Jim D.

To confuse things more about polishing molds: When the annual eG workshop last took place in Las Vegas, we visited several chocolatiers and discovered many differences in how they prepared their molds. As described by gfron1, Melissa Coppel takes polishing to a new level. If I recall correctly, Jin Caldwell does not polish her molds at all--in fact, she does not even clean them between uses! You could not have a wider gamut than that. Yet both produce beautiful, shiny bonbons. Andrey Dubovik washes molds in hot soapy water, adding that they don't need polishing unless you see water residue. Have you seen the shine he gets? If not, check his Instagram photos. He loves to show off the shine by including a reflection of himself in the chocolates. He believes the shine comes from being careful about temper--and, most notably, in working in a room that I consider quite chilly. I continue to wash my molds as Andrey says and polish them with a microfiber cloth, but I think the polishing is mostly superstition now. I think the humidity in the work space is a crucial factor as I have seen perfectly shiny bonbons go to a matte look in seconds when they are exposed to humidity.

The noise of the Fuji does not bother me much at all. It sounds very much like a typical vacuum cleaner (maybe more like a Shop Vac). To me, the sound of a regular compressor is louder, although it is not constant like that of the Fuji.

That is a good question, and I don't have a definitive answer. I can say that I have had leftover bonbons sitting around for many weeks, and (knock on wood) I have never seen any mold. The PdF has so much sugar in it that I am not surprised at its extensive shelf life. I use a lot of inclusions in bonbons (cookies, caramelized nuts, cherries), and I think about the air problem. With inclusions I pipe something in the mold first (ganache, gianduja, PdF), then press the inclusion into that bottom layer. Occasionally as a bonbon sets, small holes will form in the top of the filling. I assume those are caused by air bubbles making their way to the top. But, as I say, I have not had any trouble with shelf life...so far. If you are using the PdF as a bottom layer, then I would make sure the top layer is fluid when it goes in because that will help eliminate space. Sometimes I pipe in the top layer when it is very fluid to cope with the issue. This makes a terrible mess, but if your production is fairly small, you can clean up the mold without too much time spent. Perhaps others with more knowledge will chime in with some further insights.

Your PdF looks very good. Unfortunately piping PdF is (at least in my experience) not an easy task. First, it depends on the viscosity of the substance, and there is no way of predicting how firmly it will set--too many variables. You can make it quite a bit thinner than jam/jelly, but then you run into the probability of a high Aw. Second, I am sure you have had ganaches and caramels that just won't level (there was a thread here some time ago about the search for a self-leveling ganache). Like you, I use a gloved finger or plastic wrap or whatever works best to squish the peak as much as possible. And often submerging the tip of the piping bag into the PdF as you pipe can help. I think @Pastrypastmidnight has had the most success piping PdF, judging from the photos of her cut bonbons. Perhaps she or others will share their tips. My only consolation when the PdF has not leveled is that most people don't cut their bonbons before they eat them!

@RWood, those transfer sheets are very nice. I also like those molds. Did you get them from JB Prince? Unfortunately the molds have been discontinued (at least from JB Prince), and I have not been able to find more elsewhere. I had to supplement with some similar ones from Chocolate World.

Are you asking whether overspray is an issue with HVLP guns? If so, then yes, it seems to be. The overspray on the Fuji is substantial, which is why I reserve it mostly for big projects. In fact, I think the only reasons for switching from airbrush to spray gun are the speed of the latter (faster coverage) and the size of the cup (longer spraying without reheating or refilling). And speaking of overspray, I'm less happy with my homemade spray booth (large box with air filter inserted into the back and a large industrial fan just outside the filter). Especially with colors containing lots of titanium dioxide, the cocoa butter released into the air is sometimes too much to put up with. Even with a respirator, I think I need venting to the outside...or a new set of lungs.

Some beautiful work. Hard to believe you learned and accomplished all that in such a short time. I am especially impressed and intrigued by the two stone effects in the designs in this photo. I've never seen anything like it. If it's permitted and not unethical to share his techniques, can you give an idea of how it was done? I also love the mold.

Although practically everyone cautions against using the freezer, I don't hesitate when I encounter the most stubborn bonbons. Quite often I don't just want every one of them, I need every piece for sales. So I pound for a while, back in the fridge for a while, pound again, then it's into the freezer. Occasionally even that doesn't do it, but it almost always does. And I have never seen the loss of shine that is predicted from use of the freezer. My horror story still is an occasion when Kerry said she was at a show or class demonstrating how to shell and unmold chocolates, but they refused to drop out as they were supposed to (you know, the way ALL of Dubovik's do).

That is very interesting. I had not heard that before. I have always labored under the assumption (maybe delusion) that allowing chocolate to be overtempered doesn't matter all that much. I will start paying attention and try to see if there is a pattern (such as do early shells release better than ones made later in the process?).

Oh, that has been discussed...a lot. It remains one of the mysteries of chocolates. I taught a mini-course last summer for two teenagers, and when I told them there are some things about chocolate we will never understand (for certain) and explained that it was just one more example of the fact that the chocolate is the boss, they found it annoying at first (they were both scientifically inclined and loved all the details of crystals), but they grew to find it funny, especially when, as you point out, one chocolate comes out perfectly and its neighbor refuses. I try to remember to find it all funny (as I bang a mold on the counter to the point where I think I may prove that polycarbonate can be shattered).

Remember the earlier discussion about the issue with shallow molds (such as half-spheres, quenelles, and cocoa pods) when a strip of the chocolate used for molding sometimes shows outside the coloring, along the bottom edge of the bonbon? I think the "conclusion" was that there was no certain explanation and certainly no idea of how to prevent it. One thought was that if it happens to Melissa Coppel--and she displays the defective chocolates--then there is probably no way of preventing it. Well, I put demolding marks in the same category, and I have (mostly) trained myself not to look at the bottom edges of shallow bonbons. Those marks occur very often on the surface of bonbons made in magnetic molds.

Luis Amado...now I am jealous. I hate flying, but he is one person for whom I might work up my tolerance. If I had to choose from all the chocolate artists whose work I have seen, he is the one! I hope you are able to post photos of your experience with him.

To the useful insights offered on tempering in this thread, I would add only what I have observed: The temperatures given for the various crystals are approximate, and we just assume that they re-form at the same temps at which they melt. In my experience, it is not a disaster if your dark chocolate goes over 92.8F, even quite a bit over. It takes a while for all of those crystals to melt. When I am dealing with overtempered chocolate by adding some untempered to the batch, I have the untempered at around 95F. At that point you want some of the Type V crystals to melt out because there are too many of them. I always retest the temper after adding the new chocolate, but I have never had the resulting chocolate be out of temper. Once your chocolate is tempered, it (IMHO) can be quite forgiving as to temperatures.

Notter doesn't specify. I use what Chef Rubber sells as "pâte de fruit pectin." I think it's what is commonly referred to as "apple pectin."

Thanks for the detailed and helpful explanation. Would it make a difference if the butter were added to the caramel while it is still cooking? I know some people do that. It would not look so much like making an emulsion, but ultimately it's the same mixture. And what about the case of "standup" caramels, intended to be cut and wrapped or dipped in chocolate and therefore cooked to a higher temp? Do those work only if the amount of butter is not so high?

Ewald Notter has a very good lime ganache that I use frequently. It's a typical cream ganache except that he calls for some pectin to be added to the cream. I've never been completely sure why the pectin is there, but perhaps it is to thicken the ganache without adding so much white chocolate. I add lots of lime zest. It is very popular and pairs well with other layers such as coconut cream. It works with either a white or dark chocolate shell.

Unfortunately my caramel separation issues have returned (twice since I started mixing in the butter with an immersion blender), and I wondered if you might have insights on what happened today: I was making two caramels (one flavored with a fruit, the other a regular salted caramel), so I made a double batch. As I would be thinning out the caramel with fruit at the conclusion of the cooking (but not the salted one), I removed one-half of the batch after I had reached approximately 236F/113C (tested as forming a soft ball). I mixed in the soft butter with a spatula, and there was no separation at all. I put the other half of the caramel back on the heat and cooked it to about 245F/118C (firm-ball stage). After I had added about half of the butter (first by hand, then with blender), the mixture began separating. But I persevered, adding the flavoring (reduced yuzu purée), and, to my pleasure, the caramel came back together perfectly. This leads me to wonder whether cooking the caramel longer could have any bearing on the separation. Could removing more of the water by longer cooking cause an imbalance between fat and water that was (just as happens with a ganache) smoothed out by adding a little more liquid? I'm reaching for straws here so that I can conquer my caramel-phobic condition. Of course, even if this guess is correct, I am left with the unhappy fact that, as far as I can judge, most other people's caramel does not separate, regardless of cooking time.

@pastrygirl, those are both very nice decorations. Clean stripes on the first, great splatter on the second, which looks like a real egg.

An interesting question. I have not measured the Aw of a PdF after loosening it with a blender. Actually I have not ever used a blender on it because, with Pomona's pectin, I can just add a tiny amount of liquid and heat it until it's pipeable. I think it was in a previous discussion of pipeable PdF that someone mentioned the blender idea (probably in a discussion of Kate Weiser's chocolates). Another bit of evidence regarding the water content after using a blender: In several of Greweling's recipes he calls for beating a ganache, and in the two that I use regularly, the Aw readings were 0.59 and 0.52--and those readings were taken after beating the ganache.

@GRiker, what I do is make a pâte de fruit with Pomona's pectin (easy to find on Amazon). It allows for much less cooking time (therefore more fresh fruit flavor) and is reversible (you can remelt the PdF and cook it some more or some less, and no harm is done). Controlling the texture is also fairly easy: Test a bit of the finished PdF by placing in the refrigerator for a while and see what its texture is going to be like. Another trick is using an immersion blender to "un-thicken" the PdF to be able to pipe it. Kate Weiser is a chocolatier who uses lots of pipeable PdFs; take a look at her site to see examples (I also bought a box, and they are as good as they look). The Aw issue is one I struggle with. A regular PdF made with "regular" pectin can have a somewhat high Aw, especially if you don't cook off the liquid (because you want the PdF thinner in consistency). All the sugar added to a PdF helps bind some of the water but makes for a very sweet product. With my recipe using Pomona's, I substitute sorbitol for some of the sugar. It provides the binding agent but is much less sweet than sucrose. I don't know whether using the Perfect Purée as is (or even with adding glucose) would work. My guess is that the free water content will be high. Another guess is that glucose does not provide the same ability to bind with water as grains of sucrose (or sorbitol) provide. Wish we were closer so that I could test the Aw of the various permutations you are talking about; testing is the only way to know for sure. My raspberry and strawberry PdFs are higher than other fruits; I think that may be because it is so difficult to reduce those purées (I think I still have burns from violently bubbling raspberry purée). With cherry, apricot, mango, pear, and apple purées, on the other hand, I add some dried fruit and purée it along with the commercial purée--this adds more bulk and reduces the Aw while also adding more flavor. With raspberries, however, you really can't add fruit unless you don't mind the seeds. You are so right about not being able to control the behavior of recipients of your chocolates. There are other threads in which I and others have given specific examples of exasperating customer behavior. They just can't imagine that bonbons can mold (or deteriorate in flavor).

I really like the gold splatter on the turquoise egg. What did you use for the gold?

Thanks for that quite interesting article. I'm not sure I understand exactly what the conclusions were--and I could be wrong about this--but I think the researchers are saying that adding cocoa powder to a center might help with fat migration but, even more, that tempering the filling helps prevent the issues we have all encountered from time to time with fat bloom. I know that in my own case it is easy to take the tempering of a gianduja for granted because it looks so foolproof--just melt some nut paste and chocolate together, pipe the mixture, and it will solidify on its own. For owners of an EZtemper, tempering gianduja becomes quite easy, no messy tabling required. I was impressed by the researchers' description of what tempered chocolate looks like under the microscope: It's those "spatially uniform crystal structures with well defined inter-crystalline connections" that those of us without the scientific equipment have to imagine we have in our bowls!

Indeed there are some errors in the book. What I ended up doing is to start with 220g of orange juice and reduced that by half (I made that change a long time ago and am now guessing that I was trying to reach a compromise between the original conflicting numbers). I have notes that the ganache seems quite fluid when it is done but that it thickens successfully in time. If shelf life is a concern of yours, I tested the free water content of this filling and it was 0.85, which is not astronomical but higher than I like, especially for wholesale sales, where I have little control over what happens. That water comes from using a raspberry coulis and can be reduced if you substitute a raspberry pâte de fruit.

Those are beautiful. Do you mind telling how you achieved the marbled effect?

Grex Airbrush's tech staff recommended 60psi to me. [correction: 30psi was the recommendation, although that is lower than many people use, edited 8/16/20]