Stephen Beaumont

I don't put any chocolate in my fondant, no. It's pretty sweet - sweeter than I personally like, but it is popular with my customers. I prefer to use a mango/passion fruit puree as that acidity cuts through the sweetness of the fondant somewhat more. Didn't get a chance to check AW this weekend as I was up to my ears in Easter Eggs but will get to it.

Thanks Jim - my fondant recipe itself has a very low AW. The sugar is cooked to 113 degrees and then dropped to below 50 before recrystallizing in a stand mixer. The puree is cooked to 104 with glucose and then I mix the two together in a 2-1 ratio so that part should be okay. I hadn't seen Kerry's strawberry centre recipe (missed it in the thread) so I will try some experiments this weekend with variants of that and check the AW.

This is an interesting filling concept I haven't tried. Been playing with fondant and adding cooked down puree (mango, passion fruit, pineapple cooked to 104 with glucose) at 1/3 - 2/3 proportions which is decent, and using it for a take on a cream egg by piping a "yolk" with it into white fondant. When you make it into a buttercream with chocolate and butter, what kind of proportions do you typically use? Does it stay creamy? Should be super shelf stable I would assume.

Lake St Clair - near Windsor, not far from Michelle from Sweetness Chocolates. No problem about not greeting me I have been lurking a lot on the eGullet forum and it is fascinating. Learning a lot and everyone is so helpful. My little sideline chocolate business has taken off faster than I could have dreamed (@Chokfinechocolates on IG and FB) and I can't wait to be able to meet people in person again, hopefully soon.

This is fascinating. I've been trying to replicate a Nanaimo Bar in a bonbon and trying to achieve that Birds Custard creaminess with the chocolate flavour coming only from the shell and not resorting to a coconut/vanilla white chocolate ganache. Being a Brit I am very familiar with Birds and will have a go at this ganache using the shop-bought version (which is pretty easy to find here in Canada). Thanks for the info!

As I read this I was nodding the whole time. I’m at the point of looking for some custom boxes for all the above reasons and wonder who you ended up using? I have also started making some cylindrical “snack bars” which are popular and open some decorating opportunities. I would like to find a box (probably square) with a tray that will separate 3-5 of these snack bars but have not yet been successful in sourcing anything. Anyone have any advice on these? By the way this forum is a gold mine of information. Thanks for everyone’s input!!