March 17, 2008

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In Progress: Chocolate, Peanut, Banana

I'm doing a dinner party next weekend, and these are the "first draft" for the dessert. Here I've done a "soft chocolate" in the style of Sam Mason or Alex Stupak (this one uses carrageenan like Sam Mason's--Stupak said his uses pectin, which I'm trying next), paired it with a sliceable, sweetened, creamy peanut butter done the same way (which is amazing), chocolate oil, and raw banana (for convenience and flavor testing). I've plated it two different ways, neither of which I particularly like.

The eventual dessert will have the peanut butter stuff, banana bread, a crisp chocolate disc with embedded peanut crumble, home roasted peanuts, maybe chocolate ice cream, maybe some kind of "paper." I don't know yet. Still in flux.

For the chocolate, I used this recipe, but there's a typo in it. Based on my conversation with Sam Mason when I went to Tailor, it's supposed to be 1.6 g kappa carrageenan, and 1.6 g locust bean gum. Nevertheless, the test version I made here just uses 3 g kappa, since I didn't have locust bean gum when I made this. Now I do. [Note: I've found this recipe, which is similar to above, but easier to follow and without the typo.]

The synergy of the locust bean gum and kappa carrageenan might improve things, but I found this recipe to be too soft, and not bendy enough. When bent, it breaks fairly easily. I want mine more plasticky, and bendable, like Stupak's at WD-50. I'll give the finished recipe later on, once it's to the point where I'm proud of it. But I wanted to show this attempt, anyway.

Posted by Barzelay at March 17, 2008 11:39 PM | Comments (4) | Desserts


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Where did you get the bean gum from? The Carri I can find. Asian supermarket?

Posted by: sygyzy at March 18, 2008 12:32 AM


I got it from Le Sanctuaire. The Locust Bean Gum (also called Carob Gum or Carob Bean Gum) is here. Their prices are decent, and they generally have appropriate quantities for my usage.

Generally, even if you can find these things at Asian supermarkets (tapioca, agar, corn starch) they aren't labeled very well with what the specific properties of that blend are. I once found agar agar at an Asian grocery. But when I looked at the ingredients, it also contained tapioca maltodextrin (to keep it in a powdered form with discrete grains) and a few other things. That's gonna act a bit differently than pure agar. So I get my stuff online, with the exception of thickeners like corn starch, flour, and maybe tapioca and agar.

Posted by: Barzelay at March 18, 2008 2:34 PM


Hey,
Kappa forms a brittle firm gel, you might want to use Iota instead...I personally like to use a combination of Iota, Gellan LT 100, Agar and an amidated low methoxy pectin....in the right proportion it will produce a super flexable gel with an ultra smooth mouth feel.

Posted by: Bobby at March 18, 2008 6:35 PM


Bobby, good point. I actually tried a combination of kappa and iota before that turned out very poorly. I since realized that I screwed it up by not fully hydrating the additives, but I for some reason forgot to try it again. In any case, the mouthfeel is great with the carrageenan, but the look and feel of it isn't jarring enough to have the "surprise" element that's kinda the whole point of the soft chocolate. So I definitely prefer the plastic-ness of the pectin ones I had at WD-50, rather than the pudding-like texture of the carrageenan ones. At least for what I'm going for here, given my intended audience.

Posted by: Barzelay at March 19, 2008 12:13 AM

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