Confections! (2006-2012)

[Kerry Beal]

The girls - back the third year in a row for their birthday chocolate lesson given to them by their aunt. Request was for the snickers bar again, dulce de leche truffles and something with coffee.

Young Rachel has decided that gloves for dipping just interferes with the later licking!

[Darienne]

Wonderful. How good of you to offer classes to young people. First laugh of the morning.

[minas6907]

That's a beautiful work area

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[JenBunk]

I second Minas6907! So jealous of your chocolate lab!!

[Tri2Cook]

That's awesome Kerry. Looks like they're having a lot of fun.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Even though those girls are probably half my age, still makes me feel better about how messy (or comparitively not) I'm getting when I work with chocolate

I made a goat's cheese and lemon chocolate from a book I borrowed from the library from Paul Young, who I gather is a high-end chocolatier in England.

The filling was really tasty but the lemon-ness and tang from the cheese seemed to fade quite quickly (within a week). The part that I've frozen seem to be doing ok though.

The temper was overall ok I *thought* but is still slightly streaky. Better than previous attempts and has a nice snap and overall smoothness but still something not quite right...

[minas6907]

What was the ingredients in the center? You got a picture of a chocolate cut open? That's pretty much how every batch of tempered chocolate turns out for me, I've gotton better, but still seem to have some streaks. Yours do look nice though.

On a separate note, why does fondant need to ripen for 24 hrs after its made? After you make it, why can't you melt it down and cast it? Is it crystallizing in that time it sits? Will it just not really set up if you tried to make candies with it immediately?

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[Kerry Beal]

Another attempt at the Buckwheat Beehives - used wildflower honey instead of buckwheat. I think the warm day contributed a bit to my poor piping (yeah - that's what it was). Still hard to get a nice standup shape. I think a bit more chocolate in the mix might help somewhat - or perhaps I need to agitate longer.

[curls]

Kerry, those look much better than the first attempt. Did you top them with salt?

[Kerry Beal]

Nope - turbinado sugar.

[Chocolot]

Peter would be proud:-)

[Kerry Beal]

He'd probably laugh at my piping!

[Kerry Beal]

Today's experiment - liqueur centers. I have a couple of different recipes to work from but opted to go with Greweling as he said - "it works every time". Well....

Dried my starch well in the oven, sifted it into containers, leveled, made my impressions. No moguls to be had so used the back of a 1 tsp measure.

Lest you think this is clean work in any way!

Filled with the Fragioli (strawberry liqueur) syrup solution. The only funnel I had that would fit a chopstick to stop the flow of liquid held just enough for 4 centers.

Topped up with more starch to promote crystallization on the top. I was to turn them at 4 to 5 hours - sadly - bottom crystallized - top still liquid. Can these centers be saved??? Stay tuned...

[keychris]

fingers crossed!

I have a big syringe that holds 50 or 60 mL that I use for liquid delivery, I think my wife found it at the chemist ages ago. That would still only fill 10 or so though...

[Kerry Beal]

I could bring home a 60 cc catheter tip syringe - but it doesn't really have the control for filling these things that the funnel does. One slip of the thumb and it squirts everywhere.

[curls]

Kerry, good luck with the starch molding. I'll have to try that technique one day. Maybe you can do a demo at the next chocolate workshop in NOTL.

[minas6907]

For the liquid center I just use a funnel and a small pitcher/measuring cup. Its pretty easy to control the pour. Also, Kerry, did you turn every center, or leave some alone? I havent done Greweling formula for the cordials, but Notters from The Art of the Chocolatier worked nicely, no turning.

[Darienne]

We are all following this experiment...

[Kerry Beal]

Monumental FAIL!

These were the liquor centres, not the cordials, so they do need to be turned to even out the shell. I left some unturned and this morning they are leaking just as badly as the others.

Experiments will continue.

[minas6907]

I was saying cordials because that's what they are labeled as in his book, page 253.

[Kerry Beal]

I was saying cordials because that's what they are labeled as in his book, page 253.

Gotcha - I think of cordials as the cherry cordials on page 242 - never even noticed he'd labeled the liquor centers as cordials.

[minas6907]

Hey Kerry, what temperature did you cook the syrup to? Whats the proof on the bottle of Fragioli? After reading all about these, I got the impression that theirs a little bit of guess work involved when using low proof or sweet liquors, which is why, even though I wanted to do a Grande Marnier cordial, I just chose a standard 80 proof alcohol for my first run though...then after seeing the work involved I haven't gone back to them haha, even though I'd like to.

I have a feeling if you cook the syrup to 119c and just use a vodka/tequila/whiskey/etc, your get good results. And I suppose if they crack when you do turn them, just give them more time, even though he says 4 to 5 hours. Turn the pieces is listed as optional in Grewelings book, and I dont believe I remember seeing that in the instructions in Notters book, and mine came out nicely. Heres a pic of the ones I did a while back. Theres only five because I chose the best looking ones, the others looked awful from my dipping, and as I recall, I think like four or so broke while dipping, so I had to rescue the chocolate a few times, surprised I was able to. I'm looking forward to seeing how your turn out.

[Kerry Beal]

It's a low proof 24% so about 48 proof. I went with a lower temperature because it was a sweetened liqueur.

I had in front of me all the stuff from the class I took - which would have me use a Pearson square to adjust the alcohol percentage to 60% using grain alcohol and bring the syrup to 80 - 85% total solids which would be 110 to 113 C. However I got a little lazy!

Another little error and one which may have made a big difference - I overshot the temperature, added some water and boiled again to temp - so I likely inverted some of the sugar which might have interfered with crystallization.

[minas6907]

Ah, that last part probably did it, I think you'll hit it spot on the next time.

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[stuartlikesstrudel]

What was the ingredients in the center? You got a picture of a chocolate cut open? That's pretty much how every batch of tempered chocolate turns out for me, I've gotton better, but still seem to have some streaks. Yours do look nice though.

Late reply, and not a particularly interesting picture, but since you asked I thought I shouldn't be rude

The filling was goats cheese, lemon zest and juice, a little cream and white chocolate. Can't remember the ratios, but I ended up having to add quite a bit more chocolate to get it firm enough to dip (and it was still softer than is convenient).

People really liked the flavour, I thought it was *pretty* good, the goats cheese creeps up after the initial sweetness, which is nice.