minas6907

Personally I love scones. I have fond memories of working at one restaurant that had a Sunday tea service when I was a teenager, we would bake scones on the order for each table. I spent alot of time portioning the dough into logs for wrapping and freezing. I've always enjoyed the scones from The Professional Pastry Chef. 12 oz dried fruit or other inclusions 28 oz flour 3 oz sugar 3 T baking powder 1 t salt 3 1/2 c heavy cream 4 oz honey Combine the dry ingredients and wet separately, mix the wet into the dry only until it comes together. Turn onto a floured surface and shape into a slab. Cut into bars, and wrap individually, refrigerate or freeze. The reason I like to seperate and wrap into bars is that it makes it really easy to freeze for long term storage. Then when I want some scones, or have guests, just thaw the night before under refrigeration and bake. Brush the tops with heavy cream or egg wash, and top with coarse sugar or strussel. I've always enjoyed this recipe because of how easy you can change it up. For a time I would store orange peels in the freezer as we ate oranges, then just candied them all, and toss those in. Chocolate chips are nice in these scones, but personally I always enjoyed classic blueberry.

Whats your formula for fondant look like, is it the one from Chocolates and Confections? I do understand that your fondant is silky smooth after you make it, but if you kept that fondant in storage and didnt use it for centers, weeks later, would it also develop the same graininess? Do you get the same result with centers if you do not add the butter? When you make fondant, controlled crystallization is really everything. As your boiling your syrup, clean the sides of the pan often, more then you think you need to, and start the syrup off on a lower heat before increasing the flame to boil. Have you tried increasing the amount of glucose in your formula? Do you seed with previously made fondant? How long does the deposited fondant need to sit for you to notice the graininess? Would it be present an hour after it cools? Or is it over the course of multiple days or weeks? How do you agitate your fondant? Personally, I used to do it by hand on a slab, but now it goes into a mixer. I pour the syrup into the bowl, leave it until it cools below 120f, then start agitating with a paddle on the slowest setting. About 15 minutes ish later, the fondant will be ready, and you need to catch it before it suddenly seizes. I ask about your process in making it because something along the way is causing the graininess, and other times not. Thats why I ask about agitation, how do you tell that your not agitating too soon? As for starch vs molds, either will work fine, the starch wont have an effect on the crystallization of fondant. Starch has been used to mold fondants for a very long time, and still is commercially. Personally, I like to use silicone molds (especially for patties) and on occasion have done like a thinned fondant as a center for a molded bonbon, like @curls mentioned, I gave my starch imprinters away because I got tired of the process, it was just too much for me personally, I mostly used it for gummies and cordials. And thats pretty cool that your 3d printing your imprinters, can you post a picture of them?

@Capouch How are you making your fondant? You mentioned Grewelings book, are you using the formula from there? I've made fondant many many times, and personally have only a l experienced grainy product from agitating too soon. Since you mentioned that you make your own, how do you agitate it? Are you certain that you are waiting until the boiled syrup is 120f or below before you start agitating? Edit to add a few more questions: You also mentioned the inclusion of invertase, does that liquify your centers at all? How large are the batches that your producing?

This ones a little out of left field for me, but I made a chocolate babka. I think the idea was in my head from seeing that Seinfeld episode a while back where Jerry and Elaine are in the bakery. Specifically, I made the babka recipe from On Baking with the chocolate filling from CIA's Baking and Pastry. It came out nice, though I think I overdid it on the filling. If I did it again, I'd roll the dough alot thinner to get more layers, and hold back on the filling a little, or just try the cinnamon filling that was in On Baking (another babka?) No glamor shot on this one, just just plopped on the cutting board! What I would actually like to do is make a sourdough babka, that sounds delicious.

Thank you for your kind words Darienne!

I recently made some lollipops for a gender reveal party for a family friend (it was a girl!). They requested some candies, so I made lollipops, about 50 pc total (watermelon and blueberry) as well as some marshmallows. I didnt take a picture of the mallows, they were also pink and blue, and just looked like marshmallows haha. I made a little batch of vanilla bean marshmallow for my wife and I, I scooped some from the mixer and burnt it over a flame, soooo delicious!

Hey nice work on the dragees! Your right about the learning curve, its time consuming, and like you said, theres not too much information on the topic. Personally, over the years I feel like I've been able to glean tidbits here and there, this forum, a few people on the phone, random books, etc. I searched for the polishing liquid on Chef Rubber, and was very surprised that they had one. Its been forever since I've ordered anything from them, and I recall them only having the confectionery glaze, the shellac, but it looks like they have their own products for polishing dragees. If you wouldnt mind, I'd be interested in knowing what the ingredients read on the label, if you did purchase the "Confectionery Polishing Liquid." It says its water based, but I just wanted to know whats inside. When it comes to polishing dragees, the best results I've gotten was by following advice from a tech at Tic Gums. I was trying to get samples of their products but was unable since I'm not a manufacture. But gave me to following to make a polish from gum acacia. Heres part of his email: ------- In this process, you should make up a solution of sealing syrup comprised of 40% gum acacia in water. To prepare the solution: 1. Add 40 parts gum acacia to 60 parts water. 2. Heat up to 80°C to ensure the acacia is fully hydrated. 3. Maintain a temperature between 25-60°C while applying. For the application process, using the 40% gum acacia syrup, add a charge of ~1 part syrup per 100 parts dragee(by weight) to provide a protective film. Dry with air. Repeat this step two more times. This coating will have some shine, but not quite as much as a shellac will. ------- I attached two pictures of results I got with the polish. The espresso beans in the demitasse cup were just coated with the solution above. They can be a bit delicate in storage, but they do look nice, and it was only once step. I was honestly very surprised by the result. The macadamia nuts I did the above polish and a coating of the shellac. The shellac is some serious stuff, no joke. Wear gloves, and be careful as to what it gets on, you need a solvent to remove it. My coating pan was a nightmare to clean after using the confectionery glaze, so after a few times of messing with that, I just opted to just stick with the gum acacia solution, much easier to clean off. One thing that I remembered about the glazing of the product with the shellac, is that when the product of done, put it on a parchment lined sheet pan in a single layer, dont stack them all over each other, they will dry with a bunch of contact marks on them. Chocolates and Confections 2nd edition has some information on chocolate panning, but especially when your just messing with this stuff for fun, you'll learn alot just by doing it and seeing what works. Another book that had good information in it was Confectionery Science and Technology, it focuses on manufacturing, but theres still good info to glean from it. A few years ago I was also recommended the book Silesia Confiserie Manual No.4 (Panned Goods). Its available to purchase on DataSweet, and I meant to get a copy, but just havent, I havent been panning as much as I used to.

On the website, for the dark raspberry creams, it does list butter as an ingredient in the dark chocolate, not just the center, so that likely contributes to a softer coating.

Let us know how you like it. I just looked it up, that price surprised me actually, much cheaper then any of the other panning attachments out there, but It does look a little smaller. It's nice to see other options coming out.

I didn't know about this book until I saw this post, but I was able to download a sample on Kindle. If your able to do the same I think it'll give you a pretty good idea of if it will be useful to you. The recipes are divided into short, medium, and long shelf life, and it looks like you can see them all in the table of contents, and there were a handful of formulas to you can see. The recipes for dragee interest me, but not so much at the price of the book.

I've learned this lesson before!

For what it's worth, as much as I love Grewelings book, I've had much better success with the formula for liquor bonbons from Notters Art of the Chocolatier. I've used it to make both starch molded bonbons and to fill shells in a polycarbonate mold. @Sebabh I'll dm you the formula when I get a moment later today.

I had plenty of success with not covering every type of center with gum Arabic. Nuts, raisins, other dehydrated fruit was fine. That being said, I mostly used cocoa powder or confectioners sugar to finish, so I wasn't concerned about any fat migration. I did pan macadamias with no precoat, then with chocolate, I polished them with a gum Arabic solution. I held onto those for about 6 months, I never saw any fat migration. After a while I stopped worrying about it because I was producing for special events (people preferred the powdered coat since it looked more natural) not for products that will be stored in the long term and shipped out. Coffee bean I did try to pan without a precoat, and it didn't work. I made another batch with a gum Arabic precoat, and the chocolate adhered just fine, it was a pretty stark contrast to the other centers, so lesson learned there. As for polishing, I never tried the natural polish, so I can't speak to that. Hope you the above can help you some, and hope you can streamline your process. Panning is satisfying, but boy can it be problematic haha.

Definitely look into Grewelings book, it's a great reference.

Do you have a copy of Grewelings Chocolates and Confections? The "Caramel Creams" on page 258 seem to be what your going for. The Caramel is like a thick fluid, and Ive never had it crystallize on me. 1/4 t. Lemon juice 20 oz. Sugar 10 oz. Heavy cream 5 oz butter A small amount of liquor Melt the sugar using the dry method, add the cream, stir in the butter, then the liquor if using, let it cool completely to room temp. This is a great filling, one of my favorites.