I'm getting ready to do the decorations for my bûches de nöel. I place meringue mushrooms and pastiche holly leaves with cinnamon ("red-hots") holly berries on them. I find there is a limit to how much food color paste one can add before breaking the mix, so my leaves have been too pale to be realistic. I paint the holly leaves with white corn syrup for gloss. I would like to have DARK green glossy leaves. I don't have any sophisticated equipment like air guns etc. What do you suggest I do? Paint the leaves with pure color? What about gloss? What is best to use?

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, December 21, 1999 - 10:01 pm: Edit

I either make them from marzipan or plastic white chocolate tinted green.

You could also make them out of royal icing.

If you paint them with food color lord help the person who picks it up with moist hands.

Can you dip them in white chocolate tinted green or those candy coating pieces that come in many colors?

Another thought away from holly leafs...this year I made pine cones out of marzipan with almonds tucked into it then coated in chocolate. People kept stealing them off the tray, so I guess they liked it.

Sorry I don't have the perfect answer.

By judymontreal on Wednesday, December 22, 1999 - 08:15 am: Edit

I like that pine cone idea. May I steal it?

I was concerned about the "green fingers" from the holly leaves if I painted them. I was hoping that you might know of a technique to seal in the color. White corn syrup is pretty good when it dries, but not perfect.

Thank you for your suggestions. BTW, I said "pastiche in my message". I meant pastillage (but I'm sure you knew what I meant).

By W.DeBord on Wednesday, December 22, 1999 - 11:28 am: Edit

Judymonttreal I wish I thought up the pinecone idea myself but I got it from a book. I coated it with melted choc. which wasen't as easy as I think using warm ganache would be. It looked most charming varying the size and shapes of the pine cones as you would your meringue mushrooms.

Good Luck

By Morgane on Wednesday, December 22, 1999 - 05:07 pm: Edit

I always make the holly leaves from almond paste. Just mix in the colour with the egg white or corn syrip before adding them to the almond & sugar mixture. Kneading the colour in after the almond paste is made is more of a mess.


Good luck


Morgane

By BKeith on Thursday, December 23, 1999 - 10:04 am: Edit

I just made a bunch of holly leaves from marzipan colored with powdered color (green + a touch of blue + a touch of black). Got a nice dark color without compromising the texture of the marzipan.

Also, if you're brushing them with corn syrup anyway, can you mix some color into the warm corn syrup to get the effect you want?

By judymontreal on Thursday, December 23, 1999 - 05:09 pm: Edit

Well, my batch of holly leaves is in the bag for this year. What I did was to put a huge amount of green color paste into the gelatin after it was melted. When I mixed the pastillage, the gelatin colored the dough a deep, true, holly green and when I kneaded it, nothing transferred to my hands. I again painted them with white corn syrup which dried crystal clear and glossy. In past years I mixed in the coloring after the dough was made. Yeah, right, just TRY to get a homogeneous mix!

I would love to use marzipan for this but the budget doesn't allow. Cruddy (cheap) pastillage has to do. Thank you all for your help.