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Chocolate DVD's From Culinary Institute?

u2star

By u2star
in Pastry & Baking

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u2star

u2star

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3DVD made by the the Culinary Institute of America CIA

Hand formed chocolat, filled chocolate and brittles & more.

I am a beginning Chocolatier and was wondering if anyone here has had a chance to view these dvd's. If so, did you find them informative or helpful??

Any other Chocolate (tempering, molding, etc) dvd's you recommend for those of us just starting out??

Thanks so much.

Diane

AwholeLottaChocolate

Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
3DVD made by the the Culinary Institute of America CIA

Hand formed chocolat, filled chocolate and brittles & more.

I am a beginning Chocolatier and was wondering if anyone here has had a chance to view these dvd's.  If so, did you find them informative or helpful??

Any other Chocolate (tempering, molding, etc) dvd's you recommend for those of us just starting out??

Thanks so much.

Diane

I know I learned how to temper and mold chocolate from watching DVDs put out by our very own Kerry Beal (aka The Chocolate Doctor). You might check her website: www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

u2star

u2star

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
3DVD made by the the Culinary Institute of America CIA

Hand formed chocolat, filled chocolate and brittles & more.

I am a beginning Chocolatier and was wondering if anyone here has had a chance to view these dvd's.  If so, did you find them informative or helpful??

Any other Chocolate (tempering, molding, etc) dvd's you recommend for those of us just starting out??

Thanks so much.

Diane

I know I learned how to temper and mold chocolate from watching DVDs put out by our very own Kerry Beal (aka The Chocolate Doctor). You might check her website: www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

Anna-

Thanks so much. I am going to take a look at her site.

Sincerely

Diane

AwholeLottaChocolate

patris

patris

Posted
Posted

I second the recommendation of Kerry's DVDs. They are wonderfully concise, and have been enormously helpful in my amateur endeavors.

Patty

  • 4 weeks later...
emmalish

emmalish

Posted
Posted (edited)

I signed up for Smart Flix and ordered all three of these DVDs. I just got and watched the 3rd in the series "Brittle & More". It's great for a newbie like me to see someone demonstrating the techniques I've read about, but based on this DVD I wouldn't recommend this series in lieu of reference books.

They seem to assume that people watching the videos already have some knowledge of the subject. For example, when they demonstrated caramel making, there was no mention made of whether to use low or high heat, or what affect that would have on the final product – so one would already need to know that caramel needs to heat slowly. There's also no mention of how long different steps should take. The syrup he was heating to make a peanut brittle appeared to reach thread stage in a matter of seconds.

It's basically a demonstration with very little explanation of what's happening or how long it takes. A great companion piece to a good reference book, but not a substitute.

Oh, and also, while the CIA site says the DVD is over 2hrs long, it's a half hour at most. Maybe it's 2 hours for the entire set of 3?

Edited by emmalish (log)

I'm gonna go bake something…

wanna come with?

pastrygirl

pastrygirl

Posted
Posted
For example, when they demonstrated caramel making, there was no mention made of whether to use low or high heat, or what affect that would have on the final product – so one would already need to know that caramel needs to heat slowly.

Really? Why? I always caramelize sugar on high heat, and have been happy so far.

pastrygirl

pastrygirl

Posted
Posted
For example, when they demonstrated caramel making, there was no mention made of whether to use low or high heat, or what affect that would have on the final product – so one would already need to know that caramel needs to heat slowly.

Really? Can you explain why? I always caramelize sugar on high heat, and have been happy so far, but if there is a better way, it would be good to know.

emmalish

emmalish

Posted
Posted
Really?  Can you explain why?  I always caramelize sugar on high heat, and have been happy so far, but if there is a better way, it would be good to know.

Really? Trust me, I'm no expert, but every reference I've found that has mentioned heat, has specified a low temperature. This is from the eGCI Confectionary 101...

A long slow cooking will give a softer, mellower toffee. The principal cause of toughness and lack of flavour in caramel are high temperatures and inferior materials.

I'm gonna go bake something…

wanna come with?

pastrygirl

pastrygirl

Posted
Posted

Hmmm, I used to think I was a perfectionist, maybe its time to admit I'm only a perfectionist sometimes, and the rest of the time I'm really impatient! I'll have to start reading those recipes!

OK, back to the topic at hand. :smile:

emmalish

emmalish

Posted
Posted

Hee! Yeah, I'm an occasional perfectionist too.

Oh, and I hope my "Really?" didn't come across as mocking your "Really?" It didn't even occur to me until I just re-read the post. Whoops. It was an honest "Really?"

I'm gonna go bake something…

wanna come with?

Sebastian

Sebastian

Posted
Posted

there are 4 (well, a little more actually, but for to avoid the chemistry lesson we'll go with 4) things that influence caramalization - strength of a reducing sugar (not all sugars are created equal), type of protein, heat, and time. because heat and time are related (if you use high heat, you're going to reach your desired solids level more quickly, thus exposing your caramel to less time on heat), there's a direct relationship to degree of caramalization. lower heats mean it takes longer to hit your solids level, which means you've got more time exposed to heat which is the catalyst for the sugars/protein (ie caramel) reaction to occur.

pastrygirl

pastrygirl

Posted
Posted
there are 4 (well, a little more actually, but for to avoid the chemistry lesson we'll go with 4) things that influence caramalization - strength of a reducing sugar (not all sugars are created equal), type of protein, heat, and time.  because heat and time are related (if you use high heat, you're going to reach your desired solids level more quickly, thus exposing your caramel to less time on heat), there's a direct relationship to degree of caramalization.  lower heats mean it takes longer to hit your solids level, which means you've got more time exposed to heat which is the catalyst for the sugars/protein (ie caramel) reaction to occur.

Somehow I thought that slower caramelization increased your risk of undesireable crystallization, especially in wet caramels. Apparently not?

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