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Jim D.

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Everything posted by Jim D.

  1. I have been happy with the flavor and level of sweetness. That being said, there are a few other "tricks" I use to emphasize the former and obfuscate the latter. In the first category, I found some wonderful French fruit "essences" made from the fruit only that are outrageously expensive, but just a few drops "punch up" the flavor. I use the apricot, pear, mango, and apple--I neglected to mention earlier that I also make an apple PdF. In cases where I have found liqueurs/brandies that (to me) have an authentic flavor, I also add some of that; this includes pear, cherry, raspberry, and apricot. In the second category (sweetness), Pomona's calls for lemon juice for fruits that need it, but I always add lemon juice.
  2. No, I have not. I don't have any dextrose. In the U.S. I found dextrose at $6 for 500g, whereas sorbitol was $12/500g. As 500g for such a light-weight product is a large amount, the $6 difference does not have such an impact. This summer I might get some dextrose and give your idea a try, though at this point I have just about had my fill of PdF experiments! I think that in the recipes I use with added dried fruit (such as apricot, cherry, pear, mango) the dried fruit makes a substantial difference in available water.
  3. I am no expert, but from charts I have seen, dextrose has .75 the sweetness of sucrose, whereas sorbitol has .55. Do you have an objection to using sorbitol (I used to, but don't any more since I saw so many well-known chocolatiers using it)? Why not reduce the sweetness of the PdF as much as you can while still retaining the Aw improvement contributed by a sugar? The PdF recipe posted by Pomona's (manufacturer of the pectin I prefer) calls for adding more sucrose (as in the traditional PdF recipes), but I thought of using sorbitol as a way of lowering the sweetness. Obviously (powdered) dextrose would do some of that. I don't know what would happen if you replaced even more of the sucrose with dextrose or sorbitol.
  4. @GRiker, @jimb0: There is a reason Peter Greweling repeats in every caramel recipe that temp cannot be the only guide and therefore the confectioner needs to test the texture of the caramel. And therein lies the rub. There is no way the conditions for making caramel one time can be repeated exactly (there is room temperature, humidity, measurement of ingredients, intensity of heat, etc.). And checking temperature and consistency of the caramel has its own variables: If you intend to stop at 250F/121C and take the pan off the heat to check the temperature, the caramel will continue cooking, so the temp you thought you had will increase. These are not great insights, just some of the basic facts that make getting a "consistent consistency" difficult.
  5. I purchased an O'Creme mold with 56 cavities, mainly because it produced the size I wanted, and at that particular time Chef Rubber did not have the size. I was with Ruth when she saw molds in use at JinJu in Las Vegas and, like her, was struck with what a clever idea the mold is. Jin's assistants were releasing caramels from the molds at an impressive rate of speed. They work without a hitch. I don't use mine very often because I haven't yet mastered getting the viscosity of cut and dipped caramels to something that will turn out consistently--it's often too firm to eat comfortably or too soft to hold a shape for dipping.
  6. I love the expression "working a treat." Out of context, I would have no idea what it meant. I had something similar happen with my Grex. I had reached the point where I had to heat it every few minutes to get it flowing. I contacted Grex tech support (the most responsive tech people I have ever encountered), and they offered to clean it free of charge (I paid just the shipping). They knew it was for cocoa butter and so used nothing poisonous. When it came back, I was, of course, skeptical. But that was 1 1/2 years ago, and it has behaved ever since. Considering how small an airbrush needle is, it's a wonder, I suppose, why this doesn't happen all the time, given that I use a lot of cocoa butters with metallic bits (I try not to think of what those bits actually are). Someday I really need to learn how to clean the airbrush myself, but when I watch the videos on taking it apart, I am compelled to reach for the nearest bottle of gin.
  7. I have now used a few of the Chef Rubber Zen colors: Nirvana Gold and Lotus Pink (have not yet tried the Yang White). They have a kind of pearlescent quality that is nice. I like the pink a lot (it's more of a rose in my opinion). The gold is a dark shade of gold, and I really prefer the gold from the Jewel line. As it dries, the gold takes on a darker hue. As discussed earlier, I had hoped these colors would not use titanium dioxide, but from the smell (and from the information my email contact gathered from Chef Rubber) they do, and the gold at least produces the usual overspray that all the Chef Rubber jewel colors as well as white have. My new spray booth mostly contained the "backspray" that can be really obnoxious to the sprayer, but the task of cleaning the aerosolized cocoa butter off the sides remains for another day. One side observation: There was a hand-written note in the package from Chef Rubber thanking me for the purchase and asking me to send them photos of what I make with the new colors. I've never received anything like that from them before. As for pricing, regular CR colors are $19.95/200g; all of the Zen line is above that, ranging from $21.60 (the pink) to $28 (the gold). All in all, I might purchase the pink and some other colors in the future; I don't think I will get the gold again. As for the "natural" aspect of the ingredients, it's not possible to tell what substances have been used, so really no judgment can be made.
  8. Beautiful. I especially admire the perfect stripe in the second photo--very difficult to do in a tall dome like that.
  9. Of course, copper is considered the best, so if money is no object, what about getting a larger copper pot/kettle? I bought an All-Clad 6-qt. pot and have been very pleased with it. It is from their "Copper-Core" line and has a layer of copper (among other metals). They have various sizes and shapes. If I am not mistaken, @RobertM used to make caramel for a living (before he became rich and now just lies in the sun all day), so he knows what he is talking about.
  10. What size is the batch you are making? And what is your price range?
  11. I use Felchlin for my dark and milk chocolates, but unfortunately they decided to go with one U.S. distributor (AUI), and now the chocolate can be bought only in whole-case quantities (a decision that is fine for me, but I really think they are limiting their audience). When Venezuela, the source of Maracaibo, totally collapses, which I expect any day, for dark chocolate I will switch to Valrhona's Caraïbe (66%). Chocosphere sells it in 1 kilo bags ($31), only slightly above your higher price point. Many people on eGullet use Guittard, so someone will probably chime in with recommendations. For white chocolate (there is a whole thread on this), I have tasted many of them and settled on Valrhona's Opalys.(at $35/kilo priced a bit higher than the dark I mentioned). It is a white chocolate that those who do not like white chocolate (well, some of them maybe) actually like. My second choice is Cacao Barry's Zéphyr, priced considerably lower ($26/kilo).
  12. The regular line of CW molds includes both sizes; indeed it appears to be standard in the business to use those two sizes and no others. The smaller molds are 275mm x 135mm (often 3 x 7 or 3 x 8 cavities, but the number varies depending on the shape of the cavity), and the larger ones are 275mm x 175mm (sometimes the 4 x 8 layout you mentioned, but even 5 x 8 is possible). I agree with the earlier post that suggested the color of the Greenline molds would almost certainly interfere with selecting colors for the shell.
  13. I have received three bottles of the new Chef Rubber Zen collection: Yang White, Lotus Pink, and Nirvana Gold. In contract to previous CR bottles, however, which listed the coloring agents in detail, these simply say "Cocoa Butter and Natural Colorents [sic]." Fortunately for those who want to know more, someone not an eGullet member saw my post here and wrote me as follows: I checked and it would appear that titanium dioxide is considered a naturally occurring mineral, though perhaps one that humans might not wish to be inhaling from an airbrush.
  14. I just watched the Lemon Drop video. Indeed the ganache ratio is approximately 1:1. And who am I to question Kirsten Tibballs? All I can say is that she uses milk chocolate, which is more viscous than dark, and shes doe comment that the ganache is quite fluid, but still I am surprised it sets. She does say that she let it sit overnight before sealing the chocolates. This goes to prove, I suppose, that everyone breaks the rules at some point in the chocolate world. If, however, when you wrote "the ganache tries to squeeze out while capping," you meant that some ganache came out of the shell, then the shell is too full and/or the ganache is too fluid.
  15. Notter recommends a humidity less than 50%. I am surprised at your comment on the humidity in SF. The several times I visited there, it felt very humid (fog rolling in for the afternoon, frequent drizzle, showers, etc.). In fact, an SF website states: "The average annual relative humidity is 68.3% and average monthly relative humidity ranges from 65% in June to 75% in January."
  16. I think most of the issues you mention come from creating a ganache with a 50:50 ratio. All the authorities I know of call for considerably more chocolate. In the case of dark chocolate, it's often 2:1 chocolate to liquefiers. At that ratio, a ganache will not be so easy to pipe at room temp, thus the (approx.) 83F I mentioned. When you pipe it, 1/4" to 1/3" space should be left between ganache and top of cavity. I leave my fillings overnight to set, though if it firms up before then, I don't see any reason to wait. With the space I mentioned, you won't scrape the top of the ganache so easily. It is crucial that the seal be as near perfect as possible or the filling may leak out and even spoil. And a final note: a 1:1 ratio ganache probably has a high free water content, thus will not last very long.
  17. I don't know. The Chef Rubber website does not (as far as I can tell) list ingredients for any cocoa butter product; the ingredients are printed on each bottle. Amazon does provide the ingredient list for CR cocoa butters, but it doesn't yet offer the Zen line. I plan to get some of the Zen white to find out what they are using (if the label is that detailed). If I could find a white that didn't have the odor and the overspray of the titanium version, that would be a real find and worth some extra money. Unless someone else reports before my Zen arrives, I will do so.
  18. You have really done a huge amount of work and are making great progress. There are so many issues you mention. One stands out: 90F is too warm to pipe ganache into shells. You may be melting the shells enough to cause unmolding problems and loss of shine. I aim for no higher than 83F (I think Greweling recommends 77F, but that seems unnecessary and allows the filling to firm up too much for easy piping). What is the humidity of your space? I aim for no higher than 50%, preferably lower. High humidity can definitely cause loss of shine and difficulty in unmolding. I don't worry too much about having to bang the molds to get the bonbons out--that happens to the best of us. I also don't worry about having to put them back in the refrigerator for a while, or even the freezer. In my experience none of these measures causes issues--if the bonbon is going to stick or some color is going to come off the shell, that will happen, no matter what you do. I don't have an explanation for the cracks. Some people say too sudden a temp change can do it. I have had it happen on occasion with larger Easter eggs. I'm afraid this may need to be filed under "we will never know." Same place you file the "why did 23 chocolates fall out of the mold and the 24th refused to do so?" question. If a gianduja (or gianduja-like filling, such as cookie butter) is too firm, I add some coconut oil, something like 10% of the total weight of chocolate and nut or cookie paste. Or, as you suggest, you can add more of the paste. You mentioned questions about tempering. What method are you using?
  19. To complicate the situation more, Chef Rubber has recently added a "Zen" line and states that it "utilizes 100% naturally colored pigment." I'm not sure if or how this differs from their previous natural colors. They really had to stretch to come up with names for these colors that are vaguely related to the concept of zen ("Sutra Pink"? "Namaste Purple"?). The prices range approximately from $2 to $8 more per bottle than the previously existing colors. I am intrigued by the possibility of a white cocoa butter that does not contain titanium dioxide (the smell and taste of which I do not like--and I think it's in all of their opaque colors).
  20. I too melt the chocolate from used molds with a warming tray and "shop towels" (rough-textured paper towels). I do this mostly to avoid having chocolate go down the drain and necessitate yet another visit from a plumber. You may be fortunate and have a "grease trap" in your kitchen sink that would make it unnecessary to be concerned with how much chocolate goes down the drain. If I did, I would wash away the chocolate bits with hot water and paper towels. After the initial cleaning, I wash the molds with hot water and Dawn detergent, rinse thoroughly, leave them in a sanitizing bleach solution for a while (this step is required by the food inspection authorities), then air-dry them. I polish them with a cloth before using, and in so doing usually manage to find enough bits of colored cocoa butter and/or chocolate to remind me that (1) cocoa butter find corners in a mold you didn't know had them and stays there as long as possible and (2) life is not perfect.
  21. I am having some success in working on an app that will analyze my ganache recipes. Gathering the data on ingredients was the difficult part. The video from Chocolate Academy Online was very helpful in providing, for example, the makeup of glucose syrup and cream (% of sugar and water). Information on chocolates can sometimes be deduced from nutrition or ingredient labels, or when available, from manufacturers' spec sheets. I am concentrating on the four categories that the video as well as the Morato information originally posted on eGullet and some from Melissa Coppel emphasize: water, sugar, cocoa butter, other fats. I am at this point ignoring other solids that might be in a ganache (cacao solids, spices, etc.), as they do not seem to be so determinative of whether a ganache is balanced or not. I had to guess at the composition of many ingredients I use, fruit purées being a prime example. Many contain 10% sugar, so that much is known. But the rest is not all water as there are fruit solids as well. Dried fruits present a similar problem: Obviously there is some water in them (highly variable) and solids (the fruit), but there is also some sugar, again varying greatly from fruit to fruit, even depending perhaps on how long the fruit has been in storage. So I just did my best to guess at those. My first recipe to be run through the app is Greweling's absinthe (Green Faeries, he calls it). It came out close to the recommended percentages, except that it was a little high in water--which corresponds to my experience that it remains a soft ganache. I derived the percentage guidelines from a combination of Chocolate Academy Online, Melissa Coppel, and Ramon Morato (interestingly, Greweling does not speak in terms of percentages but speaks more broadly about increasing/decreasing fat or liquefiers when dealing with ganache problems). Next I will look at an Andrew Shotts recipe that often produces a broken ganache and see if I can figure out what the issue is (aside from operator error, of course!).
  22. @TexasMBA02, what I do with infusions (and it's simply what Greweling says to do), is weigh the coffee beans and the cream, heat them, strain out the coffee, put the (cleaned) original pot on a scale, zero out the scale, pour in the strained cream, and add milk to equal the original amount called for. Glad to hear that the recipe turned out better in your recent attempt. The subject of white chocolates has received much discussion on eGullet over the years. After trying a lot of them, I have settled on Valrhona's Opalys. It is very difficult to use for making chocolate shells, but the taste justifies (for me) the extra effort. And it is great for making ganaches, has a clean dairy taste and (this next observation is based on absolutely no evidence whatever aside from my impressions) almost a citrus-like note. The next best, in my opinion, is Cacao Barry's Zéphyr, which is somewhat easier to work with and costs a little less. I don't know where you get your chocolate, but if you have a supplier, sometimes they will provide small samples, but since you say you are a home cook, there is always Chocosphere, which sells 1kilo bags of many chocolates, including Opalys and Zéphyr.
  23. @TexasMBA02, This is a relatively minor side point to the goal of making an acceptable (for your purposes) coffee ganache, but most recipes call for replacing the cream lost by infusion with something else to get it back to the original amount. Does your recipe call for that? The "something else" varies, with Peter Greweling (Chocolates and Confections) calling for milk instead of cream so as to maintain the amount of fat called for in his recipe. Other authors are not so careful and say just to replace it with more cream, and I have had coffee ganaches break as a result because coffee grounds absorb so much liquid. This would not solve your issue with the ganache being too fluid (in fact, adding milk instead of cream would make it more fluid). My opinion is that the slight differences in percent of fat in cream (as you know, U.S. manufacturers often do not state the fat percentage on heavy cream containers) and the variation in brand of chocolate would not create the problem you are having. I would try Teo's earlier advice and remelt and add more white chocolate. Usually recipes call for a higher percentage of white chocolate to liquefier than for dark or milk chocolate. And as for the chocolate you are using, there may be better-tasting (and less expensive) white chocolate out there, but I don't think anyone would question the quality of Valrhona.
  24. What you say is true--about not analyzing every recipe--but I have to start somewhere. So I am beginning with Greweling's absinthe recipe. It contains just the basics. And in practice I do develop new recipes by starting with known, working ones--unless, of course, it is an entirely new idea with no precedent in my repertoire.
  25. @teonzo, You stated that "All the cocoa in white chocolate is given by cocoa butter, so you just need to look for that number." In the case of Opalys, which is labeled 33%, I found a chocolate seller that provides a spec sheet for this chocolate. The relevant numbers are 33% cocoa butter but 44% fat. Would the discrepancy be that of the 32% milk listed, some of that is fat? This would make sense as the ingredient list on the Opalys bag includes "whole milk powder."
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