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Chocolate by Ramon Morato


Kerry Beal

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you should be careful with the valrhona anhydrous butter. it has been especially designed for use in patisserie applications. it has been altered to be liquid at room temperture, because of that it will drastically change the texture of your ganache towards the soft side...

cheers

t.

toertchen toertchen

patissier chocolatier cafe

cologne, germany

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you should be careful with the valrhona anhydrous butter. it has been especially designed for use in patisserie applications. it has been altered to be liquid at room temperture, because of that it will drastically change the texture of your ganache towards the soft side...

cheers

t.

Torsten, how would that compare with the clarified butter then?

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"I have been making some of my ganaches using his technique of 40º C chocolate and cooler cream, they seem to set up quickly, and have excellent texture. I'm sold on his proportions of ingredients for shelf life (as shown in to the Excel spread sheet linked to by Schneich) after giving a moldy, not very old chocolate to a fellow chocolatier a couple of days ago. When we plugged the recipe into the spreadsheet it failed badly!"

Kerry, Does his ganache recipes call for chocolate at 40º C? Not tempered??!! I know at 40 it can't be tempered. Does he give reasons? I am also dying to get this book, but with tax and shipping it is craziness right now. I will find a way though.

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you should be careful with the valrhona anhydrous butter. it has been especially designed for use in patisserie applications. it has been altered to be liquid at room temperture, because of that it will drastically change the texture of your ganache towards the soft side...

cheers

t.

Thanks Torsten. I was a little bit baffled when it was called Liquid Butter! There is obviously no way that it would be appropriate for an anhydrous butter application.

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By the way Ghee can be found easily at any natural grocery store ( here in Colorado Vitamine Cottage, Whole Foods ) its organic and I dont have to make my own wich I find a tedious task.

One question maybe out of topic, but what they intend for liquid sugar? I have notice many candy are made with glucose and liquid sugar, so they are definatelly not the same thing. Just a curiosity.

Vanessa

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I've noticed a difference between using butter (82% butter fat, 16% water) and anhydrous butter (99% butter fat) (aka anhydrous milk fat, AMF).

Anhydrous butter gives a much softer ganache. I mixed the AMF with melted chocolate then emulsified with cream. When does Ramon Morato introduce the anhydrous butter?

For information

The comparison comes from a recipe otherwise identical - ie 20% water, 21.3% cocoa butter (from Valrhona Caraibe), 21.3% butter fat (from cream (39% butter fat) and butter, or cream and anhydrous butter), 13.6% cocoa solids (from Valrhona Caraibe), and sugars 22.8% (sucrose from Valrhona Caraibe and Glucose Syrup 42DE).

Theory

Butter fat softens ganache by 1) introducing a lower solid fat content fat at room temperature and 2) by an eutectic effect between AMF and cocoa butter. I've seen on the web an excellent graph - I'll try and find it again and post link. The eutectic kicks in at 40% AMF:60% cocoa butter, and is greatest at 50:50 at room temperature.

Perhaps the butter fat in AMF, not being in emulsion, is fully available to form an eutectic with the cocoa butter? Any food scientists out there?

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It has just occured to me, that a third comparitor would be to melt/boil butter (82% butter fat) in the cream before making an emulsion. I know of this as a technique, though have never done it.

Any thoughts?

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It has just occured to me, that a third comparitor would be to melt/boil butter (82% butter fat) in the cream before making an emulsion. I know of this as a technique, though have never done it.

Any thoughts?

This would be a worthwhile experiment.

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  • 3 weeks later...
"I have been making some of my ganaches using his technique of 40º C chocolate and cooler cream, they seem to set up quickly, and have excellent texture.  I'm sold on his proportions of ingredients for shelf life (as shown in to the Excel spread sheet linked to by Schneich) after giving a moldy, not very old chocolate to a fellow chocolatier a couple of days ago.  When we plugged the recipe into the spreadsheet it failed badly!"

Kerry, Does his ganache recipes call for  chocolate at 40º C? Not tempered??!! I know at 40 it can't be tempered. Does he give reasons? I am also dying to get this book, but with tax and shipping it is craziness right now. I will find a way though.

Sorry, just realized I hadn't answered this question. He does indeed call for chocolate at 40-45 degrees C and cream and sugar ingredients at 25-30 degrees C. The cream is UHT.

His explanation is that cocoa butter doesn't melt until 35 degrees C and that to get a perfect emulsion you need the chocolate above this temperature.

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Thank you. If the chocolate was melted and tempered and the cream at the same temp as the choc? This is confusing!

The other method I use is with the chocolate tempered (around 30 degrees) and the cream warmer (around 40 degrees). Not sure how it would work if they were both at the same temp.

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Sorry, just realized I hadn't answered this question.  He does indeed call for chocolate at 40-45 degrees C and cream and sugar ingredients at 25-30 degrees C.  The cream is UHT. 

His explanation is that cocoa butter doesn't melt until 35 degrees C and that to get a perfect emulsion you need the chocolate above this temperature.

On google, I found a couple of caselaw definitions of UHT cream. Could you please provide me with a simpler one? Thanks.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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UHT is a process where the milk/cream is heated to a high temperature for a short period of time. It essentially sterilizes the product giving it a very long shelf life.

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Sorry, just realized I hadn't answered this question.  He does indeed call for chocolate at 40-45 degrees C and cream and sugar ingredients at 25-30 degrees C.  The cream is UHT. 

His explanation is that cocoa butter doesn't melt until 35 degrees C and that to get a perfect emulsion you need the chocolate above this temperature.

On google, I found a couple of caselaw definitions of UHT cream. Could you please provide me with a simpler one? Thanks.

U = ultra

H = high

T = temperature

edited to add: and just to keep this on topic, i ordered the book from the canadian source kerry beal mentioned (the cookbook store). i just found out that credit card companies charge a fee for international charges. i've never noticed that before! american express: 2% which is going up to 2.7% in January for any charge in foreign currency...this totally sucks. visa and mc are 1% i think. had i known, i would have used another card because this totally closed the gap on the good exchange rate. i still saved money, but not enough to make a huge difference!!!

Edited by alanamoana (log)
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U = ultra

H = high

T = temperature

Thanks for that information. :smile:

Sorry about the credit cards woe. :sad: Alas, it is something that Canadians traveling (or in Canadian = travelling) to the USA have had to live with for years. :sad::sad:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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So does he suggest the use of the UHT cream to produce chocolates?

I am not sure I like that, I grew up thinking UHT products weren't that good for you and avoid them (I remember my grandmother using UHT milk all the time because it stays for long in the pantry, so she could stock up on it ). Anyway the thing is for an artisanal product why using a processed not fresh ingredient? Maybe he is more concerned about shelf life? The price of the book is keeping me from buying it at this moment, maybe next year.

Vanessa

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So does he suggest the use of the UHT cream to produce chocolates?

I  am not sure I like that, I grew up thinking UHT products weren't that good for you and avoid them (I remember my grandmother using UHT milk all the time because it stays for long in the pantry, so she could stock up on it ). Anyway the thing is for an artisanal product why using a processed not fresh ingredient? Maybe he is more concerned about shelf life? The price of the book is keeping me from buying it at this moment, maybe next year.

Exactly, Vanessa. He uses the UHT milk for reasons of shelf-life. There may be better brands out there than, say, 10 or 20 years ago. I was surprised that UHT cream was used even at pastry school in France. Surprising because the end result was pretty good, even so.

Sure can't beat the shelf life of the cream.

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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Do you guys also get UHT milk? I love it in my coffee!! And when I run out of milk on the weekend it is great to have around. I also use UHT cream and it is the only kind that is 38%, fresh is less.

I haven't seen it in the U.S. but others may know of a source.

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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