pastrygirl

Nope

What is so special about it?

chef's choice! no no, not if it came out cleanly If chocolate or color has stuck to the mold, it may be easier at some point to just wash it. You don't want residual fat, you want a clean mold. Polishing with cotton will remove any fat, but if your chocolate came out cleanly there should not be much or any residual fat to begin with.

my 2 cents is: Try a little more egg, more chocolate if you can stand it, and bake them hotter for shorter, like 325-350F, check after 20-30 minutes depending on size of batch.

If you want the personal challenge of having your own place and the satisfaction of creating your vision, then you may very well succeed. Financially, that's harder ... https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-chef-host-tom-colicchio-warns-coronavirus-could-kill-75-percent-of-restaurants?ref=scroll

Quite a while. My bottle is at least 5 or 6 years old.

Then carry on. At least now the labor pool is much larger. But seriously, I would expect consumer spending to be down. Unemployment has skyrocketed, a lot of people don't know where their next dollar is coming from. People still want affordable comfort food, but can you do that at a high enough margin? What is the clientele, does business rely on tourism? On one hand, I worry my summer retail sales will be down due to the cruise ships not coming, on the other, maybe people will take road trips and do more regional travel. (Not sure what the cruise ship equivalent is in VT, leaf-peeper season?)

a few to consider https://dicktaylorchocolate.com/ https://www.somachocolate.com/ https://www.mapchocolate.com/

Was it ever a good idea?

Antique malls will have a better selection - stuff that people bought at garage & estate sales knowing they can re-sell it vs. the crap from the back of the cupboard that gets donated to Goodwill.

I think whether your dough sticks or slips has more to do with the dough than the board.

Really great work! I am happy with Easter sales, too. LOTS of gifts. I sold all my bonbons and caramel eggs, lots of bunnies.

Quite pleased with these - shells are a blend of valrhona strawberry & zephyr, sprayed red & purple. Filled w/ white chocolate passion fruit ganache.

Commercial exhaust hoods do. I worked one place where the makeup air was heated to help keep the food warm (otherwise cold air was blowing down on the hot line). I have a type 1 hood, can definitely feel outside air being blown down while at the stove.

Worth a try, works with other yeast-risen pastries like croissants and cinnamon rolls. Cake doughnuts might be easier to make a tiny batch of, they're usually a simple dough that can be mixed together quickly.

Yes, but doing some anyway because there's nothing else. Events are canceled and shops are closed but I can sell online and ship or deliver. I'd already made some really fragile eggs that can't be shipped, sold a few at an event before everything got shut down but now I won't make more of those. I made some solid dark bunnies and caramel filled egg halves today. Eggs will be 3 halves in a box. They're big, over an ounce each. I'll make more solid bunnies and some holiday-neutral bonbons. Even if I have added costs for advertising and shipping it shouldn't be any worse than selling wholesale. I also dropped some truffles off with a caterer friend who's trying to pivot to take-out starting tonight, we'll see how it goes.

@Jim D. perfect, thank you!

I recently got a CA Air Tools compressor with 1/4" quick connect. How do I connect my 1/8" Grex Tritium to it? Do I need a 1/4" hose or just a couple of adaptors? Or a different spray gun altogether?

I've been ogling the near-seamless eggs that so many other chocolatiers produce. Mine have room for improvement, any tips? How much melt to you really need to get hollow halves stuck together?

@curls beautiful!

The milkman is alive and well, I see a lot of Smith Bros boxes on porches around my neighborhood. They do offer a much wider variety than decades ago. BTW, my Grandpa was a milkman at one point, I've found old order sheets in the garage. https://www.smithbrothersfarms.com/how-it-works

I wonder how the meal kit biz is doing. This should be great for Blue Apron et al.

heavy cream AND butter would be quite rich, but I could see replacing milk + butter with cream and no additional butter to skip a step ...

photoshop

Sometimes, if the chocolate has been tempered then left to sit, it thickens enough that you have to raise the temp above the usual range to melt out excess crystals. The right proportion of the right crystals is more important than temp (within reason).