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SweetandSnappyJen

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Everything posted by SweetandSnappyJen

  1. What I'm trying to figure out is how Stick With Me Sweets gets these colors so vibrant and full! Even on the dark background. I can see that there's overlap, but even on the parts the stripes that are not overlapping, the color is still vivid, with just the right amount of transparency. My homemade colors look so thin :(
  2. Thanks, Chocolat. I added the white flowers, and it looks like it generally worked, it set very quickly (I used silk) but there's a little streakiness. Any thoughts on what this could be? And one last question, had I not added the white flowers, would backing the somewhat transparent color with white have the same effect? Thanks!
  3. Hi folks - I've just received some Power Flowers and had a question about color matching. The recipes reference using white chocolate(or milk, oddly) to mix with the colors, but I'm planning to use cocoa butter instead. I'm guessing the color will not entirely match with their colors, has anyone found a method/way to tweak the colors so that the color can be a closer match? Thanks!
  4. @Kerry Beal - they look nice! Yea, it would just be a few molds and only for a week, just trying to maximize time (and shiny-ness!)
  5. Hi - just reviving this topic for a freezer question-- has anyone attempted freezing the actual mold itself, vacuum sealed?
  6. Just a little update, the side set method has definitely eliminated my caving in issue! Thanks all for that suggestion. I've been scraping and turning it over a couple of times to even out the sides. I do experience a little excess on one side at times, but I think that's due to the ambient temperature being a bit too cool and setting too quickly. But all in all, much better, so thanks!
  7. Interesting, i'll give the 'side rest' a shot to see if that resolves the issue. Thanks!
  8. On the side-- interesting! Doesn't the shell set imbalanced, and possibly too thin on the other side? Yea, my chocolate is always in temper and sets nicely, but I end up ruining 4-5 pieces per tray when they cave in.
  9. Hi folks: my question is unrelated to the previous poster, however it does fall into the category of 'Molded Chocolates Workflow' so I figured I'd pose it here. I've been tempering/molding chocolates for ages, but for some reason, the past several months have been giving me a fairly consistent issue. I fill the cavities with tempered chocolate, tap to let the excess chocolate drips out, scrape and then lay the mold upside down, for about 5 minutes or so or when the chocolate starts to set. When I scrape again to get the excess chocolate off the top after the mold has been upside down, the side of the cavity caves in. I've tried waiting until the molds are fully set and scraping then, but i either get the whole shell coming out, or also a side cave-in. Has this happened to any of you? Thanks!
  10. Thanks, Jim. The fact that the fat will separate to the top is a good visual indicator..
  11. Thanks, Jim, that makes sense. For a praline ganache, would one use equal parts hazelnut paste and cream? I think my source of confusion is how to get the right amount of water/moisture if using both cream and nut paste, without also adding too much fat.
  12. Hi folks: I'm trying to wrap my head around ganache formulation and the difference between using nut fats(paste or praline) and milk fats. Can anyone point me to a thread on this site or elsewhere? Thanks!
  13. @jimd- I missed the part about supplying the buyer with the chocolates still in the bags. Thanks for the info!
  14. Thanks, @jimd! Are the bags that you use re-usable?
  15. Hi folks - I can't believe my luck with this group of chocolatier-ing experts! What an amazing community of knowledge. And speaking of knowledge, I'm going to toss out another inquiry. I've looked through the threads, and found this one to be very useful. I was wondering if anyone has any more recent experience with freezing their goods. My filled chocolates are generally being sold by the box, and it's the very early stages of my business, so the sales are not yet consistent. I was thinking that it would work to freeze by the box (mainly boxes of 5), putting some filler in the box to compensate for the extra room, then wrapping each box in a Ziploc, sucking the air out of the Ziploc (the old fashioned way, not with a vacuum sealer) and then putting each of those boxes in 2 gallon Ziplocs so that i can just pull one out as needed. I'm trying to avoid the vacuum sealer, and I'd like to figure out a way to do this so that I don't have to pull a whole container out of the freezer just to retrieve a few chocolates. Thanks in advance for the advice!
  16. I do have cocoa butter on hand, I'll give that a whirl this afternoon. Thanks! And @Madsandersen- I'll look into 2815, thanks!
  17. Thanks, everyone! There was no information regarding the formulation, just 'bittersweet'. The update, a couple of hours later is that they set with some streaks and other bloom-like discoloration (I tested the temper before molding, and it seemed to be in temper) I wonder if it was overseeded in the machine, or something. I'm still trying to decide if I prefer the old fashioned way of tempering But it's hard to tell if this is a machine issue or a chocolate issue. The odd thing, is that that the chocolate that I swiped out with my finger appears to be in temper (the attachment '3.jpg'. @pastrygirl- if I were to thin it down with cocoa butter in the machine, I'd melt the cocoa butter first, correct?
  18. Hi folks - I often buy a blocks of Callebaut Bittersweet or Semi-sweet from our local grocery store that I use for my shells. The chocolate has been fine in the past, but I just brought out my Chocovision Rev2b for some tempering, and the chocolate was SO viscous, to the point that I had to take my finger and swish the chocolate out of the cavities. I know Callebaut makes a few varieties of dark, these were simply labeled "Bittersweet". Has this happened to anyone? Thanks.
  19. @pastrygirl - yea, that's all I've been able to find, but I'll give Renee at Chocolat Chocolat a ring and see if she has some ideas. Thanks!
  20. Hey Chocolate folks - I buy most of my molds from Tomric, but I'm having trouble tracking down polycarbonate Hanukkah molds. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look? Thanks so much! Jen
  21. Thanks for the replies! They mostly dropped out, I did have to tap them a bit. I have a sneaking suspicion it was the temperature, that I tried to unmould them to soon. After those came out ruined, I tried my next mould of milk chocolate, and the two that came out, were also duds. But then I put them back in the fridge for a few hours and they came out perfectly. It *couldve* been the white chocolate, because my other mould of white, which did not have colored cocoa butter but did have a thin layer of brushed cocoa butter, also came out dull.
  22. Hi folks: Would anyone be able to help me diagnose the following (see pictures, empty mold, and turned out chocolates) I sprayed the molds CB, they sat around for a good couple of days before I added tempered white chocolate. Filled them, capped them and you can see by the pictures, most of the cocoa butter stayed in the mold. I warmed the CB in the microwave, shook like mad, warmed some more, and then popped it into the sprayer. Any ideas? Thanks!
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