Jim D.
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Posts posted by Jim D.
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20 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
For another trifle I used store bought ladyfingers imported from Italy but those lady fingers had a somewhat crisp texture and not the same flavor as I associate with ladyfingers here in New Jersey.
As I understand the goal is to reproduce the flavor of ladyfingers and not necessarily ladyfingers themselves. I wonder if one of the flavor companies offers such a product?
Crisp ladyfingers are what I am looking for (savoiardi). To make a cookie layer for a bonbon, I dry out the ladyfingers in the oven, then grind them in a food processor. The crumbs are then mixed with chocolate (I use caramel white) and extra cocoa butter (plus optionally clarified butter) and piped on top of other fillings in a mold. The mixture firms up, providing a nice crunch to contrast with softer fillings beneath it. I tried what was rated the top ladyfingers on Amazon, and they had no discernible taste except staleness. A liquid flavoring would not work as the crisp cookie layer cannot have any liquid (a tiramisu flavoring does exist). And I do realize that the ladyfingers in a tiramisu are not crisp, but I think the soft ones soaked in liqueur might contribute to the free water content and thus reduce the shelf life of the bonbon.
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My contribution to my sister's U.S. Independence Day celebration: a raspberry chocolate tart. Bottom layer is pâte sucrée with ground almonds, middle is almond pastry cream, top is chocolate glaze with eau de framboise and fresh berries (alas, not local as we had a wet spring that turned the raspberries to mush).
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20 hours ago, teonzo said:
You can use a genoise / sponge cake recipe: whip warm whole eggs with sugar, then fold flour in it and bake, let it cool then dehidrate and grind. If you want it "eggy" then you can use a balance that is low on flour (say around 20g flour for each egg). Lots of pastry shops here make their tiramisu using genoise instead of savoiardi and nobody ever complained.
Teo
Thanks for the useful suggestion. And good to hear from you again on eG.
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19 hours ago, Pete Fred said:
@Katie Meadow Specifically, it was a 1.5x version of this one (partly using crème fraîche, and minus the oil and lemon).
It is beautiful and looks delicious. How did you compensate for the omission of the olive oil, or did you just ignore it? 75ml is not a negligible amount of liquid. I don't think I would share the recipe author's enthusiasm for "peppery" olive oil in this dessert.
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17 hours ago, GRiker said:
@curls walked me through nougat at the eGullet Workshop - thanks again! Got around to making some on my own this week. Happy with how it turned out. Inclusions are dried cranberries, roasted pistachios, almonds and hazelnuts.
That is truly beautiful nougat. When I made it, the taste was fine, but I did not get the texture right--it was too soft--and when enrobed in chocolate, all of its lumps and saggings showed up. How did you know when to stop mixing it? And what recipe did you use? (I used Greweling's)
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In my version of tiramisu bonbons, I include a ladyfinger/savoiardi layer. I create this by making ladyfingers (from scratch), then grinding them and mixing the crumbs with chocolate, cocoa butter, etc., to make a cookie layer that can be piped. I tried bought ladyfingers (including the top-rated one on Amazon), but they had no (acceptable) taste. My customers like the tiramisu bonbon, but making the ladyfingers is a pain I would like to avoid. I think the taste that says "ladyfinger" to the palate is basically cooked eggs, so I have wondered if it is possible to achieve the taste without the hassle of beating egg yolks and whites separately, folding, etc. Do you think I would get the same taste if I just beat whole eggs, then add the other ingredients (sugar, flour, vanilla), then spread the mixture on a cookie sheet and bake. I need to achieve a crisp, cookie texture that will grind easily and will last in storage--really a sugar cookie with eggs. Any ideas would be appreciated.
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On 6/5/2025 at 11:05 AM, Pete Fred said:
Other than chug it by the spoonful I couldn't think of much to do with the baked custard. After a quick rummage in the freezer and pantry I came up with...
I don't see the point of taking a lovely smooth, creamy thing and immediately contaminating it with crunchy rubble.
"Contaminating"? I think of it as providing a contrast for the mouth. The inexplicable but undeniable pleasure of biting something crunchy and another something unresistingly smooth at the same moment must count for something. It's what chocolatiers aim for when they combine a ganache of cream, chocolate, and butter with a layer of crunchy cookies.
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2 hours ago, RobertM said:
Jim’s, would you be willing to share, (reshare) the formula?
I'm not entirely sure about eG's policy on this, but I'll send it to you in a PM.
Jim
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On 5/28/2025 at 12:55 AM, minas6907 said:
Its been a while since I've posted anything, but in some random google searches, I can across a 3rd edition of Chocolates and Confections with a publishing date of 2026-02-03. Anyone by chance know what might be included as far as new information in the book?
https://masters.ecampus.com/chocolates-confections-formula-theory/bk/9781394356065
That is very interesting news. Thanks for sharing it. I am surprised because, in an interview with Tomric, Greweling spoke somewhat negatively about the second edition of his book. It seems he was quite satisfied with all he said in the first edition and was pressured into doing the second by his publisher. It would seem the publisher must be keeping up the pressure.
By the way, welcome back to eG. I have missed your beautiful and useful contributions to the forum. You are a confectionery master.
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On 5/28/2025 at 3:43 PM, curls said:
Thank you for asking about that piece. I only picked up one piece and wondered who made it, very tasty. Thought it might have been a sugar lamination piece... we've had a few attempts at this at various workshops. I think we got a recipe from Mark Heim and one from Rebecca Millican. Would be great to know which recipe was used - wish I had seen it being made.
We had a demo of this item by Rebecca at the 2017 workshop. The distributed recipe was titled "Leaf Croquant," and I assume it was from Rebecca, but no source is included in the recipe--which I still have but have never gotten the courage to try.
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9 hours ago, GRiker said:
It’s white.
@GRiker, sorry to hear that. But I suppose a dose of reality is always useful.
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11 hours ago, Chocolot said:
Willow said she got them from Chef Rubber.
Ruth, thanks for that very helpful information. I know you use CR transfers as well, and your Christmas reds were beautiful. I will have to give CR another try--in the ones I got a couple of years ago the colors are definitely not opaque: the blues turn gray, the reds turn brownish, etc.
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1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:
I believe it was Willow and they may well be Choco transfer sheets
I was afraid of that.
I have found Design & Realisation in your fair country. They imply theirs are opaque on any color of chocolate, and they look promising.
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9 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:
It's a transfer sheet - coloured cocoa butter stripes on acetate laid on top of a square of ganache after it goes through the enrober. When you pull up the acetate the coloured cocoa butter stays on the top of the chocolate.
I'm intrigued by the brightness (and opacity!) of the colors (I'm assuming the chocolate underneath is milk or dark). As discussed in eG posts, since the demise of ChocoTransferSheets, it has been difficult to find that degree of opacity. Perhaps whoever made these can reveal the source of the transfers. That would be very helpful info.
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On 5/11/2025 at 10:25 AM, Pete Fred said:
@Jim D. I'm not gonna pretend that my opinion is worth a bag o' beans. I simply follow this advice from Ottolenghi. I recently found the magic words hulled, toasted and Ethiopia on this stuff at Amazon France, took a punt, and was pleasantly surprised...
Right consistency, nice deep colour, and I could eat it straight from the jar, which makes a change from the pale, claggy stuff that's the only thing available in shops within 200km of me.
I see that Al Arz is available at Amazon US, but I've never tried it. Cortas is also a brand I've happily used before. In the UK I used to buy Al Nakhil which was also good.
Good luck in your quest!
I looked more at the Al Arz entry on Amazon, and it seems the product comes from Israel. When you mentioned looking for tahini with Ethiopian sesame seeds, did you mean a particular type of seed, not necessarily that the tahini should come from Ethiopia? No tahini that I looked at online mentioned the source of the seeds.
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23 minutes ago, Smithy said:
I am continually amazed at the talent, skill, artistry and no doubt patience that goes into those edible artworks!
What are these colored handle-y things? Sponges for daubing color? Dipping sticks? Some fun form of lollipop? Something I haven't thought of?
I'm not at the workshop, but they are stencils. They are made to fit a certain size of mold. The chocolatier sprays some colored cocoa butter in the cavities, heats the stencil and presses it into the cavities (thus the need for the handle), and lifts it out. An impression (whatever pattern is on the business end of the stencil) is made in the cocoa butter. It is allowed to crystallize for a bit, then another tool (it can be just a paper towel) is used to wipe away excess CB in the cavities. And thus the decoration is made. Another color of CB is sprayed on top, which makes the pattern pop.
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23 hours ago, Pete Fred said:
@Jim D. I'm not gonna pretend that my opinion is worth a bag o' beans. I simply follow this advice from Ottolenghi. I recently found the magic words hulled, toasted and Ethiopia on this stuff at Amazon France, took a punt, and was pleasantly surprised...
Right consistency, nice deep colour, and I could eat it straight from the jar, which makes a change from the pale, claggy stuff that's the only thing available in shops within 200km of me.
I see that Al Arz is available at Amazon US, but I've never tried it. Cortas is also a brand I've happily used before. In the UK I used to buy Al Nakhil which was also good.
Good luck in your quest!
Thanks for the helpful reply. And thanks for introducing me to the word "claggy." I'll have to see if I can work it into some conversations in the near future. Ottolenghi recommends Al Arz, so I'll give that a try.
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@Pete Fred, what do you consider first-rate tahini? I bought what many people say is the best (Soom), and I checked to make sure it is made from TOASTED sesame seeds, but it does not seem to me to have enough sesame taste. I use it in a sesame bonbon, which also contains lots of toasted (by me) sesame seeds, so the finished product tastes like sesame, but the taste doesn't come from the tahini itself. Its blandness is what keeps me from including it in my version of the famous Dubai pistachio filling. It is part of the established recipe, but I couldn't tell it was there, so now omit it.
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8 hours ago, GRiker said:
When you made Notter's lemon ganache for a Lemon Meringue Bon Bon, did you use milk chocolate as called for in the recipe?
No, I use white chocolate in the ganache. For the shells, I use white or (more often) a caramel white chocolate, such as Felchlin's Bionda or Cacao Barry's Zephyr Caramel.
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14 minutes ago, RWood said:
Thanks! I like cardamom too, but yeah, people are iffy here with that.
I didn’t like the carrot bits in the bottom layer, seemed tough when you would find one. But the coconut and walnut comes through enough in it. I think the caramel has plenty of flavor, so didn’t need to add to it.If you don't mind telling, what do you add to the coconut and walnuts to hold them together? Perhaps the same chocolate used for the shell, which appears to be a caramelized white or something similar?
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1 hour ago, RWood said:
I layered mine with cream cheese ganache, and I tried a similar bottom, using dried multicolored carrots (which I think I’ll omit next time), but added coconut and toasted walnuts since that’s what I use in my cake. I changed up the spices a little and it really tasted like carrot cake. I still need to tweak the spices, but I really liked it.
That looks delicious. I omitted the cardamom (I love the spice but don't think Americans expect it in carrot cake). I have tried walnuts and pecans, but ended up preferring pecans. I too include a cream cheese "frosting" layer, with a lemon flavor. For the cookie layer I tried the carrot layer but didn't get an acceptable carrot taste, so have switched to one based on ground speculoos cookies. I do have difficulty incorporating the browned butter; even my big Robot Coupe immersion blender takes a long time to emulsify the mixture; as a result, I have reduced the quantity of butter a little. I'm not sure what the problem is (aside from the obvious too much fat vs. liquid).
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13 hours ago, RWood said:
Yeah I’m a caramel person, that’s my picks. Props to @Rajala for the carrot caramel inspiration. I tweaked to make it more like my carrot cake, but it’s tasty!
I get very positive reactions to the carrot caramel from @Rajala. I too have added a couple of tastes to bring it closer to what I think of as the typical American carrot cake (golden raisins, toasted pecans). Making the caramel takes a while, so I try to make as large a batch as I can and keep it for future carrot cake bonbons.
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On another forum someone posted that she had bought a Dubai bar (the filling with pistachio paste, tahini, kataifi) from Fix Dessert Chocolatier, the company in Dubai that originated the bar. She said that the Fix bar does not contain any chocolate, with the result that the pistachio taste is more assertive. And that is how she now makes her Dubai bars. I hadn't thought of that option, but it is intriguing. Since some pistachio pastes tend to be more fluid than others, my concern is that the filling would make a mess when eaten. In my version I use some plain pistachio paste and some pistachio praline paste (with caramel). Is there any reason why there must be chocolate in this filling? A concern might be fat migration, but in a version with chocolate, there is plenty of other fat besides the cocoa butter found in the chocolate. Some plain cocoa butter might make it hold together better, as would extra kataifi. I also use feuilletine in mine (very unorthodox, but it adds more crunch and a caramel taste), which also thickens the filling.
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If I recall correctly, you are very careful about the types of fillings you tend to use, namely, those with long shelf lives (caramel, gianduja). If the fillings in the bonbons in question are of that type and if the outsides show no signs of melting or softening, I would probably sell them as usual. If there were ganaches, I would check them more carefully for deterioration, but if it's been only one day, they should be OK. We all know (or suspect) how customers abuse our storage instructions. I have started using bold type for my storage info at the top of my guide included in the box and have made the language stronger as well.
As for the shops that store them at room temp, I don't do that. I had a restaurant approach me today about purchasing some 4-piece favor boxes to give to guests at the end of the meal, and I led my reply with refrigeration availability. In saying that, I hope I don't sound holier than thou, but I have had a mold episode and have never gotten over that.
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Achieving the Flavor of Ladyfinger Cookies
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
The Amoretti tiramisu is water-based (they do have an oil-based one, but it also has cappuccino flavoring, which is not what I am looking for), so might present problems, depending on how much is used. I have tried an Amoretti custard flavoring for another purpose, and it was not satisfactory. What I am looking for is that wonderful eggy taste of sponge cake, specifically cooked eggs and sugar. When I grind the ladyfingers and make the crispy layer from them, that taste does come through, even when paired with the coffee mascarpone ganache also in the bonbon.