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

[minas6907]

Preparing a peach pate de fruit for a springtime wedding.

[Darienne]

As always, your work is gorgeous, sir.

[chocoera]

so...can't remember how to exactly post photos....thoughts? </p>

Edited April 15, 2013 by chocoera (log)

[chocoera]

Well, its been a while! Thought i'd post just a few photos of what we've done at the shop this year! Hoping to get to the eG conference, but lots of personal and professional things have things up in the air...but for all the newbies, welcome to eG! It's actually with the help of my eG family that i took the leap to go from an on-line business to a shop 3 yrs ago. Will try to update more frequently and be a bit more interactive on eG...but here's a start!

[Kerry Beal]

Gorgeous Erika!

[minas6907]

Beautiful shoes, seriously.

[curls]

Beautiful stuff Erika! Hope you can join us at the workshop.

[Sue Casey]

Love the shoes. So artistic.

[chocoera]

thanks guys!

[psantucc]

I tip my hat to the shoes. So much easier than the other way 'round!

[minas6907]

Espresso caramels for an upcoming wedding.

[DianaM]

Sounds delicious! And their texture looks quite beautiful.

[minas6907]

Rose Turkish Delights with a Turkish coffee.

[chocoera]

looks lovely minas! what a pretty color too-

[curls]

minas6907, lovely caramels and Turkish Delights. For the Turkish Delights, whose recipe did you use and what kind of starch did you use?

[minas6907]

Hey thanks, both of you! The recipe I used is from chocolates and confections 2nd edition, using the native starch. I do add to it, though, corn syrup in the amount of half of whatever the sugar is. I say that because I usually make 1/3 of the full recipe, so its 8oz corn syrup. I've seen that if its made without it, as the recipe says, the candies crystallize rather quickly and lose the supple texture they should have.

[curls]

Hey thanks, both of you! The recipe I used is from chocolates and confections 2nd edition, using the native starch. I do add to it, though, corn syrup in the amount of half of whatever the sugar is. I say that because I usually make 1/3 of the full recipe, so its 8oz corn syrup. I've seen that if its made without it, as the recipe says, the candies crystallize rather quickly and lose the supple texture they should have.

Thank you for the information; I'll make a note of that in my book.

[Quesmoy]

Espresso caramels for an upcoming wedding.

Those caramels look fabulous!! If you don’t mind my asking how did you get the espresso infused into the caramel recipe? I’ve tried a couple different recipes, and they turned out okay but yours look so much better.

[minas6907]

Espresso caramels for an upcoming wedding.

Those caramels look fabulous!! If you don’t mind my asking how did you get the espresso infused into the caramel recipe? I’ve tried a couple different recipes, and they turned out okay but yours look so much better.

It wasn't anything complicated, just ground the espresso and steeped it in the cream and evaporated milk the day before, then strain and proceed with the caramel recipe!

[Quesmoy]

Mina,

I usually only steep the espresso in the cream for about 30 minutes, so I will try doing it the day before and see if I can produce better espresso caramels. Thanks

[minas6907]

Heres some peppermint meltaways I made today. Weather was cool, so took advantage of it for some chocolate work.

[minas6907]

Heres a few things I just did for an event. Gold dusted caramels, espresso caramels, and sea salt caramels, along with blackberry and peach pate de fruit.

[Jim D.]

Heres a few things I just did for an event. Gold dusted caramels, espresso caramels, and sea salt caramels, along with blackberry and peach pate de fruit.

Minas,

As is always the case, your items are beautiful. You have a real gift. I am interested in the peach pate de fruit. What did you use for the peach flavor? I spent some time recently trying to get adequate peach flavor in a ganache for molded chocolates. I used frozen peaches to make a purée, and they had no flavor at all (in spite of beautiful yellow color). Canned peaches had better flavor, but (even when I reduced the purée by boiling) were overwhelmed by the addition of chocolate (white). I added some peach powder, but I eventually threw the powder out--its flavor (whatever tiny amount there was) was bland. Finally I used peach compound, but found it had an off-taste, nowhere close to peaches (aside from raspberry and strawberry, I have not been thrilled with compounds). So I am intrigued by how you got your flavor.

[minas6907]

The peach flavor is just from the pureed peaches. Making the jellies is a bit different then a ganache, where you have chocolate as a base then you flavor that mixture. The pate de fruit is completely fruit based and gelled with pectin, so I didn't have chocolate as a factor in my items that would affect the taste. I guess what I'm trying to say, is a peach jellie is of course going to have a strong peach flavor, where as a peach ganache it isn't going to be as pronounced, the items aren't really comparable, they are different in many ways.

[minas6907]

Heres a few things from the last few days. First, a piped ginger marshmallow, and second is a blackberry lavender truffle.