Confections! (2006-2012)

[tammylc]

Just to prove that not everything turns out perfect...

I made some peppermint marshmallows. But something happened - my sugar got too hot, or maybe I'm just blowing out my KitchenAid motor with all this marshmallow making (it's not sounding very good these days) - and it ended up dense and chewy rather than light and fluffy. Still tasty, just not marshmallows. So I decided to proceed with my plan to dip them in chocolate anyway. I half dipped them, then set them chocolate side down on an uncut structure/texture sheet. As you can see, that was only somewhat successful.

And here's my attempt at making that spiky effect on some milk chocolate raspberry truffles. I was attempting to work with too little chocolate, and then it got too thick, but i overheated it slightly in the microwave so i have some little bits of bloom showing at the ends... But, all in all, not bad for a quickie Sunday morning thing, and i'm sure my milk chocolate raspberry loving friend won't mind a bit!

I also made a tray of 24 of the coffee pieces from my Christmas collection. They were a collaboration with a local coffee roasting company, and he called me up on Friday to see if I had any left - he wanted to take them to family for Christmas. I didn't, but happened to have that mold here at home with me, so I went ahead and made some up.

Now I think I'm really done with confectionery. For a couple days, anyway.

[Kerry Beal]

I thought I was done with confectionery for a few days too, until my dad called last night and said that his lady friend wanted 5 boxes of chocolates - of course that meant I had to made more. And one of the preschool moms wanted a few more dipped cookies and licorice.

Since I had next to no chocolates in the basement I put together a pistachio center, flowing caramel, mocca and eggnog last night and spent several hours today making enough chocolates for about 30 boxes of six. Enough for dad's friend, my neighbours and the family when they come on Christmas. I also dipped a big bag of oreos and a bag of fruity licorice and decorated them.

I'll take all the leftovers to work tomorrow and see if I can sell them.

[Lior]

incredible!!!!

[equality5271]

Maple Pumpkin Caramel - Molded, round, dark chocolate w/ gold & bronze luster dust

Salted Honey Nut Caramel - Square honey caramel mixed with cashews, almonds, & macadamia nuts. hand dipped in milk chocolate and garnished with gray salt

Rosemary Caramel - Square rosemary infused caramel hand dipped in milk chocolate with diagonal line

Peanut Butter Caramel - Molded, round, dark chocolate w/ sponged milk chocolate (for marbling)

I made chocolates for a wedding a few years back and just realized that I have all these extra boxes and inserts. So, i figured I'd make some chocolates/my christmas card to give out this season. I mailed out half and gave the other half out personally. I hope they make the rough ride without getting too scuffed up.

I am obsessed with caramels. Plus, I did not want to cut ganache. All four are caramels.

The square ones use Greweling's soft caramel recipe with evaporated milk from the book, Chocolates & Confections. For the salted honey nut, i replaced the glucose with honey and cooked the caramel about 10 degrees more.

I randomly guessed on how much rosemary to use to infuse into the evaporated milk. It ended up being perfect. Definitely not too heavy on the rosemary. I preferred this one undipped.

For the maple pumpkin caramels, i used this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_34565,00.html

I thought that they did not taste pumpkin-y enough and would add less pumpkin pie spice next time.

For the peanut butter caramels, i used Greweling's liquid caramel recipe. Instead of adding butter at the end, i simply substituted peanut butter. I hope this did not throw the water activity off too much. They tasted great when I made the caramel darker. I loved the bitter caramel and peanut butter interaction.

I ended up making about 70 salted honey nut, 65 rosemary, 32 maple pumpkin, and 32 peanut butter.

I hope you enjoy the caramel/maillard joke.

[Kerry Beal]

Maple Pumpkin Caramel - Molded, round, dark chocolate w/ gold & bronze luster dust

Salted Honey Nut Caramel - Square honey caramel mixed with cashews, almonds, & macadamia nuts. hand dipped in milk chocolate and garnished with gray salt

Rosemary Caramel - Square rosemary infused caramel hand dipped in milk chocolate with diagonal line

Peanut Butter Caramel - Molded, round, dark chocolate w/ sponged milk chocolate (for marbling)

I made chocolates for a wedding a few years back and just realized that I have all these extra boxes and inserts. So, i figured I'd make some chocolates/my christmas card to give out this season. I mailed out half and gave the other half out personally. I hope they make the rough ride without getting too scuffed up.

I am obsessed with caramels. Plus, I did not want to cut ganache. All four are caramels.     

The square ones use Greweling's soft caramel recipe with evaporated milk from the book, Chocolates & Confections. For the salted honey nut, i replaced the glucose with honey and cooked the caramel about 10 degrees more. 

I randomly guessed on how much rosemary to use to infuse into the evaporated milk. It ended up being perfect.  Definitely not too heavy on the rosemary.  I preferred this one undipped.

For the maple pumpkin caramels, i used this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_34565,00.html

I thought that they did not taste pumpkin-y enough and would add less pumpkin pie spice next time.

For the peanut butter caramels, i used Greweling's liquid caramel recipe. Instead of adding butter at the end, i simply substituted peanut butter. I hope this did not throw the water activity off too much. They tasted great when I made the caramel darker.  I loved the bitter caramel and peanut butter interaction.

I ended up making about 70 salted honey nut, 65 rosemary, 32 maple pumpkin, and 32 peanut butter.

I hope you enjoy the caramel/maillard joke. 

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Those look wonderful. What a great gift.

[Emily_R]

Well, it appears I'm the first in a while to have a flop to post here! I made a mini-batch of margarita marshmallows... Lime juice as the blooming liquid, tequila and a bit of grand marnier in the sugar syrup... Sprinkled a tiny bit of sea salt on the top and.... They were just disgusting. I REALLY didn't like the salt on there, despite loving it on the drink... And on top of that, somehow.. They just tasted wrong to me. Big ick. I threw them out...

Oh well...

[Emily_R]

Oooh, and I did mean to say -- equality5271, those chocolates look and sound incredible. The rosemary one is truly inspired!

[Tri2Cook]

I went on a marshmallow kick today. So far I've done a pan each of passion fruit, raspberry, strawberry, morello cherry, chocolate and vanilla. I plan to do a few more tomorrow. I'll snap a picture when they're all done but they're just your standard marshmallow, square and fluffy. Nightscotsman's basic recipe/formula rocks. It lends itself well to a lot of different flavors without adjustments being required so you can whip out batch after batch without too much mucking around. I had people whining about my lack of holiday baking this year so I decided I'd do something but wanted to keep it easy and fun. This was the perfect answer. And no, I'm NOT tempering chocolate and dipping any of them. That was a thought initially but I quickly stomped on that idea. 'Tis the season to be lazy...

[Kerry Beal]

I went on a marshmallow kick today. So far I've done a pan each of passion fruit, raspberry, strawberry, morello cherry, chocolate and vanilla. I plan to do a few more tomorrow. I'll snap a picture when they're all done but they're just your standard marshmallow, square and fluffy. Nightscotsman's basic recipe/formula rocks. It lends itself well to a lot of different flavors without adjustments being required so you can whip out batch after batch without too much mucking around. I had people whining about my lack of holiday baking this year so I decided I'd do something but wanted to keep it easy and fun. This was the perfect answer. And no, I'm NOT tempering chocolate and dipping any of them. That was a thought initially but I quickly stomped on that idea. 'Tis the season to be lazy...

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I found when I dipped the passion fruit marshmallows in dark chocolate I couldn't taste the passion fruit anyway. So I just drizzled them with a bit of dark chocolate for a nice look.

[Tri2Cook]

Hey! That's a good idea! And good information as well, I didn't have to find out the hard way. Thanks!

Edited December 27, 2007 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Got a few more flavors done but I'm going to have to do some playing around with the coconut. I replaced the 1/4 c. fruit puree and 1/4 c. water (I'm doing 1/2 recipes of each flavor) with 1/2 c. coconut milk boosted with a couple spoons of spray dried coconut milk. The flavor and aroma are beautiful, exactly what I hoped they'd be, but the amount of fat from the coconut was too much for the syrup to deal with. They set nicely but are dense and less than half the thickness of the other batches. I'm thinking of trying again and just using the powder mixed with water instead of coconut milk to see if that helps. If not, I'll have some thin, dense marshmallows that taste and smell really good.

Edit: Ok, after work tonight I gave the coconut marshmallows the ol' sniff and taste tests again and I can't alter them. They taste too good the way they are. I'm not willing to give up any of the flavor so that they'll be more "pretty". So I'm going to make the full size batch of the coconut instead of the half I've been doing and put it in the same size pan I'm using for the half batches. That will solve the problem of them being half as thick as the other flavors. They'll still be more dense but I can live with that. I made the decision before starting this that I wasn't going to add any coloring other than what the flavoring agents provide on their own so they weren't going to be all that "artsy" regardless.

Edited December 29, 2007 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Mette]

Beautiful, Mette!  I love that satiny sheen on "those flat things with nuts," also known as "mendiants."  Everything looks really pretty.

How do you like Greweling's dulce de leche coffee truffles?

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Ah, yes, mediants - just goes to show there's been too much work and too little chocolate And thank you for the kind words!

The dulce de leche coffee truffles are very, very good!! Creamy, caramelly with a very distinct coffee flavour - I can highly recommend them.

[alanamoana]

A mendiant is a traditional French confection composed of a chocolate disk studded with nuts and dried fruits representing the four mendicant or monastic orders of the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans and Carmelites. Each of the nuts and dried fruits used refer to the color of monastic robes with tradition dicating raisins for the Dominicans, hazelnut for the Augustins, dried fig for Franciscans and almond for Carmelite. Usually found during Christmas, recipes for this confection have veered away from the traditional combination of nuts and fruits to other combinations incorporating seeds, fruit peels and other items.

from Wikipedia, and I do believe that it is correct as I have heard this definition before. Of course, nowadays, I make mendiants with whatever I have on hand! but they're a great way to use tempered chocolate that you have around after molding and dipping!

[Chris Hennes]

from Wikipedia, and I do believe that it is correct as I have heard this definition before.  Of course, nowadays, I make mendiants with whatever I have on hand!  but they're a great way to use tempered chocolate that you have around after molding and dipping!

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Doh! Why didn't I think of that? I hate to waste leftover chocolate, but I have been just pouring it onto a sheet of parchment and spreading it thin, then breaking it up and returning it to the box! Using it to make something like mendiants (or maybe rochers) is a great idea - thanks!

[alanamoana]

from Wikipedia, and I do believe that it is correct as I have heard this definition before.  Of course, nowadays, I make mendiants with whatever I have on hand!  but they're a great way to use tempered chocolate that you have around after molding and dipping!

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Doh! Why didn't I think of that? I hate to waste leftover chocolate, but I have been just pouring it onto a sheet of parchment and spreading it thin, then breaking it up and returning it to the box! Using it to make something like mendiants (or maybe rochers) is a great idea - thanks!

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bark is even easier than mendiants! spread thin, sprinkle all kinds of goodies on top and break up into smaller pieces. sometimes, i crush pretzel sticks and stir them into the tempered chocolate before spreading out and then top with all kinds of dried fruits and nuts. the saltiness of the pretzels makes for a trail-mix kind of bark.

but what you're doing is fine too! you can always re-use the chocolate

[tammylc]

i want to make these Pretzel Pralines. And that got me thinking about my long desire to make a gourmet version of the Take 5 candy bar - i figure using praline pretzels would definitely push it up a notch. Salty caramel, peanut butter, roasted peanuts, dip it all in dark chocolate.

How would you layer such a concoction to make it easy to dip? I'm thinking of putting a layer of the pretzel praline in a pan or caramel bars, and then pouring the caramel over that? Then spreading peanut butter and peanuts on top?

[alanamoana]

i want to make these Pretzel Pralines. And that got me thinking about my long desire to make a gourmet version of the Take 5 candy bar - i figure using praline pretzels would definitely push it up a notch. Salty caramel, peanut butter, roasted peanuts, dip it all in dark chocolate. 

How would you layer such a concoction to make it easy to dip? I'm thinking of putting a layer of the pretzel praline in a pan or caramel bars, and then pouring the caramel over that? Then spreading peanut butter and peanuts on top?

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sounds good, but how would you cut it? is the praline like a southern praline that is soft?

[mrose]

Beautiful, Mette!  I love that satiny sheen on "those flat things with nuts," also known as "mendiants."  Everything looks really pretty.

How do you like Greweling's dulce de leche coffee truffles?

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Ah, yes, mediants - just goes to show there's been too much work and too little chocolate And thank you for the kind words!

The dulce de leche coffee truffles are very, very good!! Creamy, caramelly with a very distinct coffee flavour - I can highly recommend them.

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Mette

Did you make these in a molded chocolate or did you have truffle shells?

Edited December 31, 2007 by mrose (log)

[tammylc]

i want to make these Pretzel Pralines. And that got me thinking about my long desire to make a gourmet version of the Take 5 candy bar - i figure using praline pretzels would definitely push it up a notch. Salty caramel, peanut butter, roasted peanuts, dip it all in dark chocolate. 

How would you layer such a concoction to make it easy to dip? I'm thinking of putting a layer of the pretzel praline in a pan or caramel bars, and then pouring the caramel over that? Then spreading peanut butter and peanuts on top?

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sounds good, but how would you cut it? is the praline like a southern praline that is soft?

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They're not soft. My understanding is that the result would be a fairly thin coating of a somewhat sandy textured caramel on the pretzels. (More description hereI'd be cutting it with a chef's knife. And in mini-candy bar size pieces, bigger than i'd normally do.

[Mette]

The dulce de leche coffee truffles are very, very good!! Creamy, caramelly with a very distinct coffee flavour - I can highly recommend them.

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Mette

Did you make these in a molded chocolate or did you have truffle shells?

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I have made them in moulded shells and in the little prefab cups that PCB carry. In the prefab cups, I simply pipe on a bit of tempered choc for a lid of sorts, to cap them

[Kerry Beal]

Yesterday - at the class for the high school culinary students that I was teaching in Silver City, New Mexico - I used the left over dark chocolate to make a bark with pinion (pine nuts) and dried habanero peppers. Interesting stuff. Kind of catches you in the back of the throat. Heard a lot of coughing coming from the spot the pan was sitting later in the day.

Check out the thread "Silver City Culinary Extravaganza", I'll try to add a link later. Should be pictures of todays class there.

[John DePaula]

Yesterday - at the class for the high school culinary students that I was teaching in Silver City, New Mexico - I used the left over dark chocolate to make a bark with pinion (pine nuts) and dried habanero peppers.  Interesting stuff.  Kind of catches you in the back of the throat.  Heard a lot of coughing coming from the spot the pan was sitting later in the day.

Check out the thread "Silver City Culinary Extravaganza", I'll try to add a link later.  Should be pictures of todays class there.

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Here you go: Silver City Culinary Extravaganza

[Desiderio]

Very neat thread :-) I missed it completely Too much stuff around this is a 24/7 job

[tammylc]

Finally got around to trying my Take 5 take off.

I made a 1/3 batch of praline pretzels and spread them out in as close to a single layer as I could manage in 8 inch caramel bars. Then I made a half batch of Fleur de Sel caramels, although I should have made a full batch - the pretzels didn't displace as much as i thought they would. But that's just as well, as I didn't really want to be dipping a whole 8x8 square of bars.

If I were making these for real and not just playing around, I should have pre-bottomed them at this stage. But I didn't bother. After the caramel set up I spread a layer of Koeze natural peanut butter on top, then pressed on roasted peanuts. Cut into roughly 2 inch by 1 inch pieces, and dipped them in Cluizel 60%.

The pretzels are really crunchy, the caramel is really chewy, the peanut flavor is pretty well balanced - although maybe a little more peanut butter would be better. The pretzels and salty caramel mean the sweet/salty balance is great. I think I'm pleased, although I haven't been eating well today and am kind of sugared out - I'll try one tomorrow and be better able to assess!

[John DePaula]

Finally got around to trying my Take 5 take off.

I made a 1/3 batch of praline pretzels and spread them out in as close to a single layer as I could manage in 8 inch caramel bars. Then I made a half batch of Fleur de Sel caramels, although I should have made a full batch - the pretzels didn't displace as much as i thought they would. But that's just as well, as I didn't really want to be dipping a whole 8x8 square of bars.

If I were making these for real and not just playing around, I should have pre-bottomed them at this stage.  But I didn't bother.  After the caramel set up I spread a layer of Koeze natural peanut butter on top, then pressed on roasted peanuts.  Cut into roughly 2 inch by 1 inch pieces, and dipped them in Cluizel 60%.

The pretzels are really crunchy, the caramel is really chewy, the peanut flavor is pretty well balanced - although maybe a little more peanut butter would be better. The pretzels and salty caramel mean the sweet/salty balance is great.  I think I'm pleased, although I haven't been eating well today and am kind of sugared out - I'll try one tomorrow and be better able to assess!

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Tammy those look just wonderful! Brava!