Report: eG Chocolate and Confectionery Workshop 2016

[curls]

Thanks Kerry! I didn't hear him mention how he did the stripe; hopefully there is an explanation in his book.

1 minute ago, Kerry Beal said:

I wondered the same thing - after the rug rat is in bed I'll pull out his book and see if it's in there.

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

Since we had the opportunity to compare the Chocotransfer Sheet products with the Chefrubber products - both colours and transfers - I'd like to solicit some feedback from our participants.

[Kerry Beal]

Ok - don't know where the hell my copy of Morato is located right now - I have searched all the usual spots and it is nowhere to be found.

 

But I did find this online fine lines. Click on the 8th picture top row.

 

I suspect that what he has done is drizzle a fine line of perhaps bronze into an empty half sphere mold (or it might have been sprayed first with 70% dark chocolate with cocoa butter), followed by a spray of black. From his descriptions at the demo he might follow that up by another layer of some sort of luster dust and then another spray of a different colour behind that.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Dilettante]

 

Hello All,

 

The wife and I made it back home with no difficulty (except for long security lines) after spending a couple of extra days exploring downtown Toronto.

 

Word to the wise - do NOT miss visiting the Aga Kahn museum. It is breathtaking. The restaurant is great, too. We had lunch there but they also serve dinner, I believe. Be sure to sign up for the 12:30 pm daily architectural tour of the building. You will thank me for insisting on this!

 

Many many thanks to Kerry, Ruth, and Rodney for all the work it takes to undertake a project such as this. And thank you everyone for extending such warmth an courtesy to a newcomer (and wife). I understand why everyone makes it a point to participate each year. We both had a great experience.

 

I look forward to being with everyone again next year in Las Vegas.

 

Warm regards,

Dilettante (Greg)

[Dilettante]

P.S. regarding the thin stripe on Morato's chocolate...
It is my recollection that during his lecture he stated the mold was first sprayed with the dark color, then he (actually his assistant) went back and with a tool of some sort scraped out the center line, then sprayed the yellow/gold color.

 

Dilettante

[Kerry Beal]

9 hours ago, Dilettante said:

 

Hello All,

 

The wife and I made it back home with no difficulty (except for long security lines) after spending a couple of extra days exploring downtown Toronto.

 

Word to the wise - do NOT miss visiting the Aga Kahn museum. It is breathtaking. The restaurant is great, too. We had lunch there but they also serve dinner, I believe. Be sure to sign up for the 12:30 pm daily architectural tour of the building. You will thank me for insisting on this!

 

Many many thanks to Kerry, Ruth, and Rodney for all the work it takes to undertake a project such as this. And thank you everyone for extending such warmth an courtesy to a newcomer (and wife). I understand why everyone makes it a point to participate each year. We both had a great experience.

 

I look forward to being with everyone again next year in Las Vegas.

 

Warm regards,

Dilettante (Greg)

Interesting - wasn't aware of Aga Khan museum - will have to investigate.

[Kerry Beal]

9 hours ago, Dilettante said:

P.S. regarding the thin stripe on Morato's chocolate...
It is my recollection that during his lecture he stated the mold was first sprayed with the dark color, then he (actually his assistant) went back and with a tool of some sort scraped out the center line, then sprayed the yellow/gold color.

 

Dilettante

With any luck Catherine will weigh in - he brought his molds to Montreal predecorated because it was a ganache course but it may have been better clarified.

[jim loellbach]

On 5/18/2016 at 2:00 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Jim - where did you eat?

 

Sunday night, Bar Raval (tapas, sherry, vermouth, very nice but crowded and loud for a Sunday night), Monday: split a sausage roll from the Pie Commision, then Mother's Dumplings for late lunch (Chinese dumplings and scallion pancake).  We had a dinner reservation for Richmond Station, but it was raining so we stayed closer to our B&B and had dinner at Local Kitchen and Wine Bar (very good prix fixe dinner, mussels and asparagus salad for starters, smoked gnocchi and trout for mains, lemon sorbet with rhubarb and cannoli for dessert, half priced bottles of wine).  Tuesday, Momofuku for lunch before photo exhibits at Art Gallery of Toronto, then a long wander to St. Lawrence Market, then to Distillery District for sake tasting at Ontario Spring Water Sake Company and oysters at Pure Spirits.  Also picked up a few bonbons at Soma.  We had planned on dinner at Bar a Vin, but found out they were closed.  Considered The Black Hoof, but also closed.  So we ended up at Patria for a couple light dishes at the bar.  Capped off the night with a taste of mezcal at the new El Rey on the edge of Kensington Market.  Wednesday, I realized I'd been in Canada for a week and had had no poutine!  So, yes, we had lunch at Poutini's House of Poutine (right near our B&B), but we got the "tiny" size portions, really!  We figured out we walked about 8 miles on both Mon and Tues, and quite a bit on Wed, so we did burn off some of those calories!

 

Got home Wednesday evening and went shopping for my macaron class on Thursday.  Was a good time, 15 students, and they all had serviceable macarons at the end of the night.  Here's a pic of my demos.

[jim loellbach]

On 5/20/2016 at 9:39 PM, Dilettante said:

P.S. regarding the thin stripe on Morato's chocolate...
It is my recollection that during his lecture he stated the mold was first sprayed with the dark color, then he (actually his assistant) went back and with a tool of some sort scraped out the center line, then sprayed the yellow/gold color.

 

Dilettante

 

Yes, Erika told me she heard him say that in the demo, but I missed it.

[Gwbyls]

Yes, I agree with Erika. He said he sprayed the mould, used a toothpick or such (he couldn't think of the word in English) to remove a fine line of the color, then backed it in copper. Really beautiful effect.

[Gwbyls]

On 5/20/2016 at 7:00 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Ok - don't know where the hell my copy of Morato is located right now - I have searched all the usual spots and it is nowhere to be found.

 

But I did find this online fine lines. Click on the 8th picture top row.

 

I suspect that what he has done is drizzle a fine line of perhaps bronze into an empty half sphere mold (or it might have been sprayed first with 70% dark chocolate with cocoa butter), followed by a spray of black. From his descriptions at the demo he might follow that up by another layer of some sort of luster dust and then another spray of a different colour behind that.

 

Yeah, I don't think this is the correct link.

[Chocolatspassion]

 

Kerry asked me if he had discussed it in Montreal when I took his ganache course.  The description above is not what I remember, but maybe we are talking about a different chocolate. ( I am thinking of the small log with a fairly wide stripe, see image below.)  For that chocolate, he mentioned that his assistant used a thin strip in each cavity to block off before spraying, and that it took a fair amount of time.  We discussed in the group how this wouldn't be effiicient for production.  He arrived in Montreal with all the molds ready to be filled.

Here is a picture of both chocolates.  The one on the left below was done with a thin strip.  We didn't discuss the half dome, which must be the one you are talking about? 

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2016 by Chocolatspassion (log)

[DianaM]

Would scraping cocoa butter off the mold not damage it? 

 

Just this morning the same thought occured to me, as what Chocolatspassion describes. Cut verrrry thin strips of adhesive, stick them in the mould, spray with black. Remove, spray with copper. Then shell as normal. From a production standpoint this is a nightmare of course, but maybe for a limited edition bonbon? 

[Jim D.]

In a previous discussion of making a stripe, one person mentioned that she had found a food-safe adhesive and used it successfully for this effect:

 

Quote

I tried several ways to replicate it, including someone's suggestion of a qtip, which works, but the line isn't very clean. Ultimately I found some food safe plastic adhesive sheets in a local cake craft store. I cut a strip, stick it to the mold and airbrush my main color. After it sets I peal off the strip and paint the second color, or leave blank if I want the color if the chocolate to come through.

 

I mentioned in my reply that I was unable to find this food-safe adhesive (I was hoping she would reply with where to locate it), but there were no more postings in that thread.

[Jim D.]

On 5/19/2016 at 4:31 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Since we had the opportunity to compare the Chocotransfer Sheet products with the Chefrubber products - both colours and transfers - I'd like to solicit some feedback from our participants.

 

Although I was not a participant in the workshop, I would like to comment on this question:  I have used the PCB transfer sheets (made in France and available in the US from Qzina and Bakedeco, probably other places as well) and have recently purchased some from Chocotransfersheets.  I have not used the Chef Rubber product and do not know whether they make their own or use another brand.

 

The PCB items are beautifully photographed and work very well, with little melting in the process of cutting and placing them, but I have found that some of them do not live up to the image online (one of them had very different colors and in others the color has seemed less vibrant than pictured--obviously they employ a gifted photographer).  In addition, many of the designs are large, so that when applied to an individual chocolate the overall design is mostly lost.  I realized this after I had purchased quite a few.  They would be great for use on something larger, such as a cake.

 

It seems to me that Chocotransfersheets has quite a lot of smaller designs that work very well with chocolates, and I have been very pleased with the vibrant colors.  They also sell smaller packages, which is great for the small producer.  There is an issue, however, with their tendency to melt more quickly when I am working with them--even when I wear gloves.

 

In viewing sheets online, I also think that Chef Rubber has many small designs that would work well with chocolates.

 

My universal complaint (though it's something that is unavoidable) is that it is quite difficult to choose colors that work with dark or milk chocolate.  A beautiful red will turn to brown every time.  Yellow and white work quite well, green is not too bad.  I know that one can spray them with white cocoa butter, but I did not find that successful the one time I tried it.  I would certainly be a customer for transfer sheets that feature opaque colors.

[Kerry Beal]

A bit of followup around some questions that came up -

 

The following chefs are doing courses in Montreal and demos in Toronto this year.

 

Guillaume Mabilleau

Matthieu Dierinck 

Andres Lara

http://www.chocolate-academy.com/ca/en/newsletter_subscription

 

A Cacao Barry vendor in the US for those having trouble getting product -

 

• Vanilla Food Company _ online source for a wide variety of Cacao Barry products. They have many US customers currently and there is no problem getting product shipped out. 
  • http://www.vanillafoodcompany.ca/Cacao-Barry-Chocolate-s/84.htm
  • The important thing to remember is that shipping chocolate for these next few months can be difficult as melting can be an issue. If chocolate will be crystallized before use it's probably not such a big issue. But it's important to be aware
  • http://www.vanillafoodcompany.ca/category-s/17.htm
    • NOTE TO U.S. CUSTOMERS from Vanilla Food Co.
      All pricing on our website is in Canadian (CAD) dollars. When you make a purchase, your credit card company or Paypal will automatically charge you in U.S. dollars (USD) based on their existing exchange rates. Generally, USD $1 = CAD $1.20. So USD $100 would purchase approximately CAD $120 worth of product from our store. Currency exchange sites such as www.XE.comcan provide you with a good approximation of constantly changing currency rates.
       
      All shipments originate from warehouses within Canada. Generally, purchases less than USD $800 are not charged import duties or brokerage fees when crossing into the United States. However, we cannot guarantee this.  Please be aware that U.S. customers are responsible for any additional import duties, taxes or fees charged by U.S. Customs. For any food-related shipments to the U.S., Vanilla Food Company complies with F.D.A. Prior Notice regulations to expedite shipments across the border

Morato demo recipes - 

 

DEMO Morato - Chocolate Flavour Expertise-recipes.pdf

 

[Tri2Cook]

I use Vanilla Food Company for my chocolate orders. Prices competitive with or, most often, better than anywhere else I've found in Canada, excellent customer service and flat rate $7 shipping no matter what I order. I ordered 10 kg each of dark, milk and white chocolate all in one lump and shipping was still only $7. I think their flat rate shipping to the US is $17, so still very reasonable.

Disclaimer: not shilling for or affiliated with Vanilla Food Company in any way, just seconding Kerry's recommendation as a happy customer who's been shopping with them for some time and never had a bad experience.

[Kerry Beal]

Trials of stripe. Will put more details over in the showroom finish thread.

 

 

On the left we have my attempts to paint straight lines - did I ever mention that my kindergarten teacher gave me a crying elf stamp on my straight lines. On the right I have the scraping out after spraying trials. Interesting how much straighter the lines are. It was exceptionally hot in the chocolate room the day I was playing with this so after I scraped (using a clay tool) the lines filled back in on the centre of some. 

 

Not going to quit my day job anytime soon!

 

Clay sculpting tool.

 

 

[keychris]

Could you leave it until the CB had set up, do you think?

[Kerry Beal]

2 hours ago, keychris said:

Could you leave it until the CB had set up, do you think?

Don't know - perhaps a bit more set up than this was.

 

 

[Smithy]

About that stripe: do you suppose that dental floss, or perhaps the wider flatter dental tape, would work as the food-safe thing you lay in the mold before painting the first layer?

[Kerry Beal]

On May 31, 2016 at 9:07 AM, Smithy said:

About that stripe: do you suppose that dental floss, or perhaps the wider flatter dental tape, would work as the food-safe thing you lay in the mold before painting the first layer?

You can't just lay something in the mold - it will blow off with the air from the airbrush unfortunately.  

 

[Deryn]

Darn - I thought Smithy's idea, particularly the tape suggestion, might be viable. But then I know nadda (still ) about chocolate, much less this kind of artistry.

 

That said ... if dental tape (or floss) would work as a food safe 'line tool' if one could figure out how to make it stable ... what about laying down/spraying in a very fine first layer and embedding the dental tape pushing it down so it is very close to what will be the surface eventually. The ends should be long enough so you can pull it off later after the bonbon is released from the mold. Would that rip the whole layer or worse, more, with it too? Or would it be feasible to paint a bit of glucose (or something else that is a teensy bit sticky) on the part of the tape that touches the mold so you can spray and it won't blow away.

Edited June 3, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[MelissaH]

I'd think it would be easier just to spray the whole mold, and then use a toothpick or other pointy but not super-sharp object to make the line.

[Kerry Beal]

8 hours ago, MelissaH said:

I'd think it would be easier just to spray the whole mold, and then use a toothpick or other pointy but not super-sharp object to make the line.

I think that's what I discovered with this experiment. Next time if i was working in a cooler environment it probably would work a little better - this time it dripped back into the line I made.