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I'm looking for a way to dehydrate (or transform) honey into a sheet with similar properties to a fruit leather. I've been able to do this with sugary sauces like cocktail sauce or plum sauce just by spreading them on parchment and putting them in the dehydrator for a few hours. However, honey doesn't seem to change much. My guess is that I need to add some type of starch to help draw out the moisture, or use a gelling agent in some way. Ideally, the finished properties of the honey sheet are that it is stable at room temperature, not too sticky to the touch (I'm OK with coating it with a fine power to help with this) and that it will dissolve completely if stirred into hot water. Does anyone have experience or tips for this problem? Thanks, Scott

I made Orange Szechuan Peppercorn Ice Cream tonight riffing off a recipe from The Perfect Scoop and a cornstarch base recipe given to me by forum member Darienne. I added 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum to the chilled mix and found it gave a nice texture to the finished product . Anyone else played with Xanthan and ice cream?

My wife recently got cravings for mary jane candies. It is something she loved as a child so is a bit of a comfort snack to her. Amazon to the rescue as she could not find them in any local stores. Upon eating the first one she declared " There's no peanut butter in the middle. The old ones had a center of sweet peanut butter." Does anyone remember a luscious PB center back in the 70's?

I talked to my MIL this morning, who tells me that her other son would like to make a candy with the texture of a gummy bear, but clove-flavored rather than fruity. Has anyone heard of such a thing? What would be a good place to start? My MIL is an experienced hard candy maker, every year doing batches flavored with cinnamon and clove, and I suspect this is where the idea arose. My knee-jerk reaction was that you'd need some kind of fairly neutral fruit as a base, maybe apple, to get the body and texture right, and then you could add some clove oil to bring in that flavor. (Well, my first reaction was "Yuck!" because clove-flavored anything isn't my thing. This was my first productive thought on the subject.) I was thinking maybe an apple pate de fruit recipe? Or would gelatin be a better bet? Thanks, MelissaH

OK. Don't despise me for being lazy and taking the easy way out. I have agreed to make Christmas gifts for the local Humane Society staff to hand out to their volunteers. Thirty to be exact. Half-pound boxes of Nut Brittle. Fifteen pounds. By next Friday. Along with the rest of my chaotic life. Like teaching a professional fudge maker how to make Enstrom type toffee at 11 today. (Just finished making several dozen lollipops for their Dog Adoption Day today.) I have a new recipe from a class I took last month: New Delhi Fragrant Indian Brittle which calls for honey and cardamom. And I have an old Microwave Peanut Brittle Recipe and a brand new 1000 watt microwave and some questions. 1. My microwave is BRAND NEW and 1000 watts. This is an old recipe. I think I ought to use Power level 8. My first batch of lollipops I did at top power and they were slightly burned. The rest I did at 9. But I feel I could have gone to 8. 2. My 'fancy' recipe calls for cardamom. I am thinking about when to add it. With the nuts? That is still cooked in, but not risking burning? 53 The 'fancy' recipe calls for 1/4 cup corn syrup & 1/4 cup HONEY. The old recipe calls for 1/2 cup corn syrup only. What do you think? Well, I can try it with the honey and see if it works. Seems like the probable answer. Any advice is welcomed. Thanks.

I'm teaching a chocolate molding class on Tuesday night, and we're making hollow Easter eggs in addition to standard bonbon type stuff. But it's been forever since I've done it, and I could use a refresher. I have the two piece polycarbonate molds that have little notches to fit together. As I recall from the last time I did this, I decorated the molds with colored cocoa butter, gave them a coat of tempered chocolate with a brush, then put some tempered chocolate in one half, put the other half on, and shook it all around. Is that right? How much chocolate is ideal to get a good thickness of shell? Anything else I should remember to keep in mind?

Some of the attendees enjoyed a lovely day here in Washington, secure in the knowledge that the U.S. Secret Service was providing for their protection. (Notice the truck behind them...???) They ventured to western Virginia to enjoy a local BBQ joint While the Friday crew was getting together to head off to Albert Uster and Penn Quarter for some shopping, I was chided into making sure that Caramel Corn was on the menu for the Meet and Greet Friday night. So, this morning I downed some coffee and headed out to the shop where I popped some corn Made some caramel which resulted in my famous caramel corn.... See everyone soon....

I am making marshmallow sandwich cookies with a shortbread layer on the bottom. I am dipping them in tempered chocolate. Does anyone have a recipe for the shortbread layer? I need something that does not crack easily when cut so that the cookies are even and the dipping chocolate does not get contaminated with too many crumbs. And should I pour the marshmallow layer onto the cookie layer or make them separately and then "glue" them together with chocolate?

Hello, I'm sure everyone has thought about this at one point in their life. A way to create cookie recipes based on sweetness and richness. I just finished writing an app create-a-cookie that lets novices create their own cookie recipes. The directions are in beta stage, meaning the information is correct but needs some polishing. I would like to know what you all think of the app. I know there will be plenty of criticisms. A few notes about the app: 1. I may include a small batch mode for creating small quantities (e.g. 0.75 cups flour vs. 1.5 cups). 2. The recipes are not geared towards standard recipes, (i.e. no pie crust with vodka) 3. The app has a built in converter Let me here from you, however intrigued or shocked you may be. best, Michael

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone has tried these with chocolate? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Veined-Cutters-Plungers-Sugarcraft-byFlissyTM/dp/B004S2PNQ2/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1320095390&sr=8-7 If so, how did you use them? I imagine spreading a thin layer of chocolate on cellophane, waiting for it to cool a bit and pressing these into it? Would it work you think?

Hello: I am looking for a glaze that dries opaque, rather than one that is clear. The cake is flavorful (pumpkin, ginger, etc.) so the glaze does not have to be strongly flavored, but I would like it to "drip" effectively. Thanks!

Coconut is one of my favorite flavors with dark chocolate. I've been working on a coconut truffle filling for molded pieces that is coming along, but I'd also like to create a more shelf-stable filling for a chocolate bar, like a coconut gianduja or a coconut version of a peanut butter cup. I've been making Greweling's PB cup recipe, and I'm thinking something like toasted shredded coconut and possibly powdered coconut milk with coconut oil in place of the PB, plus the cocoa butter to firm it up. Anyone tried anything like this? I would do the bars in 60% or 70%, should I be concerned about fat migration with the coconut oil and dark chocolate? I would want these to have a shelf life of 2-3 months. Thanks for any ideas! Andrea

I am a newer member of eG Forums and would like to thank the organizers and members for this amazing web-site. It's very educational and enjoyable! I've been making caramels at home for about a year, and have been running into problems with delayed crystallization. I have been using Recchiuti's Fleur de Sel recipe from his 'Chocolate Obsession' book which uses the dry technique for making caramels. My caramels start graining up about a week out, despite being enrobed in chocolate and stored in a sealed container to hopefully limit moisture attraction. I'm wondering if there isn't enough 'doctoring agent' in this recipe? Here is my current recipe: 5 drops Lemon Juice 298 g Sugar 1/2 Vanilla Bean 232 g (1 cup) whipping cream 38 g light corn syrup 14 g 82% Butter 1/2 tsp fleur de sel +/- toasted cashews Are there any general guidelines for the ratio of corn syrup to sugar? If I do increase the corn syrup and decrease the sugar by equal amounts, will this affect the texture of the caramels. Could the cashews be contributing to the crystallization too? Thanks in advance for your suggestions. Burny

I've been focusing on my confection skills, and have been making many variants. I'm not sure if I'm bodging the process, so I'm posting my results for your comment. #1: Lebovitz's Salted Butter Carmels: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/01/salted-butter-caramels/ I actually did a few variants on this, as the results I had were much lighter and color than his own results. I'm a bit perplexed by his recipe, as he shows a very dark carmelized sugar; however, his recipe (unless I misread it) features heating sugar to a clear 310F, adding cream, cooking to 260, and cooling. The end result is very much on the hard side. #2: Modified salted butter carmels Salted butter carmel heated to 260 are brick-hard. Heated to 250, it's much better. Am I doing something wrong? Or is my thermometer borked? #3: Salted butter carmels with carmelized sugar. I heated a dry carmel (ignoring actual temperature,) then added the cream and continued as standard to 260F. This was pretty tasty, though quite hard; I ended up adding a little milk and corn syrup and recooking to 250, which produced a good texture and darkened it considerably. #3: Cream-less caramels. The first batch came out burned and greasy. The second batch was made with a wet carmel (sugar syrup heated until it started to brown) of 1C sugar with 1T corn syrup, then 2T of butter, 1T corn syrup and some water was added to liquefy the caramel and it was recooked to 250 before a further 1T of butter was added. I actually think this one came out pretty well: I find that standard caramel, unless made with a lot of honey and other expensive ingredients, is somewhat tasteless, and this came out very nicely. #4: Fruit caramels. Assuming my thermometer was reading low (foolish, given it's alcohol), I cooked 1/3 cup cherry juice concentrate, 1/2 cup water, and 1.5 cup sugar to 250F before adding 2T of salted butter. The end result is pretty tasty, but it's not setting very well. Next batch will have 1/2 cup cherry juice concentrate, but it overall came out well. I'm not sure to what degree I'm reinventing a wheel, but I'm getting a lot of practice out of $2.50 in sugar. The only real catch is my inability to dry caramelize sugar: The combination of poor pans and an uneven electric stove results in dry carmels burning well before the majority of the sugar is melted unless 30+ minutes of careful heating is applied.

I made some passion fruit ganache last weekend. In fact I made three different batches, recipes from Greweling, Notter and Torres. When I tried them last weekend they all had plenty of passion fruit flavor. Tried them again last night and it seems that the passion fruit flavor has mellowed quite a bit and if this continues, soon they will not taste of passion fruit at all. I have not had this happen for any other ganaches. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how they fixed the problem.

the Chocolate and Candy crowd here probably wont learn much here, but i did: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/dining/the-best-in-the-box-chocolate-covered-salted-caramels-for-valentines-day.html?ref=dining&_r=0 in case you missed it.

Here's a question for you confection gurus. I'm aware that at high altitudes, the temperature at which water boils is reduced (for example, at 3,000 meters, where I live, water boils at 89.8 C.) Does sugar behave the same way: to wit, do I have to calculate a much lower temperature than I'm used to for firm-ball syrup? If so, do I use the same ratios I'd use to compute water boiling time to figure out what my new temperature is? I ask because my syrups have been cracking out well below the temperatures I'm used to using, but if I'm overshooting by tens of degrees I wouldn't be surprised by that.... Otherwise, I'm not sure what's causing it - my instruments are all spotless and without the kind of flaws that would normally cause this kind of behaviour, and neither the sugar I use (98% sucrose from the San Carlos mills in Guayas) nor the water (distilled) has changed. Thanks in advance. (edited to fix a non-sequitur)

Hi everyone, Melbourne (AUS) is having a bit of a warm spell at the moment that's looking to continue - 30+ celcius for about 2 weeks straight. I want to play around with a bit of chocolate making but it seems... foolish! In the mornings, the ambient temperature in my house is maybe 23, and i'm wondering if this would be ok for dipping (perhaps a quick trip to the fridge to help them set up for a few minutes?). With moulded pralines, it seems the brief fridge steps that some people recommend make sense since the whole tray is done at once, but it seems impractical for hand dipping, since i'd have to either wait till a whole tray was done (and perhaps moot the point) or otherwise do tiny batches! I guess a related question is that if i made a ganache to slab, would it even set up properly overnight? I was thinking that the crystals would still form as it cooled, but I don't know. Any tips for working in warmer weather (where climate control isn't possible)? Am I best to just write it off over summer and pick it back up when things cool down a bit? The one positive I can think of is that it'll take longer for my tempered chocolate to cool down, so less reheating! Cheers, Stuart.

I'm curious about where to find used confectionery equipment; like everyone else, I'm thinking of getting a guitar (for cutting pate de fruit, marshmallows, petit fours) but I wonder if buying a used machine - if one were to be found - is a good idea. Do you have a dealer you'd recommend? What say you all?

Alright so I had a question to any of you chocolate experts: I am planning on making one of the plated desserts (Chocolate Tile, Shortbread Crumble, Clotted Cream, Peter's Chocolate) out of The Elements of Dessert by Migoya and I have run into a small bump. The dessert I am making calls for a certain brand of chocolate, Peter's Chocolate. It says it is a special high-fat formulation of chocolate which holds its shape after tempering (rather than running), almost giving the texture of a ganache. It is served on the plated dessert just like this. Unfortunately, I have been unable to source it from any online retailers in reasonably small quantities (i.e. not for restaurant kitchens). Do any chocolate experts here have any insight into this? Are there any other suitable replacements? I was thinking I could simply make a ganache as a substitute, but only as a last resort...

Hi all, I'm relatively new to these forums (long time follower though) and I wanted to find some help from those who are more knowledgeable to help make a candy. All it has to be is one tablespoon of glucose in a relatively small tab. They are for my dad who is diabetic and the current glucose tabs are big but they only contain 4 grams of carbohydrate. One tablespoon of glucose = 12 grams of carbohydrates so I'm hoping to find a way to do this as my dad doesn't like to eat so many of these big tabs. Is it possible to get 1tbs of glucose into a relatively small tab, I'm not familiar with binding agents or another method to do this. I thought about boiling it into rock candy but I'd rather have something more dissolvable and something I can more accurately know how much glucose is going in. Here's a pic of the current candies which are too large per amount of carbohydrate: Uploaded with ImageShack.us

He's baaaaaaaaaack!

I greatly enjoy making chocolate truffles, but have had relatively poor luck holding chocolate at the correct temperatures for tempering. My standard method of very slowly melting it in a microwave produces chocolate that, while crisp with good mouthfeel, has severe bloom. After seeing some commercial tempering setups on YouTube, I noticed that many of them use a fountain-style setup for circulation and mold filling. I don't have any chocolate molds, but purchasing a secondhand consumer chocolate fountain and integrating a PID controller and thermocouple into the heater is a very viable possibility. Has anyone done anything like this?

I'm a seasonal candy maker, part by choice and part by necessity. Our candy season runs from October through the winter holidays (usually New Years). 2011 was a phenominal year for us, demolishing all previous years' sales records. We're a 2-person operation and I was hand dipping up to 1000 pieces and going through as much as 50 lbs of chocolate a day using only a small microwave and a 4 lb temperer. It was too crazy. Naturally, my mind turned periodically to some of the nice melters, temperers and enrobers that I've seen and have been discussed elswhere on EG. I've got a pretty good handle on my needs and budget and am hoping to make a first stab in the mechanized direction with a small temperer/enrober. My figures indicate that it should only have a 1-year (3-month, actually) payoff at current production levels (which I certainly expect to increase!), costs and prices. Sounds like a slam-dunk but still I hesitate. What am I not thinking of?

Hi all! I'm on Long Island, NY, looking for a source of good chocolate and white chocolate that wont break the bank. Need it for Christmas confections (peppermint bark, coating caramels, etc) and refuse to use the melting wafers available locally (Merkens and Wilton). Suggestions? Thanks, Heather