tammylc

Banyuls is a kind of red dessert wine, similar to a Port.

You'd think white chocolate would be a neutral backdrop, but in my experience it's anything but! Too sweet, and the milk fat also mutes flavor. So I definitely agree with the others on using dark chocolate. I like the enrobed pate de fruit idea as well - you could it as a double layer piece, with a layer of ganache and then the pdf.

You could use them to fill molded chocolates. If they're too stiff to pipe cleanly, just squeeze in some, and they'll flow down to fill the space.

I didn't notice anything unusual about the top. But I expect all her pieces are enrobed rather than dipped, so that might be what you're seeing? I just signed up for a "An Evening with Katrina Markoff of Vosges Haut-Chocolat" later this month. I'll try to ask. Anyone else have any burning questions?

I haven't. I'll try to get to Plum Market this weekend and get one to try. It's a hardship, but I've got to do my duty for the greater knowledge of the community.

So there's an actual Vosges caramel marshmallow, with a bite taken out of it. You can see that the caramel isn't quite as runny as it appeared in the cover picture - it definitely holds its own when bitten into. However, having had this AND four of her "Exotic Caramels" I will note that her caramel tends to the soft side - it's only the slightest bit chewy. So I'm kinda curious how she gets such straight cuts and neat coating on her regular dipped caramels too. There wasn't an ingredient list on the single of the marshmallow that I took home, but her regular caramel ingredient list is sugar, cream, organic sweetened condensed milk, butter, wheat glucose syrup, vanilla bean paste (and then a bunch of additions and inclusions), and i expect these were the same. One thing that eating these has made me feel better about is my own leaking caramels. 2 out of the 4 in the mini-box I ate had major leakage. If not caramel actually oozing out, then a significant amount of oily residue on the chocolate and the candy cup. The marshmallow layer was actually quite chewy - when I make my homemade marshmallows they're much lighter. This was quite dense and had some decent resistance to it. Tasty, though...

I have glucose sold for candy making, and its only ingredient is corn syrup. Glucose can be either corn or wheat derived, and in this country, the economics of corn subsidies mean that corn derived glucose is far more prevalent. Karo "Light Corn Syrup" is its own thing, with less water removed, and high-fructose corn syrup added, as well as salt and vanilla.

I am in Chicago today, and happened across a Vosges shop. So of course I had to take one for the team, and get a caramel marshmallow for you all. It's in my bag - I'm going to eat it when I get home tonight so I can properly document it with a photograph so we can compare. The ingredient list doesn't have any ingredients that aren't standard to marshmallows or caramel. It (and other items I looked at) do specify "wheat glucose syrup" which I thought was interesting.

I'm still using off-the-shelf packaging. I have a standard font and style that I use for my labels and box tags, but I got a good deal on closeout boxes from Nashville Wraps, and I'm still working through those. I do have a variety of different boxes for different purposes. But since I sell almost exclusively through my email list, it's much less important for my stuff to look the same all the time - it's not like people are looking for it at a store, where "branding" my look would be more critical.

I'm a messy, messy chocolatier, so I tend to wash my molds regularly. Just spray down with hot hot water, then dry with cotton. But the idea of using a warm oven or hair dryer to heat the excess chocolate and just wiping it off is kind of revolutionary for me. I hate cleaning molds, so perhaps I'll try that next time!

I had the same reaction you did Lior - I can't fathom accomplishing that much either! But it also confirms to me that I'm making the right choice to keep my business small and on the side - I've come to realize I have no interest in being a full time chocolatier, and can't imagine devoting the amount of work and effort that Bill obviously has. Thinking about it gives me butterflies in my stomach! Congrats Bill! I'm amazed at your accomplishments, and absolutely thrilled for you.

Dang, I wish I knew what kind they are. The person that gave them to me has no idea . I tasted one, and they aren't sweet sweet--they have a bit of tart to them..... ← What's the texture like? Crisp? Mealy? Firm? Dry? Juicy? That will help determine what application they'd be best suited to. Apple crisp is easier than apple pie and nearly as good, so that's another suggestion for you.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I ended up making Randi's hot fudge sauce (yum, and I haven't even had it on ice cream yet). Then I tried to make a caramel white chocolate ganache from Andrew Schotts Garrison's book, but the ganache broke and a threw it away. In the non-cream world, I made some buttercrunch from Grewling, and toasted some almonds and chopped them up and put them into some bar molds that I'd poured a while ago, then topped them off with chocolate. But I'd only tempered enough chocolate to fill 6 of the 12 cavities. Trying to figure out what to do with the other 6, I realized that the pretzels I use for my sweet-salty-crunchy bar would fit perfectly into each section of the 3-section bar. So I used some more of my cream to make up a half batch of salty caramel, piped some peanut butter in each mold, squished a pretzel onto it, filled it up with the caramel and then backed it off with chocolate. Turned out pretty well, although I'm on the fence as to whether I like the dipped or molded version better. The molded one is a little larger. It would be an easy thing to do with extra chocolate in order to add some bars onto other production - EXCEPT that I really prefer this bar with a 60% coating instead of the 72% I typically use for my molded pieces. Oh well - it was a tasty experiment. And that used up most of my extra cream!

My technique with the pyramid molds is to slam them on the counter a few times, then put on the vibrating table. (There's a thread on eGullet about making your own, cheaper than ordering from ChefRubber.) I still get a few with bad corners, but that takes care of most of them. My couveture (Cluizel) is pretty fluid to start with, and I'll try to do that mold early in my sequence, since I know it's fiddly (by contrast, I tend to do my domes last, since they're least prone to air bubbles). The toothpick thing sounds way too time consuming for high volume production...

JB Prince has good prices on basic molds - many of theirs are $20 each. http://store.webstorepackage.com/jbprince/...olate-molds.asp Because I specialize in decorative effects, I like molds that have flat surfaces instead of a lot of details, so I can play with different effects. And so that it's the decorative effect instead of the shape that gets tied to the flavor. I have some molds that are so distinctive, I feel like I can only use them for one flavor. A basic dome mold is a good canvas for decoration: http://store.webstorepackage.com/jbprince/...32-cavities.asp The geodesic dome molds produces very impressive looking pieces, just because of all the angles. And - bonus - you get 40 pieces from the mold instead of the standard 24 or 32. http://store.webstorepackage.com/jbprince/...40-cavities.asp I like my flat top pyramids, but those corners are a bear, I can never get all the bubbles out! http://store.webstorepackage.com/jbprince/...32-cavities.asp

This cream is from a local dairy, and not UHT pasteurized. So it doesn't tend to last much past its dates.

The main difference is that it is held in October and not November. And there's much less focus on watching football. The food traditions are largely similar. Here's the wikipedia entry on Canadian Thanksgiving. I found it quite informative, as if I was taught anything in grade school about the origins, I'd forgotten it all!

Moderator's Note: This post and the following 7 were moved from the Candy and Confectionery Conference topic in the Pastry & Baking Forum. Lior - I guessed green with envy right away! Yep, I'm Canadian. Although I've lived in Ann Arbor for 11 years now, so I'm not very *actively* Canadian... But I cooked Canadian Thanksgiving dinner last week for 67 people in my cohousing community, so that ought to count for something...

I forgot it in the fridge of the kitchen I work at. But that's okay, because I haven't had a minute to do anything with it yet! I believe my best before was 10/26, so I'm going to retrieve it tonight and make your hot fudge sauce. Then, if I'm feeling really ambitious, I may try to make a small batch of that strawberry buttercream recipe from the confection class thread. Or I'll experiment with a caramel or something to fill some chocolate bar molds i've got poured and haven't done anything with yet.

That sounds delicious! I should be able to find something to do with hot fudge sauce...

I miscalculated and overbought this weekend, so now I have a pint of organic cream that's going to go bad real soon if I don't do something with it. I'm going to look through my confection books and see if there's something I've been meaning to try, but in the meantime, I thought I'd ask here. Anyone have an interesting caramel recipe, or some other kind of interesting confection that uses cream? I have some bar molds poured and could put something in them. I'm not particularly interested in ganache today - looking to try/learn something new. Thanks!

Can someone remind me what frappe is (from the strawberry buttercream recipe)? i have a bunch of cream leftover from miscalculating my weekends production, and thought i might use it for some experimentation...

Tapawingo in Ellsworth, MI has had weekend long cooking classes. I've never been, but from the description they might be a great fit for your hubby. Unfortunately, that part of their website is broken right now, but you should give them a call and see what they have available. http://www.tapawingo.net/

Was this a flavor you've done before and been able to keep that long? One thing that will lead to faster molding is incorporating too much air into the ganache.

For airbrushing, you will want your cocoa butter to be hotter than 31C - it can be above the temper range, as it will temper when it aerosolizes (is that a word?). It needs to be quite liquid for airbrushing. And as the previous poster indicated, you should also check to make sure nothing is clogged, and play around with your height adjustment.