minas6907

Thanks Panaderia, I appreciate that. I made some green pastillage, but when I rolled it out it just sort of looked like a lame play dough creation, nothing too lifelike, haha. I might try a pastillage rose soon, but we'll see. Here are some mints I made from a new batch of white pastillage. I wanted to make small ones, like altoids, then I cut thinner disks to be like those necco wafer candies. I texture of the thin disks came out great, just like the candy wafers, but while the altoid shaped ones arent bad, they dont really have the same texture. I'm wondering if I could get a simliar texture to an altoid by letting the pastiallge dry a bit, kneading it, dry, knead, dry, knead, in hopes that doing this would not let the pastillage set up so hard, but rather have more of a crumbly texture when it has fully dried. Anywho, I'll keep playing around.

Why cant you make a large amount of the liquid and portion it? All in all, your going to have a hard time replicating that formula for the candies, I've tried to look into how to make smarties, and found basically nothing on it, it just seems like a mixture consisting mostly of dextrose, and formed into little tablets and I assume dried. If you really do come across anything, I'd be very interested.

Ok, well I'm back with something a little more interesting. I got a copper pipe (my pump bulb came with free shipping but is taking about a month) and I just had some fun. I blew a dove finally, and after alot of messing around (it always wants to look like a turkey) it came out dove shaped! I also blew that little heart, and had a small amount of sugar left, so I pulled a tiny ribbon.

What are the ingredients on the package? It's probably better not to get into trying to make tablets like these, especially when it concerns someones health. These things are made differently then traditional candies. I dont know anything about these tablets, but it seems like when when you see candies that are sort of 'pressed,' (sort of like smarties) it contains dextrose rather then sucrose, so the rock candy thing isnt really going to produce the same result. If your father doesnt like tablets, can he take glucose syrup? All in all, your going to get quite frustrated trying to replicate this, and frankly I wouldnt try unless you know exactly what your doing.

Do you have a link to the video?

I made a simple flower today from pastillage, and I think it turned out so so, not bad for a first attempt, although it is a simple one to make. I used the pastillage recipe from The Art of the Confectioner, which worked wonderful. The reason I'm exited is because in the past I've used the formula from The Professional Pastry Chef (I've gotton rather suspicious of many of the formulas in this book, its no longer my primary textbook) and it contained way too much moisture, when I would put it on a surface dusted with cornstarch, it sucked it right up, it was more of a paste then a sugar dough. And it took three days for my little altoid mints that I was making to completely dry out, it was sort of silly, and theres other things I could rant about blah blah blah. Frustrations aside, the formula from Notters book really worked like it should, very easy to cut and roll out, and realized you need only minimal cornstarch to handle the material. Anyways, so I made a simple calla lily, wasnt really sure how to attach a stem to it, but eh, its fine. I'm sort of looking forward to working more with this, as much as I do enjoy the pulled sugar, I like that the pastillage doenst melt away after one day. Anyways, fun stuff.

Nice cookies, if you sandwich them together with chocolate you get those Milano cookies! Add some peppermint oil to the chocolate for peppermint Milanos. I'd like to give these a try, I always enjoyed pipped cookies.

Hey Everyone A long time ago I decided I wasnt going to get a confectionery funnel, mainly because all the ones I could find were more then I was willing to pay, but just recently I I was browsing on pastrychef.com, and they have an economy funnel, I'm pretty sure this was added in the last month or so, I've never seen this one. Heres a link: http://www.pastrychef.com/CONFECTIONERY-FUNNEL--ECONOMY_p_2176.html Aside from the silly purple color, it doesnt seem to be that badly built. I like that the trigger is metal, unlike this one from Matfer ( http://www.pastrychef.com/CONFECTIONERY-FUNNEL--PLASTIC_p_1059.html ) which is three times the price! The body of the economy one is polycarbonate, as are some of the Matfer funnels, it comes with a stand and three nozzle sizes. For $30, its hard for me to find any flaws, this is the cheapest funnel I've seen, the next cheapest was the second like I posted, at $90, and it goes all the way up to $400 from there. Now I would be using this just for the home, does anyone have any thoughts? One thing in particular I was wondering, I guess about the funnels in general, is do they not leak when you dip them in hot water? In Chocolates and Confections, Greweling says to pour the fondant or gummie mixture into a funnel heated by dipping it in hot water to aid the dispensing, are those little nozzles really water tight? It seems like some water would get in there, anyone use these on a regular basis?

Hey thanks alot, I appreciate it. The snowman did, though start to tilt back ever so slowly, I think it was from the light amount of heat from being semi close to the work area, now I see why you need a fan or a cool hair dryer to cool your pieces. I'll post more as I get more more adventurous :-)

Ok, well heres some on my own crude work after getting the book Art of the Confectioner. I'm getting better at pulling pedals, so my flowers are improving, and the snowman was just a test. I wanted to make a dove, then I realized I wasnt ready for that, so I made spheres, I tried to make him complete with arms and scarf. So do keep in mind this was just a test, I had pink sugar left over from the flower, and I didnt feel like boiling more, so no color for him! My pump bulb is in the mail, but since I was anxious to do blown sugar (and bored) I just used a plastic straw. Please dont laugh :-).

Huh. That's easier then I was thinking. Thanks for the math help Blether

Hey Everyone! I was trying to figure out the hydration of the basic country loaf in Tartine Bread. The book states on page 48 that the country loaf is 75% hydration, but I dont think thats really accurate since half of the water contained in the leaven is not accounted for in that number. It would be a 75% hydration loaf if the leaven itself was at 75% hyd, but its at 100%. So how would I figure out the true hydration of this loaf? For those who may not have the book, the loaf contains 200g leaven (100% hydration) 750 g. Water and 1000 g. Flour. When I first read in the book that its a 75% hydration loaf it sort of caught my attention because of the starter, but then my curiosity was peaked even more when I read this one star review of the book on Amazon which says in part: - "the discussion of bakers percents and the listed percents do not add up correctly with the amounts in the formula. The total hydration of his basic country bread is off by the amount of the leavan. The total amount of flour is also off by the amount of the flour in the leavan. I wonder if he really understands bakers percent math. Small mistakes are one thing but any professional baker would be or should be embarrassed by this interpretation of bakers percent math. A new baker will gain nothing useful by the confusion created on pages 47) para 1. and page 48. In addition the percent for salt is shown to be 2%, which is a common ratio for that ingredient but then since the flour in the leavan isn't included in the total flour, the amount shown in under the salt column is off by 10%. That mistake won't ruin the bread but, the instructor/author should stay true to the universally accepted use of Bakers Math." - So while I love the book and dont think it deserves one star, the reviewer has a point, so that just got me thinking. If anyone can help I'd appreciate it, when I've tried to solve it I ran out of brain power :-(

I'm with you!

You could load up the water used for the hard candy recipe with the Cayenne and bring to a boil to steep, then proceed to make the candy after straining it out. One advantage, I'd say, to using the concentrated oil is that its folded in as the candy is cooling, you dont have to boil it so your kitchen wont smell of Cayenne for days.

Kouign Aman, I would stay away from extracts and oils that have been infused with chili, its hard to get alot of flavor with extracts in a hard candy without adding the additional unwanted water, and as for your oil, its sort of hard to tell what it was, I assume it was a cooking oil infused with chilies, in which case you would have to use a large amount of oil to get a nice flavor. Start off with a hard candy recipe, the one in Chocolates and Confections works wonderful, PM me if you want it. Then I'd get a pure chili oil from LorAnn Oils, like this one: https://www.lorannoils.com/p-8374-hot-chili-natural.aspx This will give you your hot hot hot hot hard candy. I'm not sure if your really into sugar pulling or anything, but you could make a rather awesome looking hard candy with yellow, orange, and red stripes. Otherwise, boil the candy, wait for it to cool down a little, add your chili oil, perhaps add some red color, and drop your lozenges, and watch your friend suffer. Alternatively, you could make little berlingots type candies by pouring the candy on a slab or silpat, waiting for it to cool until it holds its shape, and pulling it in a rope and cutting little drops, or make your friend a lollipop! Additionally, stay away from vinegar, you really dont need it in hard candy, aside from the oil you added your first try, this would have contributed to making the candy a little stickier. You can use some cream of tartar, it makes the candy a little easier to handle of your doing pulling, but will shorten the shelf life. If your simply dropping or pouring the sugar to make drops, you dont need an acid.

Heres a few pics from the photographers website, its mostly pastillage, but its a good idea of whats contained in the book. He gets pretty crazy with his blown figures also, haha. I'll probably post some basic spherical shapes soon, and was suprised at how easy it looks to make a blown heart. http://www.lucyschaeffer.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1π=10000&s=0&p=22&a=0&at=0

I just got my copy in the mail today, and am thoroughly impressed with the book. Pastillage is much more interesting then I thought, and unlike the templates from The Art of the Chocolatier, I sort of feel like I can do something with the ones for sugar, I dont have that kind of patience to do anything with chocolate that isnt ediable. The Chapters cover pastillage, sugar casting, pulling, blowing as well as 'new trends,' which is much more interesting then I thought it was going to be, this guy is creative. And not to mention, as in his chocolate book, there are beautiful full page pictures of his showpieces, absolutely stunning. Check it out in the book store to see his work, otherwise I'd say its work having if you do, or are interested in doing sugar work, the whole book dedicated to only that. :-)

I went with a friend to a restaurant supply store today and saw these nice baskets that would work perfect for proofing a loaf, and it wasnt $30! I'm always shocked at how expensive the bannatons are, but this was just a little cracker basket with a pretty tight weave, not perfect, but for $2.50 it did wonderful. So I just made a quick tartine loaf to test it out and was pleased with the result, this loaf was made using 15% rye flour.

Heres a few things I did about a month ago. I made taffy for some of my friends when we went to see The Artist, they requested lime and grapefruit flavors. Then I also made some peppermint patties. I made the fondant from Grewelings book, added some peppermint oil, formed in starch molds, and dipped. I had never worked with fondant before, it was interesting, quite a workout when you agitate it, but rather easy when you melt it and form them, I was surprised at how quick they set up.

Heres a panna cotta I did. It was sort of inspired from the tread about dessert, while I never attempted it before, I knew it wasnt too complicated. Its the vanilla panna cotta from The Professional Pastry Chef, with a little bit if Grande Marnier added, and with a simple sauce I made from some frozen strawberries and blueberries.

Thanks for that also, after my last post I thought of asking you what kind of metal fitting you had. Theres a Lowes right near me, I'll look for that, thanks for you help :-)

Thanks for the reply Lisa. I havent been able to locate just a pump at a pharmacy, only full kits, but I think I actually will go for the one you posted in your post, thats $6 plus free shipping, while the sugar pump kit that I found is $18, but theres about $9 worth of shipping attached to it. Thanks for your help, hopefully I'll report back soon with a blown figure.

Thats very kind of you. I too just ordered it, and am eagerly anticipating it, I shall report back.

Huh. Well maybe its worth it to get this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Wise-Inc-Sugar-Blowing/dp/B005SEUIKK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1333605191&sr=8-3 The pump looks identical. Lisa, would you purchase the pump bulb, rubber tube, and metal pipe separately and then assemble? I'm asking because I was looking at the picture from the link above, is the metal pipe just sort of stuck into the rubber tube, or is it adhered with anything? I've never used a sugar pump or seen one in person, so I dont really know whats standard.

Hey everyone. Lately I've been doing some pulled sugar projects, I just got a heat lamp, and that combined with a formula for pulled sugar I stumbled across on ChefTalk that was a little different then I've been using, I've been having some good results. I havent attempted blowing any sugar, just making some flowers and trying to be artistic with the help of some pastry rings. But check this video out: I do think its interesting that he's blowing the sugar with just a copper pipe. Now I did see a $16 sugar pump on amazon, but from there it goes to $64ish all the way to $120 or so. I want to know peoples opinion, like...is that a safe thing to put my mouth on? I would like to go to Home Depot and get a 1ft section of 1/4inch copper pipe, but is there any health concern? For some reason I feel like things would get trapped on the inside of the pipe, but I guess nothing ever will go inside there except for water when I wash it. All in all, I just wanted to see if maybe blowing by mouth is more common then I realize, and any things to consider, because a sounds alot more attractive then a $64 pump I wont use too often. Thanks all.