Valrhona - The Essentials - The Molded Bonbons 

Kim Marcum You tap the mould on your counter, and sometimes you have to tap it quite hard. Also, chocolate not coming out of moulds easily is typical of chocolate not being properly tempered. Careful if you do put the mould in the fridge overnight, as you may get condensation on the surfaces of the chocolate when it is removed. This water will dissolve sugar in the chocolate and form sugar bloom on the surface once the water evaporates. This is different than fat bloom in that sugar bloom cannot simply be wiped off and it is grainy and rough to the touch. The chocolate cannot be re-tempered because the sugar will not re-dissolve in the chocolate, so the good news is this chocolate will need to be eaten by you and your family. The bad news is that if no one wants to eat it cuz it looks awful, you have wasted money on chocolate. It will never be presentable unless you call it “art” and sell it to unsuspecting art snobs at auction. ; )

Just a normal Bain marie. Maybe a dry one so it doesn’t use water

He is using polycarbonate moulds, which are very rigid (and smooth). The chocolate shrinks a little bit as it recrystallizes, on a rigid mould the chocolate pulls away (releases) from the mould. On a flexible mould the chocolate can distort the mould without releasing.

Refrigerating them isn't the best, the wet environment would do the chocolate itself no good and you may end having the chocolate bloom on you. This means you will end up with the chocolate going white due to the humidity in the fridge. Realistically, once the ganache chocolates are ready, you would want them gone within the day. Two or three at the most. Answers seem to vary as to the length ganache can last for safely. The sugar contained in the chocolate does help to preserve it, along with the heating of the cream which is essentially pasteurising it.

He just means he is creating a small ridge of untempered chocolate, when the opening is covered with warm tempered chocolate the (Beta 5) crystals grow across the seam making for a more resilient structure. The working temperature of the enclosing chocolate may otherwise be too low to create a homogenous seam.

LM1234Life....and me!

a (clean) hair dryer works as a very cheap version of a blowtorch :)

you should be able to reach one month shelf life by using water ganache instead of cream based ganache (so avoiding all dairy). You could use most liquors instead of water too ;-)

Yeah, no idea how they do it. I've heard alcohol, sugar and fat helps with preserving, but how much, for how long...no idea.

Are you using a chocolate with a sufficient cocoa butter content? If you are then your chocolate is probably not tempered correctly, if you are not you should look into getting the correct chocolate for moulding and covering. inter.valrhona.com/en/chocolate-catalog/product-range/couverture-chocolate/optimal-application/molding