Air bubbles!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thanks Jennifer - appreciate your input. We've gotten things all in order since I started this post and things are running smoothly!Brian
Forum Activity for @Lindsay Truffler
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thanks Jennifer - appreciate your input. We've gotten things all in order since I started this post and things are running smoothly!Brian
Air bubbles!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thanks Wim - we do actually have a vibrating table - will also try the rubber hammer! I'm up for trying anything that will work!Brian
Air bubbles!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thanks Ruth, definitely will be checking that tonight and making some adjustments.Brian
Air bubbles!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thanks Andrea and Kerry -Yeah that's the issue mainly - with shells that have higher detail.Back at it tonight to do some work!Brian
Air bubbles!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
hahah...Nice...we're totally going to have a rustic collection too!
Air bubbles!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi Shane,We do use a vibrating table as well as the good ol' fashioned bang-em-on-the-table method but still have a few issues. Maybe I'm looking for something that's really hard to get at the artisan level and that's 0 air bubbles!
Brian
Air bubbles!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi David - Thanks for replying.We do use pre-made shells for our caramels but the truffles we prefer to use molded shells. Interesting concept about the vacuum though. Thanks for the link too!Brian
Air bubbles!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hello!
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the least amount of air bubbles possible when doing molded (polycarbonate) molding?
Right now, we do our airbrushing, let that sit for awhile (30-60 minutes, sometimes longer) and fill the molds. We definitely have better luck on molds that are flatter on the inside, if that makes sense but the ones that have a design in them seem to give us some problems.
I'm wondering if we might be able to do things like thin out the chocolate with cocoa butter (prior to tempering), or maybe even use a paint brush very lightly to 'push' the chocolate into the corners. It's not all corners.
Also - does anyone make just shells ahead of time? You know like make shells, and just store them in something like a humidity controlled, cooled unit until maybe the next day for filling and capping?
Thanks in advance for any input!
Brian
updated by @Lindsay Truffler: 04/11/25 09:27:36
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi Hilmir - not sure what you are referring to when you say you added "powdered coloring" so I can only tell you what we do and hope that it helps you out.Because spraying the moulds uses just a little amount of cocoa butter and chocolate we use our small temperer - I believe it's a 1.5 lb one - and somewhat automated - you hit the buttons when it tells you to basically. I think, but can't say for sure that the cocoa butter/chocolate mix is around 89-92 degrees F when we spray it.As for how it would go for you - I would just try it and see what happens - best way to find out since there are soooo many factors that could come into play.Brian
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi Hilmir -When we do that light spray, we temper the cocoa butter and the chocolate at the same time.As for the freezing, we have not done that so can't really answer with any confidence on that subject.
Hope that helps!
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Yup, with an airbrush.
Not sure of the exact ratio though - probably something like 60/40. It's a very light coating though.
updated by @Lindsay Truffler: 01/23/15 20:10:56
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
The chocolates above were done with kind of a 'splatter' - brush was held above the mold and then just tapped to get the effect seen.I would think what you're saying should work - worth a try anyway! We usually coat the mold first with a thin layer of cocoa butter/chocolate to get a nice shine. Got that from someone out here actually!
BC
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Finally - pic is a little blurry but we nailed it down with the help of you guys out here and we're back on track!
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Well, it looks like MOST of the issue is resolved - we really think it was a case of overcrystallization - things are popping out again.
Thanks for your help everyone, we really appreciate it!Brian
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi Robyn - thanks for taking the time to reply. We're going to hit it hard again this week and really nail this stuff down. I think that we should be good by the weekend. In theory anyway.
Brian
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thanks Sarah - that's a good idea about putting the can in warm water. We normally use a compressor but found out that the "elephant" just isn't cutting it. We need to get a better compressor that will put out the type of pressure you get from a can! We used a can once, just because it came with the Badger but we didn't really like all the moisture that was around it...loved the pressure though.My wife (aka Lindsay Truffler) worked tonight and we got a much better outcome than we have lately that's for sure. We had someone take the chocolate (dark) to 115 and it was held there for a few hours just because she wasn't out of work yet...when she went over she finished the temper and the cocoa butter responded much better - the molds were 98% clean. Further testing on Sunday!Thank you all for your help, we really appreciate it!Brian
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thanks for that information Melanie - very nice of you to take the time to reply. Our cocoa butter was around 90 degrees F - we're going to go back tonight and work it out! Will post again tomorrow.
Brian
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
We did some reading last night and we ARE now thinking that the chocolate might be over crystallized. This is all a new problem - we went for literally weeks with everything coming out perfectly so I'm sure it's something that we're doing. Hoping by the weekend that things will get back to normal!Thanks for your input - I'll update again as we go along just in case it can help someone else!Brian
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Well, no luck today - we went back and tried several things including prespraying the molds with a 60/40 mix of cocoa butter to chocolate (very light coat), and also picked up a Badger gun with a can of compressed air (is that stuff safe to use? I mean it seems like it wouldn't be... - we were just making chocolate for photos so we used it).We heated the cocoa butter to around 90 degrees F before spraying and things came out BAD...I mean BAD. The cocoa butter is sticking to the mold, and if it DOES come out - it's got zero shine. The chocolate itself has shine however when we just do a mold of that. Temper seems to be fine. Really quite baffled - is it possible for cocoa butter to go bad? We have Chef Rubber Jewel Collection mostly that we use and I'm wondering if when the A/C went out and the store got hot and humid if it fried it out?Can anyone offer any assistance?Thank you so much for taking the time to read and help if you can!Brian
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thank you Lana!It sounds like the answers are there but I guess I'm not really sure what Norman meant about finding the right temperature...how would one go about that? We don't wash our molds, and we don't refrigerate them after spraying so those two things were in line with his suggestions.I'm just confused I guess on how one would go about finding the proper temps for the molds, the individual colors, etc - should we be heating things up? Cooling them down?I thought it was interesting that he said he wasn't a fan of the organic cocoa butter - we tried those as well initially and had all sorts of problems with them.Thanks again - that article really did help. We're actually going to pick up a couple of Badger air guns today!Brian
Cocoa Butter Problem
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi - first post here but I desperately need some help. We're having a problem with our cocao butter sticking in our molds and cannot figure it out.
The chocolate is in perfect temper prior to filling the molds.
We had an issue with the A/C in our store and it *seems* like this is when the problem started - so we tempered (or retempered) the cocoa butter. Black and white seemed to actually work - made chocolate with them and they came out fine - today, no such luck with any of the other colors. I've attached a pic as well.
So here's what we do:
Decorate the mold with the appropriate design
Let the cocoa butter sit in the mold at room temp, which is about 70 degrees F for 20-30 minutes
Pour in tempered chocolate to make the shell
Let the chocolate sit in the mold at 70 degrees F again for approx 20 minutes
Fill with ganache, wait about 20-30 minutes, seal off the bottom, wait 20 or 30 minutes, refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes and dump.
Other variables.
We're using the "elephant" air compressor with various guns
When the A/C went out - our chocolate was in our humidity-controlled storage unit
Chocolate is E. Guittard and the cocoa butter is Chef Rubber (different collections).
I'm sure that I've left out some details but if anyone can help out, I sure would appreciate it!
Thanks much for your time,
Brian
updated by @Lindsay Truffler: 04/11/25 09:27:36