Chocolot

I have made them and piped into shells. Works fine. It is a bit tricky to pipe into the molds. Make a VERY small hole in the pastry bag:-)

you can certainly more than double or triple. I use 12# salted butter, 12# sugar, 3 cups water. Heat the water and butter in the copper kettle. Add the sugar and stir in to mix. Cook over medium flame until all the sugar has dissolved and you can't feel or hear it. Turn up the heat to med-high and keep stirring. Without rings for her stove, it might sit too close to the flame. Might have to adjust your flame. If it is going to separate, it will do it at about 250F. If it does, just add a cup or two of water and keep stirring and cooking. The temp will drop, but will raise again. The copper kettle will invert some of the sugar and actually be a help to your toffee. Don't undercook it. Cook it to at least 310F before pouring out. You need to have a large enough place to pour the batch. If she has a water-cooled table that is ideal, or pour into sheet pans. I use 6 full sheet pans covered in roasted, chopped almonds. Pour over nuts, and spread to cover nuts. When toffee cools to about 150F, sprinkle with dark callets, and wait for them to melt. You don't want tempered chocolate on toffee. It will lift off the smooth surface. If you use untempered chocolate, it will bloom, hence adding nuts on top of your chocolate. After all the chocolate has melted, I put on a new disposable glove and smear the chocolate all over the toffee. Then cover with finer chopped almonds and sprinkle with fleur de Sel salt. Wait for it to cool completely and the chocolate to set. Break up and package. Good luck:-)

Wow, Bob. You are doing good work!!

You are undercooking it or as Lisa suggested, you are inverting too much sugar. Try half that much water, and don't cook to time--just temp. It should be light brown by 300. At altitude, you will actually cook faster as water boils at 204 at 4000 feet. Are you smashing the nuts when you roll them? if so, that might cause a problem.

Have you tried brushing a few layers of chocolate in each half, then clipping and pouring? If you brush in different directions, it might strengthen it. I always brush my bunnies, just to make sure I get all the nooks filled in.

Second day using Fuji HVLP gun. Can I tell you I LOVE IT!!!! Very little overspray, no atomizing (or very little). It doesn't clog. I dialed it back a bit and it doesn't use as much color as the first time. I have tightened down all knobs and it works great. Thanks Kerry for experimenting on this for all our benefit.

I received my Fuji gun and finally tried it out yesterday. I love it!! I have a lot to learn about controlling it, but it is wonderful. I don't have atomized cocoa butter all over the room (I do have some splatter on the cabinets, but it will wipe off). I bought some shower curtain liners for next time:-) It is much quieter than a compressor--about like a vacuum cleaner. All the molds came out great. On the yellow ones, what looks like white is actually glare.

Using the mixer will result it a slightly grainier fondant, but in cordials, it will dissolve anyway, so doesn't really matter.

I have a Hilliard 80# per day machine that I have used for 30 years and love it. Very dependable and easy to use. Downsides--harder to do molding out of it and the heat source is light bulbs and they are going to be harder to find. It is good for hand-dipping. I also have 3- 50# Savage that I also love. Very simple to use, almost a set it and forget it. They are designed to have water plumbed into the water jacket for quick temperature changes, but I just use them as a closed system. Very easy to mold with--open the spigot and the chocolate pours into your molds. Tap the excess back into the top of the melter. I can hold temper for several days in these. I also have a Perfect wheel temperer with my enrober. It works, but I still prefer the Savage for tempering.

Beautiful work, Ilana.

Green is Chef Rubber's Green Sphene backed with white and shelled in white chocolate. Inside is Grewlings cream caramel, with reduced apple cider to replace some of the cream and Calvados at the end. I also used some Saigon cinnamon in the cream. Rather tasty:-)

I also made my Caramel Apple caramels. They turned out quite tasty.

Today I got started on my Halloween Eyeballs. They sure look sloppy up close!!!

Could I use Calvados instead of Schnapps?

I have been working (mostly unsuccessfully) on making a caramel apple filling for bon bons. I have used green apple puree in a caramelized sugar base then over white chocolate to make a ganache. Flavor just too weak. I used a bit of cinnamon but no real flavor. I won't use extracts, so does anyone have any good ideas?

Are you sure on your percentages? 34% cb, 38% cocoa solids. Never seen a milk chocolate with those numbers.

Question for whoever -- Matt? made the ginger PDF. Was the Amoretti ginger brown or clear?

Taste them--there is an amazing difference in salt. Find one you like the taste and texture with the chocolate. I prefer Fleur de Sel myself.

At the conference, Kerry brought her pottery atomizer and brought extras for us to buy. I got it home and came up with a way to use my air brush to push the air. The first photo is a picture of my air brush--I use a Harbor Freight quick change and the atomizer. I removed the screw on cap and put the end in the atomizer. Short burst of air and this is what I got. Finished chocolates Kerry is amazing to come up with all these ideas!! A huge thank you again for all your efforts on our behalf.

Many of us do. Just be certain it is SS. Home Depot has some good ones.

I took the goodies out of the tube and packed them. Sorry-no photo. They contained 8? small jars of colored cocoa butter, a brush, several transfer sheets, literature, plastic thingy like a popsicle stick. Anything else I forgot? I think it would be a good idea for us to send a thank you email to those who provided stuff for us. Kerry, can you tell us who to contact? I know that paul@chefrubber.com will get to Paul.

I can only agree with everything said above. Kerry is the most hard-working, creative, thoughtful person I have ever met. She put this whole thing together, took a week off from work, worked all weekend (creating nothing herself) just so we all could have a great experience. The facility was fantastic (could have had the AC turned down a little:-) One of the things I learned this weekend is that you don't all have to do things the same way. Each of us, including Brian at Tomric and Derrick from Callebaut, did things differently and had opposing opinions of things, but both make wonderful confections. We all develop our own style and that doesn't make it right or wrong, it just makes it ours. It was so great to meet like-minded people. We all had an instant bond. Bob helped with the organizing and was a great chauffeur, even with his harem at the border. He also makes a mean caramel. The food was amazing. Kerry had everything planned out. We had breakfast and lunch laid out for us and then the two fantastic dinners and wing lunch. I got to put faces with names--I was so wrong about Curls. I thought it would be a bald man, not a curly haired young woman! On Saturday most of the day was taken by Derrick. He showed us several ganaches and talked about chocolate tempering or pre-crystallization. He also showed what not to do in the Thermomix. It was a treat to have him there to help and answer questions. The rest of the day and Sunday was play time in the kitchen. Kerry showed us some of the magic the Thermomix can do and she made a ganache with the ice wine syrup Lior had sent. She also caramelized sugar and made a caramel that David Hardy turned into a wonderful Creme Brulee bon bon. Matt made an apricot-ginger PDF that was really good. We cut the ganaches Derrick had made and everyone got to practice dipping and decorations. Some were more successful than others. That was one of the real treats--trying it out with others input. Curls had molded a flop-eared bunny and Bob suggested freezing and making it a velvet bunny. It turned out sooo cute. Kerry brought her Fuji gun--actually, I think Kerry brought everything she owns!! It is amazing. I am trying to keep up with Kerry on toys, but I have come to the realization that it isn't going to happen. Bob made a couple of batches of caramel in a $40 electric Presto cook pot. Never would I have thought of that, but it works great. Gene brought his Little Dipper to learn how to operate. He was turning out some nice bon bons on Sunday, as was everyone else. I should have known I would need a larger suitcase than the one I came with! Kerry and Bob worked with suppliers to bring us samples of chocolate, colors, flavors and more. A huge Thank You to Kerry and Bob and everyone who helped make this a fun weekend.

Having a great time. Kerry is AMAZING!!! You can't imagine the amount of work she has done for all of us.

I am also at the Hilton checking in Thursday night. This is going to be fun!!

Don't tempt me like that, Kerry!! Will the rep be joining us?