pastrygirl

So if I send it to your husband can he do a rush order and have it back by October for busy season?

@Kerry Beal loose at the machine end. I think the bottom unscrews, didn't actually look!

Has anyone successfully replaced the power cord on a mol d' art melter? Is it easy or do I have to send it somewhere, and if so, where? Thought I'd check here for DIY info before contacting TCF. My 6kg melter has reached the point where the cord has to be in that just right position to conduct power, and just right can be elusive. I've had it for several years so it's seen some use, am hoping it's a simple repair, i.e. can be done with a screwdriver or passed off to one of my handier brothers in exchange for candy. thanks!

Great, that'll help. I want to be able to use the silk instead of seeding and ending up with lumps, but do need time to work sometimes.

Has anyone found their silk-tempered chocolate setting up too fast? We all have those days where it feels like all we're doing is waiting for chocolate to melt or waiting for chocolate to set, so we usually want it to set as quickly as possible. However, when I'm making a big batch of molded bars or bonbons, the chocolate already has a tendency to over-crystallize. Especially if it's cold in the kitchen ... I also got a 24 kg melter in my after-holiday shopping spree, was so excited to have this big vat and the EZ Temper. But on cold days all that surface area cools and thickens, maybe I don't want 20 kg of chocolate setting any faster than it already does! And have we already covered if silk affects aW? If a ganache filling sets up more quickly/firmly, should that help shelf life?

They just have to go above & beyond, dont they!

Oh melt fully then harden fully, then ez temper? my melted cb from yesterday is still fully melted, but maybe it went in hot. I’ll take a canister out, let it solidify then put it back and see what happens tomorrow. Is form IV good?

OK, I'll admit it, I'm not as in love as I wanted to be. Probably user error ... I'm having a hard time getting consistent, smooth silk. I had been using Felchlin CB, which comes in random sized shards of 1-15 mm, upped the temp a bit then corrected it down and it was ok if the CB had already been fully melted. I just got some Cacao Barry CB that is in uniform mini chip size, and also decided to fully melt it before leaving it overnight. Hopefully that works, I'll go into the kitchen and check soon. The kitchen has wide temperature swings, it gets down to the 50's F on cold nights, then up to mid 70's when the other company has a lot of cooking or turns the heat on . Not sure if that's a factor. Once I have smooth silk consistently on demand I'll be more enthusiastic, hopefully it is as simple as pre-melting the CB. Cocoa butter is an added expense. The Cocoa Barry was about $10/lb from Peterson, not any worse than couverture chocolates, but it's also not adding flavor and its another ingredient to keep track of. Felchlin was considerably more $$ form Albert Uster. And chocolate can still be a pain and get over-crystallized or chunky as it does, but I guess you can more quickly melt it out and re-temper as needed if you have smooth silk. Getting the chocolate in temper is only half the battle, you still have to keep it there.

Don't slam so hard! I make a lot of bars, though not with protruding inclusions. Once the chocolate has set but before it has fully released from the mold, I invert the molds (so the bars are top-side up) onto sheet pans and let them continue crystallizing. It always amuses me to hear them snap-crackle-pop as they release. Then I can either just lift the mold off, or some need a gentle twist to release. My new bars that are more rounded & wavy release super quickly (sometimes too quickly), while my old bars with lots of corners more often need a little help. FWIW, I designed the new wavy ones to minimize polishing because I was tired of all the corners and crevices trapping CB and being hard to clean. But it seems the easier a mold is to clean, the more likely the shell is to come loose and slip around when you're adding fillings or bottoms - small hemispheres can have this problem as well. If I ever do another custom bar mold, I'll include a couple of corners to help keep things in place better. But those polygon/honeycomb bars look like a good shape - interesting yet not a polishing nightmare!

I know you already have the coco lopez, but have you tried coconut cream powder? Good when you don't want to add liquid and not sweetened, might work with the fondant. It comes in 2oz/60g -ish packets for a dollar or two.

Looks like chocolat-chocolat has two sizes of it, CW1445 & CW1129 This looks like a regular flat or 1 piece mold, no gluing together. Or are you concerned about the appendages?

Blasphemy! I was scared away by their description of licorice notes because I'm not a huge black licorice fan (though anise seed in biscotti is fine). Orelys is a little bit licorice but I think more molasses. See, this is why you need that stone grinder, so you can mill your own with brown sugar and cocoa butter.

for tiny cutters, at least of the round variety, a metal piping tip works have you tried Valrhona Orelys? It's made with muscovado sugar, so more of a brown sugar flavor compared to the dulce de leche flavor of Dulcey. "very sensual" https://www.valrhona-chocolate.com/orelys-35-blond-chocolate

Is the 1500 custom truffles the contents of the 150 luxury boxes, or in addition? Molded, hand dipped, or rolled in cocoa? If you have nothing else to do, 10 days might be possible. If you have molds that make 30 pieces and can make 10 at a time, that's 5 batches, that's do-able. A couple days of truffle production, a couple days to do the rest, a couple days to package. Assuming you can get all the packaging and ingredients in a timely manner. I don't keep a ton of inventory, usually only 2-3 dozen of any one item. If I got an order like that right now ... I'd probably try to take it on because April is otherwise really slow, but it would take way longer than I want it to because these thing always do and there would be late nights when I questioned my life choices. Ideally I'd want confirmation 2 weeks in advance for an order like that, they are cutting it close especially since you have to ship it.

Interesting! Does anyone know what size or shape these blocks were? It almost looks like today's Callebaut 5kg bars would fit nicely.

" However, the chicken skin isn't crispy. It can't be eaten and all the sauce is on the skin so I can't eat it," Mr Wallace remarked. " 'Can't' does not seem like the appropriate word here. Yes of course crispy chicken skin is usually delicious while soft, flaccid cooked chicken skin is less crave-able. But can't eat it? People with serious aversions to food textures probably shouldn't be food-contest judges. Sure, we all have our limits - mushy bananas, okra, whatever - but a food judge should be able to take a small taste of anything properly cooked. Top Chef judges chose not to eat raw lake trout due to potential parasites, but Tom will still choke down okra if chefs opt to serve it.

I ended up making a milk- and egg-free chocolate mousse that actually turned out OK. I compromised my principles and used non-dairy whipped topping and melted mini marshmallows instead of cream and eggs, but it was good quality chocolate so that made it edible. Accompanied by pistachio marzipan "eggs" stuffed with dried sour cherries (that looked more like olives with pits!), dark chocolate bunnies - just a shell made in a mold, no filling, and strawberry sauce that I happened to have in the freezer. Flavors were nice together, the mousse was soft and fluffy so I served it in a quennelle instead of my original idea of cutting a shape, and my SIL who is allergic to everything and is the reason I made this wasn't feeling well so didn't come. Oh well, always good to have a challenge to test the ol' skillset. The rest of dinner (cooked by Mom and brothers) was grilled lamb with chimichurri, rice pilaf, grilled asparagus, roasted carrots, butter lettuce salad, and lemon pot de creme. All delicious. And apparently the Pope says there's no Hell, so that's a relief. Happy Easter and Happy Equinox!

Nice! What are the green and the pink, did you make them yourself?

On You Tube, I really enjoy Man About Cake and his themed cakes as well as Lofty Pursuits' hard candy making. The cakes are educational/inspirational, the candy is more just fun to watch.

Definitely agree that some things are lost in translation with Wybauw. Such technical books shouldn’t be a guessing game, imho. Even if the recipes were 100% perfect translations, we are all still using slightly different chocolate formulations and have different tastes, I see nothing wrong with having favorites or making adjustments. As for rhubarb ... I was confirming a flourless chocolate torte order for this weekend when the chef told me he was making a strawberry rhubarb compote to go with it to embrace spring. While that’s fine and means I don’t have to make a sauce, it does make me think I’ll add some white chocolate and vanilla layers instead of going all dark chocolate. I wish I could taste their compote, I’ve definitely had to adjust fruit sauces to pair with chocolate - sometimes it tastes good on its own but veers sour when paired with tannic cacao.

Fine print says roasted ... have you tasted it, how roasted does it taste? And if it's not green enough, one can simply add kale

works fine for me good luck!

So just following up for future reference, I got a sample of the Abinao 85% and i think it is a little smoother and fruitier than the Le Noir 85% bar. Plus, Chocosphere has Abinao in a bar so Valrhona must have different 85%s if they're making different bars for retail. Now what to do with it besides snack on the samples ...

Depends on what you mean by "marinade". If it's a cured ham that's already salted and cooked, a liquid marinade or brine isn't going to do much. I think most people do as @kayb suggests and do a dry rub or glaze with sugar and/or mustard, or you can do the pineapple rings on top kind of thing.

Thanks. And she's not vegan, so I could re-purpose some extra bacon-covered pecans into a pie, hmm ...