pastrygirl

Humidity isn’t bad, room temp is mid to high 60s, and my milk chocolate bonbons are all coming out fine, it’s just these bars. I guess I’ll check my temper and try again. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I should have an answer for this but I’m tired and stumped. Why do my milk chocolate bars keep turning out dull AF? I’ve cleaned these molds and re-tempered the chocolate like four times this week

Have they met Americans? Good luck with that. Besides, I thought they were dismantling all the regulatory agencies? Anyway, chocolat-chocolat carries Roxy & Rich's natural line. Haven't tried these, I use mostly their jewel colors. https://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/product/coloured-cocoa-butter-natural-collection/

Ah, then that's a half sheet pan, you mention quarter sheet grids above. My half sheet pans barely fit in my bus tub so wouldn't recommend it. You might have to just stop up your whole sink basin if you want to soak those pans.

Hotel pan or do you happen to have a large roasting pan?

YAY for freeze dried mangosteen, $2.99/1.5 oz. A light & crunchy version of one of the harder to find tropical fruits.

'A computer free space' (Frankie's) is a new one to me. Fair, though. That diner menu is ... vast 🤔

Hmm, maybe try mascarpone as the "liquid" instead of cream with a smaller proportion of white chocolate? What white are you using? Felchlin has one that is supposed to be very 'milky' with Swiss mountain milk.

Thanks for the illustration. The middle one doesn't look bad to me - not vibrant but red. The one on the right doesn't look red at all. Maybe some makers use a higher concentration of pigment in the cocoa butter?

Do you mean they fade over time or just don't look red enough over dark choc from the beginning?

No, but that's the second pastry thing this week I'd never heard of. Cool to keep learning!

Following up, I got my CB today - after exchange rate, bank fees, and shipping it was $39.22/kg or $17.83/lb USD for 2 x 3 kg of Cacao Barry. Expiration May 2026, so it's cool if it lasts me awhile.

I do have an impulse sealer. Sounds like manually squishing the air out and sealing that way is my best bet at this stage. thanks, all

@TdeV This is a pretty sturdy product but an adjustable vacuum would be ideal. 80% or something.

Correct on both counts. Here is the bag. It fits pretty snugly around a 1" deep tray then goes into a box. Currently I fold the end of the bag & tape it, would like a better seal. If I switch to a flat bag (no gusset/pleat), I may also have to change the dimensions of the outer box to acommodate overhang.

I see. My bags in question have a gusset, so the sides fold in & create a quadruple layer. Do you think that extra thickness would allow air to escape through the middle of the bag where it's only 2 layers?

For people with Food Savers or other non-chamber vacuum sealers: will they work with any heat-sealable bag? I'm not doing sous vide or anything, just want a fast way to seal products & reduce air in bags that I already have.

Oof. This April their 5.5 lb was only $70 and I'm just about out. $45/lb is bonkers 🤪 Even the Felchlin CB at AUI is less. Plus, I resent their order handling fee. Webstaurant has Cacao Barry for ~ $20/lb https://www.webstaurantstore.com/cacao-barry-cocoa-butter-pistoles-6-6-lb/409BHD703.html slightly less here https://www.pastrydepot.com/cacao-barry-deodorized-cocoa-butter-3kg-ncb-hd703.html?source=googlebase&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1NK4BhAwEiwAVUHPUBg5tzZReUjsR-dtJhXRKptzC8RV-IkraPEp7u_yPqxRwRj2wmTr6hoCMAMQAvD_BwE and in Canada, competitive depending on exchange rate, foreign transaction fees, & shipping https://vanillafoodcompany.ca/deodorized-cocoa-butter-3-kg-6-6-lbs-cacao-barry/ edited to add: I just ordered 2 tubs of Cacao Barry from Canada, should be $18/lb when all is said & done, best price for me out of those 3. Thanks for bringing this up! 🇨🇦 💌

40 x 14g - a pound & a quarter per mold is a lot of chocolate! I recently got some tiny molds for samples, it was weird how light they were. I hope I never have to polish them, I'd need to use my pinky finger or maybe a q-tip.

I found a pic online & wow, those are super close together. I dislike all the chocolate that gets on the top of the mold when the cavities are far apart, I'm trying to picture how this is messier. Greater volume of chocolate & instead of each cavity draining individually they run together? Do you mean a piping bag for the fillings? How else do you do it? I pipe everything. 🤷‍♀️

If you wanted to add smokiness to a chocolate truffle or a creme brulee, you could infuse the cream with the already-smoked tea leaves.

Blender and smoker not required, use any vessel on your bbq grill or a vessel within a vessel where the larger contains the smoking material and the smaller contains the food. Or use already smoked ingredients like smoked salt or lapsang souchang tea.

Glad you found something that mostly works. Did the two pieces end up being the same weight in reality?

I saw exactly one mention of the acquisition on social media, kind of surprised me that it wasn't bigger news. The guys that bought it back from Hershey's seemed near retirement age at the time, so maybe not surprising that they sold. They had also bought & were operating out of the former Dagoba factory in Southern Oregon. Super convenient now for Harry & David who is just up the road. So, no idea what'll happen with them but it's a little vexing to "save" the artisan co from one behemoth & sell to another.

if the Papermart 15x8 large box fits 30 pieces in trays, I assume you could fit several more without the trays These large ones should fit 40-45 pieces without trays but are a little deep https://glerup.com/large-luxury-set-up-boxes/?sku=C96GOLD&ref=isp_rel_prd&isp_ref_pos=4 gold 1.5 lb single layer here, BR24G, I'm guessing 45-50 pieces: https://www.duerrpack.com/boxes.php various expensive sexy boxes https://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/product/black-croco-48ct-box/ https://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/product/labyrinthe-espresso-croco-box/ https://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/product/laurentian-ebony-box-36-ct/ also these https://www.aspecialtybox.com/large-rigid-deco-bronze-rectangle-magnetic-gift-box-with-ribbon-00589 Good luck!