Pastrypastmidnight

Second attempt (with properly scaled ingredients) went much better. I was surprised at how difficult it was to read the refractometer. I have another one in the same style that measures lower Brix for sorbet and it’s really easy to read and use. But the fruit jelly is so thick I can really only see a range of Brix—like, the line is fuzzy so it’s maybe 73-76. Is there something I can do to get a more precise reading with a cheap refractometer or is it just something I have to live with if I don’t want to pay for digital one? Heres my refractometers with my gross pâte de fruits—eeeeew !

Word to the wise: when making pâte de fruits for the first time, don’t cut the recipe in half for everything but the sugar/pectin mixture. I mean, I’m just saying, you know, in case you were thinking about it. <face palm>

I have been trying it mostly because of a couple of Chocolate Masters hangout interviews with various chocolatiers I admire. And because the first time I tried it I created the silkiest, smoothest, shiniest ganache I had made up until that point. It worked great the first time so why not? Also, I don’t have a melter or tempering machine currently and tempering chocolate by hand separately for ganache as Greweling suggests or tabling it seems like so much extra work and mess. I like being able to use just melted chocolate. Not very scientific, but those are my reasons .

Thanks!

I’ll try that next time. This was just 1 mold worth for recipe development so I did it all by hand. Hopefully the blender will help with larger quantities. Do you use the blender from the beginning? The videos from Valrhona just showed using it at the end after the emulsion has come together.

I made my first white chocolate ganache using the Valrhona emulsion method (adding 40C cream to 35-41C melted chocolate). It was the grossest, ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. First it got grainy and lumpy and all of a sudden all of the solids completely clumped together and all of the cocoa butter separated out. I kept going as instructed and it came together as a beautiful, glossy ganache as it should, but I had to mix it so vigorously to bring it together, I think I introduced a lot of air. I’m mixing by hand. Any tips for emulsifying the ganache using this method without adding a bunch of air (small circles in the center didn’t work because at one point the mixture was very much a single lump of solids and lots of melted cocoa butter).

These were regular lemons, but I do love Meyer lemons . Thank you, @julie99nl.

You just made my whole night . Give the lemon and pepper a try—it’s really yummy! So, funny thing. I just got access to the Ecole Chocolat Graduate forum and I’m binge-reading old posts and just read, like, 3 of yours and I totally thought, “Man! I like this girl. I think we’d be friends.” Then I came over here and found your sweet comment .

Good idea!

I was pretty happy with how these turned out. I used a toothbrush and my gloved finger to flick the black, then dropped in the yellow and hit it with an air gun (still no airbrush for me). Dark chocolate ganache infused with lemon and black pepper—you know, in case the picture wasn’t self-explanatory .

Thank you for sharing all of these details @Sweet Impact Mama! These things seem so simple until you go to do them and then you realize how finicky chocolate/cocoa butter is and you discover 1,000 new challenges . Thanks again!

Those are beautiful! Do you mind sharing what style of paint brush you are using? Mine must be too stiff because they leave very sharp brush strokes that don’t give that soft, watercolor effect.

Maybe. It seems like it would be hard to get drops of that many colors in there and then hit it with the air before it crystallizes. And it seems swirly—I’m not sure if air can do that, but I’ve only dropped 1 color, sprayed, then dropped the next and sprayed. I’ll have to play around and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the idea

This is probably super simple and obvious, but how do you get this soft, kind of marbled effect?

No, I know. I’m curious how it tastes without the curry powder too

Let me know what you think. We love Indian food and I thought I’d love it, but it just tasted off to me.

That is a genius idea—letting them crystallize right side up! Thank you. These were pretty easy to clean/polish. There’s a flaw in one of the cavities so I need to contact the place that sold it to me. I just wanted to make sure it was actually showing up in the chocolate before I worried about it (which it did). But they released nicely. I just cracked it down not thinking—because that’s the only thing I’ve ever done

Did you ever try this recipe from C&C? I hated it. But my grocery store didn’t have Coco Lopez brand, it only had Coco Real. I chucked it because I thought it was so gross. Sorry—off topic.

Thank you! I’ll give it a try .

Question about the acid. When the Boiron table lists 15g tartaric acid, that’s 15g of a 50/50 tartaric acid/water solution, correct? I’ve also read 10g of citric acid as a substitute for 15g tartaric acid. Does that mean that if I’m using citric acid (that’s what I already have) that I make a 50/50 citric acid/water solution and use 10g of that for a full recipe in the Boiron table? Thanks so much in advance—I’ve read so much about pâte de fruit, my head is spinning!

Thanks Kerry! That’s what I did with the cocoa butter. That’s interesting about the using molds for the first time. I’ve heard that the first time you use a mold can be the shiniest ever. I will keep trying. That is what I was thinking for the bars—I’ll try that next time .

First attempt with real Chocolate World molds rather than cheap Amazon knock-offs. Cocoa butter stuck to the molds and cracked bars. Sigh. I’ll take any any advice you have on getting bars with inclusions out of the mold without cracking them—I snapped the mold down like I do for bonbons not thinking about the irregular surface on the back side—and also tempering cocoa butter for painting. I’ve read the airbrushing thread, like, 6 times but I haven’t found much advice about prepping the cocoa butter for painting with brushes, finger, etc. I just heated gently in short low-power bursts in the microwave to the temperature indicated on the bottle. Some came out beautifully. Others stuck (I even had to freeze them for a few minutes). This has happened with other molds as well. The chocolate was tempered beautifully—I’m pretty sure it’s a CB issue. That said, the shine on the bars and on the ones that came out is super satisfying—I can’t wait to play again .

Yes! I vote St. Louis!

You are correct . The top one is darker and crispier and fell a tiny bit as it cooled. The bottom one is lighter, rose higher and it kind of fizzes on your tongue as it melts. It is a lot more similar to a Violet Crumble type candy bar than the top. They both taste great .

More experiments. I used the C&C at Home recipe with 2 full TBSP of baking soda (30g) and took it to 157C. I made one batch with gelatin (1/4 tsp in 1 tsp water) and one without. Everything else was exactly the same (same recipe, temperatures, warm pan and oven to cool). It’s amazing the difference such a tiny bit of gelatin makes. The family is split on who likes which better. I like the finer texture with gelatin, personally.