Clean Slate

Thanks to the Schreiber family, I've been blessed with Dan's older small-scale equipment that has been sitting in a storage unit for months.  Given that it was in regular use before then, it was still a bit... dirty.  On the left is the tempering machine, on the right is the all-important grinder or melangeur.

After a couple hours of very hot water, scrubbing, and more hot water...

It's all like new (or as close as I could get in a couple hours).

I have some cacao on the way, so I'm hoping to have a first batch attempt before we go visiting family for Christmas.  If things look like they're going to go smoothly, I want to ramp up my experiments so make sure you're signed up on the Beta Tester list!

Since I'm starting with small batches, I'll probably make some filled chocolates and/or truffles.  If you've got requests, let me know!