Kerry Beal

Those are adorable

Yeah - on this computer I can see the swirly better - perhaps it's swirls of a second colour when the first is still liquid.

Sounds like a good plan!

Cold is not a problem - machine will work a little harder but that's not a problem.

Resistance is futile!

My prototype @patrisdipping bowl - dipping the batch of Turkish Delight with the LM pectin added. Great texture for dipping - the folks at work are enjoying them.

I think that a socket wrench of the right size will handle that - may not need anything to hold the other side. It will be metric because it's from Belgium.

Wonder if it's drops of colour and an empty airbrush

LOL - that's true! If you send it to me I'll have it done the same day.

Tom yum kha

It's time I started assembling a list of ingredients for our play days!

Might just be a loose wire and quick fix. Watch for any sign there has been shorting.

Yeah - don't ask how long the basement has taken so far! You can't rush these things.

I've got a very handy husband - I'd just hand it over to him and several months later it would come back out of his shop repaired. Does your Mold'art have screws on the bottom that allow you to take it apart? If it does - it should be a quick fix. If rewiring is not something you have done before I might hand it off to the handy brother. Does the loose wire seem to be at the plug end or the machine end?

Do a temper test - you'll figure out the minimum required to achieve temper. You are working at higher temperatures I assume?

I'm afraid that can't help then - I know the Pregel people here in the Toronto area - but not in the states.

Because it's the perfect amount of crystals for instant crystallization - it does have a tendency to over crystallize. You don't need to use 1% in large quantities - pretty much anything from 0.1% up will work. I find when I have a big quantity of chocolate in a melter - that it works better for me to remove just as much as I'm going to need for what I want to do at the time - temper that - use it - then pull out some more for the next thing. This happens most often when I'm doing something like the Luxury Chocolate Show and I want to be able to temper chocolate all day without having to worry about warming up and thinning down the over tempered chocolate. I just keep it at around 34º C and untempered - it stays fluid all day. Silk doesn't change the aW - but tempered ganache is more stable than untempered as described in this article by Greweling.

So bar class recipes completed - there will be 3 complex bars - an 'After Dinner' bar, a Milk Chocolate Nut Bar and and PB&J bar.

We need to find one that describes itself as having a low viscosity at cooking temperatures and high gel strength.

Well - I'm up to my 4th batch of Turkish Delight. Two with thin boiling starch, two with regular starch. In all cases I cooked to at least 107º C and checked to make sure the solids were 77 to 78%. In both cases the regular starch version deliquesced - but the thin boiling starch versions have not and they are still powder covered. Last batch I used some low methoxyl pectin (thanks to Tri2cook for providing that!) - hoping to imitate the texture of the BigTurk bar that was one of my favourites as a child. I think that the recipe calls for too much pectin - I suspect I could cut it in half and get a perfect texture. Looking back through eGullet threads on Turkish Delight - I see that @andiesenji suggested a quick trip in a dehydrator to prevent the moisture on the surface. I hope at the PMCA I can find a reliable source of thin boiling starch as I really think it makes a better product than the cornstarch version. Actually I wonder if there is a way to acid treat the cornstarch solution to modify it? (A preliminary look on the www leads me to believe that is not going to be possible)

According to my favourite fat chemist - in Germany they are experimenting with tempering with form VI crystals. This could be an ideal situation - because if your chocolate contained mostly this most stable form of crystal - over time it wouldn't change and get dusty looking. But then again because it has a higher melting point - it might not have the same melt in your mouth so might taste waxy. I did bring home the container with the form VI - I think I'll put it in an EZtemper unit at above 34º C and see if I can create the silky texture with these crystals - then temper some even warmer chocolate with it and see what happens.

I've never heard of anyone having custom magnetic molds made. Don't see why it couldn't be done though. Contact Tomric and Micelli and see who might be able to do it for you.

Oops that should be form VI not 4 - it contains hard crystals which never incorporate. Once the crystals are melted you don't get them back unless you cool down to room temperature and solidify.

The Felchlin cocoa butter that I have does require being melted down completely and fully hardened overnight at room temperature in a clean container before putting it in the EZtemper. I've found that happens with any cocoa butter that is old or hasn't been stored well. I took a lumpy canister up to Guelph 2 weeks ago and the grad student of my favourite fat chemist tested it for me. The lumps are form VI!

Yes 15 grams of a 50-50 solution. And I assume the same would apply to the citric acid.