Forum Activity for @George Trejo

Hello,

I would like to offer to my clients roasted cocoa nibs, and I have some questions about packagind solutions. I know that some chocolate makers use jars, but it's more expensive that paper. But can I use simple kraft paper bags for food ? What about the conservation ?

Thank you in advance for your help; sorry for my english which is not always very good

Maria

Springfield, Mo. On Oct. 21, 2011, American bean to bar chocolate maker AskinosieChocolate shipped their first export to China

The crew at Askinosie has been working with a distributor in China for months inpreparation for their order. Many special instructions had to be followed that the factory had notencountered for export to any other country, such as retrieving special certificates about theingredients, and creating new packaging for the chocolate bars. The chocolate bars will becarried in high-end department stores in Shanghai.

This occasion marks a significant achievement for not just Askinosie Chocolate, butAmerica as a whole- last week marked the highest U.S. trade deficit with China in history.

Shawn Askinosie, founder and CEO of Askinosie Chocolate says, Even though ourpallet of chocolate seems insignificant, it isnt because it represents a glimmer of hope for smallbusinesses in America, that we are part of the change. There is demand in China for high qualityproducts made in America.

Jane Shen, President of Shanghai Eagle Import & Export Co. Ltd., the importer ofAskinosie Chocolate says, The chocolate is good quality, good taste, with a specialenvironmental packaging.

This order is what Askinosie hopes to be the first of many in a long relationship withtheir new distributor in a brand new market

Askinosie Chocolate is a small batch chocolate manufacturer located in Springfield,Missouri, sourcing 100% of their beans directly from the farmers. Shawn Askinosie, founder andchocolate maker, travels to regions of Ecuador, Honduras, the Philippines and Tanzania to workdirectly with the farmers and source cocoa beans for his chocolate. This allows the chocolate tobe traced to the source and labeled Authentic Single Origin Chocolate. It also enables AskinosieChocolate to profit share with the farmers, giving them a Stake In the Outcome. The AskinosieChocolate mission is to serve their farmers, their neighborhood, their customers and each other;sharing the Askinosie Chocolate experience by leaving the world a better place than they found it.

Bean to Bar Chocolate Workshop Debuts in the Hudson Valley

SHOKAN, NY Youve heard of farm to table cuisine featuring the freshest, most imaginative food in the Hudson Valley. Now, chocolate lovers can also rejoice with the opening of an unparalleled bean to bar chocolate workshop in Shokan, NY.

Fruition Chocolate is a workshop that makes its stone ground chocolate in small batches using all organic ingredients. The highest quality cocoa beans are sourced from Costa Rica, slowly roasted to bring out their unique flavor, and stone ground to a luxurious smooth texture.

Chef Bryan Graham, who grew up in the Catskill Mountains, has worked for over 13 years as a baker, pastry chef, confectioner, and chocolate maker. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he later worked as Sous Chef at the Apple Pie Bakery Caf where he began a micro batch bean to bar chocolate making program. With the launch of Fruition Chocolate, Chef Graham harnesses his specialized skill set and artistry to create an exciting new line of chocolate and confections.

Fruition Chocolates opening product line includes a selection of dark chocolate and milk chocolate bars. The Classic Milk is an interpretation of a traditional milk chocolate: full of big vanilla and caramel notes. The Dark Milk is a gateway chocolate: a hybrid of dark and milk that is rounded out with fleur de sel. The Signature Dark 66% and 70% Dark bars floral and earthy tones are highlighted by a careful and judicious roast. Rustic Crunch blends 70% dark chocolate with Demerara sugar crystals, cocoa nibs and Vietnamese cinnamon. To top it off, Fruition offers enticing chocolate coated products: Caramelized Oregon Hazelnuts, Smoked Almonds, Roasted Cocoa Nibs, and Jalapeo Dusted Corn Nuts.

Fruition Chocolate is wholesaling to pastry chefs at high-end restaurants such as Cafe Boulud in NYC and to bars and retailers including The Stockade Tavern in Uptown Kingston, NY and Blue Cashew in Rhinebeck, NY. Fruition also produces custom chocolates and confections for weddings and special occasions.

Fruition will open its workshop as a retail store on November 19th. Please celebrate with us from 4pm - 10pm. There will be a variety of chocolates and confections to taste and the product line will be available for sale. Fruition Chocolate will be open Fridays from 12pm - 6pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 10am - 6pm. We will have extended hours during the holiday season. Please visit www.TasteFruition.com for further information.

Fruition Chocolate is located 11.5 miles northwest of the NYS Thruway, in the Olive Plaza at 3091 Route 28, Shokan, NY 12481. The phone number is (845) 657-6717.

HI all,

Is anybody from TCL exhibiting at NY chocolate show?

Thanks!

Andal Balu

cocoatown.com

Hi Andre

I use Pectins a fair amount. Some Pectins are heat sensitive - so it really depends upon what you want to use them for. Here are a couple of url's that you can use to determins what you need - and possibly use other products to acheive similar or better - depening on your requirements:

http://blog.khymos.org/2008/12/19/hydrocolloid-recipe-collection-v22/

http://www.cookingissues.com/primers/hydrocolloids-primer/

All the best!

John

Hi Clay.

How have you been?

I do have that book and, although it can get pretty technical, is full of wonderful recipes and tips.

Thanks for mentioning that.

Pectin is a unique gelling agent and is perfect for fruit since it uses acid to set, where most other gelling agentsused (gelatin, starch, agar,...) do not tolerate acidity well, and it has a very clean flavor profile. A high methoxyl (or HM) pectin is common for jellies, and is available in a range of DE (degree of esterification). The set is affected by solids level, but once you add the acid source, your time to deposit is limited before it begins to pre-gel. Acidifying to a pH of 3.1 will bring on a very rapid set, and a pH of 3.5 will be longer to set. When purchasing pectin ask if it has already been buffered. This helps slow the set. If not you can add your own, usually the buffer salt of the acid you use. So for citric acid, you add sodium citrate.

Many feel a citrus pectin is cleaner than apple. The level of pectin you use will vary depending on the type and level of fruit you use, as some already contain protopectins.

Andre:

There are any number of books that go into the making of pates de fruits . Learning something about the chemistry will probably be a good help. Even if you don't want to buy your pectin from Amazon, I can recommend Peter Greweling's book - there's a whole chapter on Jellies.

Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner

Hi Kerry.

Thank you so much for your help...

I would love to receive the recipes. My email is andre (dot) terrabrasilis (at) gmail (dot) com

(I hope one day we can share emails in forums like this without having to do the whole (at) (dot) blah blah blah...

Well, thanks again.

Nope - not the same for sure. It was hard for me to get my hands on it here in Canada - but I now have a couple of sources. In the US - you can get it from Chef Rubber - http://www.shopchefrubber.com/Pectin-Pate-de-Fruit-1kg-2.2-lbs./

If you are on Amazon - narrow it down to apple pectin powder.

When you have it in your hands and you are ready to start - check out this thread on eG

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/100545-pate-de-fruit-fruit-pastes-fruit-jellies/page__p__1140481__hl__pates+de+fruit__fromsearch__1#entry1140481

I can send you the Boiron recipes if you can send me your regular e-mail address.

Hi Kerry.

Yes! I want to start making pate de fruit, and I would like to narrow down my options when it comes to pectin - is it the same thing as unflavored gelatin?

Is it apple pectin for pate de fruit you are looking for?

Hi everyone.

I feel like I haven't participated in the forums for ages...

I have a quick question. I am looking into pectin, but there are a few varieties available and I am not sure the one I should get, as I need to get a small amount to test some recipes.

I found a lot of options on Amazon.com - and that's the issue: too many options.

What brand do you use? And where do you get it from, if not from Amazon.com

Thank you all!

Andre

Ben -

It's possible to put a digital thermometer in the chocolate and attach it to a device that will turn the power on and off. However, you will only be measuring the temperature at one point, so I don't know how useful it will be.

:: Clay

Sorry to hear it didn't work for you. I've been using it for a couple months now and haven't had any problems with it. I haven't left chocolate in it overnight, though. Generally, I'll put a pan of chocolate in it in the morning for tempering a few hours later.

I wonder if there's a way to have the power cut when the chocolate reaches a certain temp and then turned back on if it drops.

While I haven't attempted to temper in it, I have been using it for the past couple months as a chocolate melter, and can say that it works great. I stick to the lowest 2 1/2 settings and have had no issues with scorching. At level 2 1/2, the bottom of the warmer (where the heating element is) got over 180, but the bottom of the pan of chocolate never went above 140.

I have tried it, and it didn't work for me. It didn't work for melting either. I left it overnight on the lowest setting and by morning the chocolate and cocoa butter had completely separated (way too hot)

That's for the webrestaurantstore.com melter, not the dessertshouse.com one.

Just wondering if anyone has tried tempering chocolate in the food warmer mentioned in this discussion.

Good point, Brad. I haven't yet, but I'll test it and post my results. I could use water with this as well, but wanted to avoid that if possible.

One other data point: on its lowest setting, it warmed the pan of water to 100F and held it there. It took a few hours to reach that temp.

Ben;

Did you check the temperature that the bottom/sides of the pan get while heating the contents? It's one thing to heat water and see that it's holding the temperature at around 140. HOWEVER.... Chocolate burns VERY easily. Did you take the temperature of the walls of your food warmer while it was getting the contents to the "stand by" temperature? If the walls go higher than 180 F, you're going to have some burnt chocolate on your hands.

It is this exact reason that almost everychocolate melter on the market uses eitherwarm water, or a gentle, non direct heat source and not the heating elements used in food warmers.

Just food for thought....

Brad.

So, I tested the food warmer using a hotel pan of cool water. I started by setting the warmer to 4. This brought the water up to 140 and held it pretty consistently for an hour or so. The next day, I set it to 3 and it held it right at 130 for several hours.

So, it looks like it can hold temp pretty well and can go low enough to be used to melt chocolate. I haven't had a chance to actually melt chocolate with it, but it looks like a viable alternative to more expensive melters.

I ordered one last night around 7:30 and it's already on the truck for delivery today.

This one can be operated wet or dry, so moisture shouldn't be a problem. Dry operation, like most of the 'true' chocolate melters, was one of the characteristics I was looking for. Most of the food warmers that I found required water.

I don't have any chocolate needing melting today, but I'll try to do some tests with water in the pan to see how well it works.

I realize you don't need a stable temp.

The question is: "How long will it take for any given approach to melting chocolate take to melt X weight to desired temp?" This melter might be real fast - too fast, in fact in that it will melt far more chocolate than you need far more quickly than you need to a temperature much higher than you need.

If so, then whatever money you're saving on the equipment you're losing in increased energy costs.

Or maybe not. There could be ways to much more closely monitor the equipment, but it won't be "set and forget" especially at the beginning.

Thanks Clay. Definitely good points. I've got an email in to them. I'll post their reply when I get it. I'm mostly looking for something to pre-melt chocolate to load into my tempering machine--not really hold it at temp once melted.

To everyone looking to shave a few bucks off a purchase, capital acquisition costs are only a small part of the total cost picture, or total cost of operation (TCO).

Operating a piece of equipment can cost more than buying it.

If one piece of equipment is less energy efficient than another, then it may make more sense to buy the more expensive piece of equipment as it will be cheaper in the long run

Ben - the unit you're looking at is a food warmer. It wants to hold food above 150F. That's real high for chocolate. I'd contact the company (or the web site) and ask them what the bottom end of the range on the thermostat is. Even is 150F is okay, you'll pay more to keep it at that temp than at 120F - and it will cost more in the long run, even if you saved a few bucks up front.

I don't have any experience with that melter, but have been thinking about getting this food warmer to use as a chocolate melter:

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/apw-wyott-w-3v-12-x-20-countertop-food-warmer-120v/135W3V%20%20%20%20%20%20120.html

Has anyone used one of these? How did it work?

Does anyone have any experience with these melters? They seem to be a great price at less than $500 for an 18kg chocolate melter.

I just want to make sure I'm not throwing money at a melter that won't hold a stable temp.

Thanks!

Have you tried making your bark thin and sprinkling the inclusions onto it? Like mendiants, very large mendiants.

Do you temper the chocolate before you make the ganache? I've learned that ganache needs to be made with tempered chocolate to get the proper consistency.

Thanks