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Stu Jordan

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    Auckland, New Zealand

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  1. When I make Marshmallow with Vanilla (I am unsure about Grewlings recipe sorry), I scrape Vanilla pods into my water / sugar /dextrose mixture and find it brings out a beautiful vanilla flavour. I also sometimes use Vanilla powder. Another option if you use extract is to try triple fold extract (3 x strength) so you use only 1/3rd volume of normal extract. I don't have Grewlings book, what is his recipe?
  2. I don't have a photo, but I use it for hard caramels, nougats etc. It has a conveyer belt which can be reversed, guards to prevent fingers being chopped off, and guides on each side of the blade so the item can't stick to the blade when it comes back up after cutting. It works off an air compressor and single phase power. The speed of the belt can be adjusted, as can the speed of the blade, so I can cut various sizes. We can cut a slab of hard caramels or nougats in about 3 minutes. Cool toy, will try and get a wee video of it working.
  3. If I wanted a nice tart layer, I might make a coulis and firm it up with some pectin. Or I could do a light raspberry mousse. A ganache might be too heavy for the cake. Not sure what original poster used in that cake but gosh it looks nice!
  4. Hi Bernadry My bowls come from Chocolate World in Belgium and are made from polycarbonate plastic. There are three reasons why I tend to avoid the bain marie or water/steam bath method: * metal bowls retain heat and continue to heat the chocolate when removed from the heat source, which can push it out of temper. * water and chocolate are mortal enemies. So many people seize chocolate when using the steam method (eg, steam rises, condenses on handle of spatula/spoon, gravity then lets those water droplets glide down the spatula and into the chocolate. * Hard to control the temperature - and easy to overheat the chocolate. That said, when I am emulsifying ganaches, I prefer to use a metal bowl.
  5. Happy 2017! Making fudge at the moment. It is very time consuming to cut, and I can't use my guitar cutter or my electronic guillotine as it just shatters. Anyone know a fast way to cut fudge? Tastes fine of course, this picture shows the Russian and the Chocolate varieties.
  6. Your other option, if it is just some blooming, is to remelt / temper in the microwave. Break bars into small pieces Use plastic bowl Heat in short bursts, mixing after each time (to ensure even melting) Continue to do this until the chocolate is HALF MELTED/ HALF SOLID Stir vigorously 1 - 3 second bursts of microwaving to get it to the consistency you need, with vigorous stirring after each. You must not go over the 'working temperature' which is easy to get wrong in the microwave! There is not a lot of room for error when using this method, so tempering from scratch on marble or granite might be best.
  7. Here are a few products from our Easter Collection - no idea how to post images properly here so hopefully this works
  8. How hot you cook your caramel will impact how firm it sets up. A decent cream based caramel recipe, heated to around 106 - 110 degrees C will give you a soft caramel that will crust up enough that it won't ooze if you leave it for a few hours before sealing the mold. Always recommend caramel is your second layer but our 108C caramels are often used as the first layer without oozing. (sorry my American friends, no idea how to convert to your weird Fahrenheit temperature)
  9. We do quite a bit of contract manufacturing. I have found a charge of $750 + tax seems to be sufficient to cover our recipe development time, and the clients we have are happy with the price.
  10. If you are going to emulsify a ganache by hand, just be sure to start in the center and use small tight (fast) circles until the emulsion 'takes', then keep that circular motion going (think whirlpool) and watch the emulsion spread through your ganache...most people when doing it by hand just mix the ingredients without that tight circular motion. Emulsion requires centrifugal force (eg, food processor, stick blender) but can easily be done properly by hand in the quantities you mentioned.
  11. Use your hair dryer and gently blow heat over the affected areas - this will melt the blocked chocolate. That gun won't spray chocolate due to the small nozzle size, so maybe try doing 50% cocoa butter/ 50% chocolate instead
  12. Durian is, in my opinion, the most vile fruit to be grown on Planet Earth. Fetid is a pretty good description of the smell - in fact, many asian hotels ban guests from preparing durian in their rooms because of the smell it leaves behind. Some people do actually like it, and texturally it is pleasant, but for me the smell and flavour make me retch. Interestingly, I have some Durian chocolate in my office right now that someone brought back from Asia for me - safe to say the box is still unopened!
  13. Hi Jim Just some photo editing software that allows a reflection, unsure what it is called, INKSCAPE I think
  14. It's been a while since I posted, but have been lurking! A few more of our collection: From Left to Right: Lemon Lime & Bitters; Vanilla Bean; Lime Chili; Baileys Cream About to embark on a quest to create some new coloring techniques, tomorrow is "play with color" day...so exciting!
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