Chocolates with that Showroom Finish, 2012 –

[Jim D.]

8 hours ago, lironp said:

Finally have all the equipment and did my first big airbrushing project for Rosh hashana- after the first 100 or so, I finally got the hang of the apples and making the seam less visible, same for the pomegranates

 

Beautiful.  Congratulations.  The shine is very impressive, and the airbrushing looks as if you have been doing it all your life.

[lironp]

13 hours ago, jbates said:

Excellent work. Are the apple leaves part of the mold?

Yes. Although at some point i started painting them on after they were out of the mold (less shiny, but otherwise the darker green was sometimes stuck in the mold)

[lironp]

6 hours ago, Jim D. said:

Beautiful.  Congratulations.  The shine is very impressive, and the airbrushing looks as if you have been doing it all your life.

I of course just see the flaws 🤣

[gfron1]

I struggled to get this set out, but they're done. And I've upped my production so I don't run out so soon. It seems to me that when I have trouble, 9 times out of 10 its because I let my shelling chocolate get too cool and the cocoa butter doesn't adhere. And all I can do is hear Melissa Coppel's voice repeat, "Respect the temperatures." 

Bourbon Honey

 

Kumquat cream ganache with hazelnut crunch insert.

 

Elderberry tarts

 

Fig with rum & tonka honey

 

Espresso & single origin Mexican

[Jim D.]

@gfron1, beautiful shells and very intriguing flavors.  For the elderberry, did you use elderberries or elderflowers (or elderflower liqueur)?  I don't know if the berries have the same exotic flavor as the flowers do.  I tried a ganache with St-Germain liqueur, but the elderflower taste got lost somewhere.

 

I'll ask the obvious question about tonka:  Where did you find it?  Imported from somewhere in the dead of night?

 

And finally, your shine, the equal of Andrey's, for sure, even down to the light from the windows reflected in the shell.

[AAQuesada]

https://www.amazon.com/Spices-Cumaru-Vanilla-Dipteryx-odorata/dp/B01701SL4I/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=tonka+beans&qid=1601771956&sr=8-2

 

You can get them on Amazon

 

Pretty sure its not legal to use them -OTOH i've seen them on menus enough to figure no one it really cracking down on illicit Tonka bean use. *shrug*

[jbates]

12 hours ago, AAQuesada said:

https://www.amazon.com/Spices-Cumaru-Vanilla-Dipteryx-odorata/dp/B01701SL4I/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=tonka+beans&qid=1601771956&sr=8-2

 

You can get them on Amazon

 

Pretty sure its not legal to use them -OTOH i've seen them on menus enough to figure no one it really cracking down on illicit Tonka bean use. *shrug*

Amazon has a listing for 1 pound bulk bag, but it is currently unavailable, so it doesn't show up in the search. It was from a legitimate health food place in Canada.

 

The first bag I bought via Amazon a couple of years ago (shared some with other attendees at the chocolate workshop in St Louis), and this year I bought direct to avoid the "Amazon tax".

Just in case the "illicit" rules started getting policed again, DM me if interested and I'll share the site link.

[Muscadelle]

14 hours ago, Jim D. said:

@gfron1, beautiful shells and very intriguing flavors.  For the elderberry, did you use elderberries or elderflowers (or elderflower liqueur)?  I don't know if the berries have the same exotic flavor as the flowers do.  I tried a ganache with St-Germain liqueur, but the elderflower taste got lost somewhere.

 

I'll ask the obvious question about tonka:  Where did you find it?  Imported from somewhere in the dead of night?

 

And finally, your shine, the equal of Andrey's, for sure, even down to the light from the windows reflected in the shell.

If Tonka bean is too difficult to find in the US maybe you can try your luck with sweetgrass, that's what i use. The smell and the taste is divine and similar to tonka! 

Don't use too much though because, same as tonka bean, it contains a lot of ''coumarine'' which is molecule that can cause your blood to thin too much is ingested in big enough quantity it can cause serious health problem. 2g for every 100g of cream in a ganache.

[gfron1]

21 hours ago, Jim D. said:

@gfron1, beautiful shells and very intriguing flavors.  For the elderberry, did you use elderberries or elderflowers (or elderflower liqueur)?  I don't know if the berries have the same exotic flavor as the flowers do.  I tried a ganache with St-Germain liqueur, but the elderflower taste got lost somewhere.

 

And finally, your shine, the equal of Andrey's, for sure, even down to the light from the windows reflected in the shell.

Berry for sure. I don't go for perfume in my chocolates very often anymore. I want the tart sweet thing going on. And thanks about the shine - if I learned nothing else form Dubovic (which I learned plenty) it was about staging for photos 🤣

 

20 hours ago, AAQuesada said:

Pretty sure its not legal to use them -OTOH i've seen them on menus enough to figure no one it really cracking down on illicit Tonka bean use. *shrug*

Yes, pretty easy to source - I may have even bought mine at Rare Tea Cellar years ago but I honestly don't remember anymore. They aren't that exceptional - I was trying to clean out some of my pantry and that's how they ended up in this collection.

 

6 hours ago, Muscadelle said:

If Tonka bean is too difficult to find in the US maybe you can try your luck with sweetgrass, that's what i use. The smell and the taste is divine and similar to tonka! 

Don't use too much though because, same as tonka bean, it contains a lot of ''coumarine'' which is molecule that can cause your blood to thin too much is ingested in big enough quantity it can cause serious health problem. 2g for every 100g of cream in a ganache.

Had not thought that about sweetgrass. Fascinating. I had someone trying to sell that to me last summer and opted not to, but I'll have to look into it. There's lots of interesting flavors out there which need to be used judiciously. I'm thinking of how I used to use Ephedra viridis before I really understood what it was. Those were my early days

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, gfron1 said:

There's lots of interesting flavors out there which need to be used judiciously.

Yep. Judiciously and with proper prep in some cases. One of my favorite ice creams I've ever made was the cherry pit ice cream I made about 12 years ago. Like a subtle almond ice cream with light cherry harmonics ringing through. I don't know how much cherry pit infused cream I'd have to eat for it to be considered risky and from what I've read, heat supposedly neutralizes the offending compound, but I wouldn't hesitate to eat it again. 

[Jonathan]

Hi guys, practicing my portrait work with cocoa butter (I am not a good painter :/). Any tips as far as it goes? I’m finding blending hard as the working time so short

[Kerry Beal]

8 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Hi guys, practicing my portrait work with cocoa butter (I am not a good painter :/). Any tips as far as it goes? I’m finding blending hard as the working time so short

Neat!

 

Maybe work with a very low blow hair dryer in hand to carefully touch the areas you want to blend 

[Jonathan]

44 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Neat!

 

Maybe work with a very low blow hair dryer in hand to carefully touch the areas you want to blend 

That might work, I'd just worry about melting the frame as well or ruining the temper on that. I was thinking maybe glove + body heat on a specific portion but that makes it hard to do the initial colour blending for the background?

[Kerry Beal]

9 hours ago, Jonathan said:

That might work, I'd just worry about melting the frame as well or ruining the temper on that. I was thinking maybe glove + body heat on a specific portion but that makes it hard to do the initial colour blending for the background?

The chefman warmer goes really low temp - you could work on the surface. The Chefman warmer would work if you were painting on a piece of acetate. If you are painting directly onto the surface of a slab of chocolate then I can see the issue with the hairdryer. 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Muscadelle]

13 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Hi guys, practicing my portrait work with cocoa butter (I am not a good painter :/). Any tips as far as it goes? I’m finding blending hard as the working time so short

OMG that is beautiful!! I can't get over how awesome that is. 

 

I'm not sure exactly what you want to know... do you want to melt the cocoa butter on the surface enough to be able to apply new cb and blend it in? In that case you could try a long reach lighter and try to find the right distance from the surface and move it around.

[Jonathan]

3 hours ago, Muscadelle said:

OMG that is beautiful!! I can't get over how awesome that is. 

 

I'm not sure exactly what you want to know... do you want to melt the cocoa butter on the surface enough to be able to apply new cb and blend it in? In that case you could try a long reach lighter and try to find the right distance from the surface and move it around.

Correct, similar tl actual acrylic painting. Tried to follow a tutorial for that but found the CB set too fast

[Jonathan]

After a bit of work I think I’ve cracked it, just had to take the cocoa butter out of temper to increase fluidity and working time (though it means waiting longer for each layer to set)

[Douglas K]

That’s amazing! Is the frame edible too???

[Jonathan]

9 minutes ago, Douglas K said:

That’s amazing! Is the frame edible too???

Cookies and cream

[teonzo]

That's so beautiful that nobody will have the courage to eat it! Well, maybe not children.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Tri2Cook]

6 hours ago, teonzo said:

That's so beautiful that nobody will have the courage to eat it! Well, maybe not children.

 

 

 

Teo

 

I'll blame it on my inner child... I'd eat it. But only because it's meant to be eaten, not because you're wrong about it being beautiful. 

[pastrygirl]

I’m happy with the shine on these. Shells are a blend of opalys and yuzu, filled with lemon yuzu ganache, sprayed in translucent yellow. 
 

[Chocoguyin Pemby]

On 10/3/2020 at 5:14 PM, Jim D. said:

@gfron1, beautiful shells and very intriguing flavors.  For the elderberry, did you use elderberries or elderflowers (or elderflower liqueur)?  I don't know if the berries have the same exotic flavor as the flowers do.  I tried a ganache with St-Germain liqueur, but the elderflower taste got lost somewhere.

 

I'll ask the obvious question about tonka:  Where did you find it?  Imported from somewhere in the dead of night?

 

And finally, your shine, the equal of Andrey's, for sure, even down to the light from the windows reflected in the shell.

You can get tonka beans here - https://gourmetwarehouse.ca/tonka-beans-dry-60g/

Hope that helps - not cheap though. 

[Chocoguyin Pemby]

On 10/17/2020 at 7:49 PM, pastrygirl said:

I’m happy with the shine on these. Shells are a blend of opalys and yuzu, filled with lemon yuzu ganache, sprayed in translucent yellow. 
 

I love YUZU!!!  Is it just my frozen yuzu puree - it's like a block of ice and super hard to chip off.  not like my other purees at all.  Is this normal for yuzu?  TIA

 

[Kerry Beal]

5 hours ago, Chocoguyin Pemby said:

I love YUZU!!!  Is it just my frozen yuzu puree - it's like a block of ice and super hard to chip off.  not like my other purees at all.  Is this normal for yuzu?  TIA

 

I find all the citrus purees are more water and less pulp than other fruits so much more solid when frozen.