keychris

That's what I have, too. Pretty sure it's an italian branded on, too! I'll try to remember to check when I get home.

I for one am looking forward to seeing how you do it - all that cornstarch is a nightmare but the results are worth it! Looking great

starting from this: going through this: and this: rolling in this: finishing like this: Chocolate macadamias, coated in crushed, caramelised peanuts, dipped in Felchlin 36% Sao Palme milk. A little messy on the paper!

did it taste particularly sour? or did you not taste it at all? What is more likely has happened is you've had high enzyme activity, specifically proteases, which chop up proteins into little pieces - too much of this activity and you can kiss gluten goodbye! I've had that happen in sourdough I've retarded in the fridge for three days - the dough went sticky, smelled a little odd and didn't bake well at all! Keep refreshing the starter and try again, would be my advice - oh, and a little aside... acid is low pH, not high! But I totally understood what you meant anyway

the speckle on the final picture there is definitely bloom. Your chocolate was not perfectly in temper, or perhaps the room was a little warm when you left the moulds to set? As for the white on the bar, I'd say bloom as well seeing as we're seeing it in the final picture, but it also looks a lot like white coloured cocoa butter if your moulds were not perfectly cleaned from the previous time you used them?

here's a recipe that I've used that worked quite well, from the Great British BakeOff: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rum_babas_served_with_48561

I did one overnight in the slowcooker, and when it cooled it was solid enough to stand a spoon up in. Tasted great, but possibly a bit too thick

you can also do it in a slow cooker for about 8hrs overnight, completely cover the can. there's also a good recipe with a 'how to' guide over at joe pastry: http://www.joepastry.com/category/pastry-components/dulce-de-leche/

Kerry, my inner anal-retentive thanks you from the bottom of his teeny tiny heart I'm making these next weekend!

tyvm for the clarifications. It's on my todo list

I'm interested! But then all your measurements are in volume, and conversions to australian cups are not going to be terribly useful But they look just devine!

pretty technical... Just like you

nothing quite as fancy from me this weekend as minas' apple Just boring old chocolates

The apple is simply genius. Amazing job.

if it's any help, the blend I use for one of my GF breads is: 64% white rice flour 16% potato flour 9% tapicoa flour 9% cornflour 2% xanthan gum HTH Chris

In my opinion, this is the single most important thing. To get consistent, reliable results, do everything by weight. Welcome to the world of bread!

It sounds as though you just didn't have enough beta crystals to start with, if adding more fixed your problem. Streaks on your test are a sure sign that you need more movement of the chocolate to induce crystallization. If it's in temper, milk chocolate won't magically drop out of temper at 30C (86F), I often heat it higher than that during the course of a day - you need to give your chocolate what it needs! If it's thickening up, the temperature is either too low, or, if the temperature is fine, then you've got lots of beta crystals you need to melt out with a heat gun. This is going to raise the temperature of your chocolate over 30C, but so long as you have enough crystals in there, take a test and see how it looks. I've sent you a PM

I bought a small wine fridge which holds temperature at about 15C and humidity of 50%, which is where I store all my chocolate now. It was only about $200 iirc. and hey, if I get sick of chocolate - somewhere to store wine. It's win-win easiest way to temper by hand (IMHO) if you don't have a nice marble slab is to seed - heat your chocolate to 45C, add 25% of the weight (ie 800g melted + 200g solid) in solid chocolate and stir until it is all melted and at working temp. Another easy way is Chef Eddy's method. It is quite important that you have fine grated butter though - if you add 10g of cocoa butter chips at 35C I think they would probably not completely melt before reaching working temperature. Finally: Stick at it. Chocolate is particularly tough in warmer weather, so even if you stop for a few months and pick it up when the weather cools again! You've produced some really nice things and it looks like you're learning tons, so keep on learning!

I wouldn't store them in the fridge, as when you bring them out of the fridge, water from the air will condense on the cold powder, and it will get absorbed, your powder will eventually go gluggy. From my understanding, bicarb soda is a single chemical (sodium bicarbonate) whereas baking soda is two, usually mixed in rice flour or some other flour - sodium bicarbonate and an acid component, tartaric acid (cream of tartar). Bicarb soda is a base, cream of tartar is an acid, they react with each other when combined in baking to produce CO2 and leaven the mixture. Double action, iirc, refers to baking powders that have a third component, which reacts when heated to produce CO2 - ie, the regular reaction of acid + base will occur when the mixture is created, but then when you bake it, another reaction occurs and you get more leavening. Joe Pastry has some good reads: http://www.joepastry.com/2011/why-is-there-both-baking-powder-and-baking-soda-in-this-recipe/ http://www.joepastry.com/2011/the-first-american-baking-powder/ and a few more

as a very rough guide, I have no troubles with about 2:1 sugar:glucose syrup (ie 200g sugar, 100g glucose syrup) (I assume corn syrup is what I call glucose syrup here in Australia ) and when dry caramelising, I never check the temperature, I go by the colour I want.

Forgot this one:

Easter goodness:

simply amazing, Minas!

A kahlua caramel. A few air bubbles, but overall I'm happy with them - had to leave in the cabinet for two days before I could cap them though, the caramel is *very* soft! and my 'signature' chocolate: the ladybird mold. I'll definitely be able to do those better when I have saved enough to spray!

That Iwata is exactly the compressor that the Australian qualifier for the WCM uses They look beautiful!