I made chocolates for 13 hours today, with a 3-hour break at lunchtime to help Blossom break down his AVL loom for his move to Oregon. I prepped eight more flavors of centers, and dipped four or five of the previously prepped centers, bringing my total to 21 flavors of chocolate bonbon, nine completed and 12 yet to be dipped. Not bad considering I was having some problems with the tempering machine! I finally figured out that the thermostat was off by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit, which was enough to make my chocolate thicken up way too fast.
I’m hoping tomorrow’s session goes faster, although with 12 flavors to cut and dip, it’s going to be another long day. I intend to put in a solid 14 hours (16 hours is unrealistic) and am hoping to finish up everything by bedtime. But if a flavor or two gets lost along the wayside, I won’t panic. The chocolates are larger than usual this year, because my new ganache cutters (like cookie cutters, but smaller) cut centers larger than I would normally, so I don’t think I’m actually going to get 28 flavors into a single box. Hence, if some flavor doesn’t get made, it won’t be a tragedy. I will, of course, do my favorite flavors first, so I can be sure they’ll get done. Being the chef does have its privileges. 🙂
Off to bed! Tomorrow, the final day of chocolatiering!
