[Melanger experimentation]

There were some "residue" at the sides of the melanger that looked like pure fat. But I think you're right. It's more just thick and weird in texture rather than separated, so it probably is the humidity. Seriously, for the first time in my life I'm starting to hate the summer, can't do chocolate work, can't make a praliné? Can't wait for normal weather.

 

Yes. Hazelnuts and caramelised sugar.  

 

Edit: I guess I can use this though, it's supposed to go in a mousse. No need to throw it away.

[Melanger experimentation]

This is a new one. I made a praliné, it was close to being perfectly smooth and in great consistency.

 

I thought; "let's run this for a few more hours, I want it to be smoooooth."

 

I go back to the kitchen, only to be greeted by a thick paste. I guess it somehow got separated? My two guesses are 1) it got too warm or 2) humidity got the best out of it. I'm thinking too warm since the melanger seems to run a little bit hotter than regular with this crazy weather.

 

Do you guys think I'm right?

[Opening a shop - dos & don'ts]

Sounds like this will be quite an interesting thread! I'm thinking about trying to do some online sales as well. We'll see how that goes hah. I can't even make anything at all due to the heat now, but I'm trying to plan some.

['Ruby' the Fourth Chocolate frontier?]

I'm with you. I would gladly play around with it, will likely buy som when the 2,5 kg bag is available.

[EZtemper - The Help You Need to Achieve Perfectly Tempered Chocolate FAST!]

Haha, that's how I do it with the colors as well. Although much smaller containers since I wouldn't be able to fit many of that size in my small little "melter" or whatever it's called. 

[Custard creme recipe with powdered cream(?)]

I instantly thought "okay, I need cream powder for this," when I read the recipe without thinking that it was missing some kind of ingredient to actually make it a custard.  

 

A search on Google for poudre à crème, shows you a product that looks very similar to the custard mixes you can find out there.

[Custard creme recipe with powdered cream(?)]

Thank you Teo! Very helpful.

 

This is like a "base recipe" which the mousseline recipe refers to in the book. 

 

The full recipe calls for 550 gram of this base recipe, with 50 gram hazelnut praliné 50%, 50 gram hazelnut paste and 250 gram butter.

 

Based on what you wrote here and earlier, I think the translation is pretty awful to be honest, there are some parts in descriptions that really don't make much sense either. Or maybe it's just me not being a native English speaker.  

[Custard creme recipe with powdered cream(?)]

I found some from Amazon Germany now when I searched there. Bought earlier but it ended up being that vegetable fat mix thing. This seems to be 100 percent cream powder though. Might be stupid, but whenever I try a recipe I really want to use what's in there if possible. You know, to get as close as possible to the product made by the author.  

[Custard creme recipe with powdered cream(?)]

I'm following a recipe in a book by Stéphane Leroux (Praliné) and it calls for a "custard cream for mousseline". All good so far, but when I start reading the ingredients list for this it asks for powdered cream, what the hell?  I've seen this online, but it seems to mostly be some kind of vegetable fat mix, and I have no idea if that is what was used for this, or some very specific product.

 

Recipe;

 

1000 ml milk

1 vanilla bean

125 gram granulated sugar

250 gram egg yolks

100 gram granulated sugar

100 gram powdered cream (to be used warm)

 

Heat the milk with the split vanilla stick and 125 gam of the sugar in a saucepan. Mix the egg yolks with the 100 gram of granulated sugar and the powdered cream in a mixing bowl. Pour part of the hot milk onto this mixture and return everything to the saucepan. Whisk the mixture until boiling point is reached. Pour the mixture onto a tray covered with plastic wrap. over the surface of the custard cream with a plastic wrap and cool rapidly.

 

Anyone know more about powdered cream? Anything I can use for a substitute? Should I look for another recipe for this custard cream for mousseline, whatever that now might be? Anyone with any experience here?

[EZtemper - The Help You Need to Achieve Perfectly Tempered Chocolate FAST!]

1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:

 

I'd like to see their finished product.  Dish machines don't always get into every crevice and corner where CB can hide.  I would still polish.

 

 

I'm just thinking that the dish washer could create small scratches in the mold.

[Gianduja: The Topic]

7 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

But it’s not  praline at the first tempering step - it’s whole nuts in chocolate as I read it.



 

That's my fault, I didn't write _everything_. It includes the whole roast and mix with sugar part. Maybe it makes more sense for my questions when you know this?

 

3 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

 

I agree, skip a step by grinding your nuts & sugar smooth, add purchased chocolate and temper only once.

 

I think I'll go with that.

[Gianduja: The Topic]

1 minute ago, Kerry Beal said:

I think the step that would differ would be to replace 'pass through the grinder' with melange in the melanger. So there would still be two tempering steps.

 

When I temper gianduja the traditional way - I melt, then cool down to 24º C, then heat back up again to around 28º C.

 

 

 

Hmm. Yeah, but... I wonder why you would do it twice though? If my praliné already is super smooth. I mean, the chocolate should be pretty smooth already as well. 

[Gianduja: The Topic]

I'll ask a question here as well. Reading a recipe by Leroux, where I'm not sure exactly what he mean.

 

Any ideas?

 

1. Roast nuts, mix with sugar

2. Mix with melted chocolate and add cocoa butter, temper at 28°

3. Pour onto tray and allow to crystallize.

4. Pass through the grinder

5. Temper once more at 28°

 

He mentions that you need to use a grinder or a "ball bearing refiner" to achieve maximum level of smoothness. I guess that if you run it through a melanger at the beginning to make the praliné, you really wouldn't need to temper twice, or what do  you guys say? I've never tempered a gianduja before, what's the idea here? Make sure that it's heated to 45 degrees and just table it till 28 degrees? Or are there more steps? 🤔

[making our own couverture]

It's not time well spent making your own chocolate. Just like most people don't make their own praliné. You buy quality products instead.

 

They probably teach the history of chocolate etc in schools. When you read books about chocolate, it's thoroughly explained how it's made, it's just that most people can't be bothered with it. Just like I don't make my own beer, because it's easier to buy it.

[Pistachio paste]

Wow, I'm not sure if the ones I get are real Bronte pistachios after what Teo said and was written here as well, but the price I got incl taxes are 58 dollars. A little bit better.

 

Regarding pumpkin seeds, perhaps? But maybe the texture will be off? Try.  

[Question about a Wybauw ingredient/term]

You can source pistachio paste and amazing nuts from Bronte via aromasicilia.com - I'm quite sure that shipping will be really expensive, but you have the option.

 

I bought a kilo a few months back, most expensive thing I've ever bought except that bag of Tahitian vanilla beans. But that speaks for itself. 😭

[Question about a Wybauw ingredient/term]

From what I've been told when asking people, sometimes you add almond to pistachio products because it's so much cheaper.

 

A nut paste ought to be 100 percen nuts, and nothing else.

 

Paste = 100% nuts. I've never seen anything with milk in it so far. But I'm a novice.  

Praliné = 50 percent nuts / 50 percent sugar. You can have a higher ratio of nuts if you'd like to. Like 60/40. According to the old school, a praliné can be 1) hazelnut or 2) almond or 3) a mix, if you use other nuts the nut used should be prefixed to praliné, as a pistachio praliné, peanut praliné etc.

[Yuzu crémeux - boil or not?]

1 minute ago, Shalmanese said:

certain coagulation inhibitors can cause eggs to remain fluid even at boiling temperatures. Pastry cream, for example, uses cornstarch to keep eggs from scrambling even after being boiled for several minutes (which is required to deactivate the amylase enzyme). Sugar, water, starches & acids all inhibit coagulation and require you to bring the mixture to a higher temperature before gelling compared to plain eggs.

 

That's interesting, thanks.

[Yuzu crémeux - boil or not?]

9 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

If there is enough acid, you can boil it without it scrambling.  You probably still want to strain out any little bits that may occur, but I have brought lemon-curd type mixtures to a boil without issue. 

 

As for gelatin, if you have leaves then weigh them and see if that number makes sense.  I have bronze leaves, not at my kitchen right now so I can't weigh them, but I'd guess 4 or 5 grams per leaf?  What type(s) of gelatin do you have available?

 

Thanks. Didn't know that. How can one know if there's enough acid? 🤔

 

I have sheets, platinum type. Weighing the sheets doesn't work, from what I've been told. Since a bronze one weights a lot more than the platinum one. You should think like "a bronze one is 5 grams. 20 grams in total which means 4 sheets, which should also be around 4 sheets of platinum." Not sure if that works over the whole chart, but I've learnt that at least.

 

9 hours ago, gfron1 said:

BTW, this is a huge pet peeve of mine with professional recipes. Be clear on your gelatin, cream, butter %, etc. 

 

4 vanilla beans?! That is an expensive recipe.  And I agree with you, how hard can it be to let the readers know that it's gold sheets in use or mass. Reading So Good.. magazine, you can easily see things like here. 10 grams of gelatin, and you stand there with a question mark over your head. Chefs like Coppel are always clear with what they're using though. 

 

2 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

For the gelatin, that'll be the weight in powder or sheets - it comes to 1.49% of the total recipe weight.  Both forms are essentially identical, and you generally want it to be somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5% of the weight, depending on other thickeners, consistency, etc.

  

It should be fine to bring it to the boil.  Just do as @pastrygirl recommends and strain it out.  I'd recommend hitting it with a stick blender as well when you incorporate the butter.

 

That's an interesting approach! Looking at the percentage of the total. A chef once told me to use 8 sheets per liter of liquid, and that would make a good mousse. This is not a mousse though.  

[Chocolates with that Showroom Finish, 2012 –]

Something like that, but this pattern is more like cracks in the cocoa butter, right? Not sure if just blowing air would give you that? 

[Yuzu crémeux - boil or not?]

I was looking for a yuzu crémeux recipe and found one at callebaut.com (https://www.callebaut.com/en-OC/chocolate-recipe/1357/yuzu-and-white-chocolate-cream-cake)

 

There's one things I find interesting with this recipe, and that is that I should bring eggs, puré, water and sugar to a boil. Do they really mean this? Or is the idea that I should bring it to 82-84 degrees and that's the boil? Or is it sometime safe to bring eggs to the boiling point in certain mixtures? From what I've learned so far is that you never want to boil eggs, to avoid getting a "omelette".

 

Bonus question: recipe calls for 25 grams of gelatin, but it doesn't say what kind of gelatin. Does anyone have any idea what kind of gelatin that are normally used in Callebaut recipes? I guess it's not gelatin mass since they want you to "soften it in cold water".

[Chocolates with that Showroom Finish, 2012 –]

What kind of advice? Looks great and shiny. 

[Chocolate brands - What's good and bad?]

1 minute ago, paulraphael said:

 

Did you try any of their Grand Cru single origins? I haven't had these, but suspect that if Valrhona's making anything it amazing, you'd find it there. 

  

Valrhona made its name with blends like manjari and guanaja, which are less amazing than solid and balanced. They make these with complete consistency and predictable functional qualities, so pastry chefs can buy them year after year and know exactly how they'll behave. Artisanal chocolates are getting more like wine from a particular vintage that won't ever be exactly replicated. 

 

The ones I got sent to me were Nyangbo, Andoa and Guanaja. Well, I can appreciate always knowing what I will get, so I can understand that part.  

[Commercial kitchen for chocolate production - temperature challenges]

Anyone running a chocolate/pastry business that could tell me how much electricity you use per month? I'm thinking like if you have a smaller kitchen with a oven, a couple of fridges and freezers. We use kWh in Europe, not sure if it's measured the same way in North America? PM works if you don't want to mention things like that publicly.  

[Chocolate brands - What's good and bad?]

Tried three different varieties from Valrhona I hadn't tried earlier. Nothing amazing to be honest. I've tried four dark chocolates from Valrhona and Manjari is my favorite one out of those four.

 

Did get some samples of the passion fruit, strawberry and almond "chocolate". Really interesting actually, you get that chocolate texture with the fruity flavor. I'll probably grab a bag of passion fruit next time I order something. Now I want to try the yuzu and raspberry ones that come out in September.