Confections! (2006-2012)

[curls]

Very cool! I am amazed that you made such great spheres with a straw! You'll make a dove in no time once you get the pump bulb.

[prairiegirl]

beautiful work!

[minas6907]

Hey thanks alot, I appreciate it. The snowman did, though start to tilt back ever so slowly, I think it was from the light amount of heat from being semi close to the work area, now I see why you need a fan or a cool hair dryer to cool your pieces. I'll post more as I get more more adventurous :-)

[minas6907]

I made a simple flower today from pastillage, and I think it turned out so so, not bad for a first attempt, although it is a simple one to make. I used the pastillage recipe from The Art of the Confectioner, which worked wonderful. The reason I'm exited is because in the past I've used the formula from The Professional Pastry Chef (I've gotton rather suspicious of many of the formulas in this book, its no longer my primary textbook) and it contained way too much moisture, when I would put it on a surface dusted with cornstarch, it sucked it right up, it was more of a paste then a sugar dough. And it took three days for my little altoid mints that I was making to completely dry out, it was sort of silly, and theres other things I could rant about blah blah blah.

Frustrations aside, the formula from Notters book really worked like it should, very easy to cut and roll out, and realized you need only minimal cornstarch to handle the material. Anyways, so I made a simple calla lily, wasnt really sure how to attach a stem to it, but eh, its fine. I'm sort of looking forward to working more with this, as much as I do enjoy the pulled sugar, I like that the pastillage doenst melt away after one day. Anyways, fun stuff.

[minas6907]

Ok, well I'm back with something a little more interesting. I got a copper pipe (my pump bulb came with free shipping but is taking about a month) and I just had some fun. I blew a dove finally, and after alot of messing around (it always wants to look like a turkey) it came out dove shaped! I also blew that little heart, and had a small amount of sugar left, so I pulled a tiny ribbon.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Minas, if you want a stem to the Calla, try rolling it out and attaching it to the spadix (the yellow portion of the "flower), the wrapping the spathe (the "petal") in such a way that it hides the joint. I have a little wire doohickey that I made for the purpose of allowing pastillage flowers with stems to dry properly; it hangs on the rim of my tall glasses allowing the stem to sort of dangle free, while at the same time preventing the flower from collapsing.

[minas6907]

Thanks Panaderia, I appreciate that. I made some green pastillage, but when I rolled it out it just sort of looked like a lame play dough creation, nothing too lifelike, haha. I might try a pastillage rose soon, but we'll see.

Here are some mints I made from a new batch of white pastillage. I wanted to make small ones, like altoids, then I cut thinner disks to be like those necco wafer candies. I texture of the thin disks came out great, just like the candy wafers, but while the altoid shaped ones arent bad, they dont really have the same texture. I'm wondering if I could get a simliar texture to an altoid by letting the pastiallge dry a bit, kneading it, dry, knead, dry, knead, in hopes that doing this would not let the pastillage set up so hard, but rather have more of a crumbly texture when it has fully dried. Anywho, I'll keep playing around.

[lironp]

Some chocolates I made for an event at my husbands school, so much work!!!

[tikidoc]

Gorgeous! Those belong in the showroom finish thread! What's in them?

Jess

[Kerry Beal]

Liron - that is a beautiful collection.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Thanks Panaderia, I appreciate that. I made some green pastillage, but when I rolled it out it just sort of looked like a lame play dough creation, nothing too lifelike, haha. I might try a pastillage rose soon, but we'll see.

I think the key to keeping it from looking like playdoh is to examine an actual Calla carefully to see how the green meets the white, and then keep the stem shortish....

[minas6907]

Just out of curiosity, do you have any pics of your pastillage flowers?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Mine were unfortunately lost in a computer crash (argh!) but I'll be making more of them in June and July (wedding cakes) along with the more realistic gum-paste ones. I'll have pics then.

[lironp]

Thank you!

These are the flavors:

* coffee cups- milk chocolate espresso ganache with some dulce de leche at the bottom

* Sea shells- filled with milk chocolate-peanut butter gianduja

* squares with pink (freezed dried raspberry powder)/yellow (peanut) powder on top- raspberry PDF & peanut butter gianduja

* diamonds- vanilla caramel and Tanzanie dark chocolate ganache

* mini cupcakes- pineapple caramel and vanilla marshmallow

* white logs- whiskey-milk chocolate ganache

* piped rosettes- piped hazelnut gianduja, topped with a caramelized almond

[DianaM]

Thank you!

These are the flavors:

* coffee cups- milk chocolate espresso ganache with some dulce de leche at the bottom

* Sea shells- filled with milk chocolate-peanut butter gianduja

* squares with pink (freezed dried raspberry powder)/yellow (peanut) powder on top- raspberry PDF & peanut butter gianduja

* diamonds- vanilla caramel and Tanzanie dark chocolate ganache

* mini cupcakes- pineapple caramel and vanilla marshmallow

* white logs- whiskey-milk chocolate ganache

* piped rosettes- piped hazelnut gianduja, topped with a caramelized almond

Lironp, what temperature is the gianduja at when you pipe it?

[curls]

Spiced and Dark Chocolate Almond Dragees

[Kerry Beal]

Spiced and Dark Chocolate Almond Dragees

Done following Greweling's instructions?

[curls]

Spiced and Dark Chocolate Almond Dragees

Done following Greweling's instructions?

Followed Grewling's instructions but also had the chance to watch Chris Hennes make them at the 2012 eGullet Chocolate Workshop.

[lironp]

Thank you!

These are the flavors:

* coffee cups- milk chocolate espresso ganache with some dulce de leche at the bottom

* Sea shells- filled with milk chocolate-peanut butter gianduja

* squares with pink (freezed dried raspberry powder)/yellow (peanut) powder on top- raspberry PDF & peanut butter gianduja

* diamonds- vanilla caramel and Tanzanie dark chocolate ganache

* mini cupcakes- pineapple caramel and vanilla marshmallow

* white logs- whiskey-milk chocolate ganache

* piped rosettes- piped hazelnut gianduja, topped with a caramelized almond

Lironp, what temperature is the gianduja at when you pipe it?

I'm not exactly sure, probably somewhere around 70-75? I put the bowl of gianduja in a bowl of ice water, and mix until it becomes thick enough for piping- because of the combination of fats in the chocolate, the temperature is a lot lower than just regular chocolate

[stuartlikesstrudel]

I recently made my second batch of dipped chocolates - learned a lot from the first ones and this time managed to get a pretty good temper! Nice snap, a few streaks but not too much.

They were my version of Greweling's PBJs... I don't have the book, so had to make it up based mainly on Chris' very handy photo step-by-step a while ago. He made it look so enticing that I had to try them!

The one consistent problem I had with my dipping was these two little tails that were left behind where the fork was... is there a trick to getting the chocolates cleanly onto the tray without leaving a trail?

[Kerry Beal]

Getting rid of the little tails - give the chocolate a little shove forward after it drops off the fork then lift the fork back up the back a bit and flick it off either to the side or up. Don't know if that makes sense. I know that there is a dipping demo by Alanamoana in the forums somewhere which will explain it better.

Here is the thread - demo starts at post 28.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Ah perfect, I missed that thread in my searches

I understood (though still need to practice) the tips for avoiding an overall foot but hadn't thought of the side flick to clean off the tails!

Time for some more fun this weekend I think!

[JenBunk]

Food Cottage law just opened up here in AK so this is the first batch I have made that I can sell. Very excited my expensive hobby can now pay for itself . Forgive the low quality picture taken with my phone. Flavors are: Salted Caramel, Peanut Butter, Orange, and Espresso Cinnamon

[minas6907]

Dang. Those are the type of chocolates I can only dream of making.

[JenBunk]

Mina6907-Aww shucks, that is the nicest thing anybody has ever said about my chocolates. If in fact that comment was directed at me .

Edited June 11, 2012 by JenBunk (log)