Jim D.

Thanks for that clue. I ended up cooking it for 2 1/2 hours. I think the texture is right for use as a (somewhat thick) sauce. I haven't tried piping it into truffle shells yet; it may be too thick for that, especially since with shells, one cannot see how much is actually going in. I could always heat it up to around 80 F. to thin it out somewhat. In any event today's endeavor is a test, and I'll be making it for real later on. I am wondering whatever in the world I'll do with all that leftover dulce de leche.

I am making dulce de leche for the first time, using David Lebovitz's directions (pour can of sweetened condensed milk into pan and bake in water bath for 60-75 minutes). I just reached the 75-minute mark, and the stuff is getting darker in color but is still quite thin in texture. I have never seen dulce de leche, but assumed it would be considerably thickened when complete. I am going to use it in making Peter Greweling's Dulce de Leche Coffee Truffles (just had some success with a new and very intimidating polycarbonate truffle mold). Perhaps the DdeL thickens as it cools? Thanks for any advice on the proper texture of dulce de leche.

Chris, Very nice. I especially like the hearts. How did you get that nice splatter on them? Mine sometimes comes out in blobs or dribbles. The most successful time was when I used a toothbrush, but it was a total mess--I am still finding dots of cocoa butter all over the kitchen!

No, I'm not sure the chocolate was out of temper as there were no other signs. But the block did get a bit soft and sticky to the touch, and that is the way the molds stayed for a long, long time. I have used the Chocovision many times with not a single tempering issue before this one. I know there is a first time for everything.

I live in Virginia too and have already been dealing with how to keep chocolate safe during some of the warm weather we have already had. You might be interested in this thread on farmers' markets; it has lots of ideas that might be of help.

All very helpful ideas. Thank you very much.

Thanks for those ideas. The room was not particularly warm, but the sample on a knife was a bit thick--of course, milk choc. is thicker. I'll try using a slip of paper next time. I saw a video online that said to put the sample in the fridge, but as I understand from other sources, that makes no sense since chocolate in any condition will harden in the refrigerator. I have written previously about stored chocolate getting too warm and (apparently) going out of temper. It's a real pain to go through the tempering process with seed chocolate that is (unknown to the user) itself out of temper, so I always do a test now. I have also been searching for chocolate storage ideas for the Virginia summer that is about to start. At the suggestion of forum member Keychris, I have ordered a wine fridge that I can keep at the proper temperature, and at the suggestion of Clay of The Chocolate Life, I have ordered a Moso bag of charcoal to absorb some of the humidity in the fridge. We'll see if this keeps the chocolate safe.

I know that it takes longer to test the temper of milk and white chocolates, but sometimes it takes so long that I assume something has gone wrong. Today I tempered some milk, but in 10 minutes the sample on a knife had not hardened. I went ahead and poured the chocolate into the molds, and eventually they looked fine. The shells came out of the molds with no problem and had no streaks. I have read that it should take less than 10 minutes for the test. Letting chocolate sit that long means you have to pay careful attention to where the temperature is going. So is a 10-minute wait not that unusual? Any help would be appreciated.

Today I made my first transfer sheet for chocolates, and it turned out much better than I had anticipated. I used some colored cocoa butters (from Chef Rubber) that I had lying around. I didn't make an explicit attempt to temper them (there is a difference of opinion on this subject, I have learned), but I did stir the mostly melted cocoa butter with some unmelted until it thickened somewhat. So for the bottom layer (which would become the top) I used a small whisk to splatter some of the rose-colored cocoa butter (being more careful this time not to splatter the walls of my kitchen as well!). I let that dry, then finger-painted the blue in sort of crescent shapes. I sprinkled half of the transfer with gold glitter to see how that would turn out. I was alarmed that the cocoa butter was in rather thick blobs in some places--unlike professional transfers--but that did not seem to matter in the unmolding process later. I cut the sheet to the size of the mold and made shells with some milk chocolate. To my great surprise, the shells turned out rather well. The gold glitter barely showed up; I am guessing it melted when I poured in the milk chocolate--so far I have had no luck with using glitter. For those who have been thinking of making their own transfer sheets, I highly recommend giving this process a try. It is a lot of fun. I can't become a convert to this method since I recently bought a large supply of PCB sheets from Qzina and have to use those first.

Minas, As is always the case, your items are beautiful. You have a real gift. I am interested in the peach pate de fruit. What did you use for the peach flavor? I spent some time recently trying to get adequate peach flavor in a ganache for molded chocolates. I used frozen peaches to make a purée, and they had no flavor at all (in spite of beautiful yellow color). Canned peaches had better flavor, but (even when I reduced the purée by boiling) were overwhelmed by the addition of chocolate (white). I added some peach powder, but I eventually threw the powder out--its flavor (whatever tiny amount there was) was bland. Finally I used peach compound, but found it had an off-taste, nowhere close to peaches (aside from raspberry and strawberry, I have not been thrilled with compounds). So I am intrigued by how you got your flavor.

I thought I should report on progress with the ruined milk chocolate. I haven't had a chance yet to try to temper it by tabling, but I did try Eddy van Damme's method of adding cocoa butter. I had it in the form of chips, so chopped them finely. They did take quite some time to melt (I used an immersion blender), but it worked. It was an amazing experience to see the chocolate that formerly would only set up with streaks and refused to come out of molds now drop out of the molds without even banging them on the counter. This seems to be proof that the unusually warm day we had took the chocolate out of temper. Interestingly the dark choc. was in the same room, but it was fine. I had some other milk that I will have to test carefully. I would assume that milk choc. would have to get to more than 86 degrees F. to go out of temper, and I didn't think the day was that hot.

Thanks for those ideas. The Jivara seems to be widely popular. As far as I have been able to determine, the Guanaja that several others mentioned is not available at this time in the U.S. (Valrhona doesn't even list it on its website). Jim

Chris, Can you tell me the brand of your wine/chocolate fridge? Or at least its capacity? I have done some looking, but it's rather confusing since the fridges are described by the number of bottles they hold (which is not immediately translatable to kilos of chocolate!). Thanks, Jim

I was just about to search the internet for a wine fridge when I saw your reply. How's that for a nice coincidence? I also saved a link to a post on eGullet from the head of The Chocolate Life website who says it is OK to freeze chocolate if it is wrapped properly. Thanks for your encouragement. Fortunately enough of my chocolates have been successful that I am not ready to give up, at least not yet. By the way, do you make chocolates for a living or as a hobby? You have produced some beautiful items.

Thanks for all those tips. I had read Eddy's method previously but had forgotten about it. I have cocoa butter in the form of small chips. I would think they would work as well as grating it. What do you think? I like the fact that using cocoa butter is so foolproof. If it turns out that my block of milk chocolate (which is now quite small since I am switching to an E. Guittard product) is ruined, then I have to rethink what I am going to do with my supply of chocolate during the coming Virginia summer. It seems extravagant to run the air conditioning night and day just to save my chocolate, but .... Thanks again for your help. One unsettling thought: What is to prevent cocoa butter from going out of temper just like the milk chocolate appears to have done? It does melt at a higher temperature, so I would guess it would be safer longer.

Then something is clearly different about the Notter mint recipe. Of course the typical cream ganache recipe does not call for tempering the chocolate but for pouring hot cream over chopped chocolate.

Excellent idea. I will give it a try tomorrow and report back. If it turns out to be the explanation, then I will know that chocolate is more temperamental in terms of storage temperature than I previously believed.

I have a block of Callebaut milk chocolate that I used this past Christmas, when there were no problems with it at all. Recently I used it to mold chocolates, and it was a failure--had a grayish color and streaks and unmolded with great difficulty or not at all--symptoms of dirty molds and/or untempered chocolate. It got quite warm that day before I turned on the air conditioning, and I thought that might be a factor. I should add that along with the milk choc. I used dark and white in other confections, without incident. Today I decided to experiment with that same milk chocolate to try to get to the bottom of what was wrong. I tempered the choc. in a Chocovision machine (same as previously). I tested it at the end of the process, and it looked tempered to me. I had prepared molds in three different ways: some plain, some "greased" with cocoa butter, some ungreased but decorated with colored cocoa butter. I had cleaned them repeatedly and polished them with cotton balls (no signs of previous use came off on the cotton). I filled the prepared molds, and everything looked fine--no streaks in the chocolate. But when I unmolded the chocolates (or tried to), I encountered all the previous problems--sides and bottom had a grayish color, top had developed a marbled effect. As far as the greasing of the molds experiment went, the ones with (plain) cocoa butter unmolded significantly more easily than the ungreased ones, whereas those with colored cocoa butter were the most difficult, and the cocoa butter stayed in the mold. But all had the gray and streaked appearance. As far as the possible heat factor goes, today isn't that warm (the room is about 72 F.--which I know is a bit too warm for chocolate work, but I have done it before without incident). I'm beginning to conclude that there is something wrong with this milk chocolate. I used previously melted and hardened pieces for the procedure, but I'm assuming that doesn't matter since they are melted (with all crystals) in the tempering process. For seeding I used a fresh piece from the Callebaut block. In other words, I did everything in the tempering process as I always do. Can a block of chocolate go bad? Can chocolate be untemperable? Is the chocolate cursed? Any suggestions would be most welcome. These experiences have shaken my confidence; I guess I was just enjoying beginner's luck in all my previous chocolate work.

Yes, I was stirring the ganache as it cooled. I cooled it to around 78-80 F. Notter calls for 88 F., Greweling for 77. When I filled the cavities, the ganache poured out in a completely liquid form.

Thanks for all the ideas.Usually when a recipe calls for adding melted cocoa butter later, I have just melted it together with the chocolate and haven't ever had an issue (I didn't do that this time since I had had problems with the recipe before and so was cautious). Ordinarily I start the cocoa butter first, then add whatever chocolate is called for. I'm gentler with white since I have had some bad experiences with it. I too was beginning to question the proportions in this recipe. I checked Notter's book, and his general formula for molded cream ganache is 1.5 parts (white) chocolate to 1 part cream. Since the mint recipe has 300 g cream, it should have 450 g chocolate; it actually has 483 g chocolate + cocoa butter, so it is close. But as others pointed out, that is a lot of cream. Greweling, on the other hand, recommends proportions of 2.5 parts white chocolate to 1 part cream. I think the proportions are the problem. But, to complicate matters further, other Notter recipes have worked for me. His wonderful recipe for raspberry and orange filling (highly recommended) has, for the orange-dark chocolate ganache, 100 g cream + 165 g orange juice (so 265 g liquefier), which would call for 265 g chocolate (his proportions for dark choc. are 1 choc. to 1 cream). Instead he calls for 175 g choc. That is a significant difference, but the ganache turned out beautifully. By the way, in researching this proportion matter, I found that both Greweling and Notter ignore their own general ratios much of the time. Back to the mint ganache: I did stir it while it was cooling, and that did not seem to help. I think making it more like a butter ganache, where the chocolate is tempered, would help; my suspicion is that pouring the almost-boiling cream onto the white chocolate may be too much of a shock. I've never quite understood why it is OK to take choc. so far out of temper with hot cream. It's just a nuisance to take the time to temper chocolate for ganache, or is that just me? It's also a trick to get the choc. and the liquefiers at more or less the same temperature to combine them. Again, thanks for the suggestions. No matter what technique one uses for this mint ganache, I do think the proportions need to be adjusted (more choc. or less cream).

I have mentioned this issue previously but am continuing to have problems with ganache not firming up enough to be satisfactory in molded chocolates. Yesterday I made Notter's mint ganache. The recipe uses the standard technique of bringing cream (300 g) and glucose (70 g) to a boil, then pouring these over chopped white chocolate (440 g) and adding melted cocoa butter (43 g). Finally a little mint oil is added. Couldn't be simpler, and the recipe is similar to other formulas for such fillings. But both times I have made it, it has remained so liquid that it has to be poured (not piped) into the molds. A day later its consistency has thickened only very slightly, not enough to support a layer of chocolate on top. The previous time I had some left over and added a boat-load of melted cocoa butter to it, and it did thicken up. This time I committed an act of heresy and put the mold in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. Like all ganaches, it will harden if it gets cold enough, but I was aware that all experts warn against doing what I did. I must report that about half the chocolates unmolded with grayish areas (one refused to unmold at all); the rest were fine. I had a similar problem the day before but am fairly certain it was due to too much warmth in the kitchen and thus bad tempering (did this in the Chocovision and did not test the tempering since it has never failed in the machine). Today, for the mint chocolates, I tested the temper and it was fine. So I don't know if the refrigeration caused this problem or not. Since I needed these chocolates, I applied a little cocoa butter tinted mint-green to the tops to cover up the defects (a technique which works, even though it is unorthodox). In any event, that is another issue aside from the too-thin ganache.. What could be the problem with the ganache? I do find that each ganache I try seems to have a mind of its own. Most of them, however, begin to thicken as I complete mixing them so as to give me faith that they will eventually firm up (and, of course, one does not want them to be too firm too soon or they will not pipe). Greweling's passion fruit, for example, starts thickening fairly soon but can be piped easily, then firms up rather quickly. My "customers" (family and friends) love mint-flavored chocolates, so I want this Notter recipe to work, and since Notter uses cocoa butter in many of his recipes, I assume he would have called for more if he thought it necessary. Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks for all your ideas. I can now report on the result of the peach ganache. Alas, it was not good. I half-filled the molds with cinnamon ganache, then the rest of the way with peach. Upon reflection, I realized that the peach was totally unsuccessful and had to take drastic action to save the pralines. It was really a comedy of errors. First, the frozen peaches had absolutely no taste--wonderful bright yellow color, but no taste. So I started over with canned peaches, which were much better. I used white chocolate plus cocoa butter to thicken the mixture. The result was just too bland. So I added the peach powder. It had no taste whatever (it's a name brand of fruit powder, but it was terrible and I threw it out). Then I began adding the peach compound. I have decided I am not thrilled with fruit compounds. Perhaps if you knew it was peach, you could taste it, but otherwise it just had an artificial taste. Finally I tried peach brandy. That had an alcohol kick, but not much flavor. In any event I left the peach ganache to set overnight, but by morning it had not set thoroughly, and the taste was still bland. I was so angry that I carefully scraped the peach mixture out of the molds, leaving the cinnamon behind. Then I made a recipe of Greweling's passion fruit ganache (fortunately I had some frozen passion fruit in the house). The resulting pralines were a great hit; people noticed the subtle taste of the cinnamon, and no one knew what a disaster the whole thing had almost been. My conclusion: Peaches are just too subtle to use in ganache--and that explains why I have never seen a recipe for peach ganache. Pears are only marginally better. It looks as if one has to have a strongly flavored fruit--passion fruit or apricot or orange, for example. Sad story, but I learned something. And I was only making the chocolates for family and friends, so it wasn't the major issue it might have been.

Looks great, but apparently they don't sell directly to the public/individuals.

Thanks for the helpful replies. The Guanaja Lactée that several have recommended is difficult to locate online. A Google search links mostly to bittersweet Guanaja. One result is Chocolate.com, but that links to Worldwidechocolate.com, and on that site, a search turns up nothing. Other usual chocolate sites don't have it.

I am looking at the various Valrhona milk chocolates and trying to find a comparison of them. I am searching for a milk that is not so sweet as most of them are. If there are opinions on the following chocolates, I would be interested in hearing them: Valrhona Tanariva Lactee Milk Chocolate Milk chocolate, 33% Cocoa, 38% Sugar, Fat Contents 35.5%, Milk 28%. Valrhona Caramelia Milk Chocolate Milk chocolate, 34% Cocoa, 29.5% Sugar, 22% Caramel. Valrhona Equatoriale Lactee Milk Chocolate Milk chocolate, 35% Cocoa, 44% Sugar, Fat Contents 37%, Milk 20%. Valrhona Orizaba Lactee Milk Chocolate Milk chocolate, 39% Cocoa, 34% Sugar, Fat Contents 41%, Milk 26%. Valrhona Andoa Lactee Milk 39% Cocoa - Fair Trade Milk chocolate, 39% Cocoa, 34% Sugar, 26% Milk Content. 41% Fat Content. Valrhona Jivara Lactee Milk Chocolate Milk chocolate, 40% Cocoa, 34% Sugar, Fat Contents 40.5%, Milk 23.5%.