keychris

The metal might be causing the temperature to change in the cocoa butter too rapidly, not allowing it to crystallise properly. Perhaps give it a quick once over with the heat gun before spraying just to slightly warm it?

ah, the days when I only had 18 molds I'm scared to think how much money I've spent on molds! Not to mention the array of egg molds I have as well... yet somehow, every easter, I never quite have the right one

tyvm! The zebra is made by piping the lines of dark chocolate first, then when it's set up, filling as normal with white Not a task I'd enjoy doing for more than a couple of molds, all that piping takes aaaaggggeeeeessssss

Caramelised macadamia, rolled in crushed caramelised hazelnuts, dipped in milk chocolate. 'Zebra' - balsamic ganache with raspberry jelly 'Tendre' praline - three layers of almond praline with dark, milk and white chocolate. Cinnamon infusion Salted caramel Peanut - homemade peanut praline paste on top of caramel Citrus, cinnamon and vanilla infused ganache, whipped with butter until soft and fluffy. Lime These were all made over the past few weeks for a market I attended yesterday.

yeah, I have a cool bag that worked quite well, it fits the boxes I store my chocolates in almost perfectly. some cool bricks under a towel at the bottom, then the stack of boxes, then a towel and coolbricks on top again. It got to 30C yesterday, but the chocolates stayed nice in the bag. I have a nice piece of stone that I put out which kept the chocolates that I had out cool, but in the end I just left the ones on the stone as display-only and when people wanted them, I got them fresh from the cool bag. then I got to eat the display ones at the end of the day I managed to cover my costs and make a small amount of money to invest back in, which is great - it was only a small school market, so with luck, next month I shall do a larger community market with a higher number of visitors and hopefully do even better!

I'm taking myself and my chocolates to my first market this Sunday nervous and excited, but hopefully I can sell a bunch to make a little cash to invest back into making more chocolates!

did you use a mint oil? or some type of fat that could migrate to the surface of your chocolate?

the insides of your look perfectly awesome to me - the cafe ones look like the ones with the problem IMHO I'm no expert though. And if someone uttered the phrase, 'tastes like cadbury chocolate bar' to a ganache I made, I think I would punch them right inna nose, because I can make infinitely better tasting things than crapbury

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