Confections! What did we make? (2014 – 2016)

[Tri2Cook]

On ‎2016‎-‎03‎-‎01 at 7:55 AM, Kerry Beal said:

Don't recall that I've posted them before.  

On the subject of molds, can you point me in the direction the f'ing bunny molds came from? I've searched google with every search term I could think of and browsed the Tomric, Chocolat-Chocolat and dr.ca sites as well. I figure I can just call and ask if they're still available if I decide for sure I want more but I can't remember where you said they were from.

[Kerry Beal]

CW 1474 - I can't find it in those same places. Worth calling Chocolat-chocolat and seeing if perhaps they have it but not listed.

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

Thanks! Not a big deal if I don't find them, I'm not even 100% decided I want more. But I'll give chocolat-chocolat a call, I have a couple other things I want to order from them anyway.

Edit: Found them on the Chocolate World site. Even after currency conversion and shipping, they'd be no more than ordering from any of the other sites. But I'll still ask at Chocolat since I'm going to be placing an order there anyway.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Tri2Cook (log)

[YetiChocolates]

Well here are the final products from my experimentation 

 

 

These are the milk chocolates (I know I'm expanding out of just dark shells...)  From the top down it's strawberry cheesecake, poached pear, s'mores, and mango thai chili.

 

 

These are the darks (minus one that I haven't finished yet).  From the top down, fig jam and fig balsamic, apple balsamic, raspberry lavender, margarita, and root beer float.  I'm hosting a tasting party tomorrow with a bunch of friends to get their feedback on the new flavors, should be a very fun evening!

[Tri2Cook]

Last weekend was my first weekend with the EZ-Temper. That thing really is amazing, I wish I'd had one back when I was catering. I didn't do much in the way of chocolates but it would have been really handy for whipping out chocolate decorations for desserts at a moments notice and things of that nature. So my first serious attempt to jump into the chocolates world got shot down a bit by being overzealous. I wanted to try something other than what I should have done, just make some nicely tempered basic shells, and I haven't invested in colored cocoa butter yet. So I went with luster dust mixed into melted cocoa butter. Pretty much equal parts satin white and old gold. Not the best look as it turns out, but it was still fun. I'm calling them bigfoot chocolates because for some reason they're impossible to get a picture of that isn't blurry (which is my way of not admitting I'm a horrible photographer). I've tried 2 different cameras and an iPad and can't get a picture that shows that the actually do have a nice depth and shine to the finish. For this coming weekend, I'm going to concentrate more on learning to walk before I try to run and start on some stuff for Easter. I think I'm hooked and look forward to the learning process.

[Kerry Beal]

You can clearly see the depth and shine in these pictures - looking forward to the Easter stuff. 

 

I think pictures of chocolates are some of the most difficult.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@YetiChocolatesAll of your work is beautiful, but what caught my attention immediately was the s'mores piece. I thought immediately when I saw the photo, before I read your descriptions, "Wonder if that's a s'more." 

 

I hope you will report back on your tasting party later. I have to live most of my love of chocolates vicariously due to gaining weight so easily. I have been enjoying a piece or two of my Valentines heart box chocolates over time though, and most of the thirteen pieces are still left. Not one of them has been as good as anything posted here. My husband will never get the nuances of fine food, but at least he's still buying candy and flowers for Valentines after 17 years, so I can't complain. 

[YetiChocolates]

11 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

@YetiChocolatesAll of your work is beautiful, but what caught my attention immediately was the s'mores piece. I thought immediately when I saw the photo, before I read your descriptions, "Wonder if that's a s'more." 

 

I hope you will report back on your tasting party later. I have to live most of my love of chocolates vicariously due to gaining weight so easily. I have been enjoying a piece or two of my Valentines heart box chocolates over time though, and most of the thirteen pieces are still left. Not one of them has been as good as anything posted here. My husband will never get the nuances of fine food, but at least he's still buying candy and flowers for Valentines after 17 years, so I can't complain. 

 

 

Thank you for your kind words!  I will definitely report back on how all the chocolates are received at the tasting tonight.  As for the S'mores piece, it's been a chocolate I've been wanting to make for YEARS!  Finally took the time to do it! Still needs a little work (the milk chocolate ganache is a touch soft and the graham cracker is a bit too sweet) but overall I'm very pleased with it.  It may not be as classy as my other chocolates, but hey, you gotta have some fun with it as well!

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@YetiChocolates, I didn't think, "less classy", but rather whimsical and fun. Sounds like what you were after, and I love the fact that the appearance of the chocolate reveals and tantalizes with a bit of what's to come.

 

Edit: I had to add artisan, creative, and thinking outside the box to the list of descriptors. 

Edited March 5, 2016 by Thanks for the Crepes
add more descriptors for s'mores chocolate (log)

[curls]

Playing with the marbling technique. Think I'll add some white chocolate to the mix next time.

[curls]

Also, trying out some Easter eggs. Rather happy with how they turned out.  :-)

almonds, dried cranberries, and candied orange peel in a dark chocolate egg

[curls]

Peanut butter hedgehogs and coconut bunnies. Will start on the hollow bunnies this week.

[fandi1]

26 minutes ago, curls said:

Also, trying out some Easter eggs. Rather happy with how they turned out.  :-)

almonds, dried cranberries, and candied orange peel in a dark chocolate egg

simply love it!!!!!!!!!!!!! great job

[Jim D.]

Curls,

I like your marbled hearts.  I am going to try to technique, but am concerned about keeping the 3 (in my case) different chocolates (before and after they are mixed) in temper.  Did you keep yours on a heat source (such as a heating pad) while you were mixing and then filling the molds, or ... ?

[curls]

9 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

Curls,

I like your marbled hearts.  I am going to try to technique, but am concerned about keeping the 3 (in my case) different chocolates (before and after they are mixed) in temper.  Did you keep yours on a heat source (such as a heating pad) while you were mixing and then filling the molds, or ... ?

Jim D. I had tempered milk & dark chocolates in melters. Since I was using dark chocolate as my base, I filled a pastry bag with milk chocolate. Then ladled up some dark chocolate, piped in milk chocolate, swirled chocolates in the ladle, poured into the mold.  Not much milk chocolate in this mix, so dumped all the extra chocolate from filling the mold back into the melter with the dark chocolate.

 

If you have a good sized pastry bag, the chocolate stays in temper for quite a while. When it gets too cold, put it aside (for reuse later) and fill a new pastry bag or coronet.

[Jim D.]

Curls,

Thanks very much for the tips.  I'll see how it goes.

[pastrygirl]

Bunnies!  A la Francisco Migoya

 

 

Both the bunnies above and the bunny pops were a hit last weekend at the Oregon Chocolate Festival in Ashland.  I'll be making more!

 

 

Edited March 9, 2016 by pastrygirl
add link (log)

[keychris]

I have a market this weekend, here's a few of the things I'm offering:

 

eggs with eggs inside them

 

Salted caramel - I take my caramel to a very dark colour, people really seem to enjoy that bitterness with the salt and milk chocolate.

 

Peanut caramel praline - there's an optical illusion here, these are actually cut on a slight angle so they're a diamond shape not rectangle!

 

Hazelnut orange praline.

 

I have others which I didn't photograph yet - a raspberry, a lime and a cinnamon

 

[pastrygirl]

Chris, looking good, happy selling! 

 

Can I ask where you got the boxes the eggs are in?

[keychris]

5 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

Can I ask where you got the boxes the eggs are in?

 

They're pretty good huh They fit the CW2007 egg perfectly. I purchased mine from an Australian company, Metropak. The description is "13x8x8cm PVC box". When it arrived, it had "Made in China" stickers, so I imagine you can get them from somewhere closer to you as well! They cost $1.15 each, but with shipping and tax they ended up $1.49 (australian dollar, of course). This was the cheapest I could source.

[curls]

Hollow chocolate bunnies in milk chocolate & dark chocolate.

[Stu Jordan]

Here are a few products from our Easter Collection - no idea how to post images properly here so hopefully this works

Edited March 17, 2016 by Stu Jordan (log)

[Tri2Cook]

So I made the mistake of using a ganache I haven't tested as a filling. It's a Michael Laiskonis recipe for coffee ganache and I've never had one of his recipes let me down before so I was confident. I made the ganache as his recipe dictates with the addition that I added 1% silk from the EZ-Temper when the ganache hit 28 C. It seemed on the fluid side when filling the molds but I continued to trust. 3 hours later, in a fairly chilly room, it's pretty much the texture of a soft cream filling. It doesn't flow if I tilt the molds but it's pretty soft. I can live with that as far as texture for the filling goes in this particular piece (it was piped over a layer of dulce de leche and they seem to be pretty close to the same in texture, so they should meld pretty well in the mouth) but I don't have enough experience with molded chocolates to know if it's firm enough to support bottoming. I was hoping to finish them tonight but now I'm thinking I'll leave them overnight and see if they firm up more. I guess what I'm basically wondering is, how soft is too soft for bottoming?

Edit: I still don't know what is too soft but I decided to go ahead and finish them tonight anyway and there doesn't seem to be any problems. So I now know what isn't too soft.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I saw your question earlier and was all set to answer - but the alligators at work got me first. If its firm enough that the chocolate can't push it out of the mold you're usually good to go.

[Tri2Cook]

18 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I saw your question earlier and was all set to answer - but the alligators at work got me first. If its firm enough that the chocolate can't push it out of the mold you're usually good to go.

I know how that goes at work. Much more so in your profession. The ganache wasn't soft enough to be pushed out, just a lot softer than I expected. Lesson learned on not testing the recipe. Laiskonis recipes have always been trustworthy, I've never had one fail, so I'm assuming either there was some difference in the chocolates we used or he was actually going for a softer, creamy filling. But I'm not 100% happy with the level of coffee flavor either so I'll probably just look for a different coffee ganache recipe next time.