Pictures from Future Posts from the Kitchen

I've been working on some posts, but none are ready and I haven't posted anything all week, so here are some teaser pictures.

Salvaging a Wreck or Making Caramels

I'm getting things a bit out of order here, but I figure that's better than not posting at all.

Back before Christmas I was working on making cherry cordials and thought I'd be thrifty, and give them more cherry flavor, by using ALL of the syrup the cherries came in. This isn't a totally bad idea, but it's success is dependant on what that syrup is made of. Specifically how much of the sugar in the syrup is sucrose, and how much is fructose and or  glucose, AND how much of the original sucrose (if there was any) has been converted into invert sugar (glucose and fructose) by the acid, either natural or added, usually in the form of citric acid to increase tartness. The fondant recipe I was using did not call for invertase but relied on a careful ratio of sucrose to fructose/glucose to get the right... but that's another post. My attempted recipe change left me with a large amount of mixed sugars that had boiled off all their cherry flavor, but still had a red color.

Boiling sugar solution.

Back to caramel. Caramel is not nearly so sensitive to the ratio of sugars, its texture is far more
controlled by the temperature, and thus the moisture, and the ratio of dairy/fat to sugars. So, I decided to make caramel from this large quantity of mixed sugars.

I read a number of recipes with widely varying  ratios of sugar to dairy/fat, some called for it all to be combined at the beginning, others had the sugar and water heated separately from the dairy, some even called for "frozen non-dairy coffee creamer" I'm not sure I've ever seen such a product. I am sure I don't want it in my caramel.

Caramel cooling in a glass baking dish.

I found this article and recipe from Emma Christensen, the reasoning in the article made sense to me
and I liked the ratio (generous dairy) so I did something smart. I made a first batch following the recipe (not using the mixed sugars) and poured it into a generously greased glass 9" square pan. It seemed to work well, but when I checked it in the morning, only the corners had a good consistency, the closer to the center the more grainy it became.

In an effort to salvage this first batch, I added some water, re-heated/melted/boiled it then poured it out on a silicon mat on my counter where it cooled much more quickly and didn't form sugar crystals. But they did reform when I left it on the silicon mat in the oven at low temperature, but that's more of a geology lesson than candy making.

It is worth noting that, while laser thermometers may be good for some things in the kitchen, they are not adequate for making candy. In my experience the readings were between 8 and 10 deg. F lower than shown on my real candy thermometer.

I've always wanted to learn to make chocolates, like the kind you buy at Mrs. See's. So, this fall I started learning.

 First making ganache, which is quite tasty just to eat by the spoonful. Then tempering chocolate, and finally enrobing.

Of course it didn't go so smoothly as all that. I started out working with some "chocolate flavored candy." Don't. Just Don't. Yes, it's easier, you can heat it higher than chocolate, so it flows more easily and still have it set solid at room temperature, and you don't ever need to temper it, but it simply doesn't taste right, nor have the right mouth feel. It can be used to make ganache, but I won't do that again either.

Ganache, when made with 50% cream and 50% chocolate (the ratio I keep seeing recommended as a "good" place to start) is far too soft to be used as centers for hand dipped chocolates. I don't know what ratio I've ended up using; I haven't kept good enough notes. Yet.

Ganache enrobed with improperly tempered (untempered) chocolate may not ever set enough to be able to pick up. I've had some success, forcing tempering or something close, by using a hair dryer to reheat the chocolate. This also encourages "Blooming" of the chocolate, which is rather unsightly, but they still taste good, even if they don't look so good, and the texture is a bit off. They looked bad enough I didn't take any pictures. Sorry.


I've even tried making cherry cordials. Another adventure. I will write posts on all of these things... eventually.

The attempt at cherry cordials resulted in a whole lot of sugar that was supposed to be fondant, but was far closer to taffy (too much corn syrup) so I made caramel: