Jim D.

I used pastrygirl's recipe to make a batch of homemade Orelys (and I want to thank her for doing all the work to develop a recipe). I used the same India Tree dark muscovado, but also used white sugar (as the recipe she gave me called for). After much searching I found whole milk powder (from King Arthur Flour), so I omitted the butter. I had never made any sort of chocolate in the melanger, so was not sure what to expect. It was very easy. I put the melted cocoa butter in the melanger, then added the sugar, followed immediately by the milk powder (about 1/4 cup at a time). The mixture thickened up with the powder, so I used a hair dryer for a little while until everything flowed smoothly. I had the melanger in a room where I could easily regular the temp, so I managed to get everything quite warm. Premier melangers has a recipe that is somewhat similar and calls for 3.5 hours of grinding. I found my "Orelys" was smooth enough before 3 hours. The taste is close to Valrhona's product, but it could use a little more of the muscovado taste, so next time I would use more muscovado and less white sugar (or maybe use some brown). I think it is the muscovado that gives Orelys its slightly licorice taste, and I would like to have more of that. I kept some actual Orelys for future taste comparisons. In the recipes where I used Orelys (pecan gianduja, cinnamon bun ganache), the chocolate doesn't have to stand on its own, so I am content with something close to Valrhona's product. My calculated price was about $60 for 2.5kg (compared to Valrhona's $87 price for the same amount). Would I do it again? Maybe, but given my uses of Orelys, I might be tempted to use Valrhona's Dulcey plus a little molasses powder. Washing that melanger is not as much fun as one might imagine.

Chef Kalle Jungstedt's own mold, which is a somewhat flattened dome, helps prevent the dome's suction effect. Chocolate World has a similar one but larger. When I am making something with several layers, those molds tend not to be large enough. The hemisphere shares the issue you mentioned with all the shallow molds I have--the one often called a quenelle and also egg shapes. They are a test of one's ability to keep a steady hand when moving the mold--and not tapping the mold too enthusiastically. They also have another irritating characteristic: some chocolate often gets between the shell (with any color it has) and the mold when sealing the mold is taking place. I did learn (I forget where) that a little heating of the mold with a heatgun before sealing the cavities helps prevent that. I think this melts the top edge enough so that the fluid chocolate can't get behind it. Ah, what we go through for beauty.

3 examples of the "dreaded dome"--you know, the mold that looks wonderful in theory, is easy to decorate--and loves to stick to the mold before reluctantly dropping out. @Kerry Beal once said she thought the dome fit so well in its mold that a sort of suction formed. Whatever it is, it's a pain. Fillings are (clockwise from top left: "cookies & cream," sesame crunch, cherry & almond ganache.

I think the heated sprayer is the renamed HotCHOC by renamed company Krea Swiss. I investigated that, but it is not intended for cocoa butter, just chocolate (mostly for the flocked look). I should have known that you would have come across the invention I wrote about. The more I thought about it, however, the more I questioned how it would work in the fast-moving process of spraying CCB. The wires would have to be quite long to allow for all the maneuvering required to get good coverage of a mold, not to mention the process of changing colors. I think it would be necessary to make the device easily removable. But if it can be done with the hotCHOC, it should be doable with a CCB sprayer. The market is probably not large enough to entice a company like Fuji (and its competitors) to look into it.

I saw an interesting post from Tom Sampson on the "Bonbon and chocolate painting techniques" Facebook forum about a device he invented to keep an airbrush warm. Another member of that forum responded that he too is working on such a heater, and the two of them are now corresponding. Such a device might revolutionize the decorating of bonbons.

I have the 0.8mm (recommended by Kerry and others); Fuji has them up to 2.0.

Not sure what you mean by "how big is the Fuji?" Are you referring to physical dimensions or volume of the spray cup? And I'm not trying to convince you. People have different priorities. The Sagola looks very much like the Fuji.

It's a regular Chef Rubber color (one I don't like and could easily use for experimentation). The bonbons are fully covered; it must be the light that makes them look otherwise. The Fuji does spray more than an airbrush, but it is much faster. It's a tradeoff, one I am willing to make, esp. at times like Christmas. As for wiping off overspray, just about every chocolate-spraying video I have watched includes that. If I let it fully crystallize on top of the mold, I have a terrible time cleaning it off later.

@Kerry Beal @pastrygirl This is a continuation of our discussion that originally began under the topic of cleaning colored cocoa butter from molds. It's probably more relevant here. First, I concluded that the little chips that came off a lot of shells (shown in previous thread) were caused by cleaning the molds on top of a food warming tray that was too warm. If it had been caused just by rubbing them too vigorously on shop towels, the CCB would have come off completely; instead it stuck in the mold when I unmolded. However, the rubbing procedure is relevant (see below). I did my experimentation on whether CCB needs to be tempered. I used the Fuji to spray both molds. Although the bonbons in the photo below appear not to be colored, they are--with Chef Rubber's idea of what magenta looks like. I sprayed one mold with untempered CCB around 90-95F/32-35C. Excess CCB was very easy to remove because it was not starting to crystallize; in fact, it took more than a half-hour for the CCB to attain the matte look and not come off when I touched it. I was sure I faced a daunting task of cleaning the mold. The second mold I sprayed with CCB I had tempered with 1% by weight of silk (today I happened on a video by Brian Donaghy of Tomric, and he recommended 3%). It was at 86F/30C (I think this is the temp recommended by Andrey Dubovik). It took much longer to attain the matte look than what I have been getting by using more silk, but the time was more like 15 minutes. Again, it was easy to clean the excess CCB from the mold. I filled both molds with tempered chocolate and let it crystallize. To my surprise, both unmolded equally easily--only a light tap on the counter was necessary. In the photo below the top group is with untempered CCB; the bottom is tempered. There is a defect in one untempered bonbon, the left bonbon in the second row (a bit of CCB stuck in the mold), but aside from that, I saw no other defect, and both are equally shiny. Before I filled the molds with chocolate, I did note that there were some spots with missing CCB on the top edges of the molds (such as showed up in the original post). I assumed this was from rubbing on the towels and was able to replicate the issue by additional rubbing (the fact that the CCB was not crystallizing so fast gave me more time to experiment). I don't know what to do about this except to rub more gently or perhaps find towels that aren't so rough in texture. Conclusions: This was a very limited experiment, but tempering CCB does not appear to be necessary when airbrushing. Going without, however, takes considerably more time for the CCB to crystallize and may be responsible for the one defect (though this is not certain). I am left to puzzle over several issues: Did the untempered CCB ever properly crystallize? If the act of spraying is supposed to temper it, then it should have firmed up much more quickly. When we temper chocolate, don't we say that the temper is subpar if crystallizing takes a long time? But what happens to the common explanation that CCB sticks in a mold when it isn't tempered? We are left to puzzle over whether the legion of chocolatiers who recommend tempering CCB know something that didn't show up in my experiment. If one is using silk to temper CCB, my experiment suggests that in the past I have been using too much and, as a result, the CCB was crystallizing immediately on being sprayed and was prone to sticking in the mold and to being very difficult to clean off the mold.

Will you share your recipe? I'd like to see how your approach differs from mine.

You bring up a significant issue with using CCB--opacity. As Kerry wrote, you can look at the ingredients, and if there is white (usually titanium dioxide in the U.S.), it will PROBABLY be opaque. But not always. I airbrushed orange recently. You might think orange would be opaque, and it is to some degree, but dark or milk chocolate behind it make it dull. If you want it to pop, then go for the white. Some other colors (I use Chef Rubber) that you might not expect to be opaque turn out to be. There is a way to test: If you have a sheet of something transparent (hard plastic is ideal), paint some of the melted CCB on a small area. Let it crystallize, then melt some chocolate (dark or milk whichever you are going to be using for the shell) and paint that chocolate on about half of the CCB area. When everything has firmed up, turn the plastic over and look at the blob, comparing the parts with and without chocolate. This is not infallible, but it gives a fairly reliable prediction of what will happen. One last thought: You might expect red to be opaque, but it's one of the most disappointing colors--without white behind it. I don't know if you have access to Chef Rubber, but they now have a non-titanium white that is getting very positive reviews. I think it's the White Natural color, but I am not sure.

If you recall, I started using Orelys in your cinnamon bun recipe, a recipe that has been insanely popular. An eG member has formulated a recipe for making Orelys in a melanger. I'm thinking of giving it a try. It will probably end up costing more than a 3kg bag shipped by Valrhona to me (via many in-between people, I am sure), but I will really miss having it. @Rajala, since you are so close to the Rhone Valley (I know, typical U.S. concept of geography), why don't you make a trip over and find the Orelys warehouse?

I do know a very smart eG member who has figured out the recipe and has made it in a melanger. A reason enough to get a melanger. What irritates me is that you just know Valrhona has a warehouse full of the stuff sitting on the banks of the Rhone. I used it for my pecan pie, cinnamon bun, and more. My Valrhona supplier suggested I substitute Dulcey, but of course they aren't anywhere near the same.

Delicious-sounding assortment and beautiful decoration. Just one downside: I just learned that Valrhona has discontinued Orelys. I have used it in several of my fillings and am very disappointed.

Excellent information. Thanks. I will start weighing--though if I don't temper airbrushed CCB, I suppose it's not an issue. Among my upcoming experiments, I will try your high temps for CCD.

I know you have said that previously. And you don't have any issues (such as the ones I have mentioned above)? Do you use that high a temp for regular airbrushes, or just for the Fuji? What about the overtempering issue? I have never known whether adding extra silk leads to overtempering (whether chocolate or CCB).

The basement where I spray was about 70F, or even warmer when the Fuji has been running for a while. I think a post-Valentine's round of experiments may be in order: spray just orange, spray with white, clean using heat, clean using just towels. I posted this issue on the "Bonbon and chocolate painting techniques" FB group and got the usual confusing mix of explanations. The most comforting one started "I've run into this too." The consensus was that I am taking the CCB out of temper: "You are 100% taking the CCB out of temper. Plus, you have WAY too thick of a CCB layer. The combination of the two is your problem." That person concluded: "if you’re using milk or dark chocolate, just let it be. That minuscule amount of CCB isn’t going to affect your whole batch." But I don't clean off the mold just for appearance. Leaving the CCB makes it more difficult to seal the chocolates and scrape them so that there isn't a thin--or not so thin-layer of cocoa butter everywhere).

The orange was backed with white. The issue may be showing up with other molds, but of course the white makes it more obvious. It does happen more commonly when I back with white, but I don't see any connection, do you? How do you clean off your molds after spraying?

As displayed in the accompanying photo I am still having trouble with bits of colored cocoa butter staying in molds. The pattern is the same, suggesting there may be a single cause This is driving me crazy as the saga goes on and on, and I am looking at every possibility to eliminate the cause. My latest inquiry brings me to the use of silk. I have tried using the warming tray method (described earlier in this thread), but with the heat barely on. It's better, but I have a terrible time getting the excess CCB off the molds and I continue to get the little bits of CCB staying in the cavities. I mostly use my Fuji sprayer, and there is no question it sprays out a lot of CCB. I have tried moving the gun farther away, but that didn't seem to make a difference in the coverage. All these explorations have brought me to the tempering possibility, namely, is the CCB overtempered and is therefore crystallizing immediately? I watch experts decorating shells, and they casually turn a mold upside down and easily wipe away all the excess CCB. I cannot do that. So I am brought to a new question: is it possible to add too much silk when tempering CCB? I don't weigh it, I just put some in (following the example of the esteemed inventor of the EZtemper).

I have one of those. I don't mean to discourage you, but I find assembling it each time a very annoying task. And because it's nowhere near airtight, I wouldn't expect it to hold temp very accurately (which may not be an issue for you). I did, however, find a great use for the little tray that holds water to provide the moisture in the proof box: I lay it on top of parchment, and when I'm letting chocolate sit to form a shell, I put the mold on that tray. In that way the mold doesn't drip so much chocolate down onto the parchment, and I can maintain a hint of neatness.

@Elle Bee An additional thought about trying to keep chocolate in temper while melting it: It's very difficult to do. Greweling mentions it as a way to melt chocolate from the bag and keep it in temper--but for ganache. So it is somewhat easy for the small amount required for ganache, but for large amounts, the chocolate will probably stay quite viscous and will need to be taken well beyond the temper stage, then brought back down. Silk makes all this so much easier. And to add to your future equipment possibilities: I use a dehydrator to melt colored cocoa butter and large amounts of chocolate overnight and am very pleased with it. I can melt milk chocolate in the Mol d'Art while simultaneously melting dark in the dehydrator. No equipment I have found maintains an exact temperature, including the Mol d'Art and the dehydrator, but, as you know, chocolate life means adjusting to reality in ever-changing ways. I also must comment on your dislike of running up and down stairs constantly: I do it with 14 stairs dozens of times a day. That's what makes it possible to snack from the chocolate bag from time to time. 😁

This depends so much on the chocolate you are using. Mine is usually flowing easily, though certainly thicker than the cream. If melted chocolate is noticeably viscous, I would say you have a problem, probably with humidity in the work space. First, although Greweling says that chocolate used for a slab must be tempered, not everyone does that. I have used it tempered and untempered and have not (to be honest) noticed any difference. If it is out of temper and you are adding silk later, then it will be tempered. Sometimes I hold mine in my Mol d'Art melter for days, but I definitely don't trust it to be in temper after such a long time. It will almost certainly be overtempered. As you probably know, there are several methods of bringing overtempered chocolate back into temper; all involve melting some of the excess Type V crystals. When I leave chocolate in the melter overnight, I cover it so that the heating process is more efficient. When I am making shells, I leave it uncovered (so that I can dump excess chocolate into it), but I take the cooler ambient air into account when setting the temperature. Unless you experience very humid conditions in your work space, I don't see condensation as a problem--if it is, you would need to take more drastic action to lower the humidity.

It's on page 204 of the second edition. You can substitute something else for the balsamic vinegar (such as a reduced strawberry purée or good-quality strawberry flavoring or compound). According to Greweling's notes on butter ganache, the mixture is very forgiving about the amount of liquid you add. Just one caution: you may find the taste (strawberry in this case) somewhat muted in a butter ganache--the price you pay, I guess one could say, for having a longer shelf life.

What I do for my strawberry Easter eggs is to pipe in a relatively small layer of strawberry pâte de fruit, then on top of it a layer of Kerry's strawberry buttercream with added natural strawberry flavoring from Amoretti. The PdF adds a lot of flavor. My Aw measurement was 0.73, which is not bad.

@Dark side, since you have called me out for my nagging, I feel I have no choice but to respond to your questions. As I say quite often, I consider myself still a learner in this business, by no means an expert. Mostly it's been trial and error, with a great deal of the latter. With that caveat... Yes, on the .7mm Grex--though pastrygirl's Spanish airbrush sounds intriguing. Having to stop to heat up your spraying device becomes more annoying than you might at first imagine. Even if you go for a less expensive airbrush, I would definitely get one in the trigger style. I have a California Air Tools compressor with 4.6 gal. capacity. If I were doing it over, I would get the same brand but with a larger capacity. I am finding that as time passes, the compressor is running more often, and experts say that is bad for the device in the long run. The price differential for a larger one is not great. More significantly: If you decide later to get a spray gun (a move that is quite common in the business), the 4.6 gal. compressor struggles (and runs almost constantly). Spray guns, by the way, are quite inexpensive, relatively speaking. I know others disagree, but I found using a box, fan, and filter inadequate for keeping overspray out of the air, and the filter clogged up very quickly. With the CakeSafe booth, the "pre-filter" has to be changed quite often, but I don't find the cost of filters exorbitant, and I can see clearly when it needs to be replaced. I realize that the cost of the CakeSafe may be a factor, especially as you are just beginning. I have said this next thing before, but I'll repeat it here: Clairvoyance would be very helpful when considering chocolate equipment, but obviously is in short supply. I wasted money buying equipment that in no time at all became inadequate (airbrush, compressor, etc.). If you grow to enjoy making decorated chocolates, you will be hooked, people will find their way to you, and you will want/need to make more, and then your first Christmas season will hit you over the head. With that in mind, I will add that even my moderate production quantities are made more bearable by having a Fuji spray gun. You can spray many more molds without having to reheat the gun because it holds much more cocoa butter than the Grex (or any airbrush I know of). The Fuji (and other spray guns) are also more forgiving in pushing cocoa butter through the nozzle. I have found that a few grains of unmelted cocoa butter can clog my Grex and require much use of a heat gun, whereas a spray gun can handle that issue much better (proof of this just last week: the Grex refused to spray, no amount of heat or stirring with my thermometer would unclog it, in disgust I poured the CB into my Fuji, and it sprayed the same CB without issue). Will airbrushing take longer than hand painting? Perhaps a little longer, but the quality is so much better. I never had much success trying to cover a mold by using a paintbrush--the cocoa butter was streaked, it ran, coverage was spotty. In a few seconds you can cover an entire mold with spray from an airbrush. One of chocolatier Kalle Jungstedt's useful insights is that over-brushing a mold will take the cocoa butter out of temper and cause it to stick to the mold. If I were in your position and had all the advice now available on eGullet on this topic, I would probably get the Grex again (I use the Fuji much more often these days--but the Grex is excellent in doing gradients and similar detailed work, which the Fuji is not always good at), but I would definitely get a compressor with capacity to service a spray gun.