Confections! What did we make? (2017 – )

[GRiker]

On 2/1/2025 at 8:06 AM, Jim D. said:

Love the Ruby color, and the filling sounds perfect for a chocolate that's difficult to match with not-too-sweet fillings.  I see that you have your branded boxes.  The business is off and running.

The Ruby was a great fit. I have made a previous iteration of that filling molded into white chocolate.  The filling was good, but overall pretty sweet.  The ruby added a nice tartness that complemented the lime.  I still have some ruby left to use.  Will need to come up with another complimentary flavor.  

 

Indeed.  The business is getting started. 🙂  It's a cottage business and I'm slowing getting the business pieces together.  I decided that if I waited to start until everything was perfect, I never would.  So, I'm learning and developing as I go.  I owe lots of my inspiration to @Jim D. for the idea of making chocolates on my schedule which allowed me to make it work for my current circumstances.  

[GRiker]

On 2/1/2025 at 8:08 AM, Jim D. said:

do you mind describing how you made the filling

Happy to share!  I studied the ideas posted here about making this filling. Then I went online to see what I could learn there.  I distilled it down to four different recipes plus the suggestions about caramelized sugar, white chocolate and the thoughts on pistachio paste vs butter. 

 

I found a couple middle eastern stores where I could buy kataifi - much cheaper than Amazon and close.  I chopped the kataifi into pretty small pieces and toasted them in ghee.

 

One of the stores had pistachio paste.  Ingredient list taught me that it was 30% pistachios plus milk powder, sugar, vegetable oils, vanilla and soy lecithin.  I decided I'd rather use 100% pistachio butter and add my own additions.  I bought my pistachio butter from Fiddyment Farms as @Jim D. recommended.  

 

I combined my pistachio butter with pulverized caramelized sugar and tahini.  

 

I liked the idea of adding chocolate for flavor and body.  It also mimics the pistachio paste - adding oil, sugar and milk powder but where I control ratios myself.  I thought white chocolate would be too sweet so used Callebaut Gold chocolate.  

 

I combined the pistachio butter mix with the melted gold chocolate.  Added toasted kataifi and a touch of silk from my EZ Temper at proper temp.  Then piped into my dome molds.  

 

Piping was easier than I expected.  I cut the opening about 1 cm, then used one hand to open and close the bag filling the cavity.  

 

The first attempt was good, but second attempt was better with more pistachio, less chocolate.