Cooking with "Chocolates and Confections" by Peter Greweling (Part 1)

[gap]

OK, I'm back for some more trouble-shooting on the Meltaways. Who would have thought two ingredients could cause me sooo much trouble (about 1.5kg of chocolate has had to be discarded so far!!!)

I tried them yesterday and (obviously) they didn't work. I used milk chocolate (Callebaut) and Organic Coconut Oil (Cold Pressed) which is 100% fat and 92% saturated fat. The chocolates set but there was absolutely no "meltaway" at all.

Should I be using dark chocolate instead of milk? Is cold pressed coconut oil causing the problem? Any ideas??

[mrose]

OK, I'm back for some more trouble-shooting on the Meltaways. Who would have thought two ingredients could cause me sooo much trouble (about 1.5kg of chocolate has had to be discarded so far!!!)

I tried them yesterday and (obviously) they didn't work. I used milk chocolate (Callebaut) and Organic Coconut Oil (Cold Pressed) which is 100% fat and 92% saturated fat. The chocolates set but there was absolutely no "meltaway" at all.

Should I be using dark chocolate instead of milk? Is cold pressed coconut oil causing the problem? Any ideas?? 

←

All I have made are the peanut butter meltways with both organic & cheap coconut oil with Callebaut. They turned out fine. Can I assume you are eating these at room temp? You could try using a bit less chocolate.

[lapin d'or]

Gap, if you found you didn't like the texture you ended up with I would try remelting and adjusting the coconut percentage a bit.

When I made one batch of meltaway I did not stir the mixture long enough so it set wrong. I just warmed it up and did the tabling process again. It turned out fine.

I have only used half milk and half dark before not all milk. I wouldn't say mine melt like butter in your mouth but I would say they melt. I always keep them at room temperature.

[gap]

Thanks mrose and lapin d'or, I will have to give them another try then.

[Kerry Beal]

Over the last couple of days I have made two things from the book. The first was the Hot Chocolates. They are a layer of marshmallow, flavoured with cinnamon and a layer of dark chocolate ganache. Instead of cutting them with a round cutter, I used the guitar.

The texture is really neat once dipped, that crunch through the top layer of dark chocolate into the marshmallow then the wonderfully smooth ganache. I'm up here in Manitoulin again and Beth and I have been discussing whether or not we like the cinnamon in the marshmallow. It detracts from the flavour when you eat them undipped, but changes somewhat once they are dipped. I noticed this same thing when I added orange flower water to marshmallow once, undipped they tasted kind of vile, but dipped they just tasted 'right'.

The recipe called for using a frame 12 by 12 by 1/4 inch for the marshmallow then adding a second 1/4 inch frame for the ganache layer, however at 12 by 12 the chocolates turned out about 1 inch thick.

I also made the mint meltaways. I made half a batch, using a 50-50 mix of milk and dark chocolate, 5 drops of mint oil and about 10 drops of lemon oil. You can't taste the lemon oil at all. The only marble slab I have here is about 18 inches round, and the meltaway mixture becomes very fluid when you stir in the coconut oil, so instead of slabbing as directed, I put the bowl over some ice water and stirred until it started to thicken before pouring it out between the bars. I dipped it in milk chocolate. It turned out just as I expected, except the lack of lemon oil flavour.

[Mary F]

The texture is really neat once dipped, that crunch through the top layer of dark chocolate into the marshmallow then the wonderfully smooth ganache.  I'm up here in Manitoulin again and Beth and I have been discussing whether or not we like the cinnamon in the marshmallow.  It detracts from the flavour when you eat them undipped, but changes somewhat once they are dipped.  I noticed this same thing when I added orange flower water to marshmallow once, undipped they tasted kind of vile, but dipped they just tasted 'right'. 

I also made the mint meltaways.  I made half a batch, using a 50-50 mix of milk and dark chocolate, 5 drops of mint oil and about 10 drops of lemon oil.  You can't taste the lemon oil at all.  The only marble slab I have here is about 18 inches round, and the meltaway mixture becomes very fluid when you stir in the coconut oil, so instead of slabbing as directed, I put the bowl over some ice water and stirred until it started to thicken before pouring it out between the bars.  I dipped it in milk chocolate.  It turned out just as I expected, except the lack of lemon oil flavour.

←

Kerry, I had the same thing with the lemon oil. No flavour at all, but had used all dark. Thanks for trying the 50-50 mix, that was my next trial.

Too hot to play with chocolate here (no air-conditioning in Seattle!)

Did you use oil or powdered cinnamon in the marshmallows? I have had luck with the powdered and a tiny bit of oil added for an extra kick.

[Kerry Beal]

The texture is really neat once dipped, that crunch through the top layer of dark chocolate into the marshmallow then the wonderfully smooth ganache.  I'm up here in Manitoulin again and Beth and I have been discussing whether or not we like the cinnamon in the marshmallow.  It detracts from the flavour when you eat them undipped, but changes somewhat once they are dipped.  I noticed this same thing when I added orange flower water to marshmallow once, undipped they tasted kind of vile, but dipped they just tasted 'right'. 

I also made the mint meltaways.  I made half a batch, using a 50-50 mix of milk and dark chocolate, 5 drops of mint oil and about 10 drops of lemon oil.  You can't taste the lemon oil at all.  The only marble slab I have here is about 18 inches round, and the meltaway mixture becomes very fluid when you stir in the coconut oil, so instead of slabbing as directed, I put the bowl over some ice water and stirred until it started to thicken before pouring it out between the bars.  I dipped it in milk chocolate.  It turned out just as I expected, except the lack of lemon oil flavour.

←

Kerry, I had the same thing with the lemon oil. No flavour at all, but had used all dark. Thanks for trying the 50-50 mix, that was my next trial.

Too hot to play with chocolate here (no air-conditioning in Seattle!)

Did you use oil or powdered cinnamon in the marshmallows? I have had luck with the powdered and a tiny bit of oil added for an extra kick.

←

I used the powdered cinnamon. Next trial I think I'll just use a whopping dose of vanilla and see how I like it.

[David J.]

Over the last couple of days I have made two things from the book.  The first was the Hot Chocolates.  They are a layer of marshmallow, flavoured with cinnamon and a layer of dark chocolate ganache.

The recipe called for using a frame 12 by 12 by 1/4 inch for the marshmallow then adding a second 1/4 inch frame for the ganache layer, however at 12 by 12 the chocolates turned out about 1 inch thick.

←

Kerry,

Would you recommend making them 1" tall or would you go with two frames at 1/2" tall next time? That looks interesting and I think I'll try it soon.

[Kerry Beal]

Over the last couple of days I have made two things from the book.  The first was the Hot Chocolates.  They are a layer of marshmallow, flavoured with cinnamon and a layer of dark chocolate ganache.

The recipe called for using a frame 12 by 12 by 1/4 inch for the marshmallow then adding a second 1/4 inch frame for the ganache layer, however at 12 by 12 the chocolates turned out about 1 inch thick.

←

Kerry,

Would you recommend making them 1" tall or would you go with two frames at 1/2" tall next time? That looks interesting and I think I'll try it soon.

←

That's a good question. At 1 inch tall (and I cut them 7/8 by 7/8) they are a little harder to dip because of the shape, but it gives a nice balance of textures. I'd say try them an inch first then experiment if you find them difficult to dip.

I also wonder if you are going to end up with a loftier marshmallow than I did if you are using a kitchen aid. Up here I have an old (and I mean old) mixmaster, so I probably don't get the most air incorporated.

[Kerry Beal]

I made the sesame squares. I used the suggested amounts of sesame seeds and sugar for the croquant, which makes a chunk of sesame seeds glued together with caramel. It crushed easily with a rolling pin. I mixed with the 150 grams of tempered dark chocolate, then rolled out between plastic. It made for a pretty thick layer, hard to roll out to 12 by 12. I trimmed it up this morning, got about 8 by 8 after trimming so made half a batch of the ganache with milk chocolate and tahini.

So far flavour is excellent, I didn't top with any sesame seeds because I want to play with some transfers so I'll dip these completely.

The instructions say to cut with a guitar. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT try to cut these with a guitar. The bottom layer is just a little too thick and firm for the guitar to handle. I stopped before I broke any strings, but I'm pretty sure if I had persisted the strings would have broken. If there was more chocolate and less croquant and the layer was thinner it might have worked.

[lapin d'or]

Today I made the nougat montelimar.

I only have a hand held mixer so things get a bit tricky when you are trying to whisk and watch the temperature on a pan of boiling sugar at the same time.

I used all almonds for the nut inclusions and dried apricot, dried pear and candied melon for the fruit inclusions. I flavoured with a little orange flower water instead of vanilla as I was using orange blossom honey. I may have over done the orange water flavour for some tastes but I really like it.

My attempts at wrapping in cellophane are pretty comical. I doubt I have air tight packages but I think it will get eaten fairly quickly. I halved the recipe but got the pan size a bit wrong so a smaller pan would have been better. The good side to that was there were lots of raggy edges that needed trimming off (and tasting) so the wrapping stage was quite a treat.

[choux]

I've got the Cocomel filling cooling and I'm going to dip them tonight. So far the components taste really good, I'm sure adding chocolate will only improve them. I've also made the sesame squares, New World Nougat and Chocolate marshmallows. I love his marshmallow recipe, it is the easiest to cut that I've made. It is dense but fluffy if that makes any sense.

So far the only thing I haven't liked from this book are his slabbed ganache recipes where you mix the butter into the tempered chocolate and then add the cream. They work alright, but the resulting texture feels waxy to me.

[Lior]

Hi everyone! I have been away for awhile and have been glued to the computer trying to catch up. The transfer demo is amazing. Thank you! I also made the sesame squares. As I do not have a guitar I had to cut them by hand. They came out too tall! I had great difficulty dipping them up to a certain point- it never came out an even dipping line. I ended up dipping the whole thing and then sprinkling sesame seeds on the top of the chocolate. I did like them a lot. Any suggestions about dipping and getting an even line?

Thanks!

Lior

[Kerry Beal]

Hi everyone! I have been away for awhile and have been glued to the computer trying to catch up. The transfer demo is amazing. Thank you! I also made the sesame squares. As I do not have a guitar I had to cut them by hand. They came out too tall! I had great difficulty dipping them up to a certain point- it never came out an even dipping line. I ended up dipping the whole thing and then sprinkling sesame seeds on the top of the chocolate. I did like them a lot. Any suggestions about dipping and getting an even line?

Thanks!

Lior

←

I think your best chance of getting an even line is to have the chocolate as warm as possible so it isn't as viscous. But I just dipped them all the way.

[choux]

I thought the sesame squares were kind of 'light' and didn't sink very weel, I kept losing them off my fork because they didn't feel the same to me. So maybe if you want to dip them to a line you could try pushing them down as far as you need them? I dipped the whole thing and used transfers si I didn't attempt this. I really didn't like the sesame squares, they reminded me of 'Sez-me-snaps" and I hate those things.

The Cocomels on the other hand..

Edited July 30, 2007 by choux (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Hi everyone! I have been away for awhile and have been glued to the computer trying to catch up. The transfer demo is amazing. Thank you! I also made the sesame squares. As I do not have a guitar I had to cut them by hand. They came out too tall! I had great difficulty dipping them up to a certain point- it never came out an even dipping line. I ended up dipping the whole thing and then sprinkling sesame seeds on the top of the chocolate. I did like them a lot. Any suggestions about dipping and getting an even line?

Thanks!

Lior

←

Having a little flash back to JPW dipping like this. What he did was place the chocolate on top of the pool of chocolate and use the handle of the fork to push it down to the level he wanted, then turn the fork over and fish it out.

[Lior]

Hi. I hope this reply does not show up twice... I had some trouble...

I used whole tehina, which I love, and anyway, tehina used savoury is almost a basic food here, so it is a well like taste. I am trying to attach a photo-with no luck...

Lior

[Lior]

My apologies if this does not work

[lebowits]

Hi everyone! I have been away for awhile and have been glued to the computer trying to catch up. The transfer demo is amazing. Thank you! I also made the sesame squares. As I do not have a guitar I had to cut them by hand. They came out too tall! I had great difficulty dipping them up to a certain point- it never came out an even dipping line. I ended up dipping the whole thing and then sprinkling sesame seeds on the top of the chocolate. I did like them a lot. Any suggestions about dipping and getting an even line?

Thanks!

Lior

←

I think your best chance of getting an even line is to have the chocolate as warm as possible so it isn't as viscous. But I just dipped them all the way.

←

Another piece in the Greweling book which is dipped up to the top surface is the "Pistachio Hommage". I took a class with Chef Greweling and he taught us to thin the dipping chocolate with melted cocoa butter before you temper it. This lets you check the consistency of the product. The hazelnut marzipan piece (I can't remember the name right now) also uses thinned dipping chocolate to great effect.

While I was dipping my pistachio pieces, I would gently hold them on my dipping fork and by the pistachio nut placed on top (held in place by a tiny bit of chocolate). I would then gently tilt my dipping fork while lowering the piece into the bowl. This let me control how far down the piece went into the bowl. I then lifted the piece back up onto the levelled fork and finished as normal.

In my case this was needed because my pieces were too tall and did not "float" in the tempered chocolate as well as they should.

Hope this is helpful.

[lebowits]

Over the last few days, I've made 2 of the pieces from Chef Greweling's book. First, I made the the "Toasted Hazelnut Marzipan" (p. 348), and then the "Pistachio Homage" (p. 370).

The hazelnut piece was straightforward and relatively easy to execute. My one failure in this piece was to not thin the dipping chocolate enough before tempering. When Chef Greweling taught this piece in a class I took with him in September 2006, he demonstrated that the goal is to have the thinned chocolate ever so slightly reveal the lightly colored nut on top across it's peak.

Here are a couple of pictures:

and...

The pistachio piece was a bit more difficult as I made it over 2 days. My youngest nephew was in town and wanted to make candy, so the few hours I had left after making the pistachio marzipan were taken up by making milk chocolate truffles with him. In the end, I had to refrigerate my marzipan overnight which dried it out a bit. Perhaps if I worked it a bit before rolling it out I would have wound up with a better product. I'll have to experiment with that next time.

I'm betting that to achieve the same look of the nut on top, I would need to blanch and peel the nuts and then pull them apart into 1/2 pieces. Since blanching and peeling the nuts for the marzipan was rather lengthy I did not do it here. I think I'll do it though next time. Hopefully, I'll find a good reliable source for peeled pistachios. I have a post elsewhere to which someone replied to try Corti Bros., however a quick check of their website didn't turn up anythng (yet).

I also did not texture the top of the piece as I believed that the marzipan was too stiff to be run through with a cake comb.

Finally, this piece suffered from being too large by half. The method calls for using 1/4 inch rulers for the frame and the best I had was 3/8. I'm going to order some 1/4 inch bars this week to correct that.

I have to admit that I love the flavor of this piece even with it's flaws. I am also now convinced that a guitar is a very useful device to have around. Cutting this was much too time consuming and prone to error.

Here are pics of this piece:

and...

[Lior]

Okay. Did you get a straight line? I realize I am still in need of much practice to perfect my techniques, but it seems so hard to get a straight line of chocolate. I will try again.

Thanks so much!

Lior

[prairiegirl]

Cocomel: Has anyone made this one? Do I need to add Frappe to it?

[Kerry Beal]

Cocomel: Has anyone made this one?  Do I need to add Frappe to it?

←

I haven't made it, but if you aren't in to making Frappe, just add marshmallow fluff.

[prairiegirl]

Kerri, Where would I find albumin? Would I go to a pharmacy or to a health food store? I am in Calgary.

[choux]

I've made the Cocomels and yeah, I'd kind of say you do need to add frappe. It's easy to make and will keep for a while. I cut the recipe by 1/4 and had enough for 3 half-batches. You definitely need it to make the texture lighter, and I think marshmallow fluff would work. Don't forget the salt, it seems like a lot but it is a great foil for the sweetness of the coconut mixture.

I love the Cocomels, they're my new favourite chocolate.