pastrygirl

Sure, but Pringles are super-processed and packaged, a whole pig from a local farm feels* more sustainable than a can of junk food. *I know my gut reaction may have nothing to do with reality Maybe Humm is bored and wants a challenge. Has anyone seen Lars Von Trier's "The Obstructions"? Limitations bring out creativity and new ways of looking at things.

Multiple coats.

Do you go out to eat things that you already know how they will taste, or do you go to try new things that you trust the chef will make taste good? I think the tasting menu client is more often the latter. Agree that excepting milk & honey for tea is silly. Also agree that labor cost will be ridiculous. Instead of just adding caviar or foie gras to a dish, they'll have to go to much greater lengths to make it seem special.

Thank you @donk79 and @jimbo My brother has been hoarding boxes of rainbow chip cake mix for his wife's birthdays, which horrifies the family pastry chef (me), we'll see if the milk bar cake is trashy enough for her 🤣

Wow, it's been a minute since we talked about this ... my brother just inquired about me making the rainbow sprinkle vanilla birthday cake for his wife, but I sold my copy of that book ages ago. Is anyone willing to PM me the recipe(s) for that cake? Thanks!

Good for them, I appreciate their statement of caring about the planet we share. OTOH, I don't think it will actually change anything. They still have 1700 recipes featuring beef, what new earth-shattering rendition are we going to miss? Is anything even new anyway? Look for new lamb, goat, and buffalo recipes and sub beef if you need more than 1700 ideas.

One of those ‘never again shall I .. ’ that will totally happen again - accidentally microwaving raspberry inspiration and white chocolate on high instead of 60% That’s blackened caramel bubbling forth from my white chocolate. Do you know how expensive the raspberry is? 😱

While I can sympathize with the desire to force them out of the mold and get on with your life, the next time you have a mold that doesn't seem to release, put it in the fridge and walk away. Not 10 minutes but a few hours or even overnight. Glaring at it and muttering "I'll deal with you 🤬 later" may or may not help. Worst case scenario, they're still stuck. Best case they're fine and it was just chocolate being a pain.

Was the gianduja tempered? Your shells look super thin, which most chocolatiers revere, but my theory is too thin sticks in the mold more because less chocolate is crystallizing and contracting. This is only a theory But a tempered gianduja center should have also contracted slightly upon firming up so either your gianduja wasn't tempered or ... were you impatient? Try half an hour in the fridge, or longer if they're stubborn.

is that an aerated chocolate center?

@Rajala do you know the approximate size?

@Toliver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botan_Rice_Candy

I think it's a little easier since you're not relying on the heat of the cream to melt the chocolate and you eliminate the risk of having un-melted bits left in your ganache. Don't they also claim that breaking the ganache with too little liquid then bringing it back together with more has an effect? Makes it denser or something?

Exciting possibilities, for sure. But might really limit applications. Sounds like a no for wet produce, I wonder how long it lasts in a humid environment. Could be good for things like the inner sleeve on packaged crackers or cookies.

The 7.5 mm base refers to the distance between the grooves. Then I have 4 different sets of wires in multiple of that distance - 15, 22.5, 30, and 37.5 mm for cutting different sizes. It is easy to change from one set to another. I make small truffle bites that I cut 22.5 mm square, when I make caramels I cut them 37.5 mm one way then change to the 15 mm set to cut rectangles. base wires truffles, 22.5 mm square caramels 15 x 37.5

I have a Dedy guitar with 7.5 mm base. You can get a heavier wire to use as replacement if you have frequent breakage.

It's true, I cut caramels and giandujas on my guitar. I'm also pretty fast at replacing broken wires if you know what I mean 😆 From a business standpoint (rather than just fun toys), what are your pain points? What are your best sellers/most profitable items and what would help you make & sell more of those? At first I was excited by the mini enrober for the 3Z but after watching the video I'm not impressed. I think you'll still be hand dipping. The guitar would save you all the hand scooping and cutting. I'd say either a guitar or more molds and an airbrush setup. Would you rather be hand dipping all day or polishing and painting molds all day?

I don't warm molds and am not aware of that being a standard practice. Maybe if it's insanely cold in your production room and the chocolate is crystallizing way too quickly? But it would have to be below 60F before I'd think of doing that.

& that's another thing to be aware of - some people will give you feedback, many won't, so it's even harder to know what has happened to your product once it leaves your hands. As much as I prefer the gushingly positive emails, if I've made a mistake somewhere ultimately I do want to know and try to make it right if possible. And if it's something like an un-named allergen - hey, it didn't say nuts on the box but I just bit into an almond- the maker really needs to know before they hurt someone.

yes The fat bloom on the hazelnut was my own fault, I got the (not so) brilliant idea to line the shell with a layer of gianduja, thus putting too much oil right up against the dark chocolate shell. Oops 🙄

Today was a shelf life test day, I went to one of my consignors to pick up unsold Easter items and they still had a box of bonbons from Valentine’s Day so I grabbed that too. I delivered those at the end of January so they’ve been at room temp 10 weeks, in my fridge up to 2 weeks during production. Out of 12 pieces, I think the coconut had gone a little off, the hazelnut was super dull from fat bloom, and the cinnamon had both a pocket of blue mold and fuzzy white mold under the shell. 😳 Really glad I pulled that and I hope the 9 boxes they sold have been eaten by now. I wonder when the turning point was ... I had been getting more confident - or perhaps cavalier - and went with 12 weeks for a recent batch. Maybe I should be more conservative and say eat within 8 weeks?

Since you were able to melt it and it's not seized, it's probably not the chocolate There may be chocolates that are easier to use, but even experienced chocolatiers using expensive chocolate have failures. I've been at this several years and have probably tempered a literal ton of chocolate but sometimes I still get it wrong.

@Dan K we spend all this time trying to coax chocolate into crystallizing, the hitch is you need to either use it right away or constantly maintain it. “In temper” really just means a small % of the cocoa butter has turned to stable crystals. As the chocolate cools more or is agitated more, that % increases and the chocolate gets more viscous.

Yeah that top pic looks super thick, chocolate should flow Since it was so thick and behaved better at higher temps, that sounds like over-crystallized. Too much stirring at too low a temp, I'd guess. I assume you have your KA on lowest speed but maybe don't stir constantly? Did you mix the luster dust with something? You can also use it dry, just swirl it into the mold cavities with a clean dry paintbrush of appropriate size.

Something with Okanagan huckleberries? Here's a liqueur https://okanaganspirits.com/product-category/liqueur/ and some jam https://wcwf.ca/shop/specialty-products/mountain-huckleberry-jam/ they also have fish, mushrooms, the fruits of BC