Keeping my temper...
Sep. 20th, 2009 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susie_floThose of you who have noticed my recent blitherings on Facebook will be unsurprised to hear that I have spent the WHOLE flipping weekend making chocolates. A large part of it on the insane fafferama that is the tempering process*.
So now that I'm finished, I thought I would share the fruits of my labours...
First, the Mint Thins. These have *exactly* the look and texture that I was after... but sadly the flavour is not right. The chocolate is extremely dark and the mint sugar crisp is not minty enough (next time I will double the quantity of mint extract). The result is like the chocolate equivalent of a bitter espresso...
Next, the Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Pralines. Behold the shiny! This is what you get for bothering to temper the chocolate. These were the most labour intensive chocs I made this weekend... I learned that praline involves toasting hazelnuts, setting them inside a solid slab of dark caramel and then blitzing the result in the food processor for eons until it turns into a liquid paste. Then you use that as an ingredient in the ganache, which is piped into the centre of the moulded shells. It took the best part of two days.... but they do taste amazing!
Finally, the White Chocolate Frangelico Truffles. For these, I learned how to temper white chocolate (it requires different temperatures to dark choc). I used Green & Blacks White choc, so the little black specks are the vanilla seeds that they include. The filling inside these is truly the food of the gods. It's a tweaked version of my old favourite ganache recipe, using a high cocoa % milk chocolate mixed with a small amount of white chocolate, a slosh of double cream and *loads* of Frangelico. It is whipped up into a wonderfully light, fluffy texture and piped into the centre of the prepared shells. You can feel it settling on your thighs with every mouthful...
If anyone is interested in more pics showing how the praline was made and other steps in progress, I've uploaded a set to Flickr here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanflockhart/sets/72157622294182971/
So anyway... that was my weekend, and now I feel a bit sick.
* For anyone not aware, tempering is what professional chocolatiers do in order to make the chocolate shiny, hard and crisp. It's the result of a very specific chemical reaction that can only be achieved by heating the chocolate to a certain temperature, then cooling it to another temperature, and then heating it again, and then keeping it at that level. If you get the temperatures wrong at any of the three points, you have to start again. If you go too high, you have to throw it away. Hence... total fafferama, but gives a professional finish.
So now that I'm finished, I thought I would share the fruits of my labours...
First, the Mint Thins. These have *exactly* the look and texture that I was after... but sadly the flavour is not right. The chocolate is extremely dark and the mint sugar crisp is not minty enough (next time I will double the quantity of mint extract). The result is like the chocolate equivalent of a bitter espresso...
Next, the Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Pralines. Behold the shiny! This is what you get for bothering to temper the chocolate. These were the most labour intensive chocs I made this weekend... I learned that praline involves toasting hazelnuts, setting them inside a solid slab of dark caramel and then blitzing the result in the food processor for eons until it turns into a liquid paste. Then you use that as an ingredient in the ganache, which is piped into the centre of the moulded shells. It took the best part of two days.... but they do taste amazing!
Finally, the White Chocolate Frangelico Truffles. For these, I learned how to temper white chocolate (it requires different temperatures to dark choc). I used Green & Blacks White choc, so the little black specks are the vanilla seeds that they include. The filling inside these is truly the food of the gods. It's a tweaked version of my old favourite ganache recipe, using a high cocoa % milk chocolate mixed with a small amount of white chocolate, a slosh of double cream and *loads* of Frangelico. It is whipped up into a wonderfully light, fluffy texture and piped into the centre of the prepared shells. You can feel it settling on your thighs with every mouthful...
If anyone is interested in more pics showing how the praline was made and other steps in progress, I've uploaded a set to Flickr here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanflockhart/sets/72157622294182971/
So anyway... that was my weekend, and now I feel a bit sick.
* For anyone not aware, tempering is what professional chocolatiers do in order to make the chocolate shiny, hard and crisp. It's the result of a very specific chemical reaction that can only be achieved by heating the chocolate to a certain temperature, then cooling it to another temperature, and then heating it again, and then keeping it at that level. If you get the temperatures wrong at any of the three points, you have to start again. If you go too high, you have to throw it away. Hence... total fafferama, but gives a professional finish.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 09:18 pm (UTC)But I don't think they will do well in the post... :-(
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Date: 2009-09-20 08:58 pm (UTC)You know, there is a comm on lj called food porn and this would fit in perfectly.
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Date: 2009-09-20 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 09:19 pm (UTC)Thanks for your comment, and for the hint about food porn, I will go and investigate....
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Date: 2009-09-20 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 09:20 pm (UTC)Nice icon :-)
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Date: 2009-09-20 10:01 pm (UTC)A wise man once defined an eclair as a cake long in shape but short in duration.
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Date: 2009-09-20 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 11:15 pm (UTC)