Susanne Hindle Kher

Hmmmm, I hadnt considered eliminating the cream in order to add the beer straight up. Do you mind elaborating on what you mean by neutral oil? Thank you.

Best of luck to your neighbor and thanks for your support!

I live in a household of beer snobs - craft beer snobs to be precise. So there's been some pressure here for me to create beer chocolates. I completed experiment #1 yesterday and want to share for feedback and / or thoughts. I based my ganache recipe off how you'd do a fruit puree-based ganache. However, instead of adding a fruit puree, I created a "liquid" beer gel from a liquid port gel recipe I found on a molecular cooking site. Simply, this combined beer and agar agar. The gel was cooled and then pureed with an immersion blender. I had to add about twice as much beer as the recipe called for because upon pureeing, the gel broke into teensy tiny little balls of gelified beer. Not good. I had to heat/reheat and keep blending and adding beer until I got a more or less pudding like beer gel. Not terribly scientific, but the beer retained most of its flavor (I used a Founders barrel aged ale - so very strong and flavorul beer to start with). I added the beer gel to a ganache that had cream and butter and a 38% milk chocolate base. The ganache recipe I was working from also calle for glucose and invert sugar, which I'd rather leave out if using milk chocolate because the gananche turned out too sweet IMO. However, it has a nice beer flavor and is smooth. I think the beer flavor should be stronger. Next version I'll either omit or reduce the sugar and/or use a 58%ish chocolate base. Maybe also add more of the beer gel (then add more butter?). I have another experiment I'll be working on as well this weekend, and it will involve actually infusing the cream with the ingredients we'd normally use to brew a stout (chocolate malt, roasted barley, hops, etc.). It may end up tasting like a delicious bread truffle, since I can't ferment the ganache! :-) Would love to hear others' experiences or ideas. Cheers!

Thanks. I called and the Metal Supermarket quote was so inexpensive compared to finished frames I've seen online. I like the idea of taking them some chocolates - nice touch! They did ask if I preferred food grade stainless steel over aluminum - I wasn't sure which is better.

I have a feeling my dipping skills are about to vastly improve! :-) Thanks for the Metal Supermarket recommendation - I'm in Seattle and there are 2 nearby. This made my day. Thanks again.

So I've learned a big lesson, thanks to all of you. I'll be learning how to make slabbed ganache!! So far I've only made molded chocolates. Had been holding off due to cost of frames and metal bars, but I can probably improvise! Thanks again to all!

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. I will definitely follow your advice on this - it will actually simplify things for me. I would respond to each reply, but I'm new and, as such, am limited to two posts for the day.

Hi! I'm just starting out and have my first holiday bazaar coming up. Until I really figure out whether I'm any good at this (meaning will people actually pay me for my chocolates!), I have only bought one each of three molds. My question is, how do I go about making lots of the same molded chocolate if I only have one mold (16 - 24 pieces in each mold). I plan on filling the shells I create with ganache. If I let the ganache crystallize 24 hours, then it will take me days to make just one type of chocolate. Do anyone have strategies for limited molds and lots of chocolates? I'd love to hear your experiences. Thank you.