pastrygirl

Oh yes, that's a thing ... https://www.webstaurantstore.com/14253/commercial-immersion-blenders.html

As long as you’re not a danger to yourself or others?

If it makes you feel better, I vacuum the house approximately quarterly (when my mom visits), routinely leave dishes in the sink until they're slimy, finally took my car in to fix the oil leaks they found a year ago, and haven't backed up my laptop in 600+ days. It is satisfying to have my chores done, but does it really matter if the hamper is full or there are dust bunnies under the bookcase? As long as you're otherwise functioning and not turning reclusive hoarder.

I'd guess things like silicone and latex. Maybe someone dropped a spatula in that batch.

So, all the flavors with raisins? 😂

No discounts. It's not pay-by-ingredient, it's pay-by-dish.

It's a double-edged sword. If you spend all your time trying to cater to the special requests, every other order is not getting as much attention as it could. The gluten free vegan may or may not be happy, meanwhile everyone else is wondering what took so long when the kitchen got backed up because they had to stop and think, taste and adjust, make something from scratch instead of the mise they spent all day prepping that had butter and flour in it.

Good for him. Special requests are a pain. Sure, they can be an interesting challenge, but those challenges all day everyday take the fun out of cooking what you want to cook. And as much as it must suck to have severe allergies, I don’t think any kitchen where an ingredient has existed for years can really promise to keep all traces of it out of a dish. Flour goes airborne, maybe there are cheesy molecules wafting out of the pizza oven.

For number of items in the smaller baskets, maybe Chinese restaurant rules of one per person plus or two extra?

Surely you have some favorites (either to eat or to make) from previous years - what recipes are on the top of your list? For Mr Cat's office, consider some sugar free spiced nuts for the keto/paleo crowd. If it's a leave-it-in-the-breakroom situation, maybe some sort of divided tray nicely arranged. Or a bakery box with parchment paper dividers. 75 small pieces? How many people will the other gift baskets serve? Might be better to use small treat bags for those to keep things fresh and separate. Nashville Wraps has some cute festive gift bags that are heavy duty - something like this with a sheet of colorful tissue and assorted treat bags would be easy. https://www.nashvillewraps.com/bags/printed-gift-bags/p-672/ptjmco

AUI shows a 'cooked apple' and a 'green apple'. Either one could be good in the ganache, depending on whether you want to reinforce the roasted apple flavor or brighten it up with green apple. https://secure.auifinefoods.com/products-search?qs=sosa+apple+aroma However, Sosa is still expensive. Consider LorAnn candy oils for intense flavor in a few drops but the apple is artificial. https://www.lorannoils.com/apple-flavor-1-dram-0350-0100 I think the easiest thing would be to reduce some good quality apple cider to a syrup. And yes, a fat 'raincoat' will help protect the cookie from sogginess.

I’d try increasing the salt and browning some of the butter. You could brown the butter in the fudge layer then add the condensed milk etc to the hot butter. Maybe also extra chocolate chips mixed into the oatmeal base layer?

Stack two hotel pans with water in the gap between bottoms? Could work!

I’ll have to go back to the salvage store for some scrap metal and add a heat diffuser layer.

Thanks for the warning. I don’t have an IR thermometer but I do have 2 mol d’arts I can transfer melted chocolate to for tempering and working. the heating element looks like this

Not exactly a yard sale, thrift store, or a junk heap, but a friend found this Design & Realisation 20 kg chocolate melter at Second Use, which is mostly architectural salvage & reclaimed materials. Only $75, so I pounced on the deal, hopefully it works and will help with holiday production. (These are over $1000 new!)

Does anyone have experience with the Design & realisation TF 20? I just found a used one locally, don’t really need it but the price is so low it seems dumb to resist. Any known issues with these I should be aware of? Seller says ‘appears to work’ but seller is not a chocolatier so may not know what they have. thanks! never mind, I went ahead and snagged it - don't really need another melter but couldn't pass up a good deal

If you want to smuggle some back home from Seattle (assuming you're coming next month) let me know, I'll order from AUI again before NW Choc Fest.

Agreed, Felchlin grand crus are steep but their ‘regular’ couvertures are more reasonable, about $15/kg from AUI. I use lots of the sao Palme 60%, a great goes-with-everything semisweet.

Same thing, different coffee, the booth next to me at a recent local tasting event had them too. Looks like Steeped has their own brand plus does the steep-able pouch packaging for others. https://steepedcoffee.com/

I wonder how reception through jello will be ... what if you made two blocks of jello then carved a cavity for the phone and sandwiched them with the phone in the middle? While the phone would still be touching moist jello, it wouldn’t be submerged in liquid while the jello sets.

Could they be crosnes? Or too smooth & uniform? I dunno, but most things are good with enough butter 😋

$5? That’s going to be a very small bag! $5 an ounce, maybe ... Suggestion #1, charge more! Unless they require $5 items, charge at least $10.

Chocolat-chocolat has some swanky boxes

Does it say how long the video is?