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I am searching for a natural source of food colorings, to tint buttercream, & use in chocolate work. I don't like commercial FC, it is synthetic and toxic to boot. Has anyone found a good source/vendor who has naturally derived colorings

I would like to know what my peers prefer to glaze with..... Ganache: with the addition of butter, eggs or no eggs, no butter? trimolene, glucose, sugar????? Simple chocolate glaze, chocolate, cream, simple syrup? Glacage? Love it, but way to fragile...... I guess I'm searching for the perfect glaze.... One that shines, coats evenly, slighly resilliant, retains its luster and dear god, please no sweating......

Just thought I would share my pictures of the chocolate competition I was in today. One of Michael's assistants was in the masterpiece competition as well. My first competiton and I placed 2nd! It was a stressful day after I got lost getting to the venue and arrived with only about an hour and a half to set up, but so glad I did it. It was a nice step to challenge myself since I am a newbie to competitions. Hoping the link works! I have be awol from the computer for a bit this past week.

I am having problems with my chocolate blooming. I am fairly certain that I am tempering the chocolate correctly. I have not had problems with getting a good temper in the past--although my experience is limited. I am hand dipping caramel centers in dark chocolate couverature. After about 10 minutes of drying, the candies have a noticeable white bloom on their surface. The room temperature is around 72f. Could there be a problem with temperature or humidity? Or is my tempering suspect? Any advice on avoiding bloom would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Christa

I'm getting ready for my annual baking of massive quantities of hamantashen. I use a combination of purchased and home made fillings -- both the traditional fillings as well as some non-traditional ones. The non-traditional filling that I struggle with every year is chocolate. Always a favorite with the kids and, quite frankly, I like it too. Every year I make a pretty thick ganache, and every year it boils up and out of my dough during baking. Can anyone propose a good alternative? Could I make something with cocoa instead of chocolate? Any ideas are welcome. [if you are unfamiliar, hamantashen are a Jewish pastry where the dough is rolled and cut into a round shape and then folded into a triangle to surround a filling, with a small amount of the filling peeking out of the top. Traditional fillings are poppy seed (mohn), prune (lekvar), and a variety of other fruit flavors.]

I've always wondered why the instructions for making instant hot chocolate call for 'hot, not boiling' water. Why shouldn't it be boiling? Does anyone know the reasoning behind this?

Saw the story on Business Wire, but can no longer link to it because it is from January 30th. Anywho, here's The Cincinnati Post online story from January 15, 2004: story here. Cheers!

Perdices con chocolate (partridge with chocolate) is a traditional dish in Spain, I believe specifically in Toledo, Bux. One of the dishes that I've enjoyed the most, was some cuitlacoche quesadillas with mole poblano and chocolate sauce. Clearly mexican influenced .

I am making desserts for this woman's wedding reception and she is serving Chinese food, so I thought that it might be nice to have a chocolate bao... She said she wanted to incorporate dark chocolate and fruit together in the dessert, so I was thinking about what I could do. A dark chocolate bao stuffed with a fruit mixture would be cool, I think....but I don't know how possible that is. Anybody have any input?

Anybody ever tasted these? I haven't, but am wondering what they're like - upscale? tasty? Thanks ...

A friend asked me about this today because he was offered the aforementioned combination while tailgating at the Bears/Eagles game yesterday here in Chicago. To my knowledge, this is not a typically "Chicago" thing. He'd never heard of such a thing and neither have I. I could see possibly including some unsweetened chocolate in batch of chili (still doesn't sound promising to me), but finished semi-sweet chips as a garnish is new to me and frankly, doesn't sound appetizing at all. Has anyone encountered this before? Any idea about the origin of such a combination? =R=

Anyone familiar with Schokinag Chocolate? Thoughts, opinions? We currently have their bittersweet 6438 and white at work and I'm trying to convince the exec chef to switch to Valrhona, Callebaut or Guittard for the new restaurant. The bittersweet isn't too bad but the white isn't very impressive at all. This is the first time I've worked with it and was just wondering what other think of it. Thanks

Anyone have tips on extremely good combinations of aged rum and chocolate, or know of good websites that have? Specific bottlings and brand of chocolate is appreciated. The ones I have found so far (but not tested) is: Gran Reserva Solera 15 años & chocolate mousse. Gay Rum Extra Old 12 years & Trinidad truffle. Saint James Rhum Vieux Agricole & Valrhona MANJARI ORANGES 64%. El Dorado Special Reserve 21 years & Valrhona GUANAJA 70%. Troi Rivieres Milissime 1977 & Valrona GRAN COUVA Anyone tested one of the above combinations?

I know very little about chocolate...so I would really appreciate your help here. When a recipe calls for unsweetened chocolate, can I use Lindt 58% Bittersweet? I'd rather stick with Lindt as that's what is the most available here. Is unsweetened same as couverture?

I began reading Like Water for Chocolate today in the serialized New York Times Great Summer Read insert. (I think this Great Summer Read thing is a wonderful idea, by the way.) Each chapter contains a recipe. I had no plans for dinner tonight, and no ideas, so I made the recipe for "Christmas Rolls" featured in chapter one. These are hard dinner rolls stuffed with a mixture of chorizo, onion, sardines, canned serrano peppers, and oregano, then baked. And although the recipe left the reader to fill in a lot of blanks, I thought the results were pretty damn tasty. Anybody else made any of the other recipes in the book? I don't know yet what the other recipes are. I bet we have the book in my apartment somewhere, but I'm looking forward to the surprise of each daily installment, so I haven't checked. I'm going out of town later in the week, so I can't cook through the book in one week, but I thought it might be neat to have a thread where we can post what we think of the recipes, if anyone has any interest. Having read just the first chapter, I'm not yet prepared to say that I think the book is a classic, but making the featured dish has certainly enhanced the experience of the book for me. My more detailed impressions of the Christmas Rolls: The recipe specifies one onion, 1/2 a chorizo sausage, one can of serrano peppers, and one tin of sardines. I found that not one of these items comes in a standard size, so I sort of made up the mixture to suit my tastes. I assumed she meant a half of a large chorizo sausage, so I used two or three of the little ones you find packaged together in American supermarkets. I found the canned peppers to be pretty bland, so I tossed in about half a habanero pepper as well. The recipe states that homemade rolls are best, but gives no guidance as to how to make them. I was concerned that the author really meant the dough to contain sugar, since I've seen sweet hard rolls a lot in Mexican bakeries, but I eventually went with more of a standard French bread dough for the rolls. I also had no idea how to stuff them. I ended up poking a hole in the side with kitchen shears and then forced the filling in with my fingers. The recipe says to bake the filled rolls for ten minutes, at an unspecified temperature-- I went with 375 degrees, and it worked out well. I have no idea if these tasted as they're supposed to taste, but I did think they came out really nice.

Does anyone know what ice cream manufacturers use in their chocolate chips to get them to melt on your tongue quickly so that they taste like chocolate right away and not random bits of unidentifiable chunky stuff? I was thinking maybe a bit of neutral or nut oil added to melted bittersweet? Then I could harden it as much as possible and chop it up. Or would alcohol work? Maybe a splash of Grand Marnier? Any thoughts? I'm going to experiment but I wondered if anyone here had been through this before. Thanks!

Ever since I was a kid I have had a soft spot for Five Star.. (hint to those in India). I also love Cadburys... are there new ones in the market today that are good? tell me about them which ones are your favorite do share.. inquiring minds want to know

Hi Folks, Anyone have a good and fairly painless chocolate mousse recipe? Wedding cake number 2 is next week and I am preparing all my stuff recipes etc. so I won't be overwhelmed. Now that I have my first one under my belt I feel like I can conquer almost anything The cake itself is simple, click here to see what what the customer has requested: Becerra Wedding Cake Three cakes as pictured with the following changes, cake 1 and 3 will have chocolate mousse, cake 2 raspberry filling. Royal frosting spirals will become roses on outer bottom edge with a hint of light blue on the edges of the roses. Side spirals to become string work only done with pearls and top edge will be very small white flowers with a hint of blue. White candles encircled by white roses. Delightful I think.

story on new chocolates That said, what do you like your chocolate to be filled with? There are liquid centers like liqueurs and even wine ... and the usual nuts of all types ... and now, in reading this article, I see that a company is using some very unique types of centers for its candies ... so let's hear from you on your preferences! Note: they need not be actually produced yet so let your imaginations run rampant!

My parents and I went to California somewhere around 1982. Being around 10 years old, I don't remember a lot of details from the trip. But we were driving around the country somewhere, maybe towards Vaccaville. We stopped at a small food/wine shop where we had a chocolate cheese. It wasn't a spread, like cream cheese, but it was very creamy - maybe the consistency of a firm mozzarella. Anyway, I was wondering if you've ever heard of anything like this - I've been trying to track it down for my parents ever since. Also, just in case you haven't heard of them, there is a nice little dairy down in Thomasville, Georgia called Sweet Grass. They make some pretty good stuff, and their cheeses have been featured in some of the better Atlanta restaurants. If you're curioius, go to www.sweetgrassdairy.com. Thank you for your participation in the Q&A and all the great information you've given us. -Greg

I've run out of ideas for a present for my dad; and when this happens, it's time for the Old Faithful of holiday gifts: a box of chocolates. Where should I get them in Philly? I'm tempted to go to Miel, just because I can. And I've never been to Le Bec Fin's pastry shop (and if nothing else, that name would impress my folks.) But I'm open for suggestions.

I've posted this in the NY forum already, but I thought I might get a different response from my fellow coffee-heads -- perhaps there's an online or mail-order source if not a NY-area source?: Does anyone know where I can get my hands on some Ghirardelli chocolate syrup? Not the powder, not the candies. The syrup. My favorite coffee shop uses it to make the most wonderful mochaccinos I've ever had...I need to get some of this for my own personal stash. It's on the Ghirardelli website here, but says that it's only available to the trade. Any suggestions? Thanks! [edited to add in link that didn't transfer]

Does anyone know where I can get my hands on some Ghirardelli chocolate syrup? Not the powder, not the candies. The syrup. My favorite coffee shop uses it to make the most wonderful mochaccinos I've ever had...I need to get some of this for my own personal stash. It's on the Ghirardelli website here, but says that it's only available to the trade. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Saw this in the store the other day and decided to try it, a bock beer with real chocolate as an ingredient. Basically a good but not great beer. I thought the chocolate taste was too strong. Reccomend this as no more than a dessert beer. I also those that it was way overpriced at $16/bomber sized bottle.

These are just about my favorite kind of assorted chocolates. My absolute favorites are the following: Hazelnut praline and buttercrunch in marbleized ivory. Chocolate cream and hazelnut praline in milk chocolate. Hazelnut praline with biscuit pieces in ivory, decorated with candied sugar. Dark chocolate truffle dusted with cocoa, sugar and cinnamon. Lemon ganache in a milk chocolate shell. Their newest one is "Noix Macadamia" which is hazelnut praline with ground nougatine and shortbread biscuit, topped with macadamia nut and enrobed in milk chocolate. What are yours? Soba