Confections! What did we make? (2017 – )

**curls** · December 21, 2023

@Kerry Beal nice bon bons! Was wondering when I would see your Christmas chocolate post. Will you be doing any of your large hollow moulds this year?

Kerry Beal · December 21, 2023

7 hours ago, curls said:

@Kerry Beal nice bon bons! Was wondering when I would see your Christmas chocolate post. Will you be doing any of your large hollow moulds this year?

Unlikely - but will be spending a day with 3 kids soon so maybe then.

Becky R · December 21, 2023

All you artists are amazing. Thanks for sharing your creations. Very inspirational! What I want to know is, does your kitchen look like mine? (Complete disaster area!! My hubby can't WAIT for this chocolate season to be over!). LOL

Darienne · December 21, 2023

15 minutes ago, Becky R said:

All you artists are amazing. Thanks for sharing your creations. Very inspirational! What I want to know is, does your kitchen look like mine? (Complete disaster area!! My hubby can't WAIT for this chocolate season to be over!). LOL

Kerry Beal, aka The Chocolate Doctor, has the most amazing chocolate room. Friends and I took courses from Kerry many years ago and were mightily impressed with her layout. I can only imagine how it looks now.

**Jim D.** · December 21, 2023

30 minutes ago, Becky R said:

All you artists are amazing. Thanks for sharing your creations. Very inspirational! What I want to know is, does your kitchen look like mine? (Complete disaster area!! My hubby can't WAIT for this chocolate season to be over!). LOL

If you husband is upset now, tell him to wait until you start doing this fulltime. A clean kitchen will be the exception rather than the rule. That is, unless he wants to build you a chocolate kitchen.

Becky R · December 21, 2023

7 hours ago, Jim D. said:

If you husband is upset now, tell him to wait until you start doing this fulltime. A clean kitchen will be the exception rather than the rule. That is, unless he wants to build you a chocolate kitchen.

He might opt for a chocolate HOUSE. In the midst of my chocolate frenzy, I also made two pretty elaborate cakes (at least for me) and homemade ice cream for my mom's birthday!

Kerry Beal · December 21, 2023

7 hours ago, Darienne said:

Kerry Beal, aka The Chocolate Doctor, has the most amazing chocolate room. Friends and I took courses from Kerry many years ago and were mightily impressed with her layout. I can only imagine how it looks now.

Messy!

Saltychoc · December 22, 2023

My last two collections. Each batch of the dots I did fewer and fewer per bonbon. Still think I did something like 20K+ dots. I learned my lesson! Green - pear pate and "eggnog" Ivoire and a little caramelia w/amazing fresh nutmeg. Redish - chocolate orange. Blue - lemon buttercream & dark choc. Gold - caramel & gingerbread milk choc, finally got my caramel filling almost perfect with this batch - not a single leak in the batch of straight caramels. And I was so happy with the spice blend I made for the gingerbread. A little Cambodian black peppercorn really made it.

Without the dots - red - apple cider pate and miso caramel ganache - turned out really well. I did end up getting Wood's cider jelly (Thanks Jim!) to mix with apple butter I made with local apples and the miso ganache is caramelized local miso infused into this great local grass fed cream and a blend of a few chocolates, honey as the sweetener. Black - hazelnut gianduja, chopped hazelnuts, blackberry ganache. Blue - double Earl Grey (interestingly this has been the MOST popular flavor with mid-aged kids). Orange - cinnamon buttercream & Basque chili dark choc.

**Jim D.** · December 22, 2023

9 hours ago, Saltychoc said:

My last two collections. Each batch of the dots I did fewer and fewer per bonbon. Still think I did something like 20K+ dots. I learned my lesson! Green - pear pate and "eggnog" Ivoire and a little caramelia w/amazing fresh nutmeg. Redish - chocolate orange. Blue - lemon buttercream & dark choc. Gold - caramel & gingerbread milk choc, finally got my caramel filling almost perfect with this batch - not a single leak in the batch of straight caramels. And I was so happy with the spice blend I made for the gingerbread. A little Cambodian black peppercorn really made it.

Without the dots - red - apple cider pate and miso caramel ganache - turned out really well. I did end up getting Wood's cider jelly (Thanks Jim!) to mix with apple butter I made with local apples and the miso ganache is caramelized local miso infused into this great local grass fed cream and a blend of a few chocolates, honey as the sweetener. Black - hazelnut gianduja, chopped hazelnuts, blackberry ganache. Blue - double Earl Grey (interestingly this has been the MOST popular flavor with mid-aged kids). Orange - cinnamon buttercream & Basque chili dark choc.

Beautiful display and interesting flavors. And you do come up with unusual ingredients. Who knew a variety of black peppercorns comes from Cambodia? I am struck by your success with Earl Grey and kids. I don't make it often because most people don't seem to like it. I experimented last time with adding some bergamot flavoring, and it was more successful. Did you use the same mold for both boxes? The ones in the top box appear to be "flattened domes," but that could just be the angle.

Saltychoc · December 23, 2023

11 hours ago, Jim D. said:

Beautiful display and interesting flavors. And you do come up with unusual ingredients. Who knew a variety of black peppercorns comes from Cambodia? I am struck by your success with Earl Grey and kids. I don't make it often because most people don't seem to like it. I experimented last time with adding some bergamot flavoring, and it was more successful. Did you use the same mold for both boxes? The ones in the top box appear to be "flattened domes," but that could just be the angle.

Thank you! I've been fortunate to be exposed to some interesting ingredients. We have a great spice company in Cambridge, MA - Curio Spice. For the Earl Grey I cold steep the tea in cream overnight 1 night for the white chocolate layer, and 2 nights for the dark chocolate layer. The tea I use is also quite good - Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme. When I do events I am always surprised by what kids select. The molds are all CW2295. I think it's the angle and the light. The bottom box was almost flat and the top was at a pretty good angle.

Elle Bee · December 26, 2023

Every holiday season I try to come up with one experimental truffle recipe for future development. Usually the experiment will be "good enough" that I let people try them. Sometimes it's actually great and ends up in the regular rotation with no additional tweaking. But every once in a while... it's a spectacular failure.

This year my experiment was a Matcha Truffle. Which I am now calling the "Miss Havisham Truffle," because, like the vengeful jilted spinster from "Great Expectations," this truffle is cloyingly sweet, with an overwhelmingly bitter bite. Purely two-dimensional, very unpleasant to experience, an unfulfilled hollow shell of a creature. In short, this truffle has a serious personality disorder. On top of which, it looks like it got dressed half a century ago.

Epilogue: No one is getting these. Back to the drawing board. I rather enjoy this kind of failure and (since I do actually like matcha) am already thinking about how I might turn it around. For one thing, I will use a better grade of matcha—one that I'm willing to drink. Maybe also add something to make the flavor profile more interesting, possibly citrus... like maybe an orange liqueur???.... is that a crazy idea? And while I will still use white chocolate for the ganache because I love the idea of a green center, dipping them in white chocolate (I used Valrhona Opalys) was a huge overly sweet mistake. I'm thinking a semisweet might be the best bet—what do you guys think? I have a block of Callebaut 811 and could use that.

EDITED TO ADD: Also I think I am done trying to work with hollow shells. No matter how fluid my ganache is, it's always a fiddly, super annoying PITA to make sure I've filled them completely... and even when I'm "pretty sure," like I was here, there are still always some with gaps. Actually, I just had an idea: I made 30 of these for my test batch, and since NO ONE is going to eat any of them, it seems like a great opportunity for some data collection. I'm going to cut all of them open and find out what percentage of them have gaps. Guessing it will be a high number.

Edited December 26, 2023 by Elle Bee (log)

Rajala · December 28, 2023

Sparkling wine (cava) and strawberry.

Rajala · January 10

Coffee ganache and coffee caramel

Altay.Oro · January 11

11 hours ago, Rajala said:

Coffee ganache and coffee caramel

How do you brew coffee with dairy?
Is it possible for you to share the ganache recipe with us?

Rajala · January 11

1 hour ago, Altay.Oro said:

How do you brew coffee with dairy?
Is it possible for you to share the ganache recipe with us?

Short answer: I don't.

I don't remember the rules about sharing links to one's own social media etc here, but I can send you the recipe when I've published it in my channels.

Altay.Oro · January 11

4 minutes ago, Rajala said:

Short answer: I don't.

I don't remember the rules about sharing links to one's own social media etc here, but I can send you the recipe when I've published it in my channels.

I would appreciate it, thank you

Rajala · January 12

23 hours ago, Altay.Oro said:
I would appreciate it, thank you

For your visibility: I sent you a message with a link to the full recipe!

Altay.Oro · January 12

3 hours ago, Rajala said:

For your visibility: I sent you a message with a link to the full recipe!

Thanks a lot 👍

Rajala · January 27

Passionfruit!

Rajala · January 29

Raspberry and salty licorice.

Rajala · February 4

I call it "Strawberry and cream"

You can find the recipe here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C27gJJwisHs/

RWood · February 5

Finished up Valentine's (early! Yay!)

Flavors: Tiramisu, Raspberry Pinot, Strawberry, Orelys, Raspberry Caramels, Dulcey with Hazelnut Crunch, Passion Fruit

GRiker · February 5

9 minutes ago, RWood said:

Finished up Valentine's (early! Yay!)

Flavors: Tiramisu, Raspberry Pinot, Strawberry, Orelys, Raspberry Caramels, Dulcey with Hazelnut Crunch, Passion Fruit

Those are beautiful! What did you use for the small pink heart on the dark square? Did you just pipe it on when you were finished?

RWood · February 6

29 minutes ago, GRiker said:

Those are beautiful! What did you use for the small pink heart on the dark square? Did you just pipe it on when you were finished?

Thanks! I colored some white chocolate with Colour Mill Raspberry oil color and pipped them on.

**Jim D.** · February 6

47 minutes ago, RWood said:

Finished up Valentine's (early! Yay!)

Flavors: Tiramisu, Raspberry Pinot, Strawberry, Orelys, Raspberry Caramels, Dulcey with Hazelnut Crunch, Passion Fruit

Delicious-sounding assortment and beautiful decoration.

Just one downside: I just learned that Valrhona has discontinued Orelys. I have used it in several of my fillings and am very disappointed.

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