Panning - but not for gold!

[Smithy]

Judging by the photos, it looks like the right-hand polish/shellac set came out prettier than the left-hand polish/shellac set. Is that the one you preferred?

[Kerry Beal]

Yup - but I think it's just a matter of some fine tuning with the left sided polish to get the same effect.  

[Chocolot]

Today I finished the milk chocolate engrossed caramelized almonds that I started yesterday. Was a little heavy on the gold luster dust, but they turned out pretty good. 

 

[pastrygirl]

These are looking great!  So bumpy/pebbled = too cold?  How warm is your chocolate and how much cool air do they need?  Also, where did you find the coconut cubes?  I love coconut and wold love to cover something like that in chocolate.

[rotuts]

nice  KB

 

about the shellac

 

I hope its not the same I use in woodworking .................

 

[Kerry Beal]

nice  KB

 

about the shellac

 

I hope its not the same I use in woodworking .................

 

Yeah it is - crushed up bug bodies in alcohol. 

[Kerry Beal]

These are looking great!  So bumpy/pebbled = too cold?  How warm is your chocolate and how much cool air do they need?  Also, where did you find the coconut cubes?  I love coconut and wold love to cover something like that in chocolate.

Too bumpy = too cold.  I don't always use the cool air - sometimes I throw in dry ice directly with the product.  Chocolate is something above 35 C - can be much warmer.  

 

Found the coconut at the local bulk shop - I know trader joes has some nice big pieces of coconut that could be cut into cubes if one had the patience.  

[rotuts]

Nyet:

 

Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellachttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac

 

tasty Id bet ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Kerry Beal]

Ok - crushed up bug spit in alcohol then!

Edited January 30, 2015 by Kerry Beal (log)

[rotuts]

fair enough

 

Im moving soon to the M. R. shelf

 

how ever  its not spit

 

 

but still delicious Id bet

 

just not to much 

[Kerry Beal]

 

The elusive almond eggs.  Rarely seen beyond April.  

[Kerry Beal]

Reese's Peanut butter cereal covered in a PB gianduja with added salt.  

 

 

A little sweet for my taste.  It's actually the cereal that is too sweet.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Those sound positively evil to me... I'd probably eat myself into a sugar coma. I've never had that cereal but I'm a bit of a peanut butter fiend and peanut butter gianduja is a thing of beauty.

[Kerry Beal]

Today Alleguede and I worked on the some of the finer points of polishing.  Started with some almonds that I had engrossed with milk chocolate and toasted coconut.  

 

 

 

Then we have the butt ugly strawberries in white chocolate - going to have to figure out some way to get a much thinner layer of chocolate on these.  

 

 

Picked these little things up in the asian grocery store a couple of weeks back - was quite taken by how round there were - figured they might be useful for panning.  Of course it turned out they were a little flat on one side so wanted to stick together.

 

 

Interesting that because of the flat side - almost every one had a little pit.

 

 

We also polished a batch of sugar coated peanuts - I seem to have failed to take a picture.  

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

Today's polishing - 

 

 

Combination of Warhead sour candies and tropical sour candies.  

 

 

Dark chocolate with Portuguese salt cream - the pockmarks are from the salt.  

 

 

The little Hot Kid ball cakes - which had been engrossed in milk chocolate with freeze dried dulce de leche - finished with a combination of the freeze dried DDL and cocoa powder.  Didn't like them last week - now they are kind of tasty - the weird powdery centre goes with the powdery outside.  

[MelissaH]

Ooh, you could do a surprise mix of sour and sweet candies, all panned together! Wouldn't that be fun??

 

(Or maybe not. )

[Kerry Beal]

 

Peanut butter Cap'n Crunch with PB gianduja.  Believe it or not there is colour in there - but clearly a bit wasted if not added to white chocolate. I was trying for something less sweet than the Reece Pieces cereal version.  

[Kerry Beal]

So Rodney (Alleguede) and I got the gig making some panned product for Cacao Barry for the Canadian Food and Restaurant Association Show (now known as The Restaurants Canada Show).  It runs from tomorrow to Tuesday in Toronto.  I plan to head down for Sunday.

 

We covered dried cherries with Zephyr white chocolate.  First batch we used as is - and coloured the surface with dark pink.  

 

 

 

While the first batch was running - I took all the cherries for the second batch and rounded them up so they would coat more easily.  

 

 

We used a combination of freeze dried cherry powder and gum arabic to round them a bit more before engrossing in the chocolate - and when we went to get the extra chocolate off the sides of the bowl - the bits of powder from the pan showed up on the surface.  We decided we quite liked the effect so went with it instead of finishing with the dark pink we had prepared.  I present to you in honour of the 2015 measles outbreak - 'Cherry Measles'!

 

 

Almonds engrossed in Alunga milk chocolate.

 

 

Almonds engrossed in 74% Ocoa - the high percentage of cocoa butter and cocoa mass resulted in pits that occurred in the polishing phase of the process - so while these look shiny here - we went back and coated with cocoa powder and powdered sugar to make them look more acceptable.  

 

 

[Chocolot]

You two are getting good at this!

Edited February 28, 2015 by Chocolot (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Taught some panning on the weekend to a friend of Alleguede's.

 

 

His GF turned out to be a natural - they had spent a bit of time with Rodney once before and she clearly picked up everything she saw.

 

 

Freeze dried blueberries in white chocolate with vanilla. 

 

 

 

Peanut butter cereal in milk chocolate.

 

 

 

 

Malt balls.

 

 

Caramel coated almonds. 

 

 

Malt balls after polishing.

[minas6907]

I love the gloss on those malt balls! When you say caramel coated almonds, they are just engrossed in caramelized sugar, or is it a different product?

[Kerry Beal]

Yeah - praline almonds - realized after it was too late to edit that I'd put caramelized almonds. These ones were purchased from the bargain bin at my local high end supermarket - guess they brought in too many for the easter season - price was too good to ignore. Sadly the almonds weren't as roasted under the sugar as I would have liked.

[Kerry Beal]

 

These are coffee flavoured chip nuts (peanuts covered in potato crust) with milk chocolate and espresso powder - finished with dark chocolate and freeze dried coffee granules. I was actually aiming for the bumpy finish - so I'm rather pleased with how they turned out.

 

Tried out a new polish and shellac - really impressed with it.

[Anna N]

.......

 

These are coffee flavoured chip nuts (peanuts covered in potato crust) with milk chocolate and espresso powder - finished with dark chocolate and freeze dried coffee granules. I was actually aiming for the bumpy finish - so I'm rather pleased with how they turned out.

 

Tried out a new polish and shellac - really impressed with it.

These things are dangerously addictive. I am a sucker for anything coffee flavoured and these things have just the right amount of coffee flavour to lure me in to eating one after another after another..........

[MelissaH]

Anna, save some for me!