keychris

If you're measuring temperatures, how accurate are your thermometers, are they calibrated? Perhaps they're out a degree or two.

I often spray white behind my colours. So long as you have an even spray of the top colour, you won't see the white. I like this sort of effect too: put a streak of the colour in, and then highlight it with the white (in this case, I've used white chocolate instead of white cocoa butter). As Kerry said, if you put transparent colours on and put dark chocolate over them, you won't see the colour - but if the light shines on the finished product, you should see the colour as a shine

This isn't hot enough, take it to ... 107C from memory. Oh, Alleguarde said it above. Should firm up nicely then

8yr old birthday party today

This simply means you added a little too much seed the second time around. A different way to seed is to add that 100g in three batches, ie. about 33g at a time. When the first handful of seed melts, add the second, when that melts, add the final handful. The most important thing to remember is you're trying to create these stable crystals, and they melt at too high a temperature. So if all of your seed has melted at 38C, you don't have anything to do the seeding at 32C. You can always add a tiny bit of seed when the chocolate reaches the temperatures Kerry mentions, and let that tiny amount melt out with the last degree or two.

Mine's an Excalibur as well!

I would say the 'washing of molds in the dishwasher with soap' is simply a time vs effort thing. It's much easier in a commercial setting to wash them in a dishwasher - I know they do this at the school I attend as well.

how long did you leave it, Jim? Usually I would leave a slab overnight to crystallise but I have a few recipes that require two days before the slab is firm enough.

Filling is a 66% dark chocolate ganache, with creme de menthe This one is a raspberry ganache with gianduja. I'm pretty happy with how the spraying turned out on these ones

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM still tasted pretty darned good

you're the only one who will *ever* notice them Great job!

what's the shelf life the client requires? Could you perhaps make something like a slabbed nut-based praline with no water in it, they have very long shelf life. More information on what you'd like to make and how long it needs to be stored for would be helpful

yes, but the alcohol has an anti-microbial effect, doesn't it? So if you have alcohol in there, you can have a higher aW?

I can't wait until $1500 is inexpensive Another item for the wishlist!

I used a hairdryer to heat up my smallest round pastry cutter, and also 12 & 10mm piping tips. I cast the shell, then before I put it together, carefully melted the holes. You will have a little lip of melted chocolate, I just wiped it off with a barely damp cloth. Spraying it after that hides all the marks from wiping off the melted stuff

Franci, they look delicious!

'Orange caramel' entremet. The layers are: Almond sponge base, topped with roasted pistachio nut and caramelised puffed rice in hazelnut praline, surrounded by orange mousse with a caramel creme brulee layer, covered with a dark chocolate glaze. Delicious!

thanks everyone Here's another I just remembered to photograph. a dark chocolate egg, hiding a white chocolate egg inside, which is filled with caramelised puffed rice and hazelnut gianduja, topped with a small white chocolate ladybird (you can just see her peeping through a hole ). The outer egg was sprayed with red cocoa butter, with a dash of yellow on one corner (can an egg have corners?) for highlight, giving a dark red matte finish.

they look delicious! in other, unrelated news, I'm all of a sudden hungry for some reason.

Easter fun for the kidlets. Had to make them in secret, ie. in the dead of night so they have no idea what they're getting... I'm really looking forward to seeing what they think. For a sense of scale, the large egg that makes the body of each figure is 15cm (6 inches) long. My wife thinks they're far too big, particularly when one of them is for a two yr old Too bad, you, I said to her The head and body of each are filled with home-made freckles. Because, you know, too much chocolate is never enough

I use cocoa nibs where the recipe calls for actual ground coffee beans, or brew the nibs at the same quantities you'd use for coffee and use that liquid. My mother absolutely abhors the flavour of coffee too!

You know what they say... the customer is always right

you could try adding cocoa butter instead of increasing the white chocolate content

A few last minute things for the market this coming weekend, I had the chocolate ready to go for another project so thought I might as well put some things out that will make a few extra dollars