In2Pastry

Okay, that sounds really good. Can you point us to a recipe? Absolutely, when I get home from work I will post the link for you. Actually I snuck in a search at work....don't tell :-) Anywho's this is the recipe I am going to try, but I am going to use scratch caramel, not the little candies. http://www.thekitchenismyplayground.com/2012/09/insanely-delicious-turtle-cookies.html

Okay, that sounds really good. Can you point us to a recipe? Absolutely, when I get home from work I will post the link for you.

I usually don't do cookies at Christmas, it's been all candy. I have been wanting to give a caramel thumbprint cookie recipe a try for quite awhile so maybe I will finally give in a give it a whirl. Thanks for the link for Anna's goodies, lots of inspiration there!

baroness & prasantrin: Thank you so much I will check those both out. I appreciate the response.

What brand of corn do you all use? I am trying to achieve those big puffy popped kernals, but so far every brand I have used has produced the small basic popped corn. Thanks for any ideas.

Hi Margy. Ever since I can remember my Mom just uses a towel at the bottom of her canning pot. I don't think she has ever owned a water canning bath pot. She has never had a problem. HTH Kelli

Kerry, just wondering if you had success with your mango-passionfruit caramels?

All this information is just fantastic. I've been wanting to try this for a long time, just didn't know where to start. Hopefully I can get my stuff together to try this now.

Drew, It's great to have you here! I love the pictures in your book. I am still quite a newbie on chocolate and as such, I appreciate quality pictures to go with the recipes.

Those look terrific! Thank you for sharing the results of your experimentations!

Oh, Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! This sounds like what I've been looking for! Thanks again!

Eilen, any chance you might share your spiced recipe for huckleberry jam? I have been searching and searching for a wonderful recipe to use my huckleberries in. Thank you.

Thank you for the help Kerry. I have some flavoring from Amoretti that I will add at the end and see how that works. I will also try some with puree instead of water. I just wasn't sure if I used the puree if the acid in the fruit would make a difference. I will report back once I try this. It may not be for a couple of day. Thanks again!!!

Kerry your caramel recipe is to die for!!! LOVE IT! Now I would like to tweek it a bit by adding a berry flavor to the recipe, like a blueberry or huckleberry. Could I use a juice or puree? Do you know what the best way to go about that, or is it even possible? After I can get this figured out I would like to dip them in white chocolate. Thank you ever so much for your help!

Terrific Kerry!! I can understand why it was the center of attention. Very well done.

David J thank you so much for the fantastic and indepth article! I agree with Kerry, I want to spend a couple of days with JPW also!

Wow, thank you so much for all the feedback, please don't stop..... Alanamoana- thank you, I didn't realize gfron1 had a store. I will check that out. Milagai- Knife sharpening is a real plus! Great idea! Annachan- we are on the same page! Thank you Highchef- terrific suggestions and I will take them into consideration for sure!! Unconundrum- nothing around here would ever come close to having a Paco Jet! Great Idea!! Johnsmith45678- I do want to carry less expensive items along with the nicer, harder to access items. We do have a couple restaurant supply stores, but the public doesn't really know they can go to them (which will be great for my store ) I want the serious home cook to the professional to walk in and feel comfortable and be able to find items that wow them. Chrisamirault- great idea on the signs, I love the idea! Another chance to educate the consumer. Dividend- I agree, a beverge offered when coming in the door is a great touch. In fact I already have that one on my list. I like the little details too, as the saying goes "It's all in the details". IlCuoco- I will definately do the special orders! I'm not sure if this town even knows about special orders! At least when I need something they don't. Kayakado- used kitchen appliances is a great idea, but I don't think it would work with what I want to convey. I will leave that up to someone else. Thank you so much everyone for the responses! This is helping me a great deal. Please, if there are more suggestions or advise, I'm all ears!!!! (well, kinda)

I am in the process of putting together a business plan to open a kitchenware store in my area and would like to hear your comments, suggestions, ideas or advise on opening such a store. I want to cover the range from baking to cooking to sugarart. There isn't anything offered here except what can be found in our big box stores. I will be offering classes in both cooking, baking, cake decorating, sugarart, book signings, hosting local chefs and more. I would like to make this a "destination store". Thank you. I appreciate any feedback.

I defer to your opinion. However I do want to encourage you about it. Aincha never eaten an almost too melty chocolate bar? Anywhere along in there is the right time to pick your mylar pattern pieces up off the plastic. Then allow them to fully harden, peel off the mylar and viola. Your learning curve is to get the chocolate the same thickness. (Not to mention proper temper of the chocolate.) But once you pour your stuff out and smooth with a spatula, just kinda take one corner of the mylar and tug it and the warm fragrant chocolate ooze will level itself out. I mean the chocolate does the work all you do is wait. If you move the pattern pieces too soon, just wait a bit longer. If you blow it then just remelt. If the edges are messy after it hardens run a warm finger across or a warm knife - instant straight edge. The chocolate hardens on it's own. And truth to tell, assuming you can cut out a pattern, the mylar dealie is easier than using molds. I mean a souffle is risky--you get it or you don't. Whipping egg whites you gotta be careful. Baking angel food cake, you don't open the oven door too soon. Bang something hard enough and poof you got angel food pancake. Chocolate is going to harden and get crisp all by itself all you have to do is watch it. Chocolate is fat and it will harden at room temperature period. Just make sure you pour a test area where you can touch it to see how's it going. Edges firm faster than the middle. There's a time span for when you can move it around. All you need is some time. The chocolate does it for you. Mylar is easier than molds because mylar peels off--keep the choco on one side of the mylar, nick it off cleanly if it does get on the wrong side. If you decide to try it, make tabs on the pattern pieces so you have handles to pick them up with and then later cut them off with a hot knife. Stuff like that. It's much easier than you're thinking. But this is just to encourage you to try sometime. Chocolate is fun. ← Thank you so much K8memphis! With encouragement like that I'm going to HAVE to try it!! I have one question for now, probably more later, if you don't mind, but what thickness of myler should I be looking at getting or does it matter? Thanks again!

Highchef: Thank you, I have never used those pans, but I bet your right, I will give those a try. K8memphis: The myler method is a little dangerous for me yet. I still haven't got my timing down for when the chocolate is the right consistency to cut. As for the house molds, the one I did find, was too small for what I was looking for. John DePaula: Great, I will check Tomric Plastics. That's one place I haven't searched. Thank you all for your help!!!

I would love to do something different this year other than the same ol gingerbread house for Christmas and I thought chocolate would be a great idea. Years ago I remember seeing a chocolate house on a Jacque Torres TV special, but after searching and searching I haven't came up with a mold of any kind. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

WOW!!!! 2 VERY lucky ladies!!! I can't wait to hear more about the day.

I have that recipe too, the texture probably isn't too different. You have to boil off all the additonal water that the glucose and water add before it reaches temperature. The glucose and water just make it easier to avoid clumps and burning when melting the sugar initally. ← Thanks Kerry!

Kerry thank you for doing this new demo. I am ashamed to say that I haven't tried your recipe yet, but was curious about something. A friend of mine just uses butter and sugar for the toffee part. Would you know what the difference between that and your recipe would be in texture and mouth feel?

Fantastic show Chris! I just caught the Vegas episode. My husband and I can't wait to visit a few of those places when we go in December! Keep up the great work.