mostlylana

Yes, I've seen the eggs in the Wybauw book. I believe he uses a silicone insert to make decorations. This egg is done a little differently. First, he sprayed the mold with a few thin layers of chocolate. This is what gives it the shine. He then piped a small amount of chocolate to form the 'crack'. He took a pointed wooden stick and cut along the inside of the piping. Then he filled this area with a mixture of nuts. The premise is - a thin layer of chocolate won't release from the mold thereby leaving the nuts exposed. The next step was to adhere the nuts to the rest of the egg so he piped thin lines in a crisscross pattern across the nuts trying just to touch the nuts and the piped line. You want to avoid getting too much chocolate on the underneath layer that you want to stick to the mold. Once the nuts are completely covered the mold is partially filled, put together and put on the spinning machine (he didn't do this for the demo - just filled and dumped each half). Once cooled it is removed from the mold and sure enough the thin layer adhered to the mold leaving the nuts exposed yet completely attached to the egg. Wonderful! After seeing this I'm sure you can understand why I 'need' a spray gun now! Here are a few more photos to show the process...

Yes - funny sausage hey? It's gianduja shaped into sausage with added nuts to mimick the bits of fat. I'm sure it works in Italy - don't know if it would work here... Kerry, I checked with DR and the tip sizes are 1.5 and 2mm. They're checking to see if they can order in different sizes. Thanks so much for that reference - I love that it's all stainless.

Thanks to Kerry Beal - I think I might actually post a picture! Here is Paul DeBondt's fabulous egg...

Nice cake! I have read the threads on airbrushes and spraying chocolate with great interest. Thanks for all the great info everyone. I recently came back from a chocolate workshop in Italy. We spent a day with Paul DeBondt - one of my favourite chocolatiers. He demonstrated one of his fabulous eggs made with many layers of sprayed chocolate before filling the mold with the appropriate amount of chocolate and spinning. I would love to attach a photo but I have barely learned how to post let alone attach photos! In any case, I now feel that I 'need' a spray gun. I'll tell you what I've learned so far given that I am a research-aholic... First - Paul DeBondt said that the gravity feed sprayers are best for chocolate. He continued to say that for spraying cocoa butter you need a tip of about 1.2mm up to 1.7mm (although 1.7 is on the large size). For spraying chocolate he said you need a large tip size - about 3mm. He only thins his chocolate with about 30% cocoa butter so it would still be quite viscous and would require a large nozzle. Because I would like to get a gun that would spray both cocoa butter AND chocolate - that ruled out the airbrushes - tips are too small for chocolate. In looking for spray guns with tips ranging from 1.2mm to 3mm - I found nothing! I did find one made in Canada with a 1.2mm and a 2.8mm nozzle. The fellow did tell me that a 2mm isn't double a 1mm. He did some math and multiplied something by pie to show me that a 2mm is much bigger than double a 1mm. He said the difference between a 2.8mm and a 3mm is about 25%. The difference between a 2.5mm and a 3mm is about 50%. I figured I might need to thin my chocolate a bit more but I was sure the 2.8mm tip would work just fine. Then he told me that they use brass fittings and is this food safe? He said there are guns out there made from all stainless steel but they are expensive. I wasn't sure about the brass so I did some research on that. Like copper, brass is reactive and apparently the tarnish that builds up on it is poisonous. Lovely. So onward to look for a food safe spray gun. I found one made in Italy that has an all stainless paint channel and stainless tips. Unfortunately the biggest tip for that gun is 2.5mm. I can't seem to find much bigger so I think I am going to go for this gun. I thought I would first ask anyone who sprays chocolate (not coloured cocoa butter) what size tip you use - and how it works for you. Thank you!!

I got 2 6 kg. melters and 2 extra pans. I HIGHLY recommend the extra pans. They are not expensive. When I received my 6 kg. melters I immediately thought - "Oh boy - these are small - should have got the 12 kg." As I've used them, however, I'm finding the size perfect. For those thinking they need smaller, I often work with no more than an inch and a half in the pan and it works great. I don't often work with molds but I didn't want to limit myself either. I'm glad I made that decision as I now want to add bars to my repetoire. Good luck with the decisions!

Hi Mark, Here is the email address at Mol d'Art: info@moldart.be I dealt with Jozef and he was very kind and accommodating. He told me that I could use a minimum of 3 kg. couverture in the 12 kg. melter and keep it in temper. Oddly enough, the 12 kg. pan is more shallow than the 6 kg. pan...

Hello all, I'm passing the Mol d'Art bulk order torch to Deb. You lucky guys and gals get to save an additional 7% thanks to no Provincial Sales Tax in Alberta! Please contact her (prairiegirl) if you're interested. Let me know if I can be of any help at all. Good luck!

Looks like a great buy for someone needing a 12 kg. Thanks for the post Tammy. To let everyone know, the bulk order to Mol d'Art has already been placed but I continue to receive requests. Please PM or email me if you're still interested. Please also let me know if you're OK with me sharing your email address with others interested in a bulk order. Right now, there are 2 Canadian addresses waiting.

Hello All, Well it looks like we have 5 interested Canadian addresses (2 from here - 3 from the Ecole Chocolat graduate forum) interested in the melters which means free shipping from Belgium (if everyone is still in!). The cost of the 6kg. melter will be approx. $550CAN. (350 euro). I checked with Canada Customs and there is no duty on this item coming from Belgium into Canada. Applicable taxes will be GST (5% = approx. $28) and BC PST (as they will be mailed to Kamloops, BC - 7% = approx. $38). They will be shipped by DHL. I inquired with them about brokerage fees and they said those are billed to the shipper. However, if they do apply they are low - 2.5%. Figure on approx. $25 - $30 shipping from Kamloops to your house. That brings the total to about $660 by the time you get it into your chocolate stained hands. By the way Peter, I know exactly what you are saying about getting dinged with brokerage fees and duties. I called Customs Canada for that reason and inquired about the melter. He asked me all sorts of questions and then said - "no duty on that item coming from Belgium." Yay! As for payment I was thinking we could do it the ebay way. I have a paypal account you could pay to or you could send me a cheque. If you're not comfortable with that you could use an escrow service (escrow.com). It would cost about $25 - $30. Let's start with who's interested for sure. Please PM me if you're interested for sure now that you've seen the costs. By the way, I am going to order an extra pan so I can have one pan for dark and one for milk. The extra pan for the 6 kg. melter is approx. $45CAN. Let me know if you're interested in that as well.

Hello again, I just got a response from Jef at Mol d'Art. He said if we order at least 5 melters shipping will be free! That would make the cost of the 6 kg. melter approx. $585.00 which would include shipping from me to you. That does not include GST if it applies. There are already 2 of us on board. Any others?!

Hello all, I am a newbie here on this forum. I just graduated from Ecole Chocolat and want to thank everyone for sharing their knowledge. I feel like I know many of you from reading so many posts! My graduation present to myself is going to be a 6 kg. Mol d'Art melter. I have priced these through many sources and the cheapest route seems to be ordering directly from Mol d'Art. The price is 350.00 euro which translates into $557.00 CAN. (I'm in Kamloops, BC, Canada). The shipping cost is 100 euro which is $160.00 CAN. I have checked and there are no duties on this item from Belgium to Canada. I'm wondering if there are any Canadians out there who want to do a bulk order? I have put this request out on our Ecole Chocolat graduate forum as well. Maybe we could get a better price on the melters as well?? US and other people - I'm not prejudiced! I just think shipping across the border might incur more costs than the savings would amount to... I've been in contact with Jozef from Mol d'Art and he is a great guy to deal with. As for shipping - all the melters would have to come in 1 shipment in order to split the costs. I would have them all shipped to me. Each melter will have it's own individual packaging. I would then readdress and ship. I figure shipping within Canada would be approx. $25.00 for a 10lb. item so that amount(s) would get added to the $160.00 and divided by the number of people wanting to order. You can order the melter that would be suitable for you. Here is the link to the Mol d'Art melter page: http://www.moldart.be/products.asp?languag...ubgroupid=34981 If anyone is interested - let me know! Feel free to email me if you prefer. I just called Qzina Vancouver to get their price on the 6 kg. melter - $1038.00CAN. Ordering directly from Belgium including the $160.00 shipping charge would be approx. $720.00CAN. That amount would be even cheaper with several people ordering. If just 2 people order the price goes down to $650.00 each. (There will most likely be GST on that amount but I'm not sure...) I look forward to getting to know everyone!