Saltychoc

Thanks! I'll have to ask my local supplier then. I pay 80-90/3kg bag for most Valrhona and they carry most of the boiron line. So maybe I'm getting the best deal around. Chef's warehouse recently bought another local supplier and prices were and continue to be absolutely ridiculous and they charge a broken case fee. No international gourmet foods up here. A lot going on with new owners and mergers these days.

@Jim D. Where did you buy the Opalys? My main supplier has pretty good prices but not always the best dates I want to look around some more before I stock up. I've emailed my Valrhona rep so will update with more info when he replies. The response was not positive. A summary: - price increases happening for all products at Valrhona and competitors - narrowest increases for grand cru line - cost of raw cacao at 40yr high "where it stops nobody knows" (47 years) - has heard layoffs for some companies with large US presence - they claim it is because of inflation Another note - I've heard from someone in the agriculture non-profit sphere that frosty pod rot is increasingly worse and has reached the Caribbean and is a big threat to DR cacao production. Unpredictable supply from South/Central America and Caribbean plus wetter than normal weather in West Africa is fueling much of this. 11% reduced yield for 2023 vs 2022. And of course - the futures market is running wild.

Did they mention price jumps for any other Valrhona items? Was it the whole professional range? I've seen the rumblings online about chocolate pricing. I'll also be asking one of my suppliers. Wondering if stocking up now is a good idea - although that doesn't really help us for Halloween - Christmas.

Thank you! At first I thought they were open bottom then I looked at the photos on JBP and the Martellato website and since I do not use these types of molds I thought they must be like the old metal molds with the hinge. This will be a lot easier then.

Has anyone tried either of these molds or a similar martellato one? https://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=46998 https://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=48716&categoryid=347 They are adorable and are exactly the type of thing my customer base/wholesalers would love. I never use martellato molds. These don't seem that hard to use but I am a bit worried about the size. The bunny is 152mm/6". I am going to order one of each before seriously committing. I also can't quite tell from the photos - it seems like the only way to get a filling (various little items) in there would be to melt off the bottom, fill and then add a new bottom which adds a ton of additional work. Not sure what I'm asking.. any insight would be appreciated!

@Elle Bee For sure! I don't make wheat products and gluten free products on the same day but I do share space with someone who uses a lot of wheat flour. People with severe allergies or autoimmune conditions will likely avoid anything they don't have exact info on but good to be precise. It's just this cheap warming tray (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). The temp control isn't very precise but it's great to have, it keeps the cocoa butter warm while it is out of the dehydrator. I use a lot of those little stainless cups to keep small amounts of cocoa butter warm. They are the kind that sauces come in at many restaurants, I get them from a restaurant supply store. I also use it to keep a 1/4 or 1/2 size hotel pan of chocolate warm (around 38/100) to add to the melter when I am shelling a lot of molds. I use an excalibur dehydrator (older version) to melt and keep things warm otherwise. It has the removable front which makes it much more durable.

My main concern with using it for both purposes would be cross contact. I'm not sure if you are planning to sell the chocolate? My #2 most asked question (after "do you make these?" ha) is "are any of these gluten free?". You couldn't realistically call any of them gluten free if the chocolate was sharing a space with flour. But then again you can always add a "may contain gluten" disclaimer. I find the dehydrator is best for melting large quantities of cocoa butter, especially when using many colors. I set it up the night before and put it on a timer. I monitor the temp with a bluetooth/wifi thermometer. The best part is that it's very light, durable plastic, only 2 parts, cools down quickly, and is easy to store. To quickly melt a decent amount of chocolate I'll use an appropriately sized hotel pan on a countertop warming tray. The kind with the glass top. I also use this to keep cocoa butter at temp while spraying and to have a source of warmer (out of temper) chocolate to thin out the tempered chocolate in the melter if I am shelling a lot. I initially got the warming tray to clean molds and it's turned out to be very helpful.

Thank you! I've been fortunate to be exposed to some interesting ingredients. We have a great spice company in Cambridge, MA - Curio Spice. For the Earl Grey I cold steep the tea in cream overnight 1 night for the white chocolate layer, and 2 nights for the dark chocolate layer. The tea I use is also quite good - Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme. When I do events I am always surprised by what kids select. The molds are all CW2295. I think it's the angle and the light. The bottom box was almost flat and the top was at a pretty good angle.

My last two collections. Each batch of the dots I did fewer and fewer per bonbon. Still think I did something like 20K+ dots. I learned my lesson! Green - pear pate and "eggnog" Ivoire and a little caramelia w/amazing fresh nutmeg. Redish - chocolate orange. Blue - lemon buttercream & dark choc. Gold - caramel & gingerbread milk choc, finally got my caramel filling almost perfect with this batch - not a single leak in the batch of straight caramels. And I was so happy with the spice blend I made for the gingerbread. A little Cambodian black peppercorn really made it. Without the dots - red - apple cider pate and miso caramel ganache - turned out really well. I did end up getting Wood's cider jelly (Thanks Jim!) to mix with apple butter I made with local apples and the miso ganache is caramelized local miso infused into this great local grass fed cream and a blend of a few chocolates, honey as the sweetener. Black - hazelnut gianduja, chopped hazelnuts, blackberry ganache. Blue - double Earl Grey (interestingly this has been the MOST popular flavor with mid-aged kids). Orange - cinnamon buttercream & Basque chili dark choc.

It must have been! I wish I had taken a picture, I've never seen anything like it. I scooped the layer into a bowl and I haven't done anything with it yet, still sitting there covered in plastic with plenty of fat bloom, I don't see any sugar bloom in there. I'll have to try tempering it and let it sit for a week or so and see what it does.

Here's a question - I haven't had this happen before so I'm not sure what the issue is. The other day I set up two melters. Melter 1 had the leftover chocolate from the last batch broken into pieces and melted to about 110 (43). Melter 2 had chocolate straight from the bag melted to 110 (43) and then kept around 100 (37/38) the rest of the day. I set these up around 8a and didn't end up having time to get to them until about 1p. I took the pan out of Melter 1 and left it on the counter for a couple of hours stirring occasionally. Then, I come back to melter pan1 and it looks like there is sugar bloom all over it. No idea how water would have gotten into the pan. So I call it for the day, skim off the top layer of chocolate into a bowl, and then pour the rest (maybe 3.5kg) onto a full size sheet pan. I left the tray on a rolling rack to cool at room temp. Today I take a look at the chocolate on the sheet tray - there is no evidence of bloom. I break the chocolate - no evidence of bloom. I guess I am going to use the chocolate? Melter 2 was fine and I left it overnight to use today. I know the chocolate from melter 1 sat way too long at an unstable temperature but beyond that I'm not sure... What happened here? Other factors - Humidity was maybe 55%. Room temp was 60-64 (15.5-18). Chocolate was 1/2 and 1/2 Cacoa Barry Fleur de Cao and Callebaut 811 3 drops. No excessive moisture added to the air during the day.

A good scrape when capping? If so - have you tried double capping? You need to be able to cool the first layer quite quickly but it can really help. The other (and just as time consuming) option might be to pipe the capping chocolate one row at a time and scrape with a smaller offset spatula. But at this point you are putting so much time into these it might be better to have the reject snack afterward! As for the horse head - you could always get one 3d printed. There are a ton of people on etsy that custom print them. I've also seen people use a cricket cutter to cut the shape out of cardstock. Think cutting out the center of the circle not the shape of the circle. And then using that as a stencil to spray the shape onto the mold.

So here is a bit of a quandary - I made this apple jelly the other day, let it set, beat it, piped, sat overnight, added miso ganache (white and dulcey chocolate), and pulled one out. I cooked the jelly well beyond what I would normally do - it got up to 255ish before I could pull it off. I didn't touch it as it set. And when I check it's 18% water, around 78 brix. Not as far as I would normally cook it but this is where I am now. Probably should have cooked it longer but the shelf life will be long enough to make it through Halloween. I am a bit worried because some of these are going off to a shop and they'll probably be in there 3-4 weeks. The question - Is the moisture in here going to affect the temper on the shell? And how much should I take off the shelf life? I normally date well under the actual shelf life - 4-6wks vs 3 months but knowing how people are... This situation has convinced me to get an aw meter once I get into my own space but that doesn't help me now. Recipe was something like, ratios might be a bit off I don't have my notes right now 280 cider jelly 140 boiled cider 140 apple puree - reduced for a few hours from fresh apples, macoun and honeycrisp, 5% sugar 440 sugar 150 glucose Picture: it is staying together and not coming out of the shell.. it just seems.. wet

I never use clear cocoa butter to clean it. I just spray out as much as I can and then switch to the next color. If there are bonbons with off colors I just use those for events. Sometimes they look more interesting than the intended design. I do have a separate cup for only white.

I have one of these and I use it sometimes. First off - if you do get it don't bother with the cordless one. The battery is not reliable so I keep it plugged in anyway. It does actually work pretty well to pull excess cocoa butter out of the air. I have the pop-up tent mentioned earlier in this thread, I clip the top of it together so that it isn't as open, then I have a M8 (I think) filter and box fan on the back of the tent. I put the airhood at the front opening of the tent to pull in backspray. There is significantly less cocoa butter in the air when I use it vs when I do not. Another bonus is that all of the parts, including the mesh outer screen, are washable. They are attached with magnets and pop right off. I do use the charcoal filters, it came with a number of them, without something in the charcoal filter slot you would have to clean the inside of the fan with q-tips. Could probably just use coffee filters or cheese cloth though, I will try that tomorrow. I wear a mask and face shield when spraying and I do not have to wipe it as frequently when using the airhood. It definitely has negatives - it's pretty loud on the highest setting so I wear ear plugs or muffs. You really do need to use the highest setting for it to be effective. You have to clean it between every use though it does wash up easy. To use it as the primary fan you would probably need that enclosure but as I use it mainly to keep the area directly in front of me clear that isn't an issue. When it is quieter later I will see if I can upload a gif or something with sound that shows how loud it is. With the exhaust fan, box fan, airhood, and compressor running.. sometimes my ears need a break.

I'll have to pick some up and try it. Starting to work on apple flavors in the next couple of weeks. That's a good idea - I used the boiled cider syrup from them and it didn't seem to hold flavor. Though I'm tempted to use it in a marshmallow and see how it does. Cold Hollow also makes a great cider jelly but it doesn't seem to be available yet. I'm going to check if a local place makes one before I order from Woods, this could definitely solve the problem.

Thank you, seriously, they are!

I would prefer single but I'll do double if it looks right

Which apple juice concentrate do you use? I used a boiled cider syrup last year and I keep having to add more which resulted in a pretty short shelf life. I'm getting a massive amount of apples later this week, I've made apple butter in the past but it's very time consuming.

I'm looking for a polycarbonate pumpkin mold that is not a jack-o-lantern and is relatively small. Under 20ish grams. It needs to fit in my boxes. I've looked at all the usual places but can't find anything. Lots of silicone and baking trays. Maybe it doesn't exist! Any ideas?

As Jim said the issue really is being able to fill the mold and get a shell. I also melt more chocolate than I will need and pour the excess onto parchment or into bar molds at the end. You also have to account for any waste - chocolate that missed the melter, left on the mold, etc. Also - reasonably thick shells? What does this mean to you? I make very thin shells and try to use about 100-110g for the 32pc 2295 cw mold. But like Jim said, you need enough chocolate to fill the cavities so at 14g a cavity I would start to run out of chocolate after 5ish molds. You best bet is to weigh an empty mold that you use frequently, melt 1kg of chocolate, then shell it as you normally would, weigh the mold after it has set, and weigh the remaining chocolate. Otherwise it's just a guessing game as you may like a thicker or thinner shell than others. Guessing for capping is much easier - especially if you pipe that chocolate.

We unfortunately don't have a program that runs over the summer. Or at least one that I have time to drive to right now. That would be such a good idea though!

There are no physical issues. They claim it just wasn't rotated properly but who knows what happened. I know how easily white chocolate sticks together, had an issue recently that ruined some. The off flavor of the milk fat is my main concern, it goes off so quickly. I am not a milk person and I always think white chocolate is a little off but this seems pretty similar to all the other ivoire I have gotten. If it lasts through the end of the year than that would be great, lots of uses for white chocolate at christmas. I would happily buy and use dark chocolate like this!

I did not think to freeze it! It's just so much and I'm currently sharing freezer space. I do have a vacuum sealer and I will do a test. It seems fine for now! As for giving it away, the issue is paperwork.. as always. So I'm not sure what I am going to do about that right now. The milk fat is definitely the big concern. I'm not a huge dairy lover (ironic, I know) so I never really enjoy white chocolate, I think it tastes like regular Ivoire. That said - I've had a number of people try it and they have all thought it was fine. Also! What a deal that 2020 chocolate must have been!

A supplier recently sold me 4 packages of Valrhona Ivoire. But it was out of date last month (6/2023). They refunded me but now I have all this chocolate. I cannot find anything in my state food code (RI) directly prohibiting the use of food past it's best by date. Or rather use of non-tcs food past the best by date. I'm not really sure I feel comfortable using it for bonbons.. we all know how white chocolate gets and it would really have to be used up in just a couple of weeks. There is not way.. white chocolate just isn't popular enough. I've already reached out to a couple of weekly free meal setups around here to see if they might be able to use some... not sure for what, one of them does give out bags of cookies 2x a week and I've donated chocolate and other baking items to them before. I hate waste but I'm at a loss here. 1. I don't know if I can even use it. 2. Not sure if I should really offer this to a couple of bakery contacts. 3. It has to go fast. Any ideas? Recipes that use up a massive amount of white chocolate? If in the end it has to be binned then it has to be binned but I'd like to try to figure something out.