Jim D.

I'm not an expert, but I don't know of any reason it needs to be firm when you are going to pipe it. As I have posted, I use Pomona's pectin and am very pleased with its relatively short cooking time. I also add pulverized dried fruit (if one exists) to my PdFs, and that reduces their Aw dramatically: apple is 0.53, apricot is 0.65, cherry is 0.59, pear is 0.67. I also add a pinch of sorbic acid, which, since these mixtures are on the acidic side, extends shelf life (sorbic works only when the item has a pH less than 7). I am particularly nervous since I had a PdF develop mold once upon a time.

The Pawkit that I have does not give an instantaneous measurement. It determines the amount of time needed (and this varies with samples). It can take anywhere between approximately 5 and 15 minutes.

If it's helpful, I did a similar experiment (see post of August 4, 2021, in this thread). It showed that the Aw of a sample goes down as the sample sits--but only if you measure the top of the sample, not if you stir it between measurements. In the latter case, the Aw remains unchanged.

I hadn't looked at Chef Rubber's selection of Felchlin for a while and was surprised at how little they now carry. I wonder what happened. @MECO, if you can get some Felchlin, I highly recommend it. The Maracaibo Criolait milk is good, as is the Bolivian milk. And for caramel white, I now use Bionda. If you set up an account with the nearest AUI and can use enough chocolate amounting to their minimum charge (which these days is not difficult to do), they do have the full Felchlin selection.

@Rajala, I had forgotten this thread until today I was thinking more about your more recent recipe, the one for a custard ganache you use as part of your "apple pie." I have made this ganache, and it is delicious--to my mind, there is nothing like the wonderful taste of an egg custard. For those who aren't familiar with the ganache, it is made by heating cream with vanilla, various sugars, and egg yolk powder, then emulsifying that mixture with white chocolate. I have used it in my version of crème brûlée and in my "apple crisp" and even in an attempt to replicate the taste of snickerdoodle cookies If I recall correctly, you had quite a few reactions to the use of uncooked eggs in your crème brûlée. The dried eggs in the newer recipe seem safer to me, but I'm not sure why and am beginning to have doubts about food safety. But is this just a remnant of the fear instilled in people about salmonella and other pathogens? The pasteurization of dried egg yolks should take care of that issue, but still.... The USDA states that reconstituted dried eggs "should be used immediately or refrigerated and used that day." I posted my concerns on the Facebook Chocolatier forum, and a member responded: "Same thing is said about dairy. However once locked in a ganache, things change." I have asked the person to say more about what "locked in a ganache" means. I measured the Aw of your recipe (as made by me) at 0.70, which is quite respectable for a filling (Melissa Coppel estimates the shelf life at 12-20 weeks, Jean-Pierre Wybauw says 3-9 months!) . And no less than authority than Peter Greweling uses egg whites in marshmallow and nougat. I guess it all comes down to the fact that we cannot control what our customers do with our bonbons once they get them home--all shelf-life bets are off!

No, it's 1728 (the 6024 is 11g). I got it through Bakedeco. There is no other Cabrellon dealer in the U.S. that I could find. Chocolat Chocolat in Canada carries the brand, but would not do a special order until they had a large enough Cabrellon order, and I was not willing to wait. Bakedeco was somewhat the same, but I paid extra to have the molds shipped in time for the holiday season, and they were willing to do a rush. It's possible to order directly from Cabrellon, but when I started the process, they wanted me to provide a number for my shipping account. I don't have such an account and was not willing to get involved with customs and all that red tape. I know you said you weren't interested in buying different dome molds, but thought I would share my drama in getting these. They are very much the shape of Kalle Jungstedt's "signature mold," but his holds only 11g. I bought one to try it out, and I don't know how he gets three layers into one of those molds--I like my customers to get a distinctive taste of each layer if I am going to the trouble of making all those fillings.

I didn't realize that was where you regulated it. I'll have to give that a try.

@GRiker Ah, the dreaded CW1157. It's one of my most-used molds, primarily because it's tall enough to hold 3 different layers of filling, but it can be a pain to work with (which is why I found another 17g mold that is not so tall--see photos comparing them below). I had those cracks multiple times until I tried making the shell walls thicker. Unfortunately your shell walls look thick enough, so I don't know that my procedures will help you troubleshoot. Working with the 1157 mold has lengthened the time it takes me to make shells because I have to wait longer for the chocolate to crystallize--and, of course, the couverture is always changing, so the process varies as production moves along. But after I wait for the chocolate in the filled mold to crystallize quite a bit, I dump out the chocolate, then tilt and rotate the mold to get more chocolate at the point where your cracks appear--that is, near what will be the base of the finished bonbon. Gravity is the enemy in this case, since the chocolate will flow downward even after it appears to be crystallized. And, alas, simply turning the mold upside down does not result in chocolate flowing to the sides and thickening them but in flowing straight down. All this sounds ridiculously complicated and time-consuming--and it is--but, after all, we are in the business of forcing chocolate to do things it was never meant to do. I can certainly see why most chocolatiers use smaller, less tall molds. And the new 17g Cabrellon mold I use often is not perfect but does have fewer issues with cracking sides. There is a thread somewhere on eG that discusses the "vacuum" problem with dome molds in general; I think it was @Kerry Beal who pointed out that a sort of suction happens with the bottom and the more or less straight walls of some domes. The Cabrellon dome has sloped sides. As for unmolding stubborn bonbons, I leave them in the refrigerator longer (even several hours), and if some bonbons stick, I put the mold in the freezer for a short time. I have never found any loss of shine (contrary to what people say), and eventually almost all chocolates come out--those that don't have a major issue, and when I force the bonbon out, I usually see a shell that is too thin and thus has not contracted sufficiently. By the way, your fridge temp is 50-55F? The FDA recommends 40F for a max. You could try lowering it, at least during chocolate production. Photo of Cabrellon flattened dome on left, Chocolate World tall dome on right:

I have a California Air Tools 4620 compressor with an air capacity of 4.6 gallons that I use with my Grex Tritium; 4.6 gal. is sufficient for the Grex. I also bought a very inexpensive spray gun, which I no longer use. It operated with the same compressor, but not well; the compressor was running nearly constantly to keep up with the air requirements of the spray gun, and experts say that it is not good for a compressor's longevity to run that much. Many chocolatiers use spray guns (not the Fuji) with great success. I rarely use the Grex now except when I want to do a gradient. For Valentine's this year I did a red/pink gradient on a heart mold (photo below), and, for the red areas, the Grex operated perfectly (I had to use the heat gun only occasionally). I got out the Fuji to finish off with the pink because I used it to cover the entire cavity. In the past, however, the Grex has driven me crazy with almost-constant clogging up. In addition, I have never managed to get the Grex to do a decent splatter (I must add the caveat that @pastrygirl has had great success with her Grex and splatter, although Grex tech support says that their airbrush doesn't do splatter). And now, those famous words: "If I had it to do over..." Especially if I were using the Grex frequently, I would purchase a compressor with a larger air capacity (there are posts in this thread about other California Air Tools models that people recommend). And, with a larger compressor, I would probably do more experimenting with a non-Fuji spray gun, such as a SATA or Iwata or Grex. But since I became more familiar with the Fuji, I use it almost exclusively for spraying molds. Yes, it uses more cocoa butter (@Chocolot found a way to save the overspray), and yes, it's a larger and heavier piece of equipment, but it is really fast and requires much less use of a heat gun. I bought the metal cup that most chocolatiers use, but I see that Kalle Jungstedt and some others use the very large plastic cup. And, last point, the Fuji does a very nice splatter just by adjusting the air supply.

The Fuji works only with the turbine that is part of the package, whereas the Grex (like all airbrushes) requires a compressor.

Thanks for the information. For my cheesecake bonbon, I use a recipe that calls not only for cream cheese but also sour cream, which gives a little of the buttermilk idea. Another technique, which I used for a yogurt ganache that didn't have enough yogurt flavor, is to add a little distilled white vinegar.

@RWood, a great selection. A couple of questions: "Orelys Espresso"?! Have you found a hidden source? Or just a stash you still have? I made Orelys once (with @pastrygirl's recipe), and it was close to the original (I kept a few pieces of Valrhona's product just to compare), but it was a lot of work. I have now more or less substituted Dulcey. Also: Do you mind telling how you made the Red Velvet? I tried that once and used a "red" cocoa (plus a lot of food coloring) to get the effect.

There has been discussion on eGullet about using separate sheets (plastic, I assume) that transfer holographic images to chocolates. I realize this is not the same thing, but the result is somewhat similar.

Raspberry Rose (one of the 12 offerings in the Valentine's 2025 assortment): dark chocolate ganache, raspberries, a hint of rosewater. And, alas, adorned with the rose transfer sheet probably not to be seen again with the closing of ChocoTransferSheets, source of some of the most beautiful transfers ever produced.

The first time I made this ganache, I followed the recipe exactly, and the mint flavor was almost undetectable (you may recall from my previous post that the ganache also includes lemon, a difficult flavor to compete with). The following times I have included perhaps four times as much mint. Another difference is that the recipe calls for white chocolate--not what you are looking for. I think you really need extract (so you are out of the reach of Amazon? I think Jeff Bezos needs to be informed of this gap in the company's coverage), so I would recommend @Alex's suggestion. Another problem with fresh mint is that it can develop an off-taste (think damp lettuce that has been sitting around too long).