Jonathan

More of a personal development project than anything although an airbrush can really speed things up. The main time sink is the trees, I pumped out 20 bars and it took maybe 30-40 minutes to decorate them (not just this design) but most of that was bleeding different colours from the bloody airbrush. Scaling up wouldn't be too hard since you just spray each of the colours in sequence. I just only have 2 of these moulds (10 cavities each) as I don't have proper packaging for these

Thought I’d try my hand at an Aurora decoration for bars again, definitely an improvement on last time. These were a play on strawberry oreo cheesecake. Strawberry pate de fruit, vanilla cheesecake ganache, oreo & brown butter base

Maltilol was the alternative sugar and taste wise it was actually really close to a solid dark chocolate. I haven't tried their milk sugar free yet but interested to experiment now

Got my hands on some vegan couvetures (sugarfree on the dark chocolate) from Felchlin so I decided to have a bit of a play. Definitely better than I expected! The white bonbons are passionfruit daquiri, a passionfrut & lime pate de fruit with a rum, vanilla & lime zest ganache and the black hearts are sugarfree with a hazelnut gianduja. Both completely plant based. The block is vegan “milk” chocolate with freeze dried strawberries and popping candy. Honestly? Vegan or not the passionfruit was maybe my favourite flavour so far. They definitely outperformed my expectations

Whelp. Just capped off a few sets of bonbons without heating... I've wasted so many hours of my life.

I use a hairdryer and it’s been fine

Of course! So it’s roughly (working off the numbers in my head): 300 grams caster sugar 180 grams glucose 250-300 mL cream? Adjust as needed for consistency 50 grams butter Nori to infuse into cream (a few sheets) Soy sauce to taste. Just light soy, not dark. I used about 4-5 tablespoons since my butter was unsalted but I may have used more Infuse the cream with the Nori + soy at a gentle heat, keep warm Heat sugar + glucose till amber, about 155 celcius Strain in the cream through a fine sieve then stir till the caramel hits around 104-106 celcius depending on what consistency you like. Take off the heat and emulsify the butter in

I prefer pectin as far as texture goes for a puree, just watch your sugar ratios vs pectin to ensure it gels

Finally finished with Father’s Day! I went with the theme this year of “Things I did with Dad”. It’s always a fun exercise in nostalgia brainstorming ideas for what to do. From top to bottom in the first pic the activity/design theme/flavour for each are: The Fair - Fireworks at Night - Butter Popcorn & Toffee Apple Trips to the Toyshop - Lego - Hazelnut Gianduja & Praline, Freeze Dried Strawberries, Feuilletine & Popping Candy Camping - Toasted Marshmallow - Smores Visiting the Ocean - The Sea - Nori & Soy Sauce Caramel (you HAVE to try this combo, it’s absolutely wild) Watching TV - The Simpsons - Hickory Smoked Caramel, Brown Butter Ganache, Waffle Insert (Homer Simpson’s Moon Waffles) Reading Books Together - Harry Potter & The Philisopher’s Stone - Firewhisky (Spiced Whisky & Chilli)

Thick slabs won’t cool evenly and you’ll get streaks even if it was tempered properly, if you want to store it just spread it out a little

Yep, I have to coax them out a little Ambient temp here would be around 18-20 at present I use a wine fridge at 12 degrees to crystalize, straight in after moulding White choc I brought up to 29 celcius as working temp I’m honestly not sure, I haven’t gone without cocoa butter for a long time but I don’t think it’s made a huge difference? For what it’s worth they do look like they contract from the mould but it’s a mission to get them to pop out even after filling sometimes

I’ll second Kerry, these moulds are the bane of my existence. They look so innocuous and yet are such a pain to demould. I made this batch earlier today and still crushed 3 of them when demoulding but I knew I got the temper right. I think it’s the depth + smoothness

Getting started on my father’s day boxes (5th of Sept in Aus). I went with the theme “Things I did with dad”. The first are a caramel apple and butter popcorn bonbon based on trips to the fairground and watching the fireworks at night and the second are Homer Simpson's Patended Space Age Out of this World Moonwaffles (Brown butter ganache, crispy waffle insert and hickory smoked caramel) based on watching TV together. 4 to go in the coming weekends

Just standard green cabbage, no chives. Some spring onion, sesame oil, soy sauce, touch of sugar, white pepper, pinch of five spice and a tiny bit of oyster sauce for the filling. We do a chive one but its generally on days where its just for the family

No matter what others may say I’ve always thought the best dumpling is a friend dumpling. It has always been a bit of a family activity to gather and make a bunch of these, “many hands make light work” as they say. I’ve always liked pork and cabbage as a filling, as much as I enjoy chives they do make them hard to take to work thr next day for lunch (there’s a funky smell when you reheat them)