Archive for chocolates

Newer Entries »

Saturday’s chocolate bonanza!

Posted in chocolates, confections with tags , , , on August 7, 2010 by thebrokenganache

I am beat! What a day. Some of my supplies finally came, thank goodness.  So I started the day off making chocolate nougat for a gourmet version of a 3 Musketeers bar. The process seemed easy enough; boiling sugar to 257F and pouring it into beating egg whites. Then adding dried milk, confectionary sugar, cocoa powder and melted  dark chocolate. The sticky part (pun intended) was when I couldn’t get the nougat out of the beater. It was so sticky it got over everything! Once off the beater I placed it on a lightly oiled pan to cool. It did have a nice chocolatey flavor but  it was a bit chewy, I wish it was more aerated and lighter. Speaking of light and fluffy I read that you can use nitric oxide canisters with tempered chocolate to achieve a really light aerated piece. Sounds cool but I think I need to get some of the basics down first.

As soon as the nougat was cooled I had to clean the kitchen because the stuff was just everywhere. Then it was on to making the Gianduja which is mix of hazelnut paste, milk chocolate confectionary sugar and butter . It tasted fine but I thought it needed a something so I added a little of the praline paste I made the other day. It added  just a hint of sweetness that it didn’t have before – Loved it.  From there it was off to vanilla bean butter cream! All it consists of is fondant which I had made earlier, softened butter and fresh vanilla bean. Yummy!  Then it was time to make mango patties, which are just like the peppermint patties I made awhile back but with mango puree. Unfortunately they didn’t come out. My proportions must have been off because they never properly set. So I have to try them again later.

Everything I made today was either molded or dipped in Valhrona 66% dark chocolate. Which may have not been the best choice for the gianduja and praline centers. Milk chocolate may have been better, the dark  chocolate seems a little overpowering.

Sorry no videos today Andy was out shooting but he took some  photos when he got back. Tomorrow I will do the gianduja molded in milk chocolate.

Till then!

Chocolate nougat bar

Gianduja molded chocolates

Gianduja molded chocolates

Vanilla butter cream molded chocolate

2 Comments »

Morning Update: Chocolate Hazelnut Pralines

Posted in chocolates, confections with tags , on August 2, 2010 by thebrokenganache

It was rough getting up so early , but it had to be done. I finally finished the hazelnut praline chocolates. Some of them came out with these really cool striation.  I wish I could say it was intentional, but it wasn’t. The only thing I can think of  that may have caused it  was that  there where some bits of unmelted chocolate still left in the tempered chocolate. So when I poured it and jiggled it around in  the molds ,they made their marks against the sides . I know a professional wouldn’t think they are perfect, but I love the design they made. And they taste great.

Off to work will post photos when I get home.

Chocolate hazelnut praline

12 Comments »

Tempered Tropical Bark?

Posted in confections with tags , , , on July 29, 2010 by thebrokenganache

Today at lunch eating my usual grilled cheese sandwich (‘usual’ meaning when I’m too pre-occupied with other things to think of what to order) I thought about what type of bark to make when I got home. Then all of a sudden I began to think about chocolate school and how I cant wait to begin. I have lists upon lists of questions that I would like answered; what’s better for this…? what’s great for that…?, how do you know when..?.etc. etc. I can be an impatient person when I’m passionate about something. I  have a need to soak up everything there is to know and become completely immersed in the subject and at the moment it’s chocolate.  Well enough of that, back to the bark…

So I decided I’m going to continue with the latin theme and make a tropical bark, of  dark and milk chocolate  topped with toasted almonds, dried papaya, pineapple, apricots, golden raisins and coconut.

Melting the milk chocolate to the right temperature was the easy part. But when it came time to ‘seed’ with the dark chocolate it took a lot of work since dark chocolate has a slightly higher melting point. It took some work to smooth out the bits.  I think by adding the dark chocolate to the milk chocolate gives the milk chocolate more depth and a richer flavor with less sweetness.

I decided to cut it into little squares for tastings  so I’m not sure if you can still call it  a bark. Whatever you want to call it-is good.  The different  textures and flavors are wonderful together. It’s a keeper. But then I realized that I may have gotten my first false temper. Which is when the chocolate looks/feels like it’s completely set but it’s not.  The reason I think it may be is  because it sticks a little to your fingers when you touch it, which it should not do or because it’s so thick it just has completely set . Need to check my temperatures may have been off somewhere in the process.

Chocolate Tropical bark

Chocolate tropical bar

6 Comments »

La Dulce Leche!

Posted in confections, how to videos with tags , , , , on July 28, 2010 by thebrokenganache

Tonight I made dark chocolate shells with a dulce leche cream filling. As I was chopping the chocolate I realized I didn’t have as much Callebaut chocolate as I thought I had so I added some Guittard, but not enough where you can tell the difference in taste. I also used transfer sheets for the first time. Transfer sheets are designs made out of cocoa butter thats printed on acetate and come in a variety of colors and patterns, which are used for the top of molded  and dipped chocolates. Everything was going smoothly up to that point. Then it all went down hill as I began to pipe the dulce leche. I noticed that peaks of the leche were not spreading out in the molds – but I continued piping the rest of the molds thinking that they would flatten over time. I was wrong!

I tried using a spatula to  spread out the leche and the peaks got bigger!! So I thought I should just pour the chocolate over top,  thinking that the heat would melt and flatten out the peaks.  Well that didn’t happen and when I scraped the mold clean the leche and the chocolate smeared! In a last ditch effort to save them I used a spatula to spread tempered chocolate on the bottom of each individual piece. My bottoms are lumpy. :(  It didn’t dawn on me until afterwards that I should have used a  lightly buttered spatula  to smooth out the peaks, that way the leche would not have stuck to the metal.

They  look pretty (sides & tops). I love the white  floral design on the tops from the transfer sheets and the chocolate has a great gloss, bottoms excluded. The dark chocolate seems to overpower the dulce leche centers in my opinion and I don’t think I gave a hard enough whack to the  back of mold when  draining the chocolate since the tops seem a little thick.

Next time I will try this with milk chocolate, thats not to sweet.

La Dulce Leche chocolates

Dark chocolate shells with dulce leche centers

22 Comments »

1st batch of molded chocolates

Posted in confections, how to videos with tags , , , , on July 26, 2010 by thebrokenganache

I just made my first batch of molded chocolates. A milk chocolate carmel and cognac center with a dark chocolate shell. A 5 hour process but it was worth it. The main reason it took so long is because we had to wait for the ganache to cool to 75F. They came out perfectly. Nice shine fabulous flavor – I couldn’t have asked for anything more for my first time!

I am thrilled with the outcome – taste test tomorrow!

Molded chocolates

First batch of molded chocolates!

milk chocolate caramel and cognac ganache

milk chocolate caramel and cognac ganache

14 Comments »

Day 2 / The challenge of truffles

Posted in chocolates, confections with tags , on July 18, 2010 by thebrokenganache

Started out early today running around town getting supplies for my ganaches and looking for ‘Agar powder’ which no one seems to know of or carry. I guess I will have to order online.  To tell you the truth at the moment I cant even remember why I needed it.  So after all the running around I finally made it home and I began to make my ganaches.  I made a white chocolate with vanilla and espresso, a milk chocolate with home made peanut butterm a white chocolate with the orange confit  and vanilla that I made yesterday, and a plain white chocolate and vanilla ganach (which was just wrong – note to self dont make that again) The others were great though.

As soon as all the ganaches were done with Andy’s help of course we were off to the movies to see ‘Inception’ I actually enjoyed the film.  I like the concept of dreams and reality which is more real.  At the moment my dream is to become an accomplished confectioner.  So if I dream it – it will come true.  Anyway as soon as we got home I scooped out all the ganaches and rolled them into little balls and reved up the chocolate tempering machine.  I started rolling the ganaches in my hand the way I saw it done in a video.  Very very messy buisness, that chocolate just went EVERYWHERE!  The choclate didnt seem to have the gloss or sheen I was hoping for.  Need to read more on temping to see what the problem was. Oh I forgot I also dipped the soft caramels from yesterday – They dont look too pretty but they taste great!

Thats it for now I will keep plugging away (photos to follow).

Chocolate dipped soft caramels

First batch of Truffles

1st batch of Truffles

1 Comment »

Newer Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.