Melanger experimentation

[Jim D.]

On 2/20/2023 at 5:03 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Which part did he think was defective? The stem or the knob?

 

I knew you would be interested in the resolution of this problem and just received an answer.  Turns out the owner is traveling abroad, so connecting with him was difficult.  Here's the response:  "The spring on your top lock is actually going to be the problem here, it is too tall."

 

I was very curious and so asked how the wrong spring was shipped.  The correct spring is going to be shipped to me along with a video showing how to change it (they must know they are dealing with a know-nothing user on this end). 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Jim D. (log)

[pastrygirl]

Today's experiment was freeze dried banana, it seems to have worked

 

I melanged in some hemp seed for giggles and used hemp milk to make a ganache that turned an unfortunate greyish-green.  Maybe it should have been a milk chocolate, browner would be better 😆

[Jim D.]

At last (I think) I will be able to begin using the melanger next week.  My first project is almond praline paste.  I have usually made it 50-50 almonds and caramelized sugar, but would like to experiment with 60-40 almonds to sugar to help diminish the sweetness.  Is there any reason why this would not work in terms of texture?  I know that Cacao Barry's pistachio praline paste is 70% pistachios, so the principle seems to suggest it is OK.  Since, by the way, that delicious and hard-to-source paste is $128 per kilo, achieving an acceptable pistachio praline at home is the next goal.

[Kerry Beal]

I think it should work - think pure nut paste texture.

[Rajala]

Yeah, no issues to change the ratio of sugar. More sugar = higher viscosity.

 

For pistachio praliné, I usually go 60% pistachio, 40% sugar, and I also add 10% of total weight in pistachio oil.

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Rajala
Edit: nomonomnom (log)

[Jim D.]

On 2/26/2023 at 4:33 AM, Rajala said:

Yeah, no issues to change the ratio of sugar. More sugar = higher viscosity.

 

For pistachio praliné, I usually go 60% pistachio, 40% sugar, and I also add 10% of total weight in pistachio oil.

 

Can you tell me the purpose of the pistachio oil?  Did the pistachios not have enough on their own?

[Jim D.]

On 2/19/2023 at 10:27 AM, Kerry Beal said:

 

Put the whole thing inside a big box if you are making a small batch - it spits. 

 

 

 

Do you think the box is necessary with the new splash guards installed?  I have looked in vain for a box large enough to hold the whole melanger.  My first grinding will be the sugar to clean it, and I suppose that qualifies as a small batch.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Jim D. (log)

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Jim D. said:

 

Do you think the box is necessary with the new splash guards installed?  I have looked in vain for a box large enough to hold the whole melanger.  My first grinding will be the sugar to clean it, and I suppose that qualifies as a small batch.

It had the splash guards on when it happened. Doesn't happen with the little bowl.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Rajala]

7 hours ago, Jim D. said:

 

Can you tell me the purpose of the pistachio oil?  Did the pistachios not have enough on their own?

 

Get a bit of better viscosity. I learnt that from pastry, so it's probably not common. I usually don't toast the pistachios for too long to keep their color as well, when you pay over 40 EUR per kilo, you want the color to stay.

 

The pistachio oil I have have a nice flavor to it, so it adds to that as well.

[Jim D.]

34 minutes ago, Rajala said:

 

Get a bit of better viscosity. I learnt that from pastry, so it's probably not common. I usually don't toast the pistachios for too long to keep their color as well, when you pay over 40 EUR per kilo, you want the color to stay.

 

The pistachio oil I have have a nice flavor to it, so it adds to that as well.

 

I would have thought the oil would make the paste more fluid (i.e., less viscous), so am surprised.  I agree about the price of pistachios.  I have a large container of already-made pistachio paste from Fiddyment Farms in California, so will begin by grinding that for a while, then gradually adding some caramelized sugar.  It may turn out that buying their paste is less expensive than buying pistachios and grinding from scratch.  I also agree about toasting only a little.  Some people don't approve of toasting them at all.  Some recipes (Greweling has one) recommend peeling the nuts, mostly to get a better color.  Now that's a task for very patient people.

[Jim D.]

Just wanted to report about my melanger in action.  The correct spring arrived today, and I ran a batch of just sugar to clean out the machine.  The sugar didn't get dirty at all, so perhaps they are cleaning the melanger better before shipping.  In addition, the sugar stayed completely in the bowl, no splattering anywhere (though I had it on the kitchen floor in case a hurricane ensued).  The new scraper arms (instead of the deflectors) work very well at gathering the material from the sides of the bowl and placing it in the path of the stones.  Similarly the new splash guards appeared to do their job as there was a little sugar on their bottoms when the grinding was done.  The machine is very easy to clean (yes, I know this was just sugar).  The melanger is a little noisier than I anticipated from the comments of others, but nothing I can't put up with, especially if it's in another room.  I am very pleased with the workmanship and apparent sturdiness of the melanger and look forward to a large batch of almond praline paste tomorrow.  The cost of this model (Premier Tilting Refiner, 10 pounds maximum, with stainless steel stone holder, Model 508) is $450, including shipping.  The 8-pound non-tilting version (Model 507) is $400.

 

I didn't intend to write a full review of the Premier melanger, but did want to thank all in this thread who answered my questions and encouraged me to move forward.

[Rajala]

Yeah, I buy them peeled already. I did try that on my own a while back. Kind of blanching the nuts, removing the skin, and leaving them to dry for a couple of days. I'd rather pay extra to get them delivered like that hah.

[Jim D.]

My initial use of the melanger has gone mostly well.  I'm making a 4Kg batch of almond praline paste.  The melanger is doing very well--not a morsel has flown out of the bowl, even when the amount was small at the beginning.  I "pre-ground" the almonds in a food processor until they were fine and barely beginning to exude their oil.  Then I made the caramel, and therein was the issue.  The caramel was going well until near the end, when the sugar began to crystallize--which leads to that horrible sinking feeling, "I know where this is going to end."  So I added some water and began again.  The same thing happened a second time, and then a third time.  Now a sensible person would have thrown out that 1.6Kg of sugar and started over, but being sensible is not always a virtue of mine (after all, I do make chocolates).  The fourth time I divided the caramel in half and melted each half by itself, using a smaller pot.  This time it worked.  I have no idea what went wrong earlier.  The humidity today is around 30%, and I followed the same procedure I always do (I prefer a wet caramel).  In any event, I pre-ground the caramel in my old food processor (the sides of the bowl were already scratched from grinding caramel, so I used it), then added the caramel slowly to the melanger, along with some sea salt, and so far so good.  It tastes great, needs some more grinding.

[pastrygirl]

On 3/6/2023 at 5:28 PM, Jim D. said:

I divided the caramel in half and melted each half by itself, using a smaller pot.  This time it worked.

 

I've had issues when the burner is smaller than the pot and the sugar doesn't heat evenly.

Edited March 25, 2023 by pastrygirl (log)

[pastrygirl]

More vegan experiments.  I found oat and soy milk powders without extra ingredients.

 

 

 

Close to equal parts by weight sugar (1/2 of it brown), CB, and oat milk powder with a touch of salt.  Pretty sweet, mildly oat-y, medium fluidity. 

Valrhona Orelys for color comparison.

 

 

Used it to make bonbons with strawberry ganache.  (valrhona fraise, more oat white, a little cranberry concentrate, oat creamer) They're not bad.  It's pretty tasty on its own and I'd  pair it with dark chocolate but the oat could be distracting in some uses.

 

 

 

 

soy milk powder batch, Valrhona Dulcey for color comparison

 

I reduced the sugar slightly, maybe if I hadn't there wouldn't be the very slight bean-iness.  But less bean-y than the oat is oat-y so pretty bland in a good way    Did not try any shells or ganache with it yet.

 

I ran these both for about 7 hours, how long do other people melange white chocolate for?

 

 

[Jim D.]

 

Great success with the melanger today.  I had a large container of plain pistachio paste but wanted to have it "pralined" and have been unable to obtain the Cacao Barry paste.  My issue with the previously mentioned almond praline paste was that the caramel bits became gummy and never totally dissolved.  Thanks to @Kerry Beal's friend @Alleguede, I have conquered that problem.  For hard-crack caramel I have always made a wet caramel, and he immediately diagnosed the water as the problem.  He made a suggestion I have never heard anywhere else:  Start by bringing some glucose to a boil, then add granulated sugar (so it is mostly a dry caramel), stir until it caramelizes, then pour onto a Silpat and, after it has cooled, grind into powder.  So I powered up the melanger, added the already ground (but not by any means smooth) pistachio paste, then the caramel bits gradually, plus sea salt.  Within a few hours it had become a completely smooth and deliciously caramelized pistachio paste (I used @Rajala's suggestion of 60% pistachio, 40% sugar).  Now I'm searching for what I can grind up next!

[curls]

I'm thinking about doing some experiments at the upcoming eGullet Chocolate & Confections Workshop and have a few questions for those who have been using melangers.

 

For making nut pastes and praline paste, do you always start with whole nuts, blitz them in the food processor, and then put them in the melanger? Wondering if starting with purchased nut flours has any advantages / disadvantages? Mainly thinking about this approach for almonds since it is easy to find almond flour / almond meal.

 

What nuts have you tried in the melanger and how happy were you with the results?

 

Any other confectionery uses for the melanger other than making chocolate, making fruit chocolate, nut pastes, praline pastes?

[Kerry Beal]

I've used both - I like using the nut flour to speed things up and because I have a crap load of it in the freezer.  I'm bringing some to the workshop - hazelnut and pistachio.

[curls]

9 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I've used both - I like using the nut flour to speed things up and because I have a crap load of it in the freezer.  I'm bringing some to the workshop - hazelnut and pistachio.

Woo hoo! I was hoping to work with hazelnuts and pistachios. Will see how much room I have in the car but I may bring almond flour, walnuts, and peanuts for some micro batch experiments.  Have you tried macadamia nuts?

[Kerry Beal]

29 minutes ago, curls said:

Woo hoo! I was hoping to work with hazelnuts and pistachios. Will see how much room I have in the car but I may bring almond flour, walnuts, and peanuts for some micro batch experiments.  Have you tried macadamia nuts?

I have not - I'm too thrifty (read cheap)!

[Jim D.]

It's none of my business since I won't be at the workshop, but my experiments so far indicate that (to my taste) including ground caramel adds a lot to the flavor.  This was especially true for pistachio (salt and caramel brought it to life).  You will have Rodney there; he told me how to make caramel without having it get gummy (basically begin with glucose, then add the sugar).  Of course this adds a lot to the complexity and you may not wish to deal with making caramel in an "alien" kitchen.  Rumor has it that some confectioners add plain sugar to make nut pralinés--much simpler.

[curls]

@Jim D. I appreciate your comments and welcome any additional melanger knowledge that you share. And yes, we are very lucky to have Rodney at the workshop.

 

When I have made dry caramel for nut praline I have made it with straight sugar. Willing to try the glucose + sugar method.

[curls]

The only reason that I mention macadamia nuts is that I purchased a few pounds when I visited Hawaii (sometime pre-Covid). Some were eaten and some went in the freezer. I need to check what is in the freezer and if there are enough to play with.

Edited May 15, 2023 by curls (log)

[patris]

If you are on the fence about acquiring a melanger, may I suggest that you not rely on @Kerry Beal to dissuade you:

 

 

At last weekend's chocolates and confections workshop, I fell off that fence and found myself purchasing the Premier 8-lb. model with the extra small bowl - my first outing with it, making banana chocolate at the workshop, was enough to convince me. I later made that into peanut butter meltaways, using Greweling's recipe and substituting banana chocolate for milk chocolate without adjusting the ratios. Turned out pretty good, but will need some tweaking for texture and flavor).

 

This morning I took a package of Trader Joe's speculoos cookies and processed them with cocoa butter and whole milk powder (about 40% cookies, 40% cocoa butter and 20% milk powder) for about 3 hours. About an hour in I tasted it and it seemed a bit flat, so I added 2 tablespoons of white sugar and a few sprinkles of cinnamon. It turned out pretty good - texture is a tiny bit powdery, which I assume is unavoidable because of the cookie, but nice flavor. I can see it combined with a textural element and layered with maybe a gianduja and/or milk chocolate in a bar, or made into a meltaway with or without some kind of crunch. In all, an interesting experiment that I can see repeating with Trader Joe's lemon or ginger thins or some similarly flavorsome cookie. (The mold marks are a combination of technique and cheap, flimsy molds - please forgive.)

 

 

[curls]

I also brought home a Premier melanger from last weekend's Chocolates & Confections workshop -- the 10-pound tilting model with the mico-batch bowl. After I got home, I cleaned both bowls by running them with sugar. The following day, I made a batch of hazelnut praline in the micro-batch bowl. Loved being able to tilt out the product. Two sealed containers of homemade hazelnut praline are now in the freezer, ready for use when I need them!