justDeb

I've read elsewhere that it helps to pop the filled mold into the freezer for awhile. Then, after removing the bonbons, let them come to room temperature. Can't say that I've tried it though.

Actually, the 'organic evaporated cane juice' is sucrose you're absolutely right; missed the evaporated part.

It can certainly be done. In fact, JJ's Sweets in Boulder Colorado (JJssweets.com) has a line of them, and calls them Cocomels. I think I saw them at the last Chocolate Salon in Los Angeles, but didn't taste their samples, so I can't speak to what they're like. The ingredient label for the original recipe lists: Coconut milk (coconut extract, water, citric acid, sodium metabisulfite), organic brown rice syrup, organic evaporated cane juice. No butter or additional fat. Don't know if this is at all helpful since it doesn't use regular sucrose either.

I've not heard of anyone carmelizing glucose by itself and I always add the glucose to the sugar at the beginning then carmelize the two. Maybe you should try it that way, as I haven't experienced a "stocky, hard mess."

Tomric has the same Chocolate World mold (I-1241) as Kerry is pointing out and it's probably less expensive to get them there if you're in the U.S. (as Chocolat-Chocolat charges like $16.95 plus 10% for duty/tax).

Costa Rican food is very plain. Typical Costa Rican food is not spicy and doesn't really have a lot of flavor. The most typical dish is casado which is a plate consisting of rice, beans, salad, usually a fried plantain and your choice of meat (a piece of chicken, pork, beef, etc.), served with tortillas. The best place to get good typical food is at a "soda" which is a small Mom & Pop (often open air) place, somewhere in between a stand a building. The Costa Rican diet is full of a lot of fresh fruits and veggies which can be purchased at stands and farmer's markets all over the place. Tuna (yellowfin) is rather common as it is caught locally; same for Mahi Mahi. Beef, however, is generally not great. This is not to say that you can't get some good, international dishes in Costa Rica. Due to the number of Americans, Canadians and Europeans living there, most of the larger towns offer a number of restaurants ranging from Italian to German to Mediterranean, prepared by chefs imported from all over. I recently returned from a vacation there and one of the best meals I had was at a wonderful Italian restaurant in Santa Ana (a suburb of San Jose in the Central Valley) called Bacchus; some people say it is the best place in the country. It is a beautiful country and the people who live there are some of the nicest, friendliest people around; enjoy your trip!

Pretty definite if I can hitch a ride from Buffalo with someone

Canon makes a printer that allegedly works with cocoa butter. Check out the previous thread here

I'm guessing that you're referring to pre-made truffle shells, not molds in the sense of polycarbonate molds. If so, there is a discussion about them here.

Yes, it has recipes: the first third or so of the book is technical/scientific information related primarily to shelf life and increasing it. I only have the second book, but it certainly had a lot of information that was not in that book. The remaining 125 pages or so are recipes and photos. As I indicated in my initial post, most of the recipes have a number of ingredients that you may not be accustomed to using, or at least not all together (e.g. glucose and maltodextrin and sorbitol, or sucrose and maltodextrin and glycerol and invert sugar).

I don't disagree with Lior at all; I have a voracious appetite for reading about chocolate, confections and the science behind them. I was simply commenting that as much as I may have learned from the book, I don't think I would put much of it to use in what I create. Just old fashioned, I guess.

Has anyone else perused this new book on extending shelf life? I had pre-ordered it on Amazon and was looking forward to getting the benefit of his thoughts on the subject (plus recipes for longer lasting centers). I just finished reading the first 80 pages of science/information/theory and took a look at the recipes that follow and wondered why anyone would want to go that route. His theory is that you increase shelf life by using several ingredients (not just, for instance, glucose or invert sugar), each of which has different properties and sweetness levels. In the end, you get a balanced ganache that will last several months and a recipe that has more "unnatural" ingredients than I'd ever want to put on a label or admit to using. Interesting reading, but I think the freezer is probably still the best way to maintain chocolates that won't be consumed while still fresh.

You certainly do have quite an impressive toy collection!

Kerry, out of curiosity, what do you use to measure water activity? Aren't those instruments ridiculously expensive?

spumoni - first attempt

The passport rush is long over (at least in Los Angeles) and you should be able to get your passport without much delay. Certainly if you get around to applying for it soon, you should have it before year end.

The time it takes depends a lot on the ingredients, the amount and the pre-treatment, if any. As you can see from Kerry's pictures, she pre-ground the nibs, the sugar (and I believe the milk powder) in a Thermomix; that cuts down the microns significantly and makes things easier on the Santha. You didn't mention whether you are adding cocoa butter, but the addition of cocoa butter also assists in smoothing the particles. If you're just depending on the inherent cocoa butter, it's going to take a lot longer. Finally, the smaller the batch, the less time it takes. So, if your sugar substitute is a crystalline form, you might try putting it in the food processor for a minute to reduce the particle size; same for the milk powder, though it does break up pretty well on its own. Also, try adding melted cocoa butter to your formulation. This is just based on my experience and Sebastian probably has even better advice.

Sebastian, Is ghee an acceptable AMF? If so, I'd like to give your suggestion a whirl myself, but I'm curious what the equivalence would be. For instance, in place of say, 500 grams of whole milk powder (which is rather easy to acquire in Los Angeles given the large hispanic community), how much NFMP and how much AMF would you use? Thanks, Deborah

Robert, A very convenient and reasonably priced source for small to large quantities of beans (1 pound to a 70kg bag) is John Nanci at ChocolateAlchemy.com. He carries 7-8 varieties at a time and also sells them in the form of nibs, so that you don't have to worry about cracking the beans and separating the nib from the husk. I also buy beans from another bean to bar chocolatier in North Carolina who uses the same origin as I prefer to use. They're not in the business of selling beans, but I asked if they wouldn't mind sharing since they import large quantities anyhow and they agreed.

I buy organic, prime pressed cocoa butter in 10 pound bunches from a seller on eBay. The price is right and I can't taste any difference from the much more expensive CB from Callebaut, etc. I'm just a hobbyist with a day job that has no relation to food. I started making chocolate a little over a year ago after becoming intrigued by the Chocolate Alchemy site. Once I got my formulations to where I was happy with them, I started branching out by learning and practicing making confections with my couverture, much to the pleasure of all of my co-workers/tasters. I make the chocolate pretty much the same way as you did above with a Santha rather than an Ultra. Adding the Thermomix several months ago made the process much easier and quicker than the Chocolate Alchemy way, but of course that addition came at great expense. I'm just having the time of my life reading, learning and making chocolate and chocolates; makes the day job much more tolerable.

I'm new here (posting at least; I've been reading for a LONG time) and I hope I don't sound like I'm picking a fight, but I disagree with you Chris that you could buy off the shelf what you could make. Unless you're big enough to dictate your recipe, you are buying what the manufacturer chooses to make. That end product is very dependent upon the origin of the beans, the blend of the beans if not single origin, the roasting process, the ratios of liquor, sugar, cocoa butter and potential other ingredients, etc. Besides all those things over which you can maintain control, there is a lot of personal satisfaction from making your own product. To be honest, if given the same recipe, I could make at home what a lot of professionals make a living creating; but they go on creating it because it's a work of love for them to do so. Same thing for bean to bar artisans. Those of us who dabble in bean to bonbon just have two processes we enjoy equally.

Kerry, In addition to decreasing the sugar and increasing the milk powder, you might want to increase the nibs and decrease the cocoa butter a little. I use the following formulation with my Costa Rican beans which gets rave reviews (a lot depends, of course, on the beans/nibs being used): nibs/liquor: 20% cocoa butter: 23% sugar: 35% whole milk powder: 22% (I also use a teeny amount of lecithin and I don't use deodorized cocoa butter) You'll find you get a much more full bodied chocolate if more of your total cocoa content is liquor.

Hi, I am a recent graduate of the Chocolatier Program at Ecole Chocolat, chocolate hobbyist (bean to bonbon) in my spare time and long time lurker here. After reading about the 2010 conference and seeing the pictures, I would like to register my strong interest in attending the 2011 conference. I am pleased to read that even relative newbies like me are welcome. Please put me down as a "pretty definite" if you don't mind, Kerry. Thanks.