Jim D.

After spending a long time searching for packaging that would work for me and that I really liked, I turned to having custom boxes made. I decided on rigid rather than folding boxes--and that is a major decision to be made early in the process. Most box manufacturers will not accept small orders, the minimum usually being somewhere in the 1000-piece neighborhood, but I finally found two that would work with me. I won't mention the first because their customer service turned out to be unacceptable (my very early Christmas order was pushed down on the production schedule to make room for larger customers, and too many boxes arrived damaged), but the second one has been a success, Brimar Packaging in Ohio. They have a minimum of 500 pieces and do very good work. I've included a photo of the boxes I had them make. When I introduced a new box size, I sent them a sample tray that would fit inside the box, and they did all the measurements and made the box. It turned out that finding appropriate trays to hold the chocolates was the hard part of packaging. I spent a huge amount of time determining the largest size of bonbon I make--or ever would make--before I made a large tray order. Then I took Andrey Dubovik's online course and discovered the wonderful cocoa pod molds that are just a couple of millimeters longer than my tray cavity size! Some people (@gfron1is one) have found a vendor in China who does the whole design process of packaging, but I don't have information on that.

If you should decide to get a dehydrator, be sure it goes low enough in temperature; many do not.

I have had trouble with some scrapers fitting too tightly, making it impossible to get the baffle attached. I guard the ones that work carefully so that I don't lose them. I have never tried the baffle without the scraper. I suppose it would be fine as long as a large amount of chocolate was in the bowl, but when the amount gets low, the chocolate would (I think) even out between the two sections, and the level would get too low more quickly. I never melt in a Chocovision machine (Rev 2 or Delta)--the process takes entirely too long. 6kg of chocolate in the Mol d'Art melts easily overnight, same for my dehydrator.

My effort at making a bonbon including the tastes and textures of baklava (pistachio gianduja, crushed phyllo, cinnamon, honey, and a dash of rosewater):

Felchlin's Maracaibo line has two dark choices, 88% (which I have not tried) and 65% (the one I use), and two milk, Criolait at 38% and Créole at 49%. I formerly used Criolait for milk, but @pastrygirl introduced me to the darker Créole. It makes a significant difference in sweet fillings. And, as Kerry wrote, I sometimes mix in some dark. Customers who are militantly opposed to milk chocolate (for mostly ridiculous reasons) don't even seem to notice they are eating milk. Some fillings work better with milk.

I think you were directing this comment to the OP, but I get out my small Chocovision (Rev 2) for dipping rather than use the Delta or the Mol d'Art. The Rev 2 holds 700g. I initially melt 1050g, then pour 700 into the machine, keeping the remaining 350 over warm water, making sure it is around 95F. Dipping in the Rev 2 is really convenient. The center section of the baffle is a great place to tap to remove excess chocolate. When the choc level gets too low, I add the reserved 350g, which not only raises the choc level but also takes care of the overtempering that has occurred by then. I ordinarily don't dip more than 120 pieces at a time, but as long as there is choc in reserve, the process could go on forever. Just my way of dealing with a tedious process. I had some friends for dinner recently, and they wanted to see how I make chocolates. Of course most people don't realize that it takes days, and most of those days are spent waiting for things to crystallize. For this demo, I used the Mol d'Art, and its inexact holding of temperature caused the dipped pieces to have coating varying from too thick to too thin. My guests did, however, have fun. Having people suddenly "see" the invisible process of crystallization is quite satisfying.

Our summers here in Virginia make our local farmers' market an impossibility for chocolates, but I did have experience at an experimental winter indoor market last January-March. I was there on only four occasions (there was a large list of those who wanted to participate). It was a great experience (except for lugging boxes of chocolates to a church basement early on Saturday mornings) and an eye-opening event for me. Ordinarily I sell only through online orders; my small city would not have the foot traffic to support a shop, so for the first time I met my customers as they looked over and selected from the chocolates. It gave an opportunity to branch out and make things like bars and tablets in addition to boxes of bonbons and truffles (which are insanely popular for some reason). Some of the buyers have become regular customers. One caveat about the melter: Don't expect it to maintain anything like an exact temperature (at least that's my experience with a Mol d'Art). It's better than the dehydrator but (surprisingly) not as good as the heating pad. But melters are very convenient. I use a Chocovision Delta to keep the chocolate in temp (it's very good at maintaining temp), fill molds from it, then dump them into the melter, recyclying the chocolate from melter back to tempering machine as needed. Good luck with your new adventure.

Glad you had more success with this batch. I don't know which version of the melanger you have, but the new model has a lid. Somewhere on eG I did a comparison of Sicilian and California (Fiddyment Farms) pistachio paste, and having them both on hand now has brought me to the same conclusion: Fiddyment Farms has a brighter, fresher, more pistachio-y taste, whereas the Sicilian (this brand is Corsiglia and is available from L'Epicérie) is richer and darker. I don't understand why the texture is so different; it must be due to the nature of Sicilian pistachios. Fiddyment does not grind the pistachios into a completely smooth paste. The price is very different. a 2-kilo container of Fiddyment is $134; same amount of Corsiglia is $222.

Which size do you have? For the 8-lb. melanger, here are the figures: Minimum capacity 2.5lbs/1kg; Maximum capacity 8lbs/3.5kg . Nuts differ a lot in the amount of oil they contain. The California pistachio paste I often use is rather thick, certainly not fluid enough to pour. I just got some Italian pistachio paste, and it's the consistency of olive oil. Did you "pre-grind" the hazelnuts before putting them in the melanger?

I did the same thing with Felchlin Maracaibo dark sitting on ships outside East Coast harbors. Who could resist?

Good point about the milk fat (I didn't think of that).

Speaking for myself only, I would not be very concerned about a "best by" date. Chocolate doesn't spoil (in the sense of being dangerous to eat). It's the cocoa butter in it that can go rancid, so look for that taste. If the chocolate still tastes good and doesn't have any off odors or tastes, I would use it without any qualms. White chocolate isn't that popular in many circles, so I sympathize with your struggle to find recipes that will attract customers--and use up the chocolate. Given the possibility that the cocoa butter can go rancid, I would seal the Valrhona bag in a larger plastic bag (vacuum-seal if possible, otherwise use an impulse sealer) and freeze them all. Even if you have no way of sealing the chocolate, I think Valrhona bags are close to air-tight. I've frozen large quantities of chocolate with no ill effects. It's a noble thought to give it away to those in need, but you would have to find a way to package the fèves in manageable amounts. I suspect a bakery would see this as a gift from the gods.

What about adding powdered vanilla (like Valrhona's Waina) and/or powdered caramel (like Cacao Barry's Zéphyr Caramel)? Interesting for your purposes, Valrhona states that, besides vanilla, Waina has notes of milk and cream. And a new line at Felchlin emphasizes the taste of milk (in this case, from cows in the Swiss Alps!).

I came across a (to me) very useful bit of information on the issue of unmolding chocolates and finding chocolate along the bottom edge of the bonbon outside the colored cocoa butter (mentioned in this thread and in many other places). It is possible to scrape off this thin bit of chocolate and reveal the intact cocoa butter beneath it. I follow a Facebook group on decorating chocolates and saw this post: And the poster's solution: This explanation (which has been mentioned previously on eGullet) makes sense. The obvious, but not very practical, solution is to fill and cap the chocolates immediately after making the shells. This would be disruptive to production. I plan to try the "solution" mentioned above (heating the filled chocolates before sealing them) to see if it works.

When I mentioned pistachio and cherry, I meant to say "pistachio praline gianduja." I use Morello cherry purée in the PdF (that was the only kind available from my supplier). To decrease the Aw of my PdFs, I supplement the purée with some dried fruit (if a dried fruit exists for the fruit in question). Adding those solids lowers the Aw significantly. For dried cherries I use some Montmorency ones from Michigan, which are quite tart. I am not sure how sweet amarena cherries are, but I don't see why they wouldn't work with pistachio. And i think raspberry and red currant would be fine. I have some red currant purée, so will give that try (though I doubt that I will find dried red currants for my Aw concerns). I also found that adding a significant amount of sea salt to the pistachio praline gianduja really brings out its flavor. What type of chocolate are you using with the pistachio? As I said, I mix the pistachio with white chocolate, but generally I make the shells with dark in my continuing efforts to reduce bonbon sweetness..

I already had some pistachio paste (plain, no caramel), so simply ground some caramel with the paste. If I were to start with pistachios, I would toast them very slightly, just until they smell fragrant. I have used a Notter recipe for pistachio ganache, which I thought was OK but did not have sufficient pistachio taste for me. I now make pistachio praline gianduja and obtain much more nut flavor. I tasted all types of chocolate and found that white worked best for me (the others overwhelmed the pistachio taste, which my experiments taught me is quite delicate). I also found that adding a few toasted and chopped pistachios to each cavity before piping the gianduja improved the taste (and yes, I realize that it is completely counter-intuitive to make a smooth paste and then add nuts). My favorite way to use the gianduja is to pipe a layer of PdF (usually cherry) and then pistachio gianduja on top.

@curls wrote: "Got lots of good advice from the workshop attendees on how they made their cheesecake bon bons and cookie bases." I am interested in learning if there was a consensus on the subject of using whole cookies (surrounded by some sort of moisture barrier) vs. crushing cookies, combining them with cocoa butter/chocolate, and then piping them as a cookie layer. I have always used whole cookies, but it is a pain to fit them into the molds and keep them below the top edge of each cavity. I took one of Kalle Jungstedt's online courses, and he always uses a cookie layer--which, of course, he makes look effortless. My experiments with doing it both ways suggest a whole cookie can be crisper than a layer of crushed cookies, but there is no question that a piped layer is easier. Nearly all of the ultra-neat halved bonbons one sees online (such as those from Jessica Washburn's Bliss Chocolatier) appear to have used a piped layer.

Sorry, didn't see your post. I know it's been a long time, but I still have some of those molds available.

Glad you were able to benefit from Rodney's melanger expertise. So have you yourself succumbed to the melanger allure? It's difficult to resist.

I notice that the additional part (what I referred to as a splash guard) is not installed on the melanger. Was there a reason for that?

It's none of my business since I won't be at the workshop, but my experiments so far indicate that (to my taste) including ground caramel adds a lot to the flavor. This was especially true for pistachio (salt and caramel brought it to life). You will have Rodney there; he told me how to make caramel without having it get gummy (basically begin with glucose, then add the sugar). Of course this adds a lot to the complexity and you may not wish to deal with making caramel in an "alien" kitchen. Rumor has it that some confectioners add plain sugar to make nut pralinés--much simpler.

It is not at all crazy to wonder. I think the only recourse is to contact your state reps to get the law changed--or move! Here in Virginia a law removing all restrictions on cottage food production has been introduced for many years but has not passed. I began making chocolates as a cottage food industry but quickly realized that the label I was forced to attach was a negative factor in any sales.. And since online and wholesale sales were forbidden, I caved and requested a state inspection of my kitchen.

@carol langI don't know if you have seen the forrager.com site, which is all about cottage food laws in the U.S. state by state. I am afraid it confirms your information about New York. Here is a quote: A number of food products are allowed to be sold, but New York has specific restrictions that other states do not have. New York is the only state to allow candy without allowing chocolate or chocolate-dipped items. Also, some dry items must use commercially-processed ingredients, like spices, soup mixes, and nut mixes. All of these restrictions are unique to New York and are not found in other states’ cottage food laws.

I have the Q4. I recently took an online course by Kalle Jungstedt, and he was praising the Q5, but it turned out that the advantage of the Q5 (that the pressure of the spray can be regulated on the machine itself) was not important--he said he regulated the pressure on the connection between hose and gun. The filters are about 12" square, so you can cut a lot from a roll. It's difficult to say how fast they need to be replaced as it depends on the color you are spraying, how heavily you spray, and how much overspray the color generates (the Chef Rubber colors differ in viscosity quite a bit). But yesterday I sprayed about 20 molds and used 3 filters. My Grex airbrush generates less overspray than the Fuji, but you pay a price for the speed of the Fuji by using more cocoa butter. The two inner filters are Merv8 and Merv13 (does that help you judge their effectiveness?). The inventor of the product and co-owner of the company answers email questions about technical details, so you could write him. No need to apologize. I did a great deal of research before I purchased. By the way, I have only one box and have never felt the need to add more height or width. Did you see the video of chocolatier Sydney on the CakeSafe site? Her enthusiasm for the product was very convincing, but I was skeptical, so I got her number from the owner of the chocolate shop where she works and had a long conversation with her. She was just as enthusiastic on the phone as she is in the video. She uses very few pre-filters--said something like a couple of them used for a day's work (and the shop appears to be a fairly large one), but she has a double-size booth. I am not on the payroll of CakeSafe, but I really like the product, especially compared to the cardboard box + furnace filter + large fan I was using previously. And I like not having to clean cocoa butter out of an exhaust fan. Incidentally I also use a respirator (mine is made by 3M).

I'm really enjoying the new stainless steel model that Kerry described. It cleans off the sides of the bowl to an impressive degree. I have not had one particle splash out of the bowl during use, and the melanger managed to grind up even the sticky hard caramel I was mixing with ground almonds (the stickiness was my fault--since then the very helpful @Alleguede has explained how to make hard-crack caramel the right way). In addition, customer service is great; the tech guy even called a few days later to see how things were going. Those who already own the previous model should bring their willpower to the workshop as I suspect it will be hard to resist this new version.