"Pete Lockhart" > wrote in message
hlink.net...
> [original posting follows reply]
>
>
>
> Hi Wendy,
>
>
>
> A friend loaned me his temperer last spring and suggested the following
> method for coating ganache (making truffles.) the clever bits are 1)
> coating the truffle while it's in your palm -- that keeps the melted
> chocolate warm and encourages a thin coating and 2) do multiple (at least
2,
> and maybe 3) successive coats of chocolate -- that eliminates the bald
spot
> problem.
>
>
>
> 1) put on some plastic gloves (i use regular rubber gloves for washing
> dishes) and wash your gloved hands with warm soap and water. rinse very
> well. the gloves let you play with the chocolate without worrying about
> sweat or oils from your hands.
>
>
>
> 2) put a dab (about a teaspoon) of the tempered chocolate in the palm of
> your hand and then take one of your nascent truffles and roll it around in
> the chocolate by either (or both)
>
> a) poking it around with a finger
>
> b) scrunching your palm so as to roll the truffle in the chocolate
>
>
>
> 3) keep rolling until the truffle is coated thinly with the chocolate,
then
> gently slide the truffle onto the cooling rack.
>
>
>
> 4) continue in this manner with the rest of the ganache, adding more
> tempered chocolate to your palm as needed.
>
>
>
> 5) once the coating is hardened, repeat the process being mindful of not
> setting the truffle on the old bald spot.
>
>
>
>
>
> As for your white and dark ganache issue, i can imagine (I'm guessing
here)
> several tweaks that might help -- two involve modifying your white
chocolate
> ganache recipe so as to make the melting point closer to that of the dark
> ganache. the third messes with the way you combine the white and dark
> ganaches.
>
>
>
> The first tweak, and easiest, would be to see what effect reducing the
> amount of butterfat would have on the recipe. for example, use the same
> volume of half and half, or whole milk, instead of cream and see if that
> doesn't result in a ganache that doesn't melt as easily.
>
>
>
> The second tweak would be to increase the amount of cocoa butter in the
> recipe, by substituting pure cocoa butter for an equal amount of the white
> chocolate.
>
>
>
> The third tweak would be to start with the white ganache, make little
balls,
> chill them severely, then coat them with dark ganache. then chill and
coat
> with chocolate as usual.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> pete
>
>
> --
>
> My mail address is plock at tokla dot com.


Pete,
Thanks for your reply. I did do another batch of truffles (caramel centers
this time), with milk chocolate coating from the best candy bars I could
find. (I was on a mission to succeed, and had doubts about the cocoa butter
quantity of the chocolate I had on hand) I managed to turn out a batch of
truffles with a delightful thin coating, and almost no problems with bald
spots.

This second batch used a frozen center (although they never did freeze
completely firm), so that was one difference. The other difference was the
chocolate. I used up all the couverture I had on hand with the dark
chocolate/white chocolate truffles, and had made a batch using the
semi-sweet I had for coating, but that also produced thick coatings.

I have seen what you describe with palm-coating in several of my books, but
getting that messy didn't really appeal to me. Your glove method sounds like
a good solution to my Monk-like aversion to mess. ;-)

I will keep playing with my machine, and see what changes I can make. I have
seen cocoa butter for sale, and wondered what it was used for.

--
Wendy
http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
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