Andrey Dubovic online classes

[Kerry Beal]

3 hours ago, Rajala said:

Sorry to jump into this discussion. I see where you guys are coming from, but wouldn't most people see a pill as something that's good for you? That's exactly how I see it. Pills = good. Is it something with two colors that immediately makes you think of some pill full with flunitrazepam or is it just pills over all that triggers something for you?

Actually it looks like ramapril - but making it put my BP up not down!

[Kerry Beal]

16 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

Again I say "candy cigarettes." Not the best thought out idea. That said, sorry if I drove things off topic. What was interesting with that assignment was the taping in tight quarters. Taping a half sphere is relatively easy, but in this tighter mold it was less so. I will say that electrical tape is more forgiving than painters tape so it wasn't terrible. 

I saw candy cigarettes in the store the other day - now they call them candy sticks! Didn't buy a pack to see if the ends were still red.

[Kerry Beal]

Since the pills caused such a fuss - I'm a little hesitant to post my not matcha Matcha Pistachio Truffles. I hesitate to offend the matcha lovers! I have had one matcha I liked in my life - it had rhino in the name - beyond that I remember nothing except that it was carried by Metropolitan Tea.

 

Since I'm thrifty and not really into matcha - I powdered some lovely floral green tea that had been brought for me from Taiwan and used that instead.

 

Didn't give the brilliant color of the matcha version - but tasted a whole lot better.

 

 

 

 

[Jim D.]

I think Kerry had the right idea, to find a substitute for the tea specified. I think Earl Grey ground to a powder might be very good. Matcha is certainly not my "cup of tea." The best description I have seen of it is "vegetal" in taste. It does produce a great color, but the taste is really disappointing to me (I'm trying to protect the feelings of the matcha fans out there). As I was preparing an insert to accompany the homework assignments from the course that I will be giving to family and friends, I came to the matcha truffle. I decided to include a few of them in the assortment but to add the note that recipients should feel free to toss them out if they so desired but that if anyone really liked them, there were lots more at home. All I could think of is what a waste of pistachios (the taste of which is lost in the matcha). All in all, it was a curious choice for one of the final lessons of the course (#18 out of 21) as it was very easy to make whereas the others have been increasingly difficult (wait until someone posts photos of the chocolate-covered gianduja spheres crowned with a peak dipped in gold).

[gfron1]

I was much happier with my matcha/pistachio than I was with my gold dipped. Neither are things I'll do again so...moving on.

[Jim D.]

Some more efforts in the Dubovik course, some more successful than others:

 

Photos #1 and #2: The tomato simulation, mine filled with a citrus ganache (couldn't bring myself to try a tomato ganache). When I was making these, I asked myself what fool would ever do this again, but I am now going to repurpose the tomato as a cherry (colored with a dark red and bright red gradient and topped with a longer leaf and filled with cherry pàte de fruit and pistachio gianduja--a flavor combination requested by the bride and groom for their wedding).

 

 

 

Photo #3: the "shades of grey" design, this filled with pineapple caramel mousse.

 

 

Photo #4: the first of the four "eye" designs. These proved a challenge for me, and I still haven't mastered the technique, which is very dependent on consistency and temperature of the cocoa butters, temperature of the room, strength of the air stream, and too many other factors to mention. Even Andrey has varying results, but he makes the process look effortless.

 

 

Photo #5: The controversial pill design, mine filled with walnut caramel (to make the medicine go down more easily)

 

 

Photo #6:  My version of the gianduja-filled lollipops, technically mini-lollipops because I didn't have the proper size mold. There was also the issue that most of them came out of the two-piece mold in two pieces, there was no way to judge how thin or thick the shells were until it was too late, and no way to tell exactly how much gianduja was being piped in. All in all, not a stellar result...but the cuteness factor of this design is undeniable.

 

 

Photo #7:  The matcha truffles. As I have said elsewhere, this was my first time tasting matcha...and my last.

 

 

Photo #8: And last, my attempt at the gold-dipped gianduja-filled spheres. What a production this was. It didn't help that when I pierced the spheres with a skewer to suspend them upside down (to create the "tail"), the skewers shattered the spheres. This course is definitely a test of one's ingenuity. Picture me standing over a bowl of chocolate holding a sphere in each hand upside down (pierced with a thin metal skewer, which did not shatter the gianduja) waiting for the tail to set. As gfron1 said, not to be repeated.

 

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, gfron1 said:

I know it's originally the basic tenet of the chocolate truffle but even with that in mind, that particular piece looks amazingly organic. I'm not a big fan of matcha myself but I love the look of what appears to be a little moss covered nugget of something found on the forest floor. I've walked over a lot of ground that looked almost exactly like that while out picking wild blueberries. And I mean organic, forest floor and ground in the blueberry patch in the best possible good-memories way.

[curls]

@gfron1 I really like the look of your matcha pistachio truffle. 

 

As for matcha, I have had some that I enjoyed and others that I haven’t. Have had it as tea, pastries, and confections. I’m surprised that there are quite a few here that don’t care for it. At least it doesn’t seem as devisive as the raisin issue. 😉

[Kerry Beal]

Just because you can do something - doesn't mean you should do something!

 

They are tasty little buggers - they have a gianduja heart - but they don't fit in packaging. And they did indeed test the limits of my ingenuity to get the little bastards dipped and re dipped!

 

 

 

Here's my 'production facility'

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Avachocolate]

4 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Just because you can do something - doesn't mean you should do something!

 

I think that applies to about 80 % of praline decorations (and molds...) that I see on Instagram....

[chromedome]

LOL In another forum, I opined once that - if the eventual collapse of our world leaves anyone competent to pronounce an elegy - it would probably boil down to "just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

[MelissaH]

32 minutes ago, chromedome said:

LOL In another forum, I opined once that - if the eventual collapse of our world leaves anyone competent to pronounce an elegy - it would probably boil down to "just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Right up there with "Hold my beer...."

[Sweet Impact Mama]

18 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

Right up there with "Hold my beer...."

Have to say that this thread has taken a really fun turn! Thanks for the realistic take on some of these things. 

 

And I have to agree on the Matcha tea thing. I don't hate it, but it seems to only bring novelty, not enjoyment. Other teas taste so much better. 

[Jim D.]

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.

 

Edited July 23, 2018 by Jim D. (log)

[pastrygirl]

7 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

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.

 

 

Gotta admit, these more restrained ones still look amazing - proof you don't always need 4 colors on everything. 

 

As for keeping the stamp cold, maybe a bit of dry ice would help, as long as it doesn't get too cold.

[Jim D.]

1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Gotta admit, these more restrained ones still look amazing - proof you don't always need 4 colors on everything. 

 

As for keeping the stamp cold, maybe a bit of dry ice would help, as long as it doesn't get too cold.

Yes, after all the colors of the past couple of months, something simpler comes across as elegant. That's why when I use my triangle mold that is so popular (for reasons that mostly escape me), I often leave it completely plain. For the eGullet chocolate workshop last year, I brushed the sides of it with gold dust in vodka--never realizing that the gold comes off on the eater's hand.

 

Good idea about the dry ice. Kerry used some sort of medical spray that quick-freezes things.

[Kerry Beal]

2 hours ago, Jim D. said:

Yes, after all the colors of the past couple of months, something simpler comes across as elegant. That's why when I use my triangle mold that is so popular (for reasons that mostly escape me), I often leave it completely plain. For the eGullet chocolate workshop last year, I brushed the sides of it with gold dust in vodka--never realizing that the gold comes off on the eater's hand.

 

Good idea about the dry ice. Kerry used some sort of medical spray that quick-freezes things.

Not medical actually - it was canned Freeze Spray that Chef Rubber used to sell. I was wrong - they still have it here.

 

Edited July 21, 2018 by Kerry Beal (log)

[gfron1]

On 7/19/2018 at 9:08 PM, curls said:

@gfron1 I really like the look of your matcha pistachio truffle. 

 

As for matcha, I have had some that I enjoyed and others that I haven’t. Have had it as tea, pastries, and confections. I’m surprised that there are quite a few here that don’t care for it. At least it doesn’t seem as devisive as the raisin issue. 😉

I think it is more an issue of a bad formula. His recipe is 100g white choco to 10g matcha. First, apparently there is culinary matcha and also drinking, and he didn't specify (I used culinary), and second if he's like most chefs he just added some and when it came time to write the recipe he guessed. It just needed to be cut down to 3-5g and I think it would have tasted okay.

[curls]

1 hour ago, gfron1 said:

I think it is more an issue of a bad formula. His recipe is 100g white choco to 10g matcha. First, apparently there is culinary matcha and also drinking, and he didn't specify (I used culinary), and second if he's like most chefs he just added some and when it came time to write the recipe he guessed. It just needed to be cut down to 3-5g and I think it would have tasted okay.

Interesting, I did not know about culinary matcha. I've always used drinking matcha for tea and pastries. What is the difference between the two?

[Kerry Beal]

 

 

 

 

He suggested avoiding 'hard mixing' of green and red as it results in muddy colours.

 

 

 

 

[gfron1]

1 hour ago, curls said:

Interesting, I did not know about culinary matcha. I've always used drinking matcha for tea and pastries. What is the difference between the two?

I have no idea. My guess is the grind fineness, but really...don't know.

 

[Jim D.]

6 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

I have no idea. My guess is the grind fineness, but really...don't know.

 

I was inspired to look it up, and here is an explanation. I checked my order, and I got the "classic culinary" grade, as opposed to the "premium culinary" grade. So I paid $9.95 as opposed to $29.95 for the good stuff. I should have known "classic" is now a derogatory term.

[Kerry Beal]

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

Wowⁿ! Very, very impressive. Nicely done, Kerry.

[Kerry Beal]

I'm having another go at the first lesson - I'm up north so I'm struggling with the colors - I have some red, blue, yellow and white powder and few small bottles of Glarus Gourmet Chocobutters. For the yellow splatter initially I didn't have an opaque yellow - so I added some gold interference powder to a transparent yellow Chocobutter. Later today depending on how civilized the ER is I hope to be able to get these molded.

 

I also don't have a room cool enough so I placed the mold in the fridge before each color addition to bring it to the prescribed temperature. I'm curious to see what sort of shine I get.

 

 

 

t.