Jim D.

@Pastrypastmidnight, that's very useful information to have in this thread. Do you have the model number (there are a couple of Minijets)? Sata is expensive but has a great reputation. And have you actually used it for splattering?

@Casey H.: I should have mentioned that Grex has HVLP guns. I don't know a lot about them, but Grex has some of the best customer service I have encountered. I emailed back and forth with them dozens of times before I bought my airbrush, and they went out of their way to help (even assembling a compressor and airbrush and photographing it with all the connections labeled for my specific setup--very useful for the mechanically challenged, including me). I do not know if their guns are successful at splattering, but after my many discussions with tech support, they will be familiar with this issue for chocolatiers. If you ever want to pursue this, I can PM you information on the person who helped me. It is also significant, I think, that Grex (like Fujispray) acknowledges that its products are used for food decoration; there are many videos showing their airbrush in action, mostly on cakes.

If I told you how many times I have said "How'd I not think of that earlier?" you wouldn't be able to count them. I should clarify about the HVLP gun: Much to my disappointment, the inexpensive one I bought did not do splatter successfully. It had a pressure regulator, but the splatter was unacceptable. Perhaps some of them do, but I would suggest research before you invest. There is only one HVLP gun I know of that states that it does splatter, and I doubt you are ready to invest in a Fuji system. Many people on this forum have Wagner spray guns, so you might check on that brand (I don't know where you are located). It's difficult to get accurate information from spray gun dealers because splattering paint is considered a defect in guns (there are tons of Youtube videos on how to avoid this "problem"). Unfortunately even if you get an HVLP gun for its speed and heat retention, you may still have to go back to your toothbrush for splattering--which, as you probably already know, can work very well (it's a matter of technique--I don't do very well at it, I must confess).

@Casey H.: I have a Grex Tritium with .7mm needle. It is a very good airbrush, but as I wrote earlier in this thread, I can't get it to do more than one mold, maybe two, before reheating is required. Again this depends somewhat on the temp of the spraying room. But the Grex does NOT do splatter. If you go back several pages in this thread, you can read about my experiences. The confusion arises from the fact that the Grex does splatter paint, but it will not do so with cocoa butter. The tech support people confirmed this experience of mine and suggested splattering off a spatula. I also tried a Badger and a Paasche; neither does splatter. Maybe there are airbrushes that do, but I don't know. I have never sprayed luster dust (and don't think I would run the risk, but that's your decision). Grex says a 1HP (minimum) compressor is required for a .7mm needle. If, however, you think you might ever switch to an HVLP gun, I would go higher because my 1HP struggled with an inexpensive HVLP paint gun and a 2HP does not cost that much more than a 1 [correction: I have a 2HP, and it struggled with an HVLP gun--it was fine for the Grex .7mm; I think some HVLP guns require higher PSI than 2HP provides.] My production sounds somewhat similar to yours. I found that switching from a Paasche to a Grex was a huge improvement, but I have to say that the Grex still requires frequent reheating. It got so frustrating for me that I more or less gave up on it. It is still great for gradients, which are difficult (though not impossible) with a higher-power HVLP gun.

HVLP guns do tend to have larger needles, and thus they give faster coverage. A bigger reason that I like them, however, is that they hold more cocoa butter and don't cool down so quickly. With an airbrush, sometimes I couldn't even finish one mold without using the heat gun. With an HVLP gun, I can do several molds. Depending on the needle size, HVLP guns generally require more pressure than an airbrush. But you can get compressors at fairly low prices. There is a lot of discussion of this earlier in this thread.

If you are serious about shelf life, I would suggest consulting Wybauw's ganache books (they are not inexpensive, which is why I included "serious"). He writes about it a lot and uses ingredients (mentioned in Kerry's post) that extend it. Caramel is, as pastrygirl stated, about the only filling I would expect to last for months. But after all that has been said in earlier postings, the fact is that a chocolate producer cannot control what the customer does with the chocolates after purchase. I've had people buy large boxes and tell me later that they ate one piece every few days "to make them last." To my involuntary expression of horror, they tell me (in much kinder language) to mind my own business. And all this is why I have food safety insurance.

This is a very common issue (and why I have mostly switched to an HVLP gun, which doesn't cool down so quickly). It can be cocoa butter crystallizing where you can't easily get at it (between bottom of container and the airbrush passages), or it can be a particle of solid cocoa butter clogging a crucial passageway (0.5mm is a very small opening--to state the obvious). If you have a probe thermometer (such as a Thermapen), stick it into the container all the way, stir the cocoa butter to make sure it is still liquid, and check its temp. I have found innumerable times that I was very sure the cocoa butter was fine only to discover from the Thermapen that the temp was too low at the very bottom of the cup and the cocoa butter had begun to crystallize. Once I applied the heat gun more than I thought prudent, the flow resumed. All that being said, spraying cocoa butter with an airbrush is a challenging operation. Finally, what is the temp of your airbrushing space? Although many people who get superb results (such as @gfron1) keep their area quite cool, it is a fact that if your temp is very far below 68-70F, your cocoa butter is going to solidify more quickly.

When I have a substantial break, I am going to use Greweling's recipe (with oil) and also what Paul Young does to make a water ganache and see what happens. I will check the Aw reading of each. I have been trying to do a blueberry ganache for a long time, and this might be the solution (I see that you have worked on this as well). In fact, there are so many fruits that I have thought about, but using a regular ganache renders them tasteless. I was so convinced that peaches, for example, would make a delicious ganache, but they don't. I suppose I should post my results on the already-existing water ganache thread. If I am not mistaken, I think some eG people (including, I believe, @Kerry Beal) recently did a workshop with Paul Young; maybe they have some insights on his method.

I just watched two of Paul Young's videos, and he does not use any oil in his water ganaches--they are just sugar and water boiled together then poured over chocolate (and, in one case, lots of whiskey). The absence of oil would certainly bump up the taste of whatever flavor is being used, whether whiskey or blueberries.

@shain, do you mind telling the brand of tahini you use? (I realize you may use something not available in the U.S.) I was using one that I liked in a filling for chocolates (the sesame had been roasted, unlike many others), but the company had a recent recall for contamination, so I am reticent about using that one again.

The discussion of wood grain reminded me that Jin Caldwell demonstrated making wood grain transfer sheets at the 2017 eGullet workshop in Las Vegas. I asked other attendees if they had a video of her technique, and a video was posted on May 22, 2017, on the Facebook workshop page. It's difficult to find that particular posting in a very long "page," but I just found it again. Jin used a spatula held at an angle to make the chocolate (yes, she was using chocolate) as thin as possible. I had forgotten, but I tried her technique after returning home but had cracks (which she, of course, did not). The overall problem I have with making transfers is that you never know how they are going to turn out until it's too late. I tried posting a link to that video, but (maybe because it's in a "closed" group) it doesn't work.

I had exactly the same problems. I bought guitar sheets from Chef Rubber, the flexible ones. But anytime I added a second layer of cocoa butter (or even made a single layer a bit too thick), flaking began, and I almost gave up (still intend to try again this coming summer). I can't imagine airbrushing a layer on since it is so difficult to control the flow of cocoa butter from an airbrush, but I will give that a try as well. Anytime I have tried airbrushing a layer of white onto a purchased transfer sheet (to make colors like red show up on dark chocolate), that has also been a mess.

There is U.S. minimum for fat content in heavy cream, so I just assume that in grocery-store cream all corners that can be cut are cut and so go with that minimum. Not a very precise way to cook.

Peter Greweling's recipe calls for 400g cream, 400g praline paste, and 400g chocolate (in this case, milk). Depending on the consistency of the paste (which can vary a great deal), I also add a little cocoa butter to firm up the ganache. Your ganache will let you know if you have too much fat--it will separate and the fat will float on top. This can be fixed by adding more liquid. For a long time I found this illogical, but then I realized what should have been obvious all along, that the water and fat content do have to be balanced. One of the difficulties with U.S. cream is that much of the time the fat content is not specified, so it's a bit of a crapshoot.

I'm not sure this is what you are asking, but.... As I understand ganache, it always has some liquid (usually cream, but other liquids can be used) that must be emulsified with some sort of chocolate. If you want something that (1) has more nut taste and (2) can be inside a shell with crisp ingredients (such as a cookie), then gianduja is ideal because (1) there is no liquid to dilute its taste and (2) there is no liquid to soften the crisp item. It's all fat. A praline ganache will often use hazelnut praline paste, cream, and chocolate and requires emulsifying. A hazelnut gianduja will use hazelnut praline paste and chocolate, no emulsifying required.

Exactly my concern. I have a dehumidifer in the basement, where the chocolate packaging in stored (it's a DeLonghi). It puts out a considerable amount of heat. I don't think I would want one in my kitchen. I don't recall if your kitchen space has AC or not, but if it does, AC lowers humidity--but not all that dramatically. On a hot, humid Virginia day (when I try not to make chocolates but sometimes must), I can eventually get the house temp down to around 65F, but the humidity is more difficult to get below 50%. I never make caramel on days like that.

Here is a direct link to the video on Youtube. And many thanks to @pastrygirl for taking to time to make it.

I would fear that using a whisk to dissolve Mycryo (or for any other purpose in chocolate work) would introduce air bubbles into the shell or ganache, which, in the case of shells, can later pop into tiny holes and, in the case of ganache, can shorten shelf life. If I were still using Mycryo, I think I would use an immersion blender, keeping the blender beneath the surface of the chocolate/ganache. When employing such blenders, instructors like Kirsten Tibballs, Andrey Dubovik, and Melissa Coppel use tall, narrow containers for the purpose of diminishing the number of air bubbles.

What do you want to know? Have you tried it? The primary difficulty I experienced was getting it to dissolve readily. But it does the job. Using seed chocolate presents the difficulty of finding the unmelted pieces to remove from the bowl. I don't know how much chocolate making you do, but if you are doing an appreciable amount, you will want to look into the EZtemper, which is like Mycryo in many ways but easily melts into the chocolate for quick tempering.

I guess some of us are more careful than others. 😛

I think this would be a good spot to add a link to it. It was very helpful in my replacement of a wire.

I too make my own pear purée so that I can be sure they are ripe and can include a little of the pulp. I wasn't clear on test cuts. I don't actually cut. I have a knife with a tiny blade and I stick it into the ganache, first on the sides (which will be cut off eventually), and when they are firm, into the middle. When there is almost no filling on the knife blade, I know it's time--or I hope it's time! In my opinion, one time of replacing a wire makes all this obsession something completely justified, and I do not apologize for it. By the way, once you buy the extra frames for making little bars, you will have a whole new possibility for cutting everything in sight.

I know just what you mean. The pleasure of getting those perfect squares (after years of jagged pseudo-squares) cannot be overestimated. But it is balanced by dread of a broken wire. I've done it once (gianduja too firm), and now I watch and test the filling to be cut like a hawk (I also now add coconut oil to gianduja to keep it softer). Fortunately those many, many test cuts cannot be seen once enrobing takes place. How was the pear flavor in the caramel? Pear is so subtle that I can't help wondering how detectable it was.

Has anyone found transfer sheets that are opaque? If one uses white chocolate, colors will show up without a problem, but with milk or dark, the story is different. A few colors will work: white, orange, some yellows, some blues, some greens. But it's quite unpredictable, and the colors I most want (red, for instance) get quite muddy when used with a darker chocolate. It's even more frustrating because on websites that sell transfers, the reds appear vibrantly red no matter what chocolate they are on. Over the years I have been fooled again and again by this trick photography and ended up with disappointing results. The person who invents always-opaque transfers will make money. I expect that a background white layer is the answer but wonder why no manufacturer has done that (to my knowledge).

The chocolate doesn't usually set well (streaky, for example). But mainly it becomes viscous and very difficult to work with. Worst case: You fill a mold, turn it over to dump out most of the chocolate, and very little falls out. At that point it's time for drastic action. There are two remedies: raise the temp and/or add some warm, untempered chocolate. Raising the temp is the typical way of coping, but it's tricky to heat the chocolate enough to melt out some Type V crystals (so above 92.3F), but not so hot as to melt out too many.