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

emmalish · June 18, 2013

I made my very first nougat on the weekend, and I have no idea whether it turned out properly or not. Everyone seems to love it, and I ate so much of it I thought I was going to pass out, so it couldn't have been a complete failure. I used Anita Chu's recipe from her Field Guide to Candy. Her recipe calls for butter to be added towards the end, which is when the mixture lost a lot of its volume. If I remember correctly, I think Greweling's recipe calls for cocoa butter to be added, but most of the recipes I've read online skip that step altogether. Any thoughts?

Recipe here.

Kerry Beal · June 18, 2013

A number of the recipes I make for nougat add a fat that deflates things - I've found if you put the cocoa butter over the warm inclusions that you get less collapse.

emmalish · June 18, 2013

A number of the recipes I make for nougat add a fat that deflates things - I've found if you put the cocoa butter over the warm inclusions that you get less collapse.

Thanks Kerry! I'm pretty sure in Greweling's recipe he says to melt the cocoa butter first. Anita's just called for the butter to be at room temperature. I'll eventually try a few other recipes for comparison. Is there any getting away from the stickiness? Cutting and wrapping these was a huge pain. And they're still sticking to the wax paper wrappers I used.

Kerry Beal · June 18, 2013

A number of the recipes I make for nougat add a fat that deflates things - I've found if you put the cocoa butter over the warm inclusions that you get less collapse.
Thanks Kerry! I'm pretty sure in Greweling's recipe he says to melt the cocoa butter first. Anita's just called for the butter to be at room temperature. I'll eventually try a few other recipes for comparison. Is there any getting away from the stickiness? Cutting and wrapping these was a huge pain. And they're still sticking to the wax paper wrappers I used.

I melt it and mix with the inclusions.

It does tend to be sticky - some batches more than others. I find enrobing 3 sides and brushing melted cocoa butter on the fourth helps.

minas6907 · June 19, 2013

I sort of wonder how it would be without the added fat. I've done nougat that didnt include a fat at the end, and it came out nicely. That's one of those things I've been meaning to do! Also, for the stickiness try some confectioners sugar, I pour press the nougat into a frame dusted with the sugar, then after it sets ill just brush it off and cut, seems to work nicely.

Here's something I made today, pb&j pillows. Its a grape hard candy with a 100% peanut butter filling.

Chocolot · June 19, 2013

Minas, you do amazing work!!

minas6907 · June 19, 2013

Thank you!

emmalish · June 19, 2013

I sort of wonder how it would be without the added fat. I've done nougat that didnt include a fat at the end, and it came out nicely. That's one of those things I've been meaning to do! Also, for the stickiness try some confectioners sugar, I pour press the nougat into a frame dusted with the sugar, then after it sets ill just brush it off and cut, seems to work nicely.

I was wondering about using confectioners' sugar, like with marshmallows. I was wondering if that somehow went against the spirit of nougat or something because no one else seemed to be doing it.

minas6907 · June 19, 2013

Bo Friberg in The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef says to use the confectioners sugar, I just sort of assumed it was an old school thing to do. I'd go ahead with it if you having trouble, just dust it off, and gradually any small amount seems to soak up any moisture, so the pieces don't look dusty or anything. Nice nougat btw :-)

emmalish · June 19, 2013

Thanks Minas. I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes. Given that I'm wrapping them in wax paper anyway, it won't hurt their appearance at all.

**curls** · June 20, 2013

coffee ganache, passionfruit caramel, and hazelnut (gianduja and feuilletine)

Alleguede · June 20, 2013

You can dust your nougat with dextrose if you don't have the special paper. Diet roses capacities to humidify are different.

Minas, how do you manage to not have your sugar to reabsorb humidity. I have a pretty big piece to make and I pulled 14 roses with Stephane kleins recipe. Result... Very tacquy, humidifies almost on the spot. How do you also flavor your pulled sugar?

Merci in advance.

minas6907 · June 22, 2013

Heres a batch of recent work. A sheep lollipop, which includes optional accessories, for the style conscious sheep. One I'm quite happy with, strawberry sodapop candies, which includes a powder center that will fizz in your mouth. Next is a money shot of some solid pieces from some new polycarbonate molds I ordered. I put them into a container and covered them with food grade silicone, and you can see the resulting mold, this will get filled with plaster. Lastly, you can see the plaster shapes I made today, I got pinwheels to make Grewelings orange pinwheels fondant based candy, and bottles as well as bonbons for cordials.

minas6907 · June 22, 2013

Alleguede, on 19 Jun 2013 - 19:42, said:
Minas, how do you manage to not have your sugar to reabsorb humidity. I have a pretty big piece to make and I pulled 14 roses with Stephane kleins recipe. Result... Very tacquy, humidifies almost on the spot. How do you also flavor your pulled sugar?

I think it may be a little bit different for me then the work that your doing. For the candies that I do, as soon as the candies cool, they go into an air tight container, whether its a large one or individual packages. If your sugar seems to be picking up alot of humidity, it may be the room that your working in. But assuming thats not the case, you can take a look at your formula for pulled sugar, if it contains too much of an acid, that will make the sugar more hygroscopic, thus absorbing the humidity more readily. I think its just going to be something you sort of have to play with. Otherwise, its pretty standard practice (and I know you would know this) to store the individual pieces, such as your flowers, in a sealed container with a dehumidifying agent. Really, I'm probably not the person to ask about serious sugar work, I have played around with blown sugar and such, but making the pulled hard candies is a bit simpler then the show piece that your dealing with, its just colors and flavors :-)

Btw, as far as flavoring the sugar candies, I generally use the flavors from LorAnn Oils. Theres others I've used, such as from getsuckered.com, which are good (and shipping is cheap since I live nearby), but mostly stick to LorAnn. I also dont add the flavor to the boiling pot, I add the flavor to the largest piece of the candy after its been colored. While its in a semi solid state, I'll just make a dimple, add the drops, cover it so its get somewhat encased, and proceed with pulling.

Alleguede · June 23, 2013

Minas: yeah it's the room. I used isomalt yesterday based on the fact that someone kindly flipped the styrofoam box with my roses. So we had to make more in a very short time. And the isomalt was just as tacquy. Great weather these days in Toronto.

http://instagram.com/p/a4NiBxH6CN/

It's not exactly a confection here is the link

Kerry Beal · June 23, 2013

Minas: yeah it's the room. I used isomalt yesterday based on the fact that someone kindly flipped the styrofoam box with my roses. So we had to make more in a very short time. And the isomalt was just as tacquy. Great weather these days in Toronto.
http://instagram.com/p/a4NiBxH6CN/
It's not exactly a confection here is the link

My god Rodney - I can't imagine trying to make anything hygroscopic anywhere in southern Ontario yesterday! You could have cut the air with a knife it was so wet.

Alleguede · June 23, 2013

But you don t have much of a choice. They placed the order it's just too late. Can't ruin the wedding for a humidity issue lol

The Choc Doc · June 26, 2013

I've been dreaming of nougat for a few weeks now after the recent pictures - definitely a huge weakness of mine but a bad route for me to go down as a T1 diabetic...!

I have just finished my 2013 version of "Chocoddity" - basically since last year I try to do this every year where I take 6 unique single origin chocolates and use them to make a ganache and dip the ganache with this chocolate. The ganache however is unusual or odd flavour combinations. I include a mini taster-bar with the chocolates to make it an experience - you taste the bar to get the flavours from the chocolate, then the dipped ganache and see how it fits together and complements (hopefully!).

This year's effort I have gone quite extreme with the flavouring, a few really out there but feedback has been excellent thus far.

From left to right:

Goat's Cheese, Lemon & Beetroot (70% Dominican but white chocolate ganache)

Single Reserve Maple Syrup & Earl Grey Tea (75% Tanzania)

Coffee & Roasted Sesame (32% Java)

Sansho Pepper & Cumin (67% Madagascar)

Hibiscus & Tarragon (60% Grenada)

Creme Fraiche & Lavender (39% Ecuador)

The goat's cheese is an interesting one, the acid of the tartaric acid in the beetroot PDF with the sugar sweetness makes it taste more like blackcurrant (a la H Blumenthal) and that combo sounds odd but I love it. I really like the Sansho pepper & Cumin as the cumin to me is just slight, adds an earthy tone but the kicker is the Sansho pepper - severely delayed cold numbing heat on tongue that lingers for minutes after, but very subtley (Sansho is Japanese cousin of Szechuan and is underused in my opinion!). Hibiscus & Tarragon was a real winner especially as the tarragon just comes through very slightly with an ending of slight aniseed. However my favourite is Creme Fraiche & Lavender - could eat this all day long. You get a slight sour/acid from the creme acid which balances the sweetness of the milk chocolate, then very very subtle floral tone from the lavender late on. I do not like floral things but when they are just slight and only just noticeable (not over-powering), I think it works very well, personally.

Was lots of fun and can't wait to come up with 6 new flavours for next year! Only 2 of the 6 original ideas I had I ended up modifying slightly (swapping flavours out).

TDC

minas6907 · June 30, 2013

Heres some items from recent times. Just got done with them yesterday, 100 macarons for a wedding, filled with peach buttercream. And a 15 day project, candied kumquat.

keychris · July 3, 2013

starting from this:

going through this:

and this:

rolling in this:

finishing like this:

Chocolate macadamias, coated in crushed, caramelised peanuts, dipped in Felchlin 36% Sao Palme milk. A little messy on the paper!

Quesmoy · July 3, 2013

I haven’t made nougat for so long, I almost forgot how addicting this stuff is. Definitely should make this a little more often, but then my waist would not like that much.

minas6907 · July 7, 2013

Heres todays project, gummies! Specifically, Cherry Lips. I'm working on putting together a tutorial on gummies, everything from making the plaster forms to depositing and finishing.