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White chocolate decorations


LittleIsland

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Questions one...using chocolate you don't have to temper...

-For this you will need to get "confectioners coating" or "confectioners compound" or "chocolate compound" or "chocolate coating". They are all the same name for the type of chocolate you do not have to temper. Real white chocolate you always have to temper but with the ones listed above they remove the cocoa butter and replace it with different vegetable fats so that it does not need tempering.

Question two...can you color white chocolate?

-You can only use colorings that are not water based. You need fat based coloring or "oil soluble" powder color. If you get water into chocolate it will seize up and it will be ruined(even with chocolate compounds mentioned above) so you need to get a coloring that is fat based or oil soluble...

Hope that helps,

Robert

www.chocolateguild.com

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Thanks very much Robert.  Yes it helps.  I guess I have to go check if the Wilton colour pastes are oil-based.

Regular Wilton pastes -- no. But, Wilton does have oil based colors for candy making. Ususally found in the same aisle as the regular colors.

Cheryl, The Sweet Side
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Thanks very much Robert.  Yes it helps.  I guess I have to go check if the Wilton colour pastes are oil-based.

Regular Wilton pastes -- no. But, Wilton does have oil based colors for candy making. Ususally found in the same aisle as the regular colors.

Exactly. When I first started out, I used the Wilton Oil-Based Colors; however, they do fade after several months if that's important to you.

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. I have some Wilton pastes which are for icing not the candy colours which I did see on the Wilton site but which I have to check if are available in our baking goods store. They're not for professional candy-making, just making some coloured choc deco for my son's Bob the Builder cake next week :smile:

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Thanks everyone for the helpful advice.  I have some Wilton pastes which are for icing not the candy colours which I did see on the Wilton site but which I have to check if are available in our baking goods store.  They're not for professional candy-making, just making some coloured choc deco for my son's Bob the Builder cake next week  :smile:

i've semi-successfully used non fat-based colors for tempered white chocolate. i say semi-successfully because although it set up and unmolded reasonably okay, there were some imperfections. but if it is for a small project (bob the builder cake) where the critics are young and not so much concerned with appearances, you should be fine...particularly if you're not using "real" white chocolate but using coating compound.

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Thanks for that reassurance, alanamoana. I wasn't able to get fat-based colours from the bake shop near me and it's too late to venture farther afield or buy online. Plus not quite worth it for just the few bits and pieces I have to make, so I will try miniscule amounts of the water-based pastes in the white couverture that I bought and keep my fingers crossed it won't ruin it. I'm just piping flat shapes anyway.

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Umm, a miniscule amount of a steam droplet will seize your chocolate. I like powder color the best for getting deep color. But umm, I have used the wrong kind of paste colors before and then used inordinate amounts of oil in the choco and it was fine. it was for display though & not to eat.

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  • 9 months later...

I'm trying to create poodle curls from white chocolate for Grewlings "Hot Chocolate" truffles, and I'm having a frustrating time doing it.

I spread the chocolate on a plastic cutting board and run a cake comb over it to form the individual lines. I then wait for it to set before scraping, but they just don't want to curl. I've waited for all different degrees of setting, and different angles for the scraper. The best I got was when I shaved the top of the lines off rather than cutting down to the board first, but they were far too thin to hold shape then.

Is there some trick to it?

I tempered in my Rev2 to be sure I had proper temper.

Is it a trick of how thin you draw the lines? The cake comb pretty much set the height of the lines, but since I drew it through the wet chocolate they formed half round profiles. Should I wait for the chocolate to start setting so I get flat tops for my ribbons?

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I second the marble slab. It really is a matter of waiting until the chocolate is just the right amount set. You just have to keep trying a little sample as it cools until they curl. It's a rather short window.

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I second the marble slab.  It really is a matter of waiting until the chocolate is just the right amount set.  You just have to keep trying a little sample as it cools until they curl.  It's a rather short window.

I hovered over the chocolate trying many times from wet until I judged it too set so I don't think I missed the window.

I checked the pictures in the book and I believe that my lines are far too thick. The pictures showed a pretty thin curl that is quite flat and my lines are as thick as they are wide and are anything but flat. The comb has VV cuts which produce a dome shaped line due to the depth the chocolate. I think that shape and thickness is working against curling.

I also noticed his white chocolate curls weren't nearly as long and defined as those made from dark chocolate so I think that the choice of white chocolate is another factor.

I will try it again tonight and spread a much thinner coat of chocolate.

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david, you answered your own question. when you described the shape of the chocolate, i thought to myself "it's too thick"...the best kind of comb to use is one that has square notches instead of round or VV shapes. we used to use a plaster or grout trowel when we made our striped cigarettes and it is basically the same idea. good luck experimenting and let us know how they turn out.

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david, you answered your own question.  when you described the shape of the chocolate, i thought to myself "it's too thick"...the best kind of comb to use is one that has square notches instead of round or VV shapes.  we used to use a plaster or grout trowel when we made our striped cigarettes and it is basically the same idea.  good luck experimenting and let us know how they turn out.

Does anyone know where to get a comb with 1/8" wide square notches? The groute trowels are all 1/4" square and while that is great for cigarettes it is far too wide for these decoration curls. Ideal would be 1/8" wide and 2mm deep so a single pull through a pile of chocolate would spread perfect lines.

I ran through several more trials last night and ended up with enough curls for my current batch. My success rate was only around 15-20%. A lot of the time the scraper just pushed up straight lines instead of curls, sometimes part of it would curl and others not on the same push. The V notches also left enough connecting chocolate that when it did curl I often ended up with a cigarette rather than individual curls. I can see that this is going to require more experementation and new tools before I get consistent results. I'll post a shot of my results on the Greweling thread later tonight since it's his recipie I made.

Does the scraping tool itself matter? I'm using a drywall tape scraper with a fairly thin blade as opposed to a standard scraper which has a slightly thicker and stiffer blade.

What blade angle works best for you?

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david, you answered your own question.  when you described the shape of the chocolate, i thought to myself "it's too thick"...the best kind of comb to use is one that has square notches instead of round or VV shapes.  we used to use a plaster or grout trowel when we made our striped cigarettes and it is basically the same idea.  good luck experimenting and let us know how they turn out.

Does anyone know where to get a comb with 1/8" wide square notches? The groute trowels are all 1/4" square and while that is great for cigarettes it is far too wide for these decoration curls. Ideal would be 1/8" wide and 2mm deep so a single pull through a pile of chocolate would spread perfect lines.

I ran through several more trials last night and ended up with enough curls for my current batch. My success rate was only around 15-20%. A lot of the time the scraper just pushed up straight lines instead of curls, sometimes part of it would curl and others not on the same push. The V notches also left enough connecting chocolate that when it did curl I often ended up with a cigarette rather than individual curls. I can see that this is going to require more experementation and new tools before I get consistent results. I'll post a shot of my results on the Greweling thread later tonight since it's his recipie I made.

Does the scraping tool itself matter? I'm using a drywall tape scraper with a fairly thin blade as opposed to a standard scraper which has a slightly thicker and stiffer blade.

What blade angle works best for you?

You may have to request further info from them since exact specs aren't given:

Pastry Chef Central - ICING COMB & SMOOTHER

JB Prince - Decorating Combs

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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Thanks for the tip. That first one is very close.

There are 18 notches in 6" of comb, so that works out to 6/36 or 1/6" wide for each post and notch.

It's aluminum so it could be filed down to make a thiner depth line, and it's cheap enough that it wouldn't be a big loss if it didn't work out.

Now I just have to come up with $50 of other purchases to justify shipping...

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hey david,

just so you have a picture:

Pastry Chef Central

of a chocolate cigarette "kit" from pastry chef central.

i wouldn't worry about having the comb notches shallow enough. you should be able to control the thickness of the chocolate with your spreading technique. practice makes perfect, you know... :wink:

do you have any problems making regular cigarettes? maybe you should practice those first and then move on to the shorter curls. once you have the angle of the scraper down for making sure the chocolate curls in the first place, it should get easier.

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hey david,

just so you have a picture:

Pastry Chef Central

of a chocolate cigarette "kit" from pastry chef central.

i wouldn't worry about having the comb notches shallow enough.  you should be able to control the thickness of the chocolate with your spreading technique.  practice makes perfect, you know... :wink:

do you have any problems making regular cigarettes?  maybe you should practice those first and then move on to the shorter curls.  once you have the angle of the scraper down for making sure the chocolate curls in the first place, it should get easier.

Thanks for the link. That comb is much closer to what I figured I would need to do the job consistently.

This is my first attempt at chocolate decorations. I figured the little curls would be the easiest thing to start with. I'm headed to the French Pastry School for a three day class with Norman Love teaching chocolate decorations and I wanted to try a couple things before hand to see where I needed help. I didn't figure it would turn out to be the first thing I tried :blink:

Has anyone done curls in both dark and white chocolate and can comment on any difference in difficulty?

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Thanks for the link.  That comb is much closer to what I figured I would need to do the job consistently.

This is my first attempt at chocolate decorations.  I figured the little curls would be the easiest thing to start with.  I'm headed to the French Pastry School for a three day class with Norman Love teaching chocolate decorations and I wanted to try a couple things before hand to see where I needed help.  I didn't figure it would turn out to be the first thing I tried  :blink:

Has anyone done curls in both dark and white chocolate and can comment on any difference in difficulty?

I've done curls with both white, dark and milk, and mixed. The dark probably has the shortest window of time in which to work. Milk and white take a little longer to firm up, so there is a bit more time to play.

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Hi! On http://www.callebaut.com/en/2616 they have a video and demo on chocolate curls. And cigarettes: http://www.callebaut.com/en/2619

Lior

Thanks for the link!

The demonstration made things much clearer. The chocolate is spread much thinner and overcrystalized than I had it. The diagonal slicing motion is interesting.

Unfortunately the video cuts out half way through so I couldn't see the other decorations.

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