Desiderio

Thank you guys on the replys.I will chek those. You are right John the euro is kicking the #@%* of the $ unfortunately, I had my eyes on some boxes but coming from Europe , ouch, I will wait.

There used to be a vendor on ebay that sold those belgian chocolate melter ( the one Wybauw uses ) I cant find them anymore, I think the store has changed and sell different type of melters/tempers machine , but not the same. Do you guys have any idea on where to find those here in the states?Or alternatives, I need one more at least the 6 or 12 kg one. Thank you

Lior , I understand the anxity and all, but everything look great and you will do just fine.Go girl!! Please report after the festival, whenever you are all rested and relaxed. I have my first festival in May , for mother's day and it is a chocolate festival, so I will be with a bunch of other local and not local chocolatiers that have been in business before I even thought about doing this professionally They are expecting between 5.000 and 10.000 people, so I would love you fed back on how much to make and what to expect. Thank you

What about maltilol ( not sure of the spelling in english) anyway is the sweetner used in most sugar free products and chocolates and caramels as well.I was thinking to try some sugar free caramel one of this days .

LOL Manhaldled the bunny, thats too much! Some people unfortunately have no clue of how much work goes into these creations. But we know and appreaciate and wish were there and follow one of your classes ( and maybe I just have to plan a trip there and have a one at one 3 days full immersion class with you Kerry).I hope we will be able to see the show somewhere or something.And I hope and wish that you have the return you want and deserve

Thank you guys Tammy, I just got the ribbon , I have been thinking about it for a while , so I decided to try. I also ordered some tags to attach to the boxes , bags etc, with my logo and little company description plus info, I figured is cheaper than having custom made boxes for now, but still nice effect. The half pyramids are just hand painted with couple of different colors , the teal/green ones I used a fine point brush , made the lines , then add some pearl luster dust and add some more color on the sides with a brush ( those were actually not for my Easter collection but for a party , irish cream , thats why the green :-P).

Indeed a great collection and great idea for the packaging. I like the larger item in the middle. For Easter I tryed to do something on the easy side, since I am in the middle of the business making ( ahhhh I am lost sometimes :-P ). Anyway this is my collection.

I havent made the cocoa one, many other flavors but not those yet. I do think that the cocoa was too much , I dont think the type it really matters, but the amount yes.Also the extra water might be a bit of problem for the texture, I would stick to the recipe, maybe add a tad more and do not add extra free water , maybe you can use some cocoa liquor to give it a punch , but remeber to subtract the water for the liwquor so you sont end up with too much liquid, in the end has to be the same. Good luck and welcome on Egullet

I am not sure I understand what kinda of infusion you did with the coffee and cream, I usually used instand coffe ( organic ) and boil it down with cream, I have tried with regular coffee but didnt get the flavor I wanted.Anyhow usually the coffe ganahce I make for the irish coffee chocolates, the ganache has the same color of a nice italia Cappuccino, pretty dark.

Also working with white chocolate can be trickier than dark chocolate, because there is more fat in the white and it tends to separete or break easier. As for the proportion I suggest using 2.5:1 chocolate versus liquifiers ( wich are the cream, butter if used, liquors etc.).You have to take in count whatever liquid you add to the ganache and equilibrated with the chocolate. If you use dry coffe to flavor the cream then something like that would work fine: 75gr cream 20 gr soft butter 230 gr white chocolate if you use any liquid , like liquor make sure to adjust the chocolate ( or also add cocoa butter so the chocolate doesnt owerpower the flavor). Hope it helps, I am not to good at explain I am better at doing :-P And Welcome

I would probably either add more chocolate to the formula so isnt that soft or form chocolate circles ( either wirh a chocolate stencil or make a very thin layer of tempered chocolate and cut a bounch of small circles before it sets) then pipe the ganache nipples on the circles then dip. Also a metal fork will cut into the soft ganache and if you dont want to go to the trouble of making the chocolate base circles, you can try using a plastic fork ( in wich the 2 middle teeth are removed to let room for the extra chocolate to drop ), thats what I use and I still have to find a a better tool ( yes an enrober :-D ).

Lior, I have been thinking about wine fillings, for local wineries and other business opportunities. I dont know if I would reduce the wine, it will change the taste, like when i make a beer filling I actually add the beer with the butter at the end whnt the ganache is around 35-40C , the beer flavor is nice and strong and the flavor is faboulous ( on eof the most popular ). With wine you can also explore with wine jellies, I have tried only once , it was pretty tasti , but I need to get some good pectine to experiment with PDF.

Matcha marshmallows sound good, also ginger would be good or lemon-ginger.I am sure there are thousend combination to explore.

WHat a cool idea Kerry , those are very very cool

I have used a guide from the department of agricultur, to market your products and marketing plans ( very usefull ) and I follow their guide to come up with a price per piece ( I have done before but without all the other expenses that I am going to have now) so I think the price was 1.30 per piece, I might need to recalculate that but it seems very high and I am little bit concerned on the selling part.I have seen the average price per lb for artisanal chocolates is between $38 and $42, wich is exactley the price I cam up with before. The wholesale deal is stressing me out, I have contacted a place that sell mostly local and they buy wholesale, they also have another local company that makes chocolates, her products are slighlty different from mine ( they are the round truffles in a premade shell and she has some of those chocolates made in magnet molds ) so i am trying to see boxes cost and bulk cost. This is very helpfull , everybody pitching in , thank you so much.

I am in the same spot as well. I have found my state department of Agriculture very very helpfull.They have links and publications ( free ) to help small business deal with their marketing strategy and pricing, I also registred for a workshop ( for a $ 35.00 meals included , all day ) on how to market your products etc. and the opportunity to connect with many other small business in the food field.Also I have applied for the Colorado Proud ,wich is a Colorado department of Agriculture organization. I do reinvest evry penny I make into the business and I didnt get any loan or credit for now , I want to see how it goes in the next year or so then I will decide what to do on the results basis I think. Its very exiting and scary at the same time, when you realize that isnt a hobby anymore . Partecipating at local fares is one of my goal for this year, I am already into one in May and I am overwelmed at the idea of making so much of everything ( and I will have to take few days of work as well )but exited to see my name in their list ( it feels like a kid going to play with the adults ) Good Luck to all the new business This thread is very hekpfull , I will try to update with my progress as well.

2 weeks its the general shelf life for chocolates with fruit puress etc. I make bananas ones and they definately have a shorter shelf life , wich for artisanal products is acceptable and expectable :-P If you dont mind using artificial flavorings or liquors I would go that direction. You can try dehydrate bananas , need to find the way to get enough flavor though.

Patty , Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I figured they would want to know all those things, expecially when they dont have too much experience in the confectionery chocolate field.I suspect they will want us to follow the same rules as a meat processing company I will reread all the code I have downloaded and have all the packaging labels and containers ready, also my recipes book is been completed and I will have a copy for him/her to check.I need to get some more containers ( I guess they need to be commercial grade right) .I dont know if I wan to store my stuff in the kitchen.For now it will be jusy me but you know.I think I will be carry my stuff in big containers and do what you do now. Thank you again very much

I absolutely Agree on that! Gotta love this place!

I am not Kerry , but I do make nougat for bars and yes you can use the coffee' and it would work without the peanut butter. I will add the coffee' ( instant coffee maybe ) either in the egg whites before I add the hot syrup or towards the end when the nougat is already formed but still hot.Grind the instant coffee very fine and add it when the nougat its still in the mixer or maybe at the end incorporating the coffee manually with a spatula. It shouldnt be a problem, Kerry recipe for the candy bar will work fine , I have seen other recipes they are all very similar.

Thank you Tammy , as usuall so fast to answer my thousend questions!!

Another question. When you get the health inspection at the kitchen, do they want to check your recipes to see if they match your ingredients labels? Also anyother usefull tips to get ready for the Health inspector? Like do you bring all the stuff you are going to use during production or just the basic to show the inspector and also do they ask you to make something while the inspection? Haha I dont perform well with people looking at me LOL. Thank you so much for all your help!!!

Lior, I was reflecting on what you said about the people not buying the bark etc etc. I do think its a cultural thing and I do think that you could maybe integrate your culture with chocolate making, something closer but still different and unique. Hard to explain but like for the bark, maybe you should go for Mediants instead, or something like that . I dont know since I am starting the business as well I am alwasy trying to find ideas to market better my products and the perfect niche for my business,so I have been thinking about you.Its also true that when you are new on the market, it takes a while for the people to know you so it might be just matter of time and I agree that samples are always a good idea I have my first festival in May and I am brainstorming to find the right idea and products to bring, we'll see

Thank you .I think the color is due the organic corn syrup I used ( the one I found was very dark and had a tad of malty flavor , not bad at all ) As for the sleeping beauties I have to confirm and say that the recipe is not reliable for what I am concern.The quantity are too small and hard to work with.You right there are many ingredients and a little amount of them,the nougat that Kerry has here posted ( nougat for snekers bars) its much easier and reliable , it comes perfect everytime and the ingredient list its much shorter.As for the glucose syrup and inverted sugar, I can tell you are concern about the use of them, but it really isnt that big of a deal, just use it as describe ina recipe, expecially for caramel and sugar work, for ganaches you can leave that out if you want. I love Greweling book, the descriptions and tecniques are great , I love the slabbed method and many other things, as for the recipe I have the feeling that as a professional and instructor he might use differnt methods and equipments, I dont know but I have a feeling about the recipes and his I know they arent always user friendly.

I definately think you shouldnt cook and reduce the strawberry puree for the marshmallows, I am sure it would change the taste. As for the ganache I have found two different school of thinking, one it says boil and reduce the otehr says added fresh to not loose the fresh flavor etc etc.