minas6907

Ok, well I had a chance to try it this morning, and im very pleased with the results. I didnt take the chocolate to the darkness of some of links mentioned above, but still followed the same method. I set the oven to 250, and every 10 minutes gave the chocolate a stir. After a while I just started stirring every 15 minutes. All in all, I think this was about 2 hours. The chocolate has a lovely nutty flavor, im excited about what can be done with this stuff. Also, I didnt have to use an immersion blender to bring it back. When the chocolate was in the oven, it did have more of a solid texture, like a thick paste. But I noticed when I put it into a bowl after it was finished, after much stirring, it thinned back out to the consistency it would be if you were just melting it. I used callebaut 28% white, and after I did not temper it, so its still pretty fluid at room temp. Here's a picture, sorry about the bad lighting.

I've been thinking of starting a topic sort of about this. The blonde chocolate from Valronha, is this caramelized white chocolate? What I was wondering was if caramelized white chocolate was typically something purchased, or made. Sort of how you can purchase gianduja, but you can also make a gianduja from scratch. It may not be up the par with something purchased, but still very acceptable. The reason I was wondering this is because I dont recall anything in chocolates and confections mentioning caramelized white chocolate, and if I recall correctly, in Notters book, he uses caramelized white chocolate for a few recipes, but doesnt mention how to make it (I could be wrong, but thats what I seem to remember). As for making it, is there a point where it can get too dark? Id like to hear more details or a reference if anyone has one.

I know absolutely nothing about vacuum chambers, but cant chocolate also be aerated with an isi canister? Im sure the result wouldn't be the same, but it seems a little more straighforward. Ok im leaving now.

The packets of chocolate you have at home, are they by chance coating chocolate? Does it contain hydrogenated oils?

Recently I got married, and more then anything for the wedding, I wanted to contribute the candy bar. I think everything came out a little better then I expected, especially since about a month before the wedding I had moved into a new place and had to get the kitchen set up as soon as I could...and it was summertime, not good for the chocolates, but I made those at my mother in laws house since they have ac. Anywho, everything on the table was made by myself with some help from my fiance. The list of sweets are as follows: Piped Marshmallow (Two colors) Chocolate Caramels garnished with Cacao Nib Caramels garnished with Maldon Sea Salt Coconut, Peach, and Cherry Pate de Fruit Chocolate Taffy Peanut Butter Taffy Pb&j Bonbon (Raspberry pate de fruit with peanut gianduja) Cinnamon and Fireball Whiskey Bonbon Espresso Bonbon The only negative thing that happened was on the pb&j's, all the triangles developed some serious bloom, but there was no way I was gonna remake those :-). Other then that, we were concerned about the heat that day, and it being an outside venue, but it worked out fine. Some friends of mine who helped out with the actual setting up were able to store all the candy the day of at the club house. They set up the table before the wedding, and right before the start of the reception they plated all the items, and they did a beautiful job! Just wanted to share!

I'm back! Ok, no in my notes I have down that boiling to about 248 f will give the desired result. I remember being quite annoyed with this because I had made it so many times with the same outcome of the fudge not setting up properly after agitating. I'm honestly not much of a fudge person, but after looking in my notes I remembered that I also tried the chocolate fudge recipe from CIA's book Baking and Pastry, which obviously had Greweling's influence on the Chocolates and Confections portion. Some of the formulas are a bit different when compared to what he has in Chocolates and Confections, but they do work, especially the fudge.

For a time I was wondering the exact same thing. Can you add peppermint oil to dark chocolate and use that chocolate as the exterior on a shell molded bonbon? Somehow I just never wanted to try. I didn't want my molds smelling like peppermint, and I was sort of afraid of the peppermint oil messing with the temper and not have that shine we strive for, but perhaps the latter is not so much of a concern since the amount of oil added is so small. Still, at the very least, it seems like the next few batches of chocolate would have a peppermint scent wether one wanted it or not.

Sure thing. Im actually honeymooning right now, but ill check in my notes what I wrote down when we get back!

If its not firming up after agitation, cook it to a higher temp. Ive seen this with some of the formulas from chocolates and confections, notably taffy and fudge. Some of the temps given seem low, they dont yield a firm product, and this is after many many attempts with my calibrated thermocouple. I had problems with the chocolate fudge formula and it didnt come out until I gradually boiled to a higher temp, got the result I was looking for, and made a note of the temp. Just boil a few degrees higher each time until it sets up and crystallizes properly.

Im honestly not trying to be the kill joy here, but isn't an oven in the garage a violation of the food cottage regulations? It might be different here in California, but I was just wondering.

Wow, that sounds exactly like where I work. I work in the kitchen of an assisted living facility, and it follows exactly the manner laid out in the article. We have a dietitian come ever four months or so to check up and make sure everything's up to par. It was funny the article mentioned cooking demos, about once a month I do chocolate and candy demos for the residents as an activity (hard candies, peppermint patties, molded bonbons, etc, as well as chocolates for special events hosted by the facility). Im not surprised one bit about culinary grads heading those kitchens. Typically they are very corporate, monday through friday, 9-5 jobs, benefits included. Ive seen many chefs who've been burned out on the restaurant or hotel end of the business, and they get a job in a facility. With regards to food quality, where im at, it can vary widely depending on whos cooking. Some cooks can read the menu, but not nessesary the description of the item or recipe, so it ends up being kind of a crap shoot. With the cooks who know what they are doing, the food is much better, and the residents can tell. About the service not being fast enough, that depends on where your at. Some facilities have servers who take care of meal service, the places the servers are also caregivers. Anywho, it was a good article, hopefully some of that high quality food comes our way, all this sysco stuff drives me crazy.

The toffee (when its stored in an air tight container) will keep for longer then you might imagine.

Hello all. Ive realized its been a long time since ive started a new topic, and this is something that has been on my mind. Im going to be getting married at the end of the month, and we just had our wedding shower. Amoung the diffs was a beautiful 7qt kitchen aid, which I was stoked to get. I also just moved, so the apartment is still being put together, so its not in use currently, but I had a question. I seem to remember on another thread discussing stand mixers, it was mentioned that when you get a new kitchen aid, it shouldn't be run at full capacity from the start. I recall that someone mentioned letting it run periodically for some minutes on low speed to distribute the oil around the gears, or something along those lines. Is there any validity to that? Im just curious because someone had mentioned it, and im a little overly paranoid about my new toy, so just looking for advice from someone that knows about the insides of the machines. On a seperate note, I was a bit bummed when the whisk attachment was not in the box, but Sur La Table quickly took care of that.

I dont think no saw any comments on it, but thats kind of alot of oil they used in the pan, yeah?

Wouldnt one normally use a caramel cutter for cutting the slab? Its sort of like a rolling pin type bar with several sharpened disks spaced out at even intervals. I could be wrong, but I dont think a guitar cutter is what your looking for, and I wouldnt put any faith in the cheese cutter.

I know that you can add a small amount of water right after and itll bubble and boil away, but flavoring a hard candy with a flavored water isnt really the best way to go, either the flavor will be very light, or you'll want to add more and end up adding too much water. Even using an extract is doable, but not really the most practical, since it has such a high water content. When I do hard candies, especially for events, I use paste colors that dont have any water or acid in them. I dont mind using typical food colorants in other things like marshmallow or taffy, since those things have a moisture content. I think im probably just overly paranoid when it comes to pulled sugar candies, there's nothing I hate more then sticky hard candies :-)

Has you attempts at making boiled sugar been only involving infused water? Like Lisa suggested, boil a batch plain and see if you get the same result, just to narrow things down. However, if you add the infused water after boiling is complete, i cant imagine that the flavor would be strong, not to mention your candies would get sticky very easily and crystallize quickly from the excess water. Your boiling the sugar to high temps to remove virtually all the water, and you'll probably get an undesired result from adding water back into the sugar after its taken off the heat. Are you able to get a horehound oil?

Whats the infused water?

Whats the recipe your using? Are you boiling with citric acid?

I pretty much just use the microwave for reheating the coffee in my mug that I dont drink fast enough, and warming up my cocoa butters.

Thanks for resurrecting this topic, I was going to start one on the same subject! I think ive found what I needed!

Aaaaahh, ok thats interesting. After I saw that cake board I just remembered that all the bonbon displays on jbprince and chef rubber are made from acrylic.

Hey I just wanted some input here, I'm positive someone here will know. I was at The Container Store a few days ago, and while browsing I came across these 24 compartment lipstick holders. Since I always have chocolate on the mind, I was wondering if these would be suitable for molding bonbons. There are 24 cavities, and it would yield a bonbon that would sort of be a slightly tall cube. The dimensions are perfect for a chocolate piece, not to small not to large, and its $7. Now my question is mostly about the material. Its made from acrylic, and I'm not too sure about it being food safe. I dont know too much about plastics, but (correct me if I'm wrong) most plastics in the kitchen are polycarbonate, right? I'm not just talking about chocolate molds, but standard clear plastic pitchers, lexon containers, typical 1/6 pans, the top of the robot coupe, blender pitchers, etc. I'm not sure if I've ever heard of acrylic material being used with food. Anyways, that was mostly my question, I was just wondering if an acrylic piece like this would pose any health concerns when used with chocolate.

Yep! Its came out a bit thinner then I wanted, I think next time when I make it im going to pour off some of the oil from the top, then add the other ingredients. These were slightly difficult to cap.

Host's note: this is a continuation of the ever-popular Confections! topic; the previous segment is here: Confections! What did we make? (2012 – 2014) Here's something I did yesterday, peanut butter chocolate bars.