a chocolate bow?.....

Today was chocolate box day. We had the choice of a round box or a square box. It had to be made of two types of chocolate with a base, walls and removable lid plus a chocolate bow on top.

The box that I went with is 7x7" and it's about 2" tall (not counting the bow). I piped a pattern of milk chocolate on a sheet of acetate. When it had set, I spread a layer of dark chocolate over it. I then measured and scored the chocolate for the necessary pieces and shapes. When the chocolate was fully set, the shapes broke right along the scored lines. The bow is made of dark chocolate. It wasn't that difficult to make but it was time consuming. Granted, it was my first one, but it took about 4 hours to make the whole thing. I was pretty wasteful but I probably used $20 worth of chocolate. I think a 7x7 box would cost over $50.

Smaller chocolate boxes are popular in restaurants. It's common to fill them with truffles. It's also common for a small box to be used to hold an engagement ring. Ahhhh...

one quart of cream, 8 egg yolks and a cup of sugar...

One of my favorite gadgets at school has been the ice cream maker. It recently occurred to me that my KitchenAid at home has an ice cream attachment. It's more similar to an old fashioned ice cream churn but it is still an ice cream maker. I dusted it off today and gave it a try.

I've had candy canes in the back of my cupboard since the Clinton administration so I dusted those off as well and made some peppermint ice cream. I made a creme anglaise with the cream, yolks and sugar and started the churning process. I crushed a dozen candy canes and added it to the churn toward the end of the freezing process. The result was 2 quarts of really creamy ice cream with a nice peppermint taste.

The instructions mentioned that a less fattening (and less creamy) alternative would be the substitution of milk or skim milk for the cream. Are they kidding?

what a day....

Woke up at 6:00 and made some pumpkin bread. Ran the Turkey Trot (5 miles) at 9:30 with an old running buddy and 14,000 fellow Austinites. Went to a Thanksgiving buffet at 12:30 at the Carillon restaurant near the UT campus. Made myself uncomfortable from eating too much. Came home and took a 1 hour nap. Watched some football. Completed the circle by eating some pumpkin bread for dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving....

giving jf cooper his props...

Today's assignment was to design and make a candy bar. It had to have 3 elements and here's what I came up with...

I decided to do a semi-spherical shape. A bar shaped candy bar seems like it's been done to death. The outer shell is tempered dark chocolate and under that is a thin layer of Oreo cookie crumbs. Working from the top down (inside) is a layer of chocolate ganache flavored with Amaretto, a layer of marshmallow and a layer of chewy, chocolate caramel on the bottom.

We had to come up with a name for our creation and it took me forever to select one. After many hours of thought, I decided to name it "The Natty Bumpo". Natty never talked much but I think he would have liked this....

not for brittle teeth....

Today was the last day of confections. It was still cooked sugar but the theme was caramel. Some people believe in karma but I believe in caramel.

The squares are toffee, the yellow pieces are honeycomb and the other is peanut brittle.

I ate so much peanut brittle today, I'm feeling a little queasy...

an affection for confections....

Chocolates are done and we have moved into confections. If you drill down one more layer, this first week is candy made from boiled sugar. The task for Friday was to produce 6 confections (12 each). Here they are....

The pink diamonds are peppermint flavored marshmallows.

The purple squares are pate de fruit (pa de fwee). If you ever had Chuckles as a kid, you've had these. Sort of a gummy, fruity, candy.

The orange sticks are candied orange zest dipped in chocolate.

The white candy with the black stripes is divinity. I added toasted coconut and walnuts.

The brown/black candy is New Orleans style praline dipped in dark chocolate. This praline has cream and milk in the recipe and I like the taste better than the traditional Mexican praline.

The little squares are marzipan (almond paste) with tiny bits of candied orange zest and dipped in dark chocolate.

Chocolate project #2.....

Project #2 was a 3 day project and we had to turn in a dozen chocolates for 6 different varieties. Here they are (working from the outside inward)...
The yellow ones are passion fruit truffles. If you zoom in you'll see that they are covered in sugar crystals.
The irregular shapes are caramelized almonds that are stuck together while hot (ouch), dipped in chocolate and then striped with white chocolate.
Those little guys are knackerli. A dime sized disk of tempered chocolate is piped out and a pistachio, dried cranberry and raisin are set in place. I initially thought they were silly but they are tasty.
The squares are chewy chocolate caramel, dipped in chocolate and then embossed with a transfer sheet (hearts).
The "ovals" are mimosa truffles. That translates into champagne flavored ganache in a chocolate mold.
The bad boys in the center are molded chocolate with orange flavored ganache in the middle.
I actually had some free time so I made some bite size molded chocolates with peanut butter inside (not pictured). They aren't your typical Reeses Peanut Butter cup.

molded (not moldy) chocolates....

Day 1 of molded chocolates - The outside shell is tempered dark chocolate. Inside is a creme anglaise based ganache, flavored with orange oils and Cointreau. Before I poured the outer shell, I painted the inside of the mold with gold dust (edible) and orange colored cocoa butter. The outer shell sets in about 5 minutes. Then pipe in the ganache and seal the mold with chocolate to form the bottom.

Did I mention they were tasty? As luck would have it, a couple had defects so I had to dispose of them the old fashioned way. I ate them. It's a messy process but it is definitely worth it.

nobody knows the truffle i've seen...

This block is only 3 days old and I'm already in chocolate heaven. We had to make and present 4 different truffles (a dozen each) and here is the result. From the center outward....

The candies in the center is a muscadine. It is a milk chocolate and praline ganache, flavored with Cointreau and covered in tempered milk chocolate.

The "spikey" truffle is a milk chocolate ganache flavored with Cognac and covered in tempered milk chocolate.

Next is a Rochet which is a dark chocolate ganache mixed with crushed feuilletine (think sugar cones). It is then covered in tempered dark chocolate and rolled in chopped, roasted almonds. It's like an outrageous Nestle's Crunch Bar.

Last is a dark chocolate truffle rolled in cocoa powder.

The happy thought is that we were able to bring them home. My little presentation platter only represents half of what I made. I'm overrun with chocolate and it's only Wednesday. Anybody want some truffles?

temper, temper.....

The chocolate and sugar block has started. For the next 6 weeks, I'll be using the word "temper" quite a bit so here's a quick explanation....

The biggest use of chocolate is for coating. To give it a nice shine and to make it resistant to melting in your hand, raw chocolate needs to be tempered. I'll use dark chocolate (is there any other kind) as an example. Melt approximately 70% of your chocolate over a double boiler and do not exceed 120F. Toss in the remaining 30% of your chocolate (off heat) and stir until melted. Continue stirring until it cools to 84F. Flash it back over the double boiler until it is in the 86 - 89F range. You can now dip your ganache balls to get a nice coating that will shine and won't melt in your hand. note: if you go over 90 during the reheating, it's no good and you need to start over. Milk chocolate and white chocolate have different temperature requirements but it's the same procedure.

the age of aquarius....

It appears that the mother of my make believe bride was a child of the 60's. That's how I'm explaining all of the flowers on my wedding cake...

Anyway, it's done and here it is. 3 Italian Cream cakes and cheese cream frosting with each cake covered in fondant. It's a little greener than I had hoped but I'm happy with the way the cake turned out. I've never heard of Italian cream cake but I'm a new fan. It's very light and the secret ingredient is coconut. I intend to whip some up in cupcake form as soon as possible.

My last class starts on Monday. It's a 6 week class focused on sugar, chocolate and candy. The timing for a chocolate class is perfect with the holidays coming up. I hope chocolate truffles are on some Christmas wish lists because that's what you're getting!

By the way - our instructor always claimed that those flowers were edible. I tried one and I have survived. Edible yes - Tasty no.

mix it up....

I'm in my final week of the cake block. The final project is a 3 tier wedding cake. The tiers are 12", 9" and 6" in diameter. To get the necessary height, I'm making 6 cakes which has forced me to this medium sized mixer. It's not as big as a Volkswagen but it's bigger than my KitchenAid. The cake is due on Friday. After baking the cakes today, I made 120 gum paste flowers. I was ready to scream...