YetiChocolates

Gaylene and I took a boatload of photos of Bob's book when we were in Toronto. Have I tried any of them since - nope! But I can bring my iPad and folks can sift through the photos of the recipes I took to see if they were interested in trying any.

I can help you with the salted caramel

Bring ideas for anything you want to experiment with, need help with, want to try, etc. As for tools, I typically bring my own scrapers, offset spatulas, IR thermometer, apron, dipping fork (if I plan to dip anything), or any specialized equipment that you would need for anything you want to try that you don't think we'd be able to provide (which you can always ask if we will have it first). Also if there is a specific mold you want to play around with bring those as well. This is a great opportunity to pick the brains of a wealth of chocolate knowledge, get back to basics, and mostly a chance to meet like minded people and get to nerd out about chocolate for a weekend. It's one of my favorites times of the year

It's definitely going to depend on space as I'm bringing down quite a few things already, but I will do my best to pack these with me. If I cannot find room I will let you know.

Hey y'all, For those not aware, I'm closing my business by the summer. I posted on the Facebook eGullet page the list of my entire mold collection for sale. I'll post it here as well, in case there's any mold anyone is interested in, I'm driving down from WA to TX, so if they fit I can bring them with me (as I'm bringing a bunch of equipment for the workshop as well). DM me if there's anything you might want, I can also ship if you don't want to try and fit them in a carry-on. I will have some other equipment that I'll be listing (melanger, guitar cutter, mol d'art melters, fuji airbrush setup), so if anyone has use for any of those items let me know!

I haven't made a ganache from pomegranate molasses, but I have a made a caramel from it that's really good. I also have some bottles of pomegranate molasses I can bring down to play with.

Hey all! I have 3 Tempering Machines for sale in Wenatchee, WA. I am closing my business and so I'm liquidating all my production equipment. 1. Selmi Plus 2006 Auto Tempering Machine with R200 enrobing belt. Has a vibrating table (heating element hasn't worked since I bought it but is an option), the enrobing belt plugs into the tempering machine, so no additional outlet needed. Machine does run on 3 phase power. 25kg tank, tempers 25 kg in 15 minutes. Looking at $13,000, plus the cost of crating and shipping (though if close by there is a possibility for delivery). 2. Perfect Equipments Air-2 Semi-Auto Tempering machine with enrobing belt. Tank holds 45lbs chocolate. Runs on 110v power. I am only the second owner of this machine, it's a newer model Air-2, it has the overnight cover, heating element for the enrobing belt and full enrobing set up. Asking $7,000 for this model (that's what I paid for it, though these machines generally sell for 15k), plus the cost of crating & shipping, (though if close by there is a possibility for delivery). 3. Perfect Equipments Air-2 Semi-Auto Tempering machine. This is an older machine, but still works great. Runs on 110v power. Tank holds 45lb of chocolate. It also came with a warming cabinet, though there is a short somewhere in the cabinet, so I just used it as a storage cabinet. Asking $2,500 plus cost of crating and shipping (though if close by there is a possibility for delivery). Please DM me, respond to this post for additional questions/interest. Thanks!

Hey Kerry, I’m bringing some chocolate bricks I got as samples at the NW choc fest last fall that I won’t be using, people can probably use them in ganaches, and also some transfer sheets that I’ve had but don’t have a use for and they are simply taking space at this point. Happy to donate to the cause.

Hey Kerry! Is there going to be access to a Fuji during the workshop this year?

Yeah, given that I only just recently started washing my molds with dish soap, the idea of putting them through the dishwasher is an absolute hard pass. But not spending hours washing bowls, pots and utensils sounds appealing.

Thanks for the info Rob, I passed it along to my landlord and he thought it was an excellent idea so hopefully we can find someone other than Sysco to use 🤞

Just paid Kerry, sorry it took so long, just realized this morning that we are less than a month away! Anyone else feel like this year is passing by via light speed!?! 😬

Who wouldn’t suffer for those pastries is the real question!?!

If anyone needs/wants any of these items for their tilting melanger from Diamond Custom let me know I’ll bring them along…

Hey all! My landlord is building a new building and I get to move into the new space and design it how I want! 🤩 I'm very excited to say the least because I have quickly grown out of my current space. With the new space I asked if it would be possible to add a commercial dishwasher to the common dish cleaning area for a couple reasons - one I'm tired to spending a ton of time doing dishes 😆, and I feel overall it will save on water so I'm not constantly filling 3 sinks every time I need to do a load of dishes. I'm trying to do some research on the best options for commercial dishwashers, and specifically ones that would work well for a chocolate kitchen, so was hoping those of you who have a commercial space that might have a commercial dishwasher could give me some advice. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!

So originally I thought I couldn’t attend because of a friend’s wedding but they have too many attending! Since I’m politely bowing out to help ease the stress I will indeed be coming! And I’ll be bringing one of my employees who’s showing great promise that I think can get a lot of the workshop - if nothing else being able to learn from some right-handed folks 😂. Already excited to see the list of folks joining this year!

Do you think if I were to order something from them they could deliver it to Tomric? I need some epoxy for my bowl...

@patris I'm planning on being there and pretty sure @Gwbyls is as well

Not sure if I'm the best one for this, but would be happy to pass along whatever knowledge I can that might be of help.

Real sad I won't be seeing you and Nancy this year! 😢

I'm in as well! Excited to ring in the big 4-0 with all of you attending 😁

The group is called “Chocolate Equipment, Packaging and Ingredients for sale

The second link you posted is the machine that Ruth and I have - though Ruth’s machine is an older model. As for how long the chocolate stays in temper, I think the longest I’ve worked with both was about 4-5 hours and both stayed in temper just fine. The one caveat to that is if you are using it to shell chocolates, if you pour the chocolate from the mold back into the tank with the Dedy it over crystallizes really quickly. So I’ve just gotten into the habit of pouring the chocolate into one of my 6kg Mol d’Art melters that is fairly warm, then dumping the untempered chocolate back into the tank to reduce any over crystallization from occurring. But for enrobing itself I haven’t run into any issues so far. I will also preface that by saying that I don’t count on the wheel to temper my chocolate, I have an EZ Temper and use the cocoa butter silk to temper instead. Not sure if you’ve heard of cocoa butter seed generators or not, but @Kerry Beal developed the EZ Temper and they are magical. Another bit of advice, not sure if you are on Facebook or not, but if you are there is a used chocolate equipment and packaging group on there that people post used enrobing machines. That is where I found my Perfect. Someone posted in the last few weeks another Perfect enrobing machine and I think she was in California, so it’s worth a look. Anyway, good luck with your search, hope you find something that will meet your needs!

So I would say electricity is definitely a consideration, the Dedy is 240v where the Perfect is 110v (just needs to be on its own circuit). Not sure what either CW machines are. My biggest complaint for the Dedy mini enrober is the vibrator on the belt doesn’t work the best, so you definitely need to have pretty thin chocolate. You also can’t adjust the blower as much as I would like. Otherwise it’s a great machine, the belt is easy to set up and adjust (other than the vibration setting) and is a great starter machine. The other minor issue is that belt is controlled by the movement of the wheel, so you have no control of the speed (or ability to turn off and on) the loading and takeoff belts unless you turn off the wheel itself. The Perfect enrober I recently purchased and although I’m still learning how to use it, I already find it an upgrade. You have more control over the belts, as they are independent of each other. The belt is wider than the Dedy, the vibration adjustment is far superior, you have more control over the blower placement. I would say currently my main complaint is getting the takeoff belt set just right to work with the detailer as you don’t have a way to adjust the detailer, just the height of the takeoff belt. And since I use the machine without the belt, I have to adjust it each time I set it up so I don’t have the option to “set it and forget it”. I have no experience with either CW machine, but before I purchased the Dedy (as I got the opportunity to buy it used and save some money) I was looking into the CW 24kg. I’ve heard good things, I guess it’s whether you have the capital to make that sort of investment. I have been lucky that I lucked out with both of my enrobing machines and got them used. I hope this helps - feel free to ask any direct questions, I’ll answer if I can!

Thanks @Francois Royal for the info. I guess as an update to the fallout of all this, pretty much all the LCB agent was looking for was for me to get a Class 5 liquor permit, which in Washington state is a permit that states the alcohol you are using in your production and in what quantities and where you are buying it. It costs me $10/year and has so far kept them off my back. I also learned a lot about the law of alcohol in confections and know how to answer the question if someone comes knocking again. One thing the LCB agent got wrong during his inquiry was asking what the alcohol by volume was within the confection, which according to the law doesn’t apply, it’s alcohol by weight. Regardless, moving forward I now state on all ingredient labels where alcohol is present, “This product contains alcohol, but less than 0.5% per weight of the product”. I did learn that the particular agent that I was dealing with last year got redistributed within the agency and isn’t an LCB agent anymore. So at least I don’t have to worry about him moving forward. I think it is important to at least have a basic knowledge of liquor laws within your state and how they apply to confections. And when in doubt, if they ask if you add the alcohol during the cooking process you always say yes...