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My supplier decided that cocoa butter is now special order so I had to buy a case. And now I have an excessive amount of cocoa butter, anyone need any? Cacao Barry cocoa butter pistoles with a best by date of April 2021 $66 for the 3 kg tub or $22 per kg plus shipping.

This looks interesting - I know some of us have lamented the lack of flavor or off flavors of additives to colored cocoa butter - anyone seen or tried these? Looks like they can be used either to mix into chocolate as a fat-based flavor or to decorate molds as usual with colored CB ... More expensive than Valrhona Inspiration or regular colored CB, I wonder how they compare in flavor intensity, the Valrhonas I've tried were fairly intense. I also wonder what flavors brown, black, and amber are ... https://www.pcb-creation.com/pure-emotion-colour-by-pcb-creation/?lang=en Edited to add: the black/ brown flavors are chocolate, of course! 🙃

So, what is everyone doing for the pastry & baking side of Easter? I'm working on the following chocolates: fruit & nut eggs, hollow bunnies, Jelly Belly filled bunnies, coconut bunnies, dragons (filled with rice krispies & chocolate), peanut butter hedgehogs, and malted milk hens. Hoping to finish my dark chocolate production today and get started on all my milk chocolate items. My father-in-law will be baking the traditional family Easter bread a day or two before Easter. Its an enriched bread and he makes two versions -- one with raisins and one without (I prefer the one with raisins). And I was lucky enough to spot this couple in the sale moulds stock at last year's eGullet chocolate & confections workshop in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. These love bunnies help so very much with Easter chocolate production! ;-)

I have an opportunity to obtain (without a trip to NYC, where everything appears available) some hard-to-find liqueurs or brandies for my chocolate work, primarily in ganaches. I already have a poire Williams eau-de-vie and a framboise one as well. I have German kirschwasser but am getting low on that, so am thinking of getting more while I have this chance. For new ones, I'm thinking primarily of apricot. I have heard there are some wonderful European apricot brandies/liqueurs, but don't know which really taste of apricots and are worth purchasing. And the other flavor I would like is a strawberry brandy or liqueur. Online I've found Dolceterra Marcati wild strawberries liqueur and Drillaut strawberry liqueur but know nothing about either. I lean more toward a liqueur/cordial than eau-de-vie because sometimes I think the latter does not always taste specifically of the fruit. Any guidance would be much appreciated, including ideas for fruits I haven't mentioned.

I've recently started making caramels and been experimenting with lots of flavors and having a blast. One thing that I am having a hard time finding information about is the role of the different ingredients and how different ratios affect the firmness of a caramel. In particular, I have an espresso caramel recipe that I can't seem to get to the soft, no-effort-while-chewing texture that I've achieved with other flavors, yet I've stuck to the same temperatures as other recipes. This leads me to believe that the ratio of ingredients is key. I was hoping I'd be able to get some insight into how to alter ingredient ratios to produce a softer caramel. Any help would be appreciated.

Does anyone have a chewy chocolate caramel recipe they love? One that holds its shape but can be cut on a guitar? The recipes I’ve tried have either been not very chocolate-y or suuuuuuuper stiff. Like, I bruised the palm of my hand cutting them stiff :(. Or or even if you can just point me in the direction of some theory, that would be great!

A mistake was made with my Albert Uster order this week and I received it twice. Since it's shipped from CA, doesn't go bad, and I'll use it eventually, I'm not going to mess with trying to return the second delivery. But now I have a huge amount of inventory so I thought I'd see if anyone here was looking for Felchlin by the bag. Each bag is 2kg (4# 7oz) in the following varieties and prices: Maracaibo Creole 49%, $48 Sao Palme 60%, $30 Arriba 72%, $46 As for shipping, I can fit 2 bags in a medium flat rate box for $14 or 3 bags in a large box for $19 to go anywhere in the USA. If you'd like some, PM me with your selection, email, and shipping address. I'll invoice you via Square and you can pay securely online with a credit card. Thanks for reading!

Hello, My question is this... Is there a company that manufactures an automated machine capable of wrapping cube-shaped caramels and chocolates??? And would such a machine also be capable of wrapping large (3-4 oz.) rectangular chocolate bars or would such a product require a flow wrapping machine? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

The current issue of the NY Times Magazine is on candy. Shamefully sinful. I cannot unsee the images.

I want to put a soft marshmallow fluff into a bonbon. I’ve made this recipe lots of times for my s’mores macarons and it’s great but the recipe says it will only keep 2 weeks in the fridge (but it is actually fine much longer—at least no one in my family has died yet ). https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chowhound.com/recipes/homemade-marshmallow-creme-30296/amp Does anyone know of a soft marshmallow cream recipe I can pipe into a bonbon and leave at room temp for a couple of weeks? I know the commercial stuff will separate long before it goes bad (don’t ask ).

Who here hand dips chocolates, either with their actual hand, or with a fork? I have a side job working with a woman who hand dips everything with her fingers in a puddle of chocolate on a sheet of parchment. She's super fast at it, I tried it but it felt so messy and awkward. I have done a little fork-dipping, so today dipped 300+ cookies with a fork and remembered why I hate fork dipping. So, anyone have any pointers, tricks, or favorite dipping forks that don't make your hand go numb? Today I used a dinner fork, I didn't have my actual chocolate dipping forks, but they have really thin metal handles that are hard to hold onto and horrible. I need like the Good Grips version for people with arthritis and pastry chefs who have done too much piping ...

THE BOOKS ARE SOLD I have Volumes 1 ,2 and 4 of Jean-Pierre Wybauw's Great Chocolate books are for sale. The books are in great shape! There is some tape on the corner of the front of volume 1 that I used to keep it together after a drop. Volume 1 is also autographed by the author (See pics below). I'm asking $150 for the lot OBO. Let me know if interested or if you have questions

Pistachio paste (and connected loosely, gianduja) Been studying through the giant book that is "Fine Chocolates Gold". It alternates between taking up a third of our dining room table and being a massive paper weight. 🤣 I'm trying to put together a plan for our fall/winter flavors and really want to work in more nuts and gianduja flavors. One of my customers wants more pistachio and another wants more hazelnut. First question: on Page 280, he has a recipe for "Pistachio Gianduja", which I thought meant making just straight gianduja with pistachios. But he puts in 4x the almonds as pistachios and then has you put in Pistachio Paste. What the what??? I thought that gianduja was what happens when you take nuts (turned into nut butter, essentially) and then added a certain percentage of chocolate to it (depending on the consistency you want). Then I researched pistachio paste. Does he mean the stuff from Italy or Turkey that has added milks and sugars or something else? Since he's a European chef, I'm assuming the first option... is that correct? Then... he keeps having the ingredient "gianduja" in recipes, but doesn't specify which nut they are made from. He does the same with "praline" as an ingredient. If he says that, is there an assumed nut as the base sort of gianduja? When he says "x" amount of praline as an ingredient, does he mean caramelized sugar that has been blitzed in the food processor, so as to bring it to powder form? Sorry - this sort of turned into a request for a mini class. 😏

Hello everyone, I am in the process of locating a commercial kitchen space to rent in order to produce my chocolates on a larger scale, for retail and wholesale. The challenge is that I have not been able to locate a space that has air conditioning or any kind of temperature control. Even if everything else in the facility is perfect, that's the one issue that keeps coming up. Can anyone provide guidance regarding the feasibility of working in a non temperature controlled space, and if there are any work arounds? I'd have full access to fridges, freezers, etc... Thanks in advance for any help or experiences you can share! Miriam

Has anyone ever worked with or made buttercream candies? As far as I can tell they appear to be simply fondant sugar with the addition of butter. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Hello All, I am researching colorants for cacao butter with an eye toward 'natural' vegetal derived colorants. My local packaging inspector ( California ) has required me to list ALL FDA approved artificial dyes and pigments, FD&C, Lakes, on my labels. These are equivalent to EU approved artificial colors as E102 to E143, as I understand it. Is anyone else tackling this issue? Per labeling, this is a substantial amount of information as one multi-hued collection can have 6+ colors. Other chocolatiers I have noticed use blanket statements such as 'FDA approved colors' or 'Cocoa Butter with Colors'. I am hearing hints that the EU may impose stricter regulations on artificial colors. Some of these, Lakes for instance, seem very dodgy as they are based on metal (Aluminum) salts to disperse the dyes. Pur is one company that I have found that produces colorants from natural sources on an industrial scale. Their cacao butters include other additives so I am really interested in how well they spray and perform. Anyone have experience using these? Shelf life, color fastness, flavors in the colorants, all these are points of interest. Thank very much.

I work at a small business with about 25 employees where we make chocolates, popcorn and caramels. In capacity as head chocolatier I have to work with our facilities supervisor to develop a food safety testing plan for the facility. Right now we are developing a plan to do the following: swab with ATP detectors to see if bacterial activity is present, test for Aerobic Plate Count bacteria (APC), and swabbing for the presence of nut proteins to verify our cleaning protocols are sufficient to eliminate nut allergens and test the floor drains for the presence of listeria. Does anyone have any experience with food safety testing in chocolate plants?? If so, is there anything else that you think we need to be testing for?

Does anyone know of a natural alternative to using potassium sorbate as a marshmallow preservative??? Would citric acid or sorbitol suffice???

So I've been experiencing cracks on the foot of my bonbons that I've been unable to find the cause of, hoping to reach out to the community to get to the bottom of this costly problem. I work for a small chocolate company that makes our own bean to bar couverture. We use a continuous tempering machine with enrobing belt attachment. The process: ganache is made and then piped into round silicone molds, which are then footed with tempered chocolate before being placed in the freezer until frozen enough to pop out of the molds. They are then set up right and left to thaw and dry out overnight on a equipped with fans aimed at the bonbons. The next day we send the bonbons through the enrober, and then they are transferred to a speed rack to set up, either at room temp (generally around 68-70 degrees F) or in a homemade cooling cabinet (an insulated box equipped with an air conditioner + dehumidifier + fans) that generally fluctuates between 50-56 degrees F (I know, large range). Problems occur with both milk and dark couverture, with bonbons kept at room temp or in cabinet, thickness of foot doesn't seem to make a difference (we've tried thicker and thinner). Crack doesn't immediately appear; it usually takes a couple of minutes after being completely set before showing. It looks as though the foot is popping out, cause a hairline crack between the shell and the foot. I've attached pictures. You'll notice in the photos, that when the bonbon is cut in half, the foot separates from the shell pretty significantly. Thoughts? Suggestions? Similar experiences?

Does anyone have any experience using Knobel depositing machines? My one shot plate is leaking chocolate out of the top and I can't determine why. Any help would be appreciated

Has anyone ever performed chocolate panning in a large industrial machine and used a single vessel for the panning AND the polishing steps? The place i work has only one drum and I'd like to make use of it without purchasing a second drum. Any advice would be appreciated!

I was curious if anyone has any experience making aerated chocolate candy (similar to those demonstrated by Grewling in Chocolates and Confections) that does NOT use a warmed ISI siphon to achieve this affect... https://www.pinterest.com/pin/827255025273299428/ I was wondering if it might be possible to adapt a large siphon so that you could attach a large tank of compressed CO2 or NO to avoid the expense of all the little gas canisters? Or am I just dreaming of something that's impossible?

What are the best, darkest chocolates you've found in wholesale quantities? Aside from 100%, that is ... I'm thinking in the 75-90% range, available in quantities of 5-20 kg. It's definitely niche, but between the chocolate nerds and the low-carb-ers there's a market. Right now, 72% Felchlin Arriba is the darkest I use, in a bar with candied orange. I have not tried their Elvesia 74% or Sao Palme 75% but it looks like I can get them from AUI. A Felchlin 88% exists, but would be a special order arriving in a few months (their next container shipment?). Valrhona makes the Abinao 85% but that would be another special order. I'm pretty sure I tried it at one point and liked it. Does anyone keep it in stock? How is KaKao Berlin? They have a Brandenberg 75% but I'm not familiar with the brand. Any others? Or I could make my own and have the super dark be my one bean-to bar flavor ... thanks!

Does anyone have any tricks for making small balls of caramel (suitable for panning with sugar and chocolate)? So far I've tried making a batch of caramels, cutting them into little squares after they cool, and rolling them by hand into balls, but I very quickly run into the problem of the heat from my hands warming the caramels enough to release some of the fat from the butter in the caramel, making my hands too greasy for rolling. I could cool the caramels first to minimize this, but then they'd be too hard and won't change shape. I solved a similar problem when hand-rolling chocolate truffles by coating them in cocoa powder first - can I do something similar by tossing the caramel squares in powdered sugar first, or will that cause the caramels to crystallize?

Does anyone know of a source for a vegan confectioner's glaze suitable for sugar/chocolate panning (for sealing the candies from the Evils of the Outside World)? I have a couple of friends who are vegan or vegetarian, and I'd like to avoid being a total jerk if I can help it ("Look at these tasty treats I made THAT YOU CAN'T EAT!! MWAHAHA!!"). I need small quantities, as this is just for occasional home use.