Search the Community

I was looking for a place, preferably sit down, that does cocoa very well and I'd read in last year's Best of Philly issue of Philadelphia Magazine that Yann Patisserie was the best but it has since closed down. Anywhere else worth trying? I don't know if that's an odd request but NYC has at least a dozen good options.

Thinking of Hostess Gifts..... I've just made the dough for chocolate shortbread using a recipe from CAPRIAL'S CAFE cookbook, & it tastes wonderful. Very intense flavour....( I used Dutch process cocoa , although it didn't specify it.) My question is: seeing as how I would like to give these cookies as gifts, should I bake, & let them "ripen" the way I do with Scotch shortbread, or freeze the dough, & bake as needed?

I bought some "black cocoa" from King Arthur. Has anyone out there ever used it? Before I start playing with it I want to check to see if there are any secret ways to use it. Or if there are any problems with it. Thanks in advance for any help or ideas. Eileen

I'm making candies the weekend and I DON"T HAVE MY CHOCOLATE. To make the long story short, the place I ordered (Spun Sugar in Berkeley) from did not receive their shipment. So, does anyone have any idea where I can pick up: 10+lb each of milk and semisweet chocolate disks (don't want to deal w/ blocks this year) that is of similar quality to Guittard for a reasonable price (around $4 or so a lb) somewhere in the Bay Area I would prefer San Francisco or the Peinsula, but I'm willing to cross a bridge or two if I have to. Thank you!

I have been using Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate to make my shells for molded chocolates. I believe the cocoa butter percentage is about 32%. The viscosity is perfect for making nice thin shells. I've just about run out of it and still have quite a few chocolates left to make. I have a whack of Callebaut bittersweet on hand, but know it is not good for shells as it is too thick. (I don't know the cocoa butter percentage.) I've got quite a bit of cocoa butter on hand and thought I might simply try thinning the bittersweet down to make it more viscous, and hence a little more appropriate for shells. Is this a recipe for disaster? Or will it work just fine? If it will work just fine, what is the proportion of cocoa butter I should add (by weight) to my chocolate? Any guidance anyone could provide would be helpful.

I was flipping through RLB Pie and Pastry Bible and her recommendation is to NOT blind bake a choco cookie crust; she says it will lose it's chocolatey flavor. I don't make a lot of these kinds of crusts, and I was wondering what others' experiences are. I have always blind baked, but when I do I am usually disappointed with how lacking in flavor the choco crumbs are. Could this be the answer?

Years ago I had a recipe for these that involved rolling the cherries in fondant that, once covered in chocolate, liquified. I'm sure at the time I used maraschinos and Hershey's, but now that I'm all grown up, I have a half-gallon jar of sour Michigan cherries that have been sitting in brandy since July, and I'm thinking - hey, I can make a grown up version of those things! I'm sure a trip to the library or bookstore would be more valuable than the google search I just did, as every recipe had things like: "salt", "chocolate chips", "empty the jar", "stir in margarine", etc. I want a real recipe. I know there are 2 versions of these. One, the cherry floats in a viscous, brandied liquid; the other has the coverture exploding in your mouth with a lightly sweet brandy gushing out. I'd prefer the latter, like I had from St. Ambroeus in Milan. I know there was talk of this on the board once, someting about invert sugars liquifying something something. I'll go search for it. In the meantime, anybody have a recipe? Thanks.

I meant to get to this weeks ago and got sidetracked. I apologize and hope that this demo, in conjunction with John's fab demo, will completely demystify molded chocolates. Because I needed Honey to take the photos this was done at home. So, please also accept my apologies for the dog bowls, etc. It's usually too cold in the kitchen in the morning to make happy chocolates so instead of wasting precious gas on the heater, I cranked on the oven and made these. Not only do they warm the kitchen to a chocolate favorable 68 degrees but they also make for a nice afternoon snack! So, here's the stuff: Baby tempering machine, Mommy tempering machine, Vibrating table, gold leaf, luster dusts, PCB colors, Polycarb mold (I get mine from Tomric), natural cotton batting, offset spatula, some paintbrushes, and a rubber scraper all on top of plenty of parchment for easier clean-up. Oh, and a pastry bag and some scissors for the ganache. Make yourself a nice ganache so it has time to cool while you get things ready and temper your chocolate. If you're using a machine you will start the tempering process now. Polish your mold well with the natural cotton batting (found at most fabric stores). It can be washed and used again and again. If you're not using a tempering machine you may want to create a set-up like this. Grab a big bowl, put a heating pad in it and set it to low. Add a few towels and a probe thermometer followed by your bowl of tempered chocolate. You can monitor the temp of the bowls and add or subtract towels as needed to maintain a good working temperature. Just before filling, I hit my molds with a blow dryer just enough to ensure the poly is the same temperature as the chocolate. I find that although the ambient temperature is just right, sometimes the various objects haven't quite warmed up enough. This step will secure a glossy bonbon. Fun time! Warm some colored cocoa butter in the micro and drop it on your finger or directly into the cavity.... Swirl it around the inside of each cavity. Get creative. Use as many colors as you like and have fun, it's not that serious. You'll notice I smeared some gold leaf into one row of cavities in this same fashion. For more complete coverage and that super-trendy, high-color look, use a fluffy brush to coat the entire cavity. Tap in some luster dust for a little more drama and texture. You may prefer to create definition with a different shade of chocolate. I used my favorite tool, my finger, and swirled in some milk chocolate. On the next row I used a spoon to pool some milk chocolate in the bottom of the mold. One could use an airbrush with some white chocolate here too (if one could make friends with her airbrush). Let these set a bit and fill the entire mold with dark chocolate. I like to use a deep silicone spatula because I can use it again later when cleaning out the bowl. Many chocolatiers prefer a ladle. Give it a quick scrape with your offset spatula (just so things don't get TOO messy). Set the mold on your spiffy "new" vibrating table for a few seconds. OR smack it around violently on the counter, bouncing it from side to side while doing a little dance to release bubbles and get some exercise. Turn 'er over and dump out the extra. I do this over a sheet of parchment and use the chocolate another day. I worry that pouring it back into my tempered chocolate may upset things. It probably wouldn't but we all have our neurosis. Swirl that baby around to get out all the extra and make a nice thin shell. Give it another scrape and set it aside to dry. Now the shells have that velvety sheen which means they're dry and are ready to be filled. Fill a pastry bag or a squirt bottle (if you don't mind washing it) with ganache and pipe into the shells. Be sure to leave 1/8 inch of space for the bottom and don't allow the ganache to touch the rim of the shell or the bottom may not adhere properly. In this batch I have piped a drop of ganache, added a glaced cherry and covered it with ganache. Now you want to give your ganache an hour or two to develop a slight crust. If you're working with caramel you may have to wait a day before bottoming. Use your silicone spatula to add chocolate with the same technique you used to fill the shells. Give it a couple of taps and swiftly scrape of the excess. Don't muck about here. The more you mess with it, the less successful your bottoms will be. Leave the mold in a cool spot for an hour or so and them turn the bonbons out onto a sheet of parchment. You may have to give it a little whack to get every last one out. Use a gloved hand to place them on a pretty platter or into a gift box. and here's the final presentation! Notice the gold leaf; the colors; the colors with gold dust; the two toned; and even one that got a last minute dusting of lustre. Honey liked the photo so well, he put it on the website! There are so many options. Have fun, be creative, be silly, and remember, it's all edible.

As the weather is getting colder and colder, I'm really craving a good hot chocolate. Something rich that is made from scratch. Any suggestions?

It's that time again. November 10 through November 13th. Anyone going? If so, what are you excited about seeing? Demonstrations? Vendors?

Demo: How to Use Transfer Sheets (and Structure Sheets) with Magnetic Molds for Making Chocolate Bonbons This thread will demonstrate how to use transfer sheets to decorate chocolate bonbons. Structure sheets, which are plastic sheets embossed with a pattern, can be used in exactly the same way. Let’s begin: 1. Here is a photograph of my workbench. It's important to have all of your tools ready when you work with chocolate because you need to work fast. a) Transfer Sheet; b) Structure Sheet; c) Bowl of seed chocolate; d) Small bowl; e) Scale; f) 2-piece Magnetic chocolate molds; g) Magnetic mold taken apart to show top and bottom pieces; h) Scissors; i) Acrylic paint brush; j) Straight spatulas; k) 7” Wide Spatulas; l) Ladle; m) Chocolate Melter 2. Here's a close up of the magnetic chocolate molds. On the left, two fully assembled molds; on the right, a mold with the back showing. 3. Here is a close up of the transfer sheet we'll be using. On the right is a structure sheet. 4. The first thing we need to do is cut the transfer sheet to fit into our magnetic mold. Here, I'm using a pre-cut structure sheet as a guide for marking my transfer sheet. Obviously it should be marked on the non-cocoa butter side. 5. Cutting the transfer sheet. 6. Positioning the transfer sheet inside the chocolate mold. Here I have the mold upside-down and the transfer sheet is positioned over the cavities with the cocoa-butter side down. 7. Carefully replacing the mold backing. As you can see, we are "sandwiching" the sheet between the two parts of the mold. Be sure that the sheet doesn't slip out of position as you're replacing the back. 8. Fully assembled (upside-down). 9. Fully assembled (right side up). 10. Painting each cavity with tempered chocolate ensures that you won't have bubbles in your finished pieces. You may be able to skip this step if your chocolate is very thin. 11. Once all the cavities have been painted, you can scrape with a chocolate scraper to remove excess chocolate bits from the top of the mold. The scraper should run smoothly across the top. 12. Here is our prepped mold held up to the light. You can see that it doesn't need to be very pretty; you just need to be sure you've gotten into all the corner spaces. 13. Now we can immediately ladle in some tempered chocolate to make a suitable chocolate shell for our bonbons. 14. Spread the chocolate with a palette knife so that each cavity gets its share of chocolate. Work quickly. 15. Tap the side of the mold to help the chocolate settle and to remove bubbles. Here, you're just trying to ensure that no bubbles are clinging to the surface of the mold. 16. Now we need to eliminate excess chocolate in our mold. Just turn the mold over and let the chocolate drain back into the melter. You can tap it on the sides with the palette knife or whack the mold on the edges of your melting pan to encourage the chocolate to depart. 17. Now we scrape with a spatula to clean up our mold. 18. Turn your mold over and allow excess chocolate to drain, if necessary. Check again in a few minutes and scrape with a spatula, as before, to clean the mold. 19. Here we see our chocolate shells, still in the mold, with a nice even coating of chocolate. They are now ready for filling with your favorite ganache and sealing in the usual way with tempered chocolate. Our bonbons: transfer sheet and structure sheet examples

Technically a New Jersey item, but of interest to Philadelphians like me who find themselves on the other side of the river: Stopped by Miel's Patisserie at Village Walk, Cherry Hill this afternoon, and found that their chocolates are on sale at 50% off. Although I've had finer French style flavored chocolates, these are still darned good chocolates. And at $19 a pound rather than $38, a very good value, indeed, a downright bargain. I believe the sale lasts through the weekend, but they are closed on Labor Day. Lots of interesting flavors, including a dark ganache with fleur de sel.

Hi does anyone have this recipe they could let me have, looking for the one with the caramel centre, but any would do. Many thanks JOHNNY

Which brand is the best for chocolate deserts? This goes out to all you pastry chefs!

I would like to make mini tart shells out of white chocolate, to be filled with pastry cream. What is the simplest way to do this? Can I just melt some white chocolate, pour a bit into a chilled mini-muffin cup, swirl it around while it sets, and then tap it out? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

According to the enjoyable blog ...an endless banquet, a new top-flight cake/pastry shop is set to open on Park Ave. on Sunday: Cocoa Locale 4807 Park Ave. (corner Villeneuve) Tuesday–Sunday, 11–6ish Please report any sightings/tastings here.

I've been in the process for quite a while to start a small company making artisan chocolates. I'm to the point where I'm serious and working on the business plan with some potential investors. I've already had some great help from people on things to do and vendors to use for my current production as a hobbyist but I'm looking for some more industrial type vendors at this point. Below are some of the items I want to research, any help would be greatly appreciated. Printing Equipment - This would be for making custom transfers. It seems like it might be the easiest way to go at this point as I've had some difficulty getting much response from the few companies that do this. I've looked online and don't seem to have much luck finding models, companies etc. I'm looking for a higher end machine that can do multi-color and high production. Enrobers - I've talked with a chocolatier that has a model from France, I'm just a bit concerned about warranty and maintenance on an overseas model. Guittar cutters - I've seen them quite a bit but at $2K I'm wondering if there are other sources I'm missing. Molds - I've purchased small amounts from some of the typical online vendors: JB Prince etc. at about $20 a pop. If I'm buying in bulk I'd like to find a better price. Boxes - I'm looking for the standard company box I will use which will be a cardboard package. I've used Nakazawa and that is an option. I'd like something that is high end and sturdy. Custom Boxes - I'm looking for a wooden or metal box for special gifts. I've found a few vendors but would like to find a quality box, similar to a humidor or jewelry box, for special occassions. Temper Machines - I'll probably use the enrober quite a bit but it would be nice to have some smaller machines for special batches of different chocolate. I've got a Rev II and know about Chocovision but wondered if there are some other 5lb and up machines. Storage - Trays/carts for putting chocolates on while waiting to be boxed. Display cases - Cases for retail display. These are just a few and the printer is probably my main focus at this point. It may prove too expensive but I'd like to have more options than I do currently. Thanks for any help.

My favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies says to refrigerate the dough overnight and then bake. This makes a really stiff dough that is hard to scoop and I usually let it warm up a bit to get something more workable. Do I really need to wait overnight? I am assuming that the flour gets more thoroughly hydrated and any gluten gets a rest. Are there other benefits for such a long rest? I have made hundreds of dozens of this unique recipe and I don't always do the overnight thing but usually let the dough ( which is very soft initially) rest an hour or two and get very good results.

Anyone know of a good, affordable online source for cocoa butter? Thanks

I rarely make chocolate cakes, and when I do it's always frosted with a chocolate ganache or whipping cream. Well, one of my co-workers has asked me to bake her a chocolate cake with thick white frosting. I have a feeling this isn't like buttercream, which to me is light as opposed to thick, so is this fondant? And is there a way to make this stuff so it's creamy and vanilla tasting, as opposed to super-sickly-sweet and chalky? Thanks!

I'm planning on making chocolate truffles in the near future so I've been reading a bit about chocolate tempering. Now, as far as I understand it, as long as chocolate is already in temper (like most chocolate that you can buy), keeping the chocolate liquid, but in temper is simply a matter of heating it to between 90F and 94F. Conventionally, this is either done by suspending over a pot of simmering water or by using a microwave. But that always seemed rather illogical to me, if you want something to get to, and stay at 94F, then why would you use something hotter. Whats wrong with simply getting a large water bath, heating it to exactly 94F and then suspending the chocolate in the water until the chocolate comes into equilibrium with the water? First of all, it allows you to keep the chocolate at a stable temperature for longer, the water has a huge amount of thermal inertia so it can keep within the 90-94 band. Secondly, you don't have the problem of steam condensation like with a bain, water at 94F is less than body temp and wont steam. Finally, as long as you have a good digital thermometer, keeping the water in range is very easy. Just have a large pot of boiling water on hand and just pour some in and stir if it starts dropping. Is there some hidden flaw with this technique that I am missing? It seems eminently sensible for the home cook who cant afford marble slabs and $10,000 tempering machines.

Last September, my best girlfriend was up here in Vancouver to suss out some things, go up to Whistler with me to check out locations and chalets for her wedding. For some reason, I had offered to make her wedding cake for her. I had gotten a bunch of books: (excuse my curious kitty, Ilya Kovalchuk) including Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible (1988, there seems to be only the one edition). We went through the books, looking at all the gorgeous pictures. There's one important thing I haven't mentioned: I bake quite a few cakes, and they're pretty tasty, but I am not a professional, and I know basically nothing about decoration. So we were extremely limited by my skill level, as what I would have liked to do for her and what I was comfortable promising to do for her were two different things. Luckily for me, this was her second wedding, and she had already had the enormous brouhaha and fancy expensive cake the first time round. This time she wanted something that was more about her than some princess fantasy. She was also very interested in having something rich and dark and chocolate. We came to RLB's Art Deco Cake: (picture, p. 29, description/assembly p. 204, recipe, p. 84). It wasn't exactly what we wanted to do, but conceptually, it was a starting off point for a white cake with green accents, simple but (hopefully) delicious. I kept reading my books. I booked vacation time before the wedding so that I could bake and decorate (oh, yes, and see to my Maid of Honour duties). I came to eGullet, and these wonderful people helped me find my way! I had figured out that I needed fondant. K8memphis shared a recipe, but I was scared to get it wrong since I'd never worked with it before. I bought some Wilton, and tried to find some Pettinice or other better-quality fondant...hard to source where I am in Vancouver. I ended up ordering McCall's White Chocolate Fondant from Toronto, which cost a dollar or two in shipping. It was really good though, so I think it was worth it. Before I got started, I assembled a pile of...stuff. From top left, roughly: Green fondant decorations; a few kg of white chocolate fondant; an oversized keeper; cardboard bases for the layers; more fondant and assorted items for decorating and shaping same; two dozen fresh eggs; two pints of 36% whipping cream; three pounds of the most expensive butter I could afford (around $5/lb); parchment rounds; foam bases; Wilton aluminum pans, 6 in, 10 in, 14 in; a couple of pounds of Callebaut semisweet; 26 oz. of Chambord Royale liqueur; raspberry dessert sauce; more Callebaut ; some lovely Scharffen Berger 70% cocoa solids bittersweet; a squeezy bottle for raspberry sauce. At some point I tried to add it all up and it was decidedly north of $500, but of course many of these items I still have. I can't "demo" the fondant decorations, as I am not very good at it, and I didn't take any photos in progress. What I did was turn some of the Wilton white fondant green (used leaf green (oops) and green and black as they had no moss green at the shop I went to; added some icing sugar to make up for all the gel colour wetting it down; rolled out my fondant, rolled it as heavy as I could with a stencil on top that had different sized ivy leaves; sliced the leaves out of the sheet of fondant with a paring knife following the stenciled outline; smoothed/pinched down the edges of the leaves and added veins with that nifty Wilton vein-maker; let them dry on a curved plastic tube to add some more realism; and then some antique gold lustre dust brushed over top for a little magic. I am blessed with beginner's luck, and they turned out better than I had any right to expect, although you're not likely to see anything quite so amateur on a professional cake: Next up: the actual cake.

Hi all, I need some advice what to charge a bakery that is ordering some chocolates from me. I still don't know what the quantity will be, but lets say it's about 150-200 pieces, and about 5 different flavours. I think the best way is to come up with a price per piece. I am concerned with charging enough to make it worth my while, yet not too much, as the bakery needs to make thier profit as well. Suggestions???? Thanks!

A friend of mine told me about a cake she had at an Argentinian friends house that I must make (i'm seriously obsessing about it!) Her description is of a moist chocolate cake with a caramel middle layer (i'm thinking it must be dulce de lece) encased in a smooth covering of thin dark chocolate (I think that it is just melted chocolate spread smoothly and allowed to harden. I'm not much of a baker, so recipie ideas would be much welcomed. For example, how would one make a dulce de lece soft enough to frost a cake with? What is the best way to do the chocolate frosting? And does anyone have a surefire moist chocolate cake recipie? Thanks!

Hello to the EGullet community. I own a small artisanal chocolate company, and I'm in search of a good supplier of custom European-style candy boxes. Currently I'm covering 2-pc boxes by hand; very pretty but it just takes up too much time. [Time I'd rather spend making chocolate!] I'd like to find a supplier who can furnish the hot-stamped box, candy pads, candy trays (blisters) and custom-stamped ribbon. The level of quality I'm looking for is similar to what you would find in La Maison du Chocolat boxes. Does anyone have a recommendation? Thanks in advance!