Making the world a little sweeter one pastry tip at at time.
It’s coming up soon, and the finalists are preparing for it. Cacao Barry’s annual L’Art du Chocolatier Challenge is a competition that requires skill, creativity, and design expertise using the French chocolate. While call-for-entries had 37 submissions nationwide, there are only seven pastry chefs chosen …read more
Always looking for something new as an ingredient for desserts, I spotted this liqueur. It’s a vodka-based cream liqueur, and the makers are touting it as an adult version of the classic treat – chocolate milk. Instead of the usual Irish cream or the heather honey …read more
I always referred to this method as the ‘marble method’ since I tempered the chocolate on a slab of marble or on a marble table. It’s also referred to as ‘tabling’ since the chocolate is worked on a flat surface, i.e. a marble table.
Here is a demonstration that was filmed in a cooking school (or a pastry/baking school? – the video doesn’t state the source) of an instructor tempering the chocolate on a marble.
Chef Schorner’s tip:
Feel the bottom of the bowl that the chocolate is in. There’s an old saying, if you feel it warmer than your body, it’s usually too warm. If it feels colder than your body, it’s usually too cold.
His method:
Assorted Candy – Morguefile.com I recently viewed a candy slideshow from Delish.com showing many different brands and kinds of candy that can no longer be found. Some were very familiar (Marathon bars!) and some I’d like to try now. That got me to thinking about …read more
The Divine World of Chocolate will be held at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks on October 28-30th. It will be for the whole family, and the group holding it expect crowds of between 5 to 7,000 people. They are currently looking for exhibitors. …read more
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| Source: Barry Callebaut |
Barry Callebaut is helping food manufacturers with the demand for healthier products, which includes confectionery and chocolate items. Callebaut’s new dark chocolate is made with Stevia, which has replaced the sugar entirely. The new chocolate product contains zero calories/serving, but with the same taste and texture as traditional chocolate. Stevia is a natural product, and is safe for everyone.
This chocolate will have the same properties as all traditional chocolate, so it can be used in all chocolate applications such as enrobing, molding, and all types of fillings and mixes.
Visit Barry Callebaut for more information on the new Stevia chocolate.
Is chocolate really a healthy food? The makers of CocoPreggers would like you to think that as you eat their chocolate, you’re doing something good for you and the little one. XAN Confections has created chocolate fortified with folic acid and DHA. This is the same …read more
A customized Kit Kat chocolate bar.Source: http://www.chocollabo.com/ You’ll have to move to Japan. There, you can create your very own custom chocolate Kit Kat bar with your favorite picture or saying. The Japanese can also purchase different flavors (some fun, some very unusual): Matcha …read more
From Barry Callebaut, the recognizable chocolate company has opened a pilot plant in Eddystone, PA, for research and development purposes. It will be a scaled-down version of an actual cocoa factory so it can produce new items for testing that can be recreated easily in their full factories. This is news as the new facility is in the US, and before, the only place R&D work was done in France. As a result, the company may provide better and faster service to its North American customers.
It can handle everything needed for mass cocao production: from a de-huller for cocoa beans (called a winnower), to a nib roaster to will roast the hull-less cocoa beans, all the way to a cocoa powder mill which processes a solid cocoa product into a usable powder.
The contact info for the US Barry Callebaut locations:
Read more about the new facility from Barry Callebaut.
It’s not too late: Long Grove Chocolate Fest, April 30, May 1 and 2. http://www.longgroveonline.com/chocolate.html Event Poster of Events.
