pastrygirl

It makes a delightfully gooey grilled cheese sandwich.

Yes, I have a retail line of chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, and caramels that I sell through a handful of stores and at various events. Chocolate festivals, wine walks, and crafts fairs can bring good sales. I also work with a couple of caterers to fulfill their dessert needs. The variety helps keep it fun. I'm still a starving artist, though, I make a living but barely. Time and energy for sales and marketing are my weak spots, I'd rather be playing in the kitchen!

Maybe a couple of savories for lunch - a cheesy biscuit or spinach croissant. If the weather is cool to start, you could certainly try some mothers's day chocolates.

@Merry Berry ok, so not a farmers market, some of everything. Is it year-round? What are the hours? Like anything, you'll just have to see how it goes, but I'd try a handful of breakfast pastries for the early birds and some cookies, brownies & seasonal fruit tartlets for afternoon snacking. Good luck & have fun!

I did a couple of summer farmers markets my first few years and found them not worth the struggle. Now, I don't sign up for anything outdoors between mid June and early September. It' s hard to compete with summer fruit and ice cream. People shopping at farmers markets tend to be a bit more health conscious, if they're having a frozen treat while they shop and buying peaches for later, they don't need chocolate, too. And if it's REALLY hot, people don't go out. Maybe it's us soft NW-ers, but if it is 70-80, people are out & eating ice cream, if it's 90, the local beaches and lakes are packed. It might be hotter than you think. If the market is set up in a parking lot or street, the sun has already been warming the pavement since it came up. Even though your booth has the shade of the tent, the ground 3 feet in front of you might be able to fry an egg. A solid bar will be fine at 75F in the shade, but ganache truffles begin to get soft. Anyone who drove is going back to a hot car and if they're not going straight home, they can't leave chocolate in a hot parked car. You can try ice packs or insulated pouches but those add cost and only help for so long. Maybe make sure to have a couple of really chocolatey baked goods in the mix so that people get a taste for what you do with chocolate without risking melted bonbons.

Shipping in cold weather isn't so bad. It does add cost for a box, bubble wrap, and time to pack and bring to the post office. Shipping in warm weather is a lot trickier. You can add an ice pack but that adds a lot of weight, and you can ship next day air but that's very expensive, especially with the added weight of the ice pack. If you end up shipping hundreds of packages a month, there are volume discounts with various carriers, or you can have them pick up from your lab. I usually only get a handful of website orders per month. I have a stash of various sizes small boxes and get free bubble wrap recycled from my SIL's workplace, and with a USPS account, I can create and pay for my shipping label online from home and not have to wait in line at the post office. I did have to drop off orders every day last week, but I'm within 3 miles of 2 different post offices, so it's not too far out of my way. My main tip is to pack your boxes as full with bubble wrap as possible. The one time I didn't, the box got crushed. I always think of my brothers ordering heavy things like boxes of ammo, I want my bonbons safe even if a heavy box gets thrown on top if it. If you have any tips on SEO or online customer acquisition, I'd love to read them! I built my own website with Squarespace, it works but there is a lot of room for improvement. Aren't you supposed to imbed keyword into all your photos or something? I'm always curious when someone across the country orders from me. I wonder if they found me by searching, maybe got a gift from someone local or one of the subscription boxes I've worked with? It's kind of exciting, though!

Check your local hardware store for a scraper that is wide enough to scrape the whole mold in one pass. I use one like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00870P7QC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_lv.JBbWRD8B42

Sounds tedious, but possible. Oh, the struggles we endure for our art! 😂

I had used the melanger to grind the apples into white chocolate plus added cocoa butter - one more reason you need a melanger, I knew there was one more sample I should have sent you! But yes, otherwise you might need to pass your mix through a sieve if you don't want bits of skin.

Agree, get as many as you can afford and have space for. Shipping cost for 3 or 4 molds is probably only a little more than for one mold ... that’s how I usually justify it! If the pieces come out cleanly, you don’t really need to wash and dry between uses, but on the other hand if you have build-up of chocolate on top of the mold and solid pieces get scraped back into your melter/bowl of tempered chocolate it can turn into a chunky nightmare. I'm a fan of the 2295, nice size & number of pieces and easy to polish and decorate. I think I have 6 of them.

How big is your egg? You might need to get crafty.

I've used hard bottom bags with a bit of paper grass. https://glerup.com/shop-now-candy-packaging/bags-pouches-candy-confection-food-packaging/hard-bottom-bags/clear-hard-bottom-bag-140x305-3-1-4-x-2-x-12.html I've seen boxes with inserts to hold the egg, similar idea to these cupcake boxes with inserts https://www.papermart.com/clear-gold-bottom-p-e-t-cupcake-boxes/id=38533 dual inserts at The Chocolate Lab: https://www.instagram.com/p/BgkZQ2ChndG/ Or attach the egg to a chocolate base so it is free-standing. From David H Chow: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg2KvZuAgW2/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01L2G8ND6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I used the above freeze dried granny smith apples in a white chocolate bar for christmas, and liked it so much i might make it year-round. They have the tart flavor that I want and the green skins contributed a bit of natural color. Trader Joe's has freeze-dried Fujis that would be a lot sweeter, just depends on your taste in apples.

Depends on how many batches you want to make... Its a 12-13 gram piece, at that size you need more than one mold’s worth to make a pound. Chocolat-chocolat might be a few dollars less depending on the exchange rate, but international shipping might be more than JB prince.

Sure, and nothing wrong with citric acid itself, but it’s not a normal ingredient in chocolate. Usually if you want a less sweet chocolate you add less sugar, not sugar as the first ingredient then some acid to balance it.

Mix a little of the raspberries with a little pastry cream to mage sure it doesn’t turn a weird color. Some berries plus egg yolks can turn an unappetizing purple-gray. Separate layers of jam and pastry cream might be prettier.

Re: ruby chocolate - I was surprised to see citric acid as an ingredient. They're really trying to make it fruity, aren't they?

A lot of commercial appliances come with a 3/4" gas connection, though you may be able to find 1/2". Might be a good idea to keep utilities separate for business purposes

Why clarified butter? I think whole butter with all the milk solids has fuller flavor. And was it salted or unsalted? If unsalted, it might just need a pinch of salt as flavor enhancer.

Its everything chocolate, not just bonbons. There is the usual prologue on how chocolate and tempering work then sections on: breakfast & snacks drinking chocolate jams & creams Cakes individual cakes other desserts chocolates (bonbons, truffles, etc) restaurant desserts & petit fours. I have the english/Spanish version, 2nd edition in excellent condition except for a small gouge on the spine. I’d have to look up what I paid for it, but would entertain offers.

Thanks! But we are comically inept in the snow. Transplants from the Midwest, Northeast, Canada, and everywhere colder laugh at us. Part of it is that we don't get enough snow to be properly equipped with chains and snow plows and practice driving in it, part of it is that it doesn't stay cold enough so it thaws then re-freezes and we get layers of ice on the road. Oh, and all the hills. Good for sledding, bad for driving!

How much water does a steam cleaner put out? I have a concrete kitchen floor so the tempered bits are easy enough to scrape up but there's still traces of chocolate. I've been wondering if a steam cleaner would be practical. There is one floor drain, a steam cleaner and a squeegee sounds easier than scrubbing and mopping.

Made some bonbons for Valentine's but it's currently Snow-pocalypse '19 in Seattle, so I think Valentine's Day is cancelled From top/left, all with caramel, dark shells except the first one in milk: milk choc chipotle, white choc passion fruit, milk salty caramel, white (Orelys) butterscotch, dark honey Snow-mageddon - we got about 8" which is unusually deep, some winters we get no snow at all.

@Tri2Cook yes, but you should still try. My bars all have various inclusions or fillings, and scraping the molds back into the melter can pick up bits of those. To get maximum use out of the chocolate and fewest washings of the molds, I'll do the 72% bars with no allergens first, then switch to 60% and make the 3 flavors with only soy and milk, then one with soy, milk, and either wheat or nuts. After I've made a batch and have leftover chocolate that has been used with wheat or nuts I label it and keep it separate and only use it for that flavor. As I scale up, I should move to bigger batches and only use the chocolate for one thing. I have a 24 kg melter but don't need 450 bar batches yet, this method lets me make 150 of 3 flavors with one melter-full of 60% and be able to tell people that I'm trying my best. Otherwise, I think you just have to make a few batches of everything and roll with it. If you've gotten to the point of a Selmi and a retail shop, surely you already know what your best sellers are and how long it takes to make a batch. There will always be some adjustments for a new kitchen and maybe the retail location will have a different demographic than whatever you've done before. Keep us posted! I think we all dream of having cute little shops, few of us achieve it.

And honestly, I'll probably forget again! 😊