Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Christmas Chocolate and Confections Redux


Kerry Beal

Recommended Posts

6 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

And so it begins! Riffing off the Christmas Baking Redux thread. Show me yours, I'll show you mine!


Very nice! I'm getting geared up for it. I've been busy with household stuff and haven't been doing large amounts of chocolate work recently but I loaded the EZtemper with cocoa butter and fired it up this morning. I'm going to dig out those sleigh/reindeer molds and play around with those a bit to start with. Most other than that will be fairly generic, I haven't really started investing in holiday-specific molds yet.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:

Here are my latest batch of Santas, I've decided airbrushing the bags & hats first then hand-painting the white details after gives a good result.  This mold always seems to get a bubble in the nose, though :(

 

 

 

Have you tried painting chocolate in the mold before casting?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/29/2017 at 10:34 PM, dhardy123 said:

Have you tried painting chocolate in the mold before casting?

 

I know that makes a better finish, but oddly it's one of the tedious extra steps I haven't managed to adopt. 9_9

 

It was a 14 hour baking day for holiday catering and I still didn't finish my prep list, that's why I'm just gonna live with Santa having one giant, awkwardly placed nostril xD

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll start doing the molded fellows next week, but for the last craft show I'm participating in....here's part of the batch: (There's one last tray of 80 dark chocolate sea salt caramels awaiting dipping/salting, but other than that-- everything is done. Just have to finish packaging. )

 

IMG_2223.JPG

  • Like 12

-Andrea

 

A 'balanced diet' means chocolate in BOTH hands. :biggrin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing terribly exciting, but a gentleman at church ordered solid chocolate cubes for his wife. That's what she loves, so that's what he wanted to get her. Being in the festive mood that I am, it seemed appropriate to dress up the Felchlin Maracaibo Criolait in holiday colors: 

IMG_2250.JPG

IMG_2251.JPG

  • Like 13

-Andrea

 

A 'balanced diet' means chocolate in BOTH hands. :biggrin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, ChocoMom said:

Being in the festive mood that I am, it seemed appropriate to dress up the Felchlin Maracaibo Criolait in holiday colors 

 

Don't you love the taste of that Felchlin milk chocolate? And it so easy to work with. I recently bought some of the new Fortunato milk chocolate (which is also made by Felchlin but not actually one of their products), and while it is quite delicious, it does not have the ease of use that Maracaibo has (such as lasting for a long time without getting over-crystallized). 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Jim D.  YES!!!  I absolutely LOVE it!   Its my favorite milk chocolate!  

 

As for white, I prefer the Edelweiss white chocolate, but have had some trouble finding the discs.  Blocks, I can find. But it seems like I used to be able to get a bag of discs- just like with the Arriba and Maracaibo... Can't seem to find them anymore. Any ideas? 

-Andrea

 

A 'balanced diet' means chocolate in BOTH hands. :biggrin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ChocoMom said:

@Jim D.  YES!!!  I absolutely LOVE it!   Its my favorite milk chocolate!  

 

As for white, I prefer the Edelweiss white chocolate, but have had some trouble finding the discs.  Blocks, I can find. But it seems like I used to be able to get a bag of discs- just like with the Arriba and Maracaibo... Can't seem to find them anymore. Any ideas? 

For Edelweiss, AUI Fine Foods carries the discs, as does The Chocolate Man.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Christmas collection

 

Top Row (L to R) : Caramel and Peanut Praline, Cherry and Pistachio, Peppermint Crunchy

Middle Row (L to R): Wildflower Honey, Hazelnut Praline Rock, Passionfruit Banana and Praline

Bottom Row (L to R): Raspberry Orange, Apricot Dulcey, Dipped Salted Butter Caramel

IMG_0046.JPG

  • Like 13
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Jim D. said:

@dhardy123, very nice assortment, beautiful decoration. How did you do the decoration on the raspberry orange?

 

Were the decorations done with your new Grex airbrush? How is that going?

Yes I did use it for most of them. For the raspberry I placed a piping tip in each cavity and gave a quick spray of white with the gun inside the piping tip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last week our local paper ran an article about a candy company (Landies Candies) that makes stuffed pretzels - they sell them on QVC, apparently. The idea intrigued me so I had to try them. I usually put together a variety of chocolates and confections for gift giving, so the time was right.

 

Pretzels, both regular and ring-shaped, with a layer of chocolate to create a base for the stuffing:

 

5a3807e1b79f1_IMG_28041.thumb.JPG.481bfa401c45dfe7dd4742e3082f7f13.JPG

 

Then filled - peanut butter meltaway in the regular ones, salted caramel dark chocolate ganache in the rings:

 

5a38081150362_IMG_28051.thumb.JPG.6b1d9880e89a0472569f845e4e139c0a.JPG

 

Finally dipped and decorated - sprinkles made from Bravetart's recipe on the regulars, caramelized white chocolate drizzle on the rings:

 

5a38085e6078b_IMG_28071.thumb.JPG.ccd5ad1973a871a99fcfc980d4565444.JPG

 

These will make nice holiday gifts this year, provided I do not eat them all.

  • Like 13

Patty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So the child's class had 6 students - and 17 teachers, educational assistants, volunteers! Plus two bus drivers.

 

The students are getting plain stuff 

 

image.thumb.jpg.0f24e5f1771a72edd487c7a81ba42183.jpg

 

the others of course expect more!

 

IMG_7781.thumb.JPG.5db08b22823bead765b415860ef05db7.JPG

 

was feeling a bit lazy so mostly truffles 

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...