We be Jammin'!

Note from the CMB's: since we couldn't find a relevant theme song that helped to convey the true enjoyment we received from making these wonderful preserves, we have opted for this charming little ditty performed by the comedian Pablo Francisco, and this image of a bunny with a pancake on its head.

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The summer harvest is a very special time, especially in Southern Ontario where the Chronic Masterbakers currently reside. Agriculturally, we have the best of all worlds here...with the exceptions of bananas, kiwi, and Bjork. Or did we already mention bananas?

(Ba-DUM-dum...TING!)

For this installment of "...why did I just waste five minutes of my life reading this dreck?", your Chronic Masterbakers have been busy canning up a storm of beautiful fruits, either handpicked or purchased from local farmer's markets and those cute little roadside stands by the highway. That "hundred mile diet" ain't got nuthin' on us, yo. Vive la Revolution!

Ahem.

For honesty's sake, we admit to an infidelity (*gasp!*): we've been straying like an unfaithful lover to a few sources other than our beloved Canadian Living Baking Book in order to access some truly divine recipes for the preservation of our bounty.  To that end, we felt compelled to use the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving to make sure that we avoided Zee Botulismz, as Christmas gifts of jammy-death are not as appreciated as one might imagine.


Having said that, we did use one excellent online recipe for our bushel of lovely golden plums which Alico could not resist at the St. Jacob's Farmer's Market. (Alico: "THEY WERE SO PRETTY!" *squees* )


The unique thing about this recipe is that it relies on natural pectin found in the plum's skin instead of a commercially prepared pectin. We used this recipe for two reasons: 1. To use an unusual recipe for an unusual fruit. 2. To see the difference between natural and commercial pectin jams.  Oh, and 2-1/2. Cuz we wanted to.  So there.

After this fabulous 48-hour jamming experiment (that's how long it takes to make that jam, so be aware!), your intrepid bloggers went on a three-day Thelma and Louise-style canning spree (but with slightly less fiery doomz). The first day, we made Raspberry Port Jam and what we call StumbleBum-bleberry Jam. The only reason why our entire pie-safe was not covered in jars at that point is because we ran out of one of the key ingredients: No, not Margaritas. It was sugar. Very important ingredient, let us tell ya.  Days two and three (after we bought boatloads more sugar and more jars) consisted of a straightforward Strawberry Jam, with no added special touches, a Peach/Nectarine Cardamom jam, and then our piece de resistance, what we are calling "Chronic Masterbaker Sawse", a delicious, compote-like dessert sauce that is wonderful over vanilla ice cream or a slice of pound cake (or both!)

On a side note, you may be wondering why would we add alcohol to jam? Yes, it's partially because that's how we roll...but there's a little "STORYTIME!" attached to this. When we were in pastry school, we had a class on preserving. We were all put in teams and given different recipes for several jams, jellies, compotes and chutneys, and told to git 'er done! One of our group recipes was for a beautiful Raspberry Chambord Jam; it smelled and tasted delicious as we were preparing it, but tragically, the recipe was flawed and it never set. We figured out after this tragic affair that adding extra liquids (especially alcohol) to jams without carefully compensating with a precise portion of extra pectin to "jellify" your jam was risky business. The potential was there, but it's like being a bomb-disposal expert when you have the hiccups. So, we wanted to try again, this time compensating for the alcohol with extra pectin, to see what happened.

Some of our bounty, from left to right: Golden Plum, Raspberry-Port, Stumble-Bumbleberry, Peach-Nectarine, Strawberry, Chronic Masterbaker Sawse

A Few ProTips:
1. When a professional preserving book says NOT to change the ratio of sugar to fruit, BELIEVE THEM and don't try to get all smartypants and reduce the sugar to lessen the sweetness.  The sugar has a great deal to do with getting the jam to set properly, and won't thank you for upsetting the delicate balance of pectin to fruit.
2. We recommend purchasing a canner (a big, flat-bottomed pot with a special inner rack with handles) if you're going to make a lot of jam at once or will be making it frequently (a good-sized one that will fit about 8 500mL jars runs about $20-$25), but if you don't have one or can't afford one you *can* use a large stockpot with a good lid instead; minimum requirements are that it fit a reasonable number of jars at once (otherwise it's a waste of your time), and it must be able to be filled with water to over the tops of the jars. Also, it is very important that the jars do not directly touch the bottom of the pot while it's boiling, or they will crack.  You can purchase a rack separately, or use this cheap and handy-dandy trick; take a large piece of aluminum foil, gently crumple it and shape it into a flattish round that will fit the diameter of your pot, and place it on the bottom, then fill with clean water.  The sucker will try to float away repeatedly, so make sure it's always weighted down by your jars.
3. ALWAYS boil your jars and inserts before using; this ensures two very important things: one, minimal to no contact with living bacteria, and two, a good, airtight fit, which helps lengthen shelf-life.
4. Boil your inserts in a separate pot from the canner; once the inserts have boiled for a couple of minutes you can keep them on a low simmer and pluck them out of the pot as you need them.  We recommend you keep the inserts separated as much as possible from one another; they have a tendency to stick to one another which is a serious pain in the arse when you need one immediately but can't unstick the hot little buggers from one another.. Trust us, we've been there.
5. It's not necessary to purchase new jars and bands for repeated canning sessions; clean, un-cracked or chipped jars and undamaged screw-bands work just fine.  We do, however, strongly recommend buying new inserts for each successive jamming session; you can buy them separately from the jars and screw-bands for virtual peanuts, and they will always provide a good, strong seal.  Why go to all the trouble of canning your bounty if it will deteriorate too quickly from the want of a good seal due to old, faulty inserts?
6. It's extremely important that the hot, freshly-boiled jam goes into hot, freshly-boiled jars.  You cannot re-boil the jam, as the pectin will degrade and negatively affect gelling properties.  So, upshot, make sure you have several, uninterrupted hours to go jammin'!

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Ok, enough viss de talky-talkings, und more viss the recipees!

Quick Jams: Using liquid pectin for making jam is one of the quickest methods for cooked jams available today.  The basic work method is the same for each jam, so instead of writing it out a bazillion times, we'll just write it up here once, then give any specialized info in each recipe that veers away from the original method.

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids by placing insert in canner and filling canner halfway with water, placing clean, washed jars into canner (they will want to float, so fill them with some water first for weight), then top up water until it covers the jars completely with a little extra room.  Cover canner and bring the water to a simmer (about 180 degF) over med heat. It is unnecessary to pre-boil jars.  In a second pot, place all jar inserts (red ring-side down), fill with water until covered, and bring the water to a simmer (about 180 degF) over med heat. Keep both jars and inserts hot until ready to use.

2. In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine fruit, lemon juice and/or vanilla beans (if in recipe) and sugar.  Over high heat, stirring constantly, bring to a full-rolling boil that cannot be stirred down.  Stir in pectin and any delicate herbs that you may want to use at this time. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and skim off foam; discard foam.

3. Place clean, dry tea towel on counter space closest to stove; using tongs (preferably with rubber ends to minimize risk of cracking hot jars), carefully and gently remove boiled jars from canner, one or two at a time; empty water in jars back into canner and place them upright on towel.

4. Ladle hot jam into hot jars (it's recommended to use a canning funnel to help keep rims clean -- see pic --  but not critical), leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  Remove air bubbles (we used a clean, dry chopstick for this) and adjust headspace if necessary. Wipe rim, take an insert from the pot (a magnet on a stick works very well for this purpose!) and centre on jar sticky side down; screw the screw-band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

5. Place jars upright in canner (VERY IMPORTANT - DO NOT LET THEM TIP OVER!), ensuring they are completely covered with hot water.  Cover and bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars and cool.  When cooled, re-tighten the screw-bands on all jars where necessary.

6. While they are cooling, you should hear the inserts sealing with an audible *pop!* sound and they will be slightly concave.  You can test this by pressing down on the centre of the insert; if you are able to "pop" the lid up and down, it did not seal.  Nothing to be done with these jars but to refrigerate and use up within a few weeks.  For the jars that *do* seal, and this should be most if not all of them, they can be labeled and stored in a cool, dry place for several months.

And now for the recipes!

StumbleBum-bleberry Jam
Original Source: Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving
Plus: Our devious little changes, heh...

2 tbsp lemon juice
4 cups assorted berries (we used raspberries, blueberries and strawberries)
7 cups of granulated sugar
1 Vanilla Bean, split and scraped (add bean and seeds before boiling the jam; remove bean before ladling into jars)
1 - 3oz/85ml pouch of Bernardin Liquid pectin


Raspberry Port Jam
Original Source: Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving
Plus: Our devious little changes, heh...

2 tbsp lemon juice
7 cups granulated sugar
2 cups seeded raspberry pulp*
2 cups crushed raspberries including the seeds
1/4 cup port (we used Tawny port, but a Ruby Port, or even a sweet sherry would go nicely)
1 - 3oz/85ml pouch of Bernardin Liquid pectin 

*To make two cups of raspberry pulp, push four to five cups of raspberries through a fine sieve. Work in batches to make life easier. We cooked down the raspberries that were to be seeded to make it less onerous.

You may be wondering why you're supposed to toss out so much yummy pulp! Well, says Alico and Castelle, raspberries are seedy little buggers. You don't want to eat any raspberry product that has not had at least half of the seeds removed or you will be picking them out of your teeth until you die. ...or at least have a little raspberry bush growing in your belly. :)

Strawberry Jam
Source: Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving

3 3/4 cups crushed hulled strawberries
4 tbsp lemon juice
7 cups granulated sugar

1 - 3oz/85ml pouch of Bernardin Liquid pectin

Peach-Nectarine Cardamom Jam
Original Source: Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving
Plus: Our devious little changes, heh...

4 cups pitted and peeled peaches and nectarines, finely diced (place in covered bowl or sealed plastic bag with lemon juice to preserve colour and freshness)
4 tbsp lemon juice
7 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2-3/4 tsp cardamom (depending on taste)
1 pouch liquid pectin



Chronic Masterbaker Sawse
Original Source: Zee Chronic Masterbakers, yo!
1/2 cup crushed blueberries
1/2 cup crushed raspberries
1/2 cup crushed hulled strawberries
1/2 cup peeled, pitted and finely diced peaches
2 Golden Delicious apples, cored and finely chopped
4 tbsp lemon juice
6 cups granulated sugar
2 teabags peppermint tea (torn open and added directly to boiling sawse)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (add bean and seeds before boiling the sawse; remove bean before ladling into jars)
1 pouch liquid pectin

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Review: We loved all of our creations, but admittedly some more than others (much like most people's children, heh...).  Alico was a huge fan of the two-day Golden Plum Jam, whereas Castelle went banana-bonkers for the Chronic Masterbaker Sawse.  We're looking forward to creating our own labels soon and prettifying up these preserves for inclusion in several gift baskets this Christmas, along with some home-made flavoured oils and vinegars, chocolates and other confections.  Our peeps are going to be so spoiled this year!!!

All in all, we give these recipes an overall rating of: 5! (especially our CMB Sawse, cuz it's all about us, yo.)

Rating system

0 - OMG, what were you thinking?!
1  - Not worth our time to do
2 - Kinda schmeh, needs a lot of work
3 - Pretty good, but needed changes
4 - Really good, would recommend to others
5 - Super Fantastic, couldn't stop eating them

Cookies: Recipe #20 - Orange Sesame Biscotti

Biscotti, for those unaware, are twice-baked cookies that can be made in numerous flavour combinations.

Twice-baked, you say!  How preposterous!  The poor little cookie would be hard as a rock!

Well, that's the point.  Biscotti is Italian for biscuit or cookie (in fact, the words "bis" and "cotto" translate to "twice" and "baked"). When Italians first created biscotti in the region of Tuscany many centuries ago, they were careful to bake the cookies twice, in order to form their unique shape, and allow the cookies to develop their signature crisp texture. Over the years, these methods became standard practice. Bakers shape the dough into a log, bake it, evenly (and carefully!) slice it into cookies, and then toast and turn the cookies again until they're perfect.

The CCLBB has two recipes for traditional Italian biscotti and one for a Jewish version, Kamishbrot, which you will see in another post.

The result in any of the cases above, is a nice, crispy cookie that dunks well in your hot beverage of choice (and without dunking, a nice trip to your dentist, but I digress).  Seriously, when they're still super-fresh (like within a couple of days of baking), they are still pleasantly bitey (like a friendly zombie), though when they dry out completely....which they will if you keep them around in dry conditions...then dunk them you must, to avoid those annoying and costly dental repairs.


So, without further ado, here's the recipe:

Orange Sesame Biscotti

Yield: 72 cookies; ~63 calories each

Mis en place

1/2 cup butter, room temp
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup liquid honey

2 tbsp sesame oil
3 eggs
2 tbsp orange rind, grated
4 tsp orange juice or orange-flavoured liqueur
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F/160 degrees C.  Line 2 rimless baking sheets with parchment paper or grease or a thick covering of
black felt studded with road salt.

400g seems to be thirds

2. Beat butter with brown sugar until fluffy, then beat in honey and oil.
3. Beat in 2 of the eggs, 1 at a time.  Reserving remaining egg white, beat in remaining egg yolk.
4. Beat in orange rind, juice/liqueur and vanilla.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, all but 1 tbsp of the sesame seeds, the baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
6. Stir into batter in 2 additions to form a slightly sticky dough. Stir in pepitas.
7. Divide dough into thirds.  On a lightly floured surface, roll each third into 12-inch/30cm long log.  Place 2 inches/5cm apart on prepared baking sheet; press to flatten slightly.

8. Beat reserved egg white with 2 tsp water; brush all over logs.  Sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds.
9. Bake in centre of oven for about 30 minutes, until light golden and just firm to the touch. Let cool on pan on rack for 10 minutes.
10. Transfer logs to cutting board, and cut into 1/2-inch/1cm thick slices.  Stand slices up, and 1/2 inch/1cm apart, on baking sheet.
11. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, in centre of oven (same temp as before) for about 20 minutes, until almost dry.  Transfer to rack and let cool.

Make ahead: Layer between waxed paper in airtight container and store at room temp for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 1 month.

These are pepitas.

* Pepitas are green pumpkin seeds, and are available in most large grocery or health food stores







ProTips:
1. Sesame oil is incredibly fragrant (and by "fragrant" Alico means "stinky"), and a little goes a loooong way.  You may not have sesame oil in your pantry, but it's worth investing in (around $4-5 for a small bottle), especially if you like to make your own Asian-inspired dishes.  So, the upshot is: a) Don't Leave It Out Of The Recipe!, and b) don't be alarmed about adding what is essentially a savoury note to your cookies, as it will all come together beautifully in the final product, regardless of how "aromatic" the unbaked dough smells.

Straight, decisive cuts!

2. It's important to be very careful and mindful when cutting the biscotti after the first baking; they will be fragile, and too aggressive a cut will crumble all your hard work.  We recommend using a sharp serrated bread knife, and two straight, decisive cuts (one back and one forth).  you may still lose a couple from the end pieces, but you can consider those "baker's prerogative" pieces and nom them "for quality control" purposes, heh.
3. Unlike our other posts where we recommend this extra step, DO NOT, under any circumstances, pre-toast the pepitas or sesame seeds before combining and baking; with the double-baking in this recipe, they *will* dry out and burn if the seeds are pre-toasted.
 
REVIEW:

Man, are these biscotti tasty!  Both Castelle and Alico think they're top-notch (and we're not natural fans of biscotti to begin with).  While this recipe calls for them to be baked smaller than the traditional large and long, narrow shape (as you see from the pics, they're more like a small cookie size), to us that just means you can have more than one! ;o)
Making the recipe was relatively easy, despite the number of steps; Castelle was pleased at how smoothly the recipe progressed, and had no significant issues in making this recipe.  Castelle was also pleasantly reminded of a cereal from her youth, with almost a graham cracker taste to the cookie (go figure), and now can't stop nomming them, which I would say is the hallmark of a great cookie!


If there were anything we would change about this recipe, it would be the sizing; traditional biscotti are purported to be made the size and shape they are so they can be rested across the rim of your coffee cup, thereby allowing the steam from your hot beverage to permeate the cookie and give it some extra moisture and flavour.  Hard to do with a teeny cookie, unless you're hosting a tea party for mice...

All in all, we give this recipe a rating of: 4.5!

Rating system

0 - OMG, what were you thinking?!
1  - Not worth our time to do
2 - Kinda schmeh, needs a lot of work
3 - Pretty good, but needed changes
4 - Really good, would recommend to others
5 - Super Fantastic, couldn't stop eating them

Cookies: Recipe #19 - Candy Cane Kisses

  


Ok, we're obviously making these a *little* outside Christmas (considering it's June), but these cookies can be surprisingly versatile, as long as you have different colours of PASTE food colouring and various flavour extracts to match the season :o) * must be PASTE! *

We have made these cookies (as you see in the pics) with a pretty colour to go with the flavour we chose (rose colour and rosewater flavour), but they could be just as easily made with any colour to match your theme.

Such aaaaaas.........:
- Halloween theme (orange, black, purple with licorice and orange flavour)
- Canada Day theme (red with cinnamon)
- St. Patrick's Day theme (green and yellow with lemon)
- Pretty much any holiday in between (Happy Saint Squiggins Day, anyone?).  

Candy Cane Kisses

Yield: ~70 cookies (we only got 54); est. 6 calories per cookie

You will need:

2 egg whites (or 4 tablespoons of liquid egg white)

Pinch cream of tartar

1/4 tsp/1 mL peppermint extract (or other flavouring extract of choice)

1/2 cup/125 mL granulated sugar

Paste Food colouring (in colour/s of choice)

Method:

1. Line 2 rimless baking sheets with silicone baking mats, parchment paper or grease (we recommend Silpats, but then we're pretentious buffoons...)  ;oP

2. Beat egg white with cream of tartar until soft peaks form; beat in extract.

3. Beat in sugar, ~2 tbsp at a time, until stiff, glossy peaks form.

4. Preheat oven to 200 degF/100 degC.

5. Fit pastry bag (either disposable or fabric - we recommend disposable for easy cleanup) with 1/4 in/5mm plain tip.

6. Using small clean paintbrush (you can use cotton swabs if you don't have a suitable brush), brush inside of bag with two stripes of appropriate food colouring opposite each other.

7. Carefully spoon meringue into bag.  Pipe 1-inch/2.5cm kisses, 1 inch apart, onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake in top and bottom thirds of oven, rotating and switching pans halfway through until dry, about 1-1/2 hours.

8. Turn off oven; let meringues stand in oven for about 30 minutes.  Transfer to rack and let cool completely.

Make ahead: Layer between waxed paper in airtight container (important!) and store at room temp for up to 1 week.

Review:

Ok, these little suckers were completely delish, as evidenced by the completely empty container that once held 54.  Erm, yeah.  Don't judge us.  Beware of the hard, cold fact that however many you make, it will NEVER BE ENOUGH!

We are so excited by how well they turned out that we're making several dozen more tomorrow, in different colours and flavours, for a potluck that Alico is attending in the aft.  Go Team!

Pro-Tips:
1. DO NOT OVERMIX.  The meringue will hit its top volume at stiff peaks; continuing to mix past this point will will cause the mixture to promptly deflate, ending in hysterical tears and recriminations (or is that just us?)
2. Add sugar in small, even doses; if you add the sugar too fast, it will never reach its maximum volume...then, if you continue mixing, it will overmix (see Pro-Tip#1).
3. Don't use a plain tip to pipe the kisses; they look so much better with star tip piping! We also used a #3 open-star tip instead of the recommended #4, with excellent results (as you can see by the pics), as we felt it gave us a little more control over size and crisp piped lines.

As you can probably tell by our squeeing, overly-enthusiastic, "two thumbs waaaay up!" review of this recipe, it was a definite winner.  So, of course, we give this recipe a rating of: 5!

Rating system

0 - OMG, what were you thinking?!
1  - Not worth our time to do
2 - Kinda schmeh, needs a lot of work
3 - Pretty good, but needed changes
4 - Really good, would recommend to others
5 - Super Fantastic, couldn't stop eating them

Cakes: Golden Layer Cake

For those who celebrate Easter, we salute you.

Unsurprisingly, we baked a cake to "celebrate". It's a tad late, we realize...but it's Easter somewhere in the world. Again. We think.  To be honest, we were just waiting for the bunny's shadow to tell us whether we had six more weeks of Winter...

In other words, we're effin' lazy.

So anyway, we did the Golden Layer cake on page 104, and the accompanying frosting. Since it was bunnies pooping jellybeans day, we decided that an Easter egg shape was appropriate.

Alico was visiting family who happen to have a couple of muppets (AKA kids) so we figured that a fun and festive shape would be pleasing. Included in this endeavour were beautiful cuppycakes that Castelle traded for the filled chocolates made (and shown in the previous post). Sadly, due to forgetfulness and sheer laziness, the cuppys weren't photographed.  They sure were beautiful, though: each was decorated in a beautiful rose pattern (made with a 1M tip for those playing the home game) in pink and yellow swirled icing, topped with hand-tempered chicky chocolates and Wilton flotsam. now if Alico had only remembered to PUT THE GORRAM MEMORY CARD BACK IN THE CAMERA you'd be able to see them too!.

Heh.  Alico can't brain today; she has the dumb. 
But not to fear, fair readers: we are doing an interpretive dance to help describe them to you!


...........


...




So what did you think?  Castelle was a little topsy-turvy in her rendition, and Alico could stand to lose a few more pounds before EVER wearing that tutu again, but overall I think it went well.

Cake pan a la Wilton

Back to the cake! It's very easy to make an egg shaped cake when you have an egg shaped pan. Protip: do NOT try to hand-carve this cake shape if you can possibly avoid it. You will be covered in cake crumbs and wish you were dead.

This particular cake mould takes an entire two-layer recipe. The pan is Wilton, and commonly available around the Easter season. If you don't feel adventurous, this recipe it also makes two 8" round layer pans or 24 cupcakes.

BrainFart of the Day: after looking at the pan in the picture, you may wonder, "However did the Easter Bunny lay such a thing?"

Answer: "Kegels and a bottle of Jack."






Golden Layer Cake

Creaming the butter and sugar

1cup butter, softened
1 2/3cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1tsp vanilla
3cups AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
1 1/4cups buttermilk

1. Grease and flour the pan you wish to use.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat well after each use.
4. Beat in vanilla.
5. Whisk together dry ingredients. Stir in to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, making three additions of dry ingredients and two of buttermilk.

Crackin' de eggies!

5. Put batter in to desired cake pan(s)
6. Did you realize that there were two 5's?
7. You just went back to check, didn't you?
8. Bake in center oven at 350oC until cake tester comes out clean, approx. 30-35 minutes.
9. Let cool completely before removing from pan(s), and voila!

 

 


Vanilla Buttercream

2 2/3cups unsalted butter, softened
6 egg whites
1 1/4cups granulated sugar
2tsp vanilla

1. Beat butter until fluffy. Set aside.
2. In a large heatproof bowl, whisk egg whites with sugar. Place over saucepan of simmering water; cook, whisking often, until opaque and candy thermometer registers 110oF (43oC) or finger can remain in mixture for no longer than 10 seconds, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. In stand mixer, beat until cook, about 10 mins.
3. Beat in butter, 2tbsp at a time, until satiny. Don't worry, the mixture will curdle at first, but will come together quite nicely.
4. Beat in vanilla.

Filling (optional)
3/4 seedless raspberry jam

In our case, we did not use a filling for our egg-shaped cake, but please feel free to use any filling you'd like. We would recommend lemon coconut, strawberry jam, peach preserves, or more buttercream. Be creative. Golden cake is great for going with everything!


Rating!

Castelle can't honestly give this recipe a rating, as she didn't even get a single morsel before Alico whisked it away for the crotch muppets that were apparently excitedly bouncing off the walls in anticipation (Alico reports that they were most interested in the Easter-themed hard candies used in the decoration, go figure, hmph...).

The response from the children, besides the fact that the cake was covered in buttercream rosettes (C'mon, admit it, you always wanted the piece of cake with the rose on it...) as well as the large amount of candy, was fantastic. There was none left.


Because of this and the incredible buttercream recipe, oh yes, and also the versatility of this recipe, I would give this a 5!


Yay for versatile recipes! ...oh yeah, and Happy Late Easter.

Rating system

0 - OMG, what were you thinking?!
1  - Not worth our time to do
2 - Kinda schmeh, needs a lot of work
3 - Pretty good, but needed changes
4 - Really good, would recommend to others
5 - Super Fantastic, couldn't stop eating them

Chocolate Tempering

 CLICK THE YOUTUBE LINK FOR ACCOMPANYING MUSIC!

Happy Easter/Eostre/Jesus Zombification/Four day weekend/Bakeries finally make a profit day everyone!

Just so that you know, we're covering all of our bases. We don't want anyone to feel left out.

So this time of year has finally rolled around. The bunnies, the eggs, the baby chicks, and the slew of chocolate-laden confectionery... We, at The Chronic Masterbaker, have decided to participate in this year's chocolate-bonanza.

Masterbaker #1 is attending a family-related Easter celebration tomorrow and thought it would be cool-beans to make some yummy treats for the kiddos. This led to Masterbaker #2 having the brilliant idea of making chocolates. Both solid and filled, and in various Easter colours for the little muppets.

There are many ways to do chocolate work. The easiest is also the most disgusting. Vegetable-fat based wafers from Wilton. They're nothing compared to high-quality chocolates, but they're great for messing around with, and absolutely fantastic for a children's activity...or if you're in a rush.

The method that is taught to pastry chefs these days is the 80/20 method with emphasis on 32oC. The 80/20 method is as follows:

1. Take your total amount of chocolate that you wish to use. 
2. Weigh it, eyeball it, whatever you choose to do, but you need to take out 20% of your total amount. 
3. Out of that 20%, 75% will be coarsely chopped, 25% will be finely chopped. 
4. Add the coarse chopped chocolate to your heated chocolate. 
5. When the temperature is around 37%-ish, add your finely chopped chocolate. This will cause the chocolate to cool down quickly.

Here's a link if you need more explanation than we give here. Chocolate!

Before we begin, lets state some facts.

• We have been in chocolate competitions before, Castelle placed first in her class
• We are trained pastry chefs
• We are patient (for the most part)
• We understand that some days, chocolate does NOT want to be tempered

Other facts:

• We are using Lindt Semi-sweet Couverture, NOT chocolate chips
• We are not using a thermometer. We are trained to do it without, and this is the way Castelle did it for this post. You are more than welcome to use a thermometer, the temperatures are there. If you wish to know how to temper without one, please leave a comment. We're usually prompt about replying to comments
• Our molds were purchased at a local Bulk Barn

Start a bain marie (Pot of water on medium heat)

Place your chocolate in a heat-proof bowl on top of your pot with slightly boiling water

Prepare your chocolate molds. Make sure to shine them up with a soft cheesecloth or paper towel

Prepare a pan with parchment for turning over the filled chocolate molds on to and also piping cones should you need them.

Stir your chocolate to make sure that it's getting evenly heated. We are going to heat this to 45-50oC. Make sure to only use a silicone or plastic spatula. 

Stir, stir, stir!

ABSOLUTELY NO WATER should get in to your chocolate! Wipe the bottom of your bowl when taking it off the heat. Water in your chocolate will cause it to seize up! This is NOT good!

 

 

 

Now is the hard part. Chocolate LOVES To be stirred, so agitate often. Add about 20% of the original chocolate in to the bowl in a series of small handfuls. This is the seeding method. Stir, stir, stir... The KEY temperature that we're looking for is 32oC.

Test if your chocolate is tempered by dipping a strip of parchment paper in to your chocolate and waiting for it to set.

Fill your molds. Count to ten.

After 10, flip them on to your tray lined with parchment. Hold the mold above and let the chocolate drip out. Take a pallet knife and scrape off the excess.

You can also make double sided molds in one shot. :) Make sure to clip both sides together and get the chocolate throughout the mold to ensure no air bubbles.

Little chicks

Notice the shine. Tempered chocolate should not be streaky. It should be a rich colour, it should be shiny, make a nice *snap* sound when you break it.

  We had a lot of fun making chocolates this year. Sure, this wasn't in the Baking Challenge, but it's a skill we're proud of and one that is quite tasty.