Chocolot

I am finally able to post. Kerry Kerry and Bob Bob Kerry and Ruth BBQ joint Steve making chocolate granite Mette piping shamrocks Meet and Greet Rob working on sculpture Joe's cool frame thing-he just adds more sheets to make it taller

Had a fabulous time!! It was great being with other people who share your passion. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have people in my life that don't really "get" my passion:-) I arrived on Wednesday so I could do some site seeing. Thanks to Bob and Kerry I had a wonderful time. We arrived for our White House tour that Bob had arranged with one of his friends that work there. Unfortunately, we were at the gate and they moved everyone several blocks away and we had to wait for some unknown reason. After 2 hours, we decided we had other things to do. We did get some pix. Unfortunately, I can't seem to upload them. Maybe someone will help? We then went to wine country and did some touring and checking out some wineries. Bob took us to a unique BBQ place that was very tasty. Dinner in Old Town Alexandria and back to the hotel. Next morning, Curls, Kerry, Mette and me got together for an all day adventure. We started out at Albert Uster, went to DC for lunch at Poste, shopped at Cowgirl Creamery and Co Co Sala. While there, we talked our way into the back room to watch them make their chocolates. None of us had ever seen a shop trim the feet off their chocolates, but they did. Hit a liquor store-Ace Beverage, another confectionary Artisan Confections (where we also got the back room tour). Donna (Curls) is one impressive driver. She drove us around in a huge Excursion and handled it like it was her Porsche TT. We got caught in traffic and didn't make it to the dinner at the Asian restaurant, but we made it to the Meet and Greet. Many, many impressive chocolates. We had also shamed Bob into making caramel corn for us:-) Very delicious! This is one nice community of people. We talked and talked and talked. Saturday, was the big day we had been waiting for. Bob did an amazing job organizing and hauling his entire candy room to Stratford. We had several melters and each got filled quickly. Joe did some fun ganaches and then we got our hands in the chocolate. Rob (Gfron1) showed us how to do a chocolate sculpture with Steve's help. Steve made chocolate granite for the base of the sculpture. Steve also showed us some fun airbrushing techniques. He melts his cocoa butter in a dehydrator and it keeps it warm--brilliant idea. Kerry was doing many demos in the other room as has been previously reported. I watched her make a fluffy pistashio nougat in the Thermomix. I think Kerry can do anything she wants in that nice machine. I didn't see everything that was happening but what I did see was great. Everyone was helping each other and learning. We had some newbees (Heather) who doesn't own an apron and is more familiar with delivering babies than cooking, but she was here to learn. It was so fun to watch her succeed and have a smile on her face the whole time. For those of you who didn't make it, you should have tried harder:-) Looking forward to next year. I'll try to figure out how to post the photos. It keeps telling me I have failed--not a good thing. Another huge thanks to BOB--love ya.

Just left Albert uster. 9211 Gaither road Gaithersburg, md 301 258-7350

So glad you got your chores done:)

Kerry--have you been shopping at the thrift store again?:-)

Are there small pieces of nuts that could be the seed. What about stirring? When do you add the nuts?

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.