patsikes

Here are a few tips... I have not made these salted caramels but do a lot of plain ones. - you can always test a bit of caramel in a bowl of cold water (you know, the standard test). I can get pretty close doing this. - if they are a bit too soft, but you still want to enrobe then "paint" each side of the slab with untempered chocolate. This will help them hold together better - I have used lots of different cutting tools. Our newest is a 8 or 9 blade rolling cutter (looks like a bunch of pizza cutters). They are spaced at 7/8" so they are just the right size for our box when cut. The technique is to work slowly with it, working down a little at a time across the whole sheet. Otherwise, I find a bench scraper a good option too. Hope this helps... Patrick

Bought a box of Jubilee or John & Kira's for my wife for Valentine's Day this year. Thier raspberry was great, but the rest was just lacking that special punch...

Very cool Lloyd! I wish I was more handy with that type of work...do you want to make somre more??? I also have been doing Farmers Market this summer. Our first day out we had chocolate products on the table and lost everything that was out... Now we have everything in coolers and little 5x7 plastic sign holders with photos of all our products as well as some dummy boxes. I would love to be able to hand pack boxes by request but I think that will be just too much for the summer. This fall however, when we start the holiday craft fairs, we are going to do a "chocolate shop" type display and hand pack boxes. One last tip, for samples at the market, I use a large blue ice pack on the table and place my sample container on top of that. Even in the 98 F heat last Saturday, my molded truffle samples were just fine.

Thanks for the nod Vanessa. My favorites include La Maison du Chocolat and Jaqcues Torres. Our newest favorite is Thomas Haas, a small chocolatier in Vancouver, BC. Very great product and nice man.

Hey Vanessa, I just use a 1/8 t per pound of chocolate. If it is the Lorann bottle, you can get little eye droppers at Hobby Lobby. That helps a lot. Patrick

vanessa, i came across this on the same site. wondering if it would preserve ganaches. anyone have any ideas? http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/pr...roductId=619106 luis ← I have a bottle of that at my kitchen. I have never tried it... Intertase seems to be working well.

I just returned from a lovely cruise with another French chef, Jacques Torres. I brought him a box of our chocolates as a gift. He ended up doing a tasting with us and gave us compliments and ideas on how to fix a few issues he found (like too think of bottoms on our molded truffles). Plus we spent about an hour talking about the chocolate biz. More than I could have ever expected!

Hey escry, I think that the invertase is working as my truffles last on the shelf an additional two weeks with still soft/moist centers. I do regret the sweetness change that invertase makes in the white ganache, and with your comment, I may skip it next time. I have never made my ganaches with anything other than chocolate, cream, and butter (i.e. I have never added corn syrup or invert sugar). So I have never had the opportunity to taste the off balance that sote23 speaks of.

Yep. As stated above, I cannot tell a difference in my dark and milk ganaches. However there is so much sugar in our white that it does get a bit sweeter....

Sorry for the late reply on this thread. Two weeks of vacation and prepping for our first day at the Farmer's Market have killed me. I add about 1/8 t to a ganache made with 1 lb of chocolate. I normally add it after the ganache has been completed while it is at about 80 degrees F. I am interested in the comment above that state it should be used at 140/158 F. So I sounds like I should be adding it to my slightly cooled cream before I pour over the shopped chocolates? As for flavor, I d not notice any change in sweetness from a ganache with or without... Nor can my wife who has a great pallet. Could this be because it is actually not active?

I have the one from ChefRubber and it works pretty well. The only thing is that I tape a half sheet pan to the top so that I vibrate two molds at one time (the molds have to be held in place also without the pan). I think it is worth the price personally.

I am very tall 6' 5" and would love adjustable work surfaces. When doing some repetitive tasks (hand dipping chocolates for example), I put about an 8" riser under my sheet pan. The worst though is doing dishes...

I also use invertase in our truffle ganache. In the dark and milk ganache's, it does not change the texture or viscosity much at all. In the white ganache however it does tend to soften, probably due to more sugar in white chocolate. We get six weeks shelf life out of our truffles...which doing wholesale, many retailers want 3 months... (aka Godiva...yuck!)

Our espresso truffles get some very strongly brewed espresso, one shot for enought ganache to fill 3 molds plus we also add some finely ground espresso powder. Quite the kick!

Hey Vanessa, It has been a busy week. We do not have a shop yet, just the website, some really great repeat customers, and wholesales to places like The Cupboard in Fort Collins. We will be doing production this Saturday for Mother's Day if you want to stop by... Email me if you are interested. Patrick

Hi Desiderio, My wife will be doing the Pastry Arts program at Culinary School of the Rockies in October (as long as she get accepted). I took a home class there a few years back. It was their Chocolate Extravaganza class. Three years later, we are one year into our own chocolate business and our next step is to open a chocolate café here in Fort Collins so one of us need some real pastry education. My wife currently works at Whole Foods Market in the bakery and one of her co-workers went through the program and loved it. We went to the open house they had two weeks ago and got to meet the staff and Chef Elizabeth the pastry instructor. It does seem a little high, but wen you think about it, you are getting uniforms, books, knives, ingredients for 23 days, plus you put on a graduation pastry buffet for all your friends and family. Classes are limited to 12 with two instructors. I don't know, my wife and I just get a good vibe from there.... Hope this helps. Patrick www.PSILoveYouChocolates.com

Thanks Wendy, I actually do have a caramel recipe that works almost every time and that will stay somewhat flexible in a sheet. My recipe makes a half sheet about 3/4 of an inch thick. Maybe if I pour out some onto a full sheet pan (or even a little onto a silpat for a test), that might work. I will have to give it a try. I do not think it is something I would make for my business since Hammonds are so good and just down the road an hour from me in Denver. But it would be nice to make my own instead of paying $1 a piece! Thanks again!

I would love to produce something like Hammond's Mitchell Sweets. It is a marshmallow surounded by caramel. Any ideas?

Have you tried using modeling chocolate? That might lend itself well to dessert sushi making. Also, I use my pasta machine to work with heavy doughs such as molding chocolate, seems to make the going easier.