Jim D.

@Kerry Beal, your red and yellow "fireworks" are very close to Dubovik's (with lots of white showing). I wasn't crazy about the design. Mine turned out with less white showing, and I am warming up to the look. I really like the technique. Who knows how he will react to my "deviation"--I will submit this and another assignment this weekend.

I've found cheesecloth works fine for straining, and it's not expensive.

Yes, Dubovik emphasizes proper lighting and attention to the photography. He recommends using sunlight. He has a detailed section in the online course on photographing chocolates. I know all this from some experience since he commented on my first submitted photo for not showing how shiny the bonbon was. I had taken the photo from the side, not from above, and because it was a gloomy, dark day, had taken it with indoor lighting. Otherwise there is nothing unusual he does to get the shine--just perfect technique!

Thanks for that recipe. Do you think this makes a more tender cookie (because of the cornstarch and confectioner's sugar)? I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "cake (AP) flour." As you probably know, in the U.S. "cake flour" is very finely milled, low-protein flour, different from all-purpose flour. U.S. cake flour would probably add to the tenderness of the cookie.

I find that if the humidity is above 50%, chocolate tempering does not go well. Outcomes I have experienced: The chocolate thickens more quickly than usual and thus becomes more difficult to work with. It can take longer to crystallize (while it's sitting on the counter, waiting to go in the fridge). And it can crystallize in undesirable ways: uneven color, blotches, matte rather than shiny look. Often it turns out OK to use, but it never (in my experience) has that snap and shine we look for. All of this is why I usually stop making chocolates for sale during the summer. This summer is different in that (1) I am taking the Dubovic course and for the next 9 weeks need to make chocolates with shine (that's his specialty)--fortunately he can't judge whether there is snap or not . (2) I had a reception last Sunday (270 chocolates) and a wedding in August (800 pieces) and so have to move bravely forward. I dread my air conditioning bill for these months.

That's a very interesting recipe. Do you recall how pronounced the apple flavor was? Apple is a subtle flavor to deal with, and I would think that would be especially true when mixed with dark and milk chocolate. Of course the added Sosa flavoring probably helps.

Thanks for those ideas. I'll try the freezing method, then recut. In my first attempt at this, when I saw the spread cookies would no longer fit, in a panic (the hazelnut mixture was crystallizing fast) I recut, but (of course) many of them broke. I don't think Andrey uses cookies, at least in the course. People love the cookie--that got the most comments out of 9 fillings at a reception a few days ago.

In a thread on inclusion of cookies in bonbons I wrote about the difficulties of keeping cookies from spreading as they bake and thus not fitting in the mold. I am using Ina Garten's recipe for shortbread cookies (ingredients are butter, sugar, vanilla, and flour). I cut them with a small biscuit cutter, chilled them, then baked, but still they spread enough to make inserting them in the mold difficult. Last time I used a suggestion from @Bentley to roll them into a thin sheet, let them bake until they were beginning to set, then cut them and returned them to the oven for a final bake. This idea took some experimenting with finding the right "set" point, but it worked really well. I could just drop the cookies into the molds, and all of them fit. Two weeks later the cookies were still very crisp (they were surrounded by a hazelnut meltaway filling, so no moisture got to them---but you never know what might be happening inside that chocolate shell!). But some of them were what I can only call tough. I am wondering why that might have happened. They were not overbaked; they were just beginning to brown. The tough ones were not thicker than the others. What could there be about removing them from the oven early, cutting them, then returning them for more baking that makes them different? Alternatively I wondered if cutting them before baking (as I did previously) and freezing them would work for holding the shape.

I have a dehumidifier also, but it puts out so much heat that I can't have it in the airbrushing area. Doesn't yours give off heat?

What Dubovik says about room temp is We should work at normal conditions of 18-20°C (64.4–68°F). My airbrushing area has been the most difficult to manage for the course. With an air conditioner I got the temp down to the high range of what is listed above, but until today, the humidity has been a real issue (I don't think he mentions humidity anywhere--maybe they don't have that problem in Belarus, but I know from experience that can ruin chocolate as quickly as high temp can). The problem with airbrushing is that quick crystallization of the cocoa butter (which is always an issue) is even worse. Today I spent more time using the heat gun than I did airbrushing. I will be watching to see if a somewhat lower temp than usual (after all, it's only a couple of degrees) makes a difference in the results. Too soon to tell.

I love the gold and green together and thank you for the details. When I have used gold dust, I found the cavities a challenge to clean, especially in a mold with corners (learned that lesson the hard way). As I have written before, the pear flavor is very difficult--but worth the effort, I think. And I must try it with caramel. Do you use a light or dark caramel?

I'm a bit late in commenting, but those are beautiful. Do you mind telling how you got the nice gold on the green piece?

Good idea--though I'm not sure how many layers can come between the iPad and my fingers for it to work.

There are several things making it a challenge for me: I have been making the recipes that he suggests for each filling (for me that means just two so far). The first (a caramel with passion fruit, chocolate, and tarragon leaves) was very thick; the second--like Goldlilocks--was extremely fluid and required some major "adjustment"--though it did turn out OK after I added more chocolate, and it has a wonderful taste. Other than that it's mostly the techniques: The first was just airbrushing a mold, but what a mold: Chocolate World 1754. Dubovic says he chose it to present difficulties with airbrushing (and he succeeded). It's also to be painted all black, which means it shows every imperfection, every missed corner, every speck of dust. The second lesson was not in itself difficult, but required many steps (utilizing 6 different colors of cocoa butter), and of course there is a video to guide one (and show the student what the perfect result looks like). I have the lesson open on a iPad next to the counter where I am working--an iPad now with chocolatey fingerprints all over it. I would say a third challenge has been finding all the equipment and ingredients. One can make substitutions, but I decided to do what I could to find what he calls for (that may say more about me than about the course). Ever heard of Jin Xuan Oolong Milk Tea? I now have some of it. I could never have found everything without the guidance of Kerry, who is completing the whole course early because of her schedule--and always under the watchful eye of Amazon, ever willing to ship the smallest item (on which they could never be making money). It has been a huge help to me that the three of us on eGullet taking the course are constantly exchanging emails--where to find items, what to do about directions that seem puzzling, etc. The lessons do not have to be completed in sequence, but Dubovik has designed them to go from simple to complex. All of them are available from the first day of access. The detailed instructions for each lesson are available for students to download; the videos are available until one month after the end of the course. Photos of the chocolates made (by him) in each lesson are available for anyone to see on Dubovik's website (I love the name of the course: Pralinarium). We have to send photos of two chocolates each week for his evaluation. He also has a detailed section on how to take good photos of chocolates. As for posting mine, maybe....

When we signed up, Dubovik asked for our Instagram account information so that some students' work could be posted. I won't be holding my breath to see mine there. The course has been a challenge--and we are only in week 1!

So do you think this means it would be better if we mixed our own white? Perhaps already-mixed white should be sealed against moisture and refrigerated? Not long ago I came across (don't remember where) some research on a new white color in testing to replace titanium dioxide. It turns out that coloring things white is very important in the food industry and not just in decorating chocolates. There are also some concerns about titanium's impact on the human brain (which may explain a lot in my case).

Having a white without an offputting odor is the holy grail--mainly because white is used to create lighter colors and for backing other colors trying to cover dark chocolate. By "discovery kit" do you mean this was Power Flowers? I know what they are but have never used them. And when you say "making our own white," do you mean from titanium dioxide or from commercial powdered white cocoa butter? I always thought it was the titanium that contributed the bad odor and taste, but perhaps rancidity has been contributing to that.

Bob, Don't fall for the humility. I have the directions, and they are anything but simple. This course is daunting (probably for anyone but Kerry Beal).

You are right on the mark. Dubovik calls it "Outer Space." Kerry's version looks exactly like Dubovik's. This will be a hard act to follow.

Those look very nice. Did you use tape for the lines or paint them in freehand? Either way they are remarkably straight.

I don't make my own hazelnut paste (or pistachio--I do make pecan and almond because I can those smooth enough in the food processor). I use Cacao Barry's, but as I don't have room to store the big pail in the freezer/refrigerator, I buy it from L'Epicérie in smaller containers--obviously it's been repackaged and I am at the mercy of those who remix and package it. "I'll allow you your preference for raw pistachios": You must be using "you" in the sense of "everybody" because I am one who lightly toasts pistachios (we have discussed this). I tested my preference again recently and was confirmed in my view that toasting makes them tastier. And, of course, hazelnuts cry out to be roasted/toasted.

For gianduja, Greweling specifies 2:1 praline to chocolate, and it still firms up quite a lot. You are right that it is the praline paste and the coconut oil that soften things. Greweling's ratios for meltaway are (roughly) 1:1.5:4 coconut oil:praline paste:chocolate. You can see the proportion of chocolate is very large. I need to play around with increasing the amount of praline. One additional factor over which I have no control is that the consistency of praline paste varies a great deal, even when the hazelnuts and oil are well mixed.

I wanted a bonbon filling that remains somewhat soft (unlike gianduja, which gets rather firm) so I substituted Greweling's praline meltaway for gianduja. He calls for milk chocolate, but I used dark. I was very disappointed in the lack of hazelnut taste in the result; I don't know if milk chocolate would have made it all that different. I compared his recipes for this meltaway and hazelnut gianduja, and the amount of hazelnut praline paste in the latter is much greater. I am wondering if there is any formula to calculate how much coconut oil can be used in a meltaway before it refuses to thicken enough. In other words, I want to increase the praline paste to chocolate ratio and assume I would also need to up the amount of coconut oil.

Never having smelled it, I don't know what it smells like. I think you are correct, though, that it has a somewhat chocolate smell, but (IMHO) not in a good way. I am not a fan of El Rey. I have a kilo that I can't imagine ever using in any way. A minority view, I know.

Yes, definitely use a deodorized one. I find that even the deodorized has a somewhat offputting smell and taste. I can only begin to imagine what the other is like.