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Jim D.

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Everything posted by Jim D.

  1. A very interesting article; it appears there is some back-story to this Notter move ("the three of us have had some big let down or disappointment in the past in our business so we are all thankful for being with people who are trustworthy, work with integrity and are kind"). Pastrygirl, what about approaching the three partners to see if there is room for a fourth? From what I have seen of your work, you are certainly accomplished enough to join them.
  2. I assume you are speaking of the chiboust used in pastry. But you probably weren't using it as a filling for chocolates (because of the eggs used), were you?
  3. Kerry, Thanks for the prompt reply. The recipe looks interesting, and I will definitely give it a try. I should hurry before pears are totally out of season (I bought pear purée once, and it was very disappointing).
  4. I checked some of my recipes (some from Ewald Notter), and the usual amount of cocoa butter (used as a substitution for white chocolate) is about 7-8% (of the total amount of white choc. and cocoa butter used in the recipe). Too much, and the ganache becomes too "short"--it will not have that unctuous texture we look for in a ganache. I agree with the problem fruits you listed except for apple. An apple-flavored caramel is delicious and can taste amazingly of apple. The idea of using apple cider jelly (which is simply apple cider boiled down, with no additives) comes from Tikidoc on this forum. I can send you my recipe if you want (assuming you can find cider jelly). I agree with Kerry about pear. It is a great disappointment. I would be interested in knowing how she combines it with almond flavor. The last time I made an all-out push to achieve a pear ganache, I made my own pear purée and boiled it down as much as possible. I must confess I added pear "essence," a product from France is that is supposedly made from distilling pears in some sort of steam process (cake goddess Rose Levy Beranbaum recommends the apricot version of the same product). It was better, but still the pear taste was weak. I paired it, however, with a pear pate de fruit, which had a very strong pear taste. I had planned to try again with a filling of half this pear jelly and half vanilla ganache. But I like Kerry's almond idea even more--if she will reveal how she gets the almond taste!
  5. I too have struggled with getting rhubarb flavor in a ganache. The last time I cooked fresh rhubarb as you did and reduced it as much as I could without burning it. I mixed it with a very small amount of strawberry purée. Many people told me they liked it, but, to be frank, I think they were tasting mostly strawberry. I am going to try once more with some rhubarb from the local farmers' market this spring. Someone on this forum suggested roasting it, but I have not tried that yet. Reluctantly I have come to the conclusion that some fruits just are too subtle to taste in a ganache. Pear is another one that is not sufficiently strong, at least for my taste. One other idea: You can substitute cocoa butter for some of the white chocolate and reduce the chocolate taste a bit. I use that technique in many fruit ganaches.
  6. I once shared your microwave phobia, but I think you need to get off that high horse if you are to be efficient. I have now reduced by half (or more) the time it takes me to temper chocolate because I melt a large amount, getting it near its recommended maximum temperature, then pouring it into a tempering machine (same would apply to a Mol d'Art). The waiting time at that point is just to reach the tempering point.
  7. Thanks for that good idea. I use powdered caramel in a "creme brulee" piece I make--actually I think I may have gotten the idea from you. I assumed the powder would liquefy eventually in the liquid of the ganache. In the creme brulee, I put the powder in the bottom (eventually the top) of the mold, then pipe in a little white chocolate to cover it before the ganache is added. If the powder does not in fact liquefy, I could save that step.
  8. I too thought that waiting to add the butter is the usual way of making a caramel (although I have used recipes that don't mention waiting and they work fine). Ewald Notter has a recipe with chocolate and caramel combined, and he says to wait to add the butter until the caramel-chocolate mixture is 32.2C/90F. If I were to try the recipe again, I would wait and see if that made a difference. It may be significant that in the mousse recipe the amount of butter is approximately 16% of the entire ganache, whereas in Notter's recipe, it is only 5%. This would support your idea of treating the mixture like a butter ganache--though butter ganaches usually have a lot more butter than 16%.
  9. Continuing my adventure with the mousse ganache: Contrary to what I said above, I did not give up. I read Rose Levy Beranbaum on whipped ganache and saw that her proportion of cream is much higher than in the recipe I was using. So I heated some cream and mixed it into the failed ganache. The mixture smoothed out. I kept stirring vigorously, added the butter that had separated out, and the ganache got lighter in color and in texture--similar, I guess, to what the recipe described. Of course there is the issue of shelf life; now there is even more liquid in the ganache. In any event I piped it into shells and will see how it lasts. The finished product looked very much like a butter ganache, so the thought occurred to me: why not just make a butter ganache? Greweling says that for piped butter ganaches, they can be beaten to make them lighter. And since butter ganaches have a much longer shelf life, that issue would be much less of a concern. So I think I will make Greweling's orange butter ganache and see how that goes. It might even be possible to add some caramel to get that flavor.
  10. Thanks to Tri2Cook for reposting the recipe. I had grand plans for making it and, mindful of posted concerns about the ganache's shelf life, was going to test the Aw, then keep some pieces for a time and post what happened to them (whether the shells eventually collapsed, for example). But I was thwarted by not one but two failures in making the ganache. Both times I followed the recipe exactly. Both times when I mixed the caramel with the chocolate, the mixture became grainy. When I added the butter, the ganache immediately separated into a chocolate-caramel mass and a liquid (which I assume was the butter). Absolutely nothing I tried brought it back together. I tried heating it, I tried letting it cool, I used a food processor, an immersion blender, a hand mixer, and a whisk. I tried mixing one part into the other slowly. I tried adding skim milk (on the guess that the fat content might be too high). Nothing worked. I tried beating the mess in the bowl; it did not lighten in color and was obviously not mousse-like. I give up. I might try a ganache without the caramel, since I know that will whip properly, but I imagine the added sugar provided by the caramel helped with the shelf-life issue.
  11. No, all measurements are according to your recipes.
  12. Ruben, An additional question: I have noticed that the ice cream I have made with your recipe tends to melt rather quickly once served. Is there anything I could be doing wrong to cause this? Jim
  13. I didn't keep close track of the time, but it was in the 25-30 minute range. I had to hold a Thermapen in the mix the whole time, and that was not an acceptable arrangement (at least for me). The wok is about 10" in diameter. I think that a 9" pot will be a solution for me. As attractive as the idea of the KitchenAid unattended attachment sounds (and I haven't totally abandoned the idea), I don't think I would feel comfortable without weighing the mix from time to time. Happy Boxing Day, Ruben
  14. Have you tried the new 25 minute heating recipes on the blog Jim? ========== Yes, that is the recipe I use. Remember, you suggested I use the caramel ingredients but the 25-minute vanilla technique? The problem is that it took over an hour to reach the target weight for the caramel. All of the other recipes have taken about 45 minutes, except when I used a (non-stick) wok for heating--it was much wider and cut the time dramatically. But with the wok I could not use my probe thermometer from Thermapen that I bought specially for this purpose--the sloping sides of the pot didn't allow the probe to be beneath the surface of the mix. I am now looking for a 9-inch pot (stupidly I used my 9-inch enamel pot for making no-knead bread, and the high heat has ruined it for anything else).
  15. Thanks for the helpful reply. Are you using Ruben's original recipe that called for heating for one hour rather than the newer version? The amount of the ingredients varies in the two versions, and he is now replacing the older recipes on his website. So you assume the evaporation is what it should be after an hour in the PHMB? Is there any practical way of weighing the PHMB + mix to be certain? For instance, how heavy and how easily removable is the PHMB? Would the temp plummet during the weighing so as to make this impractical?
  16. About the KitchenAid attachment: I read the linked thread but ended up somewhat confused. First, what KitchenAid mixer models are actually compatible? I have a tilt-head mixer. Williams-Sonoma specifies "Compatible with KitchenAid Artisan, Metallic Series and Design Series tilt-head mixers," but the KitchenAid site states "Fits all Tilt-Head Stand Mixers models, or as a standalone unit." I suppose I could order directly from KA and (perhaps) settle the question. Second concern: In that other thread, the overall assessment of the attachment (I'm speaking of using it for making Ruben Porto's ice cream) was not all that positive. JoNorvelleWalker said the temp was quite a few degrees off from where it was set and that it dropped a lot when the lid was removed. I'm assuming the lid can stay on while doing the evaporation procedure, but does the evaporation happen with the lid off? It would seem necessary to remove the lid from time to time to check the mixture. And how does one know when enough evaporation has taken place without removing the whole attachment and weighing it (as the Ruben process describes when using a pot on the stove)? I'm sure the temp drop quite a lot if this happened very often. Forgive me if I am missing something obvious. Any help would be appreciated.
  17. Ruben, I just finished churning the salted caramel ice cream. It has a wonderful flavor. I did have to make a last-minute adjustment: I was so conscious of getting the caramel dark enough that I went just a second or two beyond the correct point. After I had heated the mix and then chilled it, I did a taste test, and the flavor was definitely too far on the burnt side (though not by a huge amount). So I heated a small amount of cream and dissolved some brown sugar in it, cooled that, then added it to the caramel mix. I know that I was throwing off the fat content and the proportions of the recipe a bit, but I thought it was better to take that chance rather than have ice cream that people would not like. After churning, it appears that the added sweetness of the brown sugar and the slight diluting of the caramel taste with the added cream worked. I'll be more restrained in caramelizing the sugar next time. I should add that there is a wonderful ice cream shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Toscanini's), that sells "burnt caramel" ice cream (delicious with an apple dessert), and their flavor is so far on the burnt side that they would probably have found my final product quite bland, but I know my audience for the ice cream I made. The heating/evaporation process took a long time. I must find a 9" pot in which to do the heating (mine is 8"). Jim
  18. Thanks, Ruben. I was beginning to think I had lost my mind--not finding the caramel recipe that I knew I had seen. You have now made a major contribution to my Christmas dinner. Jim
  19. There have been a few mentions of salted and/or burnt caramel ice cream in this thread, but no actual details on how to make it. I want to use Ruben Porto's basic recipe and method. I assume the amount of sugar would have to be adjusted downward, as would the amount of liquid, but I don't know how to go about this. David Lebovitz has a recipe that he says is great, but fitting his method and ingredients into Ruben's is the issue. I think I would start by substituting the (liquid) caramel for some of the sugar in the recipe (though "burnt" caramel would not be as sweet as ordinary sugar). And because there is still some water left in caramel, substitute the caramel for some of the nonfat milk (which is mostly water)? You can see the dilemma. Any help would be appreciated.
  20. I am not an expert, but I have had experience with ganaches based on white chocolate. The usual procedure is to let the ganache cool to around 80F (Greweling says 77F), then put it in a piping bag and use it (no delay--since the longer you delay, the firmer it gets and the more difficult it is to fill a mold and have the ganache be level). Once it firms up in a bag, you are going to have all sorts of problems, problems that are unnecessary if you time things so that you go from making the ganache to piping it. At one point in my learning curve I thought I had found the holy grail--making ganaches in advance, vacuum-packing and freezing them, then bringing them back when needed. That works with dark- or milk-based ganaches, but not so well with white, and I have mostly given up the practice. Today in fact I reheated some leftover coconut ganache and was very careful not to let it get much above 80F. It had been frozen in its pastry bag, but I cut it out of the bag, cut it in small pieces, and melted it, using an immersion blender to get it smooth. The blender was necessary because there will be small lumps of white chocolate that don't melt uniformly. White chocolate will separate on you if you give it the slightest chance. A little skim milk or appropriate liquor and an immersion blender will usually resurrect a split white ganache. What brand of white are you using? Some are more temperamental than others. I second the recommendation from Curls that you take a look at Greweling (or Ewald Notter, who has most of the same information). They will give you the proportions (though I must add that not all of their recipes actually follow the proportions they recommend). Also remember that all liquids count as "liquefiers," including the "flavored water" you said you used. I also recommend that if you don't have an immersion blender, you get one before making any more ganaches. I couldn't live without one.
  21. Jim D.

    Mycryo

    I have used Mycryo quite often and found dissolving it rather difficult at times. An immersion blender comes in handy, but Edward J's point about losing some chocolate is certainly true. I would add that washing the blender is a bit of a pain. And no matter how hard one tries to avoid it, the blender introduces bubbles into the chocolate or ganache. Eddy Van Damme suggests microplaning a block of cocoa butter, producing a finer-grained product (and less money spent for Mycryo). The following is not an advertisement, but I recently acquired Kerry Beal's Eztemper machine that produces cocoa butter with exactly the right texture to mix in instantly with either melted chocolate or ganache. It has an additional advantage that it can be added at a wider range of temperatures than those specified for Mycryo. It also allows for using tempered chocolate at a higher temp, something that really helps when chocolate is becoming over-crystallized. A few minutes ago I finished some pumpkin ganache. In the past it has taken overnight to crystallize sufficiently; today it was ready within a few minutes of piping it into shells. Yesterday I was working with Opalys white chocolate, and as usual, it thickened to the point that it was almost unworkable. Having added the Eztemper cocoa butter "silk" to the bowl (just 0.5%), I was able to raise the working temp near 90F/32C and finished lining the molds (that temperature is well above what Valrhona recommends). The machine is not inexpensive, but it improves the process of making chocolates to a remarkable degree.
  22. Once again you appear to be correct. I did a small batch yesterday and did not touch it as it cooled. It is fine, with no butter separation. I don't understand the principle involved (since I have stirred many a caramel in the past), but I'll just accept it. Perhaps something to do with cooking the butter first. Thanks for the advice.
  23. Kris, Thanks for that information. How do you keep the various chocolates in temper as do the layering? It would seem the process takes quite a bit of time during which the temperature is dropping. After stirring with the spatula, do you then pour the contents into a mold?
  24. Andrea, Opalys is so expensive (and a kilo is the smallest amount for sale) that I can send you a sample of it if you want. Just PM me your address. Jim
  25. I too am a great fan of Felchlin and use their Maracaibo dark and Maracaibo Criolait milk--though Felchlin does not make the easiest chocolate to deal with (for me at least, it over-crystallizes too quickly). And I have tried Edelweiss in the hope that it would taste as good as Valrhona's Opalys white and be easier to deal with. In seeking such a chocolate, I also tried Soie Blanche. To refresh my memory, I just went to my stash and ate a piece of Edelweiss. My goal in selecting a white chocolate is locating one that does not taste too much of cocoa butter (which I think by itself has a very unpleasant taste). Many people say they look for a white that is not too sweet, but in my opinion, that is a hopeless search--they are all sweet. Of the three whites mentioned, I must say (I hope this does not offend you) I did not care for Soie Blanche; to my taste, it is too close to plain cocoa butter. Edelweiss is the second best I have tried, and it is much easier than Opalys to work with--it does not over-crystallize easily--in fact, it is almost too thin and I have had to pour some shells twice to get satisfactory coverage. However, I think taste is primary, and--again, this is just my opinion--Opalys is by far the best-tasting white I have had. Edelweiss still tastes too much of cocoa butter, but in Opalys there is very little of that (I can almost taste a little citrus in it, but am not really sure what the flavor comes from). Probably more information than you wanted, but so many people hate white chocolate that I have spent some time reading others' opinions and tasting as many as I was able to get. I have tried to talk one well-known online chocolate supplier into putting together packages of samples for potential customers to taste (a half-dozen whites, for example), but so far without success.
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