Confections! (2006-2012)

[pastrygirl]

Great job, Jen!

[DianaM]

Food Cottage law just opened up here in AK so this is the first batch I have made that I can sell. Very excited my expensive hobby can now pay for itself . Forgive the low quality picture taken with my phone. Flavors are: Salted Caramel, Peanut Butter, Orange, and Espresso Cinnamon

Jen, your chocolates look lovely! I love the decoration on the hearts (Peanut Butter?).

[minas6907]

Btw, what is food cottage law?

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[JenBunk]

Pastrygirl- Thanks!

DianaM- The heart is Orange. The dome is the peanut butter one. Thanks!

Minas6907- Food cottage law means I can sell my chocoaltes out of my home. There are some restrictions like I can't do mail order or wholesale, but it works great for me. Renting a kitchen is not practicall with all the airbrush, molds, and other equipment I use (plus there are very few kitchen available in my small town). I was not ready to commit to a retail shop yet either as I have 3 boys under the age of 5. So the ability to make them in my home makes my chocolate dream possible.

[minas6907]

Thats kinda cool, I've thought about selling things I make also, but I dont think I'm ready right now for any big commitments with candy. Nice you can sell from your home, I dont think I'll ever see that in California though haha. Anywho, here are some lollipops I just made for my younger friends who just graduated from High school.

[JenBunk]

Mina6907- Those look great! I have never tried sugar as I am a little itimidated by it. I would love to make old fashioned ribbon candy for christmas. Have you ever made any of those?

I have heard CA has pretty strict laws regarding food. So did AK until now. Mostly becasue of all the fresh seafood caught here. They just recently started seperating out low hazard food (pastry, jams, confections, ect).

Here are some more of my recent adventures:

[minas6907]

Thanks! I have tried pulling ribbon candy, but my first attempt wasn't too noteworthy, it actually is a bit more difficult (to me anyway) to pull a constant ribbon from a large batch then pull a rope for lollipops or berlingots. So...I guess no. And you shouldn't be intimidated by sugar, its fun! For some reason I just love working with it, its cool to handle when its in its semi solid state, just something I was always fascinated by since I started cooking. You'll probably find this funny, but I'm intimidated by chocolate. I can never seem to temper the stuff, in my opinion it takes alot more patience to work with. The kitchen is on the 2nd floor of my place, so it is warmer up there, so I think that's working against me (my roommate also likes to have the heater on during the winter which warms it up so much it would be hopeless to do anything with chocolate). So basically, I'll do the occasional dipped item, and use my polycarbonate mold about twice a year.

Very beautiful pics, how did you make the rose pattern on the egg up top? And also, is that marshmallow down below?

[JenBunk]

Chocolate can be a bit of a bear when your dealing with room temperature. I am always amazed when I watch videos of sugar pulling. It seems like it would take a lot of practice.

Those are chocolate covered marshmallows. I used my airbrush to get the rose effect. I It is not my best rose I have done, but it is the only picture I took. I have a tendancy to pack up my product and pass out before I take pictures.

[Darienne]

Anywho, here are some lollipops I just made for my younger friends who just graduated from High school.

Oh my! I LOVE them! So beautifully done.

[JenBunk]

Mina6907- I forgot to ask, what flavor are those lolipops?

[minas6907]

Ah, grape flavor. I was trying to go with something multiple people would like, most seem to like grape, it's a common flavor

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[Truffle Guy]

Kerry, They look great and I love the toast on the nuts....I think this is one of the hardest confections to make well. Do you brush them with cocoa butter to help with the humidity?

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, They look great and I love the toast on the nuts....I think this is one of the hardest confections to make well. Do you brush them with cocoa butter to help with the humidity?

Which post are you referring to Bill?

[pastrygirl]

Jen, Washington just passed a cottage foods law, sounds the same but I haven't looked into it much. Where do you sell if wholesale is not allowed? I'm also surprised jams made the list of low-hazard foods, with all the potential for improper canning and botulism. Are the rules on confections pretty specific about formulation (available water, sugar density) or do they just figure confections are all safe? Thanks.

[JenBunk]

Pastrygirl- Confectionery falls into the safe category as a general rule, but they ask that you tell them a little about your process and they encourage you to submit a list of ingredients. The University of Alaska Fairbanks, Cooperative extension has a test kitchen where you can bring your product in and they will test the PH. They also have free classes to teach you about that, and safe canning practices. I honestly don't know much about canning so there might be some different regulations for that.

I can sell at markets and things like that. My main business comes from word of mouth and they just call and see what I have and come pick it up. Basically it just has to be sold in person.

[Kerry Beal]

No pictures - but the fellow up the street from me is a successful author and he just launched a new crime fiction novel (my favourite of his books) so I offered to make some chocolates for his next launch party in Toronto this week.

I had some Thai-one-on's left over from a bunch produced at the request of the Fine Chocolate Industry Association for a do they were having in Washington - they are based on Greweling's Dark and Stormy with thai flavourings and lots of rum. I made some of Greweling's Raspberry Truffles - they are piped into a truffle cup so a nice soft center, with a dab of seedless raspberry jam in the middle and a dusting of freeze dried raspberry powder. Yesterday I put together a Fiori di Sicilia meltaway - half and half milk and dark, coconut oil and enough of the flavouring to make them perfect. Cut and dusted with confectioners sugar. Very yummy.

[DianaM]

Kerry, all those summery flavours sound really yummy! I had never heard of Fiori di Sicilia before, thank you for making me curious. :-)

[Kerry Beal]

It's lovely stuff - used to flavour pannatone - I got a huge bottle from Albert Uster. Remind me to give you some.

[pastrygirl]

Passion fruit, filled with rejects from the last batch where the cocoa butter swirl stuck to the mold on about half of them. I don't love the color splatter as much as the swirl, but I like that they all came out and were all shiny.

Ginger milk chocolate caramel, a sample wedding favor that I'm hoping our catering division can sell for me.

[DianaM]

Passion fruit, filled with rejects from the last batch where the cocoa butter swirl stuck to the mold on about half of them. I don't love the color splatter as much as the swirl, but I like that they all came out and were all shiny.

I do love the splatter, I think the chocolates look lovely! Did you use a pastry brush or a silicone brush to splatter the ccb into the mold?

[pastrygirl]

I do love the splatter, I think the chocolates look lovely! Did you use a pastry brush or a silicone brush to splatter the ccb into the mold?

Thanks. The splatter has its place, for sure. I used a pastry brush that I'd cut down so only about 1/2 inch of the stiff part near the ferrule is left. What seemed to work well was holding an icing spatula in my left hand and swiping the brush against it with my right, just have to get the angles and the amount of cocoa butter right. There were some 'seconds' with big drips, but friends and coworkers never seem to care about cosmetics.

[SusanV.]

Chocolate can be a bit of a bear when your dealing with room temperature. I am always amazed when I watch videos of sugar pulling. It seems like it would take a lot of practice.

Those are chocolate covered marshmallows. I used my airbrush to get the rose effect. I It is not my best rose I have done, but it is the only picture I took. I have a tendancy to pack up my product and pass out before I take pictures.

Hi! Could you please elaborate on how you create the rose design? They look just wonderful! Thanks!

[JenBunk]

Chocolate can be a bit of a bear when your dealing with room temperature. I am always amazed when I watch videos of sugar pulling. It seems like it would take a lot of practice.

Those are chocolate covered marshmallows. I used my airbrush to get the rose effect. I It is not my best rose I have done, but it is the only picture I took. I have a tendancy to pack up my product and pass out before I take pictures.

Hi! Could you please elaborate on how you create the rose design? They look just wonderful! Thanks!

Sure! I I put a dab of cocoa butter in the mold I am going to use. I close my airbrush so it is only blowing air. I Put the airbrush close to the surface and blow the air in a circular pattern working my way from the center out.

I took a class from Joanne through Ecole chocolat called Mastering the Use of Color on Chocolate. That is where I learned this technique.

It is kind of hard to describe so I hope that helps.

[SusanV.]

Thank you so much, Jen! I've wanted to take that class and now that I can see what you learned, I just might sign up! The chocolate is just beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. I haven't tried to airbrush yet. For some reason, I just do truffles. But, you just might have inspired me to get out of my rut! What airbrush do you use?

[JenBunk]

You are most welcome! I use a Paasche airbrush. It is the one you get when you sign up for the color class. You use it the whole time for the class and then take it home(you will need to buy more bottles as it only comes with one). The class is awesome because you learn some cool techniques, but you also get some awesome troubleshooting help. Any time something goes wrong with my airbrush I know how to fix it. Keep me posted if you go for it!