Gianduja ganache

[Merry Berry]

16 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

She is a delight!

 

That is great to hear.  They say never meet your idols, but I feel some would be the exception.  

[A Polderman]

9 hours ago, Jim D. said:

Just one note on pecans:  I do a lot of different giandujas, and the pecan version has the mildest flavor of all of them. You wouldn't think so, but so it seems. As dark chocolate will overwhelm it very easily, I have switched to milk. I'm just saying that your hopes for strong pecan flavor may not be realized if you are using dark.

Its not just the pecan notes, because I smoke them and then candy them in a slightly spicy ghost pepper & paprika sugar mixture, I want the smoke flavor and a hint of the spice to come through as well. When it was slabbed I wanted to literally climb on the counter and roll in it so it was a bit disappointing to have such a strong aroma yet a weak texture &  flavor profile overpowered by so much chocolate.

[Jim D.]

3 hours ago, A Polderman said:

Its not just the pecan notes, because I smoke them and then candy them in a slightly spicy ghost pepper & paprika sugar mixture, I want the smoke flavor and a hint of the spice to come through as well. When it was slabbed I wanted to literally climb on the counter and roll in it so it was a bit disappointing to have such a strong aroma yet a weak texture &  flavor profile overpowered by so much chocolate.

I cannot begin to list all the flavors I have tried to incorporate into a bonbon without success. After a particularly tasty peach season, I thought how easy it would be to have a peach bonbon, perhaps with a cinnamon layer as well. Alas, almost no flavor. Blueberry has also stymied me (though I have not given up). The best approach, I think, is to make a water ganache, replacing some or all of the usual cream with fruit purée (Jean-Pierre Wybauw has such a recipe for black currant ganache, and it is wonderful), but shelf life suffers. As for flavor in gianduja, I have a large package of pecan gianduja made with dark chocolate in my freezer, with the thought that someday I may find a use for its faint pecan flavor. I think milk chocolate works best with pecan and almond, and for pistachio gianduja, I use white. I hope you will find a way to preserve the pecan + smoke + spice flavor without having chocolate overwhelm it.

[teonzo]

13 hours ago, A Polderman said:

GRRRRR. I am bummed as this recipe takes a HUGE effort to have it turn out mediocre

 

No failing, no learning. A failure is a chance to learn something you could never learn if you did it right from the beginning. So it's better to keep this attitude.

By the way, you should be proud to be able to do this kind of things as an amateur, it's stuff most professionals never dared to touch.

I would insist in suggesting to contact Greweling himself and pointing out these troubles. He won't be offended by this, I'm pretty sure he much prefers to be noticed about these mistakes. And I'm sure he would be delighted to see that an amateur is making his most difficult stuff, that's one of the most rewarding things for a cookbook author.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, A Polderman said:

Moving forward, I want to try it again but with LOTS of changes and basically sticking to JUST the idea and not the recipe as printed. SO I want to make a square firm base made from my hickory smoked, candied pecans, and then top it with the sphere whisky dome and dip into dark chocolate with NO garnish for a completely contemporary look.

 

Any ideas on the base layer other than a Gianduja? Personally I want to add more of the smoked candied, paprika pecan flavoring which seems to be overpowered by chocolate here. 

 

Would a shortbread possibly give me that?? Any other suggestions??

 

First of all, I agree with @Jim D. that milk chocolate is a better choice for pecans.

I really like the shape you chose (square with a single dome), I'd keep out the ground pecans on top and add a single linear colored brushstroke.

For the smoke flavour, I would avoid smoking the pecans and use a peaty whisky like Ardbeg. Not in the sense to use only Ardbeg as the spirit, just sub around 5-10% of your preferred whisky with a peaty one. If you use 100% Ardbeg you'll end up thinking you are eating a fireplace. About spicing, my favourite choice with peaty whisky is nutmeg.

Shortbread would cover the pecan taste, it's a side effect of all the butter. I would suggest a dacquoise made using pecan flour and the spices of your choice, then adding ground pecans (not as fine as flour, say like 1/8") for additional taste and texture. You spread the dacquoise batter on a baking sheet at about 1/8" thickness, then cook it to tender texture (not crispy) as all dacquoises should, let it cool, cut the squares, put them back in a low oven (around 180° F) to get them dry and crisp (you need to cut the squares when they are tender). After the squares are dried and cool, brush their top and bottoms with milk chocolate (or dark chocolate if you want to keep with that), if you have the equipment for spraying then that's quicker than brushing. This way you'll get a much cleaner pecan taste than with a gianduja. You'll have some added texture due to the pecan bits. A dacquoise is always seen as a really sweet component, that's true, but you add pecan bits and spices (this cuts the sweetness); a dacquoise has similar sugar content as a gianduja (around 50%).

 

 

 

13 hours ago, A Polderman said:

@teonzois your trade culinary?

 

I have a bit of job experience as pastry chef.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, A Polderman said:

Now I have it down, I am just learning how to perfect the thickness of my starch shells.

 

You need to attach multiple models (domes in this case) to a bar that's as long as the pan containing the starch, then press the bar (models side down) on the starch. This way you get the exact same thickness for each cavity, assuming your models were all the same. @minas6907 is the expert on this, maybe he can chime in.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, A Polderman said:

I am NOT home all day every day to babysit them while they are resting and the timing when to turn and when to remove them varies depending on the sugar and alcohol content of your syrup.

 

That's something to plan on week-ends.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Kerry Beal]

At the PMCA this year there were several vendors selling 'peanut oil flavor' and by that I mean supercritical CO₂ extraction of peanut. Massive roasted peanut flavor in a couple of drops. Perhaps we need to do that with pecan.
 

[Merry Berry]

5 hours ago, Jim D. said:

I cannot begin to list all the flavors I have tried to incorporate into a bonbon without success. After a particularly tasty peach season, I thought how easy it would be to have a peach bonbon, perhaps with a cinnamon layer as well. Alas, almost no flavor. Blueberry has also stymied me (though I have not given up). The best approach, I think, is to make a water ganache, replacing some or all of the usual cream with fruit purée (Jean-Pierre Wybauw has such a recipe for black currant ganache, and it is wonderful), but shelf life suffers. As for flavor in gianduja, I have a large package of pecan gianduja made with dark chocolate in my freezer, with the thought that someday I may find a use for its faint pecan flavor. I think milk chocolate works best with pecan and almond, and for pistachio gianduja, I use white. I hope you will find a way to preserve the pecan + smoke + spice flavor without having chocolate overwhelm it.

 

Speaking of water ganache, do you have any issues freezing bonbons or truffles with a water ganache component to them?  Does the extra water content freeze too hard and crack the shells or enrobing?  I am curious about that.

[Jim D.]

15 minutes ago, Merry Berry said:

 

Speaking of water ganache, do you have any issues freezing bonbons or truffles with a water ganache component to them?  Does the extra water content freeze too hard and crack the shells or enrobing?  I am curious about that.

I have not had that issue. The black currant ganache I mentioned previously has a lot of butter in it, so that helps with water content.

[Tri2Cook]

7 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

At the PMCA this year there were several vendors selling 'peanut oil flavor' and by that I mean supercritical CO₂ extraction of peanut. Massive roasted peanut flavor in a couple of drops. Perhaps we need to do that with pecan.

We need to find a way to get a supercritical CO₂  extraction thingamajig into your hands so we can have a source for supercritical CO₂  extractions of everything that is supercritical CO₂  extractable... you know, just in case you don't already have enough to fill your days. 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Tri2Cook said:

We need to find a way to get a supercritical CO₂  extraction thingamajig into your hands so we can have a source for supercritical CO₂  extractions of everything that is supercritical CO₂  extractable... you know, just in case you don't already have enough to fill your days. 

Exactly - but we shall have to compete with the THC extractors.

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

14 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Exactly - but we shall have to compete with the THC extractors.

That'll take care of itself. They'll spend half their time forgetting what they were supposed to be doing and the other half running to the convenience store for more munchies. 

[A Polderman]

11 hours ago, teonzo said:

 

You need to attach multiple models (domes in this case) to a bar that's as long as the pan containing the starch, then press the bar (models side down) on the starch. This way you get the exact same thickness for each cavity, assuming your models were all the same. @minas6907 is the expert on this, maybe he can chime in.

 

I have large wooden bars with multiple impressions on them but what I meant by thickness of the stanch is that depending on your starch to flour ratio, the temp of your syrup or temperature of your starch bed  as well as the length of time resting in the box, what point you flip them or the alcohol content all can determine the thickness of the actual corn starch shell in the finished product.

 

My goal is to get as thin of a shell as possible but thick enough to dip without breakage because liquor in  chocolate makes for a lot of truffles in my future! ::-) 

 

As for weekends, I don't have them. As a real estate professional I host open house events on Sat and Sundays or if not doing that its a great day for buyer clients to be out touring so I have many balls in the air 7 days a week, thankfully no kids or pets SO... this is my relaxation, LOL