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

[Jim D.]

54 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Or you can get it pretty smooth in a food processor then push it through a fine mesh strainer.  If you're obsessive about it, that is

 

I trust that--particularly on this forum--you were not using the word "obsessive" in a negative way!

[Bentley]

5 hours ago, pastryani said:

Bananas Foster bonbons (Bananas, Spices, and dark rum).

 

Perfect molds for that bonbon . Beautiful work.

[Jim D.]

My first effort since the summer hiatus from chocolate-making:

 

Top row:  (1) Fig with port and anise, molded in dark chocolate. (2) Fresh mint and lemon ganache, molded in dark chocolate. (3) Passion fruit ganache, molded in white chocolate.

 

Middle row:  (1) Crispy hazelnut gianduja, dipped in milk chocolate, topped with caramelized cocoa nibs. (2) Toasted pecan caramel, molded in dark chocolate. (3) Layers of Morello cherry pâte de fruit and coconut cream, molded in dark chocolate.

 

Bottom row:  (1) Milk chocolate mousse flavored with orange blossom water, molded in milk chocolate. (2) Mocha latte ganache (Kahlúa and cream), molded in milk chocolate. (3) Pink grapefruit ganache flavored with Angostura bitters, molded in white chocolate.

 

[Bentley]

4 hours ago, Jim D. said:

My first effort since the summer hiatus from chocolate-making:

 

Top row:  (1) Fig with port and anise, molded in dark chocolate. (2) Fresh mint and lemon ganache, molded in dark chocolate. (3) Passion fruit ganache, molded in white chocolate.

 

Middle row:  (1) Crispy hazelnut gianduja, dipped in milk chocolate, topped with caramelized cocoa nibs. (2) Toasted pecan caramel, molded in dark chocolate. (3) Layers of Morello cherry pâte de fruit and coconut cream, molded in dark chocolate.

 

Bottom row:  (1) Milk chocolate mousse flavored with orange blossom water, molded in milk chocolate. (2) Mocha latte ganache (Kahlúa and cream), molded in milk chocolate. (3) Pink grapefruit ganache flavored with Angostura bitters, molded in white chocolate.

 

 

So Jim, how did you end up doing the Pate de Fruit in the molded chocolate?  I remember having a discussion about the difficulties.

[Jim D.]

Bentley,

I'm glad to hear from you.  We had been discussing how to achieve Kate Weiser's pipeable PDF, but since I didn't get any feedback to my attempts to use Pomona's pectin, I never bothered to complete the description of my experimentation.  For the cherry PDF in the cherry-coconut recipe, I used Pomona's.  It thickens but does not get firm (because, after consulting with the Pomona's people, I used less pectin than a person making jelly would use), so it remains pipeable.  I tested the water activity reading, and it was 0.59--quite respectable; I also used Pomona's optional lemon juice, which not only cuts the sweetness but increases [edit: should be "decreases"] the pH reading and thus lifespan of the PDF.  With the minimal cooking and reduced amount of sugar, the flavor was--if I do say so myself--delicious (I'm going to have the rest of the cherry PDF on my toast tomorrow!).  The next attempt will be with apricot, though I'm still pondering what to pair it with.  Once the weather in Texas gets to the point where Kate begins shipping her product again, I plan to order some of her bonbons that include PDF to see if the flavors are as spectacular as the colors are.

 

Jim 

Edited October 2, 2016 by Jim D.
To correct error about pH reading (log)

[keychris]

2 hours ago, Jim D. said:

 I also used Pomona's optional lemon juice, which not only cuts the sweetness but increases the pH reading

 

Thanks for that info Jim, I have some of that in the cupboard!

Did the lemon juice decrease the pH or increase it? I would have expected a decrease.

[teonzo]

3 hours ago, Jim D. said:

The next attempt will be with apricot, though I'm still pondering what to pair it with.

 

Lavender!

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Jim D.]

8 hours ago, keychris said:

 

Thanks for that info Jim, I have some of that in the cupboard!

Did the lemon juice decrease the pH or increase it? I would have expected a decrease.

 

Of course you are correct, it would decrease the reading--I had it backwards (this occurred to me after I had posted and gone to bed last night).

[Jim D.]

7 hours ago, teonzo said:

 

Lavender!

Teo

 

 

An excellent suggestion.  Thanks.  And I have some lavender in the cabinet that I can use for experiments.

[Tri2Cook]

I dug my copy of the Fat Duck cookbook out of one of the boxes most of my cookbooks are temporarily residing in because I was sure I remembered Heston using a PdF for piping somewhere in there. It took a little searching because I was mistakenly remembering it as one of his recipes using gellan. It's not. So this is what he does (paraphrased, of course)...

Apricot Pate de Fruit
200 grams sugar
3 grams yellow pectin
250 grams apricot puree
25 grams glucose syrup
3 grams malic acid
5 grams amaretto liqueur

Boil puree. Add combined sugar and pectin. Add glucose. Cook to 107 C (225 F). Set aside. Dissolve the malic acid in the amaretto and whisk into the puree mixture. Pour into a bowl, cool until set, puree with a stick blender and store in a piping bag until needed.

Does this sound useable in regards to shelf life? I would think so but the number of times I've used a PdF that can be piped in a filled chocolate is exactly zero.

[Jim D.]

Tri2Cook,

I am not an expert in the traditional PDF, but I would say that the recipe you included is in that style (mainly in cooking the mixture to 225F/107C).  It is a bit unusual, though, in having more purée than sweetener (sucrose + glucose).  All the traditional PDF recipes I have seen have more sweetener than fruit.  That should make the Fat Duck recipe taste better. I don't know what its water activity reading would be (with the slightly reduced amount of sweetener), but traditional PDFs have fairly low readings  My reason for moving to Pomona's is that I didn't like the cooked taste of traditional PDFs.  Reaching 225/107 takes longer than one might think, and the fruit flavor (IMHO, of course) gets muted.  With Pomona's you bring the mixture to boiling and then take it off the heat.  That makes for a high Aw reading, but I use sorbitol to bring the water activity down dramatically.

 

In the thread on PDF, @Bentley, who experimented with making a traditional PDF and then using a food processor to make it pipeable, nearly ruined his processor doing so.  In that thread, @gap mentioned adding some alcohol to avoid this issue.

[Tri2Cook]

Thanks. Was mainly just curious about it. He doesn't use it in chocolates in the book, it's piped as a layer in his Black Forest Gateau.

[teonzo]

If you have 225 g of sugars (sucrose + glucose), 250 g of apricot puree and need to reach 107°C, then it means the apricot puree will be reduced to about 150 g, this will give a stronger apricot flavor than the usual % used in pate de fruits recipes.

3 g pectin for 225 g sugars is way lower than the amount used for standard pate de fruits, this means the final result will be thick but spreadable, it won't be set like standard pate de fruits. So if you blend it with a hand-held mixer then you should not face much troubles (like trying to blend a full set pate de fruits).

Shelf life will be great if you cook it to 107°C. The water/sugar ratio is constant at a given temperature, reaching 107°C gives you a shelf stable product at the contact with air, so you won't have any problems regarding shelf life in an enrobed chocolate.

The key in this recipe is the low amount of pectin, the result (before blending) will be more similar to jam/marmalade than to pate de fruits.

 

 

Teo

 

[Bentley]

Today, I tried a recipe based on one from Melissa Coppel.  She has a bonbon with a creme fraiche ganache paired with what she calls a guava compote.  It's a jellied fruit puree that she pipes into molded shells.

I used the same recipe but with strawberry puree.  

 

The recipe is:

 

300g      Strawberry puree

70g        Water

25g        sugar

6g         Pectin NH

100g     Sugar

3g        Citric acid powder

 

Rather than specific temps, she instructs to bring the mixture to a "strong boil for 1 minute" after adding the pectin.

I found that I need to cook it longer to get the right consistency.  After 1 min. it was a soupy mess that didn't set at all.  I needed to go for about 4-5 minutes.  The temp ended up being less than 200F, so there's definitely more water than in a traditional PDF.   I will say, I used regular Apple Pectin because I don't have Pectin NH, so that could account for the difference.  After cooling, I blitzed the mixture with a small amount of corn syrup to get a nice paste.  It reminded me of the picture of Kate Weiser's piping bags of PDF - fluid and shiny.  When I piped it, it very slowly spread out - not totally flat, but whatever small peaks remained, I was able to flatten with the tip of a small spoon.  I then covered it with a ganache and capped.  

Edited October 2, 2016 by Bentley (log)

[keychris]

1 hour ago, Bentley said:

Rather than specific temps, she instructs to bring the mixture to a "strong boil for 1 minute" after adding the pectin.

I found that I need to cook it longer to get the right consistency.  After 1 min. it was a soupy mess that didn't set at all.  I needed to go for about 4-5 minutes.

 

This is why it's good to have temperatures - her stovetop was obviously cranking in a lot more heat than yours was!

[pastrygirl]

Trying to get psyched up for Christmas.  I do really want to sell lots of chocolate, despite not a lot of events booked and being the sort of person who normally starts her holiday shopping/planning around December 20.  Anyway, picked up some 4" eggs at Chef Rubber so made attempts at reindeer and penguins.

 

They need red noses and smaller antlers but could work. 

 

 

My brother described the penguins as having "The thousand yard stare of a penguin with nothing left to lose..."  They need to get happier before Christmas!

 

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

They do look a little psychotic

[Tri2Cook]

4 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

They do look a little psychotic

They kinda do... and I think I like them even more because of that.

[Tri2Cook]

4 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

 

 

 

 

I just showed them to my 16 year old daughter and she squealed and said they're adorable.

[quiet1]

2 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

They kinda do... and I think I like them even more because of that.

 

They need some kind of gift wrapping and gift shopping detritus scattered around them and suddenly everyone would empathize entirely.

[Kerry Beal]

5 hours ago, quiet1 said:

 

They need some kind of gift wrapping and gift shopping detritus scattered around them and suddenly everyone would empathize entirely.

Call them packing penquins

[IowaDee]

I love their little scallop shell feet!

[kriz6912]

Milk chocolate peanut gianduja, moulded milk chocolate

And a video... https://www.instagram.com/p/BLIeaDYjddK/

[Kerry Beal]

Excellent! Love the video.

[kriz6912]

Passion fruit & lime & vodka & dark chocolate ganache, moulded white chocolate.