Cocoa Joe

Awesome!! I'm leaving for vacation in Colorado in the morning and I'll be back next week, so my girlfriend and I will come up and see you on the 14th! So excited to meet another local chocolate enthusiast Hopefully the weather will be a typical cloudy and cool Seattle day for you (can't believe I'm saying that).

@pastrygirl Thank you so much for all the great info! I will definitely take you up on that. It would be great to stop by and visit you at the SLU Market. When does that start? I couldn't find a date on the website for it. Based on everyone's advice it sounds like I should get at least one good polycarbonate mold. As I'm not too worried about "production" volume yet, even one or two molds would give me plenty to play around with. I was hoping to find some on Amazon Prime for the free shipping, but only looks like they carry "Fat Daddio" which seem to be pretty hit and miss according to the reviews. I'm looking around on choclat-choclat (minimum $100 US order, laaaame), bakedeco, chefrubber, chocoley. I'll see if I can find a couple on there to get started. Are there any brands to avoid, or if they're polycarbonate are you pretty safe? In the meantime, I'm going to practice molding with the crappy ones and see if I can do anything with those until some polycarbs get here. I will continue to experiment and improve, thanks to the help of you all! Oh, by the way. I made some layered gianduja, but I'm leaving for about a week. How would you recommend storing these in the meantime? Any necessity to refrigerate as it is getting warmer in the house?

Wow, thanks for all the great replies everyone! I certainly appreciate the advice and I will be sure to try each of the ideas mentioned. I was wondering about just enrobing chunks of chocolate and remelting the whole thing, so I’m glad to hear that sounds like an option! Kerry, I would kill to be at that workshop!! I imagine I could compress a years worth of mistakes on my own into a weekend with you all. Unfortunately I live in Seattle, and can’t quite afford a trip that far. Thank you so much for the invite, and I really hope that next year I’ll be able to come with a greatly improved set of skills to show off! To those of you who mentioned classes, I’ve signed up for some basic 2-3 hour classes that I was able to find around the Seattle area that I will be going to soon, but those are going to be much more oriented towards “fun” rather than developing any skill set. Most classes, as you would expect, are more of a “hey, let’s go have some fun hand dipping chocolates and getting messy” rather than a education-oriented technique-driven session. I have considered the online Ecole Chocolatier program, but I’m always a little skeptical when it comes to learning skills like this online as opposed to in-person. There are actually some quite impressive chocolatiers in the Seattle area though, so I should get the opportunity to at least see their work, although I doubt take any classes from them. I greatly appreciate the suggestion of posting my successes and failures on here for advice, and I will definitely do that! I have a double layer gianduja setting right now, and should be finishing that tonight, as well as throwing together some peanut brittle and (hopefully) salted caramel truffles. I’ll try to get some pictures afterwards! A couple additional questions based on the advice: With the suggestion of a melting tank, what affordable options are there? I absolutely have been struggling keeping chocolate in temper while working with it (I think it becomes overseeded as the working temperature stays in range but viscosity increases and lumps form from taking too long?) so a better method would be appreciated. I’m experimenting with the heating pad trick, but have found that a little hit and miss so far. As Kerry mentioned, I probably need to work with more chocolate at a time so it holds temper better. I’ve been too nervous to do a ton, so I’ve been tempering about 8oz at a time. I should probably step that up to 2lbs or so and just retemper the unused portion later? I haven’t gone too crazy with molds, but you are all completely right about the temptation to want to get a closet full of them! I got a handful of cheap plastic molds for about $1.50 each, and I can practice with those, but I’m wondering: Is it worth the investment now to get a nice polycarbonate mold or two? Something versatile like a dome mold? Obviously they aren’t cheap, so I don’t want to do too many impulse buys. Of course I decide to get serious about chocolate making just as the house starts heating up and we don’t have air conditioning. I was trying to temper chocolate in a 76F house and it would NOT set. Is this just an unfortunately reality that chocolate making and summer cannot coexist without AC or are there any tips? I have some raw cacao butter: http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Organic-Butter-Food-World/dp/B00UA67P4S/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1462206858&sr=8-1&keywords=raw+cacao+butter Now that I’m getting obsessive about chocolate, I’m also very cognizant of the difference between cacao and cacoa, so if this says raw cacao am I to assume there is a difference? I’m struggling to determine what that difference would be. The cacao has already been fermented, heated, processed, etc., to remove the butter, so at this point doesn’t it have to be considered cocoa? I don’t have my books in front of me to reference, so I’m probably completely overlooking something, and I’m probably overanalyzing, but I’m interested to know. Would there be any potential issues using this in recipes or coloring it to use to decorate molds? Another thought I had was regarding volunteering at a local chocolate and confections shop. This is part of the reason I wanted to develop a well-rounded skillset so that I could approach the owner and offer to help for free on nights/weekends to get much more practice. Any thoughts on this option of getting more exposure and practice? Again, thanks for all the responses. I promise I’ll respect your time and expertise and quit the super long posts. Just want to wrap my head around a few things as this whole journey gets rolling!

Hi everyone! I have to admit I’ve been lurking on the forum for a little while, and after being endlessly impressed with so many of you and not only your skill, but your enthusiasm and willingness to share, I thought it was finally time that I ask for your advice! Let me first apologize for such a long post, but hopefully it will help you understand my situation. About 10 years ago, I had to choose between going to school for specialty baking and pastry, or for kinesiology and psychology. For a variety of reasons, at the time I decided to go to University and graduate school in performance psychology. I’m still incredibly passionate about making chocolate and confections, and am only now just getting more time to start practicing different skills and techniques. So while at my day job I’m a performance psychologist, in my off time I still (not so secretly) desperately want to pursue the creative confectionery path that could have been. Let me first state that I’m not trying to learn these skills because I’m intending on switching careers right now or anything of that sort. I just find it to be a fascinating and amazingly rewarding hobby, and I want to learn it properly and become well-rounded rather than just dabbling in it (and possibly get good enough to make some money from it to cover the cost of the hobby itself). I’ve been voraciously reading books on chocolate (Greweling, Shotts, Notter, etc.), and I’ve spent a few hundred dollars getting all of the basic supplies (even a KitchenAid!) so I think on that end, I’m at a good starting point. I've also been looking through all the amazing resources and index provided by the community here, which has been incredibly helpful. So without rambling any further, here are my questions for all you seasoned pros! What are the best ways methods you have found for beginners to practice chocolate making (truffles, confections, etc.)? I’ve been trying to make smaller batches of things more often so I get more opportunities to explore recipes and techniques without spending too much on ingredients. Finding ways of reusing chocolate (e.g., tempering chocolate, creating decorations, and remelting it to try again) has been helpful, but any other advice since I don’t get endless repetitions or resources would be greatly appreciated! Sort of a follow up to the above: With practicing enrobing, are there any clever ideas on how to be able to practice it over and over again without actually using a center? (E.g., enrobing a stone of some kind where the chocolate could be remelted off of the center to practice over and over?) As my time and resources are limited, what foundational skills/techniques/recipes would you suggest that I practice and prioritize to develop my ability? I’m assuming tempering is at the top, and I have been practicing this as often as possible, and have become fairly consistent (although still a bit timid) with the skill. Are there any common mistakes that beginners make that you would suggest I avoid? This could be broad (e.g., underestimating the difficulty of chocolate work) or specific (e.g., not doing X in Y recipe/technique). Are there any essential lessons or realizations you’ve had along your path that you think would be helpful for someone starting out? What chocolate do you recommend for a beginner? I’ve currently been using Trader Joe’s Pounder Plus (only $4.99 for 500g!!) so I don’t feel too bad if I mess something up, but I’ve been considering the 5kg block of Callebaut once I feel ready. I'm sure this is a matter of taste, but I'm not sure where to find small amounts of these chocolates for sampling. Trader Joe's carries Valrhona, which is great, but haven't found too many others. I hope I’m not jumping straight from lurking into being a burden on the forum here. I’m sure my over-analytical performance psychology mind has become apparent in this post, but I’m a firm believer in deliberate practice rather than aimlessly “tinkering around” for someone like myself who genuinely wants to improve everyday. Anyways, time for me to shut up. Any advice is greatly appreciated!! P.S. I found this forum post, which was very helpful. But being 5 years old I thought I’d see if anyone had any other advice: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/139905-chocolate-and-confectionery-where-to-start/?page=1