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Thanks Kerry.

The recipe for peppermint flake (2nd ed.) calls for chocolate liquor... is this unsweetened chocolate or something else?

Mjx, they look amazing! What are your fillings?

Beautiful! So, do you know what was the cause of all the difficulties?

TeakettleSlim, the peppery gingerbread looks delicious! How did you like them? Sounds like the garam masala gingersnaps with white chocolate cream cheese icing were the favorite cookie of the day.

Kerry, Jim D. is about 2 1/2 hours away from the DC area. Guess it is up to him if it is worth the drive!

Had a few more in the batch that came out super shiny but they were out the door before I remembered to take a picture!

Holiday chocolates... brandied cherry cordials, PBJs, muscovado sugar salted caramels, chocolate nougat (dipped in milk chocolate and dark chocolate) and bittersweet chocolate ganache (not included in attached photo).

How much room are you leaving between the filling and the bottom of the mold? You should cover the bottom of the mold with chocolate, tap the mold three to five times to get the chocolate to settle down and release air bubbles and then scrape off the extra chocolate. The chocolate should still be fluid during these steps. Then put the mold down, let the bottoms begin to set / crystalize, put them in the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes, then they are ready to unmold. Think you just need a live demo and it will all fall into place. You should join us at the 2013 Chocolate Workshop. Here is a link to a video that may help.

Not sure if you are already aware of this but the book is currently available at Amazon.

Theses videos may be of help, Chef Derrick Tu Tan Pho giving a chocolate molding demo and a chocolate dipping demo. We were lucky enough to learn from him at our eGullet 2011 Chocolate Workshop at Niagara-On-The-Lake. http://www.derrickph...io/vstc3=videos If your going to fill larger molds (bunnies, santas, etc.) here is a demo by Chef Peter Greweling. (edited to correct link)

Kerry, so sorry to hear that Dave the chef had a stroke. Hope he feels better soon!

Jim, you can also search the Chocolate World site for molds and filter the results by a various criteria http://www.chocolate...=praline moulds. If Tomric does not have the mold in stock or in their online catalog, just give them a call and they will order it for you. Looks like they have quite a few 13 gram molds, also a lot of 15 gram molds.

I am in Staunton, Virginia (moved back to the family home after 50 years in Boston--so quite an adjustment). After renovating the house, I needed something to do, thus chocolate. Welcome Jim D.! Staunton seems like a wonderful area; I went to their Hot Glass Festival this year; great glassblowing studio and gallery.

What kind of tempering machine are you using that your chocolate goes out of temper so quickly?

A few chocolates for Thanksgiving. Bourbon ganache, soft caramel, PBJs, and peanut butter cups. Pardon the smudges, truly not visible until I photographed them!

So, how was the show?

I'll second the recommendation for Restaurant Eve and suggest that you go to the Bistro side vs. the Tasting Room. Since you have a car, if you can, get a reservation for Komi in DC. If you are interested in cocktails, PX and/or the bar at Restaurant Eve are a must. Also, there are a lot of great Ethopian restaurants in DC. Hope you enjoy your visit.

Matthew, they look great and sound delicious.

jrshaul not sure if you are interested in a ganache for cake or for chocolates but one of these two books should be very useful: "The Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum "Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner" by Peter Greweling You should be able to get both from the library and there are discussion threads about these on eGullet too.

Please update me to a +2.

How are you planning to use this chocolate? Would you like dark, milk, or white chocolate? Is this a one time purchase or will this be a continuing project? I would suggest that you purchase samples of a few of the chocolates that you are interested in and run some experiments.

What do you consider to be a very large amount of chocolate? I have found that if you are planning to purchase less than 500 pounds at a time you will be dealing with a distributor, store-front, or online retailer.

Between the chocolate chip chouquettes and the croquants I might not be able to resist adding this cookbook to my collection. Every thing that you have made from this cookbook looks delicious FrogPrincesse.

Beautiful feet on your macs Simonne! What are the flavors?