Rajala

I don't have an AC. That's why I'm looking for options. But I'm about to order 12 kgs of fruit purée. I hope my co-workers like pate de fruit.

@BentleyI use a German brand (don't remember the name by heart), most of the colors are probably not good for you. I also bought from a UK company once, which have like 50 colors or something. Everything just seems to be a mix of "base" colors though. So you could easily come up with your own colors by experimenting a bit. However, since everything is a hobby it's not that important to get the exact same result. But I write down what I do though, to achieve, at least, a very similar result each time. I always use a bit of white color (titanium oxide) to get the colors to be opaque. Maybe 2 grams out of 10. It all depends on how strong I want the colors to be. If I want something that's more pastel, more white.

I never buy colored coca butter, it's easy to mix them on your own. 100 grams of cocoa butter, and 10 grams of color - mix it with your stick blender. I keep them like this.

@pastrygirl Pate de fruit is a great suggestion. I visited the big thread about it but haven't tried it yet. Thanks for reminding me. @Tri2Cook Haha, I love the summer as well. It's quite short, too short, but it still sucks that I can't handle chocolate like I normally do. @Jim D. You mention videos, do you have any suggestions? Maybe there's some kind of youtuber I don't know about? Most things I've found so far is very basic. I just got the Art of the chocolatier (name?) so that's a new book to go through.

So, it's summer and I love it and I hate it. The high temperature and high humidity makes it so much harder to handle chocolate (It must suck to live in Australia. Constant heat and all those poisonous animals ). I can't be arsed with buying an air cooler etc, my apartment is way too small for large equipment like that. So I've been thinking of what I should do during the coming two-three months instead of chocolate, but can't figure out what I should concentrate on. My plan is therefore to ask you! Do you have any suggestions? Become a tart master? Practice more on mousses? I'm open for any ideas. I do think about putting more hours in to designing my own moulds for mousses, since it's a bit more fun to work with things like that than the standard Pavoni/Silikomart shapes. What do you, who have to endure hotter periods, do when you can't do chocolate work?

It sure is here as well, on another continent. Haha, just checked my local supplier of Valrhona. They want 77 EUR for a 3 kg bag. That's the list price though, so it can probably go down a bit. But still crazy. German supplier wants 63 EUR, so I guess price depends on how good of a negotiator you are. Still waaay more expensive though.

I have a bag at home. I'm not super fond of it, colleagues who I unload all of my work on thought the bar made with it was the best thing ever though. Haven't tried the Cacao Barry branded version, but Varlhona's variation is better than Callebaut, maybe not to much surprise?

You know because the one pictured is yours? I think Premier is like the main manufacturer or these, or the brand at least. I got one as well, but as I wrote it only got one "scraper".

When he had a class he was using both one of those smaller airbrushes and a HVLP gun.

Looks like a lot of fun! Does anyone know the model name of that stone grinder? I like that it have a "scraper" at both sides of the stone wheels. The one I have only got one.

For anyone lurking, what I've learned from friends about his technique to get a great shine with the cocoa butter; He heats the cocoa butter to 50 degrees, cool it down with movements to 26-27 degrees and then heat ut up to 30 degrees with a heat gun. Then spray your molds. Maybe you guys watching the videos can confirm for people interested. Not sure if my friend remember it correctly. I've always been taught that you don't need to temper in that way if you're using an airbrush, but maybe it's what you should do to get that crazy shine, combined with the right room temperature etc.

Haha, that domain name is a bit dodgy. Regarding signing up, to each and his own, right? I hope you enjoy it! Maybe it's amazing. I watched some free video of something and it had a voice over in English which was really bad. Maybe these videos are better?

Aaah. I have the pro one then. Didn't know about the home version. I will, there's no Amazon here so I'll have to wait until early next week!

Yeah, that's it. Thanks Google. I didn't know there is a pro version. Edit: Well, I placed an order for The Art of the Chocolatier. I get my salary next week so a book for $50 is acceptable.

Book suggestions are always nice. I'll have to look that one up. Chocolate and Confectionary or whatever that book is called, was an amazing suggestion from someone. I love that it uses the metric system. You know which one I'm talking about.

So, we agreed on that in the end it's self leveling vs shelf life? That would make sense.

I have no idea. I would like to know as well, maybe there’s extra cocoa butter added in the ganache?

Hehe, well you can get an answer from a professional if you ask the questions in a good way, because some times I can get an answer which is like "eh, hmm i did ask about that, and you just expanded on the question without answering it?" I guess she's a quite busy person. Regarding Savour, do remember that the classes are very wide in their theme, and not that narrow.

Valid points! Savour is nice, Kirsten does a really good job explaining things in her videos.

Not sure what you mean by this? I don't understand what the currency rates has to do with it? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding what you're trying to express. I mean, if you think it's worth it, it is, for you. I personally wouldn't pay that much for just videos. But I see what you mean with the artistic value etc

Wow, that price is crazy. I'd rather spend that money on an on-hands class with Coppel or something (which I did, but that's a year away )

That could work as well. But it feels more costly than metal if you want them to be thick. It feels more like something I would use to make bars with several different layers.

I'm thinking that that is the way to go. I can get some steel / aluminium from a store close by. I would just need to make smaller pieces of it. I don't even have space for one of those. And the cheapest one seems to be like 800 EUR + taxes. Will look at what pastrygirl mention and see if I can find anything that suits my needs. I have two stores within walking distance that I could ask as well. One is making fudge etc and the other one is making mostly chocolate.

I don't have a cutter and it'll probably be a while before I invest in one. They're quite price as you're probably well aware of. It's for trying to make some ganache, pate de fruits and also for some caramels. The main reason I ask is because I started to read about leaf croquant in Chocolates & confections, and you need a frame (if you follow the recipe blindly) for the caramel.

What's the consensus on confectionary frames? Making your own with help from someone? This thread is a few years now but I see lots of people that are still active in other threads. Maybe you can shed some light on how you're working with frames these days?