Haley

I went ahead with my Easter chocolates this year and am so happy with how they turned out, but will never put myself through this painting process again! It turns out that I enjoy painting a few intricate eggs at a time, but not 60 per batch at a time. I was worried that all my hard work would go to waste but it turns out that people were really looking forward to these chocolates with all that’s going on and I ended up selling every last box. Flavors are s’mores, caramel with shortbread cookie, cookies and cream, and caramel with peanut butter and pretzel. The large eggs have small milk chocolate and cookie butter truffles inside them.

Playing around with some egg designs. TBD which ones make the cut. Also waiting on a new order of cocoa butter colors so there will be more testing soon!

The nice sold slightly better (as I suspected and was prepared for knowing my customers). I offered a slight discount when buying a box of each and that seemed to help balance out my inventory.

Finally back on the forums to get some Valentine’s inspiration and thought I’d share my Christmas collections. I can never narrow down the flavors that I want to make, so as usual, I overdid it. I made 24 different bonbons this year in order to fulfill my idea of offering a “nice” box (more traditional flavors) and a “naughty” box (more non traditional flavors and more dark chocolate). Nice box flavors: turtle, salted caramel, strawberry, peanut butter, cookie butter, hot chocolate, peppermint, coffee, coconut, key lime, raspberry cheesecake, and hazelnut gianduja Naughty box flavors: rosemary olive oil, bananas foster caramel, kalamansi, spiked eggnog, salt and pepper, peanut butter pretzel, creme brûlée, pecan gianduja ganache, dark chocolate passion fruit, hazelnut latte, mango habanero, and chai I’m going to stick with a much more manageable number of flavors for Valentine’s Day!

Count me in!

Here are a few of my pictures from the weekend so far. A few of us went to the City Museum last night and had too much fun. Can you spot Willow in the last picture?

I made it to Atlanta. One more flight to go! I don’t travel by myself very often and I’m realizing that airports are so much easier without 3 little kids in tow. It’s kind of relaxing to sit here while I know my husband is at home running carpool and after school activities 😂

Thanks for all of this. It's a big help.

Thanks for the input! It is all very helpful. I’m a big planner so when I saw the words “self directed” on the outline I had a little moment of anxiety. I feel better now 😅.

This will be my first workshop and I'm wondering a few things. How will the workshop days go and what do I need to bring/be prepared for? Since I'm flying in and space is limited, I wanted to be sure I am clear about what to expect. I know to bring chocolates for the social, but I'm confused about the self-directed portions.

I’m also fine with Bulrush, especially since I won’t be able to make it to the Thursday night dinner. Can you explain how the chocolate trade social usually goes? Do I just bring a bunch of chocolates to share?

Thank you!

I’m interested in buying your spot, as long as I don’t have to be a “master” in order to do the master class. This will be my first workshop so I have no idea what to expect.

Eggs are so much fun to paint! Flavors are: *Milk chocolate cookie butter meltaway with a chocolate and biscoff crunch layer. *caramel, pretzel, dried cranberry, and dark chocolate pecan gianduja *peanut butter *caramel, honey roasted peanuts, and peanut butter

I’ve made his pecan gianduja cream ganache and have had the same problem in the past. I just added more chocolate. I have also found now that I have an EZ temper that adding silk helps mine firm up much better than when I’ve tried to temper it by hand. I do like that the cream ganache is not as firm as a straight up gianduja though.

I have some fun egg molds that I want to make for Easter, but they are an awkward size. Too small to leave hollow and fill with small candies, but big enough that my normal bonbon fillings are just too rich. I plan to keep them as half eggs. I will do some peanut butter filled ones but am having trouble coming up with other ideas. Any suggestions? (Picture to show size)

Just simple salted caramel and chopped roasted pecans for the filling.

A friend requested turtle bonbons and I love how my “turtle shells” came out.

I tried this new flavor combo for valentines this year. White chocolate cherry ganache, dried cherry, with a smoked almond/dark chocolate gianduja on the bottom. I wasn’t too sure about each layer individually, but together it made a very delicious combination.

Just signed up! I’m sad I didn’t get in fast enough for the master class but I’m very excited to meet everyone and learn.

The green at the front is key lime. The other flavors I did are: maple bourbon pecan dulce de leche coffee bananas foster caramel mango habanero espresso salted caramel peanut butter pretzel turtle pecan gianduja ganache salted caramel and black pepper ganache fresh mint ganache peppermint hazelnut gianduja cookie butter crunch chai jasmine orange blossom toasted coconut blackberry mojito white chocolate grapefruit raspberry passionfruit black sesame soft chocolate nougat I think I got a little carried away with trying new flavors this year!

My Christmas collection is finished! 😅

Thanks! I have The Greweling book and usually skip straight to the recipes (until the inevitable troubleshooting is needed 😂). I’ll look back at it for steps to properly freeze some.

I always make hand dipped and molded bonbons for friends and neighbors at the holidays. This year I have already had so many people ask if they can buy boxes of chocolates from me to give as gifts so I have decided to up my quantities this year. But now I’m trying to figure out how to schedule out my time. In past years I have set aside one week where I have just resigned myself to a completely messy kitchen, fast food every night for dinner, and basically neglecting my family and all other responsibilities for 5-7 days. I would really love to find a better workflow this year. When do you start your holiday chocolates? Do you make any in advance and refrigerate or freeze them? Would a wine cooler be better for storage? I live in Alabama, so it will still be hot and fairly humid even in December! Any advice on workflow would be appreciated as I would love to keep my sanity at an already busy time of year.

@curls I tried to match the flavors to the planets and some were easier than others. I knew Earth needed to be something “earthy” and I wanted Neptune to be a cool flavor and I wanted to be sure that one of the gas giants had some fluffy marshmallow. But Saturn was one that I was stuck on and since everyone seems to love salted caramel, that’s what I went with. I’m just starting to experiment with layers in my bonbons so a layered Saturn might be in the next round of planet boxes I make because that’s a great idea!