Jim D.

I tried some medical tape without success. Can you tell me the brand name?

I make my slabbed chocolates using the (slightly unorthodox) method of Ewald Notter: spread a thin layer of out-of-temper chocolate (the bottom) on the base (parchment or Silpat or whatever), put the stainless steel bars in place, let the chocolate firm up, then add the layer(s) of ganache. That way you don't have to flip the whole thing over. I don't have a guitar and use a knife to cut the slab. I don't think sharp knives and Silpats go well together. My biggest issue is the mess that using chocolate as glue causes (I have concerns about clogging up the kitchen plumbing with too much chocolate). I am thinking I will just have to be more careful in spreading the bottom to stay within the rectangle, using only tiny amounts to glue the bars. I have also ordered some acrylic sheets to see how they work (vs. parchment).

I have some "Flexible Clear Tape" from the drug store (which feels like silicone) and tried that, but it did not work. The package doesn't say what it is made from, but probably not silicone. I will look at Lowe's and at CVS to see what there might be. I appreciate your interest, but do hope you don't go sleepless. I promise I will post a solution if I find one.

I guess I wasn't very clear. I am making dipped chocolates. I pour the ganache into a frame set on parchment paper with the area to be filled created by moving four stainless steel bars into place. At the moment I stick the bars in place by using dabs of chocolate. If there is a second layer of ganache, I "glue" the second set of four bars to the first ones with more chocolate. I could go on doing this, but until the chocolate hardens, the bars slip around (and chocolate-making doesn't allow extra time for waiting for chocolate to harden), and the whole process is quite messy; cleaning the bars afterward is a real pain. If I could tape the bars to the parchment, I think it would be better in every way. Thus the search. In answer to one earlier poster, the tape doesn't have to be food safe since it wouldn't be touching anything edible. Tonight at dinner a friend suggested the soft removable stuff used to hang posters on a wall.

I tried masking tape, and it did not stick, at least not for very long.

Thanks for those ideas. I looked at Gorilla tape last week at a local Lowe's but will check it more thoroughly. And the labels are worth trying as well.

For a long time I have been searching for a tape that will stick to parchment. Any ideas I have found online (such as duct tape) have not worked. The next time I started a new roll of Reynolds parchment, I noticed that the roll is held in place by a small piece of tape--that sticks to the paper! So I wrote Reynolds to find out what kind of tape it is. I got a reply almost immediately, with the answer that they could not tell me because the tape is "proprietary." Yes, they have the right to say that, but it was very annoying as I cannot imagine what I could do to harm Reynolds with that information. In any event, I now know there is a tape that will work. Does anyone have any ideas?

I am intrigued by your idea of using cocoa butter for a ganache. I have found that in trying for flavors that would be lost in milk or dark chocolate--and somewhat in white chocolate--increasing cocoa butter has helped. But when I have added a substantial amount, the texture of the ganache has become too "short"--grainy rather than smooth. Have you encountered this problem?

Thanks. I had seen that recipe before but had forgotten it. The "pour like honey" comment is helpful. After a night in the fridge, mine is more the texture of fudge, but I think a little heat will soften it enough to use.

I thought, in the interest of accuracy, I should post an update on that difficult block of Callebaut milk chocolate which was discussed in this thread. Curls' question: "are you sure that your block of Callebaut milk chocolate went out of temper?" called for some experimentation. I did it by hand, not machine. Today I tempered some chocolate from that block that had been used before, and for seed I used some other milk chocolate (E. Guittard). A test for temper showed success within a couple of minutes. Then I remelted that Callebaut, but this time used part of the original block of Callebaut (which I didn't know I still had) as the seed. I expected it to fail, but the batch was perfectly in temper. So, Curls, you were correct--it was not the Callebaut. I think the cause of the earlier failure--by way of eliminating all the variables I can think of--is that the kitchen was very warm on that day. Someone had suggested, and I thought it made sense, that the heat had affected the Callebaut used as seed, but it was the whole procedure that was affected. I guess I had never taken seriously the warnings about room temperature, but I certainly will from now on.

The Joe Pastry recipe is very interesting, and the instructions on texture are helpful. That version is much thinner than mine, and I would have to see how much it thickens as it cools to know if it can safely be deposited in a truffle shell. In the truffle recipe, Greweling calls for cooking the can of milk 4 hours--I think that would be very thick.

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.