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

[keychris]

thanks everyone Here's another I just remembered to photograph.

 

a dark chocolate egg, hiding a white chocolate egg inside, which is filled with caramelised puffed rice and hazelnut gianduja, topped with a small white chocolate ladybird (you can just see her peeping through a hole ). The outer egg was sprayed with red cocoa butter, with a dash of yellow on one corner (can an egg have corners?) for highlight, giving a dark red matte finish.

Edited April 20, 2014 by keychris (log)

[Franci]

Hi KeyChris, my little girl, 3 yrs old, just saw your eggs and said: I want to go over there, can I eat them? Fantastic!

Edited April 20, 2014 by Franci (log)

[Smithy]

keychris, those Easter animals are darling! Are the shells themselves also edible, or just the contents? The egg is also awesome - and I understand that one's edible all the way. Very creative!

[Jim D.]

What did we make? What didn't I make! I created a pop-up chocolate shop today, having produced many delights over the past several days, here's the menu:

.....

It was a lot of work, but fun and I'm happy with the sales and response. I'm looking for excuses to do it again soon. Maybe Mothers day... I'll see if I can post photos from my phone.

That's an amazing list.  Did you do this by yourself?  You are probably lying somewhere in total exhaustion right now.  Was your popup in a regular shop or somewhere else, and how did people find out about it?  I love the inclusion of grapefruit zest--it's always a surprise to people tasting it for the first time.

[jmacnaughtan]

Starting to experiment with chocolate, so I thought I'd try an Easter Egg.  Nothing fancy, Tanzanie 75% and that's it.

 

 

I never knew molded chocolates were so technical...

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

What did we make? What didn't I make!

No kidding! A lot of work, glad the pop-up went well.

 

[pastrygirl]

That's an amazing list.  Did you do this by yourself?  You are probably lying somewhere in total exhaustion right now.  Was your popup in a regular shop or somewhere else, and how did people find out about it?  I love the inclusion of grapefruit zest--it's always a surprise to people tasting it for the first time.

The restaurants I work for have an event space next to one of them, so I borrowed that - they get an excuse to advertise and get people in to look at the space and I get the exposure and sales. It's a cool spot in a vibrant neighborhood, unfortunately it was cold and rainy so we were not able to open the big roll-up garage door to attract foot traffic. We spread the word via our various email lists, social media, and I emailed our local eater.com editor and the hipster alternative newspaper. I'd guess somewhere between 50-75 people came and bought something. I think better weather would definitely have helped, and better signage to draw people in - getting posters printed was one of the things I really should have made a higher priority. Learn, learn, learn!

I did make it all myself. I've cut my hours at the restaurants and moved my toys into a shared kitchen that I can use 15 hours a week, so all the production was at the new kitchen over the last 3 weeks. I have a lot left but mostly things that will keep and that I can use for my next event. I think I do get too ambitious about variety, I just have this crazy drive to try to make as much as possible.

[Jim D.]

I think I do get too ambitious about variety, I just have this crazy drive to try to make as much as possible.

I know exactly what you mean.  After one holiday, when I pushed myself to make 12 different fillings for chocolates and saw people's excitement about having such variety, I can't go back.  Timing is the big issue when it's a one-person operation.  The ideal of (1) casting the shells, (2) making the ganache, (3) filling the shells, (4) doing the bottoms, then (5) immediately getting the product to the customer, all within a couple of days, is just not feasible for one person, so some compromises have to be made.  But I have to say your variety was amazing.  I checked your profile and see that you work in Seattle.  You do have a ready-made foodie audience--but also a lot of rain!

[lebowits]

thanks everyone Here's another I just remembered to photograph.

 

a dark chocolate egg, hiding a white chocolate egg inside, which is filled with caramelised puffed rice and hazelnut gianduja, topped with a small white chocolate ladybird (you can just see her peeping through a hole ). The outer egg was sprayed with red cocoa butter, with a dash of yellow on one corner (can an egg have corners?) for highlight, giving a dark red matte finish.

 

keychris - what did you use to make the holes?  That's gorgeous!

[keychris]

keychris - what did you use to make the holes?  That's gorgeous!

 

I used a hairdryer to heat up my smallest round pastry cutter, and also 12 & 10mm piping tips. I cast the shell, then before I put it together, carefully melted the holes. You will have a little lip of melted chocolate, I just wiped it off with a barely damp cloth. Spraying it after that hides all the marks from wiping off the melted stuff

[rajoress]

All the pictures posted here are awesome! My easy solid milk chocolate bunnies and toffee easter eggs along with chocolate caramel covered matzah. Our family covers all the holidays (more time for chocolate)   Thanks for looking!

Ruth

 

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Fun with fondant!  This is a dragon (for reference he's about 3" in diameter) for a friend's 5-year old daughter's birthday cake.  There's a mermaid too - once I get the camera downloaded I'll share.

 

[Anna N]

And he is a DELIGHTFUL dragon.

[IowaDee]

And way, way too cute to ever even consider eating!

[jmacnaughtan]

My first time making moulded chocolates- just Tanzanie 72% shell and a Tanzanie ganache.  Unfortunately, they're not all this shiny.

 

 

Now I just need to get rid of the contraction marks.

Edited May 1, 2014 by jmacnaughtan (log)

[keychris]

you're the only one who will *ever* notice them Great job!

[jmacnaughtan]

Still working on my molding technique.  The stripey one is salted butter caramel, the geodesic dome is a milk chocolate and whisky ganache.  Both are molded in Ghana 40% milk chocolate.

 

[minas6907]

Life has been incredibly busy lately, so I haven't been able to do much. Im in the midst of wedding planning as well as moving soon, but today I got a little time to play with sugar...so I made bacon ribbon candy :-).

[Alleguede]

Life has been incredibly busy lately, so I haven't been able to do much. Im in the midst of wedding planning as well as moving soon, but today I got a little time to play with sugar...so I made bacon ribbon candy :-). uploadfromtaptalk1401400141486.jpg

Those look great - Minas, pregel has a demo next week at the bakon factory. You can find details on their website I think or let me know.

[minas6907]

Hey Thanks so much! Whats the demo about? Will it be filmed?

[Matthew Kirshner]

I have an unusual question about adding color cocoa butter to a mold.  I have been told in the past to cast the molds in white cocoa butter after finishing adding the main colors for the molds.  does anyone do this?  I find spots of white throughout the chocolate piece.  I made a raspberry lime bonbon today(sorry I forgot to take a picture, will add tomorrow) the main colors are red and green cast in dark chocolate shell.  I added white cocoa butter on top of the colored inlays, like I said this is something I was told before. 

 

so I guess my question really is the white cocoa butter really necessary?

[Kerry Beal]

Depends on the effect you are after.  If you are using transparent colours without white behind then the colours are unlikely to show up against dark or milk chocolate.  If you are using opaque colours then you don't have to add white behind.  

[keychris]

I often spray white behind my colours. So long as you have an even spray of the top colour, you won't see the white.

 

I like this sort of effect too:

put a streak of the colour in, and then highlight it with the white (in this case, I've used white chocolate instead of white cocoa butter).

 

As Kerry said, if you put transparent colours on and put dark chocolate over them, you won't see the colour - but if the light shines on the finished product, you should see the colour as a shine

Edited June 6, 2014 by keychris (log)

[Chocolot]

I have an unusual question about adding color cocoa butter to a mold.  I have been told in the past to cast the molds in white cocoa butter after finishing adding the main colors for the molds.  does anyone do this?  I find spots of white throughout the chocolate piece.  I made a raspberry lime bonbon today(sorry I forgot to take a picture, will add tomorrow) the main colors are red and green cast in dark chocolate shell.  I added white cocoa butter on top of the colored inlays, like I said this is something I was told before. 

 

so I guess my question really is the white cocoa butter really necessary?

 

 

This is a good example of what white behind a color does. Both of these were sprayed the same, with pink and yellow. One was cast in white chocolate and the other dark chocolate. Amazing what the difference is.

[patti_h]

Ruth they are beautiful!