pastrygirl

Valrhona has 1 kg bags. They make Cacao Barry look cheap.

Making butter for holiday baking? I haven't noticed shortages but I did notice price increases - a half gallon was $12 at the restaurant supply store vs the usual $9.

Do any immersion circulators get to boiling?

I was looking for just one bag of something and discovered that Chef Rubber is having a Felchlin Clearance sale "while supplies last". Not sure if this means they're discontinuing or just over-stocked, but prices are well below AUI, like 20% off even including shipping fees. Wish I'd discovered this sooner!

More stable, but harder to hold onto if you have small hands.

That's why most of my designs are abstract 😅 But seriously I think painting will be tedious any way you do it and just takes practice. Piping white chocolate into the mold might flow nicely to fill the ribbon on top but the sides would be a pain. Piping white chocolate on the finished bonbon could be cute and you could add a little bow. And faster if you're doing a zillion for the holidays. CB should be liquid but not too hot (low 90's F), molds should be room temp (mid 60's to low 70'sF). A different brush might help, play around.

Fats can go rancid, if it doesn't taste good, don't use it. Also possible the product is reasonably fresh but picked up strong smells in storage.

Not sure what you mean. A 3k tempering machine is an asset, not COGS. At tax time you can choose whether to claim the expense all at once or over time.

You could use ghee or clarified/browned butter.

If you like cleaning cocoa butter out of silicone. If not dumping chocolate back into the bowl, just use parchment.

Cocoa butter order error in my favor, 1kg packs instead of 225g. Anybody need holiday colors? 😅

I've done 1kg granulated sugar to 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out, and pod cut into pieces. Throw it all in the food processor for a minute to distribute the seeds evenly. Shouldn't be much different for 10x.

Nice! Although I'm not sure you need that great of an angle or how it will affect the way pieces tumble in the pan. Obvs you don't want things flying out, but here's a set-up that only raises the mixer by 4 or 5". https://dr.ca/products/confectionery-coating-pan-attachment?_pos=2&_sid=e03b4463c&_ss=r

If you're making more red ones, not a problem. So what if it's slightly pink under a layer of red CB? Otherwise, use up tinted white chocolate in ganaches of similar color. Pink goes into raspberry or cranberry, yellow goes into lemon or passion fruit.

Regardless of how your dairy delivery person identifies, I think you could use sorghum in place of corn syrup. Maybe pecan pie or soft caramels? As a molasses sub, how about gingerbread?

@Jim D. I'm not familiar with that recipe, had you made it and piped it before? Do you put a chocolate "foot" on your ganache slab before cutting? (a thin solid layer so the fork won't stick) I'd say your options are melt it down and add more chocolate or melt it down, cool, then whip/beat until it starts to stiffen before slabbing.

You don't have rent expense but there are still taxes, licenses, cell phone, office supplies, kitchen equipment, uniforms, cleaning gear, insurance, repairs, business cards, event fees, signs. You could estimate operating expenses as equal to COGS as a starting point. COGS x2 + a piece for you = wholesale price, double that for retail.

Yeah, that would be a pretty big cloud of CB to deal with. Hurry, my passport expires next summer!

@InfinityCandies Where are you in the world? Speaking from the US, check with your local department of Agriculture for cottage food laws. They will tell you what is allowed in a home kitchen. They would also license your food production facility if you decided to, say, turn your garage into a dedicated kitchen. Parts of your home used only for your business are a tax expense/deduction. I think for most of us chocolate is very seasonal and you have to look at it annually. Q4 might be 40% of my annual sales, Q1 30%, Q2 20%, Q3 10%. If I'm spending a lot in Q3 to get ready for Q4, margins that quarter are going to suck or be negative. How much $ do you want to make, and how much do you want to work for it? If you want to keep $10k, say you need to sell $30k. Would you rather sell 10k pieces at $3 each or 15k pieces at $2 each? 7500 at $4 each starts to sound good ...

@Anthony C Is 200 molds a month 10 molds a day for 20 days or 20 molds a day for 10 days? Seems like overkill to me, but admittedly I have a pretty strong hood fan so don't know how coated in cocoa butter my kitchen would be without it.

Wow, that's a really low margin on their part. Most shops I sell to double my prices. 25% net at the end of the year isn't terrible but 30 or 40% sounds better. Especially if you can work from home without added rent expense.

Yeah, he might be helping these businesses in the end, too bad he has to publicly shame them first. 🇺🇸 Though I did want to slap the smirk off the one 'influencer' kid's face, Gordon can shame him plenty.

Valrhona Dulcey (or another caramelized white) or Amande could be helpful here to reinforce caramel or nut flavors.

Is it working for you? I don't think there is a way to pop the bubble, so go ahead and treat yourself to something that reads accurately with ease.

I watched some this weekend. So far have all of the restaurants had a bucket of slimy chicken in their walk-in? Coincidence or plant? Regardless, it's a dick move to dump chicken juice on the floor for them to have to clean up, also can't believe he actually touches it. 🤢