Conference turris::cooks

    
    Terry---
    
     When you make dipped candies like the peanut butter bon bons, you have
    to add a little parafin to the chocolate and use the milk chocolate and
    not the semi-sweet morsels , I'll look in my magazines and see if I can 
    find something for you..
    
    
     L_M_L

    
    re .0 and .1:
    
    I don't know where you folks are, but would the author of .1 care to
    specify exactly what "parafin" means wherever [s]he may be.
    
    My dictionary offers:
    
    Paraffin 1) a white or colorless, tasteless, odorless, water-insoluble,
    solid substance consisting of a mixture of hydrocarbons chiefly of the
    alkane series obtained from crude petroleum: used in candles for
    forming preservative coatings and seals for waterproofing paper etc.
    
    2) a) any member of the alkane series
       b) one of the higher members of the alkane series, solid at
    ordicnary temperatures having a boiling point above 300 C that largely
    constitutes the commercial form of the substance
    
    3) also called paaffin oil - kerosene.
    
    4) to cover or impregnate with paraffin.
    
    Now I *know* that if I went into a shop in Britain and bought paraffin
    what I got would be a foul smelling, poisonous, highly inflammable
    liquid.
    
    So since this is an international conference, do you think you could
    what I should *actually* ask for (proper chemical name would be nice).
    
    /. Ian .\ 

    My dictionary offers exactly what I expected:
    
    1:a waxy substance used esp. for making candles and sealing food
    
    2 chiefly Brit : KEROSINE
    
    So, in American English: it's candle wax.
    
    ed
    

    I checked a few books at the library this weekend, and only one made
    any reference to what I was looking for, and it said to "add a small
    amount of parafin or shortening" period. The librarian mentioned that
    most of the good chocolate books were checked out!  
    
    Ian, if I do buy some wax/parafin, I'll post what the label says it is
    for reference - I see your point about semantics, but I'd hope people
    would hesitate before adding something "foul smelling" to good
    chocolate!  But then, I think Brussels Sprouts smell foul!
    
    Terry
    

    
    I was well aware (but then I've lived in the States so I should be)
    that what we Brits call paraffin you Yanks call kerosene. Had it not
    been that heater fuel is poisonous I would not have jumped in so
    heavily - but this is an international forum. Incidentally it is not
    unusual to cook with ingredients that are, or are related to, poisonous
    compounds: cashew nuts and rhubarb spring to mind.
    
    I also rang a few professional supply houses this morning: I t0ld each
    of them that I had seen "in an American magazine" a suggestion of adding
    "paraffin" to chocolate, and that I didn't know what they meant - two
    claimed total ignorance and the third told me to go to a hardware store
    to buy paraffin (=kerosene). So I stand by the point that the advice is
    dangerous until we know what it really means.
    
    Meanwhile all you 'statesiders carry on -- you at least are safe!
    
    /. Ian .\

    There is no one chemical formula which describes paraffin - it's a
    mixture of long-chain hydrocarbons; gasoline is another example of
    this: largely heptane, but with significant fractions of octane,
    nonane and decane. By the way, in German, gasoline is "Benzin", which
    gasoline certainly is not (benzene). Ian's dictionary's first
    definition is correct.
    
    M
    

    As long as we're talking ingesting dangerous stuff, did you know lye is
    used in the manufacture of pretzels?
    
    TW
    

The real issue is the "tempering" of the chocolate used to coat the good stuff.
It is a commonly-used shortcut (in the USA) to add a little clean, unflavored
wax to the chocolate in order to encourage it to become nicely solid at room
temperature, thereby allowing folks to handle it without the normal sticky
fingers.

If you are looking to be authentic, get thee to a candy-making supply store.
You have several options once inside the door....either buy some tempered
chocolate which can be melted and used to coat your candies, or buy yourself
a book that includes the procedures necessary to temper your chocolate.
If buying the book, also buy yourself a marble slab on which to work the
chocolate.  Or, you can buy "candy coating" which is a mixture of chocolate
and wax to coat your candies.

Above all, do not use heating oils of any type to treat your chocolate...it
wouldn't taste good.    

    
     I got my peanut butter bon bon recipe about 18 years ago, it calls for
    a small amount of parafin to give the chocolate some substance to hold
    to the peanut butter. We've eaten these for years and haven't gotten
    ill. The bark chocolate is used for the pretzels Terry, like I was told
    by Suzie. Also you use the white chocolate for dipping dog bones, I
    called the Rocky Mtn.Chocolate Factory for that question.
    Geez I didn't know my suggestion would cause so much trouble! I only
    went by the recipe! ;->
      
    Linda (L_M_L)

    
    oh yeah... I forgot to mention the Halloween Wax teeth and lips, I'm
    sure you all had them at one time or another.. I had the lips for
    Halloween,they are made of wax and they're chewing gum.
    
    just an fyi...
    
    L_M_L
    

White chocolate is most definitely made with cocoa butter, but it
hasn't been processed with alkali (it's the processing which turns
cocoa butter dark -- I learned this from a fellow Digital employee who
was once a chemist at a chocolate company). I wonder if the name
"Hydrox Cookies" (VERY dark cookies!) comes from the Sodium Hydroxide
used in the processing?

Anyway, maybe it's the processing which makes brown chocolate bad for
doggies. I do know that there are chocolate-like treats for dogs, but
these could be made with carob, which looks and tastes similar, but is
completely unrelated to chocolate. A simple check of the ingredients would tell.

    THE ONLY RECIPE I HAVE EVER SEEN FOR CHOC COVERED PRETZELS IS TO:
    
    MELT SOME CHOCOLATE BARK IN A DOUBLE BOILER OR IN A LARGE MICROWAVABLE
    BOWL.  DIP THE PRETZELS IN THE CHOCOLATE.  LET EXCESS DRIP OFF AND LAY
    ON WAX PAPER TO COOL/DRY.   THIS CAN ALSO BE DONE WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE.
    
    REGARDS AND HAPPY DIPPING....

    It's pretty straight forward, you basically take pretzels and dip them
    in chocolate.  The only two things to know are 1) use low (or no) salt
    pretzels and 2) if you have never worked with dipping candies before
    you may want to read up on it a bit.  There's a note written a few
    months back that tempering was discussed, I can't remember the title.
    but I put my 2� in there.  Good luck.
    
    				-David

    The "chocolate gourmet" calendar has chocolate-coated pretzels for the
    January picture, along with the recipe as follows:

    	"Line 2 large baking sheets with waxed paper.  Have ready 6 ounces
	of thin, low-salt pretzels.  Melt 12 ounces of semisweet, sweet or
    	white chocolate by placing pieces in a heat-proof bowl in a 150F
    	oven with the oven door cracked slightly.  When melted, heat until
    	smooth and spoon into a shallow bowl.  Place one pretzel at a time
    	in the bowl.  Coat top of pretzel, using a small rubber spatula or
    	the back of a spoon.  Allow excess chocolate to drip from pretzel. 
    	Place dipped pretzel on baking sheet to dry.  Refrigerate pretzels
    	to set chocolate; keep chilled until serving."
    
    Three varieties are shown: chocolate, white choc. and dark chocolate,
    all covered with jimmies (sprinkles, chocolate ants, or whatever you
    want to call them :^)

    Andrea, check out note 2826.  There's a few different notes in here for
    chocolate covered pretzels.