Gianduja: The Topic

[Kerry Beal]

Tose are beautiful! Does the mixer process temper the gianduja?

Kerry- thank you

for a lot more than just this!!!!

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Trick is it never gets warm enough to go out of temper - basically just warmed enough so it can be whipped a bit.

[Mette]

I am totally not in a creative mode, but trying very hard to get back into some chocolate -  making routine. I

I bought some milk and dark Gianduja about 2 months ago - Valrhona. I want to use it without adding cream or butter or something that will lower shelf life- as right now my my business is fast asleep...

]Any creative ideas will be very welcome.

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The ever popular one is simply cutting it into squares and enrobing in dark choc - unchanged shelf life and very tasty. Also a layer of marcipan and a layer of ginaduja, cut into squares ans enrobed - often the first ones gone in the selections

Edited January 31, 2009 by Mette (log)

[Lior]

justsaw this Mette! Sounds good. I think a layer of marzipan and gianduja is an excellent idea. I thought to whip also, like Kerry said, and pipi into little chocolate cups. Perhaps I can add soe coffee grinds while whipping? I still have to get around to doing all this!

Thanks

[Darienne]

I am ordering a mold of little flat discs from Tomric to make Gianduja sandwiches. Yummm...

[Lior]

Well I made something similar to what Kerry suggested. I didn't have the right piping tips- I need to get, and I need transfer sheets for the fancy "coins", but I decided to play around anyway. I added some coffee grinds:

And I made the plain squares with tempered gianduja (as suggested) and dipped in dark chocolate. Decorated with a candied rose petal piece and candied violet piece Sorry the picture is a bit dark... :

Edited February 22, 2009 by Lior (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Well I made something similar to what Kerry suggested. I didn't have the right piping tips- I need to get, and I need transfer sheets for the fancy "coins", but I decided to play around anyway. I added some coffee grinds:

Those molds look like little flower pots, and with the coffee grounds it looks like soil. All you need is some tiny little gummy worms and you could make something kids would flip over - like the dessert they call 'dessert dirt' which has oreo crumbs and gummy worms.

Picture here.

[pastrygirl]

Or instead of worms, a candied violet or rose petal or even a little white chocolate flower for Easter (maybe not a big holiday in Israel?), May Day, Mothers' Day or whatever flowery spring holiday you can convince people to buy stuff for.

[Lior]

hey! great great idea- worms for kids (!!) and a chocolate flower/s on a stick for adults (wanted to say for mommy) but here we have "family day" not mothers or fathers day. I guess it is good cause there are many sorts of families. Thanks for the pic, Kerry and the great idea Pastry girl and Kerry!!

Now to find a flower mold!

editted to add, Easter is celebrated by the Christian sector here, but there is Shavuot which is celebrated with garlands and fruit baskets- kinda similar...

Edited February 22, 2009 by Lior (log)

[Darienne]

So as I recall these are made by beating gianduja in the mixer, while you heat a bit with the heat gun on the outside.  Wybauw added some powdered lavender to the mix.  I might add a bit of essential oil myself.

You can crystallize them or just put them between the two discs. 

Hi Kerry,

The gianduja in this recipe, is it a Wybauw recipe? Is it a ganache? I now have the disc molds and I have some Barry milk chocolate gianduja. Alas, I have no recipe for a gianduja ganache. I have had the Wybauw on ILL request for almost three weeks now with no result. They can get it: they got it for me before.

Can you help me out in some way? Should I just make a simple gianduja ganache using heavy cream? It's so soft...what proportion would you suggest?

Thanks, as always, Chocolate Doctor, She Who Knows Just About All.

[Lior]

Darienne, I believe that the piped "ganache" in the picture is only milk gianduja that has been whipped in a mixer, very slightly heated and piped. No cream.

Oh and what is ILL?

Luck!

edittd to add- sorry I am only an intern compared to Kerry....!!

Edited February 24, 2009 by Lior (log)

[alanamoana]

Oh and what is ILL?

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Inter-Library Loan: when you want a book, but your particular library doesn't carry it, they can get it from another library within the same system (in the US, usually by county or city).

[John DePaula]

Oh and what is ILL?

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Inter-Library Loan: when you want a book, but your particular library doesn't carry it, they can get it from another library within the same system (in the US, usually by county or city).

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Uh oh...

[Lior]

[peterm2]

I'm still waiting on the Sumeet - we'll see what happens. Two months and still no restock on the multi-grind in sight, just a series of "2-4 week" expectations so far. Maybe I will go for the bigger Asia model, although it looks significantly larger. Meenumix and Perfect Peninsula also make grinders that look similar, although I haven't heard how well they do or don't work. But at least they're in stock.

[tammylc]

I'm still waiting on the Sumeet - we'll see what happens.  Two months and still no restock on the multi-grind in sight, just a series of "2-4 week" expectations so far.  Maybe I will go for the bigger Asia model, although it looks significantly larger.  Meenumix and Perfect Peninsula also make grinders that look similar, although I haven't heard how well they do or don't work.  But at least they're in stock.

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I ordered one at the end of December and never even got any confirmation that my order had been received. Or return of my phone call to followup. Customer service is clearly not the strong suit there.

[peterm2]

The part that I don't get is that I said I'd get the bigger machine, which they have in stock, if it is going to take awhile for the multi grind to come in stock, and he still told me to wait "two weeks" (for like the third time, most recently this past Saturday). But he could get rid of me, and sell me a more expensive thing, if he just said it was going to take awhile.

[Lior]

I am bringing this topic back. I am still interested in maKING MY OWN GIANDUJA. I don't need to make hazelnut as what I buy is excellent. But if I want to make another nut one ...

Issues:

1. I need a thermomix. These are great for doing pastes.

2. Working out the recipe. I noted that valrhona has 36% hazelnut, 36% sugar and 28 % milk choc. As I see it there is 34% fat total.

Now if I use macadamia or almonds or pistachios, does anyone know what the total percentage of fat should be? Should it always be around 30%? Then I need to figure out fats in the different nuts and based on that, how many grams/percentage of nuts I need to use.

Any input or ideas?

[Kerry Beal]

I don't know if there is an ideal fat percentage. I suspect the ideal flavour would drive me more - but I suppose you need to consider the fat for the emulsion in the centres.

I wonder if Sebastian would weigh in on this one.

[mrose]

Revisiting things. www.sumeet.com had a multigrind grinder for nuts. A few of us have tried to order from this site with no luck. Has anyone been successful?

[Kerry Beal]

Revisiting things. www.sumeet.com had a multigrind grinder for nuts. A few of us have tried to order from this site with no luck. Has anyone been successful?

I don't think anyone has. Tammy ordered one - didn't hear a report as to whether she got it. I need to take a run down there and ask him what's up.

I think you can still order the bigger machine - the Asia - which would work just as well.

[mostlylana]

As I mentioned on a previous post I just got my Thermomix . When I was in Italy Paul DeBondt made hazelnut paste with his and it was delicious - very smooth. As I haven't had a demo of this machine (other than seeing it used in Italy and at Callebaut) I'm not certain if I need to add the oil called for in the recipe book when making nut pastes... When you had your demo Ilana, did they add oil for the nut pastes?

I also have info for you on some gianduja recipes Paul DeBondt gave us. I'll have to dig out my book (I still don't have my new chocolate room in order yet!) I'll let you know soon.

[Lior]

Lana! How fun for you to be getting the new room and have a thermomix! Enjoy it all! Oil was not added when we had our demo. Which book is it that you need to dig out? I am going to order Wybauw 2 and another book but I don't know which yet. I am also interested in making marzipan and cannot find proper recipes that start from scratch. This is important cause I can only get almond marzipan here and I like pistachio. I have made it myself but it is not perfect. I agree, Kerry that flavour is crucial but I like to have some base on which to build a good recipe.

[mostlylana]

Thanks so much for that info Ilana. I'll try making pastes this week. The book I was talking about was my book of notes . It seems to me I wrote this somewhere but maybe it wasn't on this forum...

In any case, this is what Paul DeBondt had to say about making Gianduja:

50% semi-sweet / 50% hazelnut paste will make a soft filling.

If using milk chocolate you would need more hazelnut paste.

He made 3 versions of hazelnut paste for us:

1) 60% dark chocolate (60% cocoa mass) + 40% fine hazelnut paste (no sugar added)

2) 50% dark chocolate (60%) + 30% hazelnut paste (unsweetened) + 10% peanut oil + 10% cocoa butter (at room temp.)

3) 70% milk chocolate + 30% hazelnuts (processed smooth in Thermomix)

Results: The 1st version was more dense and 'bitter' in flavour than the second. My favourite was the 2nd. Very smooth and tasty - no bitterness. Excellent. The 3rd was also amazing as we used fresh hazelnuts processed in the Bimby. Very good but sweeter.

Notice he didn't use any sugar. Interesting hey? But do keep in mind that the hazelnuts he was using were Piemonte hazelnuts which were absolutely amazing in flavour.

Hope that helps...

[Lior]

Very interesting! No sugar! Do you have any idea how the general public reacts? I am constantly developing my diabetics line, which is basically 80-85% dark chocolate sweetened with maltitol (15%) and I use it to make a kind of gianduja-using nut pastes with no sugar. Some people like it some hate it. It is dense and bitter as you can imagine. But for a chocolate that is truly okay for these folks, in small quantities, I think it is good. I am torn when people don't like it as I know they should try to get used to it!!!

Thanks for the help-as usual you are so helpful!

[peterm2]

Revisiting things. www.sumeet.com had a multigrind grinder for nuts. A few of us have tried to order from this site with no luck. Has anyone been successful?

I don't think anyone has. Tammy ordered one - didn't hear a report as to whether she got it. I need to take a run down there and ask him what's up.

I think you can still order the bigger machine - the Asia - which would work just as well.

Last I spoke with him was about a week or two ago. Not even the standard 2 week wait anymore. He said maybe a month or two, but they are definitely hoping by Christmas. I guess you can interpret that as you want, given that last time he told me 100% end of June.

The Asia kitchen has a substantially larger footprint than the multigrind, which is why I haven't gotten that one in the meantime. I'm also not in a big hurry, and don't have much counter space at all for this year. This has become more like a nice background thing that I can annoy myself with when I'm having a good day.