kstone2016

Sorry for the radio silence, life got crazy busy. I tried increasing the amount of corn syrup and still had crystallization after a few days. I will be giving your recipe a shot today and will return to report.

Thanks so much! I’m doing some experimenting today and will report back

These were my Spring/Easter bonbons. Out of all the ones I have done so far, these turned out the best!

Awesome thanks for the advice both of you I will have to give it a try and see how it comes out. I have tried increasing the corn syrup and decreasing the sugar, but it was still crystallizing, so it seems I need to keep on going. and I don’t have that book, but I will try out the recipe you mentioned :)

I have tried for several months now to get a runny or flowing caramel filling right for my bonbons and cannot figure out the ratios to keep it from going grainy after a few days. Here is my most recent attempt: 360 g granulated sugar 400 g light brown sugar 200 g corn syrup ¼ tsp salt 14 g molasses ¼ c water 50 g salted butter 350 g heavy cream Add sugar, corn syrup, salt, molasses, and water to a saucepot. Stir to combine, wash down the side of the pot to get rid of the sugar crystals. Cook on medium heat until mixture reaches 320 degrees. Add warm cream and butter mixture. Stir with the end of the digital thermometer. Cook to 230 degrees. Pour out into a heat safe bowl and cool (do not scrape out the pot). I have read through Wybauw's "The Fine Chocolates: Gold" and can't seem to figure out what I am doing wrong.... I don't know if it is because I am using corn syrup instead of glucose (I am not really sure what the difference is). I don't know if there is something else I should be adding to help prevent crystallization. I am at the point where I would just give up on the whole endeavor, except my husband really wants a bonbon that is "liquidy".

Here were some of my Valentine's Day offerings. I was completely under prepared for the number of orders I got (this was my first Valentine's Day selling) and spent the whole week before scrambling... but all my customers were over the moon with the products they received so I guess that means it was worth it. Strawberry Cheesecake (strawberry cream cheese ganache made with powdered cream cheese, strawberry jam, white chocolate, and a graham cracker shortbread), Almond Toffee Ganache (roasted almonds, toffee, milk chocolate ganache), Raspberries & Cream (raspberry fondant cream and vanilla bean ganache), Salted Caramel Ganache (caramel and semi sweet chocolate) It was also my first time offering chocolate bars. From Left to Right: S'mores (Vanilla Marshmallow, Graham Cracker Shortbread, Semi Sweet Chocolate), Cookies & Creme (Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, White Chocolate), Rocky Road (Vanilla Marshmallow, Roasted Almonds, Milk Chocolate) And a few other pictures that turned out great thanks to my husband...

At Kerry’s suggestion I went a found a portable massage gun to help get the bubbles out of my molds. I found this inexpensive one and figured why not give it a try. It worked like a charm. Out of 14 molded bars I only saw a few tiny air bubbles left. So happy it worked! https://www.big5sportinggoods.com/store/details/fitrx-on-the-go-mini-massager/6125155960001

Did anyone ever figure out what exactly this part was called, or another thing that will work? I have plans to take the little 4" dental shaker to my local hardware store and just look for anything that fits if all else fails.

Kerry, sorry if this is a dumb question...is this something that would need to be tempered because of the white chocolate in it? If so would the seeding method work for this?

I'm gearing up for my big Halloween Haunt event! My Aunt's neighborhood goes all out with decorations and haunted houses. My Aunt does Harry Potter for their house and since I set my booth up outside their house I figured I should have some themed products. They get thousands of trick-or-treaters each Halloween. Last year was the first year I set up a booth there (it was also a month after I decided to start my little at home bakery) and I sold out on the "Friends and Family" night because I couldn't do enough volume... Well this year I am prepared! Here are my "Harry Potter" themed offerings. Owl: Solid Cookies and Cream (Hedwig) Blue/Bronze: Blueberry Cream (Ravenclaw) Red/Gold: Chili Chocolate Ganache (Gryffindor) Green/Silver: Mint Ganache (Slytherin) Yellow/Black: Honey Lemon Cream (Hufflepuff) Milk Frog: Peanut Butter Dark Frog: Milk Chocolate Ganache I am so glad I found this forum, I have learned so much already from everyone's contributions! I can't wait to start trying more complex fillings and decorating techniques. My end goal is to open up my own shop, but I feel like I have a long way to go before I'll be on that level.

Is there anything that can be done about this?

I will definitely give this a try next time I mess around it with thanks!

It was 92 degrees after the minute of stirring. That’s about where it should be right?

Thanks so much! An EZTemper is definitely on my list but it’s probably going to be quite a while before I have that kind of money 😅

I need some help troubleshooting my tempering. I recently got a sous vide to temper my cocoa butter. I made a batch of (what I thought was) tempered cocoa butter... The consistency was pretty thick like mayonnaise, but there were some tiny lumps left. I went ahead and let it set up on parchment paper for a day and then I grated it into a bowl (2% of the total weigh of the chocolate). I heated up my semi sweet chocolate (Callebaut) to about 103F and let it cool to 95F before adding the grated cocoa butter. I stirred it for about a minute and then put a small amount on parchment paper in the fridge for 5 minutes. It left residue on the parchment and didn't have a clean snap. When I let it set up it also bloomed. I am wondering if anyone who tempers their cocoa butter with a sous vide can show me a picture of what it looks like when it is right? What temperature to you leave it at? I used 92.4F for 24 hours. Also is there a way to check that the cocoa butter is tempered? Suppose my cocoa butter was tempered right, is there any trick to seeding the chocolate? I used to temper in the microwave by not going over 95F but it was very tedious...