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I went out today and came home to a proud hubby, he'd helpfully cleaned all my chocolate moulds for me... With a sponge, the type with a scourer on the back... Now to see what can be salvaged...

The topic of leaking centers has been addressed before: "Leaky chocolate covered peanut butter balls" and "Leaky cherries", but I am dealing with candied ginger pieces in syrup and it's always a problem. (Funny...I googled the problem and found my own posts in eG.) In the PB balls posts, Kerry suggests letting the ginger pieces dry out for a few days. Would that I had a few days. I bought the ginger in syrup today and it has to go out as a gift tomorrow. I have run out of time. In my earlier post, I wondered about precoating the pieces in powdered sugar and cornstarch (and I never tried it). Today I patted the pieces with paper toweling...satisfactory to a point. Next, into a bag of cocoa, shake the cocoa on, shake the cocoa off, and spread on a paper towel. One hour later: most pieces look dry...a few look a tad syrup-ish. Not perfect. Next, repeated above process with some cornstarch. Twenty minutes later: they still all look dry. They still taste just fine. Who has a brilliant tip for me? Or will this latest attempt probably work? I will get back one way or t'other.

Hi everyone! I was wondering if someone can give me a good white chocolate brownie recipe, I've been changing a few brownie recipes and everything messes up when I change dark chocolate for white chocolate. Butter seems to split and consistency gets totally wrong. I'm just looking for a fudgy and dense white chocolate cake that resembles a brownie. Thanks in advance! Lia

Last week I ruined a wonderful chocolate cake...didn't hear the timer...and made cake balls/pops/truffles with the crumb, dipped in tempered 70% chocolate. An interesting first. They were delicious. Oh my. Gave them all away. Serious complaints were forthcoming from friends who are attending next weekend's Annual Dog Weekend. So, I found an old...not too old I hope...Angel Food Cake mix in the cupboard and will add some 52% chocolate to the resulting crumb and then dip the balls into tempered 70% chocolate again. Question: what would be the shelf life of the "Cake Doodads"? They'll be eaten Friday August 17 until they are gone. How early next week can I actually make them? (I need to make as much as I can ahead of time to accommodate my old and doddering bod.) Thanks.

I HAVE tried searching old posts, but I really haven't found what I am looking for. I am trying to find sources for decent chocolate that I can buy in bulk but won't cost a freaking fortune. The best I've found is Albert Uster (http://www.auiswiss.com/). I can buy 5 kg packages of couverture coins for about $45 (with free S&H if the order is over $195). Has anyone found any other sites that can compete with this? Bricks, coins, chips, etc doesn't matter all that much. For the most part, the chocolate goes into making cupcakes, frostings, and fillings. I got a great deal at Costco when they were selling 3lb packages of Ghirardelli chips for $10. I know this wasn't couverture chocolate, but it worked for my purposes. Thanks!

Does anyone know of any giant bar moulds available? When I say giant I mean a single bar larger than 12 inches or so. Thanks.

Anyone ever try it? I've started a new job, and this was one of the chocolates they had brought in to try. They had bags of the 60% that I have used for brownies, truffles and ganache for cakes. It's easy to work with and emulsifies very easily when making ganache. We get it from Italfoods, haven't seen it anywhere else. I asked the rep to send some of the white and milk to try. Not being a fan of white, I really like the flavor of this one. Not too sweet either. Only drawback some people may have with it is they use organic ground vanilla bean in it. So, there are little specks. I attached a picture. I melted some yesterday and it's viscosity is very fluid, so it may mold well. I'll have to try it and see. I don't mind the little specks of vanilla. It might make an interesting molded chocolate. I made my usual passionfruit ganache with it, and it was very tasty. Still have to taste the milk chocolate.

I've been asked to create a white chocolate wedding cake for a friend, whose wedding is in September (the 22nd, to be precise). All well and good, but I haven't got a go-to recipe for such a creature, and I tend to avoid white chocolate (I find myself thinking it's unnatural, like zombies....) I have access to white chocolate couberture made from Arriba cacao beans, and it's all cocoa butter with no vegetable additions (so, as far as white chocolate goes, it's good stuff). Does anybody out there have a really stupendous recipe they'd be willing to share? Or tips on how to incorporate melted white chocolate into a cake batter? Thanks in advance....

As we all know, some moulds de-mould better than others, some always end up with bubbles, others sometimes just mould thinly due to their shapes. I'm about to purchase quite a few new moulds and was wondering if anyone has any experience with the Prvoni Innovation moulds (page showing the type of moulds I'm looking at), good, bad, indifferent? I'm trying to find a set of moulds that are modern/contempary for some unusually flavoured chocolates. Thanks!

I made an Herve This style chocolate mousse last weekend - it is an emulsion of only coffee and chocolate - and it has been in my refrigerator all week. For how long will it still be safe to eat? Is there something in there that can go bad? There are two different versions - the details of which are: Mousse 1: 150g bittersweet chocolate 120g coffee Mousse 2: 150g bittersweet chocolate 140g coffee

Moving this over from the report thread on the 2012 conference - noticed I've changed the name to Workshop from Conference as it seems more appropriate to what we get up to. Conference sounds so dry! Anyway I've already booked the dates with Niagara College - April 27 and 28, 2013. I'm working on a block of rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn - rates will likely be between $109 and $119/night depending on two queen beds vs 1 king. The rates are lower than that for the Wed, Thursday and the Monday after. I won't have definite amounts until the beginning of May. There is certainly other accommodation available - but I won't be able to do block for that. I think we can safely say that one of the Friday activities will be a tour of Art and Wilma's new panning facility - they've moved from their very small quarters in to a huge new building and it is a treat to see. I think we'll skip Tomric this time around - but I'm sure people may want to hit there if they are flying into Buffalo. HOST'S NOTE: Click here for the terms under which this event is listed at the eG Forums.

I will be in the Overland Park, Kansas area at the end of April and was wondering if there are any great chocolate shops and/or patisseries that I should check out while there. Thanks In Advance!

Hi I'm a beginner in making chocolate truffles. What I have here are some Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate chips (repacked by my local bakery supply store in 1lb pack). I was planning to temper them and coat the truffles I make, but later I saw online that some chocolate chips contain additives to hold their shapes at a higher temperature, which will cause troubles in the tempering process. Does anyone know if the Callebaut chips are pure chocolate or those compounded baking chocolate? Could anyone recommand some brands of chocolate which are good for coating? The callebaut chips I have here contain 52.9% cocoa, not sure about the cocoa butter content though. Thanks!!!!

Toots and I love dark chocolate. This weekend is her birthday party and I'd like to make something interesting and different that will be robed in dark chocolate. Any suggestions ... besides strawberries and nuts?

When I was really getting into confectionery last month, I was disgusted by how much dipping forks cost, so I decided to make my own. I used plumber's solder to join the wire together, so it's safe. I wasn't too happy with the join because I was using my dollar store soldering iron, and it seemed to have trouble getting the workpiece hot enough. The join is still pretty strong. Next batch, I'm thinking of using my blow torch. The spiral one ended up getting turned into a holder for my instant read thermometer so I can keep my hand cool while checking temps. These are prototypes, so they are a bit ugly. I picked out the poplar dowel handles from the scrap bin.

Has anyone tried any of the ganache recipes in William Curley's book Couture Chocolates? I tried to make the star anise ganache (p. 66) and it didn't solidify. The recipe says to slab the ganache and cut the next day. The problem was that the next day it was still much too soft to cut. It was more the consistency of a very (emphasis on very) soft ganache for a molded chocolate. The recipe uses a mix of bittersweet chocolate and gianduja for the chocolate component. I was suspicious of the recipe before I began because the ratio of the chocolate mix to cream is only about 1.25:1 which seemed too low to me for a slabbed ganache. Also the recipe calls for heating the chocolate to about 45C (113F) before emulsifying with the cream. Could this have contributed to the ganache not setting, at least in the 24 hour timeframe called for in the recipe? I usually use tempered chocolate to make ganaches. The instructions also have you use a chocolate/cocoa butter mix for the foot. As this mixture crystallized on the slab it cracked a lot and was very brittle. Meanwhile I scooped the ganache up and it's sitting in the refrigerator until I have time to make some molded chocolates. Should be a good filling for that! On the bright side, the flavor is quite nice.

I've been searching for a recipe for margarita truffles. Any suggestions?

Ok, so we tend to show off the jewels of the production, but certainly in my kitchen, there is a lot of stuff produced that is less than picture perfect. Let's bring them out into the light - as long as they taste good, the looks are bonus. I'll open by demonstrating how not to make a beautiful cocoa butter swirl. It was beautiful, but the swirl stayed firmly in the mould. It is salty caramel and almond. Tasty!

Perfect for Dipping by Melissa Clark is an article I found yesterday online in the NYT. What's this? Quick tempering of chocolate using a neutral vegetable oil? Why have I never noticed this before? Is this a terrible thing to do? I see that it 'lasts' only two days or so. What would I use it for? Of course I'm going to try it...the courverture, Guittard's Bittersweet, is out on the counter...but I'm really curious to know what, if anything, anyone else has to report about this technique.

Good morning from Norman, Oklahoma, home of the University of Oklahoma and suburb of Oklahoma City. For reference, Oklahoma is the state just north of Texas (no, it is not a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein… that's Oklahoma! with an exclamation point. No one puts an exclamation point when they are talking about the state). Hopefully you've all heard of Texas, anyway, even if Oklahoma and Idaho and Iowa are all a blur. It is, alas, somewhat less idyllic than what Sheepish treated us to last week. Nevertheless, I eat well here. Not a whole lot of lamb, though! It's been a few years since my last foodblog, and life has changed more than a little. Some things, however, have not changed: OK, so that's a tiny change. Same mug, but now I brew pour-over rather than French press. Different coffee brand as well: Storyville Coffee sends me bi-weekly shipments of fresh-roasted beans. In my opinion, using fresh-roasted beans trumps any other factor when it comes to coffee quality. About some of the teaser photos Heidi posted: as someone who posts a ton of photos here at the eG forums, I had to work hard to find things to post that weren't dead giveaways! It's probably not well known that I love yogurt. The Fage is for eating plain, the Yoplait is for smoothies. Yes, the crocus was just meant to be a sign that it's spring here (I have dozens in various colors in my backyard blooming now, and the daffodils are just beginning to bloom as well). So, no saffron from them. Not that I don't love saffron. I just don't grow it. I think it's also not well-known that about a year ago I decided to try to learn to appreciate white wine, having been a red-drinker my whole life. So, a wine fridge. What you can't see in the photo is the identical wine fridge next to it that I use for curing salume. The wok? Well, I have a Big Kahuna wok burner, which you'll see a bit of this week. And the cookbooks are mostly what I'm cooking this week. I seldom actually plan out a week's meals when I'm not doing a "cooking through X" project, but just for you guys, this week, I have a plan. Let's see if I stick to it now…

I greatly enjoy making chocolate truffles, but have had relatively poor luck holding chocolate at the correct temperatures for tempering. My standard method of very slowly melting it in a microwave produces chocolate that, while crisp with good mouthfeel, has severe bloom. After seeing some commercial tempering setups on YouTube, I noticed that many of them use a fountain-style setup for circulation and mold filling. I don't have any chocolate molds, but purchasing a secondhand consumer chocolate fountain and integrating a PID controller and thermocouple into the heater is a very viable possibility. Has anyone done anything like this?

[Manager note: Follow this conversation from the begining at Chocolates with that showroom finish, 2004 - 2011] heard somewhere that the higher the % of cocoa in a chocolate then the thicker it is when in temper? is this true? it might explain things a little when im trying to temper the chocolate at work. Also, whats a good precise thermometer to use for tempering thanks

There's about 6 pounds of Guittard Milk Chocolate sitting in my basement, leftover from a long Christmas story which no one needs to hear. I don't like the taste of milk chocolate: never have, never will. I can always use it over a longish period in cakes, icings, candies, ice cream, whatever, to give away. However, is there some way to hide/mask/alter the milk chocolatey-ness of it and use it for things we, as confirmed dark bittersweet chocolate lovers, might enjoy?

Hi folks. I'm quite new to this forum and also chocolate making. Loving every minute of it and finding this forum a god send! I am looking to somehow thin my chocolate a little in order to make my praline easier to dip. I use 60% dark from the Greneda Chocolate Company and it's far too thick to enable me to dip without getting into a righ old mess I've read cocoa butter and possibly veg oil? Any ideas? Thanks Joey

Hi all! I'm on Long Island, NY, looking for a source of good chocolate and white chocolate that wont break the bank. Need it for Christmas confections (peppermint bark, coating caramels, etc) and refuse to use the melting wafers available locally (Merkens and Wilton). Suggestions? Thanks, Heather