Israeli Chocolate Festival

[Lior]

I have been very busy preparing for my first chocolate festivals-one on Thurs and Friday of next week and one of 3 days at the end of the month. It has been very difficult making such huge quantities- I am quite new at all this. I have had too many failures. I forgot to rewipe the molds after emptying out the chocolate and then set them upside down on my caramel bars to drip a bit out-just in case, so horrible thickish rims appeared and well, you can figure the rest out. Another disaster was making caramel yesterday, using what I thought was a silicone spatula. The caramel had kind of crystalized on it as I was pouring it into some peanut butter. Everything became crackly and strange looking. So I decided to taste what appeared to be a new creation - crackly peanut butter. It tasted weird. I knew I couldn't use it so I tossed it and began washing up, only to discover half a spatula! So yes, I ate my spatula. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh, but then burst out laughing. Chocolate is taking over my life!

Edited January 10, 2008 by Lior (log)

[jumanggy]

Is that your packaging? It's beautiful.

OMG, your story was priceless. I wonder what the nutritional value of a half-serving of spatula is.

[Lior]

Well I felt fine until I realized what I ate and then the psychosomatic nausea set in!! We live and learn! Yes that is my packaging-thanks !!

[Anna N]

Hey, despite all your obvious "disasters" you have some fabulous looking chocolates and packaging there! Your persistence is also inspiring. Good luck at the festivals.

I think spatulas are like cookies - so long as you eat them standing up they have zero calories.

[Lior]

How kind! Thank you!!

[gfron1]

It still looks great - I absolutely adore the pigs!

[renam]

Lior,

I did the same thing too over the holidays. I forgot to wipe my molds. It's just part of being a chocolatier. Some days are great and other days everything just goes to pot! Your pigs are so cute where did you get the molds from?

and what brand of chocolate are you using?

Thanks and have fun at the festival

Rena

[Lior]

Well, the pigs are actually fat mice!! The moulds are from Mol D'Art in Belgium. I mostly use Valrhona. This lot is Equatoriale Lactee and the white is Fruibel. I am glad to hear that it is not just me. Everyone's chocolate always looks so perfect and professional that I get mad at myself.

Well thanks!!

[gfron1]

Ha! That's even funnier because I thought they were mice, but I didn't want to say that in case I was wrong, so I assumed they might be pigs. I love 'em no matter if they are swine or pest. Swine chocolates probably wouldn't be the most appropriate for Israel would they

[Lior]

How funny!!! I also thought that pigs would be hilarious here!!! It would be funny!!

I have all sorts of animals for the children;s line - and that includes the Peter Pans among us.

[Trishiad]

I had a very similar pile during my Christmas production. I was having ambient temperature problems and lost many many chocolates. Don't think too hard about it. Just make a batch of Ling's brownies and toss the failed chocolates in.

[Lior]

with the ganches and caramels of different types? I heard somewhere that the pros smush it all together to make a new "ganache"- hodgepodge ganache!! Un the meantime everyone walks by and munches, esp hubby who shouldn't!!

[Beanie]

Please feel free to send your failures to me (minus the spatulas.) I'll even pay the shipping cost. They look great!

[Mary F]

Great pictures! I got a good laugh at the top one (and the story), have had days like that. I call them defective, pass them off to friends, never had one turned down because it looked ugly!

Your packaging is gorgeous!

[Lior]

Thanks so much to all for all the encouragement! I should make a poster of the failure pictures for my lab!! When I was feeling very very frustrated one evening after a "defective" session my little girl said to me, "Don't feel bad, mama, I am sure Jean Pierre had days like this, too!! And besides, you have me!!" So I said, "You know what? You are absolutely right!!" (hugs kisses, etc followed, of course!)

[Desiderio]

Lior, I am sorry about the stress you had to go thru ,but the packaging is awesome and your production will have a great success

[Tri2Cook]

Awesome Lior! I'm inspired by your determination. I took a stab at molded chocolates a while back and basically said "(insert expletive that begins with "F" here) this mess". I was working with some old, floppy molds that belonged to my mom and it was a pain. I really wanted to work with them since they were moms but I finally gave up on the sentiment crap and bought a couple decent molds and things went much better. I'll never be at the level of the chocolate artists here though.

[Pam R]

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Lior, what a story! Thanks for sharing the good and the bad.

The final chocolates and packaging look wonderful -- what does the sheet say? Does it describe the chocolates in the box?

[Mary F]

Will you share what is in each chocolate?

I use the butterfly mold too, people seem to love the look of it.

[Shelby]

Wow! I think all of your chocolates are beautiful!

Adding the spatula should give it a nice sheen and make it hold better don't you think?

[Kerry Beal]

Gorgeous chocolates, wonderful packaging. Sorry I missed the saga up until now.

I'll look for a pig mold for you.

[Lior]

Wow you guys make a gal feel good! I will not give up! I hate every little air hole that I find! But from every mistake I learn how to do it better. There is nowhere here for me to learn so it is trial and error. yesterday I did darks with Valrhona Manjari- which I love! It is so complex! Everytime I taste it differently! The ones in the picture.

The butterfly: dark and milk chocolate with cream infused with jasmine green tea.

The double hearts: caramel without spatulas (I think it is too sweet...)

The heart : milk chocolate with vanilla bean infused cream and some Navon (vanilla brandy)

The "teardrop/paisley" : white chocolate with cream, praline and some Frangelico

The square: Milk chocolate mint ganache

The cameo: milk chocolate Earl Grey infused cream

The mouse - milk chocolate and praline

I have an English version of what is written on my box so I will attach it for whoever was interested if someone can tell me howto attach a file!

Thanks for everything and the support-badly needed!!

[mrose]

Wow you guys make a gal feel good! I will not give up! I hate every little air hole that I find! But from every mistake I learn how to do it better. There is nowhere here for me to learn so it is trial and error. yesterday I did darks with Valrhona Manjari- which I love! It is so complex! Everytime I taste it differently! The ones in the picture.

The butterfly: dark and milk chocolate with cream infused with jasmine green tea.

The double hearts: caramel without spatulas (I think it is too sweet...)

The heart : milk chocolate with vanilla bean infused cream and some Navon (vanilla brandy)

The "teardrop/paisley" : white chocolate with cream, praline and some Frangelico

The square: Milk chocolate mint ganache

The cameo: milk chocolate Earl Grey infused cream

The mouse - milk chocolate and praline

I have an English version of what is written on my box so I will attach it for whoever was interested if someone can tell me howto attach a file!

Thanks for everything and the support-badly needed!!

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Very nice selection.

You can use a bittersweet dark chocolate with the caramel filling. It will help cut down the overall sweetness.

[Lior]

Yes! That is also why I thought to mix the caramel with chocolate and then coat with dark. The thing is that there are often people who like milk chocolate or even white chocolate. I made white chocolate swans filled with caramel (I know...) and white chocolate filled with plain white choc vanilla ganache. Each to their own... I like dark!

[mrose]

Yes! That is also why I thought to mix the caramel with chocolate and then coat with dark. The thing is that there are often people who like milk chocolate or even white chocolate. I made white chocolate swans filled with caramel (I know...) and white chocolate filled with plain white choc vanilla ganache.  Each to their own... I like dark!

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I wasn't clear. The double hearts were molded in milk chocolate, try using dark chocolate to mold them