pastry "pastilles"

[akwa]

Any ideas?

[chefpeon]

Can you clarify a bit?

I've made edible pills out of modeling chocolate, fondant, gumpaste, and marzipan.....

but from powder? I guess I don't get it.

[aidensnd2]

You need a high pressure press and a mixture that will stay together when compacted. I believe that pretty much any sugar based powder mix should work.

[akwa]

where can I get a high pressure press?

low cost?

Gum paste might be interesting or a binding element that would evaporate

My ideal would be a pill of powder unbound but holding shape

[Patrick S]

You can get high pressure with a cheap bench vice, but you'd still need some kind of pill-form mold or something. What exactly are you trying to make? Just curious. . . If you're trying to package supplements or pharmaceuticals, you could just use gel-caps.

Edited November 18, 2004 by Patrick S (log)

[aidensnd2]

What kind of powder are you trying to bind? And do you mean unbound as in without a binding agent? If you can exert enough pressure onto the powder you won't need any binding agent. Just think of how brown sugar holds it shape under moderate pressure. Most pressed candy, Pez etc... is held together simply by the pressure in the molding process.

I would go for a drill press over a vice. If you get a short section of metal pipe to be used as the mould with a solid metal rod in place of the drill bit to act as a plunger you should be in business.

Hmm, now this really has me wondering what type of pastilles you are planning on making...

[akwa]

You can get high pressure with a cheap bench vice, but you'd still need some kind of pill-form mold or something. What exactly are you trying to make? Just curious. . . If you're trying to package supplements or pharmaceuticals, you could just use gel-caps.

←

where can i get gel caps?

all great advice

thanks

just working on a base technique, not particularly concerned with the particular elaboration,

but for a new interactive dessert Sydney May 2000

I wanted to make tubes of pills to garnish, perhaps to go,

probably with some citrus sugar, litchi and rosewater

a la vodka red bull

solid cocktails

[Patrick S]

You can get high pressure with a cheap bench vice, but you'd still need some kind of pill-form mold or something. What exactly are you trying to make? Just curious. . . If you're trying to package supplements or pharmaceuticals, you could just use gel-caps.

←

where can i get gel caps?

all great advice

thanks

just working on a base technique, not particularly concerned with the particular elaboration,

but for a new interactive dessert Sydney May 2000

I wanted to make tubes of pills to garnish, perhaps to go,

probably with some citrus sugar, litchi and rosewater

a la vodka red bull

solid cocktails

←

You can find empty gel-caps at vitamin stores, head-shops, or at lots of online stores. For example:

Empty Gel Caps

Empty GelCaps

Empty Gel Caps

Good luck!