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I have a box of truffle shells that were not stored properly and have bloomed. If I fill and dip them in tempered chocolate, will the newly dipped chocolate bloom due to the layer underneath it, or will the outer layer seal the under layer and keep them looking nice?

OK, I know this is sweating the small stuff, but I'm wondering what you see ... Is this rabbit https://www.dr.ca/rabbit-mold-7-5-inches.html holding an egg, or is the oval a fuzzy underbelly?

Hey All! I remember having a conversation with someone a few years ago and they said something to me about a technique they heard about that involves infusing cold cream with various flavors overnight. This cream could then be used to make chocolate ganache fillings. I think the idea was that the cold infusion method somehow imparted a better or cleaner flavor to the final product. Can anyone one tell me more about this technique? I am playing around with various herbs and citrus fruit these days for ganache flavors and I would like the taste to come through as strong and pure as possible. I am curious to know, even if the cream is infused while cold, wouldn't some of that effort be lost when heating the cream to mix with the chocolate in the ganache? I'd love to be enlightened! Thanks!

Good morning! Long story short: I am doing a spin off the coconut/chocolate/almond candy (almond joy), and trying to create a specific shape out of the almond. My hands are cramped after a couple dozen failed attempts whittling roasted almonds, so now I'd like to try a different approach, and instead, create some kind of sub-candy or cookie with roasted almonds that I can put into a mold or use a mini cookie cutter. I'm fairly new to sweets, my knowledge in this area is pretty slim. Some ideas so far, I don't like any, but it might help turn some gears: 1. dusting almond over a stencil, but that's not enough almond nor crunchy enough 2. almond brittle, but that's too hard and sweet, I'd like it more of a soft crunch, and bringing the almond flavor forward 3. meringue with almonds (sort of macaron-ish), however, weather has been humid and raining here, and I'm ending up with a gooey mess instead of that soft crunch In addition to having almond-forward taste and soft crunch texture, it'd be fun to explore something modernish - I have a accumulated a few tools and ingredients not customarily found in homes. There are dietary considerations I will have to account for, however, no need to worry about that now, I am just looking for ideas and a place to take it from there Thank you for your time in reading!

Hello, hoping someone can help me with some workflow questions. I've recently taken over the pastry role in a small tasting menu restaurant and we'd like to produce molded chocolate truffles for either mignardise or take-aways. We have 5 poly trays of molds that hold 40/tray and we'd like to produce roughly that many per week (200). Time and space is tight so I'd like to do this in one go, once per week. The problem I'm having is I don't know the proper workflow for creating this many candies at once. We do not have a tempering machine so it would be stovetop tempering. Is it possible to do that in one go with one big bowl of chocolate? In the past I've made truffles, but always discarded the chocolate after filling the molds. Is it a bad idea to put chocolate from the molds back into the large batch of tempered chocolate? (i.e. fill the molds with chocolate, let the shell set (1-2 mins) then when tipping the chocolate out, can that be tipped back into the large batch?) Also, any tips for large batch tempering of chocolate? We don't have a marble slab so the seeded method is really the only one. The real question is how can I keep a large batch of chocolate tempered for the time it takes to produce 200 molded candies? We have minimal equipment for this kind of operation and I'd be tempering over a double boiler then using ambient heat from a frenchtop to maintain temperature. Is this too much to do without a tempering machine? I'm worried about maintaining the temperature of the tempered chocolate during the time it takes to fill 200 molds with filling. I know I can retemper if I lose it but I really need to work fast and efficiently to get this done in the timeframe that I have (~1hr). If anyone has some insight into a workflow it would be much appreciated. Thanks, Jesse

Hey there wise E-gullet-ers! I have another question to put out there. I am interested in making a rose jelly - one that I can layer with a chocolate ganache similar to a pâte de fruit. I don't really know how to go about this. Do you infuse water with dried rose petals and make a syrup? What's the best way to gellify it? I'm very curious. Has anyone made jellies with any other botanicals? Is anyone willing to share their recipe as a guideline? Many thanks! Christy

When working with tablets and bar molds how necessary is to heat the molds? What will be the difference doing it or not? How do you heat them when working with a large number? Air gun, heating cabinet? Your help is deeply appreciated!

Hi All, I think this is a long shot, but I'll put it out there. I'm wondering if anyone in the Greater Vancouver area has an EZ Temper that they would be willing and able to loan/rent out for a couple days or up to a week? I am super curious to try it out and if the results are as wonderful as I expect I'm hoping I can find it in the business budget. Feel free to message me privately.

Hello! I was wondering if anyone on here has tried using an induction cooktop with confection making (caramels, fondant, marshmallows ect...). My stove has literally three settings, and the low setting still burns sugar and there is no such thing as maintaining any sort of "simmer". I was looking into getting a cooktop and buying some copper sugar pots and mauviel makes this thing that goes inbetween. I would love to hear any input into this idea or your experiences! ~Sarah

One of my friends is leaving for Spain next week, and I’m planning to surprise her with a party before she leaves. Since she’s a huge lover of sweets, I decided to buy her a cake. I don’t know where to start looking, but my brother suggested that I buy from this online provider of custom cakes. I checked their website, and I think they have cakes that my friend will love. I haven’t bought anything yet because I want to be 100% sure that their cakes are truly excellent. Do you have any idea how I should examine cakes through the Internet? What are the things that I must take into consideration? Thanks!

Hi: I'm making some homemade peanut butter cups, but shaping them like bon bons instead. I don't have bon bon molds, so instead I'm dipping the peanut butter centers into tempered chocolate. As the chocolate coating sets, it contracts and my soft peanut butter center squirts out a little. Is there a way to prevent this, or do I need to do a second dipping? I've tried with both frozen and room temp centers (although peanut butter with a little vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar doesn't seem to freeze at all).

I'm watching The Sweet Makers on BBC - four British pastry chefs & confectioners recreate Tudor, Georgian, and Victorian sweets with petiod ingredients and equipment. A little British Baking Show, a little Downton Abbey. Check it it out for a slice of pastry history. BBC viewer only available to the U.K., but on this side of the pond where there's a will, there's a way.

I made bananas foster Bon bons for the favors for my parents 50th anniversary party favors, using the banana ganache recipe from M. Laiskonis' workbook. I made a dry caramel & added small thin shards of caramel into the ganache. They were completed Monday evening. On Wednesday I noticed a few had exploded so I replaced them in the boxes with another bonbon. Tonight I went to set them out & saw that every last one had exploded as in the attached photo. I made only one tray so I don't have a comparison. Any thoughts as to what I did wrong? I would prefer to avoid exploding anymore bonbons!

Has anyone come across tech sheets for Domori's products? I can't find *anything* online, and have yet to receive a response from the company. I'd really love to spend more time playing with their chocolate, but cannot realistically do so unless I know precise fat content.

Does anyone have experience using a confectionery coating pan? I got one from D&R over the summer, and have only had a few chances to play with it. When coating nuts with chocolate, how much chocolate is typically left on the pan? Last week I coated some hazelnuts, and about 1/3 of the chocolate that I used was left on the inside of the pan. Seems like a lot of waste. How much chocolate do you add at a time? Are more smaller additions better than fewer larger ones? Do you aim for a particular chocolate:nut ratio? Any tips for less spherical items like cashews? What do you use to cool the nuts as they are tumbling? I tried some cold spray, which seemed to help. Unfortunately I followed the cold spray with a hit of the propane torch to the outside to try to melt some of the chocolate on the pan, and managed to create a small fire ball, so I won't be doing that again! :0 Do you use a hair dryer to heat as needed, or something else?

I don't have the more expensive, fancy chocolate but, I do have different varieties of Merckens, Peter's and Wilbur that I bought really cheap, like $20 for 10lb. Does anybody have any experience blending them for either enrobing or for making frostings to make a tastier chocolate? Like using mixing Merckens Marquis with Peter's Ultra. I would appreciate a template to go by which would alleviate some of the headache of testing myself. does anyone know how to make chocolate cake with milk chocolate? how to replace dark unsweetened with milk chocolate? help, thanks.

I have been asked to make individual Mississippi Mud Pies for a catering company and have been doing some Internet searching on the subject. Firstly, MMP's are not very well known in South Africa and I have never seen one or tasted one, so I thought Google was my friend. Well, I have found so many different desserts called MMP's that are so different and varied that I still have no idea what a MMP should look and taste like. I did an eG search as well and came across many mentions of this dessert, but no recipes. Can anybody give me a few pointers or point me to a recipe or two for me to get aquatinted with this "pie". Just for a bit of extra info, the request is for individual portioned pies made in 70mm (D) x 50mm (H) ring moulds. Any gelatine used must also not be animal derived. The pies can be frozen and should have a shelf life of around 5 days once defrosted or from fresh, if not frozen. Any help will be greatly appreciated. John.

A visitor from Switzerland recently brought some exceptionally tasty chocolate truffles as a gift, and I find myself wondering how they were done. I have done a tiny amount of truffle making myself for holiday gifts, but I am nothing near expert with techniques or flavors of different types of chocolate. Given how much everyone in the house enjoyed them, though, I am wondering if I can produce something similar at home when we particularly feel like a treat. I know that different chocolates will give different flavors, which I am prepared to experiment with a bit. What is stumping me is that the dark chocolate ganache filling has a cooked or almost burnt taste to it to me - not strong, and not caramel. It is very much like the scent that you get when baking something like brownies. Is it possible that they intentionally overheated a small amount of chocolate to get that flavor, or is it something that some varieties of chocolate have naturally? (I am working my way through various chocolate threads on egullet ATM. I had no idea I'd been quite lucky with my previous ganache efforts as I've never had any major issues with behavior or texture. Though I imagine having done it just for the home in small amounts helps - I never made enough for gifts that long term shelf life would be an issue.)

Hi! I have been recently tasked with incorporating a red, fruity wine into a chocolate mousse for an event at the restaurant/winery where I work. I'm fresh out of pastry school so I'm still relying on my school recipes and knowledge from class vs years of work experience. I made a chocolate mousse today and had to add about 8oz of wine before I could really detect the flavor. The result unfortunately is a soft almost soupy mousse...which I would expect after adding so much of an additional liquid. My question is, how can I incorporate the wine, so I have the flavor, but still keep my chocolate mousse firm. My mousse is made by starting with a bombe (whipped yolks and cooked sugar), to that I add melted chocolate (14oz). At this point I also added the wine and then folded in whipped cream. If I add more yolks, will that help to stiffen my mousse? Would it make sense to cook down the wine and use as a reduction? Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

Has anyone ever tasted a really good fresh-tasting citrus ganache? I have once. It was a lime bonbon made by Franck-Fresson over in France. Unfortunately, now every citrus ganache since then has tasted, well, old. Does anyone has any idea how these are done? I've gone as far as adding freshly squeezed lime juice to a zest-infused ganache (calculated with a slightly lower fat percentage than usual so the fat doesn't inhibit the flavour too much) and found that they still couldn't compare. Help?

Has anybody made the orange raspberry bon bon from Notter's book "The Art of the Chocolatier: From Classic Confections to Sensational Showpieces"? It is described as a smooth raspberry coulis, atop a dark ganache, infused with fresh orange juice, encased in a dark chocolate shell. What did you think of it? I'm very curious about the texture and taste of the raspberry coulis. Unfortunately the book shows a picture on the finished piece (no step-by-step photos or a cut-away photo).

Borrowing a page from Modernist Cuisine, I put 500ml of whole milk and 70 grams cocoa nibs in an ISI container with two charges of NO2. Eight to twelve hours later I strained. The milk is white with a grains of cocoa (which fall out on their own), but tastes strongly of chocolate -- it's white chocolate milk. As a drink, with sweetener it's delicious. But baking with it the flavour evaporates. Why, and does anyone have a suggestion on how to keep the chocolate flavour? To be more specific, I used the white chocolate milk in place of milk in drop cookies and white cake batter. In the batter the flavour is noticeable, after baking, it's gone. Baking times were between 10 and 40 minutes. The only thing I can think to do is try the experiment again with heavy cream and see if the fat preserves the flavour. Any thoughts on this?

I have my first holiday bazaar gig and am very excited. It occurred to me that I have no idea how many chocolates to make for this fair. They estimate 1500 attendance and it's at a private club (golf course, spa, etc). How do you estimate quantities? I did read through an excellent thread on the topic of fairs, but didn't come across formulas or strategies for estimating how much. Thanks.

I've been making chocolates in my spare time over the past few years, but have taken a few big steps lately towards shifting from pastry chef to chocolatier. I had packaging designed and made, cobbled together a website, rented space in a commissary kitchen, and am almost out the door at the restaurant. Yup, finally quit the day job! I've done two pop-up shops and will be part of another on Saturday, and today I exhibited and sold at the Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon. I'm learning a lot, but one thing I still need to figure out is how to determine shelf life and balance that with production. Products are filled bonbons, ganache truffle squares, bars with fillings or inclusions, caramels, and pate de fruits. My estimate of shelf life is around 2 weeks for bonbons and pdf, 3-4 weeks for truffles, and longer for caramels and bars. I guess I don't have a specific question, more looking for insight on how other confectioners & chocolatiers manage to have efficient production. Do you date your product? Refrigerate/freeze it? How do you determine your sell by date? How many orders/boxes of an item do you usually make at once, and how long does it take to sell? How much of a window before the sell by date do you think people expect? Is it better to have an earlier sell by date and risk people thinking it might be bad when it probably isn't, or have a later date and risk people waiting too long and eating things not at their peak? Your thoughts & experience are appreciated! Andrea

I'm wondering what you recommend as the best books about France chocolate cakes or great chocolate? Thank