Hi, can you give me advice on the production of chocolate pralines? I need molds and another equipment?!
hello all ,
this is great info and i;m gonna try it out , i;m searching for a long shelf life mint filling for my dark chocolates .
which is the ideal one of these to start with .
thanks in advance.
Here is a little followup after months of searching, testing. I managed to make this last christmas after the first peppermint test I started here in this post.
Put 3 lbs sugar into a saucepan and add 15 oz water and mix, heat gently until it reaches 107 C
Add 280gr glucose and and mix. increase heat and bring temperature up to 115 - 118 C Boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool to about 45c the mixture should be clear.
Beat the mixture with a wooden spoon, it will gradually begin to become white and thicker. If it becomes to thick ad a little water to keep the consistency right. Add flacor and color.
Pipe into pralines.
This worked great and I got a lot of compliments.
Easy way is to start with a basic fondant, then make a bob or thinning syrup of sucrose and glucose syrup at a level and ratio to make the creme thin enough to use and give you the final texture you're looking for. Starting with a basic fondant or better yet making your own(its own topic)will give you a much smaller crystal andsmoother/creamier texture. Most basic fondant is an S-10 type, meaning 10 parts glucose syrup solids to 100 parts sucrose.You can hold the basic fondant for weeks, just using as needed with the thinning syrup, saving a lot of time in production. If you need to lighten the texture and reduce sweetnesss you can add a frappe.
Hi and thanks for the recipe. I tried your recipe for the "trimoline" , Its a good recipe but my outcome was far from perfect it came out a bit "cheap tasting"
I think the chocolate I used where a bit to sweet. It got a bit to sweet together with the peppermint creme. Here is a follow up question. Is there really difference between glucose syrup and trimoline?
The classic sugar syrup is always 2 parts granulated sugar with 1 part water.
Ill try using darker more bitter chocolate next time combined with boiling the "trimoline/glucose syrup" a bit further.
Thanks for sharing and also please let me know if you find any good recipe for fillings in the internet.
Hi Brad
I tried the drinking chocolate yesterday its wonderful so chocolaty.
I made it by mixing the corn starch with the powdered sugar first, then I added the ground cocoa paste 96% cs, I boiled the milk and whisked in the dry mix brought back to boil and let simmer for 2 minutes to thicken.
I did it this way as I intend to supply the mix in a bag for sale.
Do you think this is an ok way to make it. It tasted fantastic and I could not taste the corn starch in it.
(Also whats called corn flour in Ireland and the UK , is actually maize starch, I checked the back of the pack)
Louise.
It may be a translation thing. - I Googled "corn starch and Ireland" & found that in Europe, corn starch is called corn flour.
- Corn Starch - very fine, white powder, used to thicken gravies...
Corn Meal - Coarse bits of ground corn. i.e. Polenta.
Louise, is the corn flour you have that fine white powder?
Brad
Thank you for pointing out that corn starch is a different thing to corn flour, I never knew this, I have to get my hand on cor starch now, I live in Ireland and it is difficult to find some ingredients, As soon as I try it out I will let you know, it may be a few weeks before I can source corn starch.
Thanks
Louise
Louise;
There is a big difference between corn flour and corn starch. I don't use corn flour.
Brad.
You're welcome Larry;
There isa LOT of flavour variance from various types of beans and roasts. I currently import 5 different varieties of beans, and have found that only one of them makes an appealing drinking chocolate. The other 4 are too fruity (while I can roast out the fruitiness, it simply makes more sense to celebrate that characteristic in another way, and find a bean that works betterfor drinking chocolate)
In the meantime, your use of unsweetened baking chocolate (aka liquor) is a BIG improvement from cocoa powder, even if the liquor isn't as good of quality as that from premium beans. I'm sure you even noticed the difference right away.
The drinks I have created (and am currently working on) have become so popular that they represent almost 1/3 of each store's revenue, and are great for filling the sales void between "chocolate seasons". Combine that with some simple baked goods using our own in-house made liquor and it makes for pretty good months all around.
Cheers
Brad
I tried the recipe. I'm going to keep trying and playing with it. When you posted it, it connected a lot of dots. 
The light especially kicked on when I thought about using chocolate liquor instead of coverture or ganache. - There is less fat in liquor! In reading other recipes, some people complain about the cocoa butter separating out and forming an unappealing layer on top.
I don't have ready access to Chocolate Liquor, although I will find some. To try the recipe (I couldn't wait) I discovered the unsweetened baking chocolate at the grocery store is chocolate liquor. - at least the ingredient list simply states that it is "chocolate". I doubt that chocolate is from high quality flavor beans, but it was a good start.
I'm looking forward to trying many variations and will hopefully be able to get my hands on some liquor from high quality beans.
- Thinking about this, I wonder how much flavor, texture, and fat variance there is amongst various beans and roasts. This is a whole new area of chocolate to discover
I will also admit that heading up to Canada to try some O.M.G. is on my bucket list now.
Thank you for sharing the recipe Brad!
Brad
I haven't tried it yet, but im delighted with the formula, I buy chocolate coverture not liquor, I sell hot chocolate pack basically flaked chocolate and spices etc, they sell really well for me. I am going to try to come up with a recipe to sell the chocolate flakes with the cornflour included so the result is a thickened drink. Have you any recommendation of how I might achieve this, maybe if I add a small amount of powdered sugar with the cornflour mixed in as per you recommendations and ratio, do you think this would work?
Louise
So Louise, did you try the recipe I supplied?
Hi Andy
Thank you for some great recipes, they both sound great.
Louise
We do not sell this in a take-home form. I don't think it'd be hard to make a take home form. Making it a pretty take home form would be a challenge and keep the cost down. It would also be a very temporary product since we don't add stabilizers or preservatives to our products.
Like I mentioned it's our truffles just without an enrobing. So you're dealing with a butter/cream ganache. I mix something like 31g of ganache in a demitasse with hot frothed milk to it and stir until you get something like pudding and then add more to dilute--or not depending on the customer.
Now for a hot chocolate (not sipping chocolate) which will take a vast amount more milk I make a cacao based syrup out of a dark and a mild cocoas, a little sugar, vanilla and water. Thicken, reduce, squeeze bottle it, and that just lasts.
Andy
This sound really interested also. The cream in the ganache would help thicken the hot chocolate I presume. Do you sell hot chocolate packs for your customer to bring home? Is it a truffle mixture you use?
Louise
Brad
I really appreciate that you shared this recipe with me, I have been trying to replicate the hot chocolate we get on our holidays in Italy and Croatia and have failed, I;m going to give it a go for sure to your recipe, I am looking forward to going weak at the knees, thats what I love about chocolate...
Louise
We have a new shop with a cafe element, we've done away with pre-prepped notions. We have blocks of our ganache ready and weighed. We heat them lightly then blend them with frothed milk to a proportion the customer wants. Thick to stand a spoon up, or diluted to a more hot chocolate. It's simple, we always have ganache on hand for enrobing and it's as close to a liquid truffle as you'll get. So one further option if you don't have a cafe is to just pick up a steamer and prep on demand takes <45s per serving and you're always fresh.
Louise;
Cornstarch is balanced between the ratio of milk and sugar and liquor. More liquor and sugar and less milk, and the drink ends up thick enough that you don't need cornstarch. In our case, our drinking chocolate is not dark at all, and a bit sweet, so with the lack of liquor we need cornstarch. Here is my base recipe. The trick here is to mix the cornstarch into the sugar first so it doesn't clump up, and then bring the milk/sugar/cornstarch mix to a boil before adding the liquor.
4L homogonized milk
450g liquor
900g sugar
60g cornstarch
Have fun, and into each 200ml add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp cloves, then top with whipped cream and a good sprinkle of nutmeg. (make sure you're sitting down when you try it. Your knees will go weak!)
Cheers
Brad
Brad
How much cornstarch do you add to your hot chocolate to thicker it. I have experimented and have fouund that the cornstarch taste come through the hot chocolate. Louise
I have the Benchmark dispenser . I do not love it. I don't hate it -- but I do not love it. It does not hold my chocolate at the temperature it is set to. I heat it on the stove top to temp, then let the dispenser keep it there, but it's usually about 15 degrees less than the highest temp on the device. It's also a condensation nightmare.
I wouldn't recommend this one personally.
Thanks Brad.
I figured that something was turning rancid. We had the machines turned to 60 degrees C. Not sure what it is in Fahrenheit.. So should we have turned them up higher? I figured above 65c would be too high. What I didn't like about the steaming was the foamy textures. I might try adjust the recipe again. Also hoping to use this at a stall without any kind of coffee machine (only a chocolate machine). Has anyone else ever had their mix turn rancid so quickly?
Cheers
Your milk products are going rancid. The temperature of your contents needs to be above 165 degrees F to stop bacteria growth. Anything less, and you are essentially creating a one gallon petrie dish.
The problem with the types of machines listed here is that if the temp is too low, your milk product is souring. If the temperature is too high, your product is separating and you are getting a skim of cocoa butter on top (not appealing to look at). I have a couple of them, and stopped using them. Now, my staff creates a "base", refrigerates it, and then just steams it as needed. This is much safer from a pathogenic perspective, and there is almost no waste, as a refrigerated product lasts longer than our demand allows it to.
It is VERY possible to create an absolutely fabulous drink by steaming it. Here are 150+ online reviews of our drinking chocolates in a recent competition we won: http://yychotchocolate.com/omg/
Oh... if you want to make a very nice sour cream, just leave a litre of buttermilk on your counter for 8 hours, and strain off the thin liquids. I do that quite often instead of buying it in the store.
Cheers.
Brad
Great recommendations people!
Instead of starting a new thread, (which I might do later anyway) I thought I would ask all of you experts here. We have a small chocolate & patisserie boutique. We make everything there from scratch. Anyway, we originally made our hot chocolate by making a ganache and then steaming it with a little exta milk added. We weren't keen on doing this so we decided to get a continuos hot chocolate machine. The first one we boght was kind of cheap, around $300 Aus $. After having the machine on for a few hours we noticed the flavour would change and then eventually turn rancid and off smelling. It seemed to be happening sooner and sooner and so we thought we'd bought a dudd machine that maybe was only good for powder mixes etc. So eventually we invested in a better machine. it was around $700, and it heats via a baine marie. We thought this would be a lot better, and it was for a little while but eventually it has started to do the same thing. Yesterday it went bad after only 5-6 hours of putting the fresh batch in.
The weird thing is, it seems to happen a lot less if I change the recipe to have no cream in it, only milk. (not a fan of this either). I have eventually tried modifying the recipes a lot, but my favourite recipe which is a modification from a very skilled French chocolatier, seems to go bad every time. Anyone know if it could be that certain creams have fats that go off quicker?
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance
Chantelle
