One down, one to go (was: chocolate tempering)
 

I'm making chocolate rounds for the girolle. One is
tempered (or my attempt at tempering using the seeding
technique) and the other will be untempered. I have
to wait until the first one cools down before making
the second one, because I'm using the girolle itself
for casting. I bought a couple cylindrical food
containers of appropriate dimensions to use as molds,
and drilled holes in them that are a tight fit for
the spike on the girolle. I'm casting into these
containers while they are on the girolle.

This should settle once and for all whether tempered
or untempered is better for this purpose. I'm attending
a dinner party this evening where the finished articles
will be tested. Most of the guests are scientists,
so they will appreciate the experimental nature of
this exercise.

It's the first time I've ever attempted to temper
chocolate or use a double boiler. I was so caught up
in temperature control that I neglected to wipe the
condensation off bottom of the pot when casting the
first round, and a drop or two of water ended up in the
chocolate, but it was so late in the process the
chocolate didn't have a chance to seize or otherwise
acknowledge the presence of any water.

Another mistake I made was to allow the chocolate
to set on a surface that was not quite level. Not
a big deal, but I'll remember that if there ever
is a next time.

The chocolate is Guittard 72% bittersweet. I have it
on good authority (Alex Rast) that Guittard products
combine first-rate quality with cost-effectveness.
My experience so far coincides with that opinion.
See's buys chocolate for their confections from
Guittard.

In hunting down information on making chocolate
flowers with the girolle, I found a site that said
the blade should be rotated clockwise. That didn't
make sense to me because I thought the blade was
symmetric, but I was wrong. It is asymmetric.

I saw Jacques Pepin make a rose out of a stick of
butter today on TV, using only a knife to scrape it.
Wow. That is skill.

One down, one to go
 

On Sat, 04 Dec 2010 15:01:33 -0800, Mark Thorson wrote:

> This should settle once and for all whether tempered
> or untempered is better for this purpose. I'm attending
> a dinner party this evening where the finished articles
> will be tested. Most of the guests are scientists,
> so they will appreciate the experimental nature of
> this exercise.

Pictures are worth a thousand words. Please post the former :-)

Seriously. We hardcore food addicts take pictures of our work even
if we're not scientific nor goremays. Or photographers. We just
like to see the approach and results wether it turns out or not.

It's not a contest, which some people seem to think it is.

I admit I'm guilty of the Brick Thing and table of John's. And
anything of Sheldon's. But I do post many of my pics here and
twice as many in ABF for criticism.

-sw

One down, one to go
 

Sqwertz wrote:
>
> Pictures are worth a thousand words. Please post the former :-)

Yes, I recently bought a camera (Canon SX130).
I will post some pictures to alt.binaries.cooking
or whatever it is. This is your last warning.