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An Indian wet grinder (something like this: http://www.buyindiankitchen.com/premier-wonder-grinder.html) will get pralines or chocolate very smooth with enough time. A robot coupe or thermomix or equivalent will not be able to produce the same smoothness.

keychris is correct - lecithin wont help. You need to "refine" the particle size of the sugar/sweetener (break it into very small pieces that are too small to notice) rather than "dissolve" it.

Migoya has posted about some errors and offered corrections. Not sure if it ties up directly with your issues above but here's the post: https://www.scribd.com/doc/14454904/Frozen-Desserts-Corrections

Jumping on board keychris's thought, if I ever make a dark chocolate ganache (especially over 60%) I use either an immersion/stick blender or a food processor to emulsify to prevent separation.

I really think you need to know the temperature of your cocoa butter before you spray it. I typically spray at 32C but the range is often given as 32-34C.

There are lots of different models on these things, so this may not be the case for you, but where I work, the Thermomix is much smaller than the Robot Coupe if production size is an issue. I much prefer the Robot Coupe. Lots of electrical plug outlets - and in the island bench if you can do that. We have them hanging from the ceiling as well over benches if you cant wire them through the benches. Tray racks under the benchtops. Can you build a spray booth into one corner of the room with an extraction fan and protection for over-spray?

I use a plastic tub I buy in the local $2 shop. It is fairly shallow, but does have headroom above the chocolates. I pack them so their sides are just touching and then wrap in plastic wrap/gladwrap several times as the lid is not airtight. 24 hours in the fridge then into freezer. Taking them out is 24 hours in the fridge, then 24 hours remaining wrapped at room temperature before unwrapping them. I've done this for several years now and never had a problem with thousands of chocolates (Christmas is a big production time for me but due to our heat in December, I often start earlier and freeze)

Personally, I don't think 6 weeks is unrealistic for a business, but I realise this is a personal thing and everyone will have a different opinion. I think it all comes down to what you're trying to achieve. The Wybauw book on shelf life is a good one. The use of sorbitol (powdered or liquid), glucose (atomised or liquid), dextrose, trimoline (invert sugar), salt, alcohol etc can all extend shelf life and when combined correctly can still yield a pipe-able ganache. The issue I've come across is a tradeoff between taste/flavour and shelf-life. More sugars etc tend to modify the flavour. I think all you can do is experiment with different formulae (Wybauw's books are probably a good place to start because they give aW readings) and test how long the ganache lasts given your ingredients and your production techniques.

Out of curiosity, is there a lot of wastage by mixing two different glazes?

Beat me to it Chris

That looks very neat! Any chance of a few more photos showing how it is constructed/put together?

I got acryllic sheets laser cut with cutting guides in different widths. I lay these on top of my slabbed ganache and use a chocolate scraper to push down and cut my ganache. All the standard widths of a guitar done for ~$110 - much cheaper than a guitar. When looking at moulds, look for moulds which are easy to clean and likely to release easily. Ie., cocoa pods, quenelle and half spheres are classic designs because they do both of those things. Will make polishing moulds much quicker and cause less loss of product. Similar for bars, don't look for designs that are too intricate and fiddly to clean.

I use a chablon mat to make the chocolate pieces. Something like this: http://www.robertsconfectionery.com.au/search.php?search_query=chablon. You usei t over a piece of acetate or a transfer sheet, spread the chocolate and then remove the chablon before the chocolate sets. The chocolate then sets on the sheet so when you pipe, it doesn't move about. Then just pipe with whatever tip you want. You need a ganache that will hold its shape when you pipe - I use a butter ganache and that works well, but really it's just about having the right consistency.

My Christmas Collection for Family and Friends this year. All up I made ~100-115 of each flavour. The theme was fruit and nuts, but the caramels and gingerbread are traditional favourites and had to be included as well.

Good ingredients if it will make a difference in the final quality/flavour. Your reputation is your reputation for whoever receives the gift. If I didn't care enough to use good ingredients, I probably wouldn't be making them gifts.

My wife does gingerbread houses every year with royal icing. We've transported for an hour+ in the car on Christmas Day and never had a problem. You can't actually break the royal icing off the structure, you have to tear the walls in half instead (ie., the gingerbread breaks before the royal icing). Maybe humidity has something to do with it???

Just some more examples https://www.instagram.com/p/-YcM42NijN/?taken-by=paulkennedysavour https://www.instagram.com/p/-OFOh3NilX/?taken-by=paulkennedysavour

I dip my caramels. If it is a hot day with a bit of humidity, they can start "slumping" after an hour if they are cut to size.

Just a couple of ideas: - Have you checked your thermometer? - Have you tried with a fresh/new batch of coloured cocoa butter? I have heard other people having an issue of their ccb jut getting completely out of temper in which case the warming method you use may not be sufficient to bring it back into temper (you'd have to heat the ccb to 45C and then table temper it back to 31C). Maybe your current batch is out of temper. - Are you sure everything is completely set/crystallised before turning out and is cooled correctly? (ie., is your cooling tunnel working properly). Quite often we leave in a 15C fridge overnight before turning out. Is it possible for you to test a few moulds by putting them in the fridge (4C) for ~10 mins before turning out or even leave them in a cool spot (15-18C) overnight before turning out?

Wybauw's first book Fine Chocolates, Great Experience has a recipe called black devils. They are essentially chocolate caramels but he gives instructions for using rejected pralines as part of the recipe.

It never needs to go to waste. There are professional solutions (Wybaux's caramels come to mind), but at my house: - My wife uses it to make ganache buttercream to ice her cakes - Freeze it in the interim - Sandwich between store bought cookies - Pipe directly into my children's mouths - Swirl through ice cream or "thin" it with cream to make chocolate sauce for ice cream - Pipe into ball shapes, let it set and roll in cocoa powder/icing sugar for truffles

I don't know what they are, but I get them when I leave untempered chocolate and then re-use it later, so I assume they have something to do with storing chocolate in untermpered state. I use an immersion blender to get rid of them. Keep the immersion blender fully submerged to stop air bubbles. Alternatively, you can strain the chocolate, but I don't have an issue with the immersion blender and find I lose some chocolate by straining it.

I use this wet grinder for making my own chocolate and also my own nut pastes. http://www.amazon.com/Premier-Wonder-Table-Grinder-110v/dp/B004OPIBV2 (well, I use the 220V version) Very smooth pastes given it is fine enough to make smooth chocolate. They do work a bit better if you can have some of the nut oils released first (say in a blitzer/blender), then heat the stones in the machine and let it run for a few hours.

As per above, I've read to add 10% sugar by weight, mix with the yolks and then freeze. Then just subtract that amount of sugar when making your ice cream. No idea if it works, I haven't tried.

I'm pretty sure 22/24 means 22-24% cocoa butter still remaining in the cocoa powder. 10/12 means 10-12% ccb in the cocoa powder.