pastrygirl

Holiday stump with gingerbread leaves (and niece) Spiced apple cake with cream cheese filling and salted caramel buttercream. I tried to make darker brown for the outer bark but ended up with ugly purple, that’s what I get for trying to dye something brown instead of just using chocolate? 😂 oh well, family was happy enough, and I used up some odds and ends so I don’t have to count them as inventory so mission accomplished!

A few recent things passion fruit ganache with tangerine pate de fruits coffee caramel strawberry vanilla (Valrhona fraise shells, dark & white vanilla ganache layers) pistachio saffron boxed strawberry, pistachio, candied lemon mendiants for a vegan option (candied lemon slices from Trader Joe’s were good) snowflakes are a regular winter item but cute round jars are new and sold better than expected - I piped about 100 kg of these little guys!!! made toffee for some corporate gifts, couldn’t resist a few colorful sprinkles.

Ah, but how will they keep the worms from working the soil and the bees from pollinating the flowers? They need to go hydroponic and hand pollinate everything to really be vegan.

Are you spraying large finished pieces as with a flocking effect or decorating bonbon molds? For the former, a 50/50 mix is usually recommended. You could try the same for bonbons, or just paint the contrasting chocolate manually and undiluted with a finger or paintbrush. I’ve only sprayed the 50/50 mix with a Wagner paint sprayer, have not tried it with my Grex airbrush.

Maybe. How big is the ‘standard batch’ and how intense are the colors?

@sbain I think the magic of caramel is the high sugar. Raspberry caramel could certainly be good, or you could do a butter ganache with jam. What are you using for the raspberry flavor?

I just got to work and checked my extracts, the lemon is actually 83%! Peppermint is even higher at 89, vanilla is lowest ‘only’ 35%

Lemon extract is high alcohol, at least 35% or 70 proof! Agree with straight luster dust in cotton-polished molds or metallic cocoa butter.

Can you cook the mass and keep it warm while pulling and cutting a portion of the batch at a time?

Agreed. The EZ Temper isn’t the first $1k you spend when just starting out, it’s the tenth $1k you spend after scaling up a bit.

This looks to me like a caramel sauce made separately and poured over, not a hard crack caramel baked with the custard. The custard doesn't have that distinctive dark layer that happens when baked with caramel. 'So I'd caramelize some sugar and deglaze with fruit juice, probably Perfect Puree. https://www.perfectpuree.com/product/prickly-pear/ And a smaller plate, definitely 😂

@Jim D. fleurir says their transfers are all custom designs - didn’t say who printed the transfers but that’s a start (I asked on Instagram)

Buy more molds and do one design and type of shell (dark, milk, white) at a time. mold in the US, mould in Canada, UK, Australia

Its not tempered. Tempering isn’t temperature alone, it’s creating seed crystals in the cocoa butter so it will crystallize all at once when applied to the mold. Chocolate or cocoa butter should set within 2 minutes when tempered, not 2 hours.

@teonzo good points, thanks. They were well wrapped and look and taste fine so yes more of an ethical question. I'd thought they were frozen in May or June and had no problem with that, turns out the date on the box is last December so I paused to worry. 🙄 What's 6 more months at -15F? We haven't lost power or anything weird in that time.

I tried one, it tasted fine. @Jim D. they are the salty caramel butter ganache, the Aw was quite low when we tested it a while back, below 0.60

What is the max length of time you all consider acceptable for keeping frozen product? Here's my dilemma: I had about 50 dozen truffles (not shelled, just cocoa-dusted) tucked away in the freezer as a back-up stash. I pulled them out today and they're older than I thought, have been frozen almost a year at -12 to -18F. We've decided freezing for a few month is OK, is a year too long? I will taste one, but assuming they taste ok and based on age alone would you: a) finish boxing them and put them into the general sales inventory b) box them and use them for the corporate gift bag order, hoping they'll be eaten quickly c) give them to the food bank or save them for fundraiser samples d) ew, compost thanks for playing

I guess some people are secretive, but I feel like a source referral shouldn't be a big deal. Sad that you've seen a difference since raising prices. The self-confidence is definitely tricky for a lot of artisans. Obviously we believe in what we do enough to keep doing it, but the sales and self promotion don't always come naturally. So the other day I was tying ribbons around my 9 piece bonbon boxes and feeling happy with them, thinking $18 is a justifiable price. (They've been $18 for a while, sometimes I'll do $16 in smaller towns or if I need to get rid of them.) Then I saw that another local chocolatier is now carrying a 3rd chocolatier's bonbons, $25 for a 6 piece box!!! Are you kidding me, $4 each for a bonbon? 3rd chocolatier always strikes me as very confident, is definitely talented and probably had more extensive training than most of us. But still ... should I be charging way more or is that ridiculous? It's still just candy, no matter how much time you spent studying it. I could bump my 9 piece up to $20 ... 3rd chocolatier is outside of town so should have much lower expenses, maybe it's 2nd chocolatier's pricing? It is hard to actually make a living ... ok, how about $25 for the 9 piece? 😂 I have some people in my life who always tell me to charge more but I do have customers occasionally ask for discounts or say it's out of budget so I'll give a discount. Another challenge, not being able to say no 🙄. Anyway, back to transfers, I haven't used these folks but pricing on custom doesn't seem that bad ... https://www.americanchocolatedesigns.com/custom-transfer-sheets-1.html

@Jim D. those are nice, no idea who makes them, can you call the chocolatier and ask? On the issue of repeating pattern sizes, Chef Rubber makes some designs that are 1.75" squares with individual images. Maybe other transfer sheet makers offer these too? https://shop.chefrubber.com/products/107/1-75in-x-1-75in-squares/

You say it foamed up as always, but the top pic doesn't seem to have any bubbles ... so odd, where would the bubbles have gone? Did you spread or handle it more than usual and pop them all? Any chance you might have accidentally used baking powder instead? (I have no idea how that would affect this type of candy, just a thought). Yes, get a candy thermometer. The color doesn't look too dark to me, just like regular, non-foamy English Toffee.

I prefer colder, about 65F/18C if you can’t control humidity, stay on the cooler side, 22C/72F with 65% humidity is approaching nightmare territory

Then I'd say go to the hardware store and get whatever canvas or leather gloves still allow good dexterity and wear long sleeves. I have quilted oven mitts but dexterity is poor. I was happy to get through several big batches of caramel with only a few small splatters but then lost a new thermometer to the cauldron while wearing mitts. Win some, lose some. I think MInas' top link looks better for splatter protection because they're looser. Anything skin tight will still transfer heat immediately.

Is it lack of dexterity, how hot and sweaty they get, something else? An you're not pulling sugar, just not a fan of the 'free tattoos' from hot splatters? Sometimes long sleeved chef coats actually do come in handy to protect the forearms ... (the rest of the time, they're like straightjackets) 🙃

Not primary colors, but ... use contrasting shades of chocolate to add interest - pipe or sponge decoration in white, blond, or ruby chocolate before making the shells with dark, or try marbling two types of chocolate together. Or use available ingredients like bits of green pistachios or brightly colored freeze dried fruits.

There's such a huge variety of apples, all beautiful and unique, check out this guy's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pomme_queen/