Chocolates with that Showroom Finish, 2012 –

[gfron1]

4 hours ago, Jim D. said:

And I would say it was a summer well spent!

Jim - you know the difference between an online class and an in-person class? One teacher lets you shmoosh your cocoa butter from cavity to cavity on the cotton ball while the other tells you to throw the cotton ball out after two cavities. And that, my friend, made my good shine great.

[keychris]

1 hour ago, gfron1 said:

Jim - you know the difference between an online class and an in-person class? One teacher lets you shmoosh your cocoa butter from cavity to cavity on the cotton ball while the other tells you to throw the cotton ball out after two cavities. And that, my friend, made my good shine great.

 

surely the whole point of polishing is to get rid of it and not just distribute over different cavities 😛

[gfron1]

26 minutes ago, keychris said:

 

surely the whole point of polishing is to get rid of it and not just distribute over different cavities 😛

That's what they say. My 50 year old eyes didn't see it, but yes, that's what I was doing.

 

[sbain]

Hello new friends. Spent the weekend working on a batch of bon bons and I wanted to share my latest creations ("Earth-like Objects"). I am probably not the first person to think of this design, but I am super happy with how it came out.  

[Rajala]

Mango chocolate (inspired by Kerry), pineapple compote with vanilla, coconut ganache and a coconut/almond insert.

 

Edit: My bonbon got moved here? There's no showroom finish on it.   Reveal yourself, mod! 

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by Rajala (log)

[Rajala]

Looks great! 

[ptw1953]

On 10/15/2018 at 7:44 PM, sbain said:

Hello new friends. Spent the weekend working on a batch of bon bons and I wanted to share my latest creations ("Earth-like Objects"). I am probably not the first person to think of this design, but I am super happy with how it came out.  

My ones say hello to their cousins...

[sbain]

Love it! Have you ever tried other planets? I am dreaming about a box of 9. Jupiter and Mars would be fun:)

[ptw1953]

Hi sbain, good to meet you.

 

My grandson wants me to do other planets as well!

 

I have given myself a year to work on the other planets; only trouble is that he keeps wanting me to show him my progress, and there are so many other things to do. Like, life...😄

[sbain]

are your earths spheres or demi-spheres (like mine)? they look completely round in your photo...

 

[ptw1953]

They are all spheres; i use 2 x half sphere moulds, then, once cast in the mould and filled, I remove and softly melt the edges of the half-spheres, on a barely warm pan base, and then place gently together to make the sphere shape.

 

I think the colouring  you have used, on your half-spheres, is excellent, and I will adopt, if you allow...

[keychris]

@sbain don't know if this link will work, but Savour School in Melbourne had the same idea

https://www.facebook.com/savourschool/photos/a.278904635513785/840506626020247/?type=3&theater

[sbain]

Ah! What a clever idea to mould the two demis into a full sphere. I've got to try that. And of course feel free to "adopt" my coloring  I tried several techniques and had the best luck with using a bit of sea sponge to dab in the colors (first gentle swooshes of white clouds, then a few dabs of light green, then slightly larger/harder darker green right on top of the first dab) then filled it all in with finger swipe of blue.

 

Let me know how they turn out!

 

[ptw1953]

4 minutes ago, keychris said:

@sbain don't know if this link will work, but Savour School in Melbourne had the same idea

https://www.facebook.com/savourschool/photos/a.278904635513785/840506626020247/?type=3&theater

Hi chris, i am a member of Savour, and their site was my first point of contact for inspiration.

 

I have read a few of your informative posts there...

[Jim D.]

2 hours ago, sbain said:

Ah! What a clever idea to mould the two demis into a full sphere. I've got to try that. And of course feel free to "adopt" my coloring  I tried several techniques and had the best luck with using a bit of sea sponge to dab in the colors (first gentle swooshes of white clouds, then a few dabs of light green, then slightly larger/harder darker green right on top of the first dab) then filled it all in with finger swipe of blue.

 

Let me know how they turn out!

 

It's great to have you discuss your technique. Usually people have to be prodded to do this.

[Haley]

On 10/16/2018 at 3:17 PM, sbain said:

Love it! Have you ever tried other planets? I am dreaming about a box of 9. Jupiter and Mars would be fun:)

I did a box of 8 this year at Valentines (that’s all that would fit in my packaging) and they were so fun!  

[sbain]

Those are fantastic! Nicely done. I love Great Red Spot

[curls]

Lovely! @Haley what were the flavors?

[Haley]

@curls the flavors were

mercury: dark chocolate coffee ganache

venus: bananas foster caramel

earth: milk chocolate rosemary ganache

mars: layered white chocolate cherry ganache and dark chocolate chipotle ganache

jupiter: peanut butter

saturn: salted caramel

uranus: layered marshmallow and strawberry balsamic white chocolate ganache

neptune: peppermint white chocolate ganache

 

[curls]

@Haley they sound delicious. I was expecting layers of flavors for Saturn. How did you decide which flavors you wanted to put in each planet? Just curious about your creative process.

[Haley]

@curls I tried to match the flavors to the planets and some were easier than others.  I knew Earth needed to be something “earthy” and I wanted Neptune to be a cool flavor and I wanted to be sure that one of the gas giants had some fluffy marshmallow.  But Saturn was one that I was stuck on and since everyone seems to love salted caramel, that’s what I went with.  I’m just starting to experiment with layers in my bonbons so a layered Saturn might be in the next round of planet boxes I make because that’s a great idea!

[curls]

Fascinating! Thank you @Haley.

[ptw1953]

This last week has been the school holidays time here in Scotland, and my grandson asked if he could visit, to make some chocolates with his papa.

 

By last Wednesday evening I had everything prepped: moulds cleaned, earlier made white and gold arrow shells, ready to be filled with salted caramel sauce (he loves salted caramel), the dendritic moulds prepared, and the technique explained to him; a joint decision to hand paint and etch the moulds was taken, and the guitar sheets were on-hand for capping. My EZtemper (aka Claudia (Cardinale)...) was settled at 33.7c.

 

I was fully prepared for his visit, and looking forward to seeing the bonny boy again.

 

My grandson arrived early on the Thursday morning and, after I'd made us breakfast, we set about the task in hand. All was well with the world as we messed around with moulds, styles, techniques and colours. We were really enjoying each others company; tasting the different softly-melted couvertures, whilst I explained, in detail, to him the differing approaches that are used in dendritic moulding. We were bonding further.

 

Then came the capping incident...

 

As I have grown older, I have become less and less able to be forgiving of people making elementary mistakes, even after a thorough briefing on what I expected them to achieve. I ran through the procedure of capping with a guitar sheet, no less than 5 times! He assured me, with an arrogance only the young can muster, that he was more than capable of the task I had set him. He asked that I did not stand over him whilst he worked. (This request seems to be a common one amongst my family members, and though it upsets me, I agreed to it.) Off to my shed I went.

 

5 minutes in the shed was enough for me; I just HAD to see his work. I flew down the path to my house, opened the kitchen door, and was met by a scene straight out of Mad Max. Chocolate everywhere, from the ceiling to his face and hair. Arrrgh, I screamed. Put the scraper down NOW, I shouted!

 

It took me an hour to tidy up the mess.

 

The moral of this story? Never, ever, ever let your your 4 year old grandchild cap chocolates, no matter the assurances given...😂

 

Images of our day's work attached...

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, ptw1953 said:

Never, ever, ever let your your 4 year old grandchild cap chocolates, no matter the assurances given...

I might be tempted to change that to "always let your 4 year old grandchild (or child) cap chocolates". They eventually get to an age where they don't want to. Imperfect chocolates still taste good, messes can be cleaned... and the chocolates were probably perfect in his eyes. 

[ptw1953]

2 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I might be tempted to change that to "always let your 4 year old grandchild (or child) cap chocolates". They eventually get to an age where they don't want to. Imperfect chocolates still taste good, messes can be cleaned... and the chocolates were probably perfect in his eyes. 

Indeed Tri2Cook, you are spot on. My post was intended to be a jocular precis of that most enjoyable day. He's eaten nearly all the chocolates as well...😀