keychris

Leaf gelatine should give you a very clear jelly. I honestly don't think that a phone has enough vibration to make a jelly wobble back and forward, I feel like the frequency is too high, I have no proof other than a gut feeling!

$147 for a single video class sounds like a heck of a lot to me

Reinhart's baguettes from Bread Baker's Apprentice.

Just remember that the issue you've showed us isn't due to poor tempering, it's due to not storing the chocolate appropriately whilst it sets. If you don't cool your blocks like @Kerry Beal described whilst they're setting up, you're still going to have the same issue.

You should always wear protection 😛

I've seen what you're describing on mine occasionally, I believe it's a result of a higher than ideal humidity - I feel like it happens more when I leave my product to crystallise where the air is quite still, so the air directly above the cavity is more humid than the room due to the water evaporating from the ganache and not being moved away by the air movement in the room. The amount of heat you would need to add to make it evaporate from the rims would completely melt that thin layer of chocolate. Can you try having some air movement over them whilst they crystallise?

tl;dr: Maintain your melt tank with a heatgun as you work. Temper the chocolate as per your preferred method. I table mine, but everyone is different. Once you're tempered it, it goes back into the tank which is now set at the working temperature of the chocolate. The chocolate will thicken in a holding tank, because it's not a tempering machine, it's just holding it at one temperature and the crystallisation process isn't static, it's always occurring when the chocolate is cool enough. That's why when you left it overnight the top was hard and the bottom (where the heat is generated) wasn't. You can't leave a melt tank for long periods of time and expect the chocolate to stay in working condition, because that's not how chocolate works. Once you've tempered it, you'll need to heat it occasionally with a heat gun (how often depends on how much is in the tank, what your room temp is, how much you're stirring it etc etc) to melt out the excess crystals that are forming. There's no point (in my opinion) leaving it at the working temperature overnight because the amount of heat you'll need to add to melt that top layer will melt every other crystal in there as well and you just need to re-temper anyway, so might as well leave it at 45C overnight.

I have this HVLP spray gun: http://www.savourschool.com.au/equipment/spray-gun/spray-gun/product-detail.aspx I use a 1/8hp iwata smartjet pro that has a stated flow rate of 16LPM. It works. It's not optimal, it's not ideal, I would definitely buy something different if I could afford it, but it gets the job done. I'm sure that the 1.5hp, 220LPM model you linked to would get the job done as well. If you can, future proof with bigger and better, but if you can't, it'll work.

for what it's worth, I have a second-hand 3kg moldart melting bowl that I've had for seven years, it's still rock solid.

hope they're paying by the hour, because that would take hours!

There's a how-to on YouTube:

That looks like sugar bloom to me.

What's normal equipment for you? A melanger is normal for chocolate making but I'm not sure I'd call it normal in a generic home kitchen!

In my opinion if you're getting fat separate out you either need an emulsifier in the recipe or you've just got too much fat

this was a few years ago, but here's the recipe I used: 82g sugar, 226g cream, 41g coffee beans, 31g kahlua, 62g butter boil cream & coffee, infuse for 30 mins, strain, reweigh to 226g with cream, reboil dry caramelise sugar, deglaze with hot cream cook to 118C cool to 80C, add butter & kahlua, whisk together cool to <26C pipe I think I got this recipe from a So Good magazine.

Something like this: https://www.arttoart.net/mont-marte-foam-brushes Trim to the right shape / size. Insert in Dremel (somehow). Spray mould. Zip the Dremel + sponge in each cavity, leave to set. I saw an Instagram video of someone doing it with a drill as well.

Dremel with an artist sponge

good bread is not fast. but it is easy, in the end. It's just flour, water, salt and yeast, after all

Don't be surprised or disheartened if they're not. It takes time to build up the microbial population to a level where they can do what they need to in bread. Edit to add: I just read the article you linked, if you're going to be making bread, get used to working by weight, not volume. It's much more reliable in getting consistent results. Have a read of the EG kitchen scale manifesto if you haven't already seen it

My mistake, the reference was in Whole Grain Breads. See attached.

my sourdough starter (from freshly ground wheat) took a week before it showed any bubbles, then another week before it was able to be fed daily. I made one from raisins that took three weeks to start. Definitely don't give up yet!

I think Reinhart credits it to someone else in Bread Baker's Apprentice. I'll check my copy when I get home this evening. It's not essential to use the pineapple juice, it just encourages the right bacteria to grow in the acidic conditions. If you're making your starter from freshly milled wheat berries I don't think you'll have a problem getting a beautiful sourdough starter from that, as it's the microorganisms in the berries (or in the flour) that create the starter - the idea that it's yeast and bacteria from the air is nice but probably wrong. Or at least, mostly wrong. I'm sure some drift in there, but practically none compared to the numbers that are already in the flour.

beautiful mill, now I have mill envy 😂 If you're going to make a sourdough starter, I would leave out that pinch of yeast you added - the starter will take longer to get going but will have a more complex flavour profile. If you've made bread in the past with commercial flour, you may find that freshly milled flour behaves very differently, you can have a higher enzymatic activity in the dough which means that you can have gluten breakdown a lot faster than you're used to - which results in a gummy brick when baked.

was the cocoa butter completely set?

Probably in the 1830s they couldn't imagine anyone not knowing all the bits they left out 😂