On 12/13/2017 at 12:48 PM, MelissaH said:@patris, any chance you'd consider expounding on a few of the details once you've recovered, to give us a guide if we want to do something similar ourselves?
So here are some notes - let me know if you have questions.
- I provided chocolate and people brought things they wanted to use for barks, clusters, etc. Since just about everyone wanted peppermint bark last year, I asked them all how much of that they wanted and made it ahead of time, leaving it in big pieces so people could break it up as they wanted. I also made marshmallows (plain, peppermint and cinnamon) and peanut butter meltaways (with and without feuilletine) for people to dip. I had people keep track of how many pounds of chocolate they used and charged an amount per pound that covered my costs. I use the Orchid line from Albert Uster, which is reasonably priced and tastes pretty good. I charged per pound for the peppermint bark and by the dozen for the marshmallows and meltaways. The extra confections are definitely not necessary but I can’t help myself.
- Chocolate melters and an EZ TEmper are indispensable. I had a 6 kg melter full of dark, and 3 3 kg full of milk, white, and caramelized white (no one used white this year, so I may skip that next year). We showed everyone how to use the scale to weigh the chocolate they took and calculate the amount of silk they needed, and then how to add and incorporate the silk. Everyone got perfect temper every time. @Kerry Beal did a lot of re-warming for people to keep the chocolate workable.
- In terms of space, a good rule of thumb is to allow about 3 feet of workspace per person - 6-foot folding banquet tables are a great option if you lack counter space and will accommodate 2 people. Also make sure you have PLENTY of space for people to set their goodies aside as they crystallize, and then even more space for people to work on packing stuff up. You seriously cannot have enough space for this.
- Having enough bowls, spatulas and dipping tools is super important. I had one bowl and one silicone spatula per person, plus a couple extras so there would always be dry ones at the ready. A huge pile of clean dish towels also helped - I use IKEA tea towels in the pottery studio so I brought those home - probably a couple dozen - and they were really handy.
- I made some snacks and people brought some things to share. There is always too much food. This is not a complaint.
- The 5 elves went through about 10 lbs. of peppermint bark, somewhere north of 15 lbs of chocolate, 20 dozen marshmallows and 15 dozen meltaways.
In all, it was a delightful day and though it was a lot of work, I would say that it was fairly low stress - but I have a feeling I might not say that had Kerry not been a part of it!
Happy to answer questions or expand on anything.
