Confections! (2006-2012)

[Anna N]

Any recommendations on shapes that are easier for beginners?  I love the geodesic dome, but I'm guessing that it's really hard to get the air bubbles out of all those corners?

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The geodesic dome with the flat top molds well and isn't too much of a problem with bubbles. Anna will be able to tell you in a few days when her mold makes it from my car to her house.

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I will be more than happy to report on this mold! I do not find bubbles a problem in the small demispheres - much more trouble with bubbles in intricate molds!

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Had a chance to play with the geodesic mold and as Kerry predicted, there is no bubble problem.

I actually attempted a bubble repair today on another mold - popped the offending bubble with clean needle and then dropped in a tiny blob of tempered chocolate from a clean paint brush - it sealed fine and is barely detectable on this particular chocolate which was "painted" with dark chocolate splotches.

[Sararwelch]

I made the strawberry marshmallows:

They were great! Much better than the recipe I was using before.

[Anna N]

I made the strawberry marshmallows:

. . .

They were great! Much better than the recipe I was using before.

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They look lovely!

[aguynamedrobert]

Well I got some fudge done for the holidays...peanut butter and chocolate...here is the recipe and pics...

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Well I have started my fudge for Christmas Eve...Here is the recipe along with pics...

6 oz. Glucose(corn syrup)

27 oz. Sugar

Pinch Salt

3 oz. Butter

9 oz. Evaporated Milk

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4 oz. Unsweetened chocolate (100% caca)

2 oz. 58% Cacao chocolate

1 tsp Vanilla

OR

6 oz. peanut butter

1 tsp Vanilla

1)Put in a pot the Glucose, Sugar, Salt and Evaporated Milk. Bring to just before a boil and wash down the sides of the pot with a brush and water to get all the crystals off the sides....

2)Add the Butter

3)Once mixture reaches a boil Wash down the sides of the pot again...

4)Never stop stiring...cook to 238-240 Degrees F

5)Pull off heat and add the chocolate/peanutbutter and vanilla to it...

7)Stir Gentley till the shine goes away and you see a small grain form..then pour into candy frames(mold)

8)Let cool and cut into pieces...

Merry Christmas,

Robert

Chocolate Forum

p.s. - Does anyone know how to put pictures on here?!?!

[alanamoana]

there are tutorials on the main page (technical help, i think).

1) you need to upload the photos from your computer to imageGullet.

2) from imageGullet, when you choose to view the photos you've just uploaded, there's a link that says "click for actual url"

3) copy that url (it is easiest to do this in a separate window, so you can come back to the window with your post already in progress)

4) when posting click on the "IMG" box and paste the url that you've copied from imageGullet

while you're typing your post, it won't show the picture, but the url with tags...just don't mess with the tags and you'll be fine. when you hit "add reply", the photo will show up in your post.

edited to question: if anyone has an easier method for posting photos, i'd love to know it!

edited again to add link to one tutorial in technical help forum: here

Edited December 26, 2006 by alanamoana (log)

[Pam R]

The best image posting tutorial I know of was written up by Jmahl and is posted here.

And a reminder/request - please add recipes to RecipeGullet - it makes it much easier for somebody to find the recipe later on, when they can't remember which topic Robert posted his great fudge recipe on!

[John DePaula]

Here are two confections that I made for Christmas gifts:

Sicilian Sesame Seed Cookies

And

Sospiri e Désirs (Sighs and Desires) << I just love that name...

From the book Bitter Almonds by Simeti & Grammatico

These are both very simple to make, yet very pretty and satisfying.

[ncorrigbl]

They both look and sound incredible. Care to share the recipes???

Thanks!

[John DePaula]

They both look and sound incredible.  Care to share the recipes???

Thanks!

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Sospiri e Désirs (Sighs and Desires)

The sesame seed cookie recipe is all over the web. This one looks pretty good:

Italian Sesame Seed Cookies

[gap]

Hi All,

I made 500'odd pieces of chocs for our big family Christmas lunch - and the evening of leftovers. To stop people trying flavours they don't like (I didn't think that was possible with chocolate ) I made the following tasting menu.

[tammylc]

That's a great looking "tasting menu." And great looking chocolates too. 500 pieces - wow!

I'm very excited! My polycarbonate molds shipped from JB Prince yesterday and are scheduled to be delivered to me tomorrow. So I'll get to experiment with molded chocolates for New Year's afterall. Very cool. Couple of questions - how much tempered chocolate does it take to fill and cap a mold like this? The geodesic dome is 30x20mm and 40 cavities, and the smooth dome is 30x20mm with 32 cavities.

I read the entire "showroom finish" thread last night, and can't wait to try out some tricks!

[Kerry Beal]

That's a great looking "tasting menu."  And great looking chocolates too.  500 pieces - wow! 

I'm very excited!  My polycarbonate molds shipped from JB Prince yesterday and are scheduled to be delivered to me tomorrow.  So I'll get to experiment with molded chocolates for New Year's afterall.  Very cool.  Couple of questions - how much tempered chocolate does it take to fill and cap a mold like this?  The geodesic dome is 30x20mm and 40 cavities, and the smooth dome is 30x20mm with 32 cavities. 

I read the entire "showroom finish" thread last night, and can't wait to try out some tricks!

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It's not so much how much it takes, it's how much extra you need to make it easy to do. I generally temper at least 1.5 kg each time (I actually temper 2.0 to 2.5 kg) You will have chocolate left over, but it can be tempered again with the addition of new chocolate. The other thing you can do it plan a number of things each time you temper, so you make your couple of molds, fill them, back them off. Dip some cookies, caramels, licquorice etc, pipe some chocolate to make garnishes for desserts, dip some snobinette cups, then finish off with some almond bark.

So make sure you have some almonds toasted and cooled before you start. I always toast them in the microwave and toast them very dark, almost burnt. They don't taste very good if you eat them out of hand, but they taste fabulous with the chocolate. Undertoasted nuts just don't stand up to the chocolate.

[Desiderio]

Kerry this is the Toffee I tryed and I liked it so much

http://www.enstrom.com/product_detail.aspx...10&cid=16&sort=

As the one your sister in law brought you ,has only 4 ingredients.

Maybe I will try to do some experiment this weekend, I tryed the one you posted and unfortunally , dont know why ,all the mass end up separeted form the butter at the end everything was grainy and oily, I dont know what could have cause that .I am all out of nutter so more experiments tomorrow

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry this is the Toffee I tryed and I liked it so much

http://www.enstrom.com/product_detail.aspx...10&cid=16&sort=

As the one your sister in law brought you ,has only 4 ingredients.

Maybe I will try to do some experiment this weekend, I tryed the one you posted and unfortunally , dont know why ,all the mass end up separeted form the butter at the end everything was grainy and oily, I dont know what could have cause that .I am all out of nutter so more experiments tomorrow 

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I recall some discusion about separating toffee. As I recall there are a couple of schools of thought. One would have you stir hard when you see signs of separation. I know I have one book that suggests stirring in a bit of water.

Look back in pastry and baking for a thread called "Toffee"

[Desiderio]

Kerry this is the Toffee I tryed and I liked it so much

http://www.enstrom.com/product_detail.aspx...10&cid=16&sort=

As the one your sister in law brought you ,has only 4 ingredients.

Maybe I will try to do some experiment this weekend, I tryed the one you posted and unfortunally , dont know why ,all the mass end up separeted form the butter at the end everything was grainy and oily, I dont know what could have cause that .I am all out of nutter so more experiments tomorrow 

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I recall some discusion about separating toffee. As I recall there are a couple of schools of thought. One would have you stir hard when you see signs of separation. I know I have one book that suggests stirring in a bit of water.

Look back in pastry and baking for a thread called "Toffee"

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Thank you

[Kerry Beal]

I decided to do a little experimenting with colours for those showroom finish chocolates using different tools to see what effect is obtained with each tool.

I used from left to right - a stubby stencil brush, a pointed tipped brush, a square tipped brush, a pointed rubber tip, a sculpted rubber tip, a Q-tip and a finger.

The brushes

The rubber tipped 'paint brushes'

I placed a drop of white PCB dye in cocoa butter in each cavity and swirled using each tool.

A swirl of red added to each with the same tool.

A swirl of pink added.

A dusting of gold powder behind the pink.

I didn't do a very good job with the chocolate, because I decided to add some malt inclusions and I didn't plan it well. So the lines of tan colour you see shouldn't be there.

My conclusion - if you want nice fine lines you use one of the rubber tools. For slightly wider, but still non smeared lines, use the stencil brush, the pointed tip brush or the Q-tip. For a smeared effect use the square brush or your finger. A combination of different tools with different colours could provide an infinite number of effects.

[Desiderio]

I did some experimentation with toffee in the past 2 days , and I found that in the Enstrom's toffe there is lechitin .So I did reserch some recipes and found one or two that contains lechitin.The first batch didnt turn out well again it separated .For the second one I reserch little bit on the web for separation in toffeee and found something .So this time I did the same , just little batch , but I add some water ( couple of tablespoons) and I stir the toffee very very carefully and slowwww on low med heat.This time it didnt separated and it was kinda nice, still isnt the same as the one I want to reproduce but better .I am going to keep trying with this recipe with lechitine , maybe changing butter and use a different process , but for sure adding some water do the trick for me.

[tammylc]

I spent the last few days eagerly trying out my new molds from JB Prince. So much fun!

Ready to take to the New Year Party:

Geodesic domes en masse:

One of each:

Fortunately, I'd read the entire "Showroom Finish" thread before eGullet went offline.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out. The geodesic domes have a dark chocolate and Cognac ganache. The flat domes have a Patron XO Cafe (coffee flavored tequila - waaay better than Kahlua or equivalent) ganache. And the flat pyramids have salty caramel.

Well, I better get off to this New Year's Eve party before I fall over. In the midst of doing all those chocolates (136 all told) I also cooked a five course dinner for 8 tonight. I'm pooped. If I stay here I'll totally fall asleep.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Kerry Beal]

I spent the last few days eagerly trying out my new molds from JB Prince.  So much fun! 

Ready to take to the New Year Party:

Geodesic domes en masse:

One of each:

Fortunately, I'd read the entire "Showroom Finish" thread before eGullet went offline.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out.  The geodesic domes have a dark chocolate and Cognac ganache.  The flat domes have a Patron XO Cafe (coffee flavored tequila - waaay better than Kahlua or equivalent) ganache.  And the flat pyramids have salty caramel.

Well, I better get off to this New Year's Eve party before I fall over.  In the midst of doing all those chocolates (136 all told) I also cooked a five course dinner for 8 tonight.  I'm pooped.  If I stay here I'll totally fall asleep.

Happy New Year everyone!

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Those look excellent Tammy!!

[Anna N]

I spent the last few days eagerly trying out my new molds from JB Prince.  So much fun!

. . .

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Very nicely done! It's great fun!

[tammylc]

I decided to do a little experimenting with colours for those showroom finish chocolates using different tools to see what effect is obtained with each tool.

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Thanks, Kerry! So good of you to do all that work for us... I'm planning to try out some colors with my next batch of chocolates, so that was really helpful for me! I assume you let each of the colors dry before adding the next swirl?

[Kerry Beal]

I decided to do a little experimenting with colours for those showroom finish chocolates using different tools to see what effect is obtained with each tool.

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Thanks, Kerry! So good of you to do all that work for us... I'm planning to try out some colors with my next batch of chocolates, so that was really helpful for me! I assume you let each of the colors dry before adding the next swirl?

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Yes, each layer even went into the fridge for a couple of minutes if need be, but the whole mold should be at room temperature when you add the chocolate.

Make sure your colours in cocoa butter are not too hot when you drip them in, some directions also call for tempering them, but I just use them at around 30 degrees C.

[Desiderio]

Beautifull display Tammy , very well done !!!

And happy new year evryone!! Hope you had a great time and expecially a great year ...

[Anna N]

. . .

Foil wrapping - could somebody do a demo on that?  My foil wrapping skills totally suck.

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Reviving this to ask if anyone would care to offer help in the foil wrapping skills department. I would like to wrap a single molded chocolate for the centre of a box of chocolates but my wrapping leaves a lot to be desired!

[patsikes]

My technique is to place the foil sheet (make sure it is the really thin confectionery foil) in the palm of your hand with the inside up.

Place the piece to be wrapped on the center of the sheet and give it a little press down into the foil. I find it helps me to have that hand gloved with a cotton glove.

That initial press gives you the outline of what the foil needs to smooth around.

Next just work your way around the piece working the foil into the details. As you work around, just fold down the foil to the back of the piece.

Once the foil is on, give the piece a press on the table to seat the back.

I will usually wrap all the pieces then go back to burnish them a little bit. I use a cotton cloth (sometimes a spare glove) to just rub the foil to give the piece more definition and shine.

That said, I have only done "bonbon" and other flat pieces like little hearts and suckers.

Make sure the foil piece is not too big, otherwise you will end up with a bulge on the back.

Hope this helps...