Rajala
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Posts 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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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
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4 hours ago, Jim D. said:
I had a similar issue today with some cavities releasing the chocolates without any coaxing at all, others took banging on the counter, still others took time in the freezer. I also find this very frustrating because there seems to be no logical explanation. For what it's worth, my space was 20C, the molds were room temp, I don't heat the molds (I have tried it for caramels that tend to leak, but it seems to make no difference). All molds had been painted then sprayed with colored cocoa butter--all done at the same temp, same place, more or less same time. I don't think there is any limit to how often you can temper the same chocolate since I don't think Type V crystals know how old they are. I have not encountered an expert who said chocolate could be too old (as far as tempering it goes--taste might be another matter).
The good news was that every single chocolate eventually came out of the molds in question, with only one damaged with cocoa butter left behind in the mold. Obviously they are not contracting properly. But with some other molds every piece fell out immediately or with slight coaxing. All had been done on the same day, same chocolate, etc.
In desperation, I'm now looking at two additional factors. So could you first tell me what molds you were using? The mold that gave me the most trouble today was CW 1433 (15g dome).
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.
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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. 😁
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On 11/17/2020 at 2:56 PM, Jim D. said:
How fine were the cookie bits and how did you manage to pipe them while still leaving them large enough to have crunch? That's the question!
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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10 minutes ago, EsaK said:
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!)
Haha crisis problems. That's what you get with chocolate quite often, right?
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1 hour ago, EsaK said:
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..
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. 😛
QuoteKrisplager med pepparkakssmulor
- 100 gram Valrhona Orizaba 39%
- 8 gram kakaosmör
- 25 gram ghee (skirat smör)
- 25 gram deodoriserad kokosolja
- 75 gram pepparkakor (köpta eller hemmagjorda? du bestämmer!)
- 2 gram havssalt1. Smält chokladen med kakaosmör, ghee och kokosolja (kokosoljan kanske redan är smält om du har VARMT hemma)
2. Krossa pepparkakor till fina smulor (jag använde en mortel). Även saltet, om flingorna är stora, behöver göras lite mindre i mortel eller bara med hjälp av ens fingrar.
3. Temperera blandningen till 24°
4. Blanda choklad- och fettmassan med pepparkakssmulor och salt.
5. Spritsa ut fyllningen ovan på ganachen, när den har satt sig så att krispet inte blandas med ganache.-
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1 hour ago, SarahPorta said:
I hope it helps.
Thank you!
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6 minutes ago, Jim D. said:
That's what I was assuming. Here gingerbread is a soft cake.
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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2 minutes ago, Jim D. said:
Sounds very good. If you don't mind, I have more questions: What made the third layer crispy? Did you use something like gingersnaps ground up or ... ?
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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23 minutes ago, Jim D. said:
@Rajala, tell us what the layers are in the gingerbread filling.
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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On 10/18/2020 at 12:12 AM, Matthew.Taylor said:
First things first, here’s the link to the recipe I used for this.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pistachio-butterfiyou-know-9440781
if you guys watched the recent Good Eats Halloween special, you’ll have seen this recipe. I’m not sure if this is the right thread to put this in, but it is kind of a chocolate. I’ve wanted to find a recipe for this particular candy bar for awhile, but could never find one that didn’t involve candy corn. Mine aren’t quite as “neat” as those shown on the show, but I like them. If my math is right, there’s a total of 540 layers of sugar and nut mixture in these things.
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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On 10/17/2020 at 7:52 PM, Emily440 said:
Have you tried TCHO 70%? Also a great dark chocolate.
No, I don't think I've ever seen that brand around here actually. 😮
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On 10/13/2020 at 3:44 PM, Emily440 said:
Madirofolo
Madirofolo is lovely. It's one of my favourite dark chocolates. Can't go wrong with that.
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Just now, pastrygirl said:
The Opalys is sell by next month but it’s sealed bags so I’m risking it.
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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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.
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22 hours ago, minas6907 said:
Do you mind if I ask you how many times you have tried? What recipe are you using? It's a unique candy that has a very satisfying end result, I'd be glad to help you out.
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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On 8/21/2020 at 12:53 PM, teonzo said:
Thanks, I sent them an email.
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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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43 minutes ago, teonzo said:
You can make a jam without reaching gelification point. Throw 1000 g of blueberries and 800 g of sugar in a pot, cook until 104°C, wait until it cools and then pipe it in the shells.
I'm talking wild blueberries here, they are very small, so you can keep them whole for texture. Do not reach gelification point, they have TONS of pectin, so you would end up with a brick.
You will not get 3 month shelf life with this, but this should not be a problem in your case.Teo
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.
Valrhona Orizaba
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I've only made ganaches with it so far, but I think it's a lovely chocolate. Pretty milky and maybe plain when talking about milk chocolates? But it's not like Jivara is like a crazy stand out in taste, taking away from other parts of your product? I probably wouldn't hunt down Orizaba just for the sake of it, but can't you just order a smaller bag of it from a place who repackage, to try it out.
https://www.chocosphere.com/default/brand/t-z/valrhona/orizaba-lactee-les-feves-1kg-bag.html - like here? Not sure where you're located though.