curls

Why do you need to heat your molds if your room is at 76,? I don't know if the warm room is causing the issues... can you cool the room and work at around 72 F? Also try working with your tempered chocolate at its max working temperature, 88 F is on the low side for dark chocolate.

Chocolot correctly identified the powdered piece. There were at least two meltaways: ginger and peanut butter. The ginger meltaway was quite tasty. Haven't tried the peanut butter ones yet.

Wicked BonBon I have never seen transfer sheets fail that way. Would you please describe your process from application to removal, that might help us figure out what is going on. Are you using magnetic molds?

Saturday's dinner menu from the owners / chefs of Culinaria Cooking School. A few others have posted photos of the meal. My favorites were the smoked cornish game hen and the apple-pear galette... delicious! Fuji sprayed molds Conference Chocolates & Confections. Added bonus of testing out Kerry's machine... no worries about whether the chocolate in the melter was in temper... we just added crystallized cocoa butter to our chocolate to temper it (so much easier than it usually is at the workshops with so many chocolatiers in the room, each making adjustments to the temp of the melters). With the EZ temper in the room we made a lot more meltaways at this workshop since we didn't have to wait for the slabs to crystallize. Alas, no pate de fruit this year... got distracted with other projects.

Some photos from Santosh Tiptur's demo. Lots of folks were planning to visit his restaurant, Co Co Sala after sampling the items he made during his demo (cheese fritters with chipotle chocolate dipping sauce & mango lassi bon bon).

Making nougat using this lovely Hobart! Slab of caramel with pecans. Specs on one of the griddles that was used as a warming table for croquant and laminates. The amazing Mark Heim (http://www.heimconfectioneryconsulting.com) explaining how to make croquant. Not only did Mark seem to know the answer to everything, he was a wonderful teacher, able to explain "the why" to the chemists, food scientists, hobbyists, etc.

Ganache slap delivered via pizza peel. :-)

Purceville, wow! If I had know you were heading into that section of Northern Virginia, I would have recommended a stop at the family run Chicama Run Farm where I buy most of our meats and eggs. Welcome to Virginia Kerry & Chocolot.

Count me in. One of my two plus' may be able to join us in time for the meet & greet but will not be there for the dinner.

Wonderful! I'm looking forward to seeing her new (2nd location) the next time I am in Minnesota. Robyn's original location is very nice and I really like the layout of her shop and her Selmis. I hope you have the time to tour both of her locations.

Foodie stuff that I enjoyed the last time I was in the area: - St. Croix Chocolates - Butcher & the Boar - NordicWare factory store And if you have a chance to tour the James J. Hill House, I highly recommend it. It includes a tour of the kitchen which is quite small given the size and quantity of events at the house.

Ashley, I hope you will be able to come for a least some of the conference. Are we choosing from the regular menu or is there a special menu? If there is a special menu, what is it & how much will dinner cost? Are we having the chocolate & confections meet & greet at the Bottle Stop or at the conference hotel?

Thanks Chocolat and PastryGirl!

Any recommendations on suppliers of replacement guitar wire?

Hassouni have you tried the bada bing cherries from Tillen Farms? You should be able to find them at Whole Foods and Balduccis. Not the same as the Luxardos but I do like them in a Manhattan.

Thank you so very much for sharing your trip. So many "Wow" moments! I need to travel to France & Spain. Hope you have an uneventful trip home. See you at the chocolate workshop in May! What were your favorite things from this trip? Did you come close to seeing & doing everything that you planned?

Thank you for all your suggestions. Unfortunately I was not able to go to Staunton this weekend but I'll try to get to next year's Hot Glass Festival and I'll keep your recommendations for that trip!

Hoping to go to Staunton, Virginia this weekend for their Hot Glass Festival. Any recommendations for lunch spots in or near Staunton, Virginia? Any other food related items we should check out while we are there (bakeries, vineyards, cheese, coffee shops, etc.)? Thanks!

Beautiful pate de fruit and packaging. I like to add a little bit of kirschwasser to my marzipan... see if that helps. There is also a nice pistachio liqueur (forget the name right now but can look it up if you like) that might punch up the pistachio flavor.

Jim D. FYI you can post your question on Rose Levy Beranbaum blog, she is very good about answering questions posted there. I haven't baked that cake so don't have any other advice. http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2014/12/ask_your_questions_8.html#c438838

Hoping that they let you take class pictures and that you will share. Wishing you safe travels home!

Pate de fruit molded on transfer sheets! I did not know that you could do that; I need to try that out. Everything looks amazing, thanks for all the photos.

Yippee! I was hoping that you were going to report on this trip. Hope you can find a way to enjoy this soul crushing assignment. ;-) Looking forward to reading about your adventures.

Bob, any updates on the Friday night dinner... cost? menu? ETA I can probably bring a melter to the workshop.

Enjoyed both last year. I vote to continue with them this year.