Mamma Maya

Posts Tagged ‘chocolates’

Fannie May ascribe their astounding expansion to quality ingredients and wonderful service. It all started in Chicago, IL in 1920. And so this celebrated company has evolved from a single store to a flourishing organization furnishing the country with scrumptious goodies. Fannie May’s gift of blending cocoa, sugar and other ingredients in the perfect manner made them so popular they expanded to about forty-eight shops in only fifteen years. As a matter of fact the company was so dedicated to the standard of their sweets they chose to shut shops rather than change their formulations during wartime rationing. Luckily for us, many of the recipes it used back in the early days are even in production and on sale nowadays.

Of course the chocolates look just as fabulous as they taste. Don’t forget to order a stunning presentation box or tin if the chocolate is for someone special, simply to give the candies something extra. Have a box or tin sent for anniversaries and other special occasions, or choose an enormous tower of treats for a friend, loved one, or even a co-worker. There are many wonderful gifts in the online store, or you can buy special varieties and then pick how you want them to be wrapped.

Fannie May nowadays own branches not merely in America but in various other countries worldwide. So you can order from your computer and have your gift delivered anywhere at home or abroad. While there are some delivery restrictions during the hottest summer months, Fannie May has the business network to deliver a broad range of their products worldwide. Special diets aren’t an issue. Delicious cakes and other goodies are on offer as well as chocolate that are safe for diabetics. Should you require a lot of smaller gift boxes or wedding favors, Fannie May have a variety to choose from. Give them a ring or contact Fannie May online for more details.

You can see why Fannies May’s delicious chocolates are such a booming company. In fact, the single tough task will be picking from the tremendous range of gift baskets available. With every sweet treat conceivable from peppermint to fruit creams to be had, you are bound to find precisely what you are looking for.

At first glance, chocolate candy making is quite a straightforward process. But since it involves tempering by hand that requires preserving specific temperatures accurately, even expert chocolate makers consider it a challenging proposition.

You need the main ingredient of basic dark or semi-sweet or white chocolate and cooking paraphernalia like a reliable thermometer that’s calibrated on a regular basis, a double boiler, a rubber spatula and candy molds or cookie cutters.

The first rung of the process starts with your melting the chocolate in a double boiler. You should be cautious not to scorch the chocolate so you should be stirring the contents constantly but gently. The molten chocolate can be used to enrobe fruits and other fillings. You can also pour the chocolate melt on candy molds or cookie cutters for different shapes. You finish the candy making process by setting the chocolate in a chiller in an air-tight container or by air-drying them.

The step that makes tempering by hand difficult is maintaining specific temperatures accurately. Since tempering is important to turning out shiny and crisp chocolates, you can’t skip this step. It stops blooming from occurring, averting the formation of unattractive crystals on the surface of chocolates. You can finish candy making without tempering chocolates if they are meant for your own use but if selling confections is your aim, you should take the time to master tempering for that attractive luster and snap.

What makes tempering necessary in chocolate candy making is the presence of cocoa butter in chocolates. Cocoa butter has fats that crystallize into six crystal structures. These crystal forms dominate at their own particular temperatures. When you do tempering, your aim is to prevent the five other types of crystals from hampering the production of type V crystals without which the shine and snap will be non-existent in chocolates. Be aware that the temperatures at which these type V crystals form also differ for dark, semi-sweet and white chocolates.
A degree change up or down the thermometer may also allow Type IV crystals to multiply. These crystals also give that attractive shine and snap to chocolates but they melt much too quickly, even at room temperature, so by keeping temperatures at their proper levels you’re sure to get only the type Vs.

An accurate thermometer is the accessory used while you maintain specific accurate temperatures. If you compromise on this accuracy, you should repeat tempering. To avoid re-tempering, which may happen repeatedly if you’re not watchful, candy makers shift to using automated chocolate tempering machines wherein you have a computer chip that takes care of tempering and temperatures for you. With a tempering machine, you not only produce the type V crystals, but you make the same quality chocolate candies all the time. Tempering machines also make available to you a lot of free time so that you can be more creative and innovative on improving your skills which amounts to improving your business.