*ah i’m so stupid, I just typed the post and then I click backspace.. and it moved a page back.. and.. everything’s gone!!* crap.

Anyway, I din’t type a long post. hehe. I’ll post up some photos of what I’ve made and then only type out more info and method and stuffs about CHOCOLATE !! yes, I know.. I felt like I’ve been swimming in a chocolate pool. My uniform’s dirty, my aprons has chocolate stains.

These are tempered chocolate in moulds. These are hollow. We pretty much learnt how to temper the chocolate on the first day.

I can sell I can sell I can sell THESSEEE !! I’m not joking, don’t u think they’re so pretty ? haha I’m just praising myself *please bear with me* I’ve always wanted to do these kinda chocy stuffs but I never have the moulds to make it.. or neither know HOW!!. So finally I’ve tried and I’m absolutely proud if myself!! Chef said my chocolates look very nice ok

The seashells one looks the best. It’s dark chocolate with Cointreau ganache. The round caps are milk chocolate with Framboise ganache. I loved this one the most, cause the ganache was very berry-y. The ones in Christmas trees has Coffee ganache.. I made like.. 3 trays of 24s … so… that makes.. 72 !! But luckily all of them turned out good and shiny !!

We used coverture chocolates instead of compound chocolates. Covertures have cocoa butter in it. So it’s more expensive and u have to temper them before moulding them. Or else u can’t take it out from the mould and u won’t achive the shine-snap effect. Compound chocs has palm oil / other oil instead of cocoa butter. It’s cheaper and u dont need to temper them. Just melt them and u can mould them anyhow u want. But of course, it wont taste and look as good as the covertures.

*I’m just more than happy I DONT NEED TO BRING BACK ANYMORE BRREEAAADDDD!!!* wahahahah….

I’ve changed the layout again btw

… to be continued

—- update—

OK so, back to the chocolate story. How to temper them. There’re 3 methods of tempering -vaccination/addition, tabling/ manipulation and water bath. The other two ways are by directly warming it or microwaving it (but the result won’t be as good as the 3 methods I’ve mentioned above) So tempering is a method of inducing cocoa butter to crystallise in a stable form in the fluid chocolate mass. The process of tempering consist of heating the chocoalte evenly (to 45-50 C) to completely dissolve all of the cocoa butter. The liquid chocolate is now cooled to initiate crystalisation. Then by gently reheating the chocolate to just below the melting point* of the desired chocolate, it mels out any of the undesired fat. Then the chocoalte is stirred at this temperature for some time, which will elp to obtain a high proportion of very small crystals of the fat type when the chocolate finally solidifies in a mould or as a coating. Confused yet??

Ok put it this way.

First, you get a pot and boil the water. Then get a mixing bowl (which then u need to melt the chocolate in the bowl above the simmering water from the pot) So, be sure to get the right bowl size!! Then melt it to a temperature of 45-50 C (For dark coverture, the max is 55 C, for milk coveture chocolate, it’s 50 C and for white choc, it’s 45 C. So make sure u don’t overheat the chocolate of else, it’ll be burnt! To assure that the chocolate doesn’t burn, use a thermometer. When u get used to it, then u can skip the thermometer. Coveture chocolates are not cheap! so it’s better to be precaution. Then, u temper the chocolate with either methods (manipulation, vaccination or water bath). This is to lower the temperature of the chocolate to the setting point which is 27 C. After than, u reheat the chocolate to a specified temperature - 31-32 C for dark chocolate, 30-29 C for milk chocolate and 29 C for white. If u go beyond 35 C. u have to cool the chocolate and start all over again.

Tempering Methods

Vaccination / Addition Method

Part of the chocolate is completely dissolved (45-50 C). Some are finely chopped, grated or shaves (about 1/3 of the amount) then add to the completely dissolved chocolate to cool to the setting point of 27 C. Then reheat it on a bain marie till the ideal temp or 29-32 C (depending on type of chocolate)

Tabling / Manipulation Method

Pour in 2/3 of the completely dissolved chocolate onto a marble slab. Spread 10 - 15 mm thick with a palette knife or pastry scraper. To assist in the cooling process, scrapre the chocolate together and then spread it out again. Repeat till the chocolate starts to get gooey and thickened (check temp 27 C) Then add the manipulated chocolate from the marble slab into the mixing bowl and stir with the 1/3 of the chocolate till smooth. Then reheat it again. It’ll only take like 5 seconds to reheat it. Don’t put in on the bain marie and then run to do other things. The chances of overheating your chocolate is very high!

Water Bath

Prepare a big bowl of ice. Dissolve chocolate till the melting temperature. Then put the mixing bowl onto the big bowl of ice, then stir till the temperature drops to 27 C. Just becareful to scrap out the chocolate at the sides, cause it’ll usually harden. Then, reheat it again till the ideal temperature.

So, we did all three methods. The manipulation method is on of the desired ways to temper the chocolate among the chefs. But come to think of it, it gets really messy and u have to clean alot. I mean, how often do u find a marble slab in someone’s household right ? So if u wanna temper chocolate at home, u can use the vaccination / addition method. Just get a grater and grate some chocolates. This one, u have to make sure that the chocolate are really in small pieces or else the mixture will get a bit lumpy. Chop them before u start melting the chocolate, that way, it won’t be much of a hassle.

Florentines!!! 

These are awesome florentines. I’m really not a fan of sticky gooey super sweet almonds cause it sticks to my teeth. but I liked this one. Hahahaha

Ingredients
75g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
20g honey
25ml cream
25g glucose
10g bakers flour
170g flaked almonds
15g mixed peel
25g chopped glace cherries
few drops of vanilla essence

Method
Cook butter, sugar, honey, cream, glucose till boiling. Then add in remaining ingredients. If u want to get a nice round shape, bake them in tart moulds (grease them first). If u just want them in irregular shapes, just scoop out and press them flat on the board. It expands abit. Make sure they’re thin, and not too thick, just about 5-7mm. Wet your fingers first before pressing them flat, then the mixture won’t stick to you. Bake on 180 C for about 15-20 minutes. Just watch out cause (well I kinda forgot how long we baked it for..:P) It should be golden in colour. When cool, coat one side with tempered couveture chocolate. Then coat again the second layer, then use a zigzag scraper thing, and just slide left right left right to get the wave-y pattern

Just beware, while handling chocolate, make sure there’s no water. or else, the chocolate just won’t work.

Finally, I’ve updated. Hahaha..

and yeah, more to come !!! :D:D

Your response: