Confections! (2006-2012)

[Kerry Beal]

Rhubarb,

Are those hearts enrobed? What did you use as a cutter? That is a heck of a lot of work you have done there.

Lapin,

Thanks for reminding me. This is a poor picture but best of a bad lot - I took about a dozen photos but the light isn't working for me tonight.

[John DePaula]

Rhubarb,

Are those hearts enrobed?  What did you use as a cutter?  That is a heck of a lot of work you have done there.

Lapin,

Thanks for reminding me.  This is a poor picture but best of a bad lot - I took about a dozen photos but the light isn't working for me tonight. 

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Love the fish mould, Kerry!

Someone once told me, "Oh, you're a chocolate maker? You must collect antique chocolate molds,eh?" Well, I don't, but maybe now you've inspired me to start!

[Kerry Beal]

Love the fish mould, Kerry!

Someone once told me, "Oh, you're a chocolate maker?  You must collect antique chocolate molds,eh?"  Well, I don't, but maybe now you've inspired me to start!

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They are beautiful to look at, trouble is you are competing against a whole bunch of people who want them as decoration. So the prices get rather outrageous.

You really have to watch the condition of the inside and how well they fit together if you hope to use them for molding.

I have quite a number of metal molds, but I much prefer the plastic professional molds for making figures. It's nice to be able to see when they are ready to come out and to be able to see where you have painted them.

[Rhubarb]

That fish mold is faan-tastic. I've picked up a few antique metal molds with fairly clean interiors, but haven't had much luck so far. Hoping a sheen of cocoa butter might help them to release. Any suggestions?

I use a little pastry cutter to cut the hearts. Maybe next year I'll wire together a few of them so I can cut several at a time... But yes, I love to enrobe.

[lapin d'or]

Ooh Kerry I love your fish mould.

Most of the smallish polycarb ones I have seen look more like cartoon characters but your fish is beautiful and a good size too. I think I would have trouble eating a chocolate fish that looked so gorgeous.

I hadn't thought of using my small heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out the ganache. I think a lot of my cutters are a bit flimsy and made with a joint rather than a continuous cutting edge. I guess if they stick a bit I could lightly dust the cutter with a little cocoa powder.

Jill

[Kerry Beal]

That fish mold is faan-tastic.  I've picked up a few antique metal molds with fairly clean interiors, but haven't had much luck so far.  Hoping a sheen of cocoa butter might help them to release.  Any suggestions? 

I use a little pastry cutter to cut the hearts.  Maybe next year I'll wire together a few of them so I can cut several at a time...  But yes, I love to enrobe.

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If the interior of the mold is reasonably shiny you shouldn't have to do much more than paint a layer of tempered chocolate into the interior, clip the sides together, pour in your chocolate and turn to evenly coat. Cool in the fridge, and remove some of the clips as iy cools to prevent cracking.

Ooh Kerry I love your fish mould.

Most of the smallish polycarb ones I have seen look more like cartoon characters but your fish is beautiful and a good size too. I think I would have trouble eating a chocolate fish that looked so gorgeous.

I hadn't thought of using my small heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out the ganache. I think a lot of my cutters are a bit flimsy and made with a joint rather than a continuous cutting edge. I guess if they stick a bit I could lightly dust the cutter with a little cocoa powder.

Jill

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Tomric carries the cutters that David refers to in his thread about the class with Wybauw. They are about $20 a piece, but you can cut 3 centres at a time, then turn over to release them. I bought the oval, round and square. They have a heart shaped as well.

[Majra]

Not exactly hand-made, but hand-crafted. This is my daughter's annual Valentine's Day project. This year marked a milestone...she made them all by herself!

My own project is marshmallows:

[Desiderio]

Those are a dorable and what a fantasy

My compliments to your daughter for those cute airplanes.

What kind of marshmallow did you make?

[Majra]

Those are a dorable and what a fantasy 

My compliments to your daughter for those cute airplanes.

What kind of marshmallow did you make?

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Thank you, I'll pass along your praise to my girl. The marshmallow is strawberry, nightscotsman's original recipe. They are delicious! I dipped the tops in white chocolate; I'm planning to dip some in dark chocolate as well.

[Desiderio]

Yummy!!

I love those marshmallow, white chocolate is a great idea ( and dark will rock the house )

[tammylc]

My Valentine's Day collection:

Caramel geodesic domes, passionfruit red/pink swirl domes, hazelnut praline speckled pyramids, and strawberry-balsamic with silver hearts.

I made about 420 pieces. While I was working, I had a friend come over to take some pictures. She's been studying photography for a while now and offered to come and take some pictures for me to use for my advertising materials and website. You can see some of her excellent pictures on her blog: Kitchen Chick. I can't wait until I get the CD - we had a lot of fun coming up with cool photo ideas (spoonfuls of caramel, mounds of hazelnuts), but I was too busy to pay much attention to what she was doing, so the actual pictures will be a surprise for me.

[Kerry Beal]

Tammy, those look fabulous.

[tammylc]

Tammy, those look fabulous.

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Thanks Kerry!

[Lumas]

My first attempt at making any chocolate candy. I followed tammys recipe from the g pectin thread. I used rasberries and strawberries plus a teaspon or so of Kirsch. A tablespoon and a half of aged baslamic vinegar in the ganache. I really did not temper the chocolate. I actually didn't care. Yea, that sounds bad, but I have never made any kind of chocolate coating or anything before. However.... really enjoyed doing this and next time I plan on actually tempering and using good chocolate.

[Kerry Beal]

For untempered chocolate, those look pretty darn good. How was the taste?

[tammylc]

Those look fabulous! What did you use to cut them? Your cuts came out much cleaner than mine.

[dantodd]

Well, I got my first little order for chocolates this Valentine's Day!

Here is the result....

Dark chocolate truffles,

Rum-Orange geodesic domes and

Peanut butter ganache and Caramel.

[Desiderio]

Great job your chocolates look very neat and well made

[Kerry Beal]

The packaging looks great too!

[dantodd]

Thanks guys,

I still need to work on the coloring. I'm pretty good with the shimmer dust but I used powdered coloring in white chocolate on that piece. I used way too much. I took a few shavings of the blue and a similar yellow to color an 8oz ganache a beautiful pastel green. I guess I used about 10X more than I needed for that color! LOL. Fortunately it didn't add any strange taste or texture.

I picked the box up at Michael's for $1 and painted it myself. I used cello to line the sides and cut some regular confection padding. It turned out better than I had hoped.

[lapin d'or]

I think Dan has just answered the question I was about to ask re mixing cocoa butter colourings - wasn't sure if you could but looks like it should work ok.

I am about to buy some powdered colourings but to keep costs down I was thinking surely you can mix a lot of colours from a basic palette. You don't need to buy every colour as ready made?

How easy is it to mix the powdered colours or am I pushing my luck as a complete beginner with them?

I am going to need some shades of yellow, green, peach and a raspberry colour. It seems a shame to buy 100g tubs of these individually.

Dan I love the way you have customised your boxes.

Jill

[Kerry Beal]

I think Dan has just answered the question I was about to ask re mixing cocoa butter colourings - wasn't sure if you could but looks like it should work ok.

I am about to buy some powdered colourings but to keep costs down I was thinking surely you can mix a lot of colours from  a basic palette. You don't need to buy every colour as ready made?

How easy is it to mix the powdered colours or am I pushing my luck as a complete beginner with them?

I am going to need some shades of yellow, green, peach and a raspberry colour. It seems a shame to buy 100g tubs of these individually.

Dan I love the way you have customised your boxes.

Jill

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The powdered colours are great for mixing your own colours, but along with the primary colours - get a green you like - for some reason I've found it extremely difficult to mix my own greens from yellow and blue. Perhaps I need a little more colour theory.

[Lumas]

For untempered chocolate, those look pretty darn good.  How was the taste?

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The taste was great. I followed Tammy's recipe for the ganache and the raspberry filling. Most looked in temper, but there were a bunch that definitely bloomed.

Those look fabulous!  What did you use to cut them?  Your cuts came out much cleaner than mine.

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I just used a long chef's knife. I used a square baking pan (8 inch) and so I got 64 pieces, each 1 inch big.

[dantodd]

How easy is it to mix the powdered colours or am I pushing my luck as a complete beginner with them?

Dan I love the way you have customised your boxes.

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Thanks Jill.

I found that making the colored cocoa butter (white chocolate in my case) and then mixing that was really easy. I always hate mixing colors that are really intense, like food colorings because it is hard for me to judge the final color otherwise.

[RuthWells]

Thanks to Kerry's recommendation, I bought a used copy of the Time-Life "Good Cooks" series book on candy making, and finally dove in over the last week. I've always been addicted to those commerical caramels with the fondant "creme" center, so decided to see if I could replicate them. The answer was YES!

My technique with wrapping the caramel around the fondant could be better, but boy, are these delicious.