Confections! (2006-2012)

[lapin d'or]

Desiderio your turkish delight looks perfect.

I have tried several times and just cannot get the texture right. Often not firm enough to cut, and I have also had raw tasting cornstarch even though the water & starch mixture was boiled really well before adding the sugar.

Did your recipe have a lot of starch or was it mainly set by the gelatine?

[Desiderio]

I had the same experience when I tried the recipe form Greweling book, but he calls for a modified starch , that is hard to find , so i think that recipe doesnt work with regular corn starch.This one use corn starch as well ( no gelatine ) but the mixture of sugar and water boils before then you add the starch mixture , for very close to 2 hours , after that I left them in the pan ( regular 9by13 i think ) for more than 12 hours ,cut them and passed them in sugar/ starch and let them dry for 2 more days ( the recipe say 12 hours ) but I figure the more the better and it worked fine .I have to say that the mixture was firm and ready for cutting , just after few hours.

[Kerry Beal]

I was fooling around with some truffle salt I found at a posh food and cookware store in Buffalo the other day. Very strong truffle flavour. So a lttle scoop of that plus a bit of kosher salt for texture in dark chocolate made a very tasty caraque. I used the remainder for a very thin bark.

[lebowits]

In keeping with all those great eG threads like "Breakfast! The most important meal of the day", "Lunch! What'd ya have", "Dinner! What did we cook" and "What's for dessert?", I think it is time that the chocolatiers and confectioners on eG have a place to post their day to day "what did I make" pictures and projects.

So to start things off - I'm on holiday for 3 weeks and our plans to go sailing got buggered, so here I am with some time on my hands to play.  I haven't made nougat for a while so yesterday I measured out a couple of those egg whites that have been sitting in the fridge for a while and here's the result.

Nougat with almond and pistachio.

It is excellent! soft, chewy, with well toasted crunchy nuts.  The only thing missing is a bit of milk chocolate on the ends. 

And of course the best part, the scraps. 

So c'mon folks, lets have a look at your candy, confections, chocolate.  All those nice goodies that don't fit well into breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert.

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I made Nougat Montelimar last weekend but was very disappointed. I don't know if I added the sugar to fast to the whipped egg products or if the sugar being cooked to "hard crack" was the issue, but my resulting product was very hard. I'm leaning toward collapsing the eggs and need to try again.

Kerry - To what temp did you cook your sugars?

[Desiderio]

Not Kerry , but everytime I made her nougat it turned perfect.

Check this out

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=92495

This is the recipe I followed from Kerry , its a winner

Thanks Kerry

http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1743.html

Edited August 13, 2007 by Desiderio (log)

[Kerry Beal]

So that would be 138 C before adding the honey then 143 with the honey.

[mrose]

I am interested in trying the Green Faeries but I need some more info on Absinthe. It is to expense to buy just to try this recipe. I know it is liquorice flavored. Is the taste more complex than that? What other flavors are present? Or would using another liquorice (ie. Pastisse) give me a good indication as to the taste of the ganache?

[prairiegirl]

Today I made Nan King cherry marshmallows! I have been picking these berries for the last 2 weeks. My daughter was trying to get something out of the freezer and she told her friend who was with her that "I am obsessed with Nan King Cherries"!! I have about 40 Litres in my freezer. I have had to solicite friends for freezer storage!! I am currently making fruit leather with Nan king cherries and apples (picked from the neighbor's yard). I would like to dip my marshmallows in Valrhona Manjari 64% because it would really bring out the fruitiness...but I am too cheap to part with my Manjari. I may try using Cocoa Barry Cuba... an nice bitter/sweet infusion. okay I will do a few in the Manjari and I will share some with my best customers!! I plan on experimenting with ganaches as well to see if I can get a good nan king cherry chocolate.

[alanamoana]

I am interested in trying the Green Faeries but I need some more info on Absinthe. It is to expense to buy just to try this recipe. I know it is liquorice flavored. Is the taste more complex than that?  What other flavors are present? Or would using another liquorice (ie. Pastisse) give me a good indication as to the taste of the ganache?

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pastis or pernod could give you the same flavor profile. they also sell something called "absente" which is similar to absinthe, but without the wormwood.

Edited August 22, 2007 by alanamoana (log)

[lebowits]

As mentioned in another thread, I've been making wedding chocolates, petit four style, for a friend. Here's how the kitchen looked at 2 am on the morning of the wedding

and here's what I made

from the left and clockwise they are Café Cognag, Lime, Hazelnut and Lavender/honey.

(Thanks to Kerry Beal, SummerSun and Trishad for suggestions on the lime filling - went with a bit of citric acid to give it more sharpness as I ended up being very busy at work and not having much time to test)

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I'm curious about how you created the "containers". Did you poor plaques (molds) and simply not fill them?

[Desiderio]

I dont know how Mette did hers, but there are molds for those shapes as well ( hallow ) they actually are italian

http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/c329404p16890146.2.html

like these ones

[Kerry Beal]

As mentioned in another thread, I've been making wedding chocolates, petit four style, for a friend. Here's how the kitchen looked at 2 am on the morning of the wedding

and here's what I made

from the left and clockwise they are Café Cognag, Lime, Hazelnut and Lavender/honey.

(Thanks to Kerry Beal, SummerSun and Trishad for suggestions on the lime filling - went with a bit of citric acid to give it more sharpness as I ended up being very busy at work and not having much time to test)

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I'm curious about how you created the "containers". Did you poor plaques (molds) and simply not fill them?

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I think they might be purchased cups.

[patris]

Geez Louise, you all are incredibly talented.

I'm on vacation for 2 weeks, so I spent my first week satisfying my marshmallow obsession: passionfruit, strawberry, brown sugar espresso, pomegranate, and raspberry. The raspberry, which are absolutely exceptional, got turned into S'Mores bars (S'Bars?) with 60% bittersweet ganache and graham crackers. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Suffice to say, my tasting circle of family and friends are LOVING me right now.

[prairiegirl]

As mentioned in another thread, I've been making wedding chocolates, petit four style, for a friend. Here's how the kitchen looked at 2 am on the morning of the wedding

and here's what I made

from the left and clockwise they are Café Cognag, Lime, Hazelnut and Lavender/honey.

(Thanks to Kerry Beal, SummerSun and Trishad for suggestions on the lime filling - went with a bit of citric acid to give it more sharpness as I ended up being very busy at work and not having much time to test)

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I'm curious about how you created the "containers". Did you poor plaques (molds) and simply not fill them?

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I saw the shapes in the new American Qzina catalog.

Edited August 26, 2007 by prairiegirl (log)

[Fibilou]

I made some nougat a couple of days ago, very pleased with the result; I whipped it a bit too long so it was difficult to get out of hte kitchenaid, but tastes good ! It has whole, roasted pistachios and some cherries and candied peel bought on my latest foodie trip in Paris (at G Detout in the Rue Tiquetonne)

I discovered that the best way of cutting it neatly is with a sharp knife just dipped in boiling water - cuts very sharply

[choux]

I don't really think whipping too long had anything to do with getting it out of the KA, it's always a pain in the ass. It's so sticky! Looks good.

Edited October 4, 2007 by choux (log)

[gap]

Handling nougat out of the Kitchen Aid is easier with a wet scraper and wet fingers - for some reason the nougat doesn't seem to stick then

[alanamoana]

or lightly oiled fingers/scraper

[Kerry Beal]

I've been playing around a bit this week. I took the mint meltaway recipe from Greweling's book and adapted it to make malt meltaways, which were sweet but quite good.

These are "Bacon Bugs" - I used Vosges chocolate idea - crispy cooked bacon and alder smoked salt in dark milk chocolate.

These are cocomels from Wybauws Fine Chocolates. Tasty - I didn't have tangerine compound so I used a few drops of bitter orange oil.

Some milk dipped black austrailian licorice. A very tasty combination.

Edited October 7, 2007 by Kerry Beal (log)

[prairiegirl]

Kerry,

It all looks good. I made the cocomels last month and they were winners with some of my customers. The bugs seem very interesting! The Australian licorice, what is the licorice like and where did you source it from?

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry,

It all looks good.  I made the cocomels last month and they were winners with some of my customers.  The bugs seem very interesting!  The Australian licorice, what is the licorice like and where did you source it from?

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The australian licorice is nice and soft with a pure licorice taste. Not muddy like some black licorice.

I got it from Costco in Sudbury. The brand is Darrell Lea and it cost around $8 something for 1 kg.

[Kerry Beal]

Playing around with the square cups from the wonderful italian molds that Desiderio linked to further back. I was ready to put the transfer squares squarely on top, but Anna (who is far better at thinking outside the box) suggested this way which looks much more exciting. Of course that got us thinking about making a nice dessert in a chocolate cup with a larger transfer decoration.

[lapin d'or]

Kerry,

Could you explain how you formed the lids? Can you make these from the cup mould itself?

They look very inviting.

[Tri2Cook]

Awesome Kerry, beautiful as always.

I have a question for you, I finally had success with the aerated chocolate. Worked perfectly, full of bubbles and very creamy in texture as it melts in the mouth. This was with the method from the book, not H.B.'s version (but I do have a set of those vacuum bags on the way). I don't have a picture, it was at work and was devoured, but I just used 64% Schokinag because it was handy. What I want to figure out is how to get fruit flavors into the chocolate. Are flavoring oils my only good option for something like this? I'm worried purees (even concentrated) would alter the chocolate too much for the process but I really don't know. I know H.B. adds a little peanut oil to the chocolate for his version but oil and puree are two different beasts. I guess I could just try it, it wouldn't be the first chocolate and cream chargers I've wasted learning this one.

[choux]

I don't think puree would work at all, it has too much water in it and will sieze the chocolate. Unless you use enough to loosen the chocolate, but then it wouldn't set up and hold the bubbles. You need to use oil-based flavourings.