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

[Bentley]

The last of the summer flavors......Pink Lemonade.  White chocolate lemon ganache with a fresh strawberry compote.

[Jim D.]

Bentley,

Beautiful and delicious-looking as well.  Did you use an airbrush for that great yellow color?  Do you mind saying a little about how you did the shell?

[pastrygirl]

While you Easterners are battening down the hatches for the hurricane, we're seeing our first snow flurries here in the West.  Chocolate peppermint snowflake flurries, that is!  60% dark chocolate with a bit of pure peppermint oil and silver decor powder.  I can't believe I've actually started making holiday product in October - I'm really pretty Scrooge-y when it comes to Christmas - but I have a client doing a holiday pop-up shop who wants to pick up product next week.  I think I got smart this year and applied the silver dust to the whole batch after un-molding instead of brushing each mold cavity individually.  #efficiency!

 

[pastryani]

5 hours ago, Bentley said:

The last of the summer flavors......Pink Lemonade.  White chocolate lemon ganache with a fresh strawberry compote.

 

Wow so pretty!  That strawberry compote is SUCH a bright red - do tell how you kept it from getting "jam-colored" which is a much darker, duller shade?

[Bentley]

14 hours ago, Jim D. said:

Bentley,

Beautiful and delicious-looking as well.  Did you use an airbrush for that great yellow color?  Do you mind saying a little about how you did the shell?

 

Thanks!  I was really happy with how this one came out.  You get the tartness of the the lemon and then a burst of strawberry hits your tongue.  

The yellow is airbrushed in.  It's Chef Rubber colored cocoa butter - about 70% Aureolin Yellow mixed with about 30% Alabaster White.  The red is one of the jewel colors piped from a piping bag with a pinhole opening.  I really took my time to get the cocoa butter to the right temp.  I got great shine and the bonbons mostly fell right out of the mold. That  never happens! 

 

@pastryani The compote is based on the Melissa Coppel recipe I referenced in the PdF thread. There is less sugar than in a typical jam or PdF and it is cooked for less time and to a lower temp than a PdF.  That's my best guess at how it kept a lot more of the fresh strawberry puree's color.

Edited October 7, 2016 by Bentley (log)

[RobertM]

I made Grewlings pumpkin caramels for a dinner party (pot luck)

 

[kriz6912]

White chocolate butter ganache & mocha, milk chocolate hazelnut gianduja & hazelnut praliné, roasted hazelnut, moulded white chocolate

[martin0642]

On 01/10/2016 at 9:23 PM, 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.

 

 

These look amazing! I'm pretty impressed by your webpage too..I was struck the reference to the Camino - hands down one of the best things I've ever one (twice!).

 

Anyway - I'm curious about  one  thing- the chocolate mousse here...I've been looking for a decent mousse like recipe for a while but haven't found anything that really fits. Would you be happy to share yours?

[Jim D.]

Thanks for the kind words about the chocolates and my website. I envy your trips to Santiago.

 

I would be happy to provide the recipe for the mousse.  It is the same filling I recently wrote about in the thread on buttercream.  It is basically Peter Greweling's orange butter ganache but with a few additions:

 

Mix 110g softened butter and 40g fondant. Temper 360g milk chocolate and 120g dark chocolate, then add to the butter mixture.  Add 50g orange juice concentrate, 20g orange liqueur (I use Grand Marnier), and (the next two are my additions) about 6 tablespoons of orange blossom water and 2 teaspoons of orange zest.  Beat the mixture until it acquires a mousse-like texture and lightens in color. Pipe into molds or spread in a frame.

 

Notes: I really like the orange blossom water because it gives a little twist to the usual chocolate-orange combination, but, of course, it is not necessary. The amount may seem large, but it took that much for the taste to come through. The zest considerably brightens the orange flavor. I know that I criticized fondant in that buttercream thread, but there isn't so much of it in this recipe.  The shelf life issue was also discussed in the buttercream thread. I do not know for sure whether beating this filling reduces its shelf life, but its water activity is low. If one is concerned about the effect of the air introduced by the beating, the butter ganache is delicious without this added step.

[kayb]

My poor efforts really don't belong in this thread, but I got in the notion for sweet stuff yesterday.  Coconut macaroons and chocolate oatmeal no-bake cookies.

 

[martin0642]

On 21/10/2016 at 5:09 PM, Jim D. said:

Thanks for the kind words about the chocolates and my website. I envy your trips to Santiago.

 

I would be happy to provide the recipe for the mousse.  It is the same filling I recently wrote about in the thread on buttercream.  It is basically Peter Greweling's orange butter ganache but with a few additions:

 

Mix 110g softened butter and 40g fondant. Temper 360g milk chocolate and 120g dark chocolate, then add to the butter mixture.  Add 50g orange juice concentrate, 20g orange liqueur (I use Grand Marnier), and (the next two are my additions) about 6 tablespoons of orange blossom water and 2 teaspoons of orange zest.  Beat the mixture until it acquires a mousse-like texture and lightens in color. Pipe into molds or spread in a frame.

 

Notes: I really like the orange blossom water because it gives a little twist to the usual chocolate-orange combination, but, of course, it is not necessary. The amount may seem large, but it took that much for the taste to come through. The zest considerably brightens the orange flavor. I know that I criticized fondant in that buttercream thread, but there isn't so much of it in this recipe.  The shelf life issue was also discussed in the buttercream thread. I do not know for sure whether beating this filling reduces its shelf life, but its water activity is low. If one is concerned about the effect of the air introduced by the beating, the butter ganache is delicious without this added step.

 

 

Fantastic - thank you so much for this! I'm going to give it a go (perhaps with some flavour alterations )

 

As for the Camino.......do it. Seriously...do it. It's incredible. I did it twice - not the full walk sadly..I didn't have time..the first was Leon to Santiago and the second was Astorga to Finisterre...the seond one was far better. Finisterre is absolutely the place to finish your journey.

 

Anyway - thank you again..very much appreciated

[RWood]

I was asked to make chocolates and a six tier display cake (photo later) for the Salvador Dali opening party in Monterey last night. They specifically asked for Absinthe for the Absinthe bar, then the rest was up to me. I also played with some of the new colors I picked up at Chef Rubber on the last trip to Vegas. 

 

So, Absinthe, Salted Caramel, Black Rasberry, Vanilla Passion Fruit, Spearmint, Valrhona Dulcey. 

[Bentley]

Did you know that today was not only Halloween but also National Caramel Apple Day?  Here is my Apple Pie A La Mode bon bon: Apple cider caramel over white chocolate vanilla ganache with a hint of cinnamon.

[keychris]

loving the finish on those ones Bentley

[kriz6912]

Satongo 72% dark chocolate ganache & a touch of passion fruit, moulded Satongo dark chocolate tablet (165 g, 16 x 8 x h2.5 cm).

 

And a movie... https://www.instagram.com/p/BMYY8p_jtsz/

[Bentley]

Made two bonbons today in preparation for Thanksgiving.  First,  the Michael and Paul - a vanilla white chocolate ganache playing in perfect harmony with a Valrhona 70% dark chocolate ganache. This one has the creaminess of a milk chocolate but with the depth of flavor of the dark chocolate.  Also, the Pumpkin Pie - because someone told me it's actually illegal to not use pumpkin spice this time of year.  It's a white chocolate pumpkin spice ganache with real pumpkin.  
 

 Had to retake the picture....couldn't live with the photo with the messed up bonbon.

 

Edited November 12, 2016 by Bentley (log)

[curls]

Getting ready for Thanksgiving with a salted pumpkin caramel and a new flavor idea, cranberry-orange. May need to make some adjustments to the cranberry-orange -- still pondering.

[teonzo]

 

Snack Narin

 

Layers are hazelnut "cremino" (don't know how to translate it in English, it's equal parts of milk chocolate and hazelnut paste) on the bottom and bergamot white chocolate butter ganache on top (simple butter ganache with added bergamot essential oil, can't find the real fruit where I live), enrobed in milk chocolate.

Visually they are simple (more a triple bon bon than a snack) and full of defects, it's just a try at home made completely by hand (I'm not willing to buy guitar and molds to make experiments at home, no sense). The idea is to make something similar to Ferrero's Duplo (don't know if they are sold outside Italy, probably with a different name): a mold with 3 demispheres cavities, each one filled with a half hazelnut (not whole like Duplo) plus hazelnut "cremino" and bergamot ganache.

Taste is pretty familiar and catchy (nothing new or weird), all people who tasted them were happy.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Bentley]

Finished up my Thanksgiving chocolates with these two: The gold/green one is Mango Bellini - a white chocolate prosecco ganache with a mango compote. The pink/yellow is Creme Brulee - a white chocolate vanilla citrus ganache with burnt sugar flakes.   

[curls]

Easter bunnies in the melter -- prepared for their reincarnation.  ;-)

[Anna N]

So sad. 

[Kerry Beal]

In bunny - out santa?

[curls]

Just now, Kerry Beal said:

In bunny - out santa?

In bunny - out Thanksgiving chocolates. Santa would be funnier though. Maybe next year. 

Edited November 20, 2016 by curls (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Ah yes - our thanksgiving is long gone - so it never occurs to me!

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, curls said:

In bunny - out Thanksgiving chocolates. Santa would be funnier though. Maybe next year. 

 

When I first saw at the photograph I thought you were going to "dress" the bunnies as Santas.  That was before I realized you were about to remelt them.