Forum Activity for @Ritu Motwani

How is École Chocolat's professional chocolatier programme?

Posted in: Opinion

Hey Rebecca,,Thanks a lot for sharing ur experience. N ya.. I've actually decided to go ahead with it.

How is École Chocolat's professional chocolatier programme?

Posted in: Opinion

I've taken a total of three courses through Ecole Chocolat (two on-line, one on-site) and overall had a good experience with them. In the on-line courses students are provided with a great deal of information/reading materials and asked to complete assignments based on these materials. Before taking my first course I tried to do quite a bit of research and practice on my own, but I think the additional resources they provided and the more structured format of the course allowed me to progress further and more quickly than I could have on my own.

Hope that helps!

Rebecca

How is École Chocolat's professional chocolatier programme?

Posted in: Opinion

Hello there,I'm Ritu from India. I've recently become very interested in the art of chocolate making after a local workshop I attended regarding the same. Hence, I decided to do a proper course and gather as much knowledge as I can in the field before thinking about taking it as a career option. Whole doing some research, I came across an online chocolatier program : cole Chocolat's professional Chocolatier program, also read some reviews about the course which were pretty convincing. But wanted to be completely sure before registering myself for the same, as it costs quite a lot, so want to make sure that it's worth it. Anybody having any experience or knowledge regarding the institution or the course, kindly share it with me.Thanks and Regards
updated by @Ritu Motwani: 04/09/15 11:16:20

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I did check the temperature, it goes between 55-58C (131-136F) so it wasn't the problem for me. Releasing the pressure on it fix the problem and like that it add an adjustment on the melangeur.

BUt thanks for pointing this out it could be part of the problem.

How goes the chocolate business inPennsylvania by the way?

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I have a santha and had the same problem the axle that the stone spins on gets chocolate in it and cools down. I also use a hair dryer to keep the chocolate hot and fluid

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

If someone is interest about a system for adjust the pressure on the arm of the melangeur.




I didn't try it yet, I'll tell you more after using it.

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I finally found the solution to my problem.

Too much pressure.

I talked about it on the alchemist forum, and someone told me he solved this problem by releasing some pressure on the wheels, when I was trying to add lots of pressure. He made me realise I was going to worn the stone much faster. So I tried the opposite, which is going easy on the pressure. It worked very well! The wheels started to spin full speed again.

Now I just have to find a fix system, to be able to adjust the pressure.

Hope this will serve to someone.

Thanks everyone.

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Still have trouble with my Ultra Grind+, the last batches was alright because I added cocoa butter, so the chocolate was enough fluid, then the wheels didn't have to much trouble to spin.

But I would like to make chocolate without adding any cocoa butter. So I'm facing the same problem, the wheels stopped again.

I runned the grinder with the liquor ( 1kg) until it was well fluid, and then I added the sugar on three laps of time, little by little. Waiting between each time to see the liquor getting enough fluid.

It was going well for an 1h30 and then one wheel stopped, so I took off half of the liquor and it started to spin again so I left it run during the night and when I woke up, not good!!!! both wheels were stock.

I wonder if the sugar could make the mix sticky, or maybe it start caramelise a little , but the temperature never go over 136F, so i don't think so.

Is it the me doing something wrong or is it necessary to have a bigger melanger to be able to make chocolate without cocoa butter?

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I probably had little bit to much in the drum.

The temperature was around 55c so I don't think it was that.

I just realise the humidity was quite high, around 65%, do you think this could make the chocolate thicker? As I had trouble for tempering, the chocolate started to thicken a lot at 27c.

I know the ideal humidity is 50% or less. Is 65% already to much for work with chocolate?

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

You've got a lot of variables here. You need both stones to be rolling for sure. It sounds like too much chocolate in the bowl or the chocolate is not warm enough. Not knowing your percentages of ingredients, only suggestion would be to make sure the chocolate mass is warm enough to keep it moving. You are probably going to want temps over 125f to help with viscosity unless you are using additional ingredients to improve viscosity. Was the sugar warm when added? If not, it could take longer than 4 hours for the temp to recover.

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

When you added the milk powder the mixture became too thick.

There is not enough pressure being exerted on the stones - evenly - against the bottom of the bowl - so one or more of the stones stops turning.

If you take out some (or most) of the chocolate does this solve your problem? If you can get the chocolate started and fluid you may be able to add the rest back in in small amounts.

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Do you think so? Maybe already it is too much.

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

The thing is all the chocolate was in since 12h,I added the sugar and butter and let it run for 4h and it is only when I added the powder milk, the stone before the scraper stopped after 1h.

And since then the stone spin when I turn the drum by hand but stay fix when I start the grinder!?

I have 2.1kg in the drum in total, is it to much maybe?

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

you must control adding cocoa belong. do not put all the cocoa together, first start adding some, and then a few more, and few more.

I dont have the machine, and I ask regards because my english is not well. And its late i am tired.

david

Problem with grinder

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi,

I'm just starting making chocolate at home and use my "Ultra Grinder+" for the second time and I have a small problem about the stones, when I had ingredients, one or the other stop spinning. It is always only one who stop. I cannot see any sugar stock somewhere or anything else, the chocolate isfluidso I don't understand, why one stone doesn't spinne.

Should I worries about that or not and is there anything I can do to fix that? Even if this doesn't damage anything, I imagine this slow down the process as only one stone do the work!

Any advice will be welcome, thanks by advance.
Best regards,
Thomas

updated by @Delcour Thomas: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Tempering Milk Chocolate

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

The Little Dipper is a seed machine - you shouldn't have to go to 80F to form stable crystals. Remove any crystal memory by pre-heating the chocolate and then start to seed as the chocolate approaches 91 (or so) on the cool down.

brian

Tempering Milk Chocolate

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I try a smaller batch and it made it to 81 degrees then I slowly added in the rest and it turned out much better. I was hoping to put 5lbs in, bring it down to 80 degrees and then back up again. Maybe it's just too much chocolate.

Tempering Milk Chocolate

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I haven't successfully made chocolate from cocoa beans, but why do you have to get it to 80 degrees?

http://chocolatealchemy.com/illustrated-tempering/ has a great illustrated tutorial on tempering without seed and they suggest taking the chocolate to 80 degrees to get more types of cocoa crystals then bringing the temperature back up to melt the type I - IV crystals.

However, if you chocolate will only go down to 84, then what is wrong with letting it run there for awhile to build some lower class crystals & bringing it back up to 89?

As far as the chocolate not getting any colder, what is the temperature of your room?

Do the lights come on when the machine is trying to cool to 80? If they do, then that is a machine problem and may be solved by calling Hilliard.

We have a little dipper and it's simple but fantastic.

I cannot imagine the machine would distinguish the difference between percentage cacao chocolates.

Tempering Milk Chocolate

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hello. I am completely frustrated trying to temper milk chocolate. I have a tempering machine. It is called the "little dipper" from Hilliards.As soon as I am finished refining the milk chocolate with 30% cocoa, I begin to temper bringing the temp down to 80 degrees F. My issue is that it stops cooling around 84 degrees and never gets colder. It even starts to increase in temperature then cool again. It does become thick and then very thick as it tried to get to 80 but hours (literally) go by and it does get there.I don't know what I am doing wrong. Tempering 35 and up to 70% cocoa works. I do t understand and could use some help. I'll take even a phone call. 858-633-7067 PST.
updated by @Roy McClish: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Problems with panning

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hmmm... Interesting idea Brian. Might just try that! Thanks Colin

Problems with panning

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Try pre-coating with a little cocoa powder. It will help[ the chocolate adhere and also if the coat is thinner in spots it will not have a significant color difference.

brian

Problems with panning

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thanks Mark. I precoat the centers with choclate thinned down with cocoa butter - time consuming but to date the only way I know to do this.

I do cool as I go by directing air from an air conditioner onto the product.

The chocolate is stright from the box and I hold it at around 45 degrees C so it should be OK. If I take it down too far it goes "oily" which will be the cocoa butter separating.

I don't think I'm adding too much chocolate at a time. If I do it then adheres to the pan rather than the product. In fact I do find that it pays to be generous with the application otherwise the product starts to break up - a real challenge!

I am using untempered chocolate. If it' tempered it's much harder to do and slow. The vibration of the chocolate tempers it I believe.

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

Colin

Problems with panning

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Chocolate does not like to stick to the dried strawberries. A pre coating of gum Arabic or gelatin can help.

Are you cooling the chocolate sufficiently after each dose of chocolate?

Is your chocolate the right viscosity?

Are you adding too much chocolate at each dose?

Problems with panning

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I am panning freeze dried strawberries. So quite large (much larger than coffee beans).

Currently using milk chocolate but I use white & dark too.

Problem is that as I pan deep crevices develop exposing the strawberry through the chocolate. At first I thought that if I stopped adding chocolate and simply let the batch "run" the chocolate would close over the crevises and then I could continue to add chocolate and get a nice result. But the crevices actually deepen right down to the strawberry.

I THINK I know why. I think that there are naturally "holes" in the centers and that chocolate covers the center but leaves cavities. The chocolate in the "ridges" becomes tempered by vibration but the chocolate in the cavities remains untempered and shakes out - thus the cavity grows.

This may NOT be a reasonable explanation but from my hours of observation is the conclusion I have come to.

Does anyone have any idea as to how to avoid or fix the peoblem please? It's sending me nuts and consuming a massive amount of time and effort.

Thanks!

updated by @Colin Green: 04/11/25 09:27:36

concentration of fruit flavors

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I use Dreidoppel flavoring pastes for Strawberry, Raspberry and Orange flavors regularly in ganache and have been very happy with the results.

concentration of fruit flavors

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I am developing a ganache w/ fresh strawberry juice. Also 1 w/ fresh Pineapple juice. I have tried reducing them to concentrate them. The pineapple doesn't work at all, the strawberry concentrates but loses it's brightness( best word I could think of) I use ravi purees for some things. i know they add a little sugar to them but are they concentrated?. Any ideas or techniques to use? Thanks

updated by @mike johnson: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Suppliers of custom chocolate bar wrappers

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

I called other bar makers & they said they just went to a local printer. I had mine done online. They came out great but not much help on advice. I have to make several changes on the next batch due to my lack of knowledge in such things. I am looking to a local printer so I can work a lil closer w/ them during the process. I don't know the cost difference yet.

Suppliers of custom chocolate bar wrappers

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

I would be highly interested in this for the USA also, so another thread does not have to be made. I got a quote from Dion labeling here in the US and it looked like for about 5000 wrappers with full adhesive it was about 20-25 cents per wrapper USA currency.

Info on this would be amazingly appreciated though.

Suppliers of custom chocolate bar wrappers

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Hi All,

could anyone advise me of companies supplying custom outer wrappers for chocolate bars? I am really struggling with this. Preferably in Canada but anywhere would be fine. I have a long list of packaging suppliers for boxes, foils etc. but can't seem to find anyone who does the bar wrappers. Thanks.

updated by @Trish Gowans: 04/07/25 13:00:14

Cocoa town and Chocolate 70% and below Question

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Yeah, Sounds like I will justhave to keep it how I have it, as I do not want to lose durability. I use this for my business.

And yes I am currently using 5oz of cacao butter for my 60% 70% and 84%, I keep it consistent, I like that number.

Cocoa town and Chocolate 70% and below Question

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Steven:

From your description of the problem I am guessing that you're using one of the 12 (5 kilo) machines.

What's happening is that there's not enough pressure exerted on the rollers to keep them reliably in contact with the bowl surface when the chocolate reaches a certain viscosity.

To some extent your telling us the percentage in your recipes doesn't help because we don't know the fat content of your beans and whether or not you add any cocoa butter to your recipes. You can have two recipes with the same cocoa content with very different viscosities.

Cocoatown is now offering machines that enables users to increase the pressure on the stones to help keep them in contact with the base. This might be what you need. However keep in mind that this extra pressure will probably reduce the life of the nylon bushings, which will cause other problems.

Cocoa town and Chocolate 70% and below Question

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I have been using 5% cacao butter which seems to loosen up the chocolate enough to keep the rollers moving. I find issues around seizing happening when I used milk powder much more than when I make dark chocolate.

Cocoa town and Chocolate 70% and below Question

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

So I have been running chocolate in my Cocoa town, and we do a few 60% bars and a couple 70% bars. I have noticed that at a certain point the chocolate+sugar will get thick enough that the wheels will stop at these lower percentages. The drum keeps spinning and stays hot, but I thought this was odd. Anyone have any input?

updated by @Steven Shipler: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Luxury Chocolate in India - Questionnaire

Posted in: Opinion

Hi!
I'm pursuing my Masters right now, and for my dissertation, I'm trying to understand the consumer behaviour with regards to Luxury Chocolates... what affects people buying premium chocolates in India, what their perception is, and if anyone affects their purchase choices.
I have created a questionnaire for the same. These findings will in turn be used to recommend companies in their branding and communications in India.

If residents of India could kindly send in their responses -

http://kwiksurveys.com/s.asp?sid=m469e53jofelpus189412

This survey is conducted solely for academic purpose.
No personal information is required. The findings and data are confidential, and only for this piece of dissertation.

Your participation would be greatly appreciated!

THANK YOU!

updated by @Swati Mathur: 04/20/15 23:26:14

Need some input on X3210 and others. My knowledge of a seed is very little.

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I'm not the most qualified to answer this but I'll take a stab at it.
Yes you can temper without seed in a tempering machine. Check out http://chocolatealchemy.com/illustrated-tempering/ for a very good tutorial on cocoa butter crystals and tempering.
The seed method is faster so it is taught in their videos.

The tempering machine can do anything you and a bowl of cold water can do. However it will rely on the cold air to cool the chocolate.

As far as doing more than 10 lbs at ate chocovision has a "holey baffle" that should take it to a 17 lb capacity. I haven't used one so I cannot vouch for it. It should be fine though.

The different percent chocolates will differ slightly in their tempering. The x3210 has some preset methods but you can do manual overrides to get the temp control you want.

Another perk besides more automation is less water in the proximity of your chocolate. I know a bain Marie doesn't get the chocolate wet. But the further the water is the happier I am.

Finally be sure to check the discount page of this site. Clay has worked out some deals for Chocolate Life members.Welcome to The Chocolate Life.

Need some input on X3210 and others. My knowledge of a seed is very little.

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I am brand new to The Chocolate Life. The main reason I made an account is to get on here and start talking with others to broaden my personal knowledge as well as help others whenever possible.

Here is my question. I have been looking into an X3210 for my small business, I sell chocolate at the farmers market, currently I run 5lb batches in my premier/cocoatown stone grinders which leaves me with 10lbs after the job is finished approx 6 hours laters. I have been reading into these machines, and figured that with my liquid chocolate I would be able to just pour the chocolate into the machine (all 10lbs) and press the temper button and let it go. I recently was reading and also watched a youtube video about the Chocovision X3210 and realized... Okay now I need a perfectly tempered seed chocolate to achieve this?

I don't ever let my chocolate harden without it being tempered, I currently temper by hand, simply by pouring it into a bowl, and using a wooden spoon and stirring it with the bowl in cold water to hit about 81-82 degrees F and then heating it back up to 89 degrees F and it always comes out of my molds shiny and with no streaks, this takes about 15 minutes of stirring to achieve.

So I am wondering if I should just stick to this method? It is just kind of a hassle to have to do it manually when I could have a machine do it, but then I also look at the price and realize that this also may not be very cost effective if my current routine is working and I have a finished molded product approx 20-25 minutes after it comes out of the stone grinder.

My final concern on this topic with the X3210 is that I also do different percentages ranging from 60% all the way up to 84% and all of the 60%'s are flavored. The real thing that is bothering me is the need for a seed in these machines, I would think that for that amount of money I can just take my liquid product out of the stone grinder, pour it into the X3210, and press the temper button, and come back a little while later to have a perfectly tempered product.

My final Question on this topic is that in the video it looked like you could temper 10lbs of chocolate from a block, but can you temper more than this is a unit like the X3210 if it is liquid to begin with? And to add one more point, does it have trouble dealing with a thick 60% as apposed to a liquid like water 84%?

Thank you so much,

Glad to be apart of this wonderful community

Steven

updated by @Steven Shipler: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Need Help Calculating Volume of Chocolate For Mold Cavity

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

depends on your scale - most are adjustable to read whatever the local norm is. i find it easiest to work in grams.

Need Help Calculating Volume of Chocolate For Mold Cavity

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thanks Sebastian.

That helps a lot. If you are using ml for volume, then what is the scale for mass? Grams? Ounces?

Need Help Calculating Volume of Chocolate For Mold Cavity

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

ah - well, if you've got the exact measurements, determining the volume is trivial. Your chocolate supplier isn't likely to have the densities for all their chocolates measured, and you can ask them to do it, which they will if they have time, or they'll make time if you're a large enough customer. If precision is important to you, remember that specifications have a range (ie fat is normally +/-1% on industrial chocolates) - so that range will result in a range of densities as well.

If you want to do the density yourself, you'll need a graduated cylinder and a scale - density is simply mass over volume - so fill your cylinder (on the scale) to 100ml of chocolate and read it's mass. D = m/v. The reading on the scale divided by 100 (the mls you used for the reading), and you've got a density calculation. Obviously if your scale is not calibrated, if you're not accurate in filling the cylinder, or if your chocolate temps are all over the place, it will impact your calculations.

Once you've got your volume of your cavity - simply multiply that by your density, and you've got the grams/unit of measure. Be sure not to mix your units of measure between your cavity volume calculations and density calculations (ie don't use both inches and centimeters, for example - one or the other)

Need Help Calculating Volume of Chocolate For Mold Cavity

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi Sebastian. Thanks for the response. Perhaps I should give you a bit more info about my situation, so it makes more sense. I am actually manufacturing my own molds. I will always know the exact dimensions of my molds every time. So like Clay said is actually really trivial. I just need the densities of the chocolate I plan to use, and figure out the formula to calculate the mold volume and density (I'm suspecting that it's something like: w*h*d*Density etc. Yes, I can approximate with a cubic inch (like using the chocoley calculator), but since I have access to the exact measurements (perhaps I'm completely off base), it seems to me I can get much more accurate results by doing the math. I apologize to anyone if my responses sound stubborn or like I'm taking the wrong path. It just seems to me if I have my mold dimensions, and I can get the densities I can get relatively close estimations of my needs (especially on large scales) by doing some math, and perhaps as a result save money on my chocolate needs etc.

Thanks again for the feedback guys. I really do appreciate it.

Need Help Calculating Volume of Chocolate For Mold Cavity

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I honestly think you're taking the path of most resistance, mate..now, even though i've had as many calc classes as they offer, i'm not a math guy, and for most moulds, mathematically calculating the volume's going to be an incredibly tedious process. If you must know the cubic inches of the mould, the mfr should be able to provide that, as their molds are made using design software that should be able to provide the volumetric with a click of a button. That's what i'd do, but the scale i work at is perhaps a little different than most 8-)

Need Help Calculating Volume of Chocolate For Mold Cavity

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hey Clay. Thanks much for the response. Yes it's a single test mold. For this purpose, I went ahead and did a few molds (thankfully I had a little Guittard chocolate on hand), and weighed each piece. I then scaled my mold size up/down based upon the chocolate weight. So for my immediate need that worked. Not my preference of course, but I think it worked. I know you guys prefer to measure with chocolate rather than a calculator, and I totally understand that, but I would also like to have the capacity to calculate with a calculator to get close measurements. I can easily get my mold dimensions so that isn't a problem. I'll contact Guittard and see if I can get the densities of their chocolate.

Clay: Can you give me a formula that would calculate the mold capacity using volume and chocolate density? How would you put that together? (w*h*d = volume +*/- density?

Thanks again guys.