Options for a chocolate nerd during summer

[Rajala]

So, it's summer and I love it and I hate it. The high temperature and high humidity makes it so much harder to handle chocolate (It must suck to live in Australia. Constant heat and all those poisonous animals  ). I can't be arsed with buying an air cooler etc, my apartment is way too small for large equipment like that.  So I've been thinking of what I should do during the coming two-three months instead of chocolate, but can't figure out what I should concentrate on. My plan is therefore to ask you!

 

Do you have any suggestions? Become a tart master? Practice more on mousses? I'm open for any ideas. I do think about putting more hours in to designing my own moulds for mousses, since it's a bit more fun to work with things like that than the standard Pavoni/Silikomart shapes.

 

What do you, who have to endure hotter periods, do when you can't do chocolate work?

[pastrygirl]

pate de fruits, frozen desserts, cookies, nougat

[Tri2Cook]

17 minutes ago, Rajala said:

 

What do you, who have to endure hotter periods, do when you can't do chocolate work?
 

I turn on the air conditioner and, if needed, the dehumidifier, and do chocolate work. But I do my chocolate work at home and by virtue of the way the house is designed, it can still (rarely) get on the hot side in the kitchen for chocolate work at times even with the a/c on. Fortunately, by virtue of where I live, that level of heat never lasts long. And I only use the word "fortunately" in the context of what we're discussing here, chocolate work. Other than that, I love the hot summer weather and wish it stayed around longer than it does.

[Jim D.]

Among other things, I use the summer months to research new flavors for chocolate fillings and new techniques for decorating them. If you haven't seen it, look at the lengthy eGullet thread on flavor combinations and (as you undoubtedly know already) there are zillions of videos on technique. I am fortunately in a situation where I can cool the kitchen to an acceptable temp and humidity (good thing as I have a wedding in mid-August requiring 800 pieces). I have learned many things over the summers by rereading recipes I thought I knew and techniques I thought I had mastered (Greweling, Notter, Wybauw). These ideas are, of course, predicated on the assumption that you cannot bear to stay away from chocolate for an entire summer. You could, as a last resort, seek out a girlfriend/boyfriend with an air-conditioned kitchen and a high tolerance for mess.

[Rajala]

@pastrygirl  Pate de fruit is a great suggestion. I visited the big thread about it but haven't tried it yet. Thanks for reminding me.

 

 

@Tri2Cook Haha, I love the summer as well. It's quite short, too short, but it still sucks that I can't handle chocolate like I normally do. 

 

 

@Jim D. You mention videos, do you have any suggestions? Maybe there's some kind of youtuber I don't know about? Most things I've found so far is very basic. I just got the Art of the chocolatier (name?) so that's a new book to go through. 

 

[Jim D.]

If you haven't seen the Keylink videos, they are worth a look. I'll look for others when I have more time, but if you go to Youtube and do a search for something like "decorating chocolates," you will find more. Then there are the Grex airbrush videos on using an airbrush to decorate (not specifically chocolates, but still useful).

[curls]

Sounds like the perfect time to work on popsicles, sorbets, and ice cream. I just turn down the AC when I want to make chocolates but it's no fun trying to deliver chocolates in the summer. Easy to travel with frozen desserts -- pack them with dry ice.

[Rajala]

I don't have an AC. That's why I'm looking for options.

 

But I'm about to order 12 kgs of fruit purée. I hope my co-workers like pate de fruit. 

[Tri2Cook]

On ‎5‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 2:17 PM, Rajala said:

What do you, who have to endure hotter periods, do when you can't do chocolate work?

 

On ‎5‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 2:45 PM, Tri2Cook said:

I turn on the air conditioner and, if needed, the dehumidifier, and do chocolate work.

Sometimes one boasts just a little more than one probably should have and attracts the attention of the chocolate gods. Apparently attracting the attention of the chocolate gods via boasting is unwise and viewed as a challenge. It's been unusually hot this week for this early in the summer where I live and then today it clouded up and started raining. So now the humidity gauges in my house are reading somewhere around 73% and nothing is helping bring it down any significant amount. So I'm going to edit my answer to say: sometimes I turn on the air conditioner and, if needed, the dehumidifier, and do chocolate work... if the chocolate gods find it within their hearts to allow me to do so.  

[Rajala]

Hehe. It's actually getting better here. But the humidity is still a bit too much.

 

At the moment, I'm creating new molds for a three piece petit gateaux with two inserts. Waiting for these to set.

 

[paulraphael]

Chocolate ice cream?

[Rajala]

On 6/28/2018 at 11:33 PM, paulraphael said:

Chocolate ice cream?

 

I was thinking about that, but that would mean new gadgets. I love'em, but I don't have any space for a big machine at the moment.  

[keychris]

You can get quite small icecream churners that you pre-freeze the bowl instead of the machine cooling it if you really want to

[pastrygirl]

12 hours ago, Rajala said:

 

I was thinking about that, but that would mean new gadgets. I love'em, but I don't have any space for a big machine at the moment.  

 

Buy ice cream and work on the perfect hot fudge sauce or chocolate cookies for ice cream sandwiches.

[Rajala]

9 hours ago, keychris said:

You can get quite small icecream churners that you pre-freeze the bowl instead of the machine cooling it if you really want to

 

That wouldn't fit in my freezer, too many things in there. Space is an issue for everything when you live in a one room apartment.  

 

Someone did tell me that you can make ice cream with the help of dry ice, but that would also be like time consuming ordering it etc. 

 

8 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

Buy ice cream and work on the perfect hot fudge sauce or chocolate cookies for ice cream sandwiches.

 

Something like that would work. I shouldn't just focus on "one thing". It's always good to learn more (I can probably make cookies, but to make them perfect!)

 

With my "luck", summer is probably past me soon anyway. The summer in this country is usually short, unfortunately.

[Rajala]

It's now so hot that my white chocolate is on the verge of melting.  This have never happened before.

 

Any suggestions on what to do? It's 30° / 86 F,  in my apartment 24/7. The dark chocolate seems to have no issues with this heat, even though I understand that it probably not is good for it - but all kinds of white (probably the milk as well) is extremely soft. Do I need to throw it away? Will it be OK? Heat will continue like this for at least a week more. 😭I will not sell anything produced with this chocolate, so as long as I can work with it like normal even after exposure to this 30° for a long time, it's fine by me.

[Jim D.]

Don't throw it away. In the tempering process, you would be raising all chocolate to far more than 30C/86F. So just temper it when you can work on chocolate again. Just don't assume they are still in temper. Experts say these temps reduce shelf life, so use them as soon as you can.

[pastrygirl]

Agreed, you can still temper it but you may have to find stable CB crystals in the form of some new white chocolate or cocoa butter if you want to seed it. 

 

Or you can use it in a ganache, mousse, or glaze where it will be melted but doesn't need to be tempered.

[Rajala]

Thanks. I always temper with the tabling method, so the only problem is reduced shelf life of the chocolate I guess? That's OK.

 

Love the summer, but I'm getting tired of not being able to do chocolate things.