Chocolates with that Showroom Finish, 2012 –

[grammacake12]

a chocolate box I made for a gift, filled with truffles, not sure if it is showroom quality

Edited January 6, 2014 by grammacake12 (log)

[lebowits]

My zebras are getting better!image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

They're beautiful! How long does it take you to paint the flowers and the zebra stripes (and how many cavities)?

[Chocolot]

This weeks production.

Coconut lime, Dulcey peanut butter, mint leaf, dulce de leche, Meyer lemon, Aztec spice and passion fruit.

[keychris]

Trying out my new compressor. A vanilla butterscotch caramel.

[Alleguede]

Valentines is coming up. Here are my dark shells. white one is coconut - alunga, purple is blueberry - lavender ganache, the red one is strawberry jelly and icewine ganache. Tomorrow I'll put the milk option.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Alleguede (log)

[keychris]

beautiful, as always.

[lebowits]

Valentines is coming up. Here are my dark shells. white one is coconut - alunga, purple is blueberry - lavender ganache, the red one is strawberry jelly and icewine ganache. Tomorrow I'll put the milk option.

What color did you speckle the purple and red molds with? Their all lovely.

[Alleguede]

White diamond from chef rubber. Spayed at 1 foot away. Today I did with a black onyx. It's too bad we don't have chef rubber in Canada as well.

[Tri2Cook]

White diamond from chef rubber. Spayed at 1 foot away. Today I did with a black onyx. It's too bad we don't have chef rubber in Canada as well.

I like the look you got with that. And I agree on the Chef Rubber thing. They have a lot of interesting toys but their shipping cost to Canada is way too high by and standard. I get a lot of things shipped from the U.S. and their shipping charges are nowhere close to in line with what they should be*.

*With the disclaimer that I haven't ordered from them in a few years for exactly that reason... but I can't imagine they've gone down.

[keychris]

You guys should try living in Australia

it's so expensive to get *anything* here!

[Alleguede]

I met a chef from Aussie and we compared prices. You guys do pay 15% more minimum then us.

So the fillings are,

Pink - berry jelly with yogurt ganache

Black onyx - salted caramel with hazelnut praline

Yellow - passion fruit caramel

White - coconut

Purple - blueberry jam lavender 54% ganache

Red - strawberry - ice wine zephyr ganache

My favorites, the first 3.

Pcb colours I'm not a fan.

[Kerry Beal]

I think they all look gorgeous - are the first 3 your favourites for colours or flavours or both?

[Prabha]

All of them are beautiful, Rodney!

[Alleguede]

I think they all look gorgeous - are the first 3 your favourites for colours or flavours or both?

The flavor.

I used pregel yogurt powder for gelato - the ganache is O-M-G

The caramel and praline reminds me of childhood chocolate bars.

The caramel passion is just acidic, sharp but not bitter.

I have some of the candied fruits we talked about. Have to meet soon.

Prahba: Merci

Edited February 9, 2014 by Alleguede (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I think they all look gorgeous - are the first 3 your favourites for colours or flavours or both?

The flavor.

I used pregel yogurt powder for gelato - the ganache is O-M-G

The caramel and praline reminds me of childhood chocolate bars.

The caramel passion is just acidic, sharp but not bitter.

I have some of the candied fruits we talked about. Have to meet soon.

Prahba: Merci

I'd love to taste the yogurt ganache.

[keychris]

Filling is a 66% dark chocolate ganache, with creme de menthe

 

 

 

This one is a raspberry ganache with gianduja. I'm pretty happy with how the spraying turned out on these ones

[gfron1]

Nice work.  I haven't seen that mint mold before - does it fit well in packaging?

[Chocolot]

 

Today I made Gianduja Duo. If I don't eat them all, I'll bring some to Vegas next week:)

[Stu Jordan]

It's been a while since I posted, but have been lurking! A few more of our collection:

From Left to Right: Lemon Lime & Bitters; Vanilla Bean; Lime Chili; Baileys Cream

 

About to embark on a quest to create some new coloring techniques, tomorrow is "play with color" day...so exciting!

[Jim D.]

It's been a while since I posted, but have been lurking! A few more of our collection:

From Left to Right: Lemon Lime & Bitters; Vanilla Bean; Lime Chili; Baileys Cream

 

About to embark on a quest to create some new coloring techniques, tomorrow is "play with color" day...so exciting!

Beautifully decorated.  I look forward to seeing the results of your next experiments.  If you don't mind telling, how did you get that mirror effect in the photograph?  Are the pieces sitting on glass or ... ?

[Stu Jordan]

Beautifully decorated.  I look forward to seeing the results of your next experiments.  If you don't mind telling, how did you get that mirror effect in the photograph?  Are the pieces sitting on glass or ... ?

Hi Jim

 

Just some photo editing software that allows a reflection, unsure what it is called, INKSCAPE I think

[tikidoc]

It has been a while since I made any chocolates, so was in a bit of a panic about getting some done over the weekend for the upcoming workshop in Las Vegas.  Despite heat and humidity, I got lucky on the tempering and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

 

This one was decorated by my kids!  They had a blast.  It is apparently supposed to represent something in the computer game "Portal II."

 

 

And this was mine (for Vegas)

 

Not sure why that picture is so big...

 

It is filled with a piña colada white chocolate ganache.

 

Not pretty enough to post, but I also made dipped chocolates for the more adventuresome in the group - a durien and dark chocolate ganache enrobed in dark chocolate, as well as cabernet jellies.  

 

So what else is everyone taking to Las Vegas?

[Jim D.]

"Despite heat and humidity, I got lucky on the tempering...."  I was intrigued by that statement.  I live about 100 miles west of you and have been having terrible issues tempering lately (and we're supposed to be in the temperate Shenandoah Valley).  Humidity is my best guess since the same bags of white and dark chocolate worked fine a month or so ago.  Today I've got the AC going full blast, but still the dark choc. (Felchlin Maracaibo) thickened up within a very short time.  I'm at my wit's end.

 

Your chocolates for Vegas are beautiful, and the fillings sound very interesting.  I had to look up "durian."  It's a bit off-putting when Google says about a fruit:  "Despite its fetid smell, it is highly esteemed for its flavor."  So you found durian in Richmond?

 

Jim

[tikidoc]

Yes, humidity was the main problem.  It thickens up fast.  I tossed in a little bit of cocoa butter and that seemed to help.  And worked as fast as I could!  We fired up our AC for the first time on Thursday, so I was initially afraid that I was going to be trying to make chocolates in 80+ degree heat.  Luckily, we got it fixed Friday.

 

As for durien, it's pretty hard to describe.  The texture is sort of custard-like and very luxurious and creamy.  The flavor is quite sweet and rich, and I think it is delicious but my kids hate it.  And yea, it smells... strange.  I think "fetid" is an overstatement. The chocolate mellows the flavor, and enrobing the sliced ganache pretty much eliminates the smell.  I get durien at a local Asian grocery. They usually have frozen durian available, and occasionally the whole fruit.  I pretty much just use the frozen because the fruit is huge, and I'd end up having to freeze most of it anyway.

[gfron1]

One of my two offerings for Vegas.  For those of you who don't already know I'll keep the filling a secret.  Happy with my shine however.

 

Edited May 12, 2014 by gfron1 (log)