Saltychoc

@Katie Meadow @FrogPrincesse Thanks! I do love citrus curds and make a number of items that incorporate them. Less time consuming than marmalade, that's for sure!

@JoNorvelleWalker Thanks! I will check out that book, more info is always best. Modernist pantry linked to a bunch of videos which I watched, I'm very much looking forward to trying it.

@JoNorvelleWalker ordering now, thank you!

@Katie Meadow Thanks, not a huge marmalade person but I’ll keep it in mind. I use the zest in bonbon fillings. Hence the massive amount of fruit.

I think this might be the right topic to post this. What would you do with pounds and pounds of zested citrus - lemons, meyer lemons, several types of oranges, limes, key limes, etc. I do not need any juice or puree - I have several frozen cases of each fruit that I use. Also do not need preserved lemons as we have tons. I was thinking of slicing them and candying, I normally do it with the peel on but the pre-zesting is throwing me off. Can I candy these even without the outer rind/zest? I mean I know I "can" but will they turn out super bland or boring or weird? Would you remove more of the pith? Or totally peel? Sincerely, very tired of finding uses for zested citrus

@Jim D. Same! The Luis Amado videos had me thinking you could get that level of coverage easily. Not sure it's the cocoa butter he uses or the technique.. maybe it's the magic of "television". Chef rubber has a lot of issues with consistency viscosity wise. I notice that jewel colors are all thinner and the blue and green artisan colors are much thicker. For me, the Med blue is one of the easier colors to work with. The light greens - spring green and key west green are the hardest. It could be the batches I've received though. @pastrygirl For the last batch I didn't worry so much about getting full coverage and I saved myself a lot of time and angst. Not sure why I wanted them all to be perfect. I have a local place that can probably order roxy & rich for me so I'll have to check with them. Definitely report back about the natural colors! The chef rubber natural line looks great on white chocolate but it's so very thin so it's a toss up on dark.

@pastrygirl Yes - Chef Rubber, I find all of the light green colors to be quite thick and harder to spray, especially spring green. They don't have a great light blue and so I make that with a mix of a few colors and that ends up being thick as well. I am planning to get a new compressor as I do think that is a part of the problem. I really like the Grex, it's great for speckle and all other detail/spraying. That is great advice about the needle position, thank you. I had no idea you could do that to blow chunks out so I will definitely try that next time. Yeah, the heat gun is there.. maybe I got complacent with the use. I used it a lot more today and had much better luck. I still don't know how to get full coverage without multiple passes. Is there a trick? Otherwise I'm just turning molds. I don't mind doing it and have incorporated it into a few designs but mostly use CW2295 and have a hard time hitting the top edges if I do one pass.

@Jim D. That is very true about room temp. And explains why the first batch of Halloween spraying was the best.. outdoors temps were warm and we're in a stone building. I don't have a problem closing the door to the cool room and putting them in there immediately so I'll try that next time. My temper when shelling today wasn't the best either so room temp is definitely starting to play into things. I do think overall I'm just expecting too much time out the Grex. Maybe I need options for backing and for details work. I'm working on a new cotton candy effect that the grex works well for, just wish there was a heated blanket for it.

@Chocolot I’m using 0.7. needle

I am having some serious issues spraying and cannot figure out what is going on! I have a 1gal compressor (upgrading soon) and use a grex tritium TG3, top fill spray gun. Not sure if any other components are really important here.. 20ft hose, easy on/off and spray volume attachment. I was having some issues around Christmas so I took the entire spray gun apart (down to the little silicone washer) and thoroughly cleaned all parts. Yet my problems persist. Here's what is going on - IF I rest the spray gun on the heating tray before I start spraying I can get through 1-2 molds before the output is seriously diminished. This isn't because of the undersized compressor (or because I'm spraying green/blue) as it seems like the gun is jammed up. I reheat the gun with heat gun and can get a little more out but eventually there is almost zero output. So.. I don't know. I put the cocoa butter in at 90-93 and keep it at 88 or above.. that shouldn't be the issue. I changed the needle at Christmas. The room is 64-66*f. Next thing I'll try is running another batch of melted cocoa butter thought. I'm going to reach out to grex tomorrow however.. any advice, troubleshooting, input would be greatly appreciated!

Has anyone purchased from this company? They are pretty local to me - Amherst, MA and have some interesting designs I haven't seen elsewhere. It seems like they mainly supply the thc/cbd/etc industry so I will also try finding a forum related to that. https://boldmaker.com/collections/polycarbonate-molds

@JeanneCake What quantity are you looking for? World wide chocolate is in Brentwood, NH - they do have it and you may be able to pick it up, depends which side of Boston you are on if that drive makes sense. They also ship, not the best prices though. L'epicerie in Warwick, RI might be able to order if for you but probably only the largest size. They do have long lead times and communication can be.. sparse.

@Jim D. Thank you, I'll definitely be doing that.

@pastrygirl thanks! I am looking into it. I've had a hard time finding Felchin from a regular supplier around here, everything needs to be shipped. But even with the shipping it would be a better price.

I don't remember the last time I posted! 1. Mixed box - cranberry lemon (gold), caramel (black), passion fruit (purple), dark chocolate (blue), gingerbread & red fruits (white/berries), strawberry milk chocolate (red/green top). 2. Halloween - pomegranate marshmallow & dark chocolate ganache (white), apple cider & caramel miso ganache (eye), blackberry milk & hazelnut dark (black), pumpkin spiced caramel (orange) 3. Holiday/Winter - cranberry pate & lemon mascarpone (gold), caramel & cinnamon cream (green), dark chocolate orange (red), gingerbread & red fruits (white/berry) 4. Valentine's - cherry, berry pate & milk/dark buttercream (dots), passion fruit (small heart), caramel & sesame/pistachio ganache (large heart), salted olive oil dark chocolate (mauve/corners, I did change the heart to a lighter purple but can't find that picture) 5. Apple Miso inside - cider jelly pate, caramelized shiro miso caramel ganache