Jim D.

Sounds delicious. Could you explain a bit more what you mean by an "insert"? Is it something like an additional layer of custard between two cake layers?

Curls, We are on the same wave length: I too have a guitar at the top of my list (roughly same cost as aW meter). Sorry to hear about yuzu--that is my new favorite flavoring.

Even though I would love to have an aW meter, the cost is just too much (I think). It's an expensive piece of equipment just to find out if puréed apricots are going to kill those who eat my pralines. I get really concerned, though, when people tell me, in February, "Oh, I've still got some of your chocolates from Christmas; they are so delicious." I suspect your average tastebuds can't tell when a filling has deteriorated in flavor especially since they don't have the original for comparison. At this point I'm thinking Edward is right: "In the end I gave up, implemented a 3 week shelf life on bon-bons with cream ganaches." The issue for me is that the 3 weeks (or whatever period of time is selected) has to include making the ganache, assembling the bon-bon, and getting the product to the customer. I'm leaning toward a notice that says something like "These chocolates, which contain no preservatives, are best stored between 55 and 70 degrees F. and consumed within two weeks of receipt. For longer storage, they should be refrigerated, then brought to room temperature before consuming." Do you think that covers it?

One other issue with refrigerating chocolate: It easily pick up up odors from other foods and can be ruined that way. Someone recently brought me a filled chocolate from a new lunch spot in town. As this is not a "chocolatiering town," I was excited to give it a try. Any chocolate flavor was completely overwhelmed by the "refrigerator smell/taste." I don't know what produces the fridge odor, but it's pretty bad--and it happens even when there is no stinky food in the fridge. For summer storage of chocolate, I bought a wine refrigerator with a charcoal filter to help absorb moisture (I believe I got the idea from Keychris on this forum). I vacuum-seal the chocolate, and last summer it kept perfectly. It does acquire condensation when you remove the (sealed) bag, but the condensation is on the outside of the bag, not on the chocolate.

I recently ground Sunsweet brand apricots in a (very old) Cuisinart with no difficulty. It wasn't a totally smooth purée, but it was the texture I wanted. Admittedly Sunsweet apricots come in a fairly moist state.

Can someone recommend a reliable small measuring device for water activity in foods?

Curls and Edward: Thanks for the replies. I guess I am trying to understand why puréed fruit by itself would have a somewhat short shelf life. In the case of using commercial purées, instructions usually say to reduce them to remove some of the water. In the case I am describing (putting dried apricots in a food processor), there is considerably less water involved to start with. Is the fact that I would not be using any chocolate--with the sugar it contains--the main reason there would be an issue? I am looking for a 2-3 week shelf life. I have a lot of people who stretch out their boxes of chocolates by eating one a day, so I can't have any realistic expectation that they would refrigerate the apricot pieces or eat them first. I made a dipped piece recently decorated with a sliver of glacéed apricot, and the apricot piece remains fine after several weeks--though I must confess I'm not sure how obvious molded apricot would be.

I am interested in trying a layered praline with one layer being made just of puréed fruit (dried apricots, for example)--as opposed to pate de fruit, which is so sweet. A quick consideration would suggest that this purée would have a low water content and therefore a long shelf life, but I'm not certain. There would not be any of the traditional additives that decrease water activity--such as invert sugar or glucose--as they would add to the sweetness and defeat the goal of having a tart fruit layer to contrast with the other layer (some sort of chocolate). I could add brandy. Would adding a little cocoa butter help? I would be interested in anybody's knowledge--or opinions--on the water activity issue.

I know exactly what you mean. After one holiday, when I pushed myself to make 12 different fillings for chocolates and saw people's excitement about having such variety, I can't go back. Timing is the big issue when it's a one-person operation. The ideal of (1) casting the shells, (2) making the ganache, (3) filling the shells, (4) doing the bottoms, then (5) immediately getting the product to the customer, all within a couple of days, is just not feasible for one person, so some compromises have to be made. But I have to say your variety was amazing. I checked your profile and see that you work in Seattle. You do have a ready-made foodie audience--but also a lot of rain!

That's an amazing list. Did you do this by yourself? You are probably lying somewhere in total exhaustion right now. Was your popup in a regular shop or somewhere else, and how did people find out about it? I love the inclusion of grapefruit zest--it's always a surprise to people tasting it for the first time.

I think that is a very difficult calculation to make with any accuracy--depends on the size of the pieces, viscosity of the chocolate, etc. I usually fill a frame that is 7.5" x 7.5". That allows me to cut off 1/4" on each edge (because the edges are not usually completely flat). So, with 1" pieces, I have 49 pieces total. For that amount I put 1.5 lb. (680g) in my small tempering machine. After dipping, there is approximately 25% remaining in the bowl (you need extra to be able to dip the final pieces).

I too have tried many methods of vacuum-freezing finished chocolates without a lot of success. I use fairly sturdy boxes for my chocolates, and I thought I had succeeded once, but when I was preparing to give them away, I did a check, and the walls of one piece had collapsed. There must be very rigid plastic containers out there somewhere, but I would assume the vacuum would be around the box, not inside it, so I'm not sure how protected the chocolates would be. Right now I am placing the gift boxes filled with chocolates in a large plastic bag, sealing it (without using the vacuum feature), then refrigerating (no freezing). Then I bring them to room temp with the bag still sealed (so that condensation will happen on the outside of the bag), then cut open the bag. That way I can use the bag again. Without freezing, I don't think this would work for long-term storage, but I think it helps extend shelf life for fillings that might be a little questionable otherwise. My Weston vacuum sealer offers partial vacuuming, but it's an iffy proposition and depends on pushing the right button at just the right moment, so I've given up on that. I think the method you describe above should be helpful, a good compromise. Somewhere on this forum (I've just spent a long time searching, without success) there is a photo of a bag of individual chocolates (not in any container other than the freezer bag) that were vacuum-sealed, then frozen. The person reported success with this method. I think the vacuum would have to be fairly weak.

I use Notter's technique (precoating on just one side). There is disagreement about whether the precoat should be tempered or not. I make sure it is not still in temper and find that it cuts more cleanly that way. I don't think you notice this precoating layer at all once the ganache is dipped--it sort of disappears once the piece has been dipped. I also have combined a passion fruit layer and a vanilla layer, and people seem to like the combination.

I didn't realize you intended to slab the ganache, cut it, then dip it. Greweling's recipe is meant for piping into molds. You could add more chocolate to make the mixture firmer. Greweling recommends tempering chocolate when you are going to dip the ganache (you can melt it very slowly, keeping it in temper). For slabbing, I use Ewald Notter's technique of spreading the foot on the parchment or acetate first, then pour the ganache on top, let it set, then cut it. That way the ganache does not stick. The ganache may need a little chilling to firm up enough.

I am no expert, but I think you don't have enough chocolate for the liquid ingredients. You have 212g of liquid (68 cream + 148 passion fruit). At a ratio of 2 parts chocolate to 1 part liquid, you would need 432g (white chocolate + cocoa butter). Greweling's ratio is slightly less than 2:1, but yours is closer to 1:1. I'm assuming your 148g of passion fruit is the reduced amount (that you start with 296g). If you mean it's reduced to 74g before you mix it in, then you still need more chocolate but not that much. About the flavor: all I can say is that I have made Greweling's recipe maybe half a dozen times, and the passion fruit flavor has always been quite strong.

To set the record straight, I must rephrase my completely positive remarks about reheating ganaches: Today I had the first failure in this process (leave it to white chocolate to keep us humble). It was Ewald Notter's coconut ganache. Of course, items with coconut are never completely smooth, but it was fine when I first made it. Today, in the reheating process, it separated. After trying a couple a methods of fixing it, I more or less succeeded, at least enough to be able to use it. (The taste, by the way, is wonderful.) So now I must say that reheating seems to work fine with dark or milk chocolate ganaches, but white chocolate is another story. It is crucial to heat it very slowly, stirring almost constantly. And even then it may separate. In the future, I probably won't be making ganaches based on white chocolate in advance. It is necessary to balance the confidence one gets from knowing that a ganache is already made and is going to be firm enough to work against the definite possibility that it won't heat up well.

I often freeze ganaches. Since I am working alone, if I fill the chocolate shells as the ganache is made, I end up with the first pieces sitting around for longer than I like while I finish the rest of the batch. So I let the ganache firm up a bit (on parchment), then vacuum seal it with my Weston vacuum sealer. I just put it straight in the freezer. When I have all the shells made, then I remove the ganaches (usually, but not always, including the interim step of leaving them in the fridge for a day). I heat them slowly over a water bath until they have returned to their original consistency. At first I was apprehensive about this method, but I have not been able to detect any difference between the previously frozen and the fresh ganaches. I am extra careful about heating ganaches with lots of butter (especially a butter-based ganache) as they can go a bit grainy. But, after a few seconds with an immersion blender, they seem as good as new--at least to me. This past Christmas I went back to the "approved" method of making ganache and filling shells immediately, and the whole process was so much more hectic that I won't go back to it again. I know that some of the people to whom I give the chocolates eat them one per day, and I get nervous thinking about how long the earliest-made chocolates have been sitting from production to consumption. Another positive side effect of freezing ganache: If you are invited to a dinner party, you can whip up a nice batch of chocolates at the last minute. A month ago I decided to contribute some chocolates to a benefit dinner and took the opportunity to use up all the bits of ganaches in the freezer. It was a great success.

The lime recipe to which I referred is Ewald Notter's "Key Lime Pralines." Actually I reduce the amount of cream because on the first try the result was not firm enough. The lime juice and zest overcome any overly buttery taste (is it possible to be overly buttery, I wonder). The ganache is somewhat soft and the recipe would probably need some tweaking if it were used for slabbing, but it's fine for piping--and delicious. I use fresh regular limes as I don't care for the taste of canned juice and cannot easily obtain key limes. As for the passion fruit recipe, it is Peter Greweling's "Toucans." I checked and the eGullet rules don't allow for including the procedure for recipes that are copyrighted, but it's OK to list ingredients. So: 80g cream, 20g glucose, 80g passion fruit purée reduced (start with 160g), 300g chopped white chocolate, 20g soft butter. The procedure is like any other cream ganache. I always have a moment of panic at the end because the mixture is very soft, but it firms up beautifully in a short time. It can be piped or slabbed.

At Kerry Beal's suggestion I purchased the Paasche HS Single Action airbrush (external mix). There have been some people on this forum who use internal mix airbrushes, but I think those require more attention as you are spraying (more frequent reheating). I got a large supply of the glass bottles for this airbrush and just keep cocoa butter in them ready for remelting and attaching to the airbrush. As you probably already know, using chocolate in an airbrush is a compromise; these devices weren't really meant for chocolate. So the simpler the better, I think. I got a heat gun and have to reheat the spraying part several times while spraying one or two trays, but that is a fairly minor hassle. For a compressor I got the Iwata SmartJet Pro, more expensive than some others, but very quiet. Incidentally the adapter provided by Iwata for Paasche airbrushes does not fit easily with the sort of cone-shaped Paasche bottles. Paasche sent me a replacement hose (free of charge) that works perfectly. Very good customer service.

You might want to take a look at a chocolate fillings thread on this forum. I have done a lot of experiments to try to accomplish what you want--a chocolate filling with a strong fruit flavor. My conclusion is that it is very difficult to do, and impossible with some fruits. I have given up on pear, peach, and recently rhubarb (it was mixed with strawberry, and all I can taste is strawberry). I have made some apricot ganache (with reduced apricot purée and ground up dried apricots, plus white chocolate), and it's rather bland. The fruits I have mentioned (and probably many others) are overwhelmed by white chocolate, not to mention milk and dark. There are lot of recipes out there by respected authors that have you add fruit flavoring to a milk or dark chocolate, but I can never taste anything beyond the slightest hint of fruit. But all is not lost. Raspberry, strawberry, cherry, orange, and passion fruit work really well. Mango is OK but rather faint. Lemon and lime are terrific, as is yuzu (if you can get it). As Keychris said, substituting some cocoa butter for the white chocolate helps. A recipe I use for lime pralines calls for 90g of cream, 125g of butter, 265g of chocolate, and 13g of cocoa butter. That is about 5% cocoa butter (of the total choc.). Too much cocoa butter, and the ganache loses its smoothness. In the thread to which I referred above, see Kerry Beal's recipe for Raspberry Centers (a kind of butter cream).. It works!

Minas, Those look good. Did you brush the luster dust dry into the molds, or did you use some other method to apply it (such as mixing it with liquor)? I ask because I have luster dust on order (from a place you recommended) and will be doing some experimentation with it. I have used a copper metallic cocoa butter (from Chef Rubber) that results in a similar look. Jim

Chris, What a great job of dipping! Did you do them by hand? If so, how did you get them so perfect? Jim Dutton

I really like that Curley recipe for orange/balsamic, and many recipients of my chocolates have also. I had the same experience the first time--a napkin was needed to eat it. Now I cook it to 230F (110C) (the temp recommended by Ewald Notter for his caramel pralines). I was apprehensive about the amount of balsamic at first, but the quantity recommended is just about perfect (depending on the balsamic, of course).

But I followed your recipe with the amounts you specified (actually I made 1/3 of a recipe, but I am sure I did the math correctly). In this recipe I'm not sure what the liquid would be: both the butter and the white choc. have the fat globules, and fondant is the sugar. It's not like a cream ganache, where the cream is obviously the liquid. Do you think that Opalys is unusually fatty?

Kerry, I made your buttercream today. I didn't know whether the chocolate was supposed to be tempered or not, so I melted it very slowly so that it (probably) never got out of temper, and I had the fondant and butter around room temp. As I poured the choc. into the food processor, I could tell the same issue I have been having with white choc. (in particular, Valrhona Opalys) was occurring again--the filling separated into a thick part and an oily part yellowish in color. I used the technique I recently learned of pouring a few teaspoons of cold milk into the food processor, and everything came together. I am disturbed that this separation keeps occurring, but I am very glad I found the solution, and I am now beginning to think of cold milk as a necessary and regular ingredient in any white choc. ganache. I don't know why it works, and would like to know. As for the finished product, it is indeed quite sweet (what else could one expect with white choc. and fondant?), but not as sweet as I expected. I divided the batch into three, flavoring one with lots of vanilla, another with dark rum, and the third with bourbon (as the soon-to-be recipient requested). The flavoring helps a lot, and I especially like the vanilla. The best part is that I think it is exactly the buttercream filling that the recipient asked for, and the dark chocolate coating (Valrhona Caraïbe) will contrast nicely with the sweet fondant. In fact, there will be one piece missing from the gift box as I am going to try one myself. Thanks for your suggestion for this filling, and I think it would be very good with a citric or other fruit flavoring (as with your raspberry recipe). Orange and Grand Marnier might be nice. Jim Dutton