REPORT: 2012 Candy and Confection Conference

[Viktoria]

There's a lovely shot of said flop-eared flocked bunny on page 1

[Viktoria]

Bob,

What was in your amazing blue bonbons? I managed to bring 2 home, and after the first was shared, possession of the 2nd was hotly contested! The stout ganache, and the raspberry filling were widely appreciated as well.

[curls]

I'd love it if we could post recipes from the conference, as a reference. There were lots of things that I tasted and would love to make, but since I could not be in two places at once, I didn't get the recipes. And there were some great fillings that people came up with on the spot, like the raspberry caramel and Bob's whiskey ganache.

If you are referring to the Jameson ganache, Bob & I concocted that. Base recipe was Grewling's liqueur ganache and we subbed Jameson for the liqueur amount in the recipe plus 6 additional capfuls of Jameson (so, add the whiskey of your choice to taste). We are going to try to get together soon and document the final weight of the added Jameson.

[heidih]

Re recipes - is Recipe Gullet dead?

For purposes of discussing the event,we suggested posting recipes in this current topic. Recipe Gullet - our recipe "warehouse" - is alive and well. It is not a discussion forum, so members can only post the recipe - no responses can be posted. Please feel free to post there as well to memorialize some of the great recipes.

[Kerry Beal]

Flocking is the process of depositing many small fiber particles (called flock) onto a surface. It can also refer to the texture produced by the process, or to any material used primarily for its flocked surface. Flocking of an article can be performed for the purpose of increasing its value in terms of the tactile sensation, aesthetics, color and appearance.

In the case of flocking a chocolate piece, you chill the piece to be flocked and then spray it with a chocolate & cocoa butter mix (one could probably also spray the chilled piece with colored cocoa butter). This gives the chocolate piece a distinctive, flocked, texture. It really helps if you can see and feel the final result.

Of course there are those of us who would say that these are flocking bunnies!

[curls]

Of course there are those of us who would say that these are flocking bunnies!

Hmmm... that must be because of the Canadian accent.

[Kerry Beal]

So one thing we did on this thread last year was to ask everyone for what they learned that was new.

So I'll start - I learned that marzipan, lemon and licorice is a nice, nice combination of flavours. Thank you Mette. I also learned that eG chocolatiers are all nerds!

[RobertM]

I learned the "concept" of Hand Dipping chocolates. I say the concept because it's obvious that it is an art that must be practiced, practiced, practiced. Everytime I watch you do a PDF, I pick up something else in addition to the last nugget I learned. I continue to try and learn to expand my thoughts on flavor development, and not to think just inside the box of a specific formula but to expand those combinations and experiment with new things - lemon curd/white chocolate with raspberry caramel? Who would have thought - but delicious.

[Lior]

Thank you Kerry!! I will make the nougat for the upcoming holidays-great! I need to free my mind up and experiment! I guess that is how I will really get to uinderstand my TMX! I just follow recipes...

Do you heat the syrup up in the TMX? SO how do you take the temp- a laser? what setting temp do you use? I am confused...

Edited March 22, 2012 by Lior (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Thank you Kerry!! I will make the nougat for the upcoming holidays-great! I need to free my mind up and experiment! I guess that is how I will really get to uinderstand my TMX! I just follow recipes...

Do you heat the syrup up in the TMX? SO how do you take the temp- a laser? what setting temp do you use? I am confused...

Recipe instructions are relatively scanty - sorry. I make the syrup on the stove with a probe thermometer. So I'm whipping the eggwhites in the TMX, drizzling hot syrup through the top, then cooking at Varoma temperature to thicken it up.

[tikidoc]

Any suggestions on your recipes for us non-TMX owners (yea, I know, I NEED one, but they aren't sold in the US and I don't have an extra $1500 laying around)...

[Kerry Beal]

Kind of civilized at work this am (I'll regret mentioning this as they will probably all roll through the door) so I'm working on next years workshop. I think we should change the name to workshop officially from conference.

I've got the college lab booked for the weekend of April 27 and 28. Hilton requires me to wait until May before we can save the block of rooms, but I'll book those from the 25th to the 29th. They will give us the Walden room again for our Friday night show and tell. We pay for the coffee and a corkage fee for them to open our wine bottles. We'll have to buy really big bottles of wine to keep our corkage fees down!

[Kerry Beal]

Any suggestions on your recipes for us non-TMX owners (yea, I know, I NEED one, but they aren't sold in the US and I don't have an extra $1500 laying around)...

If you can pick up in NY - there is one on Craig's list for $900 - or was that the one in LA?

Ok, so same amounts with the eggwhite in your kitchen aid - use your heat gun on the outside of the bowl to 'cook' the mixture a bit more after the syrup is added. Mix in the nut paste.

[Lior]

thank you so much

[tikidoc]

Any suggestions on your recipes for us non-TMX owners (yea, I know, I NEED one, but they aren't sold in the US and I don't have an extra $1500 laying around)...

If you can pick up in NY - there is one on Craig's list for $900 - or was that the one in LA?

Ok, so same amounts with the eggwhite in your kitchen aid - use your heat gun on the outside of the bowl to 'cook' the mixture a bit more after the syrup is added. Mix in the nut paste.

OK, so don't have an extra $900 either...

I'll give that a try.

FWIW, I don't have a (working) Kitchen Aid either. I killed mine making bread (small batch, high hydration dough, I HATE KA mixers made after the company was sold in the 1980s, they are absolute crap). I do love my Bosch Compact mixer and my Electrolux Verona though... and I'm thinking about a VitaMix or a Blendtec.

[RobertM]

Bob,

What was in your amazing blue bonbons? I managed to bring 2 home, and after the first was shared, possession of the 2nd was hotly contested! The stout ganache, and the raspberry filling were widely appreciated as well.

That was a variation on a Hella (Fine Chocolates 2: Wybauw)but I omitted the vanilla bean, used pure vanilla at the end and substituted Xtabentun for the anise liquor.

[Kerry Beal]

Any suggestions on your recipes for us non-TMX owners (yea, I know, I NEED one, but they aren't sold in the US and I don't have an extra $1500 laying around)...

If you can pick up in NY - there is one on Craig's list for $900 - or was that the one in LA?

Ok, so same amounts with the eggwhite in your kitchen aid - use your heat gun on the outside of the bowl to 'cook' the mixture a bit more after the syrup is added. Mix in the nut paste.

OK, so don't have an extra $900 either...

I'll give that a try.

FWIW, I don't have a (working) Kitchen Aid either. I killed mine making bread (small batch, high hydration dough, I HATE KA mixers made after the company was sold in the 1980s, they are absolute crap). I do love my Bosch Compact mixer and my Electrolux Verona though... and I'm thinking about a VitaMix or a Blendtec.

Do either of them have a steel bowl? Wouldn't try the heat gun with a plastic one!

[Darienne]

Flocking is the process of depositing many small fiber particles (called flock) onto a surface. It can also refer to the texture produced by the process, or to any material used primarily for its flocked surface. Flocking of an article can be performed for the purpose of increasing its value in terms of the tactile sensation, aesthetics, color and appearance.

In the case of flocking a chocolate piece, you chill the piece to be flocked and then spray it with a chocolate & cocoa butter mix (one could probably also spray the chilled piece with colored cocoa butter). This gives the chocolate piece a distinctive, flocked, texture. It really helps if you can see and feel the final result.

Thanks so much for your reply.

[tikidoc]

The Electrolux has a steel bowl, and one is made for the Compact as well, but did not come with mine. I will likely eventually pick one up but they are pricey for just a steel bowl.

[Chris Hennes]

Kind of civilized at work this am (I'll regret mentioning this as they will probably all roll through the door) so I'm working on next years workshop. I think we should change the name to workshop officially from conference.

I've got the college lab booked for the weekend of April 27 and 28. Hilton requires me to wait until May before we can save the block of rooms, but I'll book those from the 25th to the 29th. They will give us the Walden room again for our Friday night show and tell. We pay for the coffee and a corkage fee for them to open our wine bottles. We'll have to buy really big bottles of wine to keep our corkage fees down!

You can count my plus one and me in for the "2013 eG Candy and Confectionery Workshop" (I like that change, good idea) in Niagara . Tentatively, of course, that's a long ways off!

[Lior]

If you ever plan on buyng a kitchenaid or similar then go for the TMX. I love mine!

[tikidoc]

I'm also planning to go next year. Heather said she is interested, and a couple more co-workers also expressed an interest when they saw what we made!

Is there an age minimum for such a workshop? My older daughter, now almost 12, is interested too, and has a strong artistic streak. Thoughts on a kid attending? She's well behaved, follows directions pretty well, and understands that people in kitchens have a tendency to curse a lot...

[Chris Hennes]

Might need to check with the school about whether she'd be allowed, there might be liability concerns or some such.

[RobertM]

Count me in for next year, I'll sign up when the "Plan" thread becomes official

[AnythingButPlainChocolate]

Same here, I really wanted to come along this year. I'll start saving the pennies for Niagra.