Hi Karla,

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I picked up some food grade cocoa butter at a candy supply store today, along with an instant read thermometer, and some candy molds. (Too convenient that they had pretty much what I needed here in town!)

I have a few questions for you though, if you have a minute.

1) If I add more cream, will I get a more "milk" chocolate taste than dark? I just prefer a lighter chocolate, but it's no biggie.

2) So if I master the tempering thing (following the directions in the link you gave me), I don't need the paraffin, right? Is tempering hard to do, if I follow directions? Do you set the water temp (gas stove) to a low setting to let things melt slowly and the temp rise slowly? Or use another setting?

3) In addition to granular Splenda, do you know if you can use a SF Davinci's syrup to add more sweetness without adding a bunch of carbs, or will it make the consistency too runny? What if I added just a small amount (like a few tablespoons)? Any thoughts on this?

4) So if I'm reading all your posts correctly, you are using: a high quality, unsweetened baking chocolate, heavy cream, vanilla extract, cocoa butter, and granulated Splenda. Is that correct, or am I missing anything? (The cocoa butter replaces regular butter, right?)

5) Lastly, I bought the cocoa butter today, but they only had it in 1 ounce bars at $2.50 ea. I'm assuming I can get it in a bigger size (e.g. bulk) for a lot cheaper. Any website suggestions?

Thanks again for EVERYTHING! I'll let you know how things turn out.

Jill in Phoenix


P.S. Sorry this is a bit long. But since the ingredients are a bit expensive, I thought I'd get as much info up front, before I give it a go!