pastrygirl

I keep inventory so I can fulfill orders as quickly as possible. Sharing a hometown with Amazon.com, I've come to expect my purchases to be shipped within a day and I try to do the same for my customers. Most bars will keep for a year, so might as well have a few months' supply. Bonbons are more of a conundrum that I'm solving by freezing, which is fine for shipping, just move the box to the fridge and ship the next day or keep it frozen with an insulated bag and ice pack if shipping to warmer areas.

Have you considered a guitar?

75F is my limit

You're right, a spray gun would be for larger pieces like Easter eggs or figures where you need to cover a large area. Sorry I can't offer any insight on Grex vs Iwata.

Why do you need both airbrush and spray gun? You can get a grex airbrush for $200. Do you have a compressor? https://www.dickblick.com/items/grex-tritium-airbrush-set-top-gravity-5-mm-double-action-trigger/ https://www.midwestairbrush.com/grtrtopgraiw.html

How hot is the pan? I agree with Heidi that the typical 1.5" thick stone slab can take a lot of heat. Hard candy or peanut brittle is in the 300-325F range and cools fairly quickly once poured out. I did an art project with big slabs of cooked sugar last summer, my thicker slab of marble survived (thank goodness) but my thinner piece of quartz developed cracks. To be safe, I'd avoid putting anything unusually hot on your stone. A sheet of cookies out of the oven or the pot you just dumped pasta water out of should be fine, but something like a pot of caramel sauce that's been on high heat for half an hour or a pot of hot oil from deep frying might be too much heat in one spot.

saucisson?

So since the Selmi cools before dispensing, in theory it could give me chocolate cooled to below room temp? If it's 95F in my kitchen, it could dispense chocolate at 88? I'd have to put it directly in the fridge, but hmmm ...

Who's "trashing"? I'm not trashing, I freakin' love cheese, bacon, and huge portions 😂 While blue crab may be special in the mid-Atlantic states and Dungeness crab may be special in the Northwest, it's the lowest common denominator that ends up defining us - Applebee's, McDonald's, Cheesecake Factory. Yes, there is SO MUCH more and better including regional cuisines and our rich immigrant cultures, but I don't mind taking a lighthearted view towards mass market food habits.

I recently tried these, because how could I not? https://shop.mackiescrisps.co.uk/collections/vegan-range/products/mackies-of-scotland-haggis-cracked-black-pepper-crisps I don’t know if they tasted like haggis, but I enjoyed the ample black pepper.

Cover it with cheese 🇺🇸

Are you cooking it in the jars? I personally never make pate but when you said chicken liver I was reminded of the smooth mix I’ve seen in restaurants kitchens, pureed in a blender then poured into ramekins and baked.

lol, I haven't even plugged it in yet!

What is the consistency of your pate, can you make it more liquid? Air bubbles seem bad from a food safety standpoint.

@JeanneCake bonbon inventory management and production flow are things I'm still wrapping my head around. I hadn't been making a whole lot of bonbons due to shelf life concerns, but they've been selling so well at holidays and online that I'm focusing much more attention on them. With my truffles or bars, I'll make a big batch of a single flavor and package them right away. With the assorted bonbon boxes there are 9 or more flavors so I've been making a few flavors at a time and chilling or freezing until I have them all ready to box up, then boxing and usually re-freezing until I get an order. But now I'm wondering if repeated freezing and thawing is a bad idea. I would like to get a cold display case so people can build their own boxes, I just had a customer today who would have enjoyed that. I have a retail window at my production kitchen, it's in an industrial area so not much foot traffic so far but business is growing and people are finding me. I'm doing direct retail and some wholesale of the pre-packed boxes, plus I have two customers who order bulk bonbons by the dozen, so I'm trying to stay ahead enough to fill those orders quickly. And now I'm trying to stock up for summer, I have at least 1000 bulk bonbons in the freezer plus several hundred boxed or trayed and ready to go in boxes. I admit that I've been kind of scattered with them, one box has nuts, one has wheat, one doesn't but will all the fruit flavors offend someone? And I've been doing some hearts and some domes in the same flavors which is just ridiculous to keep track of. I need to figure out a better way, I'm making myself crazy - one shape, 12 flavors, one version of the flavor guide for all sizes of box. I guess that's my summer project

I had a fairly smooth day of bonbon-ing today, 12 molds (CW2295, 32 cavity dome) start to finish (but not fully packaged/put away). I took notes on the timing, just in case it helps. I planned ahead and put my colors in a melter overnight, otherwise I'd microwave them while polishing molds polishing molds: 30 minutes airbrushing molds, meanwhile melting ganaches in the microwave: 1 hour tempering chocolate, casting shells: 45 min tempering & piping fillings: 1 hour making one more layer on the hazelnut, re-tempering what's in the melter, and lunch break: 45 min capping all molds: 45 min packaging & etc: 2 hours plus So 5 hours of production, probably 4 hours of packaging for 384 pieces. I did lose a few, say at the end of the day I have 40 bonbons per hour made and in the box. If labor costs $20/hr, that's 50 cents a piece in labor. I'll make a little at wholesale, do better at retail, and would do even better if I can produce more in less time Or I could charge more, I did raise prices recently but am still far from the most expensive in town. Retail is around $2.50 a piece.

😂 I got the Color EX, definitely an investment at $10k, but when I think if I had to pay a helper $20/hr it seems like a bargain.

Yes, I usually do a few flavors start to finish. Polish, paint, shell, fill, cap. I would hate to have a day that was all polishing 😆 Today I made 2 flavors, 7 molds total. I had extra ganache in the freezer so I melted that down rather than start from scratch but I don't know if that really saves any time. I worked about 5.5 hours today but not very hard, I feel like I spend so much time waiting for cocoa butter to either melt or cool. I also ran to the post office, put away the 4 molds of cardamom from yesterday, made lunch ... I've been working out of melters and I find maintaining working temp takes a lot of time and energy, so I just bought a Selmi. Haven't used it yet, but I hope it will do that maintenance for me. What is your airbrush setup? A larger nozzle or compressor could help get more color on in less time. I agree, 60 molds a week is getting towards max for 1 person.

How long do you leave them to dry? Could there have been a few tiny droplets of water still in the mold? I let my molds air dry overnight, then polish them with cotton balls.

Oh sorry, you wanted all the other, cheaper wholesale suppliers? 😆 Talking to the manufacturer or their sales rep directly might yield some leads, and ideally samples 😋 Does anyone know a Barry Callebaut rep on the east coast ... ?

Nice looking work, and as I increase bonbon production I am also interested in this question. What mold do you use or how many cavities does it have? How many molds of the same flavor do yo usually do at once? I mostly use CW2295 with 32 cavities, usually 3 or 4 molds per flavor. Assuming everything goes well, 12-15 molds is a good day, maybe up to 20 if I push myself and stay late. So I think 400-500 pieces a day is reasonable for one person, 600+ is more of a stretch. I think 6-8000 is possible in 3 or 4 production days per week (gotta leave time for packaging etc). It would be a little faster if they're all one flavor instead of tempering multiple colors and ganaches. I disagree on transfer sheets always coming out perfectly. They save time but can still have poor results. What brand of cocoa butter do you use, and do you usually back with white?

@Kerry Beal send him to Peterson for Valrhona and Barry Callebaut, Albert Uster for Felchlin. https://petersoncheese.com/products/catalogpage.asp?tagID=179&tsID=26&catID=17#t https://secure.auifinefoods.com/felchlin

Toffee is going to be pretty darn sweet. You could cut that slightly by adding as much butter as possible, extra salt, or something bitter or spicy like espresso or ginger. or cook the toffee darker ...

You should not need to oil the rings, fat in the dough is usually enough.

What did you use to flavor them? Do look at Valrhona, the raspberry and yuzu are particularly intense.