EsaK
-
Posts
116 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by EsaK
-
-
11 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:
Yeah, I was never really tempted towards getting into panning because of the expense of the machine. Then I started following the panning discussions here and discovered the expense of the machine was the least of the difficulties involved. 😆
Yup.. Part of me thinks "how hard can it be...", while another part is screaming "STAY AWAY!!!" 🙄
Though, it sort of seems like if you skip the polishing part and accept that there'll be doubles and ones that look something other than uniformly round, that it COULD be doable!
-
1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:
If you don't have cold air to blow - you'll need dry ice. If you don't cool the entire contents of the pan will just stick to the sides - it's not pretty - ask me how I know!
You will likely spin everything at the same speed - but it's easy enough to run the plug through a rheostat and turn down the speed that way.
Thanks Kerry! I was going to write initially that dry ice isn't likely a solution this time, as that seems pretty difficult to get your hands on over here at small amounts.
Need to think about ways of rigging the cooling air somehow then, not sure it's worth thousands of euros to have that from the factory..
-
I've read these threads about panning, and I'm wondering how essential is the availability of blowed cold air? If you decide that you don't need to get into polished items, but only covering with chocolate and then perhaps some powder if wanted, but no polish. Do you then still need the cold air? Can you work around needing that by starting with fridge temp 0-5C or for example 10-15C temperature items that you want to coat? Or does that result in big lumps when you pour in warm choc or some other issues like having to fridge them between coatings? I'm not sure if I'd be handy enough to make some workaround for the cold air, which is why I'm asking for the importance of it (as models with cooling air seem to cost almost double as those without).
Also, is speed regulator a crucial feature? 🤔
-
Can't remember if it has been exactly that, but I've gotten something along those lines a few times. Though unplugging once has worked for me. Have no idea what the reasons behind that error may be.
-
@pastrygirl and @Tri2Cook, and whoever else might be using CW2295, are you having problems getting release marks on your chocolates? I don't have particular issues in unmolding either, but I do have a pretty consistent issue of release marks. You can see them especially well if you look at the empty mould against light, clearly shows the small areas of "grey". I'm not implying it's the mould's fault by the way, it very likely is not... 🙄
-
On 8/13/2020 at 10:01 PM, sbain said:
I'm looking at both the 5kg and 11kg ICB machines. TCF offers them for $6,875 and $8,215 respectively. Surprisingly they are close to the same size (both tabletop machines, which I like, and just a few inches difference in dimensions). The advantage of the 11kg is that there is an enrobing attachment if I ever go that route. Honestly I think a 5kg machine might be enough for me (I am only doing small-batch production so far). I'd still love to talk to a person who has actually used one of the ICB Chocotemper machines before I make a purchase. Anyone know someone who has some hands-on experience with one?
@sbain Did you ever get a ICB Chocotemper? Would also be curious to hear what kind of issues there are in general or especially with these machines that @Kerry Beal was referring to? Is there a significant difference between for example a Selmi (or some other brand that has tabletop ones) and a ICB machine?
-
Probably dumb questions, but could you use a Pacojet to make ice cream and then place it into a holding container and serve (i.e. be scoopable) from one of those ice cream parlour "cold desks"? I think those operate around -18C (at least some), though I wouldn't wonder if it's quite a bit less in reality and normal operation? But does Pacojet ice cream work well if served from that kind of temperature after it's been held there for whatever time? Can you make recipes in PJ that work in that kind of environment? The fine dining setup is different as @teonzo has talked, and one would likely be best served with a good freezer and a real ice cream machine, but if there's an opportunity to get a PJ on the cheap...
-
8 hours ago, Jim D. said:
You bring up the issue I encountered when I tried to make a pipeable cookie layer (rather than inserting an actual cookie and surrounding it with something to keep it crisp). I ground up cookies and added chocolate (I tried various chocolates as well as cocoa butter), and it worked in terms of being pipeable and being much better at filling up the cavity without leaving gaps, BUT the layer was no longer crisp. I know of a chocolatier who regularly makes a pipeable layer of ground graham crackers for a cheesecake bonbon, but I had no success with it at all.
I remember reading about those adventures Jim, and thinking that cookie layers inside bonbons wasn't something I was gonna do. But when you see things done, you kind of need to try yourself too. Oh well.
When you ground up the cookies, did you have any "bigger than sand" pieces left? Just wondering if that was why it wasn't crispy, or what did you think? Getting your cookies or whatever you're using ground up so that it's not all sand but some more distinct pieces, but still small enough to allow levelling into a small layer, is something I imagine is not as easy as one would hope. Or am I assuming wrong? 🤔
-
9 hours ago, Rajala said:
Yeah, that was the whole idea with it and combining clarified butter and coconut oil. Here's the recipe for the crispy part. You'll have to translate it. 😛
Many thanks Rajala! Swedish being the second language here I guess I should've been able to fully understand that but I admit going for Google Translate for some parts. (Which turned out funny as krisplager translated into crisis problems. I guess getting crispy things inside chocolates can turn into crisis!)
-
1
-
-
11 hours ago, Rajala said:
3. A crispy layer with same chocolate, ghee, coconut oil, gingerbread pieces and some sea salt
Did you manage to make that layer pipeable and self-leveling, so that it's easy to cap? I'd think that's possible to do when putting enough fat to the cookie part. Though that makes me wonder how crispy the crispy is then. 🤔 Need to test some..
-
On 12/30/2019 at 5:21 PM, Max Q said:
Since I've checked the probe and I know it's accurate, the only answer that I can come up with is that the pan sensor is significantly under-reading the pan temperature, and by an amount which depends on the pan construction.
I'd be interested to know if anyone else has seen this as right now it's hard to see a reason not to return it.
I'm not sure if @Max Q is actively on eGullet, but I got the same UK model this week and experienced exact same thing. For example heating water to 60C on whichever speed setting on pan temp control. Pan temp reads 60C, while probe (which I checked with Thermapen) said 68-69C. Software version is 5 27 in mine, same as someone else had in this thread. I wonder if anyone else had to return theirs and what was the end result of that?
-
1 minute ago, ElsieD said:
What is a GN pan?
Standardised sizes of pans made of stainless steel (18/10 I think usually), different plastics etc. I don't know if these are used in the US, but at least in Europe these are the standard that the food industry uses.
Many thanks for doing a trial @jbates, looking forward to hearing what you find!
-
1
-
-
12 hours ago, CanadianHomeChef said:
The manual states a maximum bottom surface of 10" in diameter. The induction coils aren't this thick so it does count on your pans having good conductivity. You can also go larger, but then good conductivity starts mattering more and more if you want to heave as even heat as possible across the pan.Thanks @CanadianHomeChef! So the rim (or is there not a rim at all, hard to see from any video/photo?) as pointed out in the below screenshot, shouldn't be an issue? I mean if a pan goes beyond the rim, it should still get contact and heat?
Quickly checking Modernist Cuisine, I suppose GN pans aren't the greatest conductors with their relative thinness, when comparing to for example regular frying pans. Would be curious to hear still if anyone has used GN pans on their Control Freak.
-
After browsing the 23 pages and without much experience with induction cooktops, I wondered if it's possible to use the Control Freak with standard GN/Gastro-Norm Stainless Steel trays? I also couldn't find the exact size of the heating area, can anyone help with that? I'm wondering if it would be possible to use a 32.5 x 26.5 cm (12.8" x 10.4") GN 1/2 tray on it (I think it wouldn't matter if a few centimeters from the edges would be out of range, assuming there aren't edges that lift the whole thing too high to be in proper contact at all?)
-
10 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:
@EsaK I’m curious what these liquid oil colors are designed for. Is there any description or suggested use on the packaging? They might be meant for coloring hard candy or glazes rather than chocolate. Can you post a pic or link?
They're from Chocolate World, see here. They say "suitable for intense colouring of fat masses", specifying cocoa butter and white chocolate. Either the ones I received were "Monday pieces" (I'm quite sure the yellow one is actually, as it's completely useless as the colour pigments have broken from the oil) or these are not really that great with CB or chocolate. Nor would I say that these give intense colouring. When you put more of the colouring to make it moro intense, you get to the negative effects of having higher proportion of rapeseed oil to CB.
I'm very curious to hear if anyone else has used these with better success!
-
1
-
-
On 5/22/2020 at 8:12 AM, EsaK said:
Thanks for all the replies and thoughts everyone! I shall investigate the temps of the CCBs more closely.
The CW colors are not solid at room temp but liquid, since they are mostly rapeseed oil. For example yellow has rapeseed oil, coloring E100, thickener E1520 and soy lecithin as emulsifier.
With this limited experience, I wouldn't really recommend these CW liposoluble colors to anyone. Much better choices out there, and you don't really seem to gain anything by going with these I'm afraid.
It's starting to feel more like @pastrygirl had the correct hunch. I'll ask the manufacturer and see what they'll say. I also got some powdered white from Pavoni. Mixed it with cocoa butter and painted some molds yesterday. Much more vivid color and none of those circles.
-
1
-
-
20 hours ago, Jim D. said:
Last time I thought I had figured peach out (bought tree-ripe peaches and roasted them, sought out a peach liqueur--which by itself was delicious, purchased a "peach nectar" that had spectacular Amazon reviews, and got some dried peaches), I ended up adding some apricot at the last minute to provide some flavor. So you will understand that I look forward to your experiments. I am surprised pectin is difficult to find. Aren't jams and jellies made in Finland? You may have to make your own pectin. That will test your dedication to this endeavor!
Jim, you've really taken testing to a whole another level 😄I'll see what I can do but as said, please don't hold your breath. I wouldn't bet on myself being able to solve the peach PdF matter.
Jams and jellies are made here, sure, but I guess people use something else to make them? Grocery stores for example carry pouches, some of which have carrageenan, some xanthan etc as the jellying or jamming agent. There's also one that has pectin, but it also has already sugar, apple acid, natrium benzoate and benzoate-acid in it. I think I'll just order it online sometime so I get pure pectin and don't have to guess the amounts.
A simple agar "PdF" made with peach puree, little dextrose and lime juice already shows that you need something to punch up the peach flavor, as Jim and Kerry suggest.
-
7 hours ago, curls said:
As Jim and others have noted, peach can be a very subtle flavor. I tried a peach pdf once, it didn’t taste very peachy. I tend to use other fruits for pdf. Now I just eat peaches or if I have a lot of them, I make peach preserves. But definitely experiment, perhaps you will figure this out. It would be great to have a tasty peach pdf!
Yep, I'm not expecting much from the peach PdF, but one reason to try to reduce sweetness is to see whether even the more subtle fruits could work better. Unlikely that I'll figure this out! Pectin seems to be very hard to find over here so we'll see when I get to that experiment, but will report back nonetheless!
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, curls said:
The shelf life of pdf made with sucrose is very good. @EsaK what sort of shelf life are you looking for on your pdf? Are you enrobing it in chocolate, coating it in sugar, or using it in some other way? I am very happy with the pdf’s I have made based on Notter’s recipes and have not used dextrose or sorbitol. I do add tartaric acid to bring out the fruit flavor & cut the sweetness.
I don't have anything specific in mind, thought the readings given by @Jim D. earlier in this thread made me hesitant, when combined with the willingness to try make something more fruity and less sugary tasting. If it's possible to achieve a PdF like candy that tastes much fruitier, uses less sugar and has the same or better shelf life is interesting.
I've got some peach puree, citric acid and dextrose. Just need to track down pectin and will expirement and see how it turns out. Thought about trying with agar but I guess that's going to be a different texture etc.
-
1 minute ago, Jim D. said:
No, I have not. I don't have any dextrose. In the U.S. I found dextrose at $6 for 500g, whereas sorbitol was $12/500g. As 500g for such a light-weight product is a large amount, the $6 difference does not have such an impact. This summer I might get some dextrose and give your idea a try, though at this point I have just about had my fill of PdF experiments! I think that in the recipes I use with added dried fruit (such as apricot, cherry, pear, mango) the dried fruit makes a substantial difference in available water.
Interesting variations in terms of availability and pricing of such a thing as sugar. Certainly understandable that you've had your fill of PdF experiments! With the sorbitol replacement and added dried fruits, were you happy with the fruit flavor and level of sweetness, or were you hoping for it to be further reduced?
-
16 minutes ago, Jim D. said:
I am no expert, but from charts I have seen, dextrose has .75 the sweetness of sucrose, whereas sorbitol has .55. Do you have an objection to using sorbitol (I used to, but don't any more since I saw so many well-known chocolatiers using it)? Why not reduce the sweetness of the PdF as much as you can while still retaining the Aw improvement contributed by a sugar? The PdF recipe posted by Pomona's (manufacturer of the pectin I prefer) calls for adding more sucrose (as in the traditional PdF recipes), but I thought of using sorbitol as a way of lowering the sweetness. Obviously (powdered) dextrose would do some of that. I don't know what would happen if you replaced even more of the sucrose with dextrose or sorbitol.
That's my understanding as well, 75% the sweetness of sucrose for dextrose. No absolute objection per se on sorbitol, though dextrose is much much easier to get and seems to be considerably more affordable. I think there may be some issues with sorbitol if added in bigger quantities too, as it's labelled as "laxative" so you may not really want too much of the stuff in a PdF. At least in Finland, if you have over 10% of sugar alcohols (which sorbitol is) in a product, you even need to say on the label that "too much use may result in laxative effects".
So my thinking was, how about replacing a larger percentage of sucrose with the stuff that is easily available, instead of a smaller percentage with stuff that is not as easily available.
You haven't happened to run any aW tests with powdered dextrose when used in PdFs?
-
Been going through this and other pate de fruit threads here. @Jim D. experiments and reports are extremely helpful and much appreciated. 🙏
I was wondering, for shelf life's sake, what would happen if you replaced for example 50% (or something along those lines, however much is needed for better shelf life) of the regular sugar with, say, dextrose? I'd think that would help with aW and shelf life, and also make it somewhat less sweet. Any gaps in that logic or something that makes it a bad idea? Obviously there are other sugars that are less sweet than regular sucrose, but I guess that'd be the first choice before going into the E-number territory.
-
Thanks for all the replies and thoughts everyone! I shall investigate the temps of the CCBs more closely.
The CW colors are not solid at room temp but liquid, since they are mostly rapeseed oil. For example yellow has rapeseed oil, coloring E100, thickener E1520 and soy lecithin as emulsifier.
With this limited experience, I wouldn't really recommend these CW liposoluble colors to anyone. Much better choices out there, and you don't really seem to gain anything by going with these I'm afraid.
-
1
-
-
Tried to find discussions on this but couldn't find, so here goes. I haven't been able to produce full molds where all 32 pieces fall out, or even close really. It's been a play between banging the mold onto a table, putting it into the fridge, flexing the mold, and then banging some more to get the pieces out.
I think it was @teonzo who has been saying that polycarbonate molds shouldn't be put into the freezer. I've avoided that to not damage the molds, but I'm wondering if it's really good to bang them onto a table either, or the bit of flexing one may do to get pieces out? Do those things really damage the molds or is it something they can handle for years?
Melanger experimentation
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Not sure if there's a baseline per se, but I think somewhere around 40% seems to be fine. Can go higher for really punchy flavours, and lower for more subtle ones. Haven't tried banana, but could imagine it being a tough one to bring out the flavour? Interested to hear if you have issues with the powder getting stuck (guessing that was the issue with corn?).