Cherries

Practice starts soon. I'll be making chocolate covered cherries for Valentines day.

I made 3 jars of cherries. One has sweet cherries in brandy, one sweet cherries in cherry vodka, and on the far right is sour cherries in brandy. Each has a cup of sugar added.

I'm thinking until they are ready I would practice on some purchased candied fruit .

done for the night.

Ellen finished packaging at midnight.

They look really nice!

More pictures than text.

I made an order of Pretzels and potato chips from a request.

The potato chips messed with my cocoa butter but I got it done. I would rather not do that again because now I have some chocolate with a weird tempering degree. Eutectics is very important in chocolate and confections. It's the way fats respond to temperature when one fat is mixed with another. On with the order of the day. Pictures.

more new picts

Packaging night. These are the caramel boxes ready to go.

This is an order for chocolate covered pretzels and potato chips. It's the first time I've had this and it's pretty good! The small square ones are the peanut butter filled ones. I'll add stripes to the rods, bows, and chips tomorrow.

new flavor

I tried to replicate a childhood favorite. Cream sickle.
The white vanilla is on the outside and the orange is the center.
That's the piping bag with the leftover ganache. There is just a slight bit of alcohol in it it form the liqueur. The center is very soft right now. It should firm up slightly but not too much.

a few more picts

The "Espresso love" came out very nice!

The candy cane dark tondo's are popular so I made more

This is the shell for the mint. I'll fill it tomorrow.

leftovers!

I decided to use the leftover ganache used for the normal fillings. I have some pyramid molds I've been wanting to use. They are really big! Ellen put a penny next to them. They all have different fillings so I'm thinking of calling them the "mystery of the pyramids".

picture night

My feet are done. We got a good start on the Holiday orders. Ellen was in packaging and I was in production for 9 hrs. We both started getting the "dropsies" so we decided to call it a day. This is a new product. I roasted hazelnuts this morning and they smelled amazing during and after the roast.

This is Dark milk chocolate with a dark walnut center. Notice the color. Just the bit of white chocolate in the dark turns it a reddish color. It's very much like coffee. Some beans like a dark roast, some a light roast. A light roast on these beans leaves them a deep red.

This is the salted caramel. One of my favorites.

I'm thinking of putting a box together with a variety of caramels. I have a recipe for a pumpkin caramel that uses a ginger bread spice combination. I'm thinking that would named the Jacqs.

This is the smaller tempering machine with milk chocolate in it.

This is about 20 lbs. It just looked like a cool shot.

new grinder

I needed 10 lbs of chocolate really fast. I didn't plan on using the new grinder so soon but I'm very happy I have it. I took it apart and cleaned it, got it wired with 220. It has a 3 phase converter to adjust the speed. The picture is the beans after 5 hrs of grinding. After using the smaller grinder this one is kick'n! I can't wait to see it at max capacity. It will process 4 times this amount.

salted caramels

Decided to get going on salted caramels for the holidays.

Holiday

I'm in the Holiday spirit today . I got a good start on some dark chocolate and the new white chocolate with crushed candy cane. They look really festive. Next time I'll use some green candy cane too. I'm going to try and make salted caramels today too.

The white turned out really nice. I forgot to put the soy lecithin in it but it seems to be fine. I might just continue to leave it out. My equipment is beeping me to come back and work.

Chocolate room PT II

I need another room. I have been making the room next to the chocolate room my hot room. When I mold I need a room temp of 66-68F. If I roast and winnow it heats the room up. I called food safety and was told as long as I make it like the existing room that it would be fine. I've got it ready for kitchen paint so tomorrow I'll spend the morning painting. In the chocolate room I'll get the dark chocolate tempered. That usually takes about 3 -4 hours to do that. I have to isolate the room from the paint smell because chocolate grabs smells. It's a getter!

The smaller Santha grinder is being used today for a white chocolate batch. The last batch was a bit hard to work with. It was thin so I tempered it a bit more and had issues with the speed that it crystallized. The areas of the mold that had more mass would transfer the heat quickly so there was an uneven thickness of the shell. Last night I started another batch of white and added the mass. Bob's Red mill non fat milk powder. Love that stuff! Sugar. Lecithin. Why lecithin? Chocolate and sugar do not get along chemically. Like the same ends of a magnet. Soy lecithin steps in to calm down the fight. They both like soy!

So on with the recipe development of white chocolate. I put the recipe together and boosted the sugar and milk product. The grinder was not happy. I added cocoa butter until it was just happy. Wheels turning nice. Then on refinement it started to choke up again. I added a bit more. I'm not a big white chocolate fan but I am now. Wow. Really good white chocolate. I'll add the real Vanilla bean at the end for the added punch and for the fun of seeing the specs of it in the chocolate. It's almost smooth enough right now but since it's going to need a few more hours I'll just let it grind overnight. It will be super smooth by then.
I just got some fresh eggnog. I can make a eggnog ganache with that, possibly spiked? I'm thinking a milk chocolate shell. Possibly a coffee shell. Stay tuned!