Confections! What did we make? (2012 – 2014)

[YetiChocolates]

Well I did some experimenting this afternoon for a possible Valentine's day item. Bacon bark! I made both dark and milk, with Hawaiian black salt, Celtic sea salt, and alder smoked salt. I'm gonna give it to my testers to see which ones they think are the best. I also just ordered some smoked maple bourbon salt today that I think would be a delicious addition

[Kerry Beal]

I use the alderwood smoked salt and I do a milk chocolate with a good percentage of dark chocolate added to it. Addictive! Did you get the bacon totally crispy?

[YetiChocolates]

I use the alderwood smoked salt and I do a milk chocolate with a good percentage of dark chocolate added to it. Addictive! Did you get the bacon totally crispy?

I did for the most part...there seems to be a few pieces that were just a touch soft, but the majority was very crispy. I have to say the milk seems to bring out the bacon flavor a bit more than the dark, though I feel I needed to add a bit more salt to all of them as a whole. So do you temper your chocolates separately then mix them together before pouring the bark? If not which temper range do you use, milk or dark? I do agree, I like the flavor, I like the sweet/salty combo.

[Kerry Beal]

I start the dark melting, add the milk, then temper to closer to the milk temperatures.

[minas6907]

Cinnamon Nutmeg Marshmallow

[YetiChocolates]

Cinnamon Nutmeg Marshmallow

Those sound yummy!

[minas6907]

Heres some peppermint patties I just got done with.

[Darienne]

Heres some peppermint patties I just got done with.

Well done, sir!

[rod rock]

Very nice looking peppermint patties, Minas!

[minas6907]

Hey thanks guys!

I wanted to share this photo, just got done with it. I'm making a candy bar for a friend in March for her wedding, and just got dont doing a mock up. On the menu for items I'm making are pulled sugar lollis (gold and white, grande marnier flavor) Pillow Mints (white with gold stripes, flavored with peppermint, honey, and lemon) Pate de Fruit (Pear) Peppermint Patties, Gummies (various shades of yellow/gold, flavor to be decided) Caramels (1/2 plain, 1/2 sea salt) Cake Pops (a friend of mine is making these) and Taffy (light blue, purple, yellow, and pink, flavored with blueberry, lavender, lemon, and raspberry respectively.

Of purchased items, there will be marshmallow, powdered and cinnamon donuts, and white and yellow m&m's.

[Prabha]

My Valentine's day collection. 64% dark chocolate, raspberry, mint fondant, Earl Grey, salted caramel. And my first attempts at airbrushing. Thanks to Lebowits and RobertM for teaching me how.

[lebowits]

My Valentine's day collection. 64% dark chocolate, raspberry, mint fondant, Earl Grey, salted caramel. And my first attempts at airbrushing. Thanks to Lebowits and RobertM for teaching me how.

Very nice!

[Kerry Beal]

Nice indeed.

[curls]

Prabha, nice chocolates and airbrushing.

minas6907, the candies that you are making for your friend's wedding candy bar sound wonderful and I am sure they will look fabulous. I just think that your table mockup is a bit too symmetrical and static. Not sure that the flow will work that well either with some items three deep. Have a look at the table setup that gfron1 did for our 2012 Chocolate Workshop... it looked fabulous and worked well too.

http://forums.egulle...post_id_1869412 (in case that link doesn't work right, it is post #39 in the REPORT: 2012 Candy and Confection Conference).

Edited January 25, 2013 by curls (log)

[minas6907]

Hey Curls

Thanks alot for your input! That is an amazing chocolate display, I dont think I could pull anything off like that though! What I'm working is a 6ft table, thats what the bride told me we have, so anything that is flowing like the display of bonbons if out unfortunately. Truthfully, I'm very happy with what I came up with though, and I say that because I like to make the items that go on the plate, I dont like to arrange the table, this is my first time doing it. My coworker and his wife came over to give my a hand, since they will be helping me set up the table at the wedding, and she had very nice ideas. She wants the two silver (they will be painted white) pieces in the back along with the large glass jar to be elevated on a box, and she also came up with a very nice idea for making that glass jar more of a center piece then actually housing candy. Anyways, it seems like were getting this thing more squared away, so I'm glad! Truthfully though, symmetrical is something I like...and what do you mean by static? Thanks again for taking a look, I appreciate that!

[minas6907]

Heres my latest project, Agar Citrus Slices. One thing though, has anyone made these? I seem to have trouble making the 'skin' adhere to the main jellie, I thought agar agar jellies were suppossed to be very easy to stack, I've dont this twice now with the same result. Anyways, I want to try these with the pectin formula, I think I will have an easier time with them. Heres the pics:

[Prabha]

Wow, those jellies look beautiful, Minas!

[Jim D.]

Heres my latest project, Agar Citrus Slices. One thing though, has anyone made these? I seem to have trouble making the 'skin' adhere to the main jellie, I thought agar agar jellies were suppossed to be very easy to stack, I've dont this twice now with the same result. Anyways, I want to try these with the pectin formula, I think I will have an easier time with them. Heres the pics:

Those are beautiful. What is the "skin" made from? And what did you paint it with?

[curls]

Hey Curls

Thanks alot for your input! That is an amazing chocolate display, I dont think I could pull anything off like that though! What I'm working is a 6ft table, thats what the bride told me we have, so anything that is flowing like the display of bonbons if out unfortunately. Truthfully, I'm very happy with what I came up with though, and I say that because I like to make the items that go on the plate, I dont like to arrange the table, this is my first time doing it. My coworker and his wife came over to give my a hand, since they will be helping me set up the table at the wedding, and she had very nice ideas. She wants the two silver (they will be painted white) pieces in the back along with the large glass jar to be elevated on a box, and she also came up with a very nice idea for making that glass jar more of a center piece then actually housing candy. Anyways, it seems like were getting this thing more squared away, so I'm glad! Truthfully though, symmetrical is something I like...and what do you mean by static? Thanks again for taking a look, I appreciate that!

First I want to say that your citrus slices look wonderful; wish I could try some!

Your coworkers wife's ideas for table arranging sound good. In this case, what I was referring to with a "static" display, is that someone would look at the candy bar, understand it, pick their candies, and go. With so little variation in color and the symmetrical setup there would be very likely be no need for you eyes to wander about and move from discovery to discovery. I like to set things up so that the whole design is appealing, that your eye goes to one item at first glance but there are other things in the design that cause your eyes to leave that focal point and explore other parts of the design. Also, don't want the focal point to be so strong that you focus only on that one item and disregard the rest. Hope that makes more sense.

Also, have a look at the dinner thread ( and ) and you can see how some people approach design on plates and platters (darch, rarerollingobject, and ScottyBoy have consistently beautiful arrangements but different design styles).

[minas6907]

Heres my latest project, Agar Citrus Slices. One thing though, has anyone made these? I seem to have trouble making the 'skin' adhere to the main jellie, I thought agar agar jellies were suppossed to be very easy to stack, I've dont this twice now with the same result. Anyways, I want to try these with the pectin formula, I think I will have an easier time with them. Heres the pics:

Those are beautiful. What is the "skin" made from? And what did you paint it with?

Thanks! The skins are also an agar jellie, they contain a little bit less orange juice concentrate and also have frappe, which lightens the color. The outside was painted with a tiny bit of color paste (chef rubber) that was diluted with a little bit of vodka, these are just straight out of Grewelings book.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

[minas6907]

I just did a batch of pate de fruit this morning, I wanted to get an accurate idea on the number of jellies as well as how many the platter would hold.

[Darienne]

I just did a batch of pate de fruit this morning, I wanted to get an accurate idea on the number of jellies as well as how many the platter would hold.

Well done! Minas. Your work is wonderful.

[minas6907]

Thanks Darienne!

Heres another one I got done with a few days ago, Peach Pate de Fruit.

[Chocolot]

Minas, what pectin are you using?

[keychris]

centre is a vanilla caramel. I was in the dipping zone Made by adding boiling cream to the sugar syrup at 145C and whisking until the caramel reached 121C. Really easy!

Edited February 4, 2013 by keychris (log)