TheLastOfUs

Wow, imagine my surprise when Kerry Beal, Jim D, pastry girl and Jo all reply to my question. I felt like it's the Avengers assembling! I have contacted each of you individually in different posts before for your wisdoms so this is quite the pleasant surprise 😁 Admittedly - I myself have limited workings with chocolate - but yesterday I decided to pick up some old chocolate I forgot about and temper it. I did some chocolate writing (yikes looked like a serial killer wrote it...lol) and added chocolate to those hexagonal diamond looking polycarb molds (I have just 1) to test it out. First of all - surprising that untempered chocolate can snap in the fridge...in the past this definitely has been something I have been guilty of thinking it "passed." Ironically - the temper test I did at room temp this time - and it set up matte and looked glossy under the light at an angle - but I'm not sure if it's supposed to "snap" right away? How long does one wait for a "snap" to check if "in temper"? I ended up adding the chocolate from the molds admittedly into a 55-60F +/-1F cooler for 30 mins as opposed to 78F room temp (I believe after 2 mins of molding which may have been my mistake). Tried to unmold - didn't pop out. 1 hour. Took them out - Banged on the mold hard...nothing. Noticed that there's little water droplets forming on the chocolate. Realized from one of Kerrys posts that I quite frankly don't understand about "Dew point" that I'm sugar-bloom screwed. lol. Some say to preheat molds..others say keep it cool. Mine were just room temp...not sure what the deal is on mold temperature before molding. I was attempting to pop out the chocolates with JUST the top shell - not the entire thing like a solid piece. It may help if I get a hygrometer or something that can measure my RH levels so I can see how "cool" I can make my chocolate....some people say you can leave molds in the fridge...but I'm not too sure....I'm assuming if that's possible - you may need a dehydrator or something to allow them to come back up to room temperature without condensating with water in some form... Not sure why it didn't come out the mold....but I didn't polish them off before use other than with a paper towel ...not even sure HOW to properly do that. Just rub it incessantly with cotton? I don't use cocoa butter for color - I was attempting straight chocolate from the mold...

Hi Kerry What about when you put the molds in the fridge for "latent heat of crystallization." Why would testing temper in a fridge be bad, when molded chocolate can go into a fridge for 15 minutes, etc. as I recall from your past posts? The biggest issue I have as someone without a fancy chocolate tempering machine is while I'm waiting for the chocolate (mostly milk) to set up - the batch gets too cool........how does one manage this? It's always such a struggle. Thank you for the clarification in advance

Pm me that plz.

Any technique WITHOUT GELATIN? A restaurant I know makes it without the oven in a double boiler without gelatin.

I used 4 egg yolks - a lot of sugar - about 3 cups of heavy cream + 1/2 cup of milk and mixed it all together. I set it in the fridge without corn flour after heating it to 175 degrees C according to Modernist Cuisine and Custards in Vol 4. It was very nice - tasted great but was runny. I feel if I set it around 5-6 hours - it would be great..but 5-6 is long. Also I notice that oven-made creme brulees do not have a creamy custard texture...rather silky...which is something that I'm trying to go opposite of towards a richer cream texture.

Okay ...so I attempted Creme Brulee (stove top) roughly 3 times. The first attempt was awful...horrible proportions of ingredients..used corn starch badly...and was gloop. 2nd attempt - no corn starch, stove top (I heated to a simmer the heavy cream and the egg yolk mixture) and it did not "split" in my opinion..but stove-top ends up tasting a little egg-yolky. I thought - I put it in the fridge for 1 hour..and it chilled decently (was definitely runny like sauce) but the top set...the taste of the egg yolks died down - and it was DELICIOUS but NOT rich and creamy texture. How does one make creme brulee without an oven? I tried making it at an oven - I've eaten oven made ones at restaurants and bistros..and they just lack a certain smooth rich texture than this Bistro 33 place I ate at in Sacramento - which makes theirs using stove-top. Can anyone let me know how to make a killer Creme Brulee with fast chill times? I have tried using a freezer..but that freezes the cream and crystallizes than actually "chilling" it and allowing it to "Set slowly" I am uncertain of the CHEMISTRY behind FREEZING vs Chilling.