Easter 2019: chocolates, confections, and baking

[curls]

7 hours ago, jbates said:

Working on a bunch of stuff for my Easter charity sale at the office.

 

Some tasting bars made from TJs Ruby:

 

 

I found the little mendiant/disc characters at Michael’s (US craft store), the missing third one is a bunny face. They were the lids in a small dough shaping kit for kids; threw away the dough and the containers.

 

And some milk tablets using Cacao Barry’s new mold for Ruby:

 

 

More to follow.

Very nice!

 

On the tasting bars, is that a magnetic mould? Did you fill the bars with anything or are they solid TJs Ruby?

 

I hadn't seen the Cacao Barry tablet mould, very cool. Did the mould work well? About how many grams per tablet?

[A Polderman]

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 4:49 AM, teonzo said:

 

If you have problems with static then you just need to put the mold in contact with a metal radiator. If you don't have a metal radiator in the kitchen (don't know what heating systems you use in the USA, sorry) then just put the mold in contact with anything that has a "grounding line" (don't know the technical term in English, sorry) to remove the static electricity. If you google "how to remove static" you'll find much better explanations than the ones I can try to write translating from Italian.

 

 

 

Teo

 

SO I tried to find something grounded in our house to rub the molds on and just could not come up with anything. We have central heat so our furnace is through a ducting system unlike the individual radiators in Europe. SO I got to thinking and came up with fabric softener sheets!  I don't know if you have these dryer sheets you throw in so your clothes don't come out with static cling. I rubbed it on the OUTSIDE of the mold and no more static!  

 

Thank for making me stop and think about finding a solution!

[A Polderman]

On ‎4‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 2:20 AM, patris said:

 

The staffer you talked to steered you wrong! They still have quite a bit, but they moved it over near the baking stuff. I doubt I will be adding more to my stash, though... still haven’t used more than a couple packages.

 

WHAT??!!!! Trader Joe sells Ruby Cocoa???!!!!! I wouldn't believe it had you not posted a photo for my own eyes! I haven't seen that at our store in the Seattle area now I have to go tomorrow to check it out!

How could we survive without TJ's or Costco, LOL

[teonzo]

16 hours ago, jbates said:

 

 

These are wonderful, especially when in group, compliments!

 

 

 

Teo

 

[curls]

And to answer some of my above queztion, I found the ruby tablet mould... https://www.pastrychefsboutique.com/CHOCOLATE/Chocolate-Molds/polycarbonate-chocolate-molds/Modern-Shaped-Molds/chocolate-world-cw1906-polycarbonate-chocolate-ruby-tablet-mold-10350-x-8950-x-1350-mm-56-gr-1-x-2-cavity-275-x-135-x-24-mm-mode

[jbates]

1 hour ago, curls said:

And to answer some of my above queztion, I found the ruby tablet mould... https://www.pastrychefsboutique.com/CHOCOLATE/Chocolate-Molds/polycarbonate-chocolate-molds/Modern-Shaped-Molds/chocolate-world-cw1906-polycarbonate-chocolate-ruby-tablet-mold-10350-x-8950-x-1350-mm-56-gr-1-x-2-cavity-275-x-135-x-24-mm-mode

The unfortunate thing with the CW1906 is that there’s only two cavities per mold. If they were the wider 175mm size then there could have been 3 or 4. I bought 6, but I probably will have to buy a bunch more so I can decorate the entire batch all at once.

 

The snacking bar is magnetic and it’s 100% ruby. It’s the Chocolate World 1000L37, $50 each at the moment. https://www.pastrychefsboutique.com/CHOCOLATE/Chocolate-Molds/polycarbonate-chocolate-molds/bars-napolitains-molds/chocolate-world-cw1000l37-magnetic-polycarbonate-chocolate-mold-rectangular-bar-80x13x10-mm-1x10-pc-11gr-275x135x24-mm-bars-napo

[jbates]

5 hours ago, A Polderman said:

WHAT??!!!! Trader Joe sells Ruby Cocoa???!!!!! I wouldn't believe it had you not posted a photo for my own eyes! I haven't seen that at our store in the Seattle area now I have to go tomorrow to check it out!

How could we survive without TJ's or Costco, LOL

I drove around to all of the TJs in my local area (6 or 7) before Valentine’s Day, and managed to find a few at each store, and finally a big stash half-hidden at one of them. So I started with about 30 bags to play with (but some went into the chef for “testing”). I’ve been using it for Easter as well, made up a few bigger bars using the CW1936 mold and some maple candied nuts:

 

 

(Couldn’t get rid of all the glare from the bags)

[A Polderman]

8 hours ago, jbates said:

I drove around to all of the TJs in my local area (6 or 7) before Valentine’s Day, and managed to find a few at each store, and finally a big stash half-hidden at one of them. So I started with about 30 bags to play with (but some went into the chef for “testing”). I’ve been using it for Easter as well, made up a few bigger bars using the CW1936 mold and some maple candied nuts:

 

 

(Couldn’t get rid of all the glare from the bags)

SO went to TJ's to see if our store had any and they apparently are a SPECIAL PURCHASE and NO LONGER available for order so if you see them at your store, get them!

Called outlining stores and all are sold out in the eastside Seattle area.

 

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, A Polderman said:

SO went to TJ's to see if our store had any and they apparently are a SPECIAL PURCHASE and NO LONGER available for order so if you see them at your store, get them!

Called outlining stores and all are sold out in the eastside Seattle area.

 

 

I have seen it at the West Seattle TJ, though I can't say exactly how recently.

[Pastrypastmidnight]

I’m still working on Easter, you know, since it’s 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, but in the meantime: 

 

Pastel macarons (coconut ganache with pineapple jam, milk chocolate passionfruit ganache, dark chocolate ganache, spumoni, dark chocolate with cherry jam, and pistachio cherry):

 

Homemade peeps: 

 

Bonbons (lemon meringue, key lime, grapefruit, s’mores, and speculoos praliné):

 

Cross your our fingers I can get my first ever big eggs filled and assembled and my first ever mini entremets/petits gateaux finished by tomorrow  .

[curls]

@Pastrypastmidnight they all look beautiful and sound delicious. Would you please save a few spumoni macarons for me.

[Pastrypastmidnight]

33 minutes ago, curls said:

@Pastrypastmidnight they all look beautiful and sound delicious. Would you please save a few spumoni macarons for me.

They’re already gone! We used them as a bit of a fundraiser for my kids’ camp fees  .

 

Next time!   

[curls]

1 hour ago, Pastrypastmidnight said:

They’re already gone! We used them as a bit of a fundraiser for my kids’ camp fees  .

 

Next time!   

Drat! I should have spoken up sooner. At least they went to a good cause.  🙂

[keychris]

 

[Corny]

Always inspiring to read and see pictures from so many talented people.

 

We are two Norwegians who still have this as a hobby, but are expanding bit by bit. For this Easter, we got inspired by Europe’s political hot topic (and I have to say also mainly by my English wife’s idea) to make the Br-Eggs-It. It was a 12 cm (almost 5”) milk chocolate egg filled with four smaller egg varieties:

“The passionate English rose” (England): Ruby and Valrhona Inspiration passionfruit

“Scotch egg” (Scotland): Milk Chocolate with a cream egg filling (our version of the Cadburry Creme egg)

”Dragon egg (Wales, who has the dragon in their flag): Valrhona Blonde chocolate 

“Irish cream” (Ireland): Dark chocolate with Bailey ganache (we tried first to make the little egg look like a pint of Guinness)

 

For some reason the Norwegians didn’t quite pick up the pun, so most of the production was sold to ex-pats living in our town. 

 

 

 

 

[teonzo]

12 hours ago, Corny said:

For some reason the Norwegians didn’t quite pick up the pun, so most of the production was sold to ex-pats living in our town. 

 

Great stuff, especially the chicken card!

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Pete Fred]

Three pages and no hot cross buns?!? 😲

 

I made a couple of batches this year. The first, from Lyle's, seem to garner plenty of Insta-hype so I thought I'd give them a try.

 

 

They were fine, without rocking my world...

 

 

So I made Thomas Keller's, which uses quite an enriched dough...

 

 

I should have proofed them closer together for a bit more height and less spread. Oops.

 

Bizarrely, he doesn't spice the dough, so I rectified that error (sorry Mr Keller). He's also a bit stingy with the dried fruit, so more of that went in plus some stem ginger (candied ginger)...

 

 

And I don't usually bother with the icing, but decided to dress one for the good folks at eGullet. 😀 Happy Easter.

[Pastrypastmidnight]

Easter, Take 2. 

 

Eggs on little nests ears filled with hand-panned caramelized hazelnuts and caramel bits, chocolate covered sponge toffee, and homemade marshmallow peeps. 

 

Carrot cake entremet. They were a bit small for entremets but a bit big for petite gateaux. I just took a class from Ramon Morató and he made 4 entremet. I wanted to see if I could do something even a little bit similar at home. I used cookie cutter rings because I don’t have pastry or cake rings. Cream cheese mousse, speculoos mousse, carrot gelée, hazelnut cake, spiced biscuit. So many issues, but overall really yummy :). 

[Okanagancook]

Stunned!

[A Polderman]

Delayed But here is our final Easter gifts

[A Polderman]

On ‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 6:23 PM, pastrygirl said:

 

I have seen it at the West Seattle TJ, though I can't say exactly how recently.

Thanks for the tip @pastrygirl I picked up 15 bags and made some treats for my friends and went through so much I just called back and got their last 8 bags today!

[Jim D.]

On 4/16/2019 at 7:21 PM, tikidoc said:

if there was much residue, I would think you would not get a shine there on the finished piece...

 

Just want to report definitively that VinylEase tape leaves a residue in molds--a substantial residue. I don't know why this didn't happen the first time I used it, but it certainly did today. It took sitting overnight for the problem to be revealed. So much time wasted cutting it and sticking it on with multiple molds. It's not the tape's fault, of course, since it was not intended for this purpose.

[pastrygirl]

15 hours ago, Jim D. said:

 

Just want to report definitively that VinylEase tape leaves a residue in molds--a substantial residue. I don't know why this didn't happen the first time I used it, but it certainly did today. It took sitting overnight for the problem to be revealed. So much time wasted cutting it and sticking it on with multiple molds. It's not the tape's fault, of course, since it was not intended for this purpose.

 

That stinks.  But you've used the tape successfully before?  Masking tape can be hard to get off of things after several days, maybe sitting overnight was the problem and the adhesive cured or hardened.

[Jim D.]

Regardless of what happened, I cannot take the risk of using that plastic again. I wanted a wider triangle, and VinylEase comes in sheets, so you can make the design whatever you want. But I had to put those four molds aside to be washed (someday), got out four clean ones (I knew that large purchase of custom molds would come in handy), found some 1.5" wide PVC (electrician's) tape, and it worked well. It kept the cocoa butter out almost as well as VinylEase, and left no detectable residue. So what's a day lost here and there, as long as there's a lesson learned?

[SchiehallionHandmade]

On 5/24/2019 at 12:18 PM, Jim D. said:

 

Just want to report definitively that VinylEase tape leaves a residue in molds--a substantial residue. I don't know why this didn't happen the first time I used it, but it certainly did today. It took sitting overnight for the problem to be revealed. So much time wasted cutting it and sticking it on with multiple molds. It's not the tape's fault, of course, since it was not intended for this purpose.

I found this tape on amazon, works well worth dome moulds