AnythingButPlainChocolate

I tend to use Paul A Young's goats cheese and lemon bonbon recipe from Adventures With Chocolate. It's a brilliant lemon cheesecake recipe (don't put too much goats cheese in though as it will cause a very sharp "twang" in the taste. I have previously layered this with a thin barrier of chocolate and then put a cheesecake biscuit base in it.

Is it the Pavoni mould she's using? This might be a bit smaller than you're looking for, can't tell who the manufacturer is though http://www.homechocolatefactory.com/PROD/PC-Modern-Praline/DRC1706.html

It almost looks like the sheet moved as there's a faint first impression from the image, but I may be wrong.

I've made honey & ale and honey & cinnamon but not had any crystallisation occur with either. The biggest difference I find when using it is the texture.

Too late, I know, but I always find piping chocolate lollies and providing sprinkles or jelly sweets works for kids from 3-30! For the younger ones I also decorate biscuits (cookies) and I've made marshmallow snowmen at Christmas time after allowing them to do the dipping.

I often go in to schools (which my children are at) so I don't really aim to make a profit from it, as long as my costs are covered I'm happy. However equipment-wise I melt my chocolate the night before in my holding tank and take that and my ChocoVision Rev2 on site along with piping bags etc. If I need to re-temper I tend to use a microwave and re-seed it as Kerry mentioned.

Making your own would be cheapest option, but a quick search on "folding cooling rack" produced quite a few racks, several on Amazon.

Thanks @Kerry Beal I'm not convinced by all the added water either @Jim D., the book is more aimed at the home market rather than professionals, and Paul A Young does still sell all of these chocolates in his store, mayne it is to change the taste/texture/shelf life of the products so his competitors do not also start to sell these flavours? I'm not sure...

@Jim D.That makes life easier (legal toes don't like to be stepped on and such). Port & Stilton 200ml double (heavy) cream 75g golden caster sugar 100g very mature Stilton (Colston Bassett is suggested) roughly chopped (or smeared depending on the texture of the cheese and it's maturity, include the blue veins as you will sieve these out) 500g plain chocolate 75ml port (tawny is suggested, however I tend to use vintage as I prefer the smoother taste) 200ml water (I feel this is just added to reduce the shelf life of the chocolate by the author, several of his recipes call for added water) put water, cream, sugar and cheese in a pan and bring to the simmer. Strain through on to the chocolate. Incorporate then add the port. If you've used extra water as suggested the ganache is quite runny and a bit less creamy in flavour, have a play with it and make small batches, it's a love or hate chocolate. Goat's cheese and lemon (lemon cheese cake!) 250g goat's cheese (Cerney suggested) 100g goat's curd (or just a full-fat cream cheese) Juice & zest of 2 lemons 200g golden caster sugar 400g white chocolate 150g water (again with the water...) Put water, goat's cheese, cream cheese, lemon juice (you can have the zest either in the ganache or removed, if removing it add it now to be strained out, otherwise add after straining) and simmer until smooth (or simmer until lumps are gone then sieve). Put back on the heat and dissolve the sugar into the mixture (don't boil). cool slightly and add to the chocolate. Taste! If the goat's cheese is too "twangy" add sugar to balance it out. I tend to use glucose at this point as I don't want to over heat the chocolate. Cool and then pipe, it won't set-up hard. The port & stilton makes a great Christmas option and the goat's cheese is lovely in summer, I tend to get people to taste before telling them there is real cheese in them

@Jim D. Hopefully you have received the link to the message, please let me know if not and I will send it separately.

As an aside, be wary not to get any of the bread yeast into your chocolate otherwise your shelf-life will be shot!

I strain mine (cream and fine ground coffee beans) through muslin which I sit in a large sieve or colander over a pan. Takes a bit of the pain out of the process. I normally only make coffee if I'm going to make another ganache, so while it's straining I can get on with the other flavour.

I make the port and Stilton every year for Christmas, they last at least a month (the alcohol is a good preserver in these) and the goats cheese I make as a summer chocolate, they tend to get eaten pretty quickly, but I've managed to have them around for several weeks without problems. Let me know if you want recipes or advice on them.

Paul Young (Adventures in chocolate) has a couple of recipes with cheese. I can reccomend the lemon and goats cheese (it tastes like lemon cheesecake) and the port and Stilton (strain the Stilton mixture before adding to chocolate or it will be all kinds of grainy).

What about plain chocolate?

A case of the "3am not checking temper properly" Christmas rush...

Apparently Chef Rubber will soon have a UK stockist, but they haven't said who yet.

I have just got some old moulds out of storage that I haven't used in years and I want to clean them. I'm not comfortable putting them in my dishwasher as I don't know what temperature it goes up to. I want to make sure that they are clean before use again, is just a touch of dishwashing liquid going to be enough to make sure that a few years of invisible nasties are removed?

Occasionally I end up with some seized white chocolate, it's the joys of demoing or doing parties in non-environment controlled places. When I get this I tend to use it to make a ganache, however I was wondering if it could be used for making caramelised white chocolate as theoretically it doesn't need to be tempered as it is being caramelised and the temperatures used change the chemical structure. If this is the case (I've never caramelised chocolate but I know that David Leibowitz suggests it) can the caramelised chocolate then be tempered and used and therefore I magically save my chocolate? If so at what temperature? Do I treat it as a white or a milk chocolate? Am I barking up the wrong chemical tree here or do I just have to continue using it in ganache?

On the unlikely event that Kerry is ever in the UK, I would love to have her as a guest!

I have had a request from someone who can't eat dairy for some water ganache. Has anyone got any suggestions for resources that I can look up on these? I've not made any water ganache so before so it's time to learn!

I'm not sure of that recipe, but one I use sometimes uses evaporated milk rather than condensed milk and that helps bring the sweetness down a bit. The recipe is from Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen.

I've used some of the Parvoni moulds (they are sexy, such a shame they don't come in poly c). I trim off the edges and clip them as a spinning mould as suggested. I use bulldog clips rather than my spinning mould clips to try and keep the plastic as undamaged as I can.

Bakewell tarts

mrk, if you are worried about moisture you could put some salt in a muslin bag and put it in the cooler, this should help pick up any rogue moisture, however I've never had a problem using a wine cooler (without wine in it!).