and doesn't really have a lot of flavor. The most typical dish is casado which is a plate consisting of rice, beans, salad, usually a fried plantain and your choice of meat (a piece of chicken, pork, beef, etc.), served with tortillas. The best place to get good typical food is at a "soda" which is a small Mom & Pop (often open air) place, somewhere in between a stand a building. The Costa Rican diet is full of a lot of fresh fruits and veggies which can be purchased at stands and farmer's markets all over the place. Tuna (yellowfin) is rather common as it is caught locally; same for Mahi Mahi. Beef, however, is generally not great. This is not to say that you can't get some good, international dishes in Costa Rica. Due to the number of Americans, Canadians and Europeans living there, most of the larger towns offer a number of restaurants ranging from Italian to German to Mediterranean, prepared by chefs imported from all over. I recently returned from a vacation there and one of the best meals I had was at a wonderful Italian restaurant in Santa Ana (a suburb of San Jose in the Central Valley) called Bacchus; some people say it is the best place in the country. It is a beautiful country and the people who live there are some of the nicest, friendliest people around; enjoy your trip!
  7. Pretty definite if I can hitch a ride from Buffalo with someone
  8. Canon makes a printer that allegedly works with cocoa butter. Check out the previous thread here
  9. I'm guessing that you're referring to pre-made truffle shells, not molds in the sense of polycarbonate molds. If so, there is a discussion about them here.
  10. Yes, it has recipes: the first third or so of the book is technical/scientific information related primarily to shelf life and increasing it. I only have the second book, but it certainly had a lot of information that was not in that book. The remaining 125 pages or so are recipes and photos. As I indicated in my initial post, most of the recipes have a number of ingredients that you may not be accustomed to using, or at least not all together (e.g. glucose and maltodextrin and sorbitol, or sucrose and maltodextrin and glycerol and invert sugar).
  11. I don't disagree with Lior at all; I have a voracious appetite for reading about chocolate, confections and the science behind them. I was simply commenting that as much as I may have learned from the book, I don't think I would put much of it to use in what I create. Just old fashioned, I guess.
  12. Has anyone else perused this new book on extending shelf life? I had pre-ordered it on Amazon and was looking forward to getting the benefit of his thoughts on the subject (plus recipes for longer lasting centers). I just finished reading the first 80 pages of science/information/theory and took a look at the recipes that follow and wondered why anyone would want to go that route. His theory is that you increase shelf life by using several ingredients (not just, for instance, glucose or invert sugar), each of which has different properties and sweetness levels. In the end, you get a balanced ganache that will last several months and a recipe that has more "unnatural" ingredients than I'd ever want to put on a label or admit to using. Interesting reading, but I think the freezer is probably still the best way to maintain chocolates that won't be consumed while still fresh.
  13. You certainly do have quite an impressive toy collection!
  14. Kerry, out of curiosity, what do you use to measure water activity? Aren't those instruments ridiculously expensive?
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