
Rajala
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Everything posted by Rajala
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I made a ganache with 200 grams of white chocolate (37% cocoa butter, overall fat content at 44%), 100 grams of cream (36% fat), 20 gram of glucose (around DE 40), 18 grams of sorbitol and 15 grams of invert sugar (yeah, this came out sweet.) I've been using these ratios with milk and dark chocolates getting a great result in terms of texture - but this white chocolate ganache becomes so soft I can't cap the bonbons. Any suggestions on how to balance it? I tried adding some extra cocoa butter, but the texture ended up a little grainy - maybe I didn't emulsify it enough though. Maybe just a bit of less cream is the way to go? But how much less? I made a test with the same chocolate and just cream. No sugars added and it's still a little soft in room temperature, but not as soft. Maybe I've just forgotten that white chocolate ganaches are really soft? 😂
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Molded and Filled Chocolates: Troubleshooting and Techniques
Rajala replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Look at this shell, do you see how there's a difference in the shade of brown? Look a few millimeters below the reflected spotlight -
Molded and Filled Chocolates: Troubleshooting and Techniques
Rajala replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Strange this. But as @Muscadelle is writing, it's probably not tempered well enough. But if it isn't, how come some of them contract? Is it that I need to keep it at the end temperature for a bit longer to ensure that most crystals have melted away? I'm using CW1217 - 30 mm diameter hemispheres. The most simple mold of them all? Well with that said, I'm going to try again today in an hour or two when my brain has awoken. This time without heating the molds. Just to see if there's a difference. The reason I'm trying to heating the molds is just to play around, see if there will be less marks on them. Greweling is writing about "uneven cooling spots," and that unheated molds can cause that. -
Molded and Filled Chocolates: Troubleshooting and Techniques
Rajala replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
So, I spent the night reading all posts in this thread, maybe skimming a few text heavy posts. My question and what I want to talk about, might have been answered elsewhere. But due to my so-so English skills, I really don't find anything good while searching the forum. Please point my in the right direction if you know where I could find an answer. I've been experimenting with getting my kitchen temperature down to 20°, which works fine, humidity is at around 40% or sometimes hitting high 30s. Which I guess should be fine - if there aren't any issues related with too low humidity that I'm not aware of. The issue I have is that multiple shells really don't contract from my mold at the moment, and I have no idea why - it's not like they're all in the same spots, they can be all over the mold. I've made two tests today with dark chocolate (Cacao Barry Extra Bitter Guayaquil - I had to google that ). With one test I heated up the mold to around 25° before pouring chocolate in the mold, and letting it set in room temperature (20°) - around half of the 21 shells contracted from the mold. With the other test I begun with the same process, but I let the chocolate set in my chocolate fridge at 16°. In this case, only 6 of the shells have contracted as they've cooled down. What do you think? I must also say that earlier I just haven't cared about the temperature in the room. It have been at around 22-23°. Can it be that I don't agitate the chocolate enough while tempering it on my counter top? That it cools down much faster with less movement, due to the lower temperature? Should I don't bother with heating the molds? I'm thinking that maybe the chocolate I'm using also have done all the heavy lifting it can do - it's a 5 kg bag I've used for a while and re-tempered many times. Maybe a few too many? People usually state that chocolate can be re-tempered "forever" (okay, I might be reaching,) but maybe there is a limit after all? Well, I'm going to try some more tomorrow without heating up the mold. Just to see if I get a different result. If I still have problems, I think it's time to open a new bag of chocolate. You may ask why I even do this when it worked earlier? Well, I just want to try other things I guess - also since people say that 20° is the temperature to work at. 😁 -
Some of them tiny, some of them larger. I had probably twice the normal opening on the piping bag. I think one just need to work on the technique.
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Haha crisis problems. That's what you get with chocolate quite often, right?
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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. 😛
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Thank you!
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Ah, got it. My mistake. I never realized gingerbread was just the soft one. We call the "cookies" pepparkaka, and if we make a soft one, it's prefixed by mjuk (soft). Mjuk pepparkaka.
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Yeah, kind of. Gingerbread in Sweden is a little bit different from what you have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_snap Check the Scandinavian part there. But those become the crispy element.
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Well of course! 1. A caramel with gingerbread spices. I make a wet caramel which I deglaze with cream that I heated up together with the spices 2. A ganache made out of Valrhona's Orizaba and again gingerbread spices for the cream. 3. A crispy layer with same chocolate, ghee, coconut oil, gingerbread pieces and some sea salt
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I bet they taste amazing. I want to to this, but I never get it to work. I can't view the recipe either due to geoblocking. I get sent to the UK site.
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Since I made some bonbons for the first time in a couple of months, I need to post them here! Gingerbread bonbons
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Making chocolate bars - type of chocolate to use and inclusions
Rajala replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
No, I don't think I've ever seen that brand around here actually. 😮 -
Making chocolate bars - type of chocolate to use and inclusions
Rajala replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Madirofolo is lovely. It's one of my favourite dark chocolates. Can't go wrong with that. -
I can't see that you'll notice any difference for a few months at least. And they have a best before date on their bags if I don't remember it wrong. Not like a "use before" date or whatever. We have two different dates here, where one is just a recommendation where as the other type of date needs to be strictly followed.
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Seems like you need to pay a hefty extra for Valrhona, by living in the USA.
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I'm not sure why each vendor gotta make up their own tempering instructions. Really stupid. I do it almost as Bentley, but Coppel have updated her methods a bit. Probably after meeting Dubovik. I go 45° > 26° > 29°. I tried it after watching a video. Better shine than ever, but it might also be might little chocolate fridge helping. Can't say for sure.
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Spraying Chocolate: Equipment, Materials, and Techniques
Rajala replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Nice. Whenever, if ever, I get my own place for pastry and chocolate, I'll definitely get one of those incubators. Must be so nice when it's ready to go. -
I've been trying like 10 times, and it always break for me. I'm using Greweling's recipe. 10 times is probably not much, but I never feel like I get close - so it's a bit annoying. But I guess I need to keep trying and trying. That recipe is not really butterfingers, but the technique is the same. Leaf croquant. Do you know which recipe I'm talking about, if not - I'll get the book.
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I reached out to that university, but wasn't really the place for it. Hmm, I guess I gotta keep trying and trying more. Maybe I'll manage some day.
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I really can't succeed with this. Would love to go on a course where this is on the agenda, but I think it would be hard to find? The question is really; do you guys know anywhere where I can learn this technique?
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Help with dark chocolate fudge and fruit caramel recipes
Rajala replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
I'm getting a delivery of 2 kgs tomorrow, so I'll try that as well. It's the wild ones. The REAL blueberries. Those weird large American "blueberries" are trash compared to these. Sorry guys. -
Help with dark chocolate fudge and fruit caramel recipes
Rajala replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Thanks both of you! I'll check Wybauw and try that, and also try to go just to 107° as well with less cream. At 115°, it feels like I have a part for a filling of a future blueberry and lemon bar, or something.