"Making Artisan Chocolates" by Andrew Shotts

[Chris Hennes]

Chris I have made both of them, spacing out on recipes & source.

Wasn't impressed with Habanero from Greweling. Might have to let cream steep for a longer time.

The South of the Border, I have made with both hot chili oil & habanero oil that I made. I believe that color of the oil will change with the source of the infused ingrediant. The habanero oil i made is just a bit darker than the olive oil used (been sitting for a couple of months now). The hardest part of making the truffle is chopping the pinneapple small enough. Not sure if bite at end comes from habanero oil or the chili powder used to decorate (would change with different types of chili powder available. I like the taste very much & would consider using them in truffles that I sell.

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Thanks for the input - that's exactly what I needed to know. I'll just pick up some hot oil at the local asian foods store and use that. Maybe this time I should taste the ganache before letting it cool... what a concept!

A quick Google search turned up instructions for making your own, but not a commercial supplier.

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Yeah, that's about what I found. The problem with making your own is that it's not really any different from just using the habanero directly - every batch of oil will have a different heat level, so every few months when you made a new supply you'd need to re-learn the heat level.

[mrose]

The recipe requires so little, that 1/4c of infused oil would last for 16 batches. Unless you are selling alot to them thatt should last for a while.

[Chris Hennes]

Oh, I wasn't worried about using it all up! Quite the opposite - infused oils have a fairly limited shelf-life before they go rancid. So I figured that basically every time I wanted to make this recipe (say every couple months) I would have to make new oil.

[mrose]

You could keep it in the frig, it would last quite a while. I have done this with a garlic/chili oil (almost 1 qt) & it was fine till used up.

[Chris Hennes]

Well, after all this discussion about habañero oil, I ended up making the Coconut Lemongrass truffles instead (many more images on my website):

I really like the coconut coating - it makes them look great, despite any imperfections in the coating. I'm still getting the hang of the white chocolate, but thanks to whoever suggested I use the immersion blender on it -- that worked great. I do have a technique question, however: how can I prevent back-contaminating the chocolate I am using to coat the truffles with coconut? I tried to employ the "wet hand - dry hand" technique, but it takes both hands to coat the truffles (I am hand-rolling, not dipping, since the chocolate is so thick). Inevitably I ended up getting coconut in the bowl of chocolate, which means I can't re-use it for anything.

[Kerry Beal]

When I was at Kee's in November I watched the girls doing this. They did the one hand thing with the chocolate in a small pool of chocolate, then placed the truffle into a full bowl of nuts or whatever and gathered up the truffle with a handful of stuff and squeezed a few times until it was coated.

[Aria]

What I do is use both hands to 'hand dip' and then use a fork to roll in coconut, ground nuts, whatever. Sure the fork gets chocolatey but that's not a big deal. I have about 3 - 4 forks ready for when one gets too messy to work with!

[bripastryguy]

I always recruit one of my staff to roll in the outer "crunch" of choice

[Chris Hennes]

I made the Mango-Mint-Coriander filled shells this weekend, and they were not exactly a "resounding success." I must have misunderstood the meaning of "three springs of fresh mint" because wow, mint can be bitter in excess! Way, way too much mint flavor, and almost nothing from the mango or coriander. I'll get around to posting photos later this week, but I also had trouble getting the chocolates to release from the mold, and I didn't polish the molds well enough. And the Packers lost, besides!

[schneich]

finally the book has arrived at my bookshop, and i was disappointed, didnt buy it.

there is nothing in that book that screams "buy me" as earlier stated recipes are odd, dont double recipes is odd, dont use melted chocolate in you ganache is mega-odd (the author might want to discuss this with the german valrhona pastry chef who does so on all of his demos) the reicpes in general doesnt appeal to me (except very few).

once i held the greweling book in my hands i knew i had to buy it...

cheers

torsten s.

[mukki]

I made the Peanut Butter & Jam chocolates a few weeks ago. This was my first time making molded chocolates, which was both simpler and harder than I thought it would be. I used E. Guittard milk, which could have been a lot more fluid. I forgot to tap the molds and got air bubbles on the top. I couldn't even get 4 of them out of the molds.

Tastewise, I really liked these. I added a bit of fleur de sel to the peanut butter layer and used Trader Joe's raspberry jam. The most disappointing part was the chocolate itself -- rather flat tasting. I think I'd try them with a semisweet chocolate next time.

[bripastryguy]

Chris and everyone else

Most of the off the wall flavors and oils can be gotten from Amoretti in CA. They are very generous with there samples so ask for them before you buy. I just got some that made awesome flavored chocolates

Cosmopolitan, green tea, mexican cinnamon oil, Habanero oil extract, guiness.............

Edited February 9, 2008 by bripastryguy (log)

[AmritaBala]

Ive made 2 recipes so far....The salted caramel (a little too salty for my liking), and I adapted the vanilla ganache to make a White Choc Jaffa Ganache, pictured below...thanks andrew )

[Alex of the North]

Hello, I'm pretty new to making chocolates, so far I have done it just three times, making Shott's bittersweet truffles. These aren't too difficult, and they turned out well enough that I've been selling them at my coffeehouse. Today, however, I tried something new and it was a colossal failure. I bought a 5 kg bar of Callebaut White Chocolate, and I attempted to make a coffee ganache by adapting the recipe for the mint ganache. I left out all of the mint, extracts, etc. and instead I steeped the heavy cream in a press pot with Intelligentsia's Black Cat espresso. The flavor was great, however, the ganache never set, seemed a bit broken (wasn't smooth the way the bittersweet ganache was) and was always too liquidy to work with.

I was wondering if any of you could help me find the right proportions to work with. Each of Shott's ganaches are a little different, x ounces of chocolate, y ounces of cream, etc. and I don't really understand the principles that underlay these differences. My question is how best to make a coffee ganache with white chocolate? My intention is to put it in a shell of bittersweet chocolate and have sort of a 'mocha truffle.'

(This is my first post here, I'm kind of excited about it. My name is Alex and my wife and I have a vegetarian coffeehouse in Wisconsin in the US. I've read some of the threads here, and I'm happy to finally have joined up).

[Kerry Beal]

Welcome Alex. Glad to have you on board.

If you used the same proportions as another recipe then it should have been a similar consistency to the mint ganache. Sounds to me like your ganache broke.

Try taking the ganache, warm it again, take a small amount and beat it until it goes glossy, then introduce the remainder a bit at a time until you end up with a smooth emulsion.

You might want to get a copy of Greweling to help with the theory.

Sounds like it will be a tasty center when you finish with it.

[Desiderio]

Also working with white chocolate can be trickier than dark chocolate, because there is more fat in the white and it tends to separete or break easier.

As for the proportion I suggest using 2.5:1 chocolate versus liquifiers ( wich are the cream, butter if used, liquors etc.).You have to take in count whatever liquid you add to the ganache and equilibrated with the chocolate.

If you use dry coffe to flavor the cream then something like that would work fine:

75gr cream

20 gr soft butter

230 gr white chocolate

if you use any liquid , like liquor make sure to adjust the chocolate ( or also add cocoa butter so the chocolate doesnt owerpower the flavor).

Hope it helps, I am not to good at explain I am better at doing :-P

And Welcome

Edited March 11, 2008 by Desiderio (log)

[Alex of the North]

Thanks Desiderio & Kerry, I've already tossed my coffee ganache attempt, however I'm inclined to agree that it was broken in some respect. It didn't have the smoothness that the bittersweet ganaches I've done had. It seemed grainy and when I tilted it in different directions, I could see elements of it flowing at different rates. One thing that surprised me was that the ganache darkened considerably: the cream had been slightly darkened by being brewed with the coffee, but the entirety was much darker (almost cardboard colored) after I added it to the white chocolate.

[Desiderio]

I am not sure I understand what kinda of infusion you did with the coffee and cream, I usually used instand coffe ( organic ) and boil it down with cream, I have tried with regular coffee but didnt get the flavor I wanted.Anyhow usually the coffe ganahce I make for the irish coffee chocolates, the ganache has the same color of a nice italia Cappuccino, pretty dark.

[Kerry Beal]

Thanks Desiderio & Kerry, I've already tossed my coffee ganache attempt, however I'm inclined to agree that it was broken in some respect. It didn't have the smoothness that the bittersweet ganaches I've done had. It seemed grainy and when I tilted it in different directions, I could see elements of it flowing at different rates. One thing that surprised me was that the ganache darkened considerably: the cream had been slightly darkened by being brewed with the coffee, but the entirety was much darker (almost cardboard colored) after I added it to the white chocolate.

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Yeah a weird thing happens when you mix liquid in with white chocolate - the white chocolate gets kind of clear and the colour changes.

[David J.]

Hi Alex, welcome aboard!

First, if you substitute milk chocolate for dark in a recipie you need to use more chocolate per amount of liquid. That increases for white.

Second, I suggest buying a copy of "Chocolates & Confections" by Peter Grreweling. It's the absolute best book on the theory of ganache. For instance, he instructs that you have a better chance to break a ganache if you mix it too hot or too cold (below 85F).

Third, buy an immersion blender if you don't already have one. It's the secret to smooth ganache as it homogonizes as it mixes.

[Alex of the North]

Desiderio, I just heated the cream to a slight boil and then I put it in a presspot with coffee grounds. Now that I read David's response, I probably should have reheated the cream afterwards. I really am new at this.. Will look for Greweling!

[Chris Hennes]

Has anyone tried the gingerbread truffles on page 95? The ganache calls for three different types of chocolate, which strikes me as completely absurd, since it doesn't specify the brand so could not possibly be that specific to a taste profile. Any thoughts on this? I'm leaning towards using E. Guittard 38% milk to keep the flavor relatively light (they are coated with white chocolate).

[gap]

Chris, I haven't got the recipe in front of me but often recipes use different % chocolates as a way of getting cocoa butter into the recipe to help setting of the final product. If you're subbing in milk for dark, you're usually reducing cocoa butter in the finished product which could affect things - just thinking aloud

[Chris Hennes]

That's an interesting point: if he wanted me to have a specific cocoa butter content, though, I wish he would just use cocoa butter. It's not like the rest of the book doesn't call for outlandish ingredients... cocoa butter is normal by comparison.

[mrose]

Chris

Consider that most people don't have cocoa butter and it always isn't easy to find. They are more likely have a selection of chocolates.

Everyone isn't in it as committed as you have become.