Desiderio

Robert, I havent tryed yet , I was thiking to order few bars from the new ones , and also I was thinking to order some more milk chocolate and I was contemplating to get the 41% orinoco.Weird I have seen two version of thi one calls fro 38% the other 41%, Do you know anything about this chocolate by chance? Also from el rey , the 40% dark milk rio caribe , any advise on that one ? They have a sale on that one and if is close to caoba , I will like to get it. Thank you

The passion fruit ganache I make is pretty fruity but smooth and pleasent. I use frozen passion fruit puree, its better because it gives you a consitent result all the time , instead of the fresh fruit ( you can predict how sour , ripe etc will be ) I dont think the apricot liquor made much difference , since passion fruit marries well with apricot. I will suggest to use frozen puree' next time , I am sure it will come out just fine. good luck

Yes , its always nice to have more detailed information , in the ocean of generic information and sometimes approximated as well , so that you. I was looking at more Eguittard chocolate and I found they have few more new chocolates ( or new for me ).One is this Quetzalcoatl Bittersweet Chocolate A very dark, high-intensity bittersweet chocolate for the afficionado. Dark, bold flavors linger with a minimum of sweetness. 72% cocoa-mass, meaning it contains no added cocoa butter. 56.7g/2oz per bar, Kosher‑Dairy. It was interesting to see the fact that has no cocoa butter added so is 72 % cocoa mass I am wondering the sugar % in this one.

Awesome! Sounds very very ecxiting, I am sure you are living a dream The best luck for everything ( and for us because we will get all the wonderfull results from you trip as well )

Those boxes are custom made, you can have custome made ones from several company. http://www.glerup.com/ http://www.nashvillewraps.com/ http://www.kroese-exclusief.com/en/index.php This company is dutch and few of us have bought their boxes,they have great custome service and great products, I believe they do custom as well.You have to register to be able to access to the catalog.

Tammy I use one of this.I reserched for a while before deciding that a small hobby one would have been the best for the work I need to do. http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LX8241

Yes indeed , expecially when you play with other people health as well gotta to pay attention even more.Better spend more and be safe than sorry.No cans propellant, we were talking on that as well on teh chocolate with showroom finish I believe . Check ebay for thos little aircompressor. http://cgi.ebay.com/Badger-80-2-AIR-COMPRE...1QQcmdZViewItem

I guess going to the web site and order it.I am going to order it pretty soon here

The small badger compressor , since they are for hobby use , dont need a moisture trap , they are already set for that .I got mine out of ebay, its a badger one. I dont understand really what is the aerosol problem Kerry is talking about.You mean the cloud of color that it forms while using the airbrush?

I didnt know there were restriction about everclear 95% .I found it here in COlorado ( the 95% ).

I had the same feeling about El Rey chocolate , the first time I tried it.It was the Apamate I believe and I still love it .I think it might be rougher around the edge compared to some european chocolate , and maybe thats why I love it so much.so earthy , thats the right word. But ofcourse is only a matter of taste and personal liking.

Same as Kerry

Does anyone bought the coating pan yet?I dont know why but tonight I was thinking about it again , after a while, and was thinking to give it a try ( even though I have few more things I need to get ).

I think , as we said before , its all matter of the flavor you are putting into the chocolate, enrobed or molded.Like I said I prefer certain flavors to be inside the enrobed one, becuse the proportions between chocolate shell , ganche tickness etc, plays an important role on the flavor impact etc.On the other side , like Kerry said , not everyone likes the dense ganache , but like to play with different textures and combination that will be hard to do with an enrobed one.I do some filling that are semiliquid , and I need to use molded and I like the way they taste in molded as well.Some flavors pairs better with molded some others pairs better with enrobed ones, for my taste ofcourse.

Even if I usually do more molded than enrobed, I find enrobed ones more attractive when well made.See our Christopher Elbow as well , http://www.elbowchocolates.com/ he has both molded and enrobed and I think his selection is one of the nicest I have ever seen. I remeber someone told me once , not sure who, that the making of molding pieces was faster than making enrobed , since they had a small production and limited time ,so they opted for molding v.enrobed only for a matter of time and semplicity. The other factor is that like Truffle guy said, enrobed chocolates ( and not everyone owns an enrober machine ) may not be as well sealed as the molded ones, thats another problem with shelf life , if there is any crack or hole in the chocolate , will cause some problem .I never use an enrober machine ( the one on the pic from Shotts class , looked perfect size for a small lab ) but I would figure that the coverage is more consistent than the manual coverage , maybe? I think a well mix of both can show the ability/skills and inventive of the chocolatier , like the one Chrisopher produce. Each filling needs a different shell so the freedom and the ability to decide wich one goes where and understand what is the texture that you need is also a skill that a good chocolatier has.So why not using all the tecnique and resorces they have. An example for me is a lavender ganache, I cant stand it if is inside a molded shell, I can only produce it as an enrobed piece, same for cadamom, tea, chili pepper and so on.

Truffle guy, thank you for you feedback. It was very interesting and informative ,see what people got form the class will help the rest of us to have a clearer picture of what to look for. Since the costs ( more for the trip and the staying , than the class )can be a little bit challengin for some of us, its nice to know that they are well worth it ( I didnt have any doubt anyway ). I would love to attend one of Chef Shotts class , maybe I can make it by October . It was interesting to read your observation on the different aspect of the process. I have been notice lateley, since my production increased in number quite a bit, that enrobed pieaces compare to the molded ones ,are ,like you said , easier to produce with some kind of consistency and you can definately see if something went wrong right away.I have also noticed that molding it might give me little bit more stress than enrobing , because again like you said , you wont know till you unmolded , if a piece came the way you wanted or not. I do too feel that enrobed pieaces , with the help of decoration and transfer/textured sheets , are very attractive not less than a molded one.When my sister brought me back some chocolates from L'Artisan du CHocolat in London , I was surprise to see that the selection was all enrobed ( little size rectangular ) , each of the piece was decorated with transfer sheets or a little decoration made in chocolate, that you could recognize in the pamplet to see the flavors etc.I was impress with the simplicty beauty of these pieces and the dimension was bite size not thicker than 1/4 " very nice. Anyways, hows your business going, we still waiting on your report and maybe some pictures Good luck and thank you for the nice report.

Pamela, it might even be the different type of chocolate,since they have different cocoa butter and cocoa mass contenent from brand to brand. I bet everyone were happy after eat them huuuh

Mark , I did the same , made the shells into polycarbonate molds.Then I made the solution.And David is right , you need to pay extra attention when you mix the syrup and the liquor together.Wybauw says to pour between two bowls , like David said,this is very important , dont rush the mixing , it takes a little bit for the syrup to mix well with the liquor , but once they are mixed they stay mixed.I dont know what formula you are using but either me or David can PM you the one form Wybauw's book, that seems to work very well. Good luck

Tammy, thank you . I think those cups are less than one inch, I cant remember the size , I got them in a tube of 500 at country kitchen web site , they were the cheaper ( because smaller :-P )

Ahh thank you for the link

Veryy cool!! I know exciting . Well I hope the papers will be ready on time so you can get started and get the feeling for everything you need to do .Keep us update on that,its very neat to see a business start up and growning.Best of luck

Hey Tammy , how it is going with the kitchen and the business.Let me know how are you liking it , making chocolates in a different kitchen and with the limited time.That is my biggest worry .Its almost worth to turn my basement into a lab

Some of my first Valentine production.Actually this past friday I think I did close to 600 pc , plus 300 saturday afternoon.need to finish the packaging , wich is the longest part , helppp! Gotta play too meanwhile

Just be aware if you have to have them ship the pure , it will cost you more the shipping than the puree. I use fresh or frozen raspberry , I pass them thru a fine sieve and then warm it up , warm up the cream ,mix them and pour onto the chocolate.Cool slightly add butter and chambord.

Very cool Tammy . I am sure you are having fun with the new toys Ahh Kerry , wonderfull display, and what it makes it even more wonderfull is the cause and your great heart. I really hope to be able to do some found raise or donations , soon , this is one of my goal in all this chocolate making. Great great job