Chocolate Course

[Lior]

How funny!! I was forever in search for the perfect garbage can- my family thinks I am nuts... I spent so much money trying this and then that until I reall did find a nice one. not as nice and expensive as that one from Chov world but same conception. I now will photograph it!!!

[Chris Hennes]

My favorite garbage can in the world.  It has a nice large capacity, when you step on the pedal the lid comes up, then slowly closes again.  Saw them at Chocolate World, go for about 500 euro.  No wonder I liked it so much.

←

500€ ?!? Am I missing something here? It sounds like your standard pedal-operated trash can with a pneumatic valve to slow down the closing action.

[Lior]

This is very silly!! But after such a looong garbage can search I am proud to display my 30$ garbage can!!

That was fun!

[Kerry Beal]

I have finally had the opportunity to taste a lot of the chocolate I brought home. I brought home the chocolates we made, some from Chocolate Line and a few other places.

I was given a whole lot of chocolate as well. I had suitcases full of molds and I wondered how would get all the chocolate in there too, but I did.

So after extensive tasting, by myself, family members, chocolatiers and friends - we all agreed that Schneich's chocolates were the best enrobed chocolates we had tasted by far. The ganaches were so very smooth and the flavours were fabulous - clear, true to the fruit or spice and strong enough to stand up to the chocolate. My personal favorite of his was the coconut curry. The coconut sweetened up the curry and made it a perfect match for the chocolate. Chocolate Line had a curry chocolate - it tasted muddy - I think the whole idea was to prove you could be daring and put curry in chocolate - but they shouldn't have bothered.

I'm annoyed with myself for forgetting to take pictures of the chocolates before we attacked them = perhaps Schneich will post a picture for us.

So we know that Torsten uses a immersion blender to get his smooth ganaches, so we just have to find out hpw he gets his lovely true flavours.

[mostlylana]

Here's a blast from your past Kerry! I was looking at this photo you snapped at a Brussels chocolate shop. The top heart looks as though it is stenciled (??) ...like it has holes in it like a doily. I imagine it is backed with dark chocolate and doesn't actually have holes in it...

Does anyone know how this is done? It's so pretty.

[Kerry Beal]

Here's a blast from your past Kerry! I was looking at this photo you snapped at a Brussels chocolate shop. The top heart looks as though it is stenciled (??) ...like it has holes in it like a doily. I imagine it is backed with dark chocolate and doesn't actually have holes in it...

Does anyone know how this is done? It's so pretty.

It is holes, rather than a dark backing. What you do is to start with a heart mold, a piping bag full chocolate (thick and fairly cool so it doesn't spread too much), then start drizzling lines and squiggles in the mold. Finish off with enough chocolate around the top of the mold so you can remove it easily, scrape well. You don't want to bang it out of the mold, instead a twist then coax it out of the mold with your fingers. If it won't come out easily (that's where the scraping helps) into the freezer for about 3 minutes before the next try.

[mostlylana]

It is holes, rather than a dark backing. What you do is to start with a heart mold, a piping bag full chocolate (thick and fairly cool so it doesn't spread too much), then start drizzling lines and squiggles in the mold. Finish off with enough chocolate around the top of the mold so you can remove it easily, scrape well. You don't want to bang it out of the mold, instead a twist then coax it out of the mold with your fingers. If it won't come out easily (that's where the scraping helps) into the freezer for about 3 minutes before the next try.

Awesome! Thanks Kerry! I'm definitely going to try this one. Do you think that backing it with dark chocolate would work aesthetically? For sure it would make it a lot easier to remove from the mold. I'm just wondering if it would squeeze through the holes and mess up the 'lace'.

[Kerry Beal]

It is holes, rather than a dark backing. What you do is to start with a heart mold, a piping bag full chocolate (thick and fairly cool so it doesn't spread too much), then start drizzling lines and squiggles in the mold. Finish off with enough chocolate around the top of the mold so you can remove it easily, scrape well. You don't want to bang it out of the mold, instead a twist then coax it out of the mold with your fingers. If it won't come out easily (that's where the scraping helps) into the freezer for about 3 minutes before the next try.

Awesome! Thanks Kerry! I'm definitely going to try this one. Do you think that backing it with dark chocolate would work aesthetically? For sure it would make it a lot easier to remove from the mold. I'm just wondering if it would squeeze through the holes and mess up the 'lace'.

I'll bet backing with dark would work - one way to find out!

[chocoera]

I'm heading out tomorrow evening for Belgium to take a course on making chocolate showpieces at the Belcolade factory in Aalst, Belgium. Puratos - the supplier of Belcolade in Canada has arranged the course and was kind enough to invite me along.

So in preparation for this trip I've been following a jet lag program that I have used with success in the past. It involves dietary manipulation and caffeine restriction, with reintroduction of caffeine at the appropriate times to 'reset' the body clock.

So starting on Wednesday I have done alternating days of 'feasting' and 'fasting' eating mainly protein for breakfast and lunch, and carbohydrates at dinner. No after dinner snacking allowed. Caffeine is allowed only between 3 and 4:30 in the afternoon. Apparently studies have shown that depleting glycogen stores makes you more sensitive to the effects of the caffeine.

Tomorrow - the day I fly - is a 'fasting' day - about 800 calories - and at 6 in the evening I drink several cups of black coffee. In combination with resting at the appropriate time, waking 1/2 hour before breakfast Belgium time, doing a bit of physical exercise and brain exercise, then starting another 'feasting day' - I should be good to go for the start of the course on Monday morning.

I've used this program a couple of times before when traveling to europe and it has made a world of difference to the jet lag I feel. The down side I suppose is the headache from caffeine withdrawal on Wednesday and the boring diet for these few days. This morning - a 'feasting' day I had a 3 egg omelet with onion, mushroom and cheese for breakfast, a steak for lunch and I felt rather yucky all day. It was all I could do to eat the high carbohydrate dinner - I don't think I achieved the kind of calories the program requires for a feast day. Can't wait to get back on a regular varied diet - some protein, some carbohydrate at the same meal. Moule frites I hope will be one of my first proper meals in Belgium.

This will be a pretty much all chocolate and food trip, so I'd love to take you along with me. The plan is to attend the course Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - with any luck we will hit a mold factory on Thursday - then Friday I'm taking the train to Germany. I'll have a quick stopover in Cologne where I hope to get some pictures of Schneich's chocolate lab - then off to visit friends who collect old metal chocolate molds and produce very large equipment for chocolate factories.

I'm the proud owner of a new Asus eee computer - a tiny little thing (less than 1 kg) with full WiFi capabilities that should allow me to keep in touch as long as I can find wireless. Picture transfer is a bit of a challenge, so I'll probably post a bunch when I get back, but I'll try to download some while I'm away.

I'd love any suggestions about foods I should try - if anyone knows of restaurants in Aalst that are worth checking out I'd love to hear about them. I found lots of threads on Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp, but nothing about Aalst.

Also anxious to hear suggestions for any particular chocolate I should try in Brussels.

so happy for you! and so proud

can't wait to hear all about!

[YWalker]

My favorite garbage can in the world. It has a nice large capacity, when you step on the pedal the lid comes up, then slowly closes again. Saw them at Chocolate World, go for about 500 euro. No wonder I liked it so much.

Going back to the trashcan hijack that is now about 3 years old.......

I've been very happy with this motion sensor trash can. It has the very happy side benefit of scaring the bejeebers out of my dog, which has put an end to her trash pilfering.