Sebastian

i can confirm that tempering the chocolate has no affect on shelf life of ganache.

it's fear mongering at it's finest. there's no danger. A biocide implies that it actively kills something, whereas the mechanism of action of benzoates is to prevent or retard their growth. Typical use levels of sodium benzoate is in the tenths of a percent, and in order to revert to benzene, it needs to be exposed to ridiculous temperatures (far greater than your stove will achieve).

I happen to know someone who works in the industry and knows a thing or two about chocolate - your liquor, assuming you've stored it in a cool, dry place, unexposed to light or strong odors, will last for a very long time. The best test to see if it's 'gone bad' so to speak? chip off a piece of it and taste it. if it tastes like soap or like cardboard, it's begun to 'go bad'. if you've stored it properly, that won't happen for many years.

it entirely depends on how thoroughly you coat the nuts with the sugar. A sugar glass in this application is notoriously 'permeable' (ie, it doesn't provide a great oxygen barrier - lots of cracks), so while it's better than a kick to the head, it's not going to give your nuts eternal life. How the nuts are treated before they get to you, and how old they are by the time you get them, are also incredibly important, and something most people don't consider. Many times, the nuts are past their prime by the time they work their way through the commercial supply chain. In terms of providing the best oxaditive stability for your nuts, a touch of a commercial antioxidant will provide the best protection (think TBHQ). However, many have an aversion to this route. If going all natural's the way for you, you might get some shelf life extension via using a natural antioxidant such as vitamin e or mixed tocopherols.

Theoretically, it'd be sweeter because it has more surface area. however, in reality, powdered sugar almost always has a flow agent added to it to prevent caking, and as such, that cuts the sweetness. Net/Net - use it at a 1:1 and you'll be just fine. Therefore, if flinting is your primary goal, it's better to use superfine sugar, rather than straight granulated. Since superfine has less air space between grains than granulated, does it have more sweetening power? And if so, then what would the exchange be to get the same sweetening power as say, 1 cup of sugar? Theresa ←

to get the crackly top you like, it's all about the particle size of the sugar, believe it or not. it's called 'flinting', and the finer the particle size of your sugar is, the better (or more) flinting, you'll find.

remember than when you replace cream for liquid oil, it will no longer be a true ganache, but more of a meltaway. you can replace the butter if you'd like, that's up to you - it'll change the texture a little bit. if you take all the cream out, there'll be no water to allow mold growth. however, 'soft' or liquid fats tyipcally go rancid faster than solid fats, so they certaily won't last forever.

instead of using cream for the ganache, use a fluid oil such as canola (that's essentially what nutella is). that way, while not a true ganache, it eliminates the issue of crusting on your ganache and would prevent moisture migration into the cake

you don't even want to know how insanely complicated it is to make m&m's 8-) Lior - lots of good options above regarding insulated storage. let me come at it from a different angle - what if you put the chocolate inside the product? think of something like a muffin with a ganache center (so much the better if it's hot, the center will get liquidy, but be contained by the cake structure). Or perhaps put some nutella into a wonton wrapper and fry it and dust it w/ powdered sugar (although these are really best eaten fresh out of the frier). A flexi-mould of ladyfinger type cakes filled with chocolate, or oohh - how about a sponge cake sheeted out thin, apply a ganache fillling to it, then roll it and cut it so you get a pinwheel effect? I'm travelling and just tired, so what you're getting is just a stream of consciousness, and may not represent actual, good ideas 8-)

Ordinarily, i'd agree with you Sneich. My guess is the vast majority of what you're moulding is, essentially, akin to shell moulding, where your chocolate layer is relatively thin. If you're doing bars, my guess is that they're also relatively thin (ie, < 15 mm?), so in either case, the heat capacity of your chocolate itself is very small. From the photos Lior posted, it appears that the bars are very thick, and from the description of the moulds she using, it also appears that the ribbing is thick - which means that the heat capacity of the chocolate is high and the heat transfer ability of the moulds is low (note we're not talking temperature, we're talking heat, which is a very different thing...). As i noted, it's a tricky approach - frankly it's easier to get new moulds, but that's not always practical or a viable option. I am, however, quite certain it's not 'plain wrong' 8-) Moulding in layers is often used when solid moulding, say, a very large santa, or easter egg, or (insert large moulded object of your choice here). It's not commonly applied to bar manufacture (in fact, i've never seen it done on a production scale, and i've been in almost every chocolate plant in the world), but there's no reason it can't be an unusual, but practical - solution given what she has to work with. (edit - scratch that - actually i have seen one place do it - they're not doing it for bars, but they are applying the chocolate in layers) Lior - certainly there can be an advantage to setting the mould on a frame to provide air flow under the mould. will it help in your c ase? it's so hard to troubleshoot over the internet or phone w/o actually being there, but i'd certainly try it! With chocolate, there's really only a few variables that are important - time, temperature, and heat - if you can control those three things, you've got 95% of your issues resolved! You can get a tempermeter from Tricor (company), for about 7000-10,000 USD.

what's most likely occurring is that the 'ribs' of the moulds are much thicker than the rest of your mould. The reason i asked the color is that it helps me understand what it's made out of - the clear or yellow ones can be particularly bad about heat transfer. Because it's thick plastic, it doesn't remove the heat very effectively. When your liquid chocolate cools, it forms crystals. When crystals form, they release heat - it's called the latent heat of crystallization. When this heat is released during crystallization, it is either: 1) transferred to the mould and carried away (thick plastic make this difficult) 2) absorbed by the mass of chocolate - sometimes this works well, other times it causes problems (some of which are very interesting, i'll explain shaling or honeycombing sometime later) 3) is released into the air and carried away (hence the reason for cooling tunnels and airflow (some use fans). Since you're using chocolate liquor, it's got a much higher fat % than the chocolate you normally use. More fat = more cocoa butter = more crystals = more heat. You can try: 1) different moulds 2) moulding your chocolate in layers (a little bit at a time) 3) cooling your mould a little (this one's awfully tricky to get right) 4) keep your liquor on the slightly undertempered side (hard to measure if you don't have a tempermeter)

did you use a very thick, clear (or yellowish, clearish) plastic mould?

Ed - i've got a fairly good understanding of the supply chain and the people who play in it - if you'd like, email me with whom you're using and i might be able to suggest some folks for you to talk to that you're not already working with, if that helps.

You don't need to have an analytical lab test your products. The government has defined nutritional standards for ingredients (some of you will remember the ol' redbook) - it's easily found online at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm...ode=12-35-45-00 Ie - sugar (sucrose, table sugar) will have a defined value for calories, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, etc etc etc). Most bulk ingredients you're using will be in there - minor things, specialty items (flavors, mint leaves, etc), likely won't be in there, but comprise such a small portion of your product that they likely won't have a significant impact on your finished nutrient set. Suppliers of flavors or the minor ingredients will be able to provide you with their product's nutritional data sheet. It's available in a number of formats - online lookup of individual ingredients, a standalone windows program, or in a database format. Depending on how adept you are at, say, access, you could easily import the dataset into an excel database, create a lookup table to reference the ingredients, input the % in which you're using them, and have it generate finished product nutritionals for you. It's relatively easy to do, and very powerful once you've got it (i created one for a large chocolate company I used to work for to manage all their recipies specifications, as well as nutritional labelling, and have often thought i should re-create this at home and sell it, because there aren't many commercially available ones that are 1) cost reasonable or 2) worth it). Hope that helps.

The key is that you'll want both your chocolate and the filling to be as close as possible to one another in terms of viscosity at depositing temperatures. That can be done in a couple of ways: 1) choosing the right chocolate 2) altering your existing chocolate with either additional cocoa butter or emulsifiers 3) changing your filling formulation to thin it out - most often fililngs are too viscous Hope that helps mate.

pasteurization is a heat treatment given to kill microbes. not sure how you tell in israel i'm afraid, food laws vary by country...

I've noticed too that the more saturated coconut oil looks whiter - more opaque - no transparency like you see with some of the 'softer' oils. ← Good observation! If it's a RBD (Refined, Bleached, Deodorized) oil (virtually all you buy are), what you're seeing is the effect of crystallization. In the more saturated oils - they have a higher solids content at room temp because more of the oil has taken it's crystalline form, and reflects the light differently that does a liquid oil. It's why, for example, when you look at, say Crisco in the jar it's white, but when you melt it it's see through and clear(ish) - no more crystals! Sorry, the chemist in me forces itself out from time to time....

easiest way to tell would be the natural coconut oil would simply read 'coconut oil' and the 92 degree melt point one would mostly likely read 'partially hydrogenated coconut oil'. however, there are some high melt fractions taht are not hydrogenated, and they'll be pretty hard at room temp - ie if you poke it with your finger, it's not going to give. the 72 degree version may, if the room is cool, appear solid, but if you poke it, your finger will sink into it (unless the room is REALLY cold)

The risk of salmonella in unpasteurized egg is equal be it for whites or yolks.

coconut oil has a few different fractions that are commercially available - one is solid, and has a melting point of approx 92F. The other, which is a liquid (well, mostly liquid) at room temperature, is often used in ice cream coatings, and has a melting point of approx 72C. This one is often used by confectioners to add to chocoalte to create a 'meltaway' type center

ask him who manufactured it. they're purchasing it from another company, repackaging it and renaming it. find out what the original material is.

i've always used a 1:1 weight ratio. for every 1g chocolate, 1g light corn syrup has worked well for me...

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showuser=20935 lloydchoc is (was?) a member of this board 8-) you should be able to send him an email from his profile link...

i seem to remember lloydchoc from here doing custom transfers as well?

I'll have to see if i can't dig out my old penn state ice cream manual, but from memory, commerically most places are using a hydrocolloid such as xanthan gum to control moisture phase transition issues such as icing. i don't recall the levels, other than it's very small - currently i'm on crutches (blew my ankle/leg up) and can't get up the stairs to find the box that has the manual in it, but if you can wait i'll do so when i can. in the meantime, perhaps someone else can comment on it as well.