RobertM

Have a wonderful and successful trip

I made cookies a size smaller than the mould I was using. Would “paint” them with cocoa butter. I would decorate the mould; shell it; pipe in my marshmallow; then insert the cookie and cap the piece. Prior to piping the marshmallow, I took a torch to it and toasted it to give it that “s’mores” flavor.

Jim, you have to coat the cookie with cocoa butter. That keeps the water migration from the marshmallow to the cookie at a minimum. Think of the famous cookie with caramel and chocolate....same principle. If you don’t coat the cookie, it will absorb moisture from the marshmallow and become very soft. Not the texture you’re looking for. for my version of the (famous)cookie, I make a shortbread cookie, coat it with melted cocoa butter, add the caramel layer and then enrobe in chocolate!

Jim....nothing says we couldn’t work on this in Niagra in May! Sounds like a fun thing to experiment with. i previously made a s’mores piece with a piped marshmallow followed by a cookie. As you say, it’s labor intensive. Perhaps I should have done something like that when I had the enrober....?? Oh well.....

WE overshot the temp......didn’t we? It was my fault.....

If I recall correctly (and at my age that’s always questionable) Chef Rubber has (or had) a gold (and silver) cocoa butter. Indeed, I just looked through my stash and found mine...Jewel Collection Gold 620500. Im inclined to say they sprayed (and splattered) the cocoa butter on with a mask then did the other colors and of course, backed off with white

EvergreenDan & haresfur - thank you very much! Excellent ideas..... but, I will hold off on the embalming fluid....

I am hosting a Halloween Party in two weeks (average age of attendees would be ~68) - to that end, I have several drink containers that resemble blood bags (for transfusions). I'm looking for a good drink that I could make and serve them to my guests. I also have several "syringes" for shots. If anyone has any ideas for those, along with the "blood" transfusion bags, I'd be forever grateful....

Need a driver?

Please put me down as a 2018 participant .....it's already in my calendar ...... (and when you're old like me, it really pays to write things down).....

Yes Jim....a liquid detergent no less. But, I still have them tucked in a drawer somewhere, as a reminder......or, as I say, door stops when needed.

Kerry - beautiful pieces - port wine and tobacco.....please let us know how they go! have a glorious time .......

Someone was asking about a wrapping machine.....(I'm hoping this is allowed) union machinery just emailed me about one, a package machinery Midel K Kiss wrapper - it looks small and compact.....$28,500 it can wrap up to 100 pieces per minute..... http://www.unionmachinery.com/Product.asp?Number=80231

One of my "helpers" put a couple of my molds in the dishwasher, just once. Now they are lovely doorstoppers. Quite quickly indeed

I'm sending my western PA relatives there, ASAP

Put this together for a party tonight.....

I believe it was Melissa who provided this "doh" moment: if your colored cocoa butter is in temper (32 C) and you're using a finger to make decorations, your body heat can cause the colored cocoa butter to be knocked out of temper and cause problems when unmolding.....

The hardware store can be your friend! PVC pipe to wrap decorations around: drywall taping knives/spatulas for scraping molds and other tools; heat guns; and so much more

Also the scrapings of the colored cocoa butter were chilled and then reused in the milk or dark chocolate

I learned there is that when making caramel, there is no need to slice and scrape a vanilla bean into the hot caramel. Just slicing the bean and putting that into the hot liquid while cooking will burst open the bean and release all of its deliciousness directly into the caramel....

The time we spent with Jin (#jinjuchocoholic) was amazing! She shared so many techniques and ideas the ideas are still swarming around in my little brain. Then there are always those moments when you are watching her and you're thinking..."well....duh....why didn't I think of that?" Thank you to Jin for her time, her expertise, her willingness to share and her hospitality!

The start of a busy day begins with a veggie omelet and coffee (decaf)

Breakfast this morning took us to a little hideaway place that has been rated as one of the top 10 breakfasts in Las Vegas! Eat! We discovered Eat on our last Workshop and I'm glad to say it's only gotten better TikiDoc had the Huevos I had the "special" Prime Rib Hash

Donna and I had a house salad. Ruth had a Mediterranean Chicken Wrap, she said it was very good and ended up taking half back to the hotel.....midnight snack? Donna selected a hot dog with chili....the bun was a little to much for the meal and she decided to just enjoy it without the bread.... I opted for the St. Louis Style Ribs...they weren't bad. A tad to much sauce on them for my personal liking, but, they were tasty