In our second day of chocolate, we learned a different way to temper or gradually heat, cool and reheat chocolate so that it stays glossy and smooth. It was a little bit more work than yesterday's method but it also seemed a little easier to work with. We heated the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water until it was 118F. Then we poured a third of the hot chocolate onto a marble block and used a couple of metal scrapers to move it around the block and cool it off. We added the cooled mixture to the hot chocolate and continued this process of cooling a third of the chocolate and adding it back to the hot chocolate until all the chocolate was 84F. Then, we reheated it to 87F and used it to coat both sides of a buttercrunch candy we had made earlier.
Chocolate-Coated Buttercrunch
We also made gianduja, which you will hopefully see tomorrow or Monday, and we made some caramelized almonds. The almonds, which are so good, we made by boiling sugar, water and a vanilla bean to 240F. We added the almonds, mixed them into the sugar until the sugar crystallized on them and after they cooled we glazed them in chocolate and dusted them with confectioner's sugar or cocoa powder.
Caramelized Almonds in Confectioner's Sugar
I'm not entirely sure what we've got on tomorrow but I guarantee that it involves chocolate... Oh yeah, if you are wondering, so far I'm doing rather well in keeping clean, apart from a couple little chocolate spots on my jacket, my whites are still pretty white! So far at least.
I think you could take your pot of chocolate outside and melt it without the stove, lol. I think this is so cool. I was always wondering how you get it so shiny. Beats paraffin! Have fun and stay cool.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not there besides eating most of the chocolate, I'd have it all over me as well, Stuff sure looks good Love Nan
ReplyDeleteWow! That sounds like a finicky way to make chocolate with all the temperature taking. But if it keeps the chocolate from getting cloudy it might be worth it. I often wondered why some chocolate had that funny coating and now I know!
ReplyDeleteThe caramelized almonds sounds so good! Might be something to add to a Christmas goodie bag.
I am glad that you are keeping clean. I have heard that getting laundry done at your apartment has been a challenge this last week or so.
Hope that you guys have a great weekend! We saw that the weather was supposed to cool off temporarily. So we hope that happens as we know that you have not been enjoying the heat wave.