Confections! (2006-2012)

[tammylc]

Nice work, David! I'm gearing up for my big Christmas production this weekend, so I can definitely relate. Right now I have orders for 99 separate boxes of various sizes, and orders are still coming in. I'm excited and terrified.

Can you talk to me about how you're using your texture sheets? I picked some up from ChefRubber with an order earlier this year, but haven't done anything with them yet.

[gfron1]

That's really exciting David - it looks like a great collection, and great gifts.

[Kerry Beal]

David,

Those look fabulous. Tell us more about the square enrobed milk chocolate piece with the inclusion on one side. ie number 4 and 12 counting from the top left.

[K8memphis]

I produced my first sample box for general distribution as Christmas gifts this year:

I decided to use it as a learning experience and cast my own shells for the Rose Geranium Carmel using a two piece mold and spent time perfecting my chocolate curls for Grewelings dual layer "Hot Chocolate".  For the crunchy hazelnut praline I used a burr grinder to create uniform sugar bits and it worked beautifully.  Previously I had been using a whirly grinder and ended up with a good deal of sugar powder and too large chunks that had to be fished out by hand.  The burr grinder makes it far easier.

Other pieces include Kaluha pyramids, Passion fruit domes, Jasmine Tea, "Caribbean Cocktail" Geodesic domes, and a dual layer raspberry ganache and raspberry pate de fruit.

I make them all over the course of two weeks and used the new vacuum freezer bags to keep them fresh as I worked.

And here are the fifty boxes, about thirty in shipping boxes ready to go out:

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But the burning question is, do you have my address??!!

Oh my but those look and sound droolicious. Stunning beautiful.

Wow.

[David J.]

David,

Those look fabulous.  Tell us more about the square enrobed milk chocolate piece with the inclusion on one side. ie number 4 and 12 counting from the top left.

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Thanks Kerry!

That's Andrew Shott's Jasmine Tea recipie. It's a basic bittersweet ganache with a Jasmine tea infusion. I slabbed it and cut it into 1" squares with my home made guitar cutter, then enrobed it in milk chocolate. To decorate I pressed a texture sheet diagonally on half and placed a piece of tea on the other. Andrew does the same except he uses a non textured sheet, probably the left over from a transfer sheet. It gives a rather nice effect.

[David J.]

Nice work, David!  I'm gearing up for my big Christmas production this weekend, so I can definitely relate.  Right now I have orders for 99 separate boxes of various sizes, and orders are still coming in. I'm excited and terrified.

Can you talk to me about how you're using your texture sheets? I picked some up from ChefRubber with an order earlier this year, but haven't done anything with them yet.

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That's quite a bit of work Tammy! It took me a couple weeks to put my boxes together, but then again I was doing it in short spurts interrupted by many other activities so it wasn't very efficient. How many pieces can you create in a day?

I cut the larger texture sheet into 1 1/2" in strips with a metal rule, cutting board, and hobby knife, then cut those into squares with a sharp pair of scissors. Then I dip about four pieces and then place the squares on each piece individually. With that size I can cover a 1" square piece or get fancy and just cover half as with the Jasmine Tea pieces above. If you do that it helps to lay out the pieces so one can support the hanging corner of the next, but it's not absolutely required if you keep your squares at 1 1/2". I cut others larger at first and they need support if I let them dangle that far.

[tammylc]

Thanks David! Can you reuse the texture squares afterwards?

We're about to find out how many pieces I can create in a day... this is my biggest sale by far, so it's really going to be pushing my production capacity. But I've lined up some assistants and have been doing some work prior to the big push - I wrapped up 100 caramels last night, and I'll do another 100 tonight, as well as make the marshmallow layer of my double layer pieces (peppermint). The big production push starts tomorrow night.

The packaging and mailing alone is going to be a huge piece of time. But thanks to Vanessa's clueing us in up-thread, I got some fabulous boxes on closeout from Nashville Wraps, so I'm really happy about getting a chance to use them!

[Lior]

David your chocolates are lovely! The curls are fabulous! The Rose Geranium caramel sounds devine! Do you infuse the cream? Everything is just beautiful!

[John DePaula]

Thanks David!  Can you reuse the texture squares afterwards?

Yes, you can reuse the structure sheets.

The packaging and mailing alone is going to be a huge piece of time.  But thanks to Vanessa's clueing us in up-thread, I got some fabulous boxes on closeout from Nashville Wraps, so I'm really happy about getting a chance to use them!

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Packing and shipping takes up an obscene amount of time. Just be sure you charge for it because after all, it's a value-add to the product and you should be compensated.

[tammylc]

Thanks David!  Can you reuse the texture squares afterwards?

Yes, you can reuse the structure sheets.

The packaging and mailing alone is going to be a huge piece of time.  But thanks to Vanessa's clueing us in up-thread, I got some fabulous boxes on closeout from Nashville Wraps, so I'm really happy about getting a chance to use them!

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Packing and shipping takes up an obscene amount of time. Just be sure you charge for it because after all, it's a value-add to the product and you should be compensated.

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Thanks, John! After my very first sale, I realized how much time packaging took (and how much it cost!) and raised my prices accordingly. Similarly, I made sure to include a handling fee in my shipping costs. All these little things sure do add up!

[David J.]

David your chocolates are lovely! The curls are fabulous! The Rose Geranium caramel sounds devine! Do you infuse the cream? Everything is just beautiful!

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Thanks Lior. The rose Geranium caramel is made like any soft caramel except that you include a single drop of Rose Geranium essence when it cools below 95F.

[Lior]

Hmmm sounds nice.

I have lemon geranium in my garden so I thought to infuse it in the cream that I will use for the caramel. I have made rosemary caramel also from my garden. Thanks for the info! I hope soon to be at the point of a big (for me) order. In the meanwhile I am preparing for upcoming chocolate festivals in Jan and Feb, hopefully this will give me initial exposure.

[devlin]

I produced my first sample box for general distribution as Christmas gifts this year:

And here are the fifty boxes, about thirty in shipping boxes ready to go out:

Wow, y'all sure make pretty stuff.

Where'd you get your brown packing/shipping boxes?

[David J.]

Where'd you get your brown packing/shipping boxes?

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I ordered the boxes from ULINE. They have every sort of shipping box you might want. This one is 9"x6"x2".

[RuthWells]

I produced my first sample box for general distribution as Christmas gifts this year:

I decided to use it as a learning experience and cast my own shells for the Rose Geranium Carmel using a two piece mold and spent time perfecting my chocolate curls for Grewelings dual layer "Hot Chocolate".  For the crunchy hazelnut praline I used a burr grinder to create uniform sugar bits and it worked beautifully.  Previously I had been using a whirly grinder and ended up with a good deal of sugar powder and too large chunks that had to be fished out by hand.  The burr grinder makes it far easier.

Other pieces include Kaluha pyramids, Passion fruit domes, Jasmine Tea, "Caribbean Cocktail" Geodesic domes, and a dual layer raspberry ganache and raspberry pate de fruit.

I make them all over the course of two weeks and used the new vacuum freezer bags to keep them fresh as I worked.

And here are the fifty boxes, about thirty in shipping boxes ready to go out:

←

David, these are stunning. You have some very lucky friends this year!

[devlin]

Where'd you get your brown packing/shipping boxes?

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I ordered the boxes from ULINE. They have every sort of shipping box you might want. This one is 9"x6"x2".

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Thanks! I actually have their catalog but haven't ordered from them as yet.

[s_sevilla]

I've been mulling some ideas for truffles and was wondering if anyone has tried infusing their ganache with various forms of Hops. If anyone has any insight, I'd love to hear how your ganache turned out. Right now the plan is to use the same hops I use to make a porter or a stout, and use milk chocolate due to the bittering agents from the hops.

[gfron1]

It would be worthwhile to check out Mette's efforts in a previous challenge.

[Kerry Beal]

Dug out the Mold'art today and tempered up some milk chocolate to make goodies for sale for the holidays. The plan is to drag everything up to a friends place who is having an open house on Sunday. The weather may defeat that plan however, we'll have to see.

[Desiderio]

Socute Kerry , as usuall, post more pics of the sale if you can

[tammylc]

To say my Christmas orders got out of hand would be an understatement. I did some creative marketing, and it definitely paid off (and may kill me in the process). But I'm finally (almost) finished making the chocolates. Over 1,100 pieces. I need to back off my last round of molds tomorrow morning, and I may need to do some more this week. But the vast majority is done.

Except for the packaging... I have over 100 boxes of various sizes to put together tomorrow, and 29 orders to get prepped for shipping. But before I came home tonight I made up one box, just so I could show it off!

White with blue swirl – Egg Nog (from Grewling, with brandy instead of rum)

Santa/Snowflakes – Peppermint Twist (peppermint marshmallow and peppermint ganache)

Green – Fresh Ginger

Orange splatters – Intense Orange

Red dome – Coffee (this was part of my co-marketing with a local coffee roaster)

Butter Nut Caramel (I liked it better not dipped in chocolate, so I didn't!)

Now I'm going to fall over and collapse. I've been multi-tasking day job and parenting and chocolate making, and not managing more than 5 hours of sleep a night...

[John DePaula]

To say my Christmas orders got out of hand would be an understatement. I did some creative marketing, and it definitely paid off (and may kill me in the process).  But I'm finally (almost) finished making the chocolates. Over 1,100 pieces. I need to back off my last round of molds tomorrow morning, and I may need to do some more this week.  But the vast majority is done. 

Except for the packaging... I have over 100 boxes of various sizes to put together tomorrow, and 29 orders to get prepped for shipping. But before I came home tonight I made up one box, just so I could show it off!

White with blue swirl – Egg Nog (from Grewling, with brandy instead of rum)

Santa/Snowflakes – Peppermint Twist (peppermint marshmallow and peppermint ganache)

Green – Fresh Ginger

Orange splatters – Intense Orange

Red dome – Coffee (this was part of my co-marketing with a local coffee roaster)

Butter Nut Caramel (I liked it better not dipped in chocolate, so I didn't!)

Now I'm going to fall over and collapse. I've been multi-tasking day job and parenting and chocolate making, and not managing more than 5 hours of sleep a night...

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Uh...wait a minute, ... did you say "the vast majority is done" and "Except for the packaging..." ??? I beg to differ!

[tammylc]

Thanks John, I needed that giggle this morning...

Yeah, okay, almost done isn't quite accurate. But the *chocolates* are almost done, and that feels like a big accomplishment.

Fortunately the kitchen I work out of is only a mile away from my house, so I'll be able to get there despite the snowstorm we're in the middle of. We're probably up to 4 or 5 inches now, with total accumulation of 10-12 expected. Whee!

Although all of that means that the assistant I'd lined up to come help package likely won't be able to make it from across town. I'm working on lining up a replacement now.

[patris]

Although all of that means that the assistant I'd lined up to come help package likely won't be able to make it from across town. I'm working on lining up a replacement now.

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Tammy,

Your chocolates are stupendous! I'd totally volunteer to brave the snow to be your assistant if I lived in your area.

I get the whole 'holiday orders getting out of control' thing - the inaugural production for my brand-new marshmallow business last weekend was 46 pans of marshmallow - covered in chocolate (which thankfully we outsource), about 250 pounds - all in a day and a half!

[Desiderio]

Good job, but dont discourage ,it will go smooth , I am always so overwelmed when I have a lots of orders but Its almost done for me as well and everything just went into place .I ended up do 3 batches ,my first idea was just one, but I guess its better that way .These production was incredibly close to 1700 pc, I wasnt expecting that .If I was close to you Id volunteer as well snow and all .Actually I am coming in Michigan , next week