pastrygirl

I'm curious how sustainable pistachios are - almonds take a lot of water, is that true for all nuts? But based on price alone, I have to laugh at the idea of substituting pistachios for just about anything else 🤑

praline gianduja?

Mine does! 😂 Like so much with chocolate, gotta adjust the pressure juuuuust right. Made these yesterday:

Yes, the idea is to let people pick and choose their favorites. I do have a couple of boxed assortments in there that look fine, just the exposed ones look bad. It's a (relatively) cheap refrigerated bakery case, I figured I could make it work one way or another but now I'm not sure what that way is. The special chocolate cases are 3x the price, like all the special chocolate things 😜 Edited to add: current weather is reasonably dry, 72F & 40% humidity in the kitchen, so it shouldn't be because of gross Seattle weather ... and my reach-in fridge is only about 60% humidity, so I think I'll be calling customer service tomorrow to troubleshoot

Any updates on good AW meters? I feel like I need one if I'm going to go full speed on bonbons. @Jim D. does yours need to be plugged into a PC, or is it self contained? I have a Mac, so the ones requiring a PC won't work for me.

I recently got a refrigerated display case, and the bonbons look so pretty all lined up, oh boy! But am having issues with humidity, everything is kind of sticky. I put my humidity gauge in there and it hasn't gone below 70% even after adding humidity absorbers. I also noticed that more droplets are forming on bonbons with less cocoa butter decoration - for example, on this one, the green is still shiny and dry but the plain chocolate is not. Does this suggest a formulation issue rather than humidity alone, or some combo? Any ideas/tips? If water is being drawn through the non-decorated parts of the shell, what can I do beyond way heavier CB decoration? I can't determine if the 'anti-fog' switch helps or hinders, should less air movement be better or worse for chocolate? This does not happen with bonbons kept in my regular fridge in ziplock containers ...

I don't think a guitar would do well with nuts, you want a uniform softer consistency or wires will break. Are your centers mostly ganache, caramel, or fondant? Some people like silicone molds. If only a few centers have nuts, a guitar may still be worth it. You could also consider changing the nut flavors to something smoother and easier to cut then garnishing with nuts on top to keep the crunch factor.

A good instant coffee would be far easier to add. I like Medaglia d’ Oro.

My Spanglish is rusty but I agree - palmito cut like spaghetti

I've been very happy with all of the molds I've bought from chocolat-chocolat.com

You have to be a business with a tax ID number. Here in WA I get my reseller permit from the Dept of Revenue. If there's something you're desperate for that only they have, I may be able to help you out, I order from them several times a year.

I've used a different wheel machine briefly at a side gig. The constant motion can over-crystallize the chocolate quickly and make it thicken and build up on the wheel, requiring attention. But in truth there's always going to be some babysitting. We were molding with it and it didn't have a ton of room to dump the molds back in, but that is not a problem with the TF 20, as the full hotel pan size gives plenty of room. Finally, I may be the only person in the world with this quirk and it won't apply to you, but I found the vertical spinning visually distracting. Spinning on a horizontal plane like a kitchen aid doesn't bother me but vertical does 🤷‍♀️ Perhaps more importantly, understand that the TF 20 is not a continuous or automatic tempering machine, it is really just a melter. Adding the molding wheel will stir the chocolate for you but you still have to seed, adjust temperature and test the chocolate for temper. It really is only meant to create a fountain to pour chocolate into molds which saves time over ladling if you're molding, but you're not. Looking at the website photos again, I realize that I have a TF 20 without a wheel, I picked it up used for an absolute steal. The heating element on the bottom is exposed and there is no insulation in the machine. The 24 kg Mol d' art is sleeker, insulated, and easier to remove the chocolate pan from so I prefer that and only use the TF 20 as a back-up. I started out with one 6 kg melter, then upgraded to a 24 kg melter & EZ temper, recently got a Selmi, at the moment all of those plus the TF 20 have different chocolates for different projects in them. It's a slippery slope 😂

sounds like your process is make ganache, fill pre-made truffle shells, dip or otherwise coat & finish the filled shells by hand? If I was dipping into a wheel temperer I'd be worried that dropped pieces would get sucked under by the movement of the chocolate. In a melter without a wheel, at least things are holding still. But I don't do any hand-dipping, not an expert there. If you get the EZ Temper, you can also add silk to your ganaches so they crystallize more quickly.

Welcome and congrats on your growing side business. I think an EZ Temper and a melter or two would probably suffice for the next few years. Things to consider - How much chocolate do you usually temper at once? Do you primarily use molds and need room to dump chocolate back in? How much of that 100 kg last year was tempered? If you're making 100 kg of solid bars you might want something different than if you're making non-tempered ganache centers with 75 kg and tempering & dipping into the other 25. Are the moving parts of the molding wheel of concern, or would your sister be operating that?

Might be ok for personal use with no intent to sell or distribute.

Maybe you're supposed to tear off small bite sized pieces? Or use a knife and fork 🤪

I just had a Selmi training session with Tomric, lets see if I learned anything that might help... What temp are you keeping the bowl heater? It should be 45-50C, hot enough to re-melt the tempered chocolate pouring in from above. It works better full, if you can see the bottom grate, it's too low. The chocolate is flowing directly back towards the screw and doesn't have a chance to melt out the stable crystals. The heater is (mostly or all?) around the sides of the bowl. When going out of temper mode, let the chocolate flow through the nozzle a few minutes until the nozzle warms up above the temper zone to avoid chocolate build-up.

@Chocolat thanks, I did exchange a few messages with Dale. They are not taking new custom orders at the moment and are dealing with materials shortages. They were out of the 5 and 7 piece boxes I was looking at, promised to have one in time for Christmas but not the other. Their distributor Linnea's did have some though, so I have 300 on the way. Other manufacturers have also mentioned issues getting materials, and one store has more than tripled the price of candy trays vs a year ago. I don't know, maybe new supply is on all those container ships waiting off the West coast but I'm trying to stock up now.

Does food coloring go bad? It has been at least a few years, maybe several, since my last order for red velvet cake. Should I feel any worse about using old food color than I already do about using it at all? 😆

No idea. Do you know the origin of the chocolate you are using? If S America has more zinc mines or natural deposits of heavy metals than Africa, maybe choc from Ghana would have lower levels than choc from Bolivia? I'm sure testing is expensive, would it be worth it to test a few different origins?

Is it just me or has the price of candy trays tripled since a year ago?

"These products were sold frozen to restaurants in clear plastic bags with no labels, no lot codes, no identifiers, and no cooking instructions." 🤯🤯🤯

Does anyone currently use Duerr Packaging? I've sent two inquiries and have not heard back. If you use them, are you usually happy with the quality and turnaround time? edited to add: maybe they only sell through distributors? I'll try the distributor ...

I would guess heavy duty, with all the equipment and water tanks. Have you contacted a food truck/trailer builder in your area?

If you have wholesale suppliers, ask them about LBA, they have various sizes, baked, raw, triangles that you can roll and fill ... https://www.lba-inc.com/products If you just want a couple of croissants for yourself, I think Trader Joe's are supposed to be good.