pastrygirl

Yes and yes.

@pastryani sure, my last batch was a 9 Oz can f.d. Raspberries, 340 g cocoa butter and 150 g sugar ground smooth. Then I mixed in another 750 g white chocolate to stretch and sweeten. It’s still a decent color red with nice berry flavor. I’d say start with at least an equal weight of cocoa butter and if you add sugar or anything else it depends on what fruit you start with and what you’re going for.

The cheese Easter Egg! http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/food/food-news/cheese-easter-egg-asda I don't know that it beats chocolate, but I do love cheese! Enough that now I'm wanting to create a savory, cocoa-butter based cheese version of my chocolate Easter eggs ... Would you prefer your Easter egg be cheese?

You certainly could do that, but then you have to get both pieces of tape perfectly parallel and consistently close together in each cavity. I was playing with multiple layers of tape at haphazard angles in some large Easter eggs, but I wouldn't want to be the one tasked with 32 sets of parallel lines in rounded, 30 mm cavities!

Or taking a class with Melissa Coppel. I think she got fairly consistent results, don’t recall specifics on wiping.

the thin line is what gets caught under one edge of the tape - tape, spray black, wipe half the mold clean, remove tape, spray yellow

Super weird! I hope you figure it out but I’m clueless. I’ve had caramel sauce separate a bit after sitting at room temp for a week, but that would have been water/fat separation, there was no corn syrup. Good luck.

Are you making a sauce? What end texture are you going for?

I imagine the exclusivity is driven by AUI, not by Felchlin. AUI has more warehouses and a wide customer base and can make demands. Plus they are more pastry-focused, while Peterson has a ton of cheese and some chocolate. So you might annoy or inconvenience a few customers but if sales grow in the long run ...

@Kerry Beal thanks for the definitions, I've never seen the official definition requiring the 2.5% dry solids. That's not a bad price, considering how intense the flavor is. I think that will go a long way. I don't think I've tried the double ferments. I'm actually not at all interested in Callebaut's Ruby. If Ruby is chocolate that is pink and doesn't taste like chocolate, what exactly is the appeal? I'd rather have not-chocolate that is yellow or red and doesn't taste like chocolate because it tastes like passion fruit or strawberries. If it's not going to taste like chocolate, it should taste like something! And I don't like the color pink. Mostly, I can see the Inspirations as useful and time-saving without requiring a whole lot of explanation to customers. I do want mass appeal so I have to keep things fairly simple and focus on quality and flavor. Now, I have nothing against AUI, their prices are actually a little better and my account is billed to my credit card so I get hotel points. They're just less convenient, instead of next-morning delivery I'll have to plan for 2-3 day shipping and remember that some people don't work weekends (a continual source of frustration). And keep more stock on hand in case of unexpected large orders. As for milk chocolate, I use the Maracaibo Creole 49% primarily for the sweetness level but it's $10+/lb. The Criolait 38% is too sweet for me. Between the Valrhona milks, I like the Bahibe 45% far more than the Jivara 40%. I doubt the Bahibe is less than $10/# so, I might have to go with Callebaut Alunga 42%, or local Seattle maker Theo has a 45%.

@Jim D., these are the raspberries I've used: http://a.co/2IxAyH9

If you go with the "more than 30% cocoa butter" definition, then couvertures can be white. Or fruit. Isn't the term meant to distinguish high quality, liquid chocolates suitable for molding and enrobing?

Alex, our friendly West Coast Valrhona rep stopped by with another wholesale rep. I've been buying Felchlin through Peterson, who has a warehouse here, but Albert Uster had taken on Felchlin last year. I'm not sure if it was planned to have AUI be sole US supplier of Felchlin or if they are doing something else to push the competition out of the game, but when I placed my order today I found out Peterson was phasing out Felchlin and would be carrying more Valrhona instead. So they were going around to all the Felchlin customers with suggestions on which Valrhona products would be the closest in flavor. I have an account with AUI so I can still buy what I need, but I have been considering finding a less expensive milk chocolate than Maracaibo Creole. Though Varhona is rarely the answer when it comes to increasing my profit margin Exactly. I've been skeptical of the caramelia and the azalea as flavored chocolates, but these being fruit-based is more unique. Also, I've been making a raspberry white chocolate with freeze dried raspberries (after seeing other chocolatiers like Soma make fruity bars), so I was excited that Valrhona was doing the same thing. I've used my raspberry in decorative ways (like drizzled on a cookie) but haven't made shells out of it., it's too dear. Once the fruit is powdered, is has very little volume and there is not much yield, so this might actually be more economical to buy.

I had a chance to try a couple of Valrhona's new "inspirations" flavors today, the passion fruit and the almond. The almond was good but I'd probably add salt. The passion fruit is intense and delicious, I bet you could cut it with a sweeter white chocolate and still get good flavor. They also have strawberry. These are cocoa-butter based so can be used for shell molding. https://inter.valrhona.com/en/inspiration-valrhona-innovation I could definitely see using these. Passion fruit is one of my favorite flavors, and I already indulge in the convenience of Perfect Puree so I don't think this would compromise my integrity Just wanted to share. Available soon, probably expensive

Maybe it is! Personally I think trying to get an even line with a tiny brush would be the greater form of painstaking tedium, but you have a good point about the heavy spots that could be brush stops and starts. Oddly enough, another chocolatier has something similar on Instagram today ... And aside from the leech-iness, what boxes do these fit in?

Maybe a wooden toothpick?

Am I the only one who thinks, "mmm, chocolate leeches!" every time they see this mold? I do like this design, though. Electric leeches! I'm thinking splatter black, spray blue, scrape the line clean and back with yellow?

Not usually. The gym I go to has little motivational games so I’m trying not to eat sugar for a week in order to earn a bingo square. I might try to keep that up, but more to lose a few pounds than for Jesus.

I have a grex tritium airbrush that I picked up at Chef Rubber. It came with the 0.3 nozzle, but I swapped it for 0.5.

@daniel D - no modifications, just plugged in Not sure, it might be slow going doing a lot of heavy color. I'll have to try spraying some of my larger pieces for Easter and see how impatient I get. I mean, this blue dome got just a pass or two at one side of the cavity and went quickly, while the red hearts took multiple passes from different angles and 12 of those would be slow going.

I agree with Jim, the compressor kicking on while working hasn't been an issue. I think my small PointZero is set around 60psi and turns on to re-fill the tank at 40. It's fine for a few molds at a time; I spend more time fussing with the CB and warming my airbrush than thinking about psi.

I don't know, I was using invert sugar as a general term - glucose syrup, corn syrup, cane syrup (I use Lyle's now but I've also used the darker Steen's), honey, maple syrup - all those liquid sugars seem to work in caramels. Maybe I'm using the term wrong, but I meant the overall category, not specifically Trimoline or another product.

Agree with minas6907. I cook caramels to 258F, I think you need 255-260F depending on the formulation to have something that will stay solid-ish. And you will want some invert sugar to prevent crystallization as well. Glucose doesn't add flavor, or I like Lyle's Golden syrup because it adds its own caramel notes.

I'm not sure they exist. Bigger than a revolation but presumably still tabletop, with a vibrating table? 20kg capacity, 50? I'm always amused when I look at chocolate equipment and wonder why there isn't more in the 10-20kg capacity range. 20-50 kg seems so huge when you do everything by hand, then I scroll down to the giant industrial melting tanks and realize that even 50kg at a time is still really small scale when you think about it. There are some smaller Selmis or similar continuous tempering machines, but not in that price range.

Yeah, I got a quote last month, had some holiday cash flow to splurge with, but with a base price of $2400 plus vials, sample cups, and sales tax, I opted for bar codes, an EZ Temper, AND a 24kg melter instead. This, to infinity. Yes, we probably all should have water meters and err on the side of caution with best by dates. I'm limiting my wholesale line to bars, gianduja, and caramel that I'm sure are safe and keeping the bonbons in the fridge to sell directly. It's still on my wish list, but the other items were more useful for my current production.