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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

In the April issue of the Oprah magazine Gayle King mentions getting some merveilleux, a pastry she had never heard of before. Neither had I, so Bing to the rescue I had hoped, but all I really found out was its a meringue and whipped cream concoction. Has anyone heard of this? Any links for recipes? Is it as wonderful tasting as it sounds?

I just received from the US the book Bachour. It brings plated desserts to a imaginable level with plenty of different recipes and ideas to use and modify. I think it's a great debut for the author and for one who wants to practice or learn gastronomic plated desserts.

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).

Has anyone seen this book yet? If so, do you have any comments about it you can share? The Praline

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?

My 7 year old daughter was diagnosed with Fructose Malabsorption Disorder in August, after six years of terrible digestive trouble. Now she's doing very much better on a low-fructose diet, but she misses all her favorite treats. She can tolerate glucose/dextrose, aspartame (nutrasweet), saccharin, and up to a tablespoon of sucrose (cane sugar) per day max -- in practice we try to give her almost none. We've been bumping along without sweet things, but when I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, tears welled up in her eyes and she said "I want to be able to eat candy again." I'm not made of stone. My heart just broke. I want to help her out as much as I can, which means learning how to make candy with dextrose/glucose/corn syrup and as little cane sugar as possible. I have made candy occasionally in the past, and I'm a reasonably good and adventurous cook -- I make my own salami, that sort of thing -- so I feel like this is something I can tackle if I have good resources. Which resources, though? I know that dextrose/glucose, while still a natural sugar, has very different structural and chemical properties than sucrose/cane sugar, but I don't know HOW they're different. Is hard candy out of the question? What about fudge, or caramels? What are the hard and soft ball stage temperatures?? Does glucose even HAVE a soft or hard ball stage? Are there resources, either online or in print, where I can learn more about this? Would I look at regular candymaking, or some molecular gastronomy whatnot, or. . .?

I'm looking for a recipe that yields caramels that are chewy, but quite hard. A couple of weeks ago I was visiting with friends, and one of them was in a candy-making mood, so we decided to make some caramels and marshmallows. I suggested David Lebovitz's salted butter caramel recipe, and from my perspective, the caramels were an unqualified success, but although my friend did like them, she said 'They're good, but too soft'; she had in mind a sort that is popular in Denmark, which approaches toffee for hardness, but is still unquestionably chewy. These may have a special name, although I don't know of one. I believe that reducing the amount of cream/butter mixture would do the trick, but would prefer to start from a reliable recipe, if anyone has one to recommend. Thanks!

OK, so here's a question for all of you confectionary gurus: do you think it would be a terrible waste of my ingredients to try making ginger caramels using a panela-ginger 2:1 sugar:water syrup as my sugar base? Would they turn out the way I'm imagining, which is chewy creamy gingery goodness, or would it just be a pan full of awful yukk and a frustration? If you think it would work, what proportions of syrup to cream should I be looking at? Is there anything else I should be adding? And finally, I normally shave 18 F off of my boiling temperatures to account for my extreme altitude - I should do the same with these, yes? Thanks in advance.

I'm no kind of pastry chef or even a particularly keen pastry eater. (I tend towards the savoury rather than the sweet.), but I thought this article by the BBC would be interesting to all the eG pastry chefs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24609525. Nice to see innovation.

Hello everyone. I'm a newbie and am seeking your help about a particular brand of confectionery coating that I've discovered. I recently bought about 70lb of real chocolate very cheap and it is great but, I noticed that the company also sells a brand of confectionery coating called SEMPER. And what's more, the coating costs more than the real chocolate does. It is around $38 for an 11lb block whereas Callebaut is only $35 for 10lb. The SEMPER does not require tempering either. I would like to try it if it tastes good as it would avoid me the bother of tempering. But only if it is good. Anyone have any current or past experience with this brand? I'd appreciate any and all input.

We're planning to have an Apple Festoon party as part of our autumnal celebrations. The idea is that guests will come and dip/decorate their own caramel apples. We did this a few years ago and discovered some problems with the plan-- namely, the period of refrigeration between dipping and rolling it in stuff, and then again before going home with it. This year I thought we might try dipping them in caramel ahead of time, and then having guests just roll them in stuff. Or maybe have chocolate available for dipping, if they want to wait. But how to re-soften outside of caramel so nuts and whatnot will stick? Seems like popping them in the oven would make the caramel slide off. Hit it briefly with a hair dryer? Anyone have any ideas? There must be a way to streamline this.

Does anyone know the approximate Brix for nanking cherries. I know there are several variables involved such as terrior etc. I am just looking for an approx value. I want to make pate de fruit and it has been ages since I have made anything pate de fruit!

Hello All! I am new to the eGullet community, here to pose my first question: I really enjoy the look of handmade plaques to decorate dipped chocolates (I have posted an example picture below, but for reference Thomas Haas and Theo Chocolates use such decorations). Yes, they are time consuming and probably not worth the effort on a grand scale, but for small batch production I think they are a beautiful detail. I have been cutting the little squares by hand, which takes a dreadfully long time. I am considering a caramel cutter – one like a rolling pin with a bunch of cutting disks attached. Has anyone tried this? Do you have a certain time-saving technique that you like to use? I’d love to glean from your wisdom, if you have some to share. My apologies if this topic has been discussed elsewhere already. I tried searching the forums, but it did not yield the results I was looking for.

What to make when it's sweltering? Trying to think of heat-proof confections for the summer. Every week I make 7-800 little bite sized treats that we give with the bill at the restaurant. Truffles were great for the winter, but it's getting too warm in both the kitchen and the dining room to produce and hold truffles. Last summer I made pate de fruits, which hold up well, but which I'm pretty sure gave me a splatter burn every single time I made it. Too much pain. Ive been working on some gelatin gummies that I like and that don't hurt, but they seem to get droopy in the heat as well. I've been adding agar to help the texture, maybe more agar and/or cook the syrup to a hotter temperature? How do hard candies hold up? Nougat? Humidity can be an issue but I'm more concerned about heat. Cookies are an option, especially easy to pipe or slice and bake. Amaretti? Has anyone tried cutting shortbread with the guitar? Candied nuts seem a little too simple - what else besides chocolate would make them special? What are your favorite treats that stand up to heat?

Im surprised no one has mentioned these Japanese Do It Yourself Snack Kits, from Kracie brand They are called Poppin Cookin' or Happy Kitchen. They are little snacks you make yourself like Waffles, Fast Food Happy Meal (w/Cola), Cakes, Ramen Noodles, Curry Rice etc Some, even involve Spherification... You can buy them on eBay, Amazon, JList etc. Here are a few videos, Happy Meal Waffles Ramen Cake Sushi W/Spherification aspects

Hello Everyone, I have a client who is interested in chocolate covered caramels. I was wondering if there was a cheaper solution to caramel bar sets to use instead. I would rather not use sheet pans. Any suggestion would be great. Thank You!! Matt

Hi All, I'd like to make a candy that is similar to the Ginger Chews made by Ginger People, but slightly softer (those are hazardous to dental work!) The ingredients for the Chews are simply sugar, tapioca starch and ginger. I've got other flavors in mind, so I'm not that concerned about the ginger right now, but I can't get the consistency right. It just ends up a gelatinous goo. I've made numerous stovetop attempts, cooking the starch and sugar together, adding the starch at the end, etc. I'm wondering if I should be dehydrating as the last step? I've consulted Grewling's Chocolates and Confections, but didn't find anything really close to what I'm looking for. I'd like to stay away from gelatin, and probably pectin, but am open to other starches and ingredients. I don't want a gummy bear texture, and I'd rather not a gum drop texture, though that might be my fall back. The Botan Rice Candy would be another example of the texture I'd like to get close to. I'm not a professional, but am fairly good with execution Any advice to set me in the right direction? I'd like to hear any thoughts you have! Thanks much!

Today we started out with a trip to the college to start getting ourselves set up for tomorrow. Then at 10 am we met at ChocolateFX and started our tour. Of course hair nets are obligatory if you are going to go into a food manufacturing facility! Wilma and Art had the small pan set up so that we could pan some raisins. Here's Pat (psantucc), with beard appropriately netted, applying some chocolate to the raisins. Ava (FrogPrincesse's little one) preparing to add more chocolate, Kyle helping and FrogPrincesse awaiting her turn. The fancy packing machine. Listening with rapt attention to Wilma explaining the making of ganache truffles in the round silicone molds.

I am a newer member of eG Forums and would like to thank the organizers and members for this amazing web-site. It's very educational and enjoyable! I've been making caramels at home for about a year, and have been running into problems with delayed crystallization. I have been using Recchiuti's Fleur de Sel recipe from his 'Chocolate Obsession' book which uses the dry technique for making caramels. My caramels start graining up about a week out, despite being enrobed in chocolate and stored in a sealed container to hopefully limit moisture attraction. I'm wondering if there isn't enough 'doctoring agent' in this recipe? Here is my current recipe: 5 drops Lemon Juice 298 g Sugar 1/2 Vanilla Bean 232 g (1 cup) whipping cream 38 g light corn syrup 14 g 82% Butter 1/2 tsp fleur de sel +/- toasted cashews Are there any general guidelines for the ratio of corn syrup to sugar? If I do increase the corn syrup and decrease the sugar by equal amounts, will this affect the texture of the caramels. Could the cashews be contributing to the crystallization too? Thanks in advance for your suggestions. Burny

Here's a question for you confection gurus. I'm aware that at high altitudes, the temperature at which water boils is reduced (for example, at 3,000 meters, where I live, water boils at 89.8 C.) Does sugar behave the same way: to wit, do I have to calculate a much lower temperature than I'm used to for firm-ball syrup? If so, do I use the same ratios I'd use to compute water boiling time to figure out what my new temperature is? I ask because my syrups have been cracking out well below the temperatures I'm used to using, but if I'm overshooting by tens of degrees I wouldn't be surprised by that.... Otherwise, I'm not sure what's causing it - my instruments are all spotless and without the kind of flaws that would normally cause this kind of behaviour, and neither the sugar I use (98% sucrose from the San Carlos mills in Guayas) nor the water (distilled) has changed. Thanks in advance. (edited to fix a non-sequitur)

Hi everyone, Melbourne (AUS) is having a bit of a warm spell at the moment that's looking to continue - 30+ celcius for about 2 weeks straight. I want to play around with a bit of chocolate making but it seems... foolish! In the mornings, the ambient temperature in my house is maybe 23, and i'm wondering if this would be ok for dipping (perhaps a quick trip to the fridge to help them set up for a few minutes?). With moulded pralines, it seems the brief fridge steps that some people recommend make sense since the whole tray is done at once, but it seems impractical for hand dipping, since i'd have to either wait till a whole tray was done (and perhaps moot the point) or otherwise do tiny batches! I guess a related question is that if i made a ganache to slab, would it even set up properly overnight? I was thinking that the crystals would still form as it cooled, but I don't know. Any tips for working in warmer weather (where climate control isn't possible)? Am I best to just write it off over summer and pick it back up when things cool down a bit? The one positive I can think of is that it'll take longer for my tempered chocolate to cool down, so less reheating! Cheers, Stuart.

I'm curious about where to find used confectionery equipment; like everyone else, I'm thinking of getting a guitar (for cutting pate de fruit, marshmallows, petit fours) but I wonder if buying a used machine - if one were to be found - is a good idea. Do you have a dealer you'd recommend? What say you all?

I made some passion fruit ganache last weekend. In fact I made three different batches, recipes from Greweling, Notter and Torres. When I tried them last weekend they all had plenty of passion fruit flavor. Tried them again last night and it seems that the passion fruit flavor has mellowed quite a bit and if this continues, soon they will not taste of passion fruit at all. I have not had this happen for any other ganaches. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how they fixed the problem.