David J.

I have one of the double sphere molds, after you make it a couple of times you pick up some tricks to get a thin shell. You use chocolate at the high end of your working temperature, so it is a fluid as possible, a little less than half fill the round half, put the two sides together, band the crap out of it to distribute the chocolate, turn it around a couple of times as it cools. My biggest problem with it is the size, I like a nice small truffle (especially with a liquid centre) and the smallest sphere mold I can find is about an inch. So to get them smaller you have to buy premade, but then you can't control the chocolate they are made from. ← Kerry, I'm looking to make liquor filled chocolates, both hand dipped and molded. Which molds have you found easiest to use for this? Is the sphere mold referenced above a good one for the job? I saw a bottle mold somewhere on the net, but it is made from a cheap thin plastic. Does anyone produce a decent polycarbonate version?

Having been a lucky recipient of some of David's chocolates, I noted that your coating is quite thick compared to some others of my experience. Do you double dip? What kind of chocolate are you using? ← I don't double dip, so the thickness is entirely dependant upon the viscosity of the chocolate I use. If I am not mistaken you received orange zest flavored truffles made with Callebaut Semi-Sweet Chocolate 49%. I have found that it is a pretty thick chocolate. I am contemplating obtaining some pure cocoa butter so I can thin it myself since I have a couple slabs of it. In the future I may try to find other chocolates with different viscosities for use depending on whether I am dipping or molding.

How long are you letting your centers sit before you dip? I let my centers sit for at least eight hours, and generaly overnight so they form a thin dry skin. That prevents the centers from sticking to the fork and I don't have any problem with cracking. It really makes the dipping operation go much faster and cleaner.

You might look into getting a vacuum mixer to reduce the oxygen content of your gnache. There is a thread or two on the subject. I asked one company for information and never received it, but somone else was looking to buy one. I don't know if they had more luck than I have.

I don't recall just how much I used right now. I recall several tablespoons, but I'll have to go home and dig through my recipies to see if I recorded it. I really have to start a recipie journal to record what I do and how it came out.

Tammy, Yes I did and it worked out beautifully. This was one of the truffles I made for the wedding favors a few weeks back. I dropped the praline in a food processor and chopped most of it quite fine, though there were inevitably a number of farily large chunks that I fished out by hand. If I do it again I will probably obtain a set of graduated sifters so I can more easily filter out the chunks that could surprise someone.

I used to use a knife until I found one of these chocolate chippers at the local Bed Bath & Beyond stores. It was by the bar supplies and labled as an ice chipper. http://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Chipper/dp/B00005NUVX I found that it works well with dark, white, and milk chocolate slabs. I used to finely chop the resulting chunks with a chef's knife, but now I just use Kerry's method of getting a basic melt in the microwave. It's a lot less effort and you don't risk getting lumps.

Can you ask you friend about how he buit the wooden table? Specifically What is the thickness of the slats and spacers and did he have to use a planer to get it? What is the spacing of the slots, 1/4"?

How far down do the wires travel below the surface of the cutting board when there is no resistance? You have to take into account the fact that the wires will bend when there is resistance, the greater the resistance the greater the bend. I would guess for caramel it might take over an inch of extra travel. I'm in the midst of building my cutter as in the drawings I posted and I'd be gratefull if you would post the design you used so I could possibly modify mine to take advantage of what you have done. David

I just want to add that your methods will indeed work at a the level of a fast food chain. I frequent a Wendy's burger joint about once a week for lunch during the work week and noted that the two regular counter ladies did a very efficient job at keeping the line moving. One day while eating I noticed a couple of headquarter's staff conversing at a table near mine and stopped by to mention the fact. One of them promptly grabbed the manager and asked me to repeat my comment. Since then a few words while ordering has kept the relationship. Does it get me a great table? Well, no. It is a fast food establishment after all. But what it does get me is assurance of piping hot fries rather than what has been sitting under the lamp for a little too long. The drink refills are also handled from behind the counter and I mearly have to wave my empty cup to get a refill rather than have to fight my way through a crowded line to get their attention. No matter the level of restaurant you can increase the level of service and make your visit more pleasant if you put a little effort into it.

From Rogier at http://www.kroese-exclusief.com/ You will need to create a free account with the website before you can view the catalog (under the SHOP link). He has some wonderfull boxes and it was a snap to order from him.

I toasted an entire 8 oz. bag of skinned hazelnuts and used them to make the praline as in the demo. I did not make the paste, but rather stopped at the point of grinding it up in the food processor. I then melted 2 lbs. of milk chocolate and let it cool almost to room temperature when I added 1/2 lbs. of room temperature butter. I had meant to use a 1:2 ratio of butter to chocolate, but in my sleep deprived state I switched that for 1/2 lbs. and ended up with a 1:4 ratio. It worked, but the result was a bit stiffer than I like. I mixed the butter and chocolate slowly with a wooden spoon, then added the ground praline and mixed some more. Even several days latter the ganache still has some crunch to it. I picked out some of the larger sugar chunks from the ground praline by hand because I didn't have a sifter with the right size grating. I'll probably look for one before I do this again. I wanted some small bits to add crunch so I didn't run the food processor until I had paste, but that left some pieces that I judged too large. I then toasted a few more nuts and chopped them for the topping. Once again I had trouble getting just the size bits I wanted without leaving some too large or getting nut powder. Does anyone know of a handy way to produce even sized bits?

Kerry, Yes, I was getting rather anxious. I was going to try rolling some in chocolate shavings and others in cocoa if I couldn't lower the humidity enough. Fortunately two straight days of running full out with a hefty dehumidifier dragged it down to 42% and saved the day. My next project is the home-made ganache cutter. I have to figure out the measurements for a 12" wide cutter and order the metal. I've already got the aluminum brazing rods so I will be learning how to braze cleanly by building a casting frame this weekend. After that I think I will use my new toy to try my hand at a layered ganache with some type of fruit filling. I saw a stacking ganache frame somewhere that I will try to duplicate in a smaller version. I recall it was 14" square and I want to keep my batches smaller. So any tips on creating a tasty layered ganache would come in handy. I am always looking to further my knowlege and technique. Oh, I will also be attending the advanced chocolate class at the French Pastry School in November, so I think I will try my hand at the hand dipped liquour centers just so I will know what questions to ask.

This past Saturday I presented 56 boxes of chocolates to a friend as wedding favors for her reception. My wife has shipped care packages of my truffles as far away as California and Australia, but this was my first time being under the gun to produce a large and varied batch on a deadline. I of course, drastically underestimated the time it would take and only started my first batch the weekend before. To make matters worse I lost a couple days due to the heat wave and high humidity before I bought a dehumidifier to augment the central air. That lowered the humidity enough to resuming tempering and dipping on Thursday. My wife and I were tying ribbon around the boxes at 2am Friday night with a 6am alarm for the long drive to Toronto. Still, it all came together. I want to thank all of those here who have provided tips, techniques, and encouragement. I have gotten quite a bit of information from the demonstrations, threads, and individual messages which brought me to the point that I had confidence I could pull this off. Here is a single box showing the variety. Thanks to chiantiglace for the demo on praline making and Kerry Beal and others for the tip on how to keep the crunch when it goes into the ganache. The box top with a label explaining what each chocolate is. My wife had whole sheets of sticky label and I cut them with a table cutter. The finished box all tied up in the brides colors. Special thanks to WhiteTruffleGirl for sharing her find of these great looking Empire boxes! And finally the entire batch that made the trip.

Other than extending shelf life, what does a vacuum mixer do for the ganache? I could make out some claim for improved texture in the picture of l'ecole Lenotre, but I am wondering how this is supposed to come about. Is the effect pronouced enough that I might want to obtain a vacuum mixer just for the improved texture? Also, how much longer a shelf life would ganache mixed under vacuum have over standard mixing for a basic cream and chocolate recipie?

If you want to go manual you can get this 500ml manual mixer for around $90, but you have to supply your own vacuum pump. That will set you back another $270 or so. http://www.averon.ru/english/equipment/ind...group=7&item=37 It would take a few batches at only 2 cups of ganache, but it's actually affordable if you think that your chocolates are going to sit around more than a couple weeks before being eaten.

Here is a link to a much smaller vacuum mixer intended for dentists. It may actually be affordable. It weighs only 30 lbs. and runs on 110v. You can get bowls in sizes ranging from 250ml to 1000ml. http://www.heraeus-kulzer-us.com/webconten...926818c0284e866 If anyone finds out what it costs, let me know.

I've been busy with other projects, but now it is time to push forward with my home-made guitar cutter. I've read enough recent posts to realize that several people are interested in a low cost model. I have started with Lloydchoc's basic design using an aluminum angle frame and bolts for tightening the wires. What I have done is to extend the sides both front and back to allow the addition of a hinge rod and a handle. The hinge posts on the base will be just inside the cutting frame and have a slot cut meet a hole. The hinge rod will have flats filed so that it can slip inside the slot when the frame is vertical. This will allow a frame to be inserted and tilted down to lock it in place, then removed by simply raising it and lifting it out in one motion. I am going to use structural aluminum angle which has a radius on each inside corner rather than the sharp angles of the more decorative angle that Lloydchoc used. This has over twice the strength so it should scale up to a half sheet sized cutter. I have left dimensions of my drawings because it can be built in a range of sizes to fit what the builder needs. I am going to build the prototype with a 12" square cutting base as that is all I need and I want to keep the size down so it fits on my table with everything else. Here are my intial drawings for comment before I order the material:

That's the nicest cutter I have seen. It looks like both frames are interchangable. Still, $2,000 is a lot of money. I just got a pound of aluminum brazing rod and I will be ordering a few feet of aluminum angle to build a home-made version. My design has only one interchangable frame rather than two, but the frame will just drop in without having to spin bolts. I hope to keep the cost around $200 for the base and three frames.

Thanks for all the tips. I will file these away as by luck the batch of ganache will scoop and form balls even though it is a bit crumbly. Oh, the butter and chocolate ganache recipie did leave the hazelnut praline nice and crunchy. My wife swiped some and pronounced it perfect. Now I just have to check the humidity level and see if I can start dipping yet.

I have made a simple batch of ganache with 1/2 lb of butter to 2 lbs milk chocolate when I meant to use 3/4 to a full pound. Is it possible to thin it by reheating and mixing in more butter if it turns out to be too thick to form into balls? Or do I risk seperation and a real mess? Does it make a difference if the ganache is a simple cream and chocolate mix?

Thanks for the specific humidity level. My temperature was perfect at 68 degrees F but the humidity was about 52%. The humidity is predicted to range between 70 and 90% over the next two days so I am going to have to augment my central air with a dehumidifier if I want to get my production done before the weekend.

That's what was happening to me. My chocovision Rev 2 was melting the chocolate and it started bunching up right next to the scraper right away. Even at 108 degrees F it was a blob. When the temper cycle was finished I dipped a fork into the goo and lifted a peak an inch tall. I would just wait for cooler weather but I am under the gun for time so I think that I will purchase a dehumidifier to augment the central air. I can't think of any variable other than humidity since I'm using the same cycle on the same tempering machine and made sure it was perfectly dry after washing.

Tempered chocolate or melted chocolate? I'm not getting the picture. Do I paddle the butter in my KA and then pour in the chocolate? For this batch I want to roll and dip the truffles so that would be the heavy butter ganache?

Just this Sunday I tempered a batch of Callubet bittersweet chocolate for Fluer De Sel caramels and it flowed beautifully. Monday and today I molded with white chocolate and that worked out ok. But today I tried the bittersweet again and it just curled up in the tempering machine several times thicker than Sunday night. I tried it once again thinking that perhaps I had left a drop or two of water in divider, but it was just as bad. The humidity is 52% even with the air conditioner running and keeping the temp in my basement workshop down to 68 degrees F. Is this just too high? Do I need to make an emergency run for a dehumidifier? I've got three more batches to make for wedding favors for a reception on Saturday and I don't want to have to roll them all in cocoa!