RobertM

Hello ALL - Did you think I had forgotten all about you, eGullet and the Conference? Heck NO - in fact, I want to update you all - I finally was able to communicate with Stratford, a lovely woman has been assigned to be my liaison, and we are to meet this coming week to finalize the details and present what it is we are looking for and what we need. It appears that the dates are going to be March 17 & 18, with March 16th our Friday get together. Please, just pencil those dates into your calendar, I'll confirm them with the school and then we can proceed with putting them down in ink. There are several very nice hotels nearby, a Fairfield Inn and a Holiday Inn; I'll be contacting them directly to ascertain their interest in giving us a nice business/conference rate. The Holiday Inn is about 1 1/2 miles to the school - it would be a perfect resting spot. With that in mind, and knowing that I'll be presenting our "needs" to the school next week, please let me know what type of equipment we'll need them to provide (especially if we're going to get a sugar demo). Also, let me know if you have any ideas of what we could get together on Friday afternoon and do? (in the past we've had demo's from Albert Uster and Tomric as well as a tour of a Confection Plant - just to name a few). What would YOU like to see/learn in the 2012 Conference? I've got Joe Sofia from Wilbur Chocolate coming down to spend the day with us on Saturday - I'll be discussing details further with him. OK folks - I know it's the Holidays, but it's really time to start planning for March 2012 - I'm very excited to be able to see my old friends and make many new ones!

Just made these this weekend - the picture was taken with my iPhone - sorry for the less than stellar quality (of the picture - the truffles are amazing - even if I say so myself...)

I used to be able to buy SCM in #10 size cans (for my caramel) and would be able to put a plastic lid on the can for storage, which was typically just a few days. Now Bordens (Eagle Brand) has been packaging their large sizes in plastic bags; better/lower cost to them, but each bag contains the equivalent of approx 3 #10 size cans. I've had to resort to plastic ware with tight fitting lids on them for storage - Hmmm, I wonder what I could transfer a small amount into and boil for 4 hours to make Dulce de Leche? Now that would be an interesting find.....

Grits12: Please check out the forum on the 2012 Confection Conference that will be held in March in the Washington DC Metro area. Everyone is welcome to attend, I'm sure we will have a session on chocolate tempering techniques, giving you the opportunity to try different methods of tempering chocolate.

Patti - welcome and welcome - we would love to have you join us. I think you'll find that regardless of how long we've been doing this we all come to the conferences knowing we can learn something new. The University was supposed to meet late last week to further discuss our use of their facility - I will be talking to them the coming week to find out more (I'm sure you're all tired of hearing me spout the same stuff). Hopefully next week we can start to make final plans for the conference, firm up dates, people can start to make travel plans, etc... Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene nolnacs lironp Prabha Robdoc000 Viktoria MariaP Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s) AnythingButPlainChocolate Genkinaonna chocoera YetiChocolates MarkIsComing patti_h (+1)

Curls - indeed, those are for some local vineyards.

Someone told me I could use a food processor to make fondant, pouring the hot liquid into the bowl of the processor and then waiting for it to cool down to a specific temp (which I've forgotten) and then turn on the blade of the processor. It sounded like it would work, in theory. In reality, I burned up my wife's food processor. I know, I know, I need a Thermomix....

Some Port, Merlot and Cabernet Franc Truffles I worked on this week. The yellow ones are not yellow. I used Chef Rubber's Gold coca butter. I personally like the orange/red one's myself, they go well with the colors of the vineyard.

I posted the above from my iPhone and it corrected some of my comment. The two tables I have, one is FOR caramel corn and Toffee

I have 2 marble tables (one got caramel corn and tiffs, the other is the work surface for all my other confections). While I love my marble I think granite would be just as acceptable. To me, it's not just an issue of pulling heat out of the product but also how porous is the material your working with? With that said, a water cooled cooling table for the toffee would be a nice thing to have... I think the first question you should ask yourself is what your purpose of the stone is going to be and how big a piece do you need? Sometimes you can go dumpster diving at a stone facility and come up with the viroids for the sink which is a nice workable size. (I speak from experience as having recovered two or three pieces of granite in such a manner). Often they will give you the pieces; they are usually trashed anyway. If you ask, maybe they would polish all 6 sides for you to avoid damaging your existing table....

In my haste to say something (finally) about the school, I failed to welcome both Robdoc000 and Viktoria to "the group"; Everyone is welcome to join us, we have a great time together and we learn so very much from each other. Pat - when you say the last two weeks of March, is that the 24th and the 31st? We missed you a lot this past spring and are really hoping you can join us in 2012, it's not the same without you (I leave on my xtabentun hunting mission next Tuesday...)

I am very excited to finally be able to tell you that Stratford University (http://www.stratford.edu/) has agreed to host the 2012 Confectioners Conference at the Woodbridge, VA campus. I'm still negotiating on dates to hold the even in March, the school wants to wait after their November staff meeting to sit down and actually firm up the dates. With that said, I was thinking of asking them for the weekend of March 17 and March 18, 2012. Not to late in the month, not to early. There has been a great deal of interest in having a sugar demo during next years conference, according to one of the chef's I've been working with, Stratford has the equipment on hand to use for such a demo, I know that getting the equipment here to the DC area could have been an issue. There are a number of hotels in the area, I'll be visiting them soon to begin negotiating for better room rates for those of you coming in from out of town. Because we evidently have a few weeks before I can sit down and actually firm up the weekend plans, if anyone has any further needs, desires, equipment, etc., please let me know and I will do my best to incorporate that into the contract for the space. I know that there are many of you out there who are looking ahead to make reservations, travel plans, vacation plans, I'm sorry that it's taken up to now to get the commitment. I'm hoping that things will flow much faster now that we have a commitment from the school to host the event. Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene nolnacs lironp Prabha Robdoc000 Viktoria MariaP Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s) AnythingButPlainChocolate Genkinaonna chocoera YetiChocolates MarkIsComing

These are some Port Wine Truffles I made this weekend - just playing with different decorations

Virginia - I love the Ida Red apples just coming into market - wonderful to eat alone, great for caramel apples and cooking -

Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene nolnacs lironp Prabha Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s) AnythingButPlainChocolate Genkinaonna chocoera YetiChocolates MarkIsComing

Latest Update: I verified with Joe Sofia that he will be joining us in March (Courtesy of Joe and Wilbur Chocolate) to put on a demo and to assist with technical questions throughout the day. I've contacted Stratford University again and have submitted a second detailed request for use of their facility, I will continue to pursue Stratford, and other locations in order to allow for firm date(s).

I still haven't heard from the college and this is a 3 day weekend here in the States. On Tuesday morning I will contact them again to check on our status

The list is growing... Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene nolnacs lironp Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s) AnythingButPlainChocolate Genkinaonna chocoera YetiChocolates

Did you all think because of my silence that I was blown out to sea with Hurricane Irene? Not so.... I've had several very interesting conversations with the Dean at Stratford University here in Northern Virginia. They are very interested in hosting us (conversations continue). If we are able to come to agreements, I was told that they have chocolate tempering machines and sugar equipment (which will help Lisa with her demonstration on Sugar). They also have several chef's on staff who are often called upon by the White House to work on State Dinners and they may be willing to join us for some instruction. Wilbur Chocolate and Joe Sofia have graciously offered to sponsor the conference once again, Joe would be happy to come down and spend a day with us, also teaching and guiding. I'll talk to him personally at the Chocolate Show in Atlantic City on September 12th. There are lots more things happening behind the scenes, but I didn't want anyone to think this topic has fallen off the tracks. It's shaping up nicely.

lironp: so happy you'll be joining us, we truly do have a wonderful time and learn lots - Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene nolnacs lironp Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s) AnythingButPlainChocolate Genkinaonna chocoera

I'm going to be working this week to (hopefully) nail down some specific dates for the conference so those of you in the Maybe - pending dates - column can begin to start to work towards a definite time frame. Plus, those pending collecting their lottery winnings will be able to know how long they have to actually cash in their tickets... Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene nolnacs Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s) AnythingButPlainChocolate Genkinaonna chocoera

Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene nolnacs Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s) AnythingButPlainChocolate Genkinaonna

Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene nolnacs Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s) AnythingButPlainChocolate

Gene; glad you are planning on joining us - for sure we'll have a great time Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Gene Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s)

Lior - I am so hoping you'll be able to make it next year that I'm going to start buying lottery tickets for your airfare too - Pretty Definite Attendees Chris Hennes +1 Kerry Beal curls gfron1 Maybe mjx +1 Lisa Shock lebowitz prasantrin mkayahara MelissaH DianaM Mette Lior - pending Lottery ticket(s)