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

Tri2Cook · October 21, 2015

I really like the way that looks Rob. I keep saying it and not doing it but one of these days I really am going to take a serious run at getting good (or decent anyway) at doing chocolates. Which airbrush is that you're using?

gfron1 · October 21, 2015

The one that folks here regularly recommend - Badger 175. Works well for me.

Gwbyls · October 21, 2015

Beautiful Rob! Thanks for sharing.

cyalexa · October 23, 2015

I know the title of this thread is not "What would we like to make", but it seemed to be the best place to post without starting a new thread. I have a fig tree and am always looking for new ideas for my harvest. These sound wonderful. I would like to try to make them but have no idea where to start. Can anyone give me some pointers? As they will just be for my own consumption I don't want to let my lack of technical skill stop me from trying.

https://www.tienda.com/products/dark-chocolate-fig-bonbons-rabitos-royale-ct-02.html

Kerry Beal · October 23, 2015

I did something similar before - will try to link to it later and see if I can find the recipe I used.

cyalexa · October 23, 2015

I did something similar before - will try to link to it later and see if I can find the recipe I used.

Thanks. No rush.

Kerry Beal · October 24, 2015

Apparently I didn't post my reply a couple of hours ago - DUH!

Here's what I made. The only ones I remember turning out well were the plump less dry ones. Not sure if you are going to dry your figs or not.

I seem to have lost the truffle filling in the great hard drive crash of 2014 - but if you use the following recipe - swap out the amaretto and bitter almond oil for your favourite booze - you should come up with something you can stuff the figs with.

Amaretto Truffles

Ingredients

400 grams milk chocolate
100 grams bittersweet chocolate
165 grams whipping cream
50 grams glucose or white corn syrup
36 grams amaretto
12 drops bitter almond oil
50 grams butter room temperature

Method

1.Melt chocolate in microwave or in a double boiler over hot water. Heat cream in saucepan or in microwave until bubbles. Stir together melted chocolate and cream until smooth. Add glucose, amaretto and bitter almond oil. Cool to room temperature and mix in butter.

2.Let sit at least overnight for use as truffles. Scoop out 1tsp amounts, let sit several hours then roll between your hands to round out. Dip in tempered milk chocolate and decorate with tempered dark or white chocolate.

3.To fill molded chocolates, cool just to room temperature and beat with a mixer until lightens in colour. Pipe into prepared molds (or in this case - pipe into the fig. Then dip stuffed fig into tempered chocolate.

cyalexa · October 24, 2015

Apparently I didn't post my reply a couple of hours ago - DUH!

Here's what I made. The only ones I remember turning out well were the plump less dry ones. Not sure if you are going to dry your figs or not.

I seem to have lost the truffle filling in the great hard drive crash of 2014 - but if you use the following recipe - swap out the amaretto and bitter almond oil for your favourite booze - you should come up with something you can stuff the figs with.

Amaretto Truffles
Ingredients

400 grams milk chocolate

100 grams bittersweet chocolate

165 grams whipping cream

50 grams glucose or white corn syrup

36 grams amaretto

12 drops bitter almond oil

50 grams butter room temperature

Method

1.Melt chocolate in microwave or in a double boiler over hot water. Heat cream in saucepan or in microwave until bubbles. Stir together melted chocolate and cream until smooth. Add glucose, amaretto and bitter almond oil. Cool to room temperature and mix in butter.
2.Let sit at least overnight for use as truffles. Scoop out 1tsp amounts, let sit several hours then roll between your hands to round out. Dip in tempered milk chocolate and decorate with tempered dark or white chocolate.
3.To fill molded chocolates, cool just to room temperature and beat with a mixer until lightens in colour. Pipe into prepared molds (or in this case - pipe into the fig. Then dip stuffed fig into tempered chocolate.

Thank you for taking the time to post. I'm hoping to find something I can do with fresh figs. I have not been happy with my drying efforts. Just leaving them on a plate in the refrigerator has worked as well as anything else I've tried!

Kerry Beal · October 24, 2015

Stuffed Figs

Ingredients

4 ripe figs
3 ounces grated semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoons ground almonds
½ teaspoon rum
Sauce
3 ounces white chocolate
dash heavy cream

Method

cut top off figs and poke holes in centre. Fill with the semisweet chocolate. Sprinkle over the almonds and rum. Bake 225 for 10 minutes. Don't let the chocolate melt. Mix the white chocolate with the cream, spread on plate.

Edited October 24, 2015 by Kerry Beal (log)

cyalexa · October 25, 2015

Stuffed Figs

Ingredients

4 ripe figs
3 ounces grated semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoons ground almonds
½ teaspoon rum
Sauce
3 ounces white chocolate
dash heavy cream

Method

cut top off figs and poke holes in centre. Fill with the semisweet chocolate. Sprinkle over the almonds and rum. Bake 225 for 10 minutes. Don't let the chocolate melt. Mix the white chocolate with the cream, spread on plate.

Thank you! I can definitely manage that one!

excv_ · October 27, 2015

This week's production! Hand dipped ginger caramels garnished with candied ginger(yes, the chocolate wasn't exactly in the best state on those; I was in sort of a hurry, and I'm not sure what exactly happened. My guess is that oil got mixed into the chocolate from the surface of the centers.), coffee ganache truffles and molded dark chocolates filled with vanilla-flavored white chocolate ganache, in that order. Top right on the last image is a runny caramel bar I made mainly to test out a new mold; not sure why I don't have a separate pic of that one..

I used Peter Greweling's recipe from Chocolates & Confections at home for the caramels, following the directions for spice caramels listed in the book; it couldn't have been more satisfactory. The rest are my own creations- nothing really to call a recipe there, anyway.

Edited October 27, 2015 by excv_ (log)

rajoress · October 27, 2015

excv_ Those chocolates look and sound great! Could I ask what type of ginger you used for the ginger caramel? Did you infuse cream or cook ginger in with the sugar? I have a ton of fresh ginger root from our farm share this fall and I was wondering if it could be useful for chocolates and I like the idea of a caramel.

Thanks for any info!

Ruth

minas6907 · October 27, 2015

I just have two items from the last month or so. The first is a chipotle butter ganache, and the second, a peanut gianduja.

Darienne · October 27, 2015

Exquisite as always, Minas6907.

Today I added one more item to my long list of apple products, thanks to our crazy overproducing Macintosh tree: Apple Cider Salted Caramels, a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I thought I'd died and gone to caramel heaven. They are delicious!

excv_ · October 28, 2015

excv_ Those chocolates look and sound great! Could I ask what type of ginger you used for the ginger caramel? Did you infuse cream or cook ginger in with the sugar? I have a ton of fresh ginger root from our farm share this fall and I was wondering if it could be useful for chocolates and I like the idea of a caramel.
Thanks for any info!
Ruth

Thank you!

The recipe I used simply calls for a teaspoon of finely ground ginger to be added at the beginning(it makes about a 7x9 inch slab, btw), but infusing the cream as you mentioned also seems like a good idea for a stronger flavor. Experiment with the amount of ginger and find what you like; for the record, I would have liked a more intense flavor simply caramel-wise but the subtleness kind of made it blend in better with the chocolate so. For the type of ginger, I just use whatever I can get at the local market for making ginger-flavored goods; I imagine common yellow/white ginger will work best. The candied ginger on top is what really gives most of the flavor and spice to those, as the caramel isn't all that intense on its own; it's simply sliced ginger roots, boiled for about 45 minutes in syrup and dried for a few hours. Feel free to ask if you need anything else!

Edited October 28, 2015 by excv_ (log)

tikidoc · October 29, 2015

Pure Passion... white chocolate ganache & passion fruit, moulded white chocolate

https://www.facebook.com/KrisSchoofsChocolates
https://instagram.com/KrisSchoofsChocolates

Still waiting to hear how this was done!!!!

kriz6912 · October 29, 2015

Still waiting to hear how this was done!!!!

You stack different layers of coloured white chocolate as shown in the photo (then I continued with adding yet again a white, yellow, red & white layer). Give it a very brief twist with the spatula to create marbled layers in the bowl. Then just mould as you normally would.

**Jim D.** · October 29, 2015

Kris,

Thanks for that information. How do you keep the various chocolates in temper as do the layering? It would seem the process takes quite a bit of time during which the temperature is dropping. After stirring with the spatula, do you then pour the contents into a mold?

Tri2Cook · October 29, 2015

You stack different layers of coloured white chocolate as shown in the photo (then I continued with adding yet again a white, yellow, red & white layer). Give it a very brief twist with the spatula to create marbled layers in the bowl. Then just mould as you normally would.

Genius and so simple at the same time. Definitely a "Why didn't I think of that?" moment for me. I've been on and off experimenting with different ways to do a similar finish on molded dessert pieces for a few years with nothing that I was happy with ever developing. To say I was overthinking it is an understatement.

keychris · October 30, 2015

Kris,
Thanks for that information. How do you keep the various chocolates in temper as do the layering? It would seem the process takes quite a bit of time during which the temperature is dropping. After stirring with the spatula, do you then pour the contents into a mold?

have all the chocolate coloured and in temper before you add them to the bowl. then mould as normal.

Darienne · October 30, 2015

Well, my confections can never hope to equal the eG masters, like Minas6907, my personal hero...but I do try...

The apple processing on the farm still carries on with my latest: Apple Cider Salted Caramel, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. I thought they were absolutely delicious.

DH said...well, yes, they're OK.

What do you mean...just OK?

Well, they'd be better with toasted pecans in them and dipped in dark chocolate.

The things I do...

Thought: I mixed the pecan pieces into the caramel mixture before pouring it out, but the pecans all rose to the top. I would assume this is normal?

excv_ · November 2, 2015

Coconut and Peanut butter bunnies.

kriz6912 · November 2, 2015

Kris,
Thanks for that information. How do you keep the various chocolates in temper as do the layering? It would seem the process takes quite a bit of time during which the temperature is dropping. After stirring with the spatula, do you then pour the contents into a mold?

You do have to work quick. I tempered the white chocolate in a chocolate melter. Then moved some of the chocolate to two other non-heated bowls and coloured them (which you can do very quickly). Then, after stirring (make sure you don't stir much), you just pour it into a mould like you normally would. Ideally you could use 3 separate chocolate melters to keep everything in temper.

Even though this technique results in very nice looking coloured chocolates, you end up with a lost of 'wasted' chocolate. Normally, when moulding, you simply re-use the chocolate the next time. However, with this technique the leftover chocolate gets a funny colour once you re-melt it because all the colours will have mixed.

ChocoMom · November 2, 2015

You do have to work quick. I tempered the white chocolate in a chocolate melter. Then moved some of the chocolate to two other non-heated bowls and coloured them (which you can do very quickly). Then, after stirring (make sure you don't stir much), you just pour it into a mould like you normally would. Ideally you could use 3 separate chocolate melters to keep everything in temper.

Even though this technique results in very nice looking coloured chocolates, you end up with a lost of 'wasted' chocolate. Normally, when moulding, you simply re-use the chocolate the next time. However, with this technique the leftover chocolate gets a funny colour once you re-melt it because all the colours will have mixed.

Kris,

Even considering the waste, those have got to be some of the coolest looking beauties I've ever seen! :smile: If the mixed colors aren't too muddled after casting the molds, they could be used to make some swirled chocolate lollipops for kids. ..just a thought.

Thanks so much for sharing your "mojo", and inspiring me so much!

hummingbirdkiss · November 6, 2015

EXTRA sour grape gumdrops

for a birthday party tomorrow

very rustic sorry.. I have no patience to make sure they are perfect visually but they do taste good! puckery good! extra citric acid mixed in with the sugar coating and the grape juice was raw extracted and super sour but very strong solid supper concentrated concord grape flavored juice ..so these are a success and the inside is a very nice jelly candy texture I think you can see through them, almost ..I really like the extra sour as well .The kids who planted the grapes … will get to eat these tomorrow it wold have been more fun if they could have made the candy today.. but the party is tomorrow and they had school ..darn the more important things in life

Edited November 6, 2015 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

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