minas6907

I was going to start a topic similar to this, but maybe I'll refrain now since this is pretty much on subject. I too want to make my own colors with cocoa butter, but I'm not really sure where to start. I dont want to purchase the bottles of colored cocoa butter, they are too expensive considering the little use they would get. I'm not using an airbrush, I mostly want to do simple colors using a gloved finger. To apply the colors to a polycarbonate mold, I know the cocoa butter needs to be tempered. Mainly what I'm wondering is how to go about the tempering process. The amount of cocoa butter I would need for, say two or even three molds is quite small, since it would just be a spatter or smudge here and there. So to temper the cocoa butter, would it be normal to table it? Do I table the cocoa butter then add my color? It seems like most everyone here uses the colors that come from the bottles, and even in Chocolates and Confections it seems like Greweling says that the colored cocoa butter needs to be tempered, but doesnt really say how. Anyways, if anyone can clarify that would be helpful, I'll check what Notter says in Art of the Chocolatier.

It is a good idea to seal, however it should be noted that if you use acetone on an area it will take off any sealer present.

Heres from the past few weeks. My take on the classic Altoids, then there is chocolate, salted caramel, and coconut macaron, cherry pate de fruit, chocolate fudge, some pastillage, then peppermint rock candy.

Recently I woke up my starter from a deep deep slumber. I started working again on my baguettes, as well as made a simple boule.

I'd probably just take them in my carry on.

Any sort of concentrated degreaser will work. And no, I don't think talc specifically is a required for the poultice, the baby powder is an easy material to get, it just acts as a medium for the stain to be puller up into. In the field, another material I use for a poultice is diatomaceous earth, it works the same way. I really can't say if it would work on laminate, since that's not a very porous material, I haven't heard of getting stains out if laminate by using a poultice. The ceasarstone and quartzstone surfaces really are easier to maintain the many other stone surfaces. And your right, of the lighter colored man made materials do on occasion seem to be a bit more problematic when it comes to staining, I've seen this on many build sites. The reason I suggested the poultice is that if the balsamic is staining, the material obviously has some porosity to it, and may respond well to the poultice re-emulsifying and pulling it out. Anything you can do to stone is safe on these man made surfaces, but it doesnt work the other way around. I guess what I saying is that its ok to treat the ceasarstone surfaces like stone, but not really ok to treat a stone surface like ceasarstone.

If you have stains in your counter, like from the balsamic you mentioned, I'd make a poultice, that should lighten those spots. I've been doing stone restoration by trade for about 7 years now and deal with stains often. Get baby powder, wet it with a degreaser to make a paste and apply a 1/4 inch layer to the stained area. Cover that with plastic, and tape all the edges of the plastic so its airtight. After 24hr, peel up one corner of the tape and let it dry, it should be dry within the next 24hr. This method does well at removing stains, hopefully it will be gone. If you see its gotton lighter but still remains, do a 2nd application.

This actually has been a very interesting thread to read. I like the idea of the biscuit frames. Has anyone every purchased plexiglass from Home Depot? I want to check the next time I'm in, but recently I had an idea of buying a piece of plexiglass and cutting a square center out to make my own stackable frame, has anyone every done that? I've never worked with the stuff, it was just a thought. It seems like more here have frames for layered chocolate centers. My frames arent as specific, but heres what I use. Sorry its not the greatest picture, but its an example, here specifically I was making the 'rind' of orange jellie slices. I find my bars at Home Depot, they are aluminum angle stock, they come in 4ft pieces. My first set for a frame was a 3/4 angle piece, I cut the segment into 4 1ft pieces, cleaned up the burrs, and polished the outer part of the angle where the candy would be touching, just so theres not a coarse surface for anything to really stick to them. I mostly use my bars for boiled confections, so my 3/4 inch set I use for jellies and caramels that would get poured into a slab. I'll just just two of the 3/4 bars for nougat since that doesnt flow, and flatten the top with a rolling pin. I'll do the same for marshmallow, but also have 2 2ft 1inch angle pieces for larger marshmallow. Then I do have 2 2ft 1/4 angles for fudge. And if I need to make larger frames for big batches, I'm able to use a combo of the long 2ft segments and 1ft pieces as seen in the picture. Anyways, hopefully that made sense!

Cabernet Sauvignon pate de fruit.

Haha, I'm afraid not! Just a little project that didn't need much attention!

I'm not really sure if you'd be to get the results you want with coconut oil. Like what Lisa said, flavoring tempered white chocolate will give the effect because the tempered chocolate will set up pretty quickly on the cold ice cream. When you mention coconut oil, something along the lines of a chocolate meltaway comes to mind, but inclined to say that it wouldnt really set up the way you'd hope it would, not to mention it would be very thin while its in a liquid form, but really, there arent too many alternatives here, aside from tempered chocolate. It's hard to mimic that quick forming magic shell that you get from those dessert toppings, they do that because they have hydrogenated oils that solidify immediately on a cold surface, coconut fat just wont do that.

Yep, it was a mini bouche de noel silicone mold.

Heres my recent work. Blueberry rock candy, gianduja macaron, pineapple pate de fruit, raspberry-rose berlingots I made for a friend who was doing a launch of a new fragrance, and finally, sponge candy.

Its simple, just process the berries in a food processor, then strain through a chinoise or another fine sieve.

Heres pictures from the past month or so. First, I've been loving the candied fruit (got some pears going right now) so we have candied key limes as well as pineapple. Then, in a little experiment to see how a fruit juice would gel as opposed to a fruit puree, I have a pdf with grapefruit juice. Ans lastly, we have chocolate dipped sea salted caramels.

I havent done this yet, but plan to soon, I wanted to put together some molded cherry cordials. When the instructions call for warming the fondant to 80 degrees and thinning it, is it problematic at all to close the shell?

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies! I've been considering alot of different options, but over all, I think the most effective will be white plastic twist ties, simply because I could tie them quickly and they are fairly inconspicuous. Anywho, just wanted to give an update.

Hey, I just wanted to throw this out there, has anyone done a black peppercorn caramel? I always liked the flavors added to caramels from spices, like cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, etc, but today I was thinking of black peppercorn. Any thoughts on it?

Starch imprinters and layered gianduja.

Thank you so much! I'd say just go boil some sugar! Seriously, just have a go at it, make sure you have a silpat, it's indispensable. Keep in mind that sugar is cheap, so expect to make lots of batches, and (this is what I seiously did) for your first batch of sugar, purposely do not wash down the sugar crystals from the sides of the pan, see what is spoken about when the sugar crystallizes from improper sugar cooking technique. Then on your next go, wash down the crystals and do it right, you'll see a huge difference with the feel and workability of the sugar. With time you'll get a feel for the sugar, you'll start to like it! You looking to make hard candy or more like show piece stuff?

I wish I knew about this before....I'm going to have to look into these.

Hi everyone! I had a question about packaging, namely what to use for tying the base of a lollipop. For a long time I've been using ribbon and tying a bow (you can see in the pic included) Specifically, these lollipops were from one year ago, since then I have been making my bows a bit smaller. But now that I may be doing lollipops in a larger quantities for weddings, I'm looking for something to replace tying a bow with plain ribbon. Truthfully I'm not really sure where to go. I'd like something small, something I can get in bulk. So far I went to uline and saw they have twist ties, but I'd rather have something that didnt really look like a normal twist tie. Can anyone give suggestions on a direction to turn for packaging supplies? I've been going to clearcellobags.com for most of my wrappers and such, but they didnt have anything that looked promising. What other site would sell similar packaging items?

Hey, awesome idea about the chocolate pops! I love that with the transfer sheets! Heres a simple hard candy I made, mango flavored rock candy, in the form of spicy tuna rolls.

A few things from the last week. Almond drageé, piped truffles, candied ginger, and candied ginger in chocolate.

I was sort of disappointed with the Garde Manger text from CIA. I love the subject, but soon realized the much of the content was already in The Professional Chef. Anyways, now I'm rather selective with any of the CIA texts, that book cost more then it was worth for repeated recipes, instructions, and photos.