minas6907

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.

I was thinking something similar, like a buttercrunch. A very thin toffee with chocolate on both sides and nuts. I was also thinking of something like an almond roca, but not a solid toffee piece in the center. Like if you made a toffee, crushed it to small bits, mixed it into chocolate, then cut it into the desired sized pieces. You could also add some neutral oil to the chocolate to make it a little easier to bite at room temp.

No, its not something I've pursued at all. Using an oil in a gummy really is the way to go. I know the appeal of using a fruit puree in a gummy, but it will mess with the formulation. While I think it is possible, I think by the time you add enough puree to taste it, you've added waaaay more water to the gummy then you should have. I've seen some confectioners make things like 'natural blackberry gummies.' What they do is add blackberry puree to the gummy mix, but also add 'natural blackberry flavor' for the actual flavor. They put black berry puree on the ingredients list, giving the illusion that its such a natural product (since the puree will come before the flavor on the ingredients list), when all they are doing is just using the blackberry puree for color. I think its a cheap shot, but I'm sure it sells their products. All in all, I do make small adjustments to Greweling formulas, but adding a puree instead of a oil is a pretty drastic change, you'd need to change other parts of the formula, and I just havent messed with it.

Of course! Its just the Lorann flavor oils. I think these were strawberry, I just added the flavor toward the end of cooking the jellies.

Just an update, the last of the polycarbonate molds found a home! Thank you to all who purchased them! Mods can lock the thread if desired.