Report:eG Chocolate and Confectionery Conference

[cmflick]

Thanks to everyone who has posted photos and videos. It's been great for those of us who couldn't be there. It's made me even greener with envy. I sure hope there is a repeat performance.

There have been a couple of mentions of an information packet that was handed out. Is there any way that can be posted for those of who couldn't make it? I'd like to see the recipes that were being used.

[Kerry Beal]

The recipes for the Almond Buttercrunch and the chewy caramel are already in the confectionery course in the eGCI, as is the nougat - it's the recipe for the snickers type bar. The sponge toffee and the butter ganache recipes are in Greweling.

Here is the page on decorating - just a few points, Brian discussed a lot of details, but I missed them.

Creating Special Effects on Chocolate

1. Cocoa butter and coloured cocoa butter does not need to be tempered, just heated to the point required to work with it. Your best temperature is probably around 30 - 35º C (86 - 95º F), warmer and it tends to run and take too long to harden.

2. To refrigerate or not? I don’t usually bother unless something just isn’t hardening up fast enough for me.

3. Colours used must be fat soluble.

3. Work the colour together with the cocoa butter on your granite or marble slab with an offset spatula to disperse it. Alternately you can mix with an immersion blender. It is not sufficient to just mix with a spatula.

4. Colours are in the form of either dyes or lakes. A lake is a combination of a dye and an insoluble material. Dyes are water soluble, lakes can be dispersed in fat (but are not directly soluble in fat). When dispersed in fat the lake will produce a transparent colour - to which titanium dioxide must be added if opacity is desired.

5. If you wish to colour your mold with the transparent mixture, painting white coloured cocoa butter behind it (titanium dioxide in cocoa butter) will make the surface colour ‘pop’.

6. Colours can be applied with your finger, cotton swabs, brushes, an airbrush, through a silk screen etc.

7. Luster dusts or interference powders can be applied before molding i.e. airbrushed onto the mold in an alcoholic suspension, or dusted on to the piece after molding.

8. When using chocolate to decorate - thin it with cocoa butter - minimum 30% extra cocoa butter, usually in a 50/50 mixture. If you use an airbrush and apply thinned chocolate to your room temperature product with the chocolate mixture at about 34º C (93º F) you will get a shiny product. If you apply the mixture heated to 50º C (122º F) to a frozen product you will get a velvet like matte finish.

9. For silk screening your coloured cocoa butter should be about the consistency of sour cream to give a transfer with minimal smearing. Be careful when reheating the cocoa butter on the screen with your heat gun, as it can pop holes in the screen.

Here is the page about the slab fillings - what we were hoping to explore.

FILLINGS

Ganache - there seem to be a variety of techniques described for producing ganache, but looking at the experts three main methods of mixing seem to emerge.

Wybauw seems to mix tempered chocolate at 30 to 32º C (86 - 90º F) with 30º (86º F) cream, then mixes in the room temperature butter. The theory here is that the cocoa butter form V crystals don’t get melted and the butter emulsion is never broken.

Greweling mixes the 30 - 32º C (86 - 90º F) tempered chocolate with 26º C (79º F) butter - the description suggests massaging the butter into the chocolate, then adding 40º C (104º F) liquid. The mass never goes above 34º C - so again your crystals don’t melt.

Morato on the other hand, melts the chocolate with the butter and has it at 40 - 45º C (104 - 113º F) then adds 30º liquid. Obviously in this case the crystals will not be present.

I’m going to suggest we start with a basic formula for a slab ganache and mix with the three different methods - to see whether we can detect any differences, advantages or disadvantages of one method over an other.

The basic recipe will be 250 grams cream

25 grams invert sugar

270 grams 64% dark chocolate

50 grams butter

A variety of flavouring options will be available. To standardize, if an infusion is used, make up the cream deficit with milk after straining.

There were not a lot of huge differences in the mixing of butter ganaches between the 3 experts, so we’ll pick one of the basic ones from Greweling to make. We may need to experiment a little on some techniques for getting our butter to 30º C without melting it.

Morato’s rules for a balanced ganache

water - maximum 20%

sugar - minimum 30%

cocoa butter - minimum 21%

dairy fat - maximum 15%

These are the piped fillings we worked with.

Piped Fillings

Passion Fruit Caramel

200 grams sugar

20 grams glucose

200 grams passion fruit puree

160 grams white chocolate

30 grams cocoa butter

60 grams butter

Caramelize sugar with glucose until browned, deglaze with puree. Add chocolate and cocoa butter and allow to melt, let cool slightly then add butter.

Flowing Caramel

75 grams glucose

175 grams sugar

125 grams heavy cream - warmed

25 grams butter

1 tsp vanilla

Caramelize sugar and glucose until well browned. Deglaze with warmed cream. Add butter and vanilla.

Cappuccino Filling

130 grams cream

20 grams coffee beans

270 grams milk chocolate - tempered

10 grams instant coffee

30 grams glucose

25 grams cocoa butter

55 grams butter

Heat cream with coffee beans, let steep for 15 minutes then strain, make back up to 130 grams with milk. Add glucose and instant coffee. Add melted cocoa butter to tempered chocolate, stir in cream mixture until emulsion forms, stir in butter.

[Kerry Beal]

Oh, and here's the fruity caramel that Erika referred to.

Passion Fruit Mango Caramels

225 grams sugar

180 grams glucose

45 grams water

60 grams butter

100 grams cream

100 grams passion fruit puree

100 grams mango puree

Bring sugar, glucose and water to 145º C (293º F), add butter and cream, bring to 120º C (248º F), add purees and bring to 123º C 253º F). Test in ice water.

Pour into frame or silicone cake pan and cool at room temperature. To cut, place in fridge, return to fridge as required to help with the cutting.

[mkayahara]

The fillings were a group effort between Mike (what's your eG id, Mike?), MelissaH and myself.

See this post for answer. Also, that picture is not me (easy way to tell is that there is no ring on the left hand).

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I think that pic is Matty.

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Indeed, I think you can tell who's in that pic by the colour of his apron.

Did any of the 3 ganaches end up with a good firm texture that was easy to cut?

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And---since I wasn't there to see the end product---what did they wind up like? Did they actually cut into squares that you could handle, or were they all something that might have been better off just piped into shells?

MelissaH

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We found that, with the Wybauw method, the slab could only be cut into squares after being chilled, and had to be rechilled while we were dipping it. I thought I had heard reports that the Greweling slabs came out more firm, but I didn't get around to checking.

Also, I've thought of another newbie question that I meant to ask but forgot: Greweling talks briefly about making truffles using "hollow shells" (p. 92), but the shells pictured look quite different from the shells we molded. Are they in fact a different product? If so, how are they made?

Edited April 20, 2009 by mkayahara (log)

[chocoera]

The fillings were a group effort between Mike (what's your eG id, Mike?), MelissaH and myself.

See this post for answer. Also, that picture is not me (easy way to tell is that there is no ring on the left hand).

←

I think that pic is Matty.

←

Indeed, I think you can tell who's in that pic by the colour of his apron.

Did any of the 3 ganaches end up with a good firm texture that was easy to cut?

←

And---since I wasn't there to see the end product---what did they wind up like? Did they actually cut into squares that you could handle, or were they all something that might have been better off just piped into shells?

MelissaH

←

We found that, with the Wybauw method, the slab could only be cut into squares after being chilled, and had to be rechilled while we were dipping it. I thought I had heard reports that the Greweling slabs came out more firm, but I didn't get around to checking.

Also, I've thought of another newbie question that I meant to ask but forgot: Greweling talks briefly about making truffles using "hollow shells" (p. 92), but the shells pictured look quite different from the shells we molded. Are they in fact a different product? If so, how are they made?

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hi darling

i believe you are talking about shells that have already been made. you buy them, they are round and hollow, with a hole in the top. you fill with your ganache of choice, let crystalize, and then (not sure about this) you can cap them off and dip the entire shell/chocolate in tempered chocolate of your choice, or maybe you don't have to cap them off? and just dip because your ganache already has a "skin?" i don't use them, so i'm not sure...but i believe chocolat chocolat sells the shells....

[Beth Wilson]

Truffle shells are great to use for liquid or very soft centers. I have used them alot and always cap them before dipping them.

Sometimes I let the shells sit overnight to settle into the shells before capping them off the next day. When you do cap them off, I find that the best thing to do is make sure the chocolate you pipe in to cap them off should be relatively flat.

The flat part is what I use as the bottom of the truffle so the flat edge helps to steady the truffle giving it less tendancy to roll around in the boxes.

The shells do add extra cost to your truffle so you have to watch your bottom line when you use them.

For liquid caramels I love them!

[Beth Wilson]

It was great to meet everyone this weekend! My sisters and I had a great time. They are newbies to working with chocolate and had fun meeting everyone. Now I will be able to put them to work when they come for a visit!!!

The dinner was fantastic and the morning snacks and lunch were delicious too! Thanks for taking care of us Kerry!

My sisters were raving about the lunch meats and bread and wanted to know if the bread was made by the school for the event? The rustic flavour and pumpkin seeds were great!

b

[Kerry Beal]

Also, I've thought of another newbie question that I meant to ask but forgot: Greweling talks briefly about making truffles using "hollow shells" (p. 92), but the shells pictured look quite different from the shells we molded. Are they in fact a different product? If so, how are they made?

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Here is a picture.

I do have the mold that allows you to make them, but it's a bit of a pain.

[Kerry Beal]

It was great to meet everyone this weekend! My sisters and I had a great time.  They are newbies to working with chocolate and had fun meeting everyone.  Now I will be able to put them to work when they come for a visit!!!

The dinner was fantastic and the morning snacks and lunch were delicious too!  Thanks for taking care of us Kerry!

My sisters were raving about the lunch meats and bread and wanted to know if the bread was made by the school for the event?  The rustic flavour and pumpkin seeds were great! 

b

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The breads were made at the shop where Kristina (the student who helped us) works. I believe that it's the shop in Port Dalhousie owned by Anna Olsen of Food Network's 'Sugar'.

[Kerry Beal]

Isomer, what was the icewine filling?    Sounds interesting?  Was it based on white or dark chocolate ganache?

Jeff

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Jeff,

The icewine filling was Lior's idea from another thread - neutral glaze mixed with icewine. Gives a nice clean icewine flavour.

[isomer]

MilissaH: i don't know what people did with the other transfer sheets. I saw lots of people sticking home-made frog stencils onto dipped chocolates, though

Lior: Thanks. And thanks for sending all those treats. I had a good time trying to read the labels (I was able to read "kit kat" and "halva", but not much else. It's been a long time).

jturn00: As Kerry said, the icewine filling was a mixture of icewine and neutral glaze, mixed to taste. I'm afraid that I didn't get it cool enough, because those were the causalties when I unmolded my first batch. The caps all broke off.

The curry coconut (or Madras) filling is very good. We made it with bought curry powder. If it were to do again, I'd toast up a fresh mixture of Mughal garam masala (green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper). It would definitely be worth doing again.

[Kerry Beal]

A couple of pictures of our helpers - I asked Benny if he had seen my bamboo stirrer - Kristina pulled out a bamboo chopstick (used to hold double molds together) from my kit.

One of my favorite pictures - Kristina, Benny and Tori taking a breather.

Some more dinner photos.

Matt giving a hand cutting the greek pita for the appetizers. Calipoutine had refreshed them for us.

Dave Gibson, the chef, seasoning his mushroom soup.

Where's the beef?

Wendy, the second year apprentice, garnishes the soup with the truffle cream.

Chef Peter Storm - the chief patisserie instructor at the college - garnishing. Peter is one of the people I went to Belgium with last spring.

The gang at dinner.

[alanamoana]

sooooooo jealous! it looks like everyone had a great time. as everyone upthread has already mentioned, kerry is just amazing! her energy makes us all look like slackers. maybe we can have a west coast conference one day?!

thanks for posting pictures and everything everyone

[ArtMills]

My sisters were raving about the lunch meats and bread and wanted to know if the bread was made by the school for the event?  The rustic flavour and pumpkin seeds were great! 

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Bread was supplied by local Ravine Bakery Cafe (& winery). Christina one of the students who helped us on the weekend works at the bakery that is run by the Olsons: Anna ('Sugar' on Food Network) and husband Michael works with the Niagara College Culinary program.

[Lior]

You are welcome

I appreciate all the recipes and pictures, emotions and sharing!! I can feel the excitement!! I am sure it will all sink in -all that was learned and done in the weeks to come. Here is a picture of truffle shells capped for whoever asked about them. Thanks!

filled and capped- I used a diff color to cap so it shows up clearly.

dipped and decorated:

Edited April 21, 2009 by Lior (log)

[mostlylana]

You are welcome

I appreciate all the recipes and pictures, emotions and sharing!! I can feel the excitement!! I am sure it will all sink in -all that was learned and done in the weeks to come. Here is a picture of truffle shells capped for whoever asked about them. Thanks!

filled and capped- I used a diff color to cap so it shows up clearly.

dipped and decorated:

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I have never done truffles. I must say yours are BEAUTIFUL! I have a question - how do you get the coating so smooth and even - no swirl lines at all?!

[Lior]

I just dip with a truffle fork the one that looks like : @ (which here is referred to by all as shtreudel! Silly) tap tap. wipe once and place. I thnk the way you disconnect is important. It is super easy-you should try it. I like making them.

[Kerry Beal]

My sisters were raving about the lunch meats and bread and wanted to know if the bread was made by the school for the event?  The rustic flavour and pumpkin seeds were great! 

←

Bread was supplied by local Ravine Bakery Cafe (& winery). Christina one of the students who helped us on the weekend works at the bakery that is run by the Olsons: Anna ('Sugar' on Food Network) and husband Michael works with the Niagara College Culinary program.

←

Art - welcome to eG. I think you'll discover there is a whole world of information contained within these virtual pages.

To everyone else out there - I first met Art and his wife Wilma a number of years ago when they became my cocoa butter suppliers (everyone needs a 35 lb pail of cocoa butter). I seem to recall I met Wilma when I was doing a locum for her family doc - asked what she did for a living and found out about their ingredient supply company. A couple of years ago I discovered that they had taken over a chocolate panning operation in Niagara on the Lake and changed it into a wildly successful business that makes a very tasty product indeed (the last guy that had it didn't seem to understand the concept of starting with a quality product to turn out a quality product).

Anyway - now we know how to get ahold of Art when we are looking for a strange ingredient.

[cmflick]

Thanks for posting all of the recipes above, Kerry. I've got to get busy trying some of these. I've been thinking about trying fruit caramels for a while, so I think that I'll try out these recipes.

It doesn't sound like anyone reached a conclusion about the three different ways of making ganache. Is that true?

Were these fruit caramels for piping into shells or did you slab them and dip them?

All of the details are fantastic!

[Kerry Beal]

It doesn't sound like anyone reached a conclusion about the three different ways of making ganache.  Is that true? 

Were these fruit caramels for piping into shells or did you slab them and dip them?

All of the details are fantastic!

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I think that's a fair assumption. I'll have to do a small side by side comparison of the 3 methods at home, so I can reach some sort of conclusion.

The Passion Fruit Mango caramels are cuttable, the Passion Fruit caramel under piped fillings is for piping. The piped one contains chocolate, the cut one doesn't, but does dip nicely in chocolate.

[Kerry Beal]

Anna reminded me this morning that I forgot to post about the wonderful prizes that Chocolat-chocolat provided for us.

Chocoera won the Barry Callebaut kit - that contained quite a nice variety of goodies (Kyle tried to steal it from her - I coveted it as well). Erika - could you post on what it contained?

Wilma won the dipping forks I believe.

Pagosselin won the Wild Sweets books by Cindy and Domenic Duby.

I think it was MelissaH that won the two molds - I got so distracted by stressing that these molds shouldn't be sprayed with colour - that I kind of lost track of who won. Correct me please if I am wrong.

These molds are new at Chocolat-chocolat - they are a 'truffle' mold. Essentially all the cavities in the mold are a little bit different so they look like hand made truffles when they are done. The mold however has a matte surface finish rather than a shiny one - so when you spray with colour (particularly with a pastel green) they look kind of moldy rather than beautifully finished.

[Lior]

sorry but can someone explain the term "deglaze" I assume it means just adding the puree?

[chocoera]

Anna reminded me this morning that I forgot to post about the wonderful prizes that Chocolat-chocolat provided for us.

Chocoera won the Barry Callebaut kit - that contained quite a nice variety of goodies (Kyle tried to steal it from her - I coveted it as well).  Erika - could you post on what it contained?

Wilma won the dipping forks I believe.

Pagosselin won the Wild Sweets books by Cindy and Domenic Duby.

I think it was MelissaH that won the two molds - I got so distracted by stressing that these molds shouldn't be sprayed with colour - that I kind of lost track of who won.  Correct me please if I am wrong.

These molds are new at Chocolat-chocolat - they are a 'truffle' mold.  Essentially all the cavities in the mold are a little bit different so they look like hand made truffles when they are done.  The mold however has a matte surface finish rather than a shiny one - so when you spray with colour (particularly with a pastel green) they look kind of moldy rather than beautifully finished.

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hi! the cocoa barry chocolate kit had a set of chocolate handling gloves made out of a nice cloth, a super long and sturdy sturdy sturdy "stir stick" (which i already used last night when stirring a triple batch of fudge!) a long straight spatula, a "spackle" spatula (i don't know the proper term, but it looks like those you would buy at home depot...but really really nice!) a dipping fork, and a huge supply of disposable piping bags...all in all, a very well-rounded and appreciated gift!

[alanamoana]

sorry but can someone explain the term "deglaze" I assume it means just adding the puree?

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often the term "deglaze" is used when you're making a sauce or something and have residue left in the pan. you add a liquid (like wine or water or whatever) to the hot pan and that removes the extras (flavor)...everything in the pan is used in the sauce.

in pastry, people often use this to mean adding liquid to a caramel that has reached the proper stage of cooking.

[Lior]

thank you!