jbates

I currently use the cheap 4oz spray gun from Harbor Freight ($14) along with a California Air Tools 4610AC compressor (very quiet and reliable). I usually spray several complete molds at a time, or more if I’m doing partial coverage, before giving it a blast from the heat gun. I have the cup at ⅓ to ½ full. My speed is limited by needing to stop and clean the overspray from each form using paper/shop towels while it’s still wet. I need to find/make some sort of clamp to hold the edges of the towel in place so I can rub the mold one handed without putting down the sprayer (and without tearing the towel).

Working on a bunch of stuff for my Easter charity sale at the office. Some tasting bars made from TJs Ruby: I found the little mendiant/disc characters at Michael’s (US craft store), the missing third one is a bunny face. They were the lids in a small dough shaping kit for kids; threw away the dough and the containers. Metallic eggs, with a handful of candied pecans inside: The luster was lovely and shiny (a thin spray of pure CB, then luster dust, backed with off-white pearlescent CB), but a bit muted by the dark chocolate shell. I think I’ll do another layer of white CB or a very thin white chocolate shell before casting the dark next time. And some milk tablets using Cacao Barry’s new mold for Ruby: More to follow.

Good for me!

Not on mine, probably due to the smaller cost. I would have to do some research to figure out when it would apply.

I just got a small order from them. A handful of open-bottom 3D hand molds for Easter, a bit over $300 worth. The order was shipped by DHL, with a $75 shipping fee on top. So not exactly cheap shipping for a few molds (about 2Kg / 3 pounds). Quality is great. Only the tiniest amount of movement when the two sides come together. The molds I ordered weren’t magnetic, so they included clips. Their ordering is a bit old fashioned. I placed the order with the shipping initially quoted as equal to the price of the molds (had me worried initially), with the only payment option being a quote. They sent me a quote via email and then I had to accept the offer. Once you accept you’re locked in (pages of legalese). I had to email back the card details. No online payment options. I could have wired the payment, but the bank would have hit me up for more than the credit card’s foreign exchange fees. Because not all the molds I ordered were in stock at the time I chose to wait instead of substituting. They gave me a week number when the order would be ready (week 13, March 25, in this case). The order was shipped last Thursday and arrived in San Francisco a few days later, on Monday just gone. (Will post some images in the “what are we making” thread at some point.)

Tasting works for me as well, any time is OK.

Do you have a brand and/or model number?

@Kerry Beal what brand/model is that warming tray please?

I’d like to hear about ganache balancing, thanks for the offer.

Sounds great, I’m in.

I’ll be there!

I can also recommend the ChocoTransferSheets cocoa butters, I’ve used them since I started (mainly because they’re not far from where I live in the SF area). You can get reasonable quality molds from AliExpress.com cheaper than Amazon but you trade money for time; takes weeks for a delivery. I recommend searching for “polycarbonate chocolate mold” to find the range of stuff. I use a “2124B” bullet head shape a lot, cleans really easily (the “2124” is the same shape but smaller, at 8 grams per cavity instead of 13 grams).

I don’t put any of mine in the freezer, just the fridge for 5 mins. Then I leave the bars in the molds for a day or so at room temperature before during them out, which seems to help to reduce the marks. I also found that the microfiber cloths ended up smearing around a small bit of any leftover cocoa butter from the previous use. So I now use the 70% alcohol square swabs and push them into sharp corners, etc with a toothpick or a q-tip.

My first attempts using the dendrite technique in a snack mold. Unfortunately the nicer ones with the red were liberated before I got to take their closeups 😄. I figured out that less is more when doing this, I started with more on the brown/gold bars and less on those with the red backspray. Used a 50:50 mix of chocolate and cocoa butter, and a food-safe putty imprinter.

Good idea. What sort of containers do you use for the silk and molten chocolate? Have you had any problems with water leaks or condensation? Have you got any photos of your setup that you can share? That’s where I’ve got a lot of mine as well. I follow a bunch of pastry chefs as well since they also use a lot of chocolate for decorating, etc.

I like those, the angles reflect the light really well - I use them with metallic cocoa butter. They also snap cleanly.

Any particular shape you’re looking for? ~~Larger half-sphere/dome molds are available from 1 or 2 sellers on AliExpress.~~ Didn’t read properly, you asked for bars. I’ll have a look.

I’ve found that you have to be careful which AliExpress sellers you use. Some are just very slow to send their products and some actually misrepresent their products. The melting problem may have been due to receiving a low-density PE (polyethylene) mold instead of the PC (polycarbonate) type. You also get better prices when using the mobile app instead of the website. Most of the better PC molds seem to be made by Shunda, with a few stores offering rebranded boxes. I’ve ordered a bunch of molds from the “Dcrt pastry tools store” and they work well. The quality is quite good, but I have received the occasional one with a poor finish, especially on the edges (I used emery paper to cleanup excess plastic on the upper surface that would have been curled off using my scraper). Searching for “polycarbonate chocolate mold” will avoid most of the silicon ones. “pc chocolate mold” is also a good filter. If you want dome molds add “2124B” to the search; these are the larger size (29mm, 11-13g/⅓ oz), similar to a CW2116/2295 but at a limited number of stores. The “2124” (no B) is available from more stores but is smaller (8g/¼ oz) size (I like these for liquid centers).

This also looks similar to the CW signature mold by chef Kevin Kugel: https://www.pastrychefsboutique.com/chocolate-world/649120-chocolate-world-cw1854-polycarbonate-chocolate-mold-bars-by-kevin-kugel-11750x25x1450-mm-1x8-pc-32-gr-275x135x24mm-bars-napolita.html I’ve got a few and they work well.