YetiChocolates

Hey Kerry, went on the Thermomix website and couldn't find a price, how much do they cost? Also I'd be interested in the IR Thermometer!

Hey veteran workshop goers! Was curious for the show and tell on the first night, how many chocolates/confections do you generally make and in what quantities? Just trying to decide what to make and how much to bring with me

Sorry it took so long to respond, it's a whirlwind right now, but I'm in for the Saturday dinner!

Hey Jim, I do mine a little bit different than Kerry, I do put mine face down, but I put them on a cooling rack so there's some distance between the mold and the ground, allowing the chocolate to drip out and not be inhibited by the flat surface of the counter. Also, what I've found helpful as of late is when I'm shelling I fill the mold, clean off the excess on the top and the sides, tap the side of the mold to release the air bubbles (I also swirl a paintbrush inside the mold to aid in this process), then turn the mold over and bang in on the top of the bowl to get the excess chocolate out of the mold. I then will scrape the excess chocolate that's on the mold off it while the mold is still upside down, doing this quite a few times until there's not much chocolate coming out of the shell of the mold, then put it on the cooling rack to set up a little bit. Once the chocolate has started to lose it's shine I go back and scrap off the little that may have dripped out of the mold while it was inverted, but scraping most of it out while it's still wet and inverted when initially shelling has caused there not to be much excess that will drip out. As for tempering differences, I usually wait a few minutes after the chocolate has come to temper in the tempering machine (and hand tempering) before I start shelling to allow the chocolate to even it self out a bit, though I not always find this is an easy thing to do because I can be a bit impatient, but I would say that even though the machine beeps letting you know it's in temper, let it churn itself for another minute or two to balance the cocoa butter crystals throughout the entire chocolate before shelling. And I concur with Kerry, I think you should come to the workshop. This will be my first time attending, and I'm super excited as I wanted to go last year and couldn't and was super bummed as it looked like an amazing experience. I know everyone learns differently, but for me it definitely helps by watching how others do things so I can glean some useful tips and tricks, and I think this is going to be an awesome meeting of the minds of a lot of different people with different ways of working with chocolate but are all very passionate about the craft. Good luck though, I hope this helps!

Those sound yummy!

I did for the most part...there seems to be a few pieces that were just a touch soft, but the majority was very crispy. I have to say the milk seems to bring out the bacon flavor a bit more than the dark, though I feel I needed to add a bit more salt to all of them as a whole. So do you temper your chocolates separately then mix them together before pouring the bark? If not which temper range do you use, milk or dark? I do agree, I like the flavor, I like the sweet/salty combo.

Well I did some experimenting this afternoon for a possible Valentine's day item. Bacon bark! I made both dark and milk, with Hawaiian black salt, Celtic sea salt, and alder smoked salt. I'm gonna give it to my testers to see which ones they think are the best. I also just ordered some smoked maple bourbon salt today that I think would be a delicious addition

Thinking of attempting a bacon bark for Valentine's day as an option for the ladies to give to them men in their lives . Was wondering if when you make your bacon bark do you put any of the rendered fat that's cooked from the bacon into the chocolate itself? Is this even an option or am I speaking crazy talk! I have a sneaky feeling it would throw off the temper in the chocolate, but you are far more an expert than me so I thought I'd get your take before I go and destroy a nice batch of dark chocolate on this hair-brained idea I don't add any of the bacon fat - that would result in a chocolate that is much softer (gianduja vs chocolate) - just really crispy bits of bacon and some smoked salt to dark milk chocolate. When I want to use up the bacon fat - then I make bacon truffles with it instead. That makes complete sense. Off to buy some bacon then to the kitchen! Thanks Kerry

Thinking of attempting a bacon bark for Valentine's day as an option for the ladies to give to them men in their lives . Was wondering if when you make your bacon bark do you put any of the rendered fat that's cooked from the bacon into the chocolate itself? Is this even an option or am I speaking crazy talk! I have a sneaky feeling it would throw off the temper in the chocolate, but you are far more an expert than me so I thought I'd get your take before I go and destroy a nice batch of dark chocolate on this hair-brained idea

So would you say that you prefer Notter's method to Grewelings? I've always used Grewelings method but like you hated having to prep a bunch of apple puree ahead of time to make them, so if I could cut that step out that would be great! I guess I should play around with it, but I wanted to get your thoughts first

Nice! I really need to get on the ball and start working on doing those! I'm thinking Jameson's for St Paddy's day

I added the peppermint to the marshmallows while they were whipping.

Finally getting around to posting these. Made them for a New Year's Eve Party. Peppermint Marshmallows, go great in cocoa! They're pretty good to just eat as well

It's official! I just booked my flight! So excited!

I bought myself a copper pot years ago when I was still in culinary school but didn't have the best luck with it! I think I just had the heat too high because it cooked so fast the caramel burned before I knew it and it was so hot my silicone hot pads didn't work what so ever...so I gave it up and now it sits in a box in storage. Maybe I should give it another shot...

Did you use Ewald Notter's way of making the mold form for your hearts? If not what medium did you use? I want to start making experimenting with starch molding this winter and those molds you have look amazing!

I'm privy to the good ol' bench scraper myself http://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=708&categoryid=0#.UNK2taVU3dk I always have two, one for working with liquid chocolate, one for dealing with chocolate that's set up. I also have two small off set spatulas handy for any sort of touch ups I need to do. Honestly I think you'll have to do a lot of trial and error to find the best tool that works for you, everyone has their preference. I know when I was in school the chef who taught the chocolate portion preferred a taping knife, which I also used for awhile, but didn't like the small metal edge. I always seemed to get chocolate up in the plastic handle and then when I washed it it would always leak water afterward. I like the bench scraper because the metal edge is much taller, I don't have to worry about chocolate getting under the handle (it's a much more sturdy handle as well), though I did like the width of the taping knife over the bench scraper, but you just adapt and overcome those small challenges that pop up along the way.

There's very little left between the rows, if you've applied the acetate correctly. Here's some pics: This one has the acetate on - you scrape down firmly and it forces all of the chocolate out. You can see it's slightly thicker at this end, my technique isn't quite perfect And I leave a lot of mess on the sides and away comes the acetate. these are from a little photo tutorial I put together on my facebook page: https://www.facebook...01914679&type=3 As an extra point: you can see some of the filling in the second picture - the chocolate was setting up as I took the photo before I put the acetate on and it did exactly what I described earlier - pushed into the filling and pushed it out. Chris Very interesting Chris, I'm going to have to try this! Something I never thought of, but makes sense. I just recently had a disaster capping some chocolates, so if I can find an easier way to do it I'll give it a try! Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the info Kerry, getting ready to make airline reservations...getting excited!

Hey Kerry, Is the Niagara College we'll be working at the one that's located close to Niagara Falls, or one of the others? Looking at Google maps there seems to be 3 possible Niagara colleges... Just trying to get my bearings so I can make the proper accommodation reservations without being clear across town from where we'll be meeting up at! Thanks!

I'm finally back in the kitchen after a long hiatus all summer! I've been keeping up on the threads on what everyone's been doing with envy so it's nice to get back at it! Here's my holiday selection this year: Clockwise from top left - hazelnut, dark chocolate cherry, egg nog, fleur de sel caramel, strawberry balsamic, kahlua/espresso (in the middle). Hoping to find a kitchen to share after the holidays are over so I can start working towards getting my business license in the hopes I can do this full time, at least seasonally to begin with. And if things go right, full time all year round

I think "accessible" is a matter of opinion (and available cash). I would agree. I think it depends on where you're located. I find it pretty inaccessible to find supplies and equipment on the West coast. Most of the places I purchase from are on the East coast...

Hello Robert, Your pieces are as always extremely beautiful, I love your decorating techniques. I was curious where you got the mold for your red wine chocolate and what's the gram weight of the pieces? I've been looking for that particular mold for awhile and thought I found it at chef rubber but when I got it it doesn't quite look the same as in the picture.

I am also still planning on coming, and I would be interested in sharing a room with someone as well, otherwise I will probably have to find alternative accommodations.

Unfortunately the cottage law that just recently passed in Washington does not extend to chocolate at this time. I contacted the woman who did most of the leg work to get the law passed and she said that they were initially hesitant to add chocolate to the list because it's not baked, and so for the time being the only things allowed for home prep are baked goods that are shelf stable after being baked. She said that hopefully by next year they will extend the law and add chocolates to the list. Until then I'm keeping my fingers crossed! BTW, the Northwest Chocolate Festival is being held in Seattle this weekend, anyone attending? I'm hoping my work schedule will work out that I will be able to!