Cooking with "Chocolates and Confections" by Peter Greweling (Part 2)

[chocoera]

this may have been covered all ready, but you know his caramel recipe with the evaporated milk? do you think you could use the raspberry recipe and do a straight substitute with pumpkin puree? i know rasp is a bit more liquid than pumpkin but how do you think that'd work? and do a bit of cinnamon/cloves/nutmeg...ginger? or maybe enrobe in white choc with crystalized ginger on top? thoughts?

[lebowits]

this may have been covered all ready, but you know his caramel recipe with the evaporated milk? do you think you could use the raspberry recipe and do a straight substitute with pumpkin puree? i know rasp is a bit more liquid than pumpkin but how do you think that'd work? and do a bit of cinnamon/cloves/nutmeg...ginger? or maybe enrobe in white choc with crystalized ginger on top? thoughts?

I use his "sweetened condensed milk" formula because it has the least amount of water to start and seems to be the quickest to cook. In the past, I've made a "ginger caramel" by grating fresh ginger on my food processor and using the resulting "juice" in place of the water called for in the formula. This gave the caramels a nice spicy flavor. I imagine you could add pumpkin puree as well. My suggestion would be to "cook" the pumpkin and the spices together in a small pan before using them with the caramel. This will take some of the starch out of the puree and develop the combined flavors.

Give it a go!

[prairiegirl]

I am doing a class next weekend for 2.5 hours. I was hoping to only have 10-12 people. I got the news that we have 25 people. I think that is way too many but what is done is done! I am looking for some ideas that will work in the 2.5 time frame. I want to do Grewelings Spiced eggnog recipe as a truffle. Does anyone have any other suggestions. I would like to do 2 different truffles. The recipe has to set up in the alloted time.

[Kerry Beal]

I am doing a class next weekend for 2.5 hours. I was hoping to only have 10-12 people. I got the news that we have 25 people. I think that is way too many but what is done is done! I am looking for some ideas that will work in the 2.5 time frame. I want to do Grewelings Spiced eggnog recipe as a truffle. Does anyone have any other suggestions. I would like to do 2 different truffles. The recipe has to set up in the alloted time.

I generally make my truffle ganache the day before - then show them how I make it - but use the premade ganache for scooping or cutting.

Then I use the ganache made the day of the class for molded truffles.

[lebowits]

I am doing a class next weekend for 2.5 hours. I was hoping to only have 10-12 people. I got the news that we have 25 people. I think that is way too many but what is done is done! I am looking for some ideas that will work in the 2.5 time frame. I want to do Grewelings Spiced eggnog recipe as a truffle. Does anyone have any other suggestions. I would like to do 2 different truffles. The recipe has to set up in the alloted time.

If you have polycarbonate molds for "cups" (e.g. peanut butter cups, etc.), you can pour the cups and pull them from the molds after setting (and do a set ahead of time) and fill them with a toasted hazelnut gianduja (see "Trifection" for a formula. I get 64 pieces from a single batch and it sets up nicely in a short period of time. Even if if doesn't setup completely, it's delicious while soft!

[chocoera]

this may have been covered all ready, but you know his caramel recipe with the evaporated milk? do you think you could use the raspberry recipe and do a straight substitute with pumpkin puree? i know rasp is a bit more liquid than pumpkin but how do you think that'd work? and do a bit of cinnamon/cloves/nutmeg...ginger? or maybe enrobe in white choc with crystalized ginger on top? thoughts?

I use his "sweetened condensed milk" formula because it has the least amount of water to start and seems to be the quickest to cook. In the past, I've made a "ginger caramel" by grating fresh ginger on my food processor and using the resulting "juice" in place of the water called for in the formula. This gave the caramels a nice spicy flavor. I imagine you could add pumpkin puree as well. My suggestion would be to "cook" the pumpkin and the spices together in a small pan before using them with the caramel. This will take some of the starch out of the puree and develop the combined flavors.

Give it a go!

i'll give it a try, thanks steve i was worried since raspberry puree is so "wet" lots of liquid instead of a pack solid like pumpkin...i'll write out how it goes, hope to get it done by next week

[lebowits]

this may have been covered all ready, but you know his caramel recipe with the evaporated milk? do you think you could use the raspberry recipe and do a straight substitute with pumpkin puree? i know rasp is a bit more liquid than pumpkin but how do you think that'd work? and do a bit of cinnamon/cloves/nutmeg...ginger? or maybe enrobe in white choc with crystalized ginger on top? thoughts?

I use his "sweetened condensed milk" formula because it has the least amount of water to start and seems to be the quickest to cook. In the past, I've made a "ginger caramel" by grating fresh ginger on my food processor and using the resulting "juice" in place of the water called for in the formula. This gave the caramels a nice spicy flavor. I imagine you could add pumpkin puree as well. My suggestion would be to "cook" the pumpkin and the spices together in a small pan before using them with the caramel. This will take some of the starch out of the puree and develop the combined flavors.

Give it a go!

i'll give it a try, thanks steve i was worried since raspberry puree is so "wet" lots of liquid instead of a pack solid like pumpkin...i'll write out how it goes, hope to get it done by next week

I don't think you'll have to worry much about the water content of the puree. From the reading I've done, the total water content of the caramel is a function of the temperature you cook it too. Thus a "firm ball" is always going to have similar water content no matter how much water you start with.

[mkayahara]

In the past few weeks, my partner and I have made a couple of truffles out of this book, so I thought I'd share our results.

First, we made the Dark and Stormies, but we added lime zest to the infusion. Great flavour, but the lime ended up overpowering the ginger a bit. Our ganache broke when we made it, too, but we fixed it up quite easily following the instructions in the book.

The following week, we made the orange truffles in the butter ganache section. Apart from some slight difficulty incorporating the fondant, these went off without a hitch.

We've got plans to make a few more from this book and the At Home book in the next little while.

Edit: Yes, we've got lots of bubbles in the chocolate we use for dipping. Not sure where that comes from; stirring too vigourously, maybe?

Edited February 27, 2011 by mkayahara (log)

[carsondial]

I'm on holiday at the moment, and have been given a request to make gummies. After a short trip down to Barnes and Nobles to copy out the recipe from the book (I know, I know, but my copy is 4,000 miles away, which makes it a little hard ), I flicked back to take a look at the start of the chapter whilst I was waiting for the bus to turn up. And there I found something a little curious - in the gelatin section, Greweling is clear that gelatin shouldn't be added to a solution that's above 100˚C. Yet in the recipe, he tells us to cool the sugar/glucose mix to 120˚C before adding in the gelatin. Sooo, which is right? I'd been wondering about the high temp for a while after researching into hydrocolloids a little more afterwards, but I never went back to this book to find the conflict…

(Obviously, I could try it myself, but I'm waiting for the glucose syrup to arrive before I get started, and was just wondering if anybody knows one way or another!)

[chocochoco]

Hi Matthew,

How do you like the butter ganache compared to the cream ganache?

Have you tried two similar or same flavor ganaches (i.e. orange) side by side, one being the butter ganache and the other the cream one? Which one did or do you prefer, based on flavor and making/production process?

Thanks a lot,

Omar

Edited April 13, 2011 by chocochoco (log)

[mkayahara]

Omar, having made a couple of batches of each type, I think I'd say I prefer the butter ganaches, mostly because they set up faster (making it a one-day process) and are firmer, so they're easier to work with (since we don't have a guitar). That said, we haven't done a side-by-side of cream vs. butter with the same flavour, so I can't comment on flavour qualities.

One thing we have found, having done the fruit buttercreams from Greweling's "At Home" book, is that you have to be sure to use a neutral-flavoured butter. The butter I normally use for cooking is quite flavourful, and the finished product tasted more like diacetyl than fruit.

[Darienne]

One thing we have found, having done the fruit buttercreams from Greweling's "At Home" book, is that you have to be sure to use a neutral-flavoured butter. The butter I normally use for cooking is quite flavourful, and the finished product tasted more like diacetyl than fruit.

That's an interesting question, about the taste of butter. I see mkayahara is also a Canadian, and I have always found American butter to taste blander than Canadian butter...no idea why. I know Canadian products often contain more salt than American products while on the other hand, American products contain more sugar.

What butters do you use, mkayahara, for cooking and for confections?

[mkayahara]

What butters do you use, mkayahara, for cooking and for confections?

I use Lactancia "My Country" unsalted for cooking, and (after those buttercreams) President's Choice unsalted for confections.

[RWood]

Hi Matthew,

How do you like the butter ganache compared to the cream ganache?

Have you tried two similar or same flavor ganaches (i.e. orange) side by side, one being the butter ganache and the other the cream one? Which one did or do you prefer, based on flavor and making/production process?

Thanks a lot,

Omar

I have done a comparison with a lemon butter ganache and a lemon cream ganache, and there was a big difference. The butter ganache had so much more lemon flavor. I used white chocolate in both. I prefer butter ganaches as they do set much faster and I think let the other flavors come through better.

[chocochoco]

Hi RWood,

Do you also find the butter ganache firmer than the cream one?

Do you like the butter ganache's texture better?

Thanks,

Omar

[RWood]

Hi RWood,

Do you also find the butter ganache firmer than the cream one?

Do you like the butter ganache's texture better?

Thanks,

Omar

Yes, they are firmer. Even though they work for slabbing and cutting, I use them mostly in a molded shell. I use them for most of my fruit flavored centers as well as with red wine. And I do like the texture better.

[minas6907]

Hey, not sure if anyone has seem this, I'm sure someone has. A while ago I recall hearing something about a 2nd edition of Chocolates and Confections, a google search turned up this site:

http://www.allbookstores.com/Chocolates-Confections-Formula-Theory-Technique/9780470424414

I forget where I originally heard of it, it was a few months ago, but looks as if there will be an updated book in Jan 2012. Anyone else heard anything about this? Mabye I read something on a post here, anyways, I wasnt able to come up with any results from a search.

[minas6907]

http://www.amazon.ca/Chocolates-Confections-Formula-Technique-Confectioner/dp/0470424419%3FSubscriptionId%3D1E2MCMDX6VVV67W7T882%26tag%3Dallbooks09-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0470424419

Huh. Well maybe it will be Nov 2012, haha. Looks like it's 100 pages longer.

[mkayahara]

My husband is interested in making Greweling's shell-molded cherry cordials, only we're faced with a problem: we don't know what size mold to buy to fit the cherries, fondant and chocolate! Can anyone recommend a size - or a specific model? Thanks!

[Kerry Beal]

My husband is interested in making Greweling's shell-molded cherry cordials, only we're faced with a problem: we don't know what size mold to buy to fit the cherries, fondant and chocolate! Can anyone recommend a size - or a specific model? Thanks!

I've always used the biggest one I could find for these - cause I like to have a whole cherry in them and it's hard if the mold is a regular size.

These are the ones I use. You can see they are 36 grams. Huge!

I've got a couple around if you are going to be through and want to grab one.

[pastrygirl]

Anybody have experience with the meltaways? I made a tiny batch once and liked them, now I'm wondering if the meltaway base can be dipped or used as a filling, or if the coconut fat would bloom through the chocolate coating. The meltaway recipes in the book specify to be rolled in powdered sugar or cocoa powder. A soon-to be family member can't have any dairy, so I'm trying to think what I can make for her without getting too involved with substitutions. I don't have to dip them, just thought it might be fun to do a bar with a creamy meltaway center if it would work. Any ideas?

Edited December 10, 2011 by pastrygirl (log)

[Chocolot]

I have made them and piped into shells. Works fine. It is a bit tricky to pipe into the molds. Make a VERY small hole in the pastry bag:-)

[cmflick]

I have made both the mint and peanut butter meltaways and dipped in chocolate. At Kerry Beal's suggestion I added about 5% milk chocolate to the dark chocolate that I used to dip and had no problem with bloom. I don't really understand the reasons why, but the milk chocolate is supposed to inhibit bloom.

[pastrygirl]

Good to know, I'll give it a try. I wouldn't be able to use milk chocolate because of a dairy issue. I'll just have to advise her to eat them quickly, and not worry about fat bloom if it does happen.

Thanks!

[Prabha]

I made a small batch of the mango ganache yesterday. I used canned mango puree from the Indian store - it's the only one I can find in small quantities. I reduced the puree by half, as the recipe calls for. The ganache tasted odd, I thought - somewhat metallic or bitter, maybe, and it didn't improve when coated with dark chocolate. Could it be because of the quality of the puree? Where do you get your mango puree? Anything I should be watching out for when reducing the stuff?