Jim D.

Chris, That looks delicious, but I suspect you are right about the shelf life--not only the air whipped into it, but the eggs as well. Reminds me of a creme brulee praline from Kee's in New York, which states it should be consumed within two days. I'm surprised your recipe uses milk instead of cream. I don't know if you run a chocolate business, but if you do, how do you deal with the shelf life issue? Jim

I am reviving this topic (which I started back in 2012) because I have received a request for a specific filling for chocolates. I must start by saying it's a little annoying when one spends countless hours learning how to airbrush the outside of pralines, then collects all sorts of ingredients most people would consider exotic (passion fruit and yuzu purées, pistachio and hazelnut pastes, dozens of liqueurs and flavored brandies, etc.), and assembles chocolates from all this, only to have the recipient ask for the equivalent of chocolate comfort food. But I guess I should be pleased that at least somebody cares enough to make a specific request (and thinks I can do it!). Anyhow, this person asks for "dark chocolate-covered buttercreams plain or with bourbon or rum." My suspicion is that when people say "buttercream," they mean flavored fondant (as in Russell Stover or Whitman's Sampler). In trying to come up with a recipe (that isn't just fondant), I immediately thought of a vanilla ganache (Ewald Notter has one that is delicious and that I use in combination with a second contrasting ganache). Adding a splash of bourbon or rum would be easy. But I don't think that is what buttercream fans are really thinking of--the texture is a bit different. Perhaps using less chocolate (or more cream) would approach the right soft texture. I also recalled Kerry Beal's raspberry and strawberry buttercreams, which do have fondant but also include white chocolate and butter. Does anyone have additional ideas or a recipe?

About the issue of a flexible scraper: I have learned, from sad experience, that the slightest protrusion of the filling up to the rim of the cavity, or actually closer than few mm. down from the rim, will inevitably cause bare spots in the bottom. In fact, I just finished going over a mold of Peter Greweling's cherry kirsch ganache. The cherry pieces are very difficult to keep below the danger zone. So I go over each cavity, removing any bits of ganache that look troublesome. I know that's not the original poster's problem, but it is related to difficulties with closing chocolates. As someone else has already suggested, I give the chocolate poured over the mold a little time to settle down into the nooks and crannies and tap it on the counter repeatedly. That should help prevent those dips in the OP's pralines.

They look delicious and beautiful as well. I made feuilletine once (with emphasis on "once"--it was quite a job). I've been thinking of buying that mold (which looks like a radiator to me). By the way, I like the cups you use for these chocolates. I can't tell how large the chocolates are, but are the cups larger than usual? I've been looking everywhere for larger ones. I like to use gold foil cups, but the largest they seem to come is size 5 (1 1/4" base). I've found brown and white cups as large as 1 3/4" base. In any event, great job on the chocolates.

I always have the feeling that I am doing something bad when I add boiling cream to chocolate (previously I have posted the question, why doesn't this take the chocolate totally out of temper?), but that is what most cream ganache recipes call for--including many of the published experts (Greweling, Notter, Wybauw). Can you explain more about your advice?

I used what Chef Rubber calls "pectin pate de fruit," so it's not Shotts's special g-pectin or Pomona's pectin that requires calcium water. I can't give you an exact shelf life since I am not making chocolates in a commercial situation but giving them away to friends and family. I can say that there are probably two weeks between the time I make them and the time the last ones are given out. I include a guide in each box saying they are best when eaten within a couple of weeks after receiving them and, if they are going to be kept longer than that, they should be refrigerated (on the theory than it's better to have a refrigerated chocolate than a killer chocolate). I have kept some even longer than that for myself and they have been fine. I always look for any signs of mold, etc., but have never seen any--though I must confess I am not sure what mold would look like in a ganache. I assume you are in a commercial situation. I don't think this item is any different from pate de fruit or a regular dark chocolate ganache filling. Maybe I am too trusting, but I assume Notter's, Greweling's, and Wybauw's recipes provide adequate shelf life.

I have made it several times, and it has been a favorite of people who tasted it (including me). As with many recipes, I have learned a few things from my experience: The raspberry coulis recipe did not result in enough, at least for the molds I was using (rather large, deep ones to allow for the two layers). I now use 1 1/2 times the amount listed for ingredients for the coulis. In addition, when I followed the instructions to "boil for 3 minutes," I got raspberry rubber. Now I cook it just until it starts to thicken a bit since it thickens a lot more as it cools. Incidentally with the "raspberry rubber," I was able to thin it out with water so as to pipe it successfully. As for the orange-dark chocolate ganache: I found the proportion of chocolate to liquefier somewhat off. The recipe calls for 165g orange juice (after being reduced) + 100g cream, but only 175g chocolate. That's an approximate ratio of 1.5 parts liquefier to 1 part chocolate. Even Notter himself states (p. 111) that the ratio should be 1:1 for a "soft ganache for molded pralines." So that would mean 265g chocolate. The first time I made this praline I followed the recipe as written, and the ganache never firmed up (it was OK because it was molded, but it was quite soft). All that said, it is a delicious combination of flavors and textures. In general, I have found that the recipes in Notter's book produce some of the most interesting, best tasting pralines (the yuzu-ginger is fantastic), but some of the quantities need tweaking (at least in my limited experience). Jim

Thanks for that information. f you are familiar with both of the products you mention, could you explain the difference in appearance between them? Do you have a source for whatever you use? (Some of the sources listed in this thread no longer exist, and others use some term besides "luster dust.")

I have read a lot about luster dust on eGullet, but in looking on the sites of regular suppliers (Chef Rubber, in particular) I cannot find anything called "luster dust." There are items that look as if they might qualify, but I don't want to order the wrong thing. Previously I ordered products called "edible glitter" in gold and silver, but discovered they were rather large flakes that didn't do much at all in terms of adding "luster"--mostly created pock marks in the shells of chocolates. Can someone provide some guidance? Thanks.

Would you mind listing some of these new chocolates? I use Valrhona's Opalys quite a bit and like its flavor; since I switched to it, several people have remarked that they never liked white chocolate previously but do enjoy it now. I'd like to try any others there are.

Thanks for the additional information on both the dehydrator and the dough proofer. Will look into both.

On the Cabela's site, I read that the Excalibur dehydrator has "a thermostat adjustable from 95° to 155°F." 95F. is warmer than I would want cocoa butter to be. Am I missing something about this product?

Can you tell me the brand of dehydrator you use? Does it hold the cocoa butter at an exact temperature? Perhaps there is a link to the item. Thanks.

Minas, Pecan pralines are definitely an acquired taste--a real sugar overdose. But the standard Southern praline can be found at this link from Southern Living magazine. And Southern Living is as Southern as it's possible to get (in my opinion). http://www.southernliving.com/food/how-to/southern-pecan-pralines-00417000071984/ The photo on that page is what I have always seen as a praline (I live in Virginia). I find it hilarious that, according to that link, pralines were originally considered "an aid to digestion at the end of the meal." More like a diabetic attack.

Have you found that IR thermometers are reasonably accurate (with fresh batteries)? I have been wondering. Yesterday I tested, and both IR and non-IR gave approximately the same reading. Other times they have been too far apart for comfort. I am new to using IR and am still not confident enough in the accuracy. But they certainly are convenient, especially when testing two different mixtures at the same time and when one of them is tempered chocolate (it's difficult to remember that I mustn't dip a regular thermometer into some liquid and then into tempered chocolate).

I've posted many times on failures in tempering, but this time I have a bizarre success to report. I had a little leftover mint ganache and decided to make a few pieces; my main desire was to try some new decorating techniques. I swirled cocoa butter into the cavities, then tempered (or perhaps not) some milk chocolate. The test for tempering was inconclusive, but by the time I had placed the mold in the refrigerator for a while, I knew that the chocolate was not tempered (after half an hour, the chocolate in the mold was still soft). The leftover chocolate on parchment was a mess, did not harden for a long time. But I persevered and filled the cavities with the mint ganache. For closing, I made sure the chocolate was tempered. I knew the effort would be a failure, but out of curiosity I wanted to see what would happen. After 30 minutes in the refrig, I turned the mold upside down--and out popped perfect chocolates, shiny, nothing left in the mold. In some ways this is more annoying than a successful effort as it makes absolutely no sense.

I can't help with the tabling method, but have you tried seeding? It's generally considered much easier. I know what it's like to want to conquer a major hurdle, but sometimes practicality is the way to go.

"Rummy," not "runny." I must need new glasses. I'll give your recipe a try. When I was cooking the caramel-banana-passion fruit mixture (Wybauw says to 221 F.), it looked as if it was about to burn. Good point about the banana thickening the ganache. It's the flavoring that makes it so difficult to determine the ratio of chocolate to liquefier--some liquefiers are more liquid than others! To make matters more difficult, Wybauw's recipes can be rather vague at times: "Caramelize the sucrose and glucose until they acquire an attractive golden brown color." Jim

The recipe looks good. I am puzzled, however, by the proportion of chocolate to cream. I would think that if there is so little chocolate (compared to liquids in the recipe) that the result would be quite runny, might never firm up. But you say that it could be more runny. I ask because today I attempted Wybauw's "Frutti" recipe for the second time. The first time I made it, it never firmed up. So today I added more chocolate and some cocoa butter. The result was a total mess--the ganache separated.

Not sure what you mean. I should add additional cream to the ganache? Or did you literally mean milk? That is not something I have ever seen in a recipe.

What are the chances we would be using the same chocolate for the same ganache at the same time? Great minds.... I used Valrhona Ivoire previously, Callebaut's white for quite a while before that. I don't know the fat content, but all these chocolates are supposed to be fine for ganache. I made another ganache later today--Wybauw's banana. He calls for tempering the chocolate and mixing it with the caramel (which has banana and passion fruit in it). I was extremely careful to have the choc. at 84-85 F. and the caramel mixture at 105 F. I mixed the choc. in very slowly. Same thing happened. Tried the stick mixer, then the food processor, and neither did any good. So I resorted to mixing the broken ganache into a little heated cream. This worked, though the result didn't look great. I am quite perturbed that this is happening so often. I have made the passion fruit ganache previously since switching to Opalys, and it was fine. This time, in fact, the result looks great and I can cut the slab with no problem. As an experiment I might give up tempering the choc. and see what happens.

I know this is a very specific question, but I'm seeking some assistance from anybody on the forum who uses Valrhona's fairly new Opalys for making ganache. I am having trouble with white chocolate ganaches separating and have noticed it especially since I began using this chocolate. I just finished Greweling's passion fruit ganache--one of the simplest recipes imaginable. I have made it many times without an issue. Since I am slabbing it, I followed his advice and tempered the chocolate, had the cream and passion fruit purée at 105 F., mixed them as usual, but the mixture separated. I was able to get it back together by mixing it gradually into some heated cream, but the texture is less than perfect. So I'm wondering if Opalys is more sensitive to heat or ...? I use it because I really like its flavor but may have to reconsider.

Thanks, Kerry, that is exactly what I needed to know. And I am grateful (as always) for all your help.

With the advice of Kerry Beal, I moved to a Paasche external-mix airbrush and have had more success with it than I did with the Badger 250. They have in common, it would appear, a rather wide spray area, but I guess that is the nature of external-mix brushes. I do have a few questions from my experience so far and would be grateful if those more experienced could help: 1. My impression is that covering a mold with colored cocoa butter takes a lot more time than painting it with a brush or finger. To get a complete covering, I had to make as many as four passes over the mold with the airbrush, and still it did not look as opaque as it would if I had used a paint brush. I think I had the paint level as high as I could get it. Is this normal? I recall a photo from Chocolot showing some molds sprayed with her Fuji, and they look much more thoroughly covered than I have managed. 2. After about two passes over a mold, I had to stop and hit the airbrush with a heat gun, then the color would start flowing again with more fluidity. Is this normal? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Minas, As always, your confections are beautiful--and look so delicious. To think that you are more or less a beginner at some of these techniques (such as decorating molds with cocoa butter) shows how talented you are. If you don't mind, I would like to ask two questions: For the 3rd item (caramel bonbons) and the 8th (red velvet), did you use an airbrush or your finger for the swirl effect? They are very nice. For the red velvet, do you mind telling where you found the recipe for the filling, and what makes it "red velvet"? This issue came up with someone else on the forum recently, and she had a "red chocolate" (not sure what that entails) layer plus a cream cheese ganache layer. Obviously yours is different. Again, congratulations on your success. Jim