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Chocolatiers Eat Your Heart Out


Kerry Beal

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Very recently I found out from my chocolate supplier that for the first time in 10 years Jean Pierre Wybauw was going to be in Canada. Qzina and Callebaut were sponsoring a day. In the morning they were going to talk about products and in the afternoon a demo by Wybauw.

The day was full before I could get the word out to fellow eG'ers about it so it was a surprise when I got a call at the very last minute asking if I was going to be using my 'second ticket' because a whole lot more people wanted to come. Quite a shock, not knowing I had a second ticket, but without batting an eye I said "of course". I quickly consulted my PM list of fellow eG chocolatiers that I converse with on a regular basis, put all the names in a hat and chose Ruthie Jewell. With some scrambling she was able to get herself here early yesterday morning.

The day was held in a lovely old hotel in west Toronto called the Old Mill. A very beautiful place that I hadn't been to before. The set up left a bit to be desired, they had 2 flat screens set half way back and everything on a raised stage so if you were close to the front you couldn't see well what was happening on the marble.

He has a new book and he brought some copies, but not enough for all. Ruthie scored one, but I will have to wait. It is called Decorating Techniques. There was also a new soft cover about chocolate desserts, but I took a pass on that. He says next book, out next year, is on ganaches and that should cover more of the theory of available water and shelf life.

I'm going to post a couple of pictures then as I go over my notes and organize them I'm going to post the pearls that I learned. So stay tuned. I hope Ruthie will chime in with the things she learned as well, because it always amazes me how two people can hear the same and learn differently.

gallery_34671_3115_11949.jpggallery_34671_3115_16921.jpg

Ruthie got the better picture with the hug, he was getting pretty tired by the end.

And by the way, I do realize it wasn't the first sighting this year, just needed a catchy title.

Edited by Kerry Beal (log)
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Lucky you! Did he do a demo or just lecture? I can't wait to read the pearls that you learned!!

Talked and demonstrated. He had so much he wanted to talk about and show us that when the time ran out he was quite frustrated. I suspect that he would have happily continued for another 4 hours without a second thought.

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Sounded like a great time.  Can't wait to read about your experiences! 

BTW, What were the names of the books?

Jeff

The one I was interested in was called Chocolate Decorations, not sure what the other one was called. Maybe Ruthie will remember.

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Okay eGulleters, Kerry Beal really IS the coolest lady on the planet! And what an invitation, of course I scrambled.....Hello!? WYBAUW!

After making gorgeous bonbons, he mainly demo'd the garnishes from his book, Chocolate Decorations, which is a beautiful book and made great reading material on the plane home (yeah, I took a plane from detroit to toronto. what?).

I took about 5 pages of notes on his demonstrations, but right now I have two babies on my hands (both 11 months but only one is mine) so I'll post more noteworthy information later.......

Again I thank you, Kerry Beal!

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Lucky!!!

I was fortunate enough to attend a Wybauw demonstration in Calgary a few years back - he made Holiday showpieces, divulged some of his pearls of wisdom, and let us sample his wares! Such an affable gentleman!

Can't wait to hear some of the tips that you learnt.

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So where to start.

I learned a number of new things.

Tempering - Wybauw doesn't rely on thermometers. For these demos he uses a bunch of moldart melters. He puts the chocolate in the melter, puts the lid on, turns it to the working temperature and leaves it to melt overnight. As it never goes above the working temp, it contains all sorts of "good beta crystals" and only needs to be heated with a heat gun 0.5 degrees at a time until it is the correct viscosity to use. Working temp is 31 or 32 C for dark, 29 or 30 for milk, 27 or 28 for white. As required to get the correct working viscosity you can push the temperature up 0.5 degrees at a time to a maximum of 34.5 for dark, 32.5 for milk and 30.5 for white. (all temps in Centigrade) You are doing this to melt the overabundance of 'good' crystals.

When tempering on a table or in a bowl when the temp drops to 27 C (dark) you have 'wild crystallization' and your chocolate contains alpha, gamma, beta double prime, beta prime and beta crystals. All forms are relatively unstable except beta. Heating up to the working temperature dissolves first alpha, then gamma, then beta double prime, then beta prime, leaving only stable beta crystals.

When using a seed method to temper you add pistoles or callets or chopped chocolate a handful at a time to your melted chocolate, give a little stir, then go do something else for 5 minutes. The seed chocolate first cools the melted chocolate, then provides stable crystals. When you come back if your seed is all melted, add another handful, stir again and go away again for a time. Repeat until the chocolate doesn't melt. You now have seeded chocolate and can heat it until melted. Seeding with mycryo, you add 1% by weight when you are at working temperature.

Tempering requires temperature, time and agitation.

Gianduja is tempered as for white chocolate. It was really neat to see how he had another moldart with tempered gianduja in it. He used a rough paint brush to bang dark chocolate into a seafruit mold, scraped the excess, lined the mold with milk chocolate. Then he applied the gianduja just like another chocolate, scraped the mold with the spatula at 90 degrees to the mold, pressed the double mold together and put it in the fridge on it's side to keep it from sliding apart.

Cooling should be done at 10 degrees cooler than room temperature. Your cooler should have a fan to move the air.

Don't put things in the fridge until you see it start to thicken around the edges, indicating that crystals are multiplying. Cooling too fast, ie in the freezer, causes uneven contraction of mold and chocolate and causes cracks.

Crystallization is an exothermic process, as chocolate crystallizes it gives off heat. If you turn something like a big egg upside down (ie trapping heat), as it crystallizes it warms, heat rises and you get a spot on the top of the egg that blooms. The temperature can go as high as 36.5 C.

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Shelf life-

Water is the enemy. Sugars, salts and egg proteins 'store water' and make it less available for organisms to use.

1 litre of cream contains 60 to 70 % water and will make a ganache that lasts 2 weeks tops. Decrease to 800 grams cream and add 100 grams butter, you reduce the water considerably as butter only contains about 15% water. Adding 50 grams invert sugar and 50 grams glucose sequesters even more water extending your shelf life even further.

Pure alcohol, 17% of the water content will extend shelf life. So if you have 1 kg chocolate and 1 kg of cream, you have 700 g water (cream is 70 % water). So 17% of 700 gram is 119 g of pure alcohol.

Temper your ganache, it will be smoother and last longer because it is a more stable crystalline structure.

2 ways to do that, start with tempered chocolate and add cream of the same temperature (using UHT cream avoids having to boil cream to reduce the bacteria).

Second way, pour your ganache out on a tray, when it starts to set on the edges, scrape back into a bowl and agitate.

Invert sugar should not be heated above 70 C, it will remove it's water sequestering effects.

Invertase doesn't work in ganaches, wrong structure.

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Really interesting stuff, thanks for the notes.

... Invert sugar should not be heated above 70 C, it will remove it's water sequestering effects. ...

I am aware of the two schools of thought on whether to add invert sugar to cream before boiling (eg Fredrick Bau, Valrhona) or cool to the ganache (Wybauw, Callebaut). I've tried both and noticed no difference empirically, nor can I think of a good (or bad) theoretical reason why heating invert sugar should chemically change either the fructose or the glucose.

Did Wybauw explain this further?

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Really interesting stuff, thanks for the notes.
... Invert sugar should not be heated above 70 C, it will remove it's water sequestering effects. ...

I am aware of the two schools of thought on whether to add invert sugar to cream before boiling (eg Fredrick Bau, Valrhona) or cool to the ganache (Wybauw, Callebaut). I've tried both and noticed no difference empirically, nor can I think of a good (or bad) theoretical reason why heating invert sugar should chemically change either the fructose or the glucose.

Did Wybauw explain this further?

He seemed to feel that it was chemically changed in some way that interferred with it's water sequestering ability. No further explaination than that.

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Wow...what a fun story. So how did you end up getting the tickets in the first place? I look forward to hearing updates...

-Robert

www.chocolateguild.com

I visit my chocolate supplier fairly regularly, I always take goodies for the staff. We have become very friendly over the years. I was in one day and got talking to the boss for a while. He mentioned that they were bringing this fellow named Wybauw for a talk, had I ever heard of him, he worked for Callebaut? Oh yeah!, I started calling him regularly to see when it was going to happen. I reminded him every time I saw him that I wanted to come when they had a date organized. When I left for Manitoulin Island they didn't have a date yet, but I was first on the list.

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On to dipping with dipping forks.

He took a small stainless bowl, filled it very full with chocolate. He coated the bottom of the ganache first before cutting. He lifted the ganache out of the chocolate then tapped it on the surface of the chocolate instead of banging it on the side of the bowl. The surface tension of the chocolate is what dragged the excess chocolate off the bottom of the fork. Then a quick scrape on the side of the bowl and place on the parchment.

Transfer sheets placed on the chocolates were left for 20 minutes then ripped off quick like a bandaid so that hesitation lines didn't form.

Acidic chocolates can split your cream (like adding lemon juice) and cause your ganache to split.

Split ganache might be rescued by taking a small amount into another bowl and whisking in some warm cream. If it smooths out, add the remaining split ganache a bit at a time like making mayonnaise.

He brought out a frozen stainless cooling table that contains antifreeze (can get them at www.dr.ca) in place of a piece of frozen marble. Condensation was removed and tempered chocolate smeared on the surface. Wonderful shiny ruffles could be made, the only caveat is that it has to remain on the cold surface for 5 minutes because the structure isn't stable until it has fully crystallized.

I've asked Ruthie to post a couple of excellent pictures that she took and I hope she will also review her notes and add the pearls that she picked up.

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gallery_46318_3824_523464.jpg

That's Dagueneau with his hugger buddy. He'll be one December 17.

gallery_46318_3824_513039.jpg

He's talking and moving so fast, it's hard to take a good picture of him.

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The rosette is a gianduja, and some of them had pulverized lavender. Kerry and I got it right away, but no one else seemed to detect it.

from my notes, and not to repeat anything Kerry already wrote.

- MyCryo= needs three times the amount if replacing with gelatin, melt no higher than 40 C. It's a great way to coat warm tarte shells without interfering with your flavor profile (as chocolate would), just sift on just baked shells. Also great to rub on rolled fondant to make a moisture barrier for cakes.

-Chocolate is more pale when warm, darker when cooled.

-To prevent fat bloom one can add clarified butter to chocolate, not in excess of 4% of the weight.

Otherwise Kerry covered the technical stuff.

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gallery_46318_3824_523464.jpg

That's Dagueneau with his hugger buddy.  He'll be one December 17. 

gallery_46318_3824_513039.jpg

He's talking and moving so fast, it's hard to take a good picture of him.

gallery_46318_3824_690794.jpg

The rosette is a gianduja, and some of them had pulverized lavender.  Kerry and I got it right away, but no one else seemed to detect it. 

from my notes, and not to repeat anything Kerry already wrote. 

- MyCryo= needs three times the amount if replacing with gelatin, melt no higher than 40 C.  It's a great way to coat warm tarte shells without interfering with your flavor profile (as chocolate would), just sift on just baked shells.  Also great to rub on rolled fondant to make a moisture barrier for cakes. 

-Chocolate is more pale when warm, darker when cooled. 

-To prevent fat bloom one can add clarified butter to chocolate, not in excess of 4% of the weight.

Otherwise Kerry covered the technical stuff.

You took all the great photos Ruthie. Loving the new avatar.

The only thing that I wondered about yesterday was when he said that about chocolate being pale when warm and dark when cool. I think of it as the other way around. When I have chocolate on marble I find it thickens and lightens in colour and ends up lighter than the warm chocolate in the bowl.

I recall him talking about fat bloom and clarified butter, was that for nut based centers and dark chocolate?

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kerry, lucky you! i just love wybauw. he just exudes a love for chocolate and for teaching people which i find infectious. at his age, still learning new techniques and keeping up with much younger and "trendier" chocolatiers without breaking a sweat...it is something to behold. i hope his new book will be widely available soon. thanks for posting your experiences and tips from his demo.

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Here is one I forgot because I didn't write it down.

Pipe chocolate into freezer temperature alcohol. Depending on how big a hole you cut in your piping cone you can make twigs, branches or gnarly trees.

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Here is one I forgot because I didn't write it down.

Pipe chocolate into freezer temperature alcohol.  Depending on how big a hole you cut in your piping cone you can make twigs, branches or gnarly trees.

Hi Kerry,

Boy it sure sounds like you guys had a blast and learned a lot. Thanks for sharing the information that you picked up. I don't understand what you wrote above. Do you mean to pipe the chocolate into like a bucket of alcohol that's been in the freezer? Were you planning on doing a demo on that?? :raz:

Don't waste your time or time will waste you - Muse

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Here is one I forgot because I didn't write it down.

Pipe chocolate into freezer temperature alcohol.  Depending on how big a hole you cut in your piping cone you can make twigs, branches or gnarly trees.

Hi Kerry,

Boy it sure sounds like you guys had a blast and learned a lot. Thanks for sharing the information that you picked up. I don't understand what you wrote above. Do you mean to pipe the chocolate into like a bucket of alcohol that's been in the freezer? Were you planning on doing a demo on that?? :raz:

Hmmm .... sounds like an interesting trick - but like Tweety I am wondering if you pour the alcohol into a tray or pipe into a bottle or............?

Thanks for sharing this experience with us all.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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