Chocolot

Hooters!! NOT.:-) I would rather take my chances at a "real" restaurant than a chain. Whatever the groups wants.

I bought the Perfect, and mostly we get along just fine. There are days when I am not happy with it, but for the most part, it does what I ask. It was just under $12K. Come on over Vanessa and I will show it to you:-)

Very nice work.

On a whim, I bought some black cardamom pods yesterday. Should have smelled them first:-) Is there any application for the seeds in a ganache? I am getting smoke and menthol--doesn't seem like a good idea.

Just bought my ticket. I'll be there for sure on Wednesday.

I am also a 2 person operation-mosting a one and a half person:-) I started with an 80# Hilliard that I had used for hand-dipping for years. When I switched to molding and fork dipping, it wasn't as useful. Was lucky enough to snag 3 Savage 50# tempering melters. I put away the Hilliard. I still had the issue of fork dipping all those pieces. It was the bottleneck of the operation. I took the plunge and got a Perfect wheel enrober. I thought I was crazy as it was a $12,000 investment and I had never seen one before. It paid for itself in the first year. I could never have done the volume without an enrober and it was the most economical one I could find. It is far from perfect but it is much better than fork dipping! I have said many times..I don't know what I would do without it. There are also times that I want to do harm to it:-) Take the leap of faith and go for it. Business will only improve.

That stove is not that old. I see she has at least one ring. Would suggest she use it to raise the kettle a bit from the flame. You go by the look of the flame and the way the batch is looking, rather than a temperature setting. If you would have poured into sheet pans, you could control the temperature of the finished product better. That size kettle could easily handle a 25# batch. Question is could you two lift it:-) After pouring onto the marble, you can run an offset spatulas under the batch, releasing it from the marble. If she is always planning to turn it over, would suggest pouring into sheet pans, and turning the whole pan/batch over onto another pan. Parchment works better than buttering, in my experience. Glad it all worked for you.

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.