Jim D.

One addition to all the wise advice you have received in this thread: I tried vacuum-packing chocolates and ended up with imploded bonbons (not a pretty sight). You can use a vacuum sealer only if you can regulate its pressure in very small increments. People speak of using some models of the Food Saver, but after my experience, I never tried again. Instead, I use an impulse sealer. I place individual boxes of chocolates in a bag intended for use in sous vide applications (so, fairly thick) and then seal them with the impulse sealer. They are waterproof and probably as close as it is possible to get to airtight without vacuuming. I then go through the process others have described (refrigerate, then freeze). After doing this for several years, I have not had an issue. I make extra bonbons for Christmas sales and freeze boxes (12" x 12") in this way in October, and I can see no difference when I open them for boxing in December. I am a huge fan of impulse sealers and use mine for keeping cut onion odor out of the rest of the fridge, keeping bread fresh much longer, etc.

Are you straining your homemade colors? Dubovik, Tibballs, really everybody calls for straining it through fine mesh after mixing it to get rid of the undissolved bits. All of that is why I gave up and just buy it already mixed.

Your experiments all sounds quite reasonable. I wouldn't expect a miraculous improvement when opening a brand new bottle of white c.b. First, I don't think there is a way to tell when the c.b. was bottled, and second, titanium dioxide has a smell--that's just a fact. But the other fact, that it is used in many foods, suggests its smell/taste is not so prominent in real world use. One small point: I never heard about waiting a day to use "homemade" colored c.b. In the online class that some of us on eG took with Andrey Dubovik, he used it immediately, and so does Kirsten Tibballs of Savour School. And one other thought: In your original email you mentioned that you had a "big" container of white c.b. I buy the 200g bottles, which I am sure cost more but (in theory) don't have a chance to age so much before being used.

In the case of the cocoa butter that was too thin, you just need to add more color powder to get the right consistency. About your main topic: I agree totally about the smell/taste of titanium dioxide, but I do use it both to mix with other colors to lighten them and to back colors that are not opaque (such as red). Its bad qualities will show up in any color that includes it (Chef Rubber's gold or yellow, for instance). Unfortunately, although people are working on a substitute for titanium (especially in countries where it is now illegal), I don't know of anything now available. What I discovered, however, is that after I finish a bonbon, I don't notice the smell or taste. Actually I have spent some time with this issue, trying as hard as I could to detect the taste in, for example, a bonbon with ganache, and I didn't get it. Now perhaps your senses of smell and taste are keener than mine, but if you haven't already done so, go ahead and coat a mold in white, fill it with something, and see what you find. You didn't say whether you used an airbrush to paint the cavities. If you were not using one, then it will give you a finer coating of the color than using a paintbrush.

The separation doesn't always happen. I use a recipe for orange balsamic caramel from William Curley that calls for a huge amount of butter, and it has never separated (and I don't even have to use a blender on it). So there are mysteries in all this business. In theory it could have been the cream that separated. Were you using a particularly high-fat cream or do you live in a place where the fat percentage is normally high? One other idea: if you heat the cream before adding it to the hot caramel, the whole process will take less time. I don't know if the temp of the cream affects the emulsion or not.

Are you sure the separated layer isn't butter? If it is, I used to encounter this issue often. Then I learned on eGullet about the necessity of emulsifying the caramel and the butter--mixing water and fat, much like a ganache. Now I add the butter soon after the caramel is removed from the heat and use an immersion blender to beat it in. I haven't had separation since I started doing that. You will need a sturdy immersion blender for the emulsification. There shouldn't be a problem with reheating caramel and adding salt. Perhaps you didn't get it hot enough to melt the salt? I myself don't mind a little salty crunch in the caramel, especially if it's a nice-tasting sea salt.

I am impressed with how well you do your homework. The Fuji will indeed do both splatter and regular spraying, but you would not be able to give your assistant consistent directions, for the simple reason that the air regulation required for splattering varies from one color to another. But the person could probably learn to use trial and error to get the spray you want. I have a Fuji but no longer use it very much because of all the cocoa butter it uses and my relatively small production. I should note that @lironp, who got a Fuji fairly recently, says she has conquered the amount of overspray (she lives in your area). I use a Grex (gravity-feed) and use a toothbrush for splattering. In my opinion the splatter from the Fuji and from the toothbrush are indistinguishable. I should add that @pastrygirl has somehow mastered splattering with the Grex, but in my very lengthy efforts I never attained that goal. I have a CakeSafe spray booth that I like a lot. It is not really intended for the amount of overspray that the Fuji puts out, and even with the Grex, I have to change the filters often. But it is the best option I have found. Your operation sounds large, so you may have the resources to have a spray booth built with outside venting--though it is a point capitalized on by the CakeSafe inventor that cocoa butter is not the same as paint and settles more quickly on everything around it (which would include venting ducts). The CakeSafe captures the cocoa butter immediately as it is sprayed, no duct necessary. But large professional spray booths are what major chocolatiers (such as Melissa Coppel) have. I suspect they have these specially built. Smaller spray booths are ordinarily aimed at hobbyists using paint, but there are large ones (Chef Rubber has one) you might look at. I use a ventilator from 3M that works well to keep the cocoa butter out of my lungs.

That sounds like a good idea--except that I don't pipe the chocolate to seal the molds--I ladle it on, then scrape. I can't imagine how anyone does more than a very small number of molds without having the chocolate cool and over-crystallize in the piping bag and become unusable. I've tried it. In all the videos where I have seen it done, the chocolatier is making a single mold or perhaps a couple. Do you use this method? How many molds can you do at a time? Incidentally I have abandoned the idea of using a warming tray to get colored cocoa butter off molds (before the shells are created). I got too many that showed signs of melting around the top (that is, the eventual bottom). I lowered the heat as much as I could but still suspected I was creating a mess to be revealed later at unmolding. I continue to use the warming tray turned up to high for melting chocolate from molds when I am cleaning them. The next time I make chocolates I am going to spray all the molds with a given color, then immediately scrape them. It makes a mess (and extends the time required for airbrushing), but that's better than having ruined chocolates. I will still use the warming tray to keep paper towels hot to help with the final stages of scraping, on the assumption that paper is a poor conductor of heat.

I simply use a sponge to wash mine in hot water with soap (I use Dawn, but don't know if it's available in your location), let them airdry, then polish a short time with a microfiber cloth. I don't use alcohol with any cleaning. Polycarbonate molds are considered unbreakable (by Chocolate World, for instance). I can't imagine a situation in which alcohol would cause a mold to shatter. I'm sure it is possible to break one, but it would take a lot of force. What company manufactured your mold? It should provide some perspective to know that many accomplished chocolatiers do not wash their molds between uses at all.

Questions about @Duvel's method: I have a roast with a very thick fat cap. A chef I know had recommended rendering out some of the fat (Duvel's method--low heat, fat down, water in the pan). I would like to render out more of the fat and end up with a thinner layer on top for final roasting. Can I safely leave the fat side down for a longer period of time without ending up with overcooked pork? Alternatively I could simply cut off some of the fat cap, but the chef cautioned me that, especially since I had paid a lot for that extra fat, I should leave it on and end up with better flavor. Any suggestions appreciated.

Do you have a photo of or link to the kind of "clear" ganache you mention? I am not understanding what you have in mind. Ganache is a broad term, but it does have limits. If you make a ganache in which fruit purée is the liquid emulsified with chocolate, then you will encounter the issue of a higher Aw than you may wish to have. Wybauw's black currant ganache is one example, and its Aw is on the edge of what I will make and sell. Pâte de fruit is a specific substance: fruit purée mixed with pectin, no fat such as a ganache has. It gives a great fruit punch (as Kate Weiser makes very clear in her wonderful chocolates), but it's not ganache. Do you have Peter Greweling's book? If not, it is a must, in my opinion, for all the theory you will need in chocolatiering.

I find transfer sheets are very forgiving, so those may be OK (maybe the bloom will show only on the sides). I would definitely invest in a hygrometer--they are not expensive. As you undoubtedly know with your experience, making caramel on a humid day is a form of confectionery suicide.

I am in Virginia, so not too far from you, and I have had humidity problems from time to time. Kerry's suggestion is crucial. Once I started dealing the latent heat, I have had fewer problems. Do you have a hygrometer? I check it in warm weather, and if it's over 50%, I turn on the AC (regardless of what season it is--it was around 70F here yesterday). What did the bloomed molds look like? Did you happen to take a photo? Sometimes, if it's not too bad, you can go ahead and the chocolates will turn out OK (especially if you have decorated the mold so that the bloom doesn't show so much).

I use that method (slowly melting chocolate and so tempering with unmelted already-in-temper chocolate) for ganaches. The problem with it is that it's quite exact--go too much over the temper point and you're out of luck. And it's difficult to be that careful with a large amount of chocolate. In addition (and more importantly) overtempering will happen no matter how you have gotten the chocolate to a working state. Either you have to heat it up (which works to a point) or you add untempered chocolate, but there is no escaping the fact that tempered chocolate doesn't stay that way for a long time.

A lemon curd tends to have too high a water content, and I try not to use eggs, even cooked, in bonbons. So I use Ewald Notter's lemon ganache--it has a strong lemon flavor. His lime ganache also works well in a bonbon, whether in the "pie" or the "cheesecake" bonbon.

Thanks for the info about the sale. I use the Artisan Natural flavors and like (most of) them very much. They add a real flavor punch without adding a lot of extra liquid (important for ganaches, caramel, etc.). Specifically I use the strawberry, raspberry, passion fruit, mango, probably others I can't recall now. I add those flavors to the water used to dissolve the gelatin for marshmallows and also to make the syrup. Some flavors fade as the marshmallows are beaten, and all colors I have tried have also faded. For items like vanilla, I add it toward the end of the beating or it too fades to some extent (but not too close to the end or the marshmallow thins out). I use a lot of flavoring for marshmallows because of the fading issue and also because I can't stand the smell and taste of gelatin. I have never had too much flavoring in the marshmallow I have made. Passion fruit and coffee have been the favorites with customers.

I had the same issue of what I think is fat bloom when I was making a dipped chocolate chip cookie truffle. Even though I precoated them (which is a major pain), in time the fat came out onto the surface and ruined it. That had never happened with that particular item previously. I agree with curls that using milk chocolate is easier (I was using dark for enrobing), but aside from that I don't have a real solution. You can try enrobing twice (let the first dip dry, then do it again), but that is a lot of extra work. Maybe reformulate your peanut butter balls? Add crushed cookies, for instance, to help soak up some of the peanut oil? Maybe use a more homogenized peanut butter which incorporates the oil better (sometimes with ingredients you may not wish to use)?

I use the Avantco dehydrator ($196) and am very pleased with it. I use it to melt chocolate overnight for tempering in the morning, and it can hold a substantial amount of chocolate (probably 10kg or more if you have the proper container). I also use it to melt colored cocoa butter, which I then temper with EZtemper silk--speeds things up remarkably. Its only drawback is that the temp control is not precise, but I have learned to set the thermostat for a notch or two beyond 100F, and the items are fine--after all, it doesn't hurt chocolate or cocoa butter to be well above 100F. If you wish to keep c.b. ready to use immediately, you might have to do some experimenting, but I don't know of any device that would be that accurate at maintaining a temp within a few degrees.

Most manufacturers of polycarbonate molds (I'm assuming that's what these are) will list the grams (Chocolate World, for example, always does). Not all dealers (J.B. Prince is one example) provide this information, and they do not always list the source of all of their molds. From what I have read (I think it was from Chocolate World) the weight is arrived at by filling a cavity with milk chocolate, the weighing it. Some people say it is dark, but either would work. I do a lot of bonbons with multiple layers, so need deep cavities. I look for those that give a weight of at least 14g, more is preferable. Peter Greweling has a recipe that includes a whole hazelnut in the cavity, and that requires a quite deep mold. On the Chocolate World site you can filter the view of their molds by the weight you desire or by the depth of the cavities--that would help. If, on the other hand, you are not using polycarbonate, I'm afraid my info won't be of much help, but if you go back to the source, look for larger cavities than you have. Tomric would be a good place to ask questions as they carry molds of different materials.

What is the size (usually measured in grams) of those three molds?

Since they didn't taste different with egg whites, why did you decide to add them? For the marjolaine cookies, I use pasteurized egg whites, but some time in a 350F oven should allay any fears one might have. Marshmallow, of course, is a different thing. As discussed previously in this thread, I have not found dried egg whites that taste OK, but I have not tried the King Arthur brand (or whatever product for "meringue powder" they are selling under their name).

In regard to the marjorlaine bonbon, Susanna changed her recipe at some point. That bonbon is featured in an issue of So Good magazine and also in the video you mentioned. In one case she makes "meringue" with egg whites, in the other, with gelatin. But she is baking the meringue into a cookie. I gather you are referring to a different bonbon of hers, the one with kalamansi being the best known. When I am doing a lemon pie bonbon (and variations of it), I simply use marshmallow made with gelatin to simulate meringue. I don't see how a true meringue (egg whites beaten with sugar) could survive inside a bonbon. Wouldn't it completely collapse rather quickly? I know you mentioned lasting "a few days," so perhaps you could get away with that since the Aw doesn't matter so much, but I would think the meringue would have to be stabilized in some way or it would be flattened by the layer added on top of it.

I faced this same issue when I decided to make a s'mores bonbon. I eventually gave up on the torching a marshmallow idea since I couldn't think of a way to make it without destroying the marshmallow. It's difficult enough to pipe a soft marshmallow filling into a shell successfully. What I eventually did will probably not please you (because it sounds like cheating), but I'll explain it just for the record. It occurred to me that the taste of toasted marshmallow is really caramelized sugar. Once a bonbon is in the mouth, it all melds together, and all that comes through from the marshmallow might be a slight taste of that caramelization. I can't see how It would ever be the authentic taste of a marshmallow toasted over an open fire. So I found a flavoring from Amoretti called, of all things, "toasted marshmallow," and that's what I use. It's a natural flavoring, but if one wanted to use something totally homemade, it could be replaced by a little very dark caramel.

Oh, it seems someone forgot to tell you about an "unadvertised feature" of the Fuji--painting of the spray room is automatic.

I agree with pastrygirl. The strict definition of gianduja (hazelnuts + chocolate) has been expanded in most people's minds to encompass anything with ground nuts and chocolate. Or "praline gianduja" when you add caramelized sugar. I use pistachio praline gianduja (using white chocolate, as the other choices overwhelmed the pistachio flavor) whenever I want more of a pistachio flavor, since I think adding cream to make a ganache (as Ewald Notter does in his recipe) dulls the pistachio flavor. For almond praline gianduja I use milk chocolate, and for pecan I like Valrhona's Orelys. I don't have a melanger, so I buy Cacao Barry's hazelnut praline paste and Fiddyment Farms pistachio paste, and I make my almond and pecan paste by grinding the toasted nuts in a food processor, then adding separately caramelized sugar (that way I can get the sugar finer). It isn't as good as a melanger, but I don't mind the slight crunch still left from the food processor grinding.