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tschaefges

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Everything posted by tschaefges

  1. Mine showed up last week and I tried it for the first time yesterday. The drum is small, but for my hobby use it should be fine. I've been wanting to try panning for a long time and the low price finally made it possible to experiment. I panned caramelized almonds in dark chocolate. They came out pretty well, but they are not polished. I found some polish and glaze at Chef Rubber that should be here in a week or so. It's clear there is quite a learning curve and very little "how to" information is available. I found this thread as I was searching for information. Experimenting will be fun and even the ugly stuff will be edible.
  2. I have this one from Etsy: Dough Sheeter Bakery Bread Cookie Pizza Pastry Dough - Etsy I use it for laminated dough and it works very well. It's limited to the length of dough you can work with, but for my home baking needs it's fine.
  3. The French Pastry School in Chicago has 3- to 5-day classes on bread as well as a 10-week professional baking program. Depending on where you live, it may be easier/cheaper than going to Vermont.
  4. The European labeling law says that cocoa solids refers to the chocolates combined weight of cocoa butter and dry cocoa particles (i.e. cocoa powder) and the label must show the percentage of dry cocoa solids. So for that purpose cocoa solids is not synonymous with cocoa powder. For labeling in Europe the equation above should be cocoa solids = cocoa butter + cocoa powder I wonder if the 1.5% difference in the cocoa solids percentage and the cocoa butter percentage on the label is because the label must show dry cocoa solids and there's a tiny amount of water in cocoa butter..
  5. The preset temperatures aren't necessarily a problem. We plug our dehydrator into a temperature controller (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V4TJR00/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1), turn the dehydrator temp as high as it will go, and let the controller turn it on and off to maintain the target temperature.
  6. A perforated pie pan might help.
  7. We use this one from California Air Tools: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G75OULG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Very quiet. No problem running it indoors.
  8. I never bother with the blender step in that recipe. I pour the hot liquid over the chocolate and stir it together, like you would do for a ganache. I've used different chocolates and cocoa powders and never had a gritty result. Have you tasted the boiled cocoa powder/water mixture before you add it to the chocolate? That might help determine if the grit is from the cocoa powder or the chocolate.
  9. Cocoa powder can work. David Lebovitz has one that uses cocoa powder as well as bittersweet chocolate and it results in a very creamy sorbet. The cocoa powder is boiled in the water. I've used this recipie a few times and it always works great. No grittiness at all. https://food52.com/recipes/17877-david-lebovitz-s-chocolate-sorbet
  10. We use a dehydrator hooked to a temperature controller (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V4TJR00/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). Turn the dehydrator to a high temp, plug it into the controller and put the temperature probe in the middle tray of the dehydrator near the cocoa butter containers. We put our airbrush in there, too. The temperature controller will turn the dehydrator on and off to maintain the set temperature. Much more flexible and accurate than the thermostat on the dehydrator. As a bonus, you can plug a small refrigerator into the controller set to cooling mode to use the fridge for chocolate work.
  11. We live in a rural area and have a 6-burner Bluestar on LP. No issues at all.
  12. We have a 6-burner Bluestar. The oven door gets a bit warm, but the handle does not. It's a great range. We've only had a couple of minor problems in the 12 years we've had it and all have been easily fixed by a local repair guy. It's a big advantage that there are no electronic parts to fail, so almost any appliance repair person can work on it.
  13. This may be the source of the original photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pastrychefantoniobachour/33421755742/in/photolist-SVnezY-RMWxvi Andrey Dubovik's Instagram feed has a photo of these chocolates from above.
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