tralfaz

@Kerry Beal I just glimpsed at your food blog. Manitoulin Isand, huh? 40+ years ago I went to a family reunion on some tiny island somewhere near Parry Sound.

I assumed that the cocoa butter used in candy making is different than the cacao butter sold in health food stores. Here's my story. I've been playing around with a white chocolate butter ganache for a friend and decided to try to cut the sweetness by substituting some cocoa butter for a small portion of the white chocolate. I picked up some organic cold pressed cacao butter at the local store thinking it couldn't be too different from the cocoa butter used. The original tiny test batch was 150 g white chocolate, and 60 g. butter, the second batch was 100 g wh. choc. with 35 g. cocoa butter and 75g. of butter. Anyway, that small amount of non-deoderized cocoa butter completely overwhelmed the flavoring I used. It tasted nice, It tasted like actual chocolate, although it's a slightly funky chocolate flavor. Anyway, back to the drawing board. Although I might think about trying this in the future as a flavoring. Lesson learned.

@Smithy Right now I'm mostly interested in southeast asian, Korean through Malaysian. I live in a small tourist town on the water. I've worked in semi "healthy" restaurants, breakfast, pizza. Nothing very exciting. I've done a little cheese mongering too. I've been doing hand dipped chocs at home for years, always willing to try any new thing. i have to check out the boutique chocolatiers wherever I go. I made my first butter ganache yesterday and now I'm experimenting with whipping it. @Kerry Beal I'm located near Seattle, just read about the workshop. I do have some vacation time I need to use. Let me think. But tell me, how did the tobacco and port turn out?

Hi, I'm a new member although I have lurked here for years. I've worked in restaurants and cafes for years, cooking and serving. I'm interested in new food experiences and I'm a home chocolate hobbyist.