Confections! (2006-2012)

[Digijam]

Fynny  you mentioned this tecnique.I think I was watching a foodnetwork  ( sugar rush I think ) and they were showing pastry chefs , using the most unusual methods to prepare some of the desserts etc.I think one made mojito drops  in the same tecnique you described .I think is very fascinating .

I definatly second the fact that dark chocolate would have been much better for those , but the idea is superb 

Was this episode

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_sa/ep...7_48730,00.html

←

I believe the mojito orb is one they do at Jose Andres' Minibar. They even pop it into an ISI whipper and CO2 it to make it fizzy. I did try making it once, but decided I kind of like my mojitos a bit taller.

I played with this when I first got all my sperification chemicals.  I didn't put it in a mold however, I just coated a tea orb with chocolate.  Quite a challenge to do.

←

You're not kidding. I tried that method first, but avoiding shell cracks with something that wobbles like a miniature breast implant was beyond me.

David - you can also read a bit more about the chemicals and techniques over at the El Bulli Texturas website, although they've updated the reverse spherification info to use the new Gluco product instead of calcium chloride.

[Desiderio]

[tammylc]

I spent today playing around with transfer sheets, both some I tried to make myself and some that I purchased. You can tell the difference in the picture above by looking for the ones that look good (purchased) versus the ones that don't (mine). But, experience is what you get when you don't get what you want, and I learned a lot that will hopefully improve my next attempts. Or, I may have just learned that I'm better off buying them rather than attempting be creative!

(With the sort of weird looking pink ones, I was aiming for multicolored speckles, but just got a pinkish blur. Next time I'll try slightly more cocoa butter flow through the airbrush to get bigger spots, and doing some focused areas of color that overlap at their edges. For the striped ones, I think the cocoa butter I painted on was just too thick. My next plan is to use some straight edges to get better lines, and maybe use the airbrush instead of a paintbrush for thin but consistent coverage. Oh, and I need to be cleaner about dropping the transfer sheet straight down from the top - I had a tendency to catch the bottom first, which created a little lip and ruined the egg shape.

I also tried out my truffle bunny mold. Isn't he cute?

[Kerry Beal]

I thought the stripes were purchased ones. I'd say for a first attempt at making transfer sheets you did well and obviously learned a lot, which is a big part of the fun. I can see you are going to make some fabulous ones in the future. Keep playing. I think the professional ones are make by a silk screening process, I wonder how long it will be before we all get into that.

The bunny is adorable. What sort of mold is he from?

[tammylc]

I thought the stripes were purchased ones.  I'd say for a first attempt at making transfer sheets you did well and obviously learned a lot, which is a big part of the fun.  I can see you are going to make some fabulous ones in the future.  Keep playing.  I think the professional ones are make by a silk screening process, I wonder how long it will be before we all get into that.

The bunny is adorable.  What sort of mold is he from?

←

Thanks, Kerry.

Here's the mold (I got mine from Tomric, but this is from Chocolat-Chocolat: http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/c228679p16408169.2.html). The cavities are 58x36x23 mm.

[mrose]

I thought the stripes were purchased ones.  I'd say for a first attempt at making transfer sheets you did well and obviously learned a lot, which is a big part of the fun.  I can see you are going to make some fabulous ones in the future.  Keep playing.  I think the professional ones are make by a silk screening process, I wonder how long it will be before we all get into that.

The bunny is adorable.  What sort of mold is he from?

←

Thanks, Kerry.

Here's the mold (I got mine from Tomric, but this is from Chocolat-Chocolat: http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/c228679p16408169.2.html). The cavities are 58x36x23 mm.

←

Link should be:

http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/c228679p16408169.2.html

This is a great Easter mold for truffles.

Tammy, what flavor filling are you using.

Mark

[tammylc]

Tammy, what flavor filling are you using.

←

For these, I'm just doing a dark chocolate with dark chocolate ganache and a milk chocolate with milk chocolate ganache. I'll be packaging one bunny in a box with the transfer sheet printed eggs that I showed in the "Confections" thread, and those will be raspberry and cardamom. I've also got a peanut butter piece planned, which might just be a third egg shape with a different transfer pattern, or might be a molded piece. I haven't decided yet.

[Desiderio]

Today I am trying aplets and cotlets.Talking with a friend of mine I was trying to describe to her something I ate long time ago in Italy ,I thought they might have been turkish delight .But maybe something more similar to a cotlets.I never try them before so today is the day.My try at turkish delight didnt turn I found another recipe that I might try later on ( need to go get ome more corn starch.

Some of My Easter things :-P

[tammylc]

Those are gorgeous! I love the paint splash effect on the big egg!

[Kerry Beal]

After attending the Wybauw class, I've been fooling around with a couple of things we learned there.

I made a mixture of 500 g giaduja and 25 g butter, added a couple of drops of black pepper essential oil and a couple of drops of lavendar essential oil. I used it to pipe centers for the dark chocolate circles and then practiced some piping techniques.

So what did I learn - I need to get some rubber stencil sheets that only have 3 or 4 rows of holes closer together. I need to flip them over on to the piped center before they have fully crystallized and want to fall off. I need to be sure my chocolate is warmer when I fill them so it is easier to lift up the rubber stencil. I don't know if you can see on the picture, but the transfer sheet has left circular marks, and that is because in the process of turning them over I didn't remove the transfer from the chocolate in a nice fluid movement (like ripping off a bandaid). Another thing I'd do differently is to make a fatter rosette, so that the chocolate was taller.

You can also see the inconsistancy of my piping, but I'm getting better. At least I understand the theory, now it's just a matter of getting my muscles to cooperate with my brain.

[Desiderio]

Here are the Cotlets.They are pretty tasty , not very sweet and a good aprico flavor ( net time though I need to use the walnuts ).

[Kerry Beal]

Here are the Cotlets.They are pretty tasty , not very sweet and a good aprico flavor ( net time though I need to use the walnuts ).

←

I've found the commercial applets and cotlets to be way too sweet. Would you share a recipe?

[John DePaula]

I've found the commercial applets and cotlets to be way too sweet.  Would you share a recipe?

←

And if your recipe uses gelatin, is there something one my use instead?

[Desiderio]

Oh absolutely , I found the recipe online , I gather few and decided to go with one in particular.

It uses both gelatin and corn starch , I would think that if you cooked little bit longer and use more con starch ( like turkish delight ) it would work fine , maybe wouldnt be as chewy but its worth the try.

Here is the recipe, I found that you need to let them out to dry longer than that , I kept mines like 2 to 3 days.If you done let them dry all the way they will sweat .They kinda have to turn hard on the outside ,not hard rock but nice and firm.

http://www.yumyum.com/recipe.htm?ID=11967

I used apricot puree for mine , I found lots of recipes uses dried apricots , turned into pures,or apple sauce ,wich will be my next try.

[Kerry Beal]

So my first semi sucessful foray into crystallization of a center.

The supersaturated solution. By putting parchament and plastic over it I was able to avoid premature crystallization. There was a tiny little chunk of crystallized sugar under one piece of parchment, but I simply lifted it out.

I found this great little stainless basket at Mr Used, placed all my centers in it. They can be stacked if they are firm enough.

I placed a rack on top of the basket to prevent floaters, then poured the syrup over the centers.

I covered the whole thing with plastic and left it aside over night.

The beauty of a basket - you can just fish it out of the syrup.

My centers after drying. Next time around I think that I'll try less time in the syrup. I was hoping for a very thin crystalline coating and this was a bit thick. There are a few rather large crystals and I'm not sure how that would be prevented...

[John DePaula]

Wow, very impressive, Kerry!

[Desiderio]

One thing I dont quite understand is, what is the reason for cristallising a center?

Whatare you going to do with it after , cover it in chocolate or just leave it.

Even in the book he described this technique but I didnt understand the use or why.

Did he mention anything at the class?

[Kerry Beal]

One thing I dont quite understand is, what is the reason for cristallising a center?

Whatare you going to do with it after , cover it in chocolate or just leave it.

Even in the book he described this technique but I didnt understand the use or why.

Did he mention anything at the class?

←

They are eaten just like that. It's just another way of finishing a center. If I'd taken the picture with the lighting right, you would have been able to see just how sparkly they are. Other things can be finished this way as well.

[John DePaula]

One thing I dont quite understand is, what is the reason for cristallising a center?

Whatare you going to do with it after , cover it in chocolate or just leave it.

Even in the book he described this technique but I didnt understand the use or why.

Did he mention anything at the class?

←

They are eaten just like that. It's just another way of finishing a center. If I'd taken the picture with the lighting right, you would have been able to see just how sparkly they are. Other things can be finished this way as well.

←

I would just add that the technique yields an interesting texture to the piece, and I'm sure it increases the shelf life as well. And yes, they're sparkly and pretty!

[Desiderio]

Thank you

I am wondering if "cremini" type could be cristallise as well , maybe one of these days I'll try

I am trying to work on flavors from my home country , lately ( maybe I am home sick huh )

[Serj]

Hi -

When Wybauw did his thing in the class, he told me the sugar crystals around his centers were too small because the syrup wasn't boiled to a high enough temperature (I will take responsibility for that as I am the one who boiled it!). I boiled his syrup to a steady simmer just over 100 degrees Celcius, as that was the example he gave in his lecture. What temperature did you boil your syrup to Kerry?

Cheers,

Serj

[Kerry Beal]

Hi -

When Wybauw did his thing in the class, he told me the sugar crystals around his centers were too small because the syrup wasn't boiled to a high enough temperature (I will take responsibility for that as I am the one who boiled it!). I boiled his syrup to a steady simmer just over 100 degrees Celcius, as that was the example he gave in his lecture. What temperature did you boil your syrup to Kerry?

Cheers,

Serj

←

I boiled the syrup to 105 C. The refractometer read about 73 Brix as I recall.

I liked the look of your crystals better, so there you go - next time I'll take it down a few degrees.

I notice in his book, though it says to take it to 105 C, he says it should be 63 to 63 Brix. I recall in class when he checked the Brix of your solution that he said it was in the 70's.

[gap]

Kerry - did you just leave the centers in the sugar solution overnight? I had read before that you pour the sugar syrup over the centers, let it dry, then re-pour over etc etc. Did you just leave them overnight once and that was it? All done?

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry - did you just leave the centers in the sugar solution overnight? I had read before that you pour the sugar syrup over the centers, let it dry, then re-pour over etc etc. Did you just leave them overnight once and that was it? All done?

←

Yup, just left them overnight and fished them out in the morning. I've seen the pouring over thing too, for marzipan stuffed fruits. Not sure if they are two different techniques, or two ways of doing the same thing.

[John DePaula]

...

So what did I learn - I need to get some rubber stencil sheets that only have 3 or 4 rows of holes closer together.  ...

←

Kerry, did you ever find a source for the stencil/templates like we used in class?