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

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Darienne,

Your lop eared bunnies are SO cute! Adorable.

 

gfron 1,

Wow!

 

Your nougat brings me back to when you could walk into almost any grocery store and buy Brach's nougat by the pound. (Also orange jelly slices, and a bunch of other really good, although probably not artisan candies, but they still make what's available in the grocers today look like a pure waste of calories.)

 

I just looked online, and Brach's nougat is still available, but I am sure it's nowhere near as good as yours.

[keychris]

 

 

Not quite perfect, but good enough for a 3, 6 and 8yr old However, it was 2am this morning (easter sunday) when I finished chocolate making LOL

[Alleguede]

Beautiful work -how do you get that wonderful textured finish on the cheesecake?

It's a mousse frozen in an acetate and sprayed with a chocolate velvet

[pastrygirl]

I've been a busy confectionista this week:

 

Nougat with pistachios, almonds, candied orange, and cocoa nibs

 

that nougat cut into bars and dipped in about 66% dark (blend of 72 & 60)

 

Easter egg macarons

 

Easter egg bonbons

 

Sample Easter basket at my pop up shop today

 

caramel apples for a food truck I'm starting to work with

Edited April 5, 2015 by pastrygirl (log)

[gfron1]

You have been busy! I dare you to tell them that you just guessed at the nougat temps. They love that.

Edited April 5, 2015 by gfron1 (log)

[keychris]

Eggs made for family. I really need to work on my workflow, because nine of these took me the better part of a whole day to complete!

 

 

 

 

Inside the eggs: milk chocolate with honeycomb chunks.

Edited April 5, 2015 by keychris (log)

[pastrygirl]

Chris, those look fantastic!  I totally believe those took all day, I don't even want to count the hours I spent on rabbits

[RWood]

OK, now I gotta make some nougat

Edited April 6, 2015 by RWood (log)

[minas6907]

Heres what I have from about the last month.

 

Firstly, heres a dragee made with cacao nibs, it basically follows Peter Grewelings formula for a coriander dragee, but I like these results better. You still get a nice crunch, but you also dont have the feeling of chewing on seeds, I just couldnt get past it.

 

Next is a caramel and smoked sea salt bonbon.

 

Then we have a chocolate high heel, its not the greatest, but also my first time using a two piece mold, any tips are welcome, it was sort of a weird piece. I didnt want the edged to be too thin, but it seemed like during setting, if I inverted the mold to let the chocolate flow out as you would do with bonbons, you wouldnt get that smooth look on the inside of the cavity. Also, theres those evil air bubbles on mocking me on the heel.

 

Next, for the first time in about a year, I made some macaron. These have an espresso ganache.

 

I also went to Vegas, partly for pleasure, partly for chef rubber. I stocked up on ingredients, got a few new molds, and texture sheets. I know these arent too amazing, but it was my first time using the texture sheets, and it was a rather warm day, but I still wanted to play with chocolate, so I got so so results.

 

Next are salted caramel bonbons I did for a wedding shower, and the last picture is both bonbons for the same shower. The gold domes have a coconut filling, akin to a mounds candy bar.

[tarko]

Passionfruit & Lime

 

 

Pistacchio

 

 

Felchlin Dark Milk 49%

 

 

Blackcurrant

 

 

Salt Liquorice

 

 

Smoked chocolate / Lagavulin

 

[tikidoc]

Tarko, how did you get the textured look on the silver and gold half domes? All of your chocolates are gorgeous.

[tarko]

thx tikidoc - its very simple. just brush the inside of the mould with glitterpowder (making sure that u cover the complete mould, shake out excess powder) - splatter beforehand with accent colours if u wish. then just cast with chocolate as usual....

[pastrygirl]

Couple of simple things, easier to link to instagram than download from my phone...

 

pear-passion fruit pate de fruit:  I got some pectin from l'epicerie and did a test batch to make sure it set up the same as the last brand.  A little slower, but otherwise seems good.  Some guy happened to email me about pdf the same day, and he bought all 5 boxes of my test batch.  So that was serendipitous!  https://instagram.com/p/1yAFe9pDbN/?taken-by=sugarchefseattle

 

pistachio marzipan, greweling's recipe:  It came out nice, could possibly be a little sweeter.  Does anyone add salt to marzipan?  I added a few drops of almond extract, but it seems to be lacking something.  I'm thinking about layering it with saffron dark chocolate ganache and dipping.  https://instagram.com/p/1yoi3cJDTM/?taken-by=sugarchefseattle

Edited April 23, 2015 by pastrygirl (log)

[curls]

Beautiful pate de fruit and packaging. I like to add a little bit of kirschwasser to my marzipan... see if that helps. There is also a nice pistachio liqueur (forget the name right now but can look it up if you like) that might punch up the pistachio flavor.

[Jim D.]

I too recently made the Greweling pistachio marzipan (I love his name for the recipe, "Pistachio Homage").  I think pistachios naturally have a kind of flat taste, so I was not surprised at the final taste.  Maybe a little salt would be helpful?  Or perhaps some sweetener?  I too was concerned for the survival of my Cuisinart.  I was about to give up when, all at once, the marzipan came together and looked the way it is supposed to look.  I like the piece, but--maybe this is heresy--I'm not sure it is good enough to justify the amount of work involved.  It does look great.  I had never peeled pistachios before, and it made a huge difference in the appearance.

[jaroj]

Heres what I have from about the last month.

 

Firstly, heres a dragee made with cacao nibs, it basically follows Peter Grewelings formula for a coriander dragee, but I like these results better. You still get a nice crunch, but you also dont have the feeling of chewing on seeds, I just couldnt get past it.

 

Next is a caramel and smoked sea salt bonbon.

 

Then we have a chocolate high heel, its not the greatest, but also my first time using a two piece mold, any tips are welcome, it was sort of a weird piece. I didnt want the edged to be too thin, but it seemed like during setting, if I inverted the mold to let the chocolate flow out as you would do with bonbons, you wouldnt get that smooth look on the inside of the cavity. Also, theres those evil air bubbles on mocking me on the heel.

 

Next, for the first time in about a year, I made some macaron. These have an espresso ganache.

 

I also went to Vegas, partly for pleasure, partly for chef rubber. I stocked up on ingredients, got a few new molds, and texture sheets. I know these arent too amazing, but it was my first time using the texture sheets, and it was a rather warm day, but I still wanted to play with chocolate, so I got so so results.

 

Next are salted caramel bonbons I did for a wedding shower, and the last picture is both bonbons for the same shower. The gold domes have a coconut filling, akin to a mounds candy bar.

They look amazing and the fillings sound great. How did you paint the macaron shells?? was this done after waiting for the shell to form a skin and before baking or after baking. I've tried and have failed attempting to paint the macaron shells.

 

And the gold domes how did you achieve that gold and silver color. I bought from chef rubber the jewel butter cocoa gold and it was so translucent that after painting the molds many times never came out like yours.

[minas6907]

They look amazing and the fillings sound great. How did you paint the macaron shells?? was this done after waiting for the shell to form a skin and before baking or after baking. I've tried and have failed attempting to paint the macaron shells.

And the gold domes how did you achieve that gold and silver color. I bought from chef rubber the jewel butter cocoa gold and it was so translucent that after painting the molds many times never came out like yours.

Hey thanks! The gold on the macaron shells are a gold luster dust mixed with a little bit of a spirit. Then its just splatteres on the shells after they are baked and cooled. As for the bonbons, its the same gold and silver luster dust, I applied it dry with a paint brush. Specifically, they are the metallic dusts I got from pastrychef.com.

[Anna N]

Indulge me. I didn't make this Kerry Beal did but I knew you'd want me to share it with you all.

[minas6907]

Heres some things I've made over the past month. The first two arent too interesting, but I had recently bought some molds at a good price on ebay, so I was just trying them out. The swirls are a raspberry butter ganache, and the domes with ridges have a coconut center. Then I made peanut brittle for the first time, this was a chipotle peanut brittle, it had a nice spice, but it wasnt entirely what I thought it was going to be. Then I made some marzipan and enrobed them in callebaut 72%. Next, I made the peanut butter honeycomb from Chocolates and Confections, which is always a personal favorite. Then lastly, I was trying to make some calla lilly lollipops, but they really looked horrible, so I used the remaining sugar to pull some ribbon candy.

 

On a separate note, as of a few days ago I'm an official cottage food operation! So thats sort of neat, It's been something I've been working for quite some time, just because when it came to chocolates and various confectionery products, I wanted to be sure I had all my bases covered so I can be able to offer pretty much anything I wanted to for a candy table or favors at a wedding. I do have plans to eventually do boxed items, but I'm still working out packaging, getting samples, and see what would work, just because things like bonbons, hard candies, lollipops, taffies, caramels, brittles, pate de fruit, citrus slice jellies, etc all seen to demand a different type of packaging, so that still in the works. Anywho, hope you enjoy!

[Anna N]

Minas,

Beautiful. And congratulations!

[minas6907]

Thank you!

[minas6907]

Hey, I dont know if this is the right place to ask, but a picture in one of Kerry's recent posts sparked a question ive had for a while. Does anyone know where I can get an offset dipping fork? Or would I just have to go ahead and try to make it? Ive seen then before in pictures....but I cant find anything like them. Anywho, jusy wanted to put that out there.

[Anna N]

Hey, I dont know if this is the right place to ask, but a picture in one of Kerry's recent posts sparked a question ive had for a while. Does anyone know where I can get an offset dipping fork? Or would I just have to go ahead and try to make it? Ive seen then before in pictures....but I cant find anything like them. Anywho, jusy wanted to put that out there.

If it is Kerry's fork you are interested in why don't you PM her. She has them custom-made.

So sorry. Looks like I misunderstood your question.

Edited May 22, 2015 by Anna N (log)

[Chocolot]

Yesterday I decided to make my version of dulcey in a pressure cooker. I sealed 1000 g white chocolate in Food Saver bag and cooked on hi for 90 minutes.

 

I thought I had ruined the chocolate but kept stirring.

 

 

It thinned out as it cooled. 

 

 

 

Added EZtemper silk and stirred. Here are the two tests for temper. 

 

 

First one was untempered. Second one was after stirring in silk.

 

 

Molded dulcey.

 

 

Finished bars. I only molded them to have the dulcey in a breakup form.

 

The cocoa butter in the EZtemper is nothing short of amazing!

Edited May 27, 2015 by Smithy
Rotated photos per member request (log)

[Deryn]

Chocolot - Thank you for showing the process, etc. I have a couple of questions for you.

 

1) Do you use any water in the pressure cooker when cooking the chocolate sealed up in the bag or just put the bag in on a rack alone?

 

2) How would you say the results you get using this method compare taste-wise to commercially produced 'dulcey'? Similar, the same, different in some way but (I am sure) still delicious? The colour and texture look absolutely perfect.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Deryn (log)