Confections! (2006-2012)

[alanamoana]

those do look awesome. i love peanuts and pretzels...a great combination!

[Desiderio]

Yes yummy, yummy :-) One time I tryed to make something close to the take 5 ( I love that stuff by the way :-P ) hehe I cook the caramel too hard , they were kinda of an Hazard to eat, yours look wonderfull ( shipping? )

Alana welcome back how are you doing girl!!!!!

[tammylc]

Thanks all. I tried one after lunch today when I was in a much better position to judge. And yes, they are definitely a winner. Fair lot of work, though - lots of steps. Not sure how or if to commercialize...

But I'm sure going to have a hard time keeping my hands off of them.

[CaliPoutine]

Finally got around to trying my Take 5 take off.

I made a 1/3 batch of praline pretzels and spread them out in as close to a single layer as I could manage in 8 inch caramel bars. Then I made a half batch of Fleur de Sel caramels, although I should have made a full batch - the pretzels didn't displace as much as i thought they would. But that's just as well, as I didn't really want to be dipping a whole 8x8 square of bars.

If I were making these for real and not just playing around, I should have pre-bottomed them at this stage.  But I didn't bother.  After the caramel set up I spread a layer of Koeze natural peanut butter on top, then pressed on roasted peanuts.  Cut into roughly 2 inch by 1 inch pieces, and dipped them in Cluizel 60%.

The pretzels are really crunchy, the caramel is really chewy, the peanut flavor is pretty well balanced - although maybe a little more peanut butter would be better. The pretzels and salty caramel mean the sweet/salty balance is great.  I think I'm pleased, although I haven't been eating well today and am kind of sugared out - I'll try one tomorrow and be better able to assess!

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Those look great. Now I really want a Take 5 bar although here they're called Max 5. Now that I think about it, I havent seen them around in a long while.

[choux]

Thank you for the name!! It was driving me nuts because I knew Take 5 wasn't right, but couldn't come up with the right one. Wasn't there a jingle that was really annoying? I tried it once and it wasn't that great, and I haven't seen them on the west coast in a while either.

[equality5271]

Take 5 is being discontinued. Soon enough...you will no longer see them on the shelves at all.

[mrose]

This is a picture of different truffle logs made during holiday season. I like these because you can layer flavors. They are a turtle log, an passion fruit/absinthe(green faeire), rum/eggnog, passion fruit/eggnog and a kahlua/cream.

Edited January 17, 2008 by mrose (log)

[Kerry Beal]

This is a picture of different truffle logs made during holiday season. I like these because you can layer flavors. They are a turtle log, an passion fruit/absinthe(green faire), rum/eggnog, passion fruit/eggnog and a kahlua/cream.

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Mark,

How many did you sell over the holiday?

[mrose]

This is a picture of different truffle logs made during holiday season. I like these because you can layer flavors. They are a turtle log, an passion fruit/absinthe(green faire), rum/eggnog, passion fruit/eggnog and a kahlua/cream.

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Mark,

How many did you sell over the holiday?

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This year I only sold 8, in previous years I have sold 15 - 20. Have a few with an eggnog ganache which I probably give away since that is a very seasonal taste. Some of those were the 12" long bars. The most popular flavor has always been a turtle bar, layer of chocolate ganache, layer of pecans, layer of home made caramel sauce, and another layer of chocolate ganache.

[RuthWells]

This is a picture of different truffle logs made during holiday season. I like these because you can layer flavors. They are a turtle log, an passion fruit/absinthe(green faire), rum/eggnog, passion fruit/eggnog and a kahlua/cream.

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I'd love to see the interior of one. I'd also love a quick description of your method! Those are very cool.

[mrose]

These bars are made in triangular mold. They are made like any other molded chocolate. I first stick the transfer sheet onto side of mold with cocoa butter. Fill mold with chocolate, turn ipside down & empty, then let set. I then layer ganache into cavity and cap when ganache sets. Carefully unmold.

The one on left is a cherry vanillia with chopped dry Michigan cherries in dark chocolate. The other is a turtle bar with a layer of ganache,then pecans, then caramel and then more ganache.

Edited January 17, 2008 by mrose (log)

[Chris Hennes]

The one on left is a cherry vanillia with chopped dry Michigan cherries in dark chocolate. The other is a turtle bar with a layer of ganache,then pecans, then caramel and then more ganache.

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Those look great - I especially like the "turtle" bar. How firm is your caramel?

[mrose]

The one on left is a cherry vanillia with chopped dry Michigan cherries in dark chocolate. The other is a turtle bar with a layer of ganache,then pecans, then caramel and then more ganache.

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Those look great - I especially like the "turtle" bar. How firm is your caramel?

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The caramel is like a thick sauce, I use it to fill molded chocolates.

[Kerry Beal]

I'm fooling around this evening with some cranberry chutney that one of the students in the class I taught in New Mexico sent me the recipe for. He wants to make a chocolate using this for the big chocolate festival they have coming up in Silver City.

I'm quite enamored of this mold right now - can you tell?

The version with just chutney.

The version with a layer of chutney and a 'cream' layer behind.

Needs work. I think the chutney alone works, but I think I need to chop it a little finer to better fill the mold and I want to try it with white chocolate. The dark chocolate covers the flavour of the chutney too much for my taste.

[racheld]

Absolutely beautiful!! Do you use a hot knife for slicing these? Do you include instructions to buyer/recipient, for cutting neatly?

rachel, mumbling to herself that there's cream in the fridge, and all that lovely chocolate left from Christmas makings and how nice some ganache would taste right now

[mrose]

Absolutely beautiful!! Do you use a hot knife for slicing these? Do you include instructions to buyer/recipient, for cutting neatly?

rachel, mumbling to herself that there's cream in the fridge, and all that lovely chocolate left from Christmas makings and how nice some ganache would taste right now

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They need to kept refrigerated till about 30 - 40 mins before cutting. Yes then you use a hot knife. I put a label inside the cover of the box which gives cutting instructions.

[alanamoana]

Kerry, love that mold. It would be great with something pomegranate or raspberry...those are the flavors I immediately thought of when I saw the top of the mold...

[Chris Hennes]

I had a go at the Mango-Mint-Coriander filled shells from Shotts' "Making Artisan Chocolates" (more images at my website):

This was my first try at making the filled shells: they all had tiny bubbles, and I didn't polish the mold surfaces well enough. Also, I think I made them too thin, since the chocolate didn't contract enough and many of them didn't release from the molds. All told, however, that wasn't that big of a deal, because I didn't like the flavor!

[John DePaula]

I had a go at the Mango-Mint-Coriander filled shells from Shotts' "Making Artisan Chocolates" (more images at my website):

This was my first try at making the filled shells: they all had tiny bubbles, and I didn't polish the mold surfaces well enough. Also, I think I made them too thin, since the chocolate didn't contract enough and many of them didn't release from the molds. All told, however, that wasn't that big of a deal, because I didn't like the flavor!

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Chris, From the pix on your web site, I'd say that the shells were not at all too thin. Could be that the chocolate wasn't quite in temper or that they took too long to crystallize. Setting chocolate is an exothermic process, i.e. heat is generated, and that can throw the temper off if your environment isn't quite cool enough.

[Chris Hennes]

Chris, From the pix on your web site, I'd say that the shells were not at all too thin.  Could be that the chocolate wasn't quite in temper or that they took too long to crystallize.  Setting chocolate is an exothermic process, i.e. heat is generated, and that can throw the temper off if your environment isn't quite cool enough.

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Hmm, I didn't think about that. I was thinking the temper was fine because the ones that did release had a perfect crisp "snap" to them when bitten into. Of course, that's not a very scientific way of determining proper temper .

[John DePaula]

Chris, From the pix on your web site, I'd say that the shells were not at all too thin.  Could be that the chocolate wasn't quite in temper or that they took too long to crystallize.  Setting chocolate is an exothermic process, i.e. heat is generated, and that can throw the temper off if your environment isn't quite cool enough.

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Hmm, I didn't think about that. I was thinking the temper was fine because the ones that did release had a perfect crisp "snap" to them when bitten into. Of course, that's not a very scientific way of determining proper temper .

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One thing that you can do is to wait until the chocolate has just begun to set around the edges, then pop the tray into the refrigerator for, oh, 10 minutes or so.

[Chris Hennes]

One thing that you can do is to wait until the chocolate has just begun to set around the edges, then pop the tray into the refrigerator for, oh, 10 minutes or so.

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Is this before or after scraping the top of the mold? Do you put it in the fridge upside-down?

[John DePaula]

One thing that you can do is to wait until the chocolate has just begun to set around the edges, then pop the tray into the refrigerator for, oh, 10 minutes or so.

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Is this before or after scraping the top of the mold? Do you put it in the fridge upside-down?

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This is after you've scraped the mold. You want to be certain that the top of the tray is absolutely flat so you'll be able to properly seal the bonbons after they're filled.

Depending on the fluidity of your chocolate, you may have to scrape more than once. (I never do because my chocolate is a thick formulation.) But at some point, you've scraped the tray for the last time, then you flip it over and wait to see that it's crystallizing around the edges. That's when you stick it into the fridge.

[cathrynapple]

I'm quite enamored of this mold right now - can you tell?

I, too, am enamored by that mold! It's so pretty and organic.

[Kerry Beal]

I'm quite enamored of this mold right now - can you tell?

I, too, am enamored by that mold! It's so pretty and organic.

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Six nice new fresh copies of this mold showed up yesterday in the molds I ordered from JKV in Holland.