prairiegirl

I agree Eileen. My example of the fridge is the taste you can get and when I went to the chocolate store and tried a sample, the chocolates had that kitchen odour taste to them. He never put his chocolate in the fridge for storage. The moulded pieces were left in his commercial kitchen where he makes only chocolate, nothing else. I don't put my chocolates for storage in the fridge either unless they are sealed airtight, and with several layers. What I questioning and trying to decide is do I need any kind of special air filter or conditioning (aside from AC) to protect my chocolates from collecting any kind of room odours. When you mould chocolates or make truffles, it is important to let them crust overnight or for a certain amount of hours. I am concerned that the chocolate may absorb odours, just like the man i have mentioned did. That is the question....special filter or not!!! ???

I am hoping to get my store going this fall. I have visited many different shops and this summer at one shop the owner let me try some of his chocolates that he had not capped yet. I noticed a "kitchen odour flavour in his moulded pieces that I tried. If you put a piece of chocolate or squares etc. in your refrigerator and left it there uncovered for 48 hours. When you taste it, they will have an off flavour to them. That is what I tasted in this man's chocolates. My question to commercial kitchen/chocolate shops is: What kind of air purification system do you use to keep odours out of your chocolate. Fats attract smells! What works. This guy had a very clean kitchen but I thought that maybe the temp of the room could have been a few degrees cooler. It was in July and it was hot! Please let me hear what works for you. Thanks.

What is the shelf life for pate de fruit?

Here is an email from Badger: Many a chocolatier are using Badger's 100LG (gravity feed) Medium airbrush for decorating their creations. A gravity feed airbrush allows you to spray close to your work at a lower pressure...providing a tight line control, as well as the versatility of a 2" spray pattern. I'd recommend Badger's # 180-10 diaphragm compressor with the # 50-053 regulator, which will allow you to adjust the airflow to the desired pressure. Lior, I would suggest that you get a Michaels coupon and buy the compressor thru them. I know at a Michaels store in my city they carry that specific compressor so I am holding out for a 50% off coupon. Not too many people have any use for a compressor so it should be available when I'm ready to buy! I am assuming you live in North America.

I am looking at equipment as well. I am leaning heavily towards the easy1 by perfect equipment out of Quebec. I will have some wheel machines as well but this will be my MAMA!! I have a call in with a chocolaterie in Quebec to get feedback about the equipment. Apparantly they are using Perfect's equipment. I will curious to know who you went with.

I have a customer that wants to put their corporate gift...chocolates...in a chocolate bowl. They need an example and specs so they can present to management. I am trying to source moulds for chocolate bowls and can't find anyone who carries them. chocolate Arts in Vancouver sells chocolate bowls filled with pralines but I can't find a mould. Does anyone know who carries chocolate bowl moulds that would fit up to 25 chocolates? Another option is to use plastic bowls from Ikea etc., and I might go to a local plastics company and see if they could vacuum mold some bowl shapes. My first choice is to source a professional mould. another option is to mould my own with the smooth-on sil940. But, would that hold up making 25 bowls?

El-Rey chcolate are one of lthe chocolates I use when I do chocolate tastings. I use 61% the most, but the other day I did use the 70%. The white chocolate is an excellent example of a full flavoured non-deodorized chocolate.

Well, my day started at about 10:30 am with me picking organic strawberries and Saskatoon berries at a U pick it. I picked for 4 hours and had to leave for other committments. This evening I processed all my strawberries and I have a portion of saskatoon berries draining in a jelly bag...for jelly jam!! I am tired!! Tomorrow I will attempt saskatoon pie. i am terrible at pie crusts but am pursuing perfection!!!

What is the window pane test?

yummy. I love Saskatoon berries. I think it would be fun to try making a fruit gel pate with them!!. I make Saskatoon jelly with them. I am planning to incorporate saskatoons into my chocolate repertoire in some fun and tasty way.!!

Thanks Vanessa. Tammy had the mould displayed in some of her photos from another posting and I fell in love with the mould!! The true colour did not come thru very well. The recipe is out of Greweling's book and it is delicious.

Here are the pictures. I don't think the true colours showed up as I took the pictures and not my hubby!

I made the dulce de leche truffles. Instead of a truffle shell, I used the new Italian mould that is round with the Mayan design. I also used the airbrush and sprayed with red PCB. The dulce du leche I bought at an Italian grocery store. It really is quite a nice flavour. I will try to get a picture and post it.

For the lilipads I went to a garden supply place. They gave me a lilly pad leaf and I used that for moulding. Usually I also check to make sure the leaf is not poisonous but this time I didn't have time! I used the airbrush and sprayed the leaf with green cocoa butter by PCB. I sprayed it quite thoroughly and then put a layer of white chocolate to give a stronger base and to bring out the green. All the veins in the leaf came thru quite well with the end product.

I buy my gloves at a dental supply place and they should cary a good assortment regardless of where you live on this planet!! I pay about $7 CAD for 100 gloves.

I hope I'm doing this right! I finally got the frog mould. I am going to mould a lillypad and the frogs will be sitting on top and will go as a gift to my daughter's grade 4 teacher. Apparently there is some kind of inside joke with the kids in the classroom and the teacher!!

Yes, please PM it to me. thanks!!

Kerry, What recipe did you use for the passion fruit pates? They look fabulous. I did another batch of passion fruit marshmallows and I must admit, they are delicious.

I will research the silicone dental stuff this week and post my findings.

Making your own mold is quite easy. You can get food grade silicone casting materials at: http://www.culinart.net/silicone.html They have a little in the way of instruction, but more comprehensive instructions for molding can be found at: http://www.hirstarts.com/moldmake/moldmaking.html They show various techniques for copying different types of objects. While they use non-food grade materials the techniques are the same. David ← What about sourcing the silicone thru a dental supply place?

I have a question about sales estimations. Does anyone have any ballpark figures as to the monthly fluctuations in the chocolate business?

Tammy, do you have an update?

My PCB transfer sheets are not adhering to my chocolate. I had the sheets stored in my dining room (oops) where the room gets warm. I just did some truffles and the transfer sheets are not transfering to my chocolate. Are the sheets ruined? What can be done to remedy this problem? I have never had any trouble before, but, I did store the sheets in a cooler room in the past. Help!

Just got back this evening from my Vancouver holiday! The panning machines are for doing nuts. I see them as a great opportunity for supplying product for fundraisers for schools, sports team etc.. I plan on opening a high end chocolate shop sometime in the fall and I am most interested in chocolate...not so much confectionary.

The machines are I think about 38 inches. They are big! One is the enrobing coating, the other is for polishing. QSP owned them previously. There is a confectionary shop in Glendale Arizona and my sales consultant has suggested that I go there as he is good friends with the owners.