pastrygirl

Fudge is a different animal, chocolate may be the best version of it, but I consider fudge a sugar-based confection that may happen to have chocolate in it rather than a chocolate based confection like a truffle or bonbon. You mentioned many people don't have ovens, is there an existing tradition of desserts or any interest in specifically European or American foods? A spread for bread makes no sense if there is no bread, but if people eat fruit for dessert maybe you could market it as a dip for fruit. Or what are traditional desserts that could be made chocolate? Do most people have some refrigeration? Chocolate mousse doesn't need tempering or an oven, just a chiller.

That's even tougher. Are there any local nuts? They could make jars of chocolate nut spread a la Nutella.

Ice cream, cold beverages, cookies, brownies. Do the local farms also refine the beans into chocolate or are you working with cacao nibs?

I've been making a few ... hundred ... Easter eggs, am happy with most of them lemon & passion fruit in white chocolate double (blond vanilla + dark salty) caramel in dark chocolate milk chocolate hazelnut in a dark shell boxed (that was a different, less purple batch of hazelnut)

yeah, it is what it is I keep my airbrush warm, which helps but only as far as spraying two molds instead of one before having to warm it up. I keep the gun in my EZ temper or in a melter with my cocoa butter colors so at least I'm not putting CB into cold metal. There is a heated spray gun on the market but it doesn't look appropriate for fine detail or small molds https://www.kreaswiss.com/hotCHOC-chocolate-gun

This stuff? I don’t know, but I was compelled to smell the case I just got - smells fine. I get mine from Nashville Wraps.

Got a hacksaw? Trim one edge off the pans 😉

Reese's for people who don't like chocolate ... I'm sure they're out there 🤪

It's my favorite thing that I make. The addition of crispy feuilletine makes it even more addictive. 2 parts milk chocolate to 1 part natural PB (I use Adam's Creamy) by weight sets up quite firmly. I can cut it on the guitar when it's just right but I've broken plenty of strings when I've let it get too firm. I also make a white chocolate coconut concoction that's kind of a pain because it seems like it's never going to solidify, but it always does, eventually, with more stirring, chilling, and EZ temper silk.

I don't think so. I make a peanut butter gianduja for which I stir tempered chocolate into peanut butter, but I also sometimes melt down the scraps and re-temper them and the result is the same. It's all about the cocoa butter. Other fats and oils soften cocoa butter, and the more you add, the softer the mix is and the lower the temp you need to work at.

You're talking about making ice cream from scratch, right? Do you have a deep love of ice cream or just want to expand the menu for summer? I bought my commercial kitchen from a small batch ice cream maker and agree that it's not as easy as it sounds. Spoiler alert: he's making custom cakes now. Even if you buy a pre-made base, ice cream is kind of high maintenance. Carpigiani and Taylor are generally regarded as the best batch freezers, I think you can get a small tabletop Taylor for around $5k, with Carpigiani the sky's the limit. Ice cream needs to be stored super cold to prevent ice crystal growth, so look at ice cream hardening cabinets. The one I bought from Matt is a Global, goes down to -30F, I think it was $8k new. (I keep it at -10 and it's full of bonbons) Then you'll need more freezers at higher temps for holding ready to eat ice cream, especially if you're scooping. Where are you and what % of the year is ice cream weather? Other things to consider: popsicles - SOOO much easier, buy pre-packed gelato cups or novelties from someone else, granita Good luck!

I've added LorAnn pure lemon, orange, and peppermint oils to both tempered chocolate and ganache.

Ok, after watching that I have to admit that I'd want to clean the thing as rarely as possible 😆 I do have a commercial kitchen and my 3 compartment sink is big enough to fit a full sheet pan, and I could hook a hose up to my utility sink if needed. Melter maintenance is certainly simpler!

@EsaK good to know and consider. I wouldn’t be hosing water through the machine, but would want to clean it if I had something strongly flavored or contaminated with allergens. I don’t want to just get the cheapest one possible, but if the screw isn’t really necessary I have other things to spend money on.

how much heat they put out is definitely something to consider!

The heater and thermostat are on the bottom of the unit, small volume is fine. They heat relatively slowly but I think if you kept the melter around 40C it would keep your dumped-out chocolate warm enough to add back to the Delta.

"Please note that this model does not have the removable screw feature and is not recommended for any chocolate that has additional inclusions, oils, or flavors added to it." Although I don't currently add inclusions directly to my chocolate, I do make a couple of Christmas items with added oil flavors (orange & peppermint). The removable screw just looks so much easier to clean. It's hard. I quit my day job almost 7 years ago and have been scraping by, paying myself close to nothing while slowly building business and always trying to improve efficiency in methods and packaging. I started out with beautiful, expensive custom packaging that was a pain in the butt at any kind of volume and a 6 kg melter. Graduated to the 24 kg melter and EZ temper a few years ago but still thinking about every stir, every ladle, every stopping to temp the chocolate. 10 seconds times a thousand adds up. My kitchen gets really hot in the summer & I was looking at air conditioning so I could do more production year-round but now I'm thinking a Selmi would be a better investment - make more product, make more money, do the AC in 2022. I agree with Kerry that I'll probably want the enrober - yeah, of course I do, who doesn't? 😂

Sooo, less than 6 months later and I'm here to eat my words 🤣 I'm back on the Selmi lust ... yes, I can do a lot by hand and the EZ temper helps but lately I've been making a ton of bonbons and thinking about how much time I spend maintaining the temper in the melter. Fill 4 or 5 molds, dump them back in, re-heat the chocolate from 88 to 90, repeat ... my production days could be so much more efficient. Are they really as fast as they say they are? The Selmi Color EX claims to temper 12 kg in 7 minutes, seems like decent capacity and better on the budget but I'm wondering if in a few years I'll wish I'd gotten the 24 kg Plus EX.

I don't think she thins it, it may be the particular couverture and settings on the machine. She's a Callebaut ambassador but I'm not familiar with which of their chocolates are most fluid.

How low can you go? I'm skeptical that feuilletine will stay crisp with any amount of available water.

As in solid, hard caramel? No.

Does he give the resulting aW after each change?

Didn't they go bankrupt then get bought out by someone? I vaguely recall being excited by the pending liquidation auction for all their toys a year+ ago but the auction never happened ... so probably new evil corporate overlords charging 🤣 edited to add: they were acquired by Breville in 2019 https://www.geekwire.com/2019/months-significant-layoffs-joule-cooking-device-maker-chefsteps-acquired-breville/

So disappointing! I haven't worked with Ruby, so I don't know if it acts any differently from 'regular' chocolate. Was it a blend of Ruby and white? For me, 72F is bordering on too warm, I prefer my kitchen (and my molds) around 65F. To clean your molds, put them in the freezer for 15+ minutes to force the remaining chocolate to contract then bang it out and wash the molds as usual.

I don't know. IIRC, WA used to have the same rule - no chocolate at home, only oven-baked items, but I believe that has changed. I think to a certain extent, chocolate and confections aren't always well understood by health inspectors. They're so focused on meat cookery, hot holding, and proper cooling while chocolate has a whole different set of needs. Or maybe they just don't trust "home" cooks enough when there is no "kill step" or heat pasteurization? I'd be curious to know what food borne illnesses have been tied to chocolate, and whether it was contamination or something else. Is there more that can go wrong in a bonbon than just mold?