Now my last four efforts at Andrey's designs.
Photo #1: The "eye" design in turquoise and white. Most of them aren't what he has in mind, but after experimenting on literally several hundred cavities and trying every permutation I could think of in room temp, strength of air stream, consistency of cocoa butters (how much coloring I added and how overtempered they were--that was the goal in this case, not a defect), I decided I had done enough, at least for now. These are filled with peanut butter mousse.
Photo #2 and #3: The yellow and black version. I think these are a bit closer to what Andrey does. They are filled with lime ganache.
Photo #4: And the multicolored ones, made by spraying yellow, red, and green cocoa butter. Mine are OK, but again, not a replica of what Andrey created. I filled them with a yuzu and ginger ganache. As I have said before, after trying the fillings he offers, in order to avoid duplication, I used what I had in my freezer. A further reflection on the "eye" design, which is a key component of the course: I think another person taking the class offered the best conclusion: one would have to be with Andrey in his studio to see exactly what consistency he has in mind for the cocoa butter; it's not possible to tell fully from the videos. And at least I had difficulty replicating the process for all the eye designs. In the videos it works for him every time without apparent effort.
Photo #5: This is the final lesson and offered for me an opportunity to think about variations on what Andrey does. The red pieces used in two of the decorations are "raspberry crunches" (made by Sosa, and "waterproof" so they remain crunchy--a delicious item that could have lots of uses). The red seals turned out OK and are a clever addition, but the stamps I found didn't stay cold long enough to create more than one seal at a time--making this an impossible decoration for me to use in any quantity. The decoration showing one raspberry crunch and a gold-dust stripe is my own attempt (I like the use of gold dust very much, but it really works only when it goes in a place the eater is unlikely to touch, such as the top of a dipped piece). The filling for these is a raspberry ganache (a recipe from Andrey) and is delicious.
