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Israeli Chocolate Festival


Lior

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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!

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Edited by Lior (log)
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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. :laugh:

Mark

The Gastronomer's Bookshelf - Collaborative book reviews about food and food culture. Submit a review today! :)

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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. :laugh:

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

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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 :rolleyes: where did you get the molds from?

and what brand of chocolate are you using?

Thanks and have fun at the festival :wink:

Rena

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Well, the pigs are actually fat mice!! :biggrin: 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!!

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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 :)

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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.

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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!

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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!)

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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.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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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?

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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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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!!

Very nice selection.

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

Mark

www.roseconfections.com

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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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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!

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

Mark

www.roseconfections.com

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