curls

@Jim D. I am puzzled by your summer chocolate making issues. I too am making chocolates in Virginia in a home kitchen with a home fridge (with glass shelves) and have thankfully not experienced the issues you are having with unmolding. I shall share my process in the hopes that it may help you with your troubleshooting. It is not clear to me if you run your AC all summer or just while chocolate making -- I run the AC all summer at 73 F. If it looks like the chocolate is not setting up quickly enough, I lower the AC anywhere from 68 to 70 F. I put the molded chocolate shells in the fridge for ~10 minutes after they have started to crystallize. I check to see if the shells have released from the mold & only remove them from the fridge if 95%, or more, of the shells have released. I do not put filled & uncapped molds in the fridge -- I let them set up (usually overnight). They set up in the kitchen or my chocolate room in the basement. After I cap / close the molds, they spend ~10 minutes in the fridge and are unmolded. The difficult to unmold chocolates go back into the fridge for another 10 minutes (repeat fridge cycle as necessary). I don't think that this is the cause of your problems but I should mention that I do not airbrush my molds with colored cocoa butter -- I think this is your preferred decoration method. Most of my chocolates are unadorned. The few that I decorate are either a swipe of colored cocoa butter, colored cocoa butter splatters, or transfer sheets. Wishing you the best of luck in solving your summer chocolate issues. Hopefully you don't need to purchase a commercial cooling / refrigeration system.

Sorry they needed to call you back into the ER. Good luck with the caramel experiments!

@Kerry Beal glad you are done at the hospital for the day! Looks like the dinner Anna made reheated very well. What are your planned caramel experiments / what solutions are you aiming for? Nice looking mold from Chef Rubber -- is it the same size as Jin's mold?

I have not done a side by side test but I remember discussion about the texture of the marshallow being better when egg whites are used. Might do a test some day -- maybe the next chocolate & confections workshop!

@liuzhou so sorry to hear that you aren't doing well but I appreciate a look into the VIP wing of a Chinese hospital. Maybe you can get a photo of a standard hospital room on your way out? Wishing you a speedy recovery!

I believe they are making reference to two characters from the Peanuts comic strip (Marcie & Peppermint Patty). See this article for more details, http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/11/12/peppermint_patty_and_marcie_s_relationship_in_peanuts.html.

Took me awhile to join the club but now I have made ricotta cheese in my Instant Pot! So, what are all of you doing with the whey?

It is easy to tell if they are sealed. The "tab" on the rubber gasket will be pointing down & after the jars cool and you remove the metal clamps, the glass lid will be sealed to the rubber gasket. Enjoy your new Weck jars. ;-)

I have used the Weck jars for water bath canning. They work fine and they make such pretty jars.

Looks like a huge event! Any idea how many eggs there are?

Cooked up some chicken thighs for tacos. Used the Ultra short-cut ingredients version of this recipe https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/pressure-cooker-chicken-tacos-tinga-de-pollo/ with Trader Joe's Salsa Authentica. Made a very nice dinner with leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

And a few picture from the workshop...

A selection of photos from our Friday afternoon demo at Jean-Marie Auboine. This is also the site of our Saturday & Sunday workshop. Airbrushing moulds Pear Pâte de Fruit hazelnut caramel school / teaching kitchen

A selection of photos from our demo & tasting at Atelier Melissa Coppel on Friday, 19 May. What a gorgeous place to work & learn! A selection of Cacao Barry chocolates for us to sample: Demo of some chocolate mold decorations On to the tasting! The welcome area The spray booth The enrobing line & cooling tunnel. Those bags contained goodies/swag for the eGulleter's who attended Melissa's demo. And more equipment, panner & a few Selmi tempering units! .

Your breakfast sounds yummy. I love the design on the rim of the plate. What is it he image under the quiche?

Jin dipped the leaf stamp into a container with two colors of chocolate & then stamped.

@Smithy most of the decorations that Jin demonstrated for us will be used on various desserts in the Vegas hotels... there are so many hotels & dessert buffets. As for the spirals with alternating strips of chocolate and clear, those are multiple chocolate decorations... the pastry chef will most likely use one chocolate spiral for each dessert.

Photos from Jin's demo at her production kitchen. Jin concentrated on decor since she knew our demo with Melissa Coppel would include airbrushing and bon bon decorations. The entrance all those lovely marble tables & equipment some melters & and the assistants (there were two assistants working on items & helping Jin they day we visited) demo of making various custom transfer sheets making various chocolate cigarettes -- Jin discussed various color & flavor combinations & let us try to make some -- she makes it look so easy! marbling chocolate other decor pieces interesting & fast way to make leaves -- made a cardboard template to stamp these out and the amazing Jin (with @lebowits in the background)

@Shelby those chocolate covered gummy worms are just too cute! :-)

A few photos from the silk screen process & a shot of our most successful print.

I apologize, may be repeating some photos. Here are photos from Jin Ju's chocolate shop. Next batch of photos will be for @Smithy -- the Gully silk screen. Tomorrow (or sometime soon) I will post pictures from our demo with Jin. #JinJuchocoholic

I took a few photos of our Gully silk screen and transfer. Will post them this week.

We made a few chocolates & confections. Will post more photos after I get home.

Busy day today -- I'll share pictures from the beginning & the end. Hopefully some folks will share photos from the rest of the day's adventures. A donut sampling there were two or three more boxes. Quite tasty! Kerry gave a talk about the silk screening process. This is our custom silk screen that we are going to use to make transfer sheets. 10 or so partcipants enjoyed dinner at Bouchon. These photos are from my table of five. Deviled eggs Salad with goat cheese Seared foie gras Onion soup Chicken Lobster risotto Trout Anyone surprised that we didn't order dessert? The dinner was wonderful. Great food & service.

Wonderful demo & tasting with the amazing Melissa Coppel.