Forum Activity for @Virginia Sybert

Maybe that's it. I'll also try to see if it makes any difference if I use stove top caramels vs microwave.

The latter are hard to cut if you don't chill them first. Thanks for your help

Our soft caramels are bizarre. If you chill them when they return to room temp they melt. If we do not chill them they hold form. If we chill the they will pop leaks or find a way out even on a thick coat, again unchilled this behavior is very minimized.

Strange right? YMMV but try some different handling.

If your coatings are too thin, they will most likely break as the chocolate crystalizes around the soft caramel. Quite often soft caramel requires double coatings because of cracking.

hey virginia,

How hard is the consistency of your caramel? the harder it is the lesschances for it to pop.

I have been having consistent difficulty with coating caramels with chocolate- using tempered Guittard Prestige. They spring little leaks. This happens even if I double dip them. They can look perfect and if I turn my head for a second-pop!- there's a little caramel poking its head out. I've tried dipping at room temp and slightly chilled and no difference. Caramels have nuts and coconut in them. Any clues? remedies?

I leave my chocolate in the melter for hours , tempered and untempered, and it still blooms if cooled improperly or doing a bad tempering. Since blooming is caused by improper crystallization I dont think keeping it at a certain temp (other than the advised storage temp) can make chocolate bloom resistant.

I just finished reading about a technique that says raising the temperature of your finished chocolate to 89.6-95 F for 80 minutes can postpone bloom development for one year. Has anyone ever tried this? Ever heard of this?

I'm very interested in hearing any success with postponing bloom for as long as possible.

Any special cooling tips?

thanks

I am looking at getting a chocolate decorator and was wondering if anyone can recommend a good one. So far I like the woody stringer decorator. Has anyone used it? Here's the link..

http://woody-decorators.com/PRODUCTS/PRODUCTSStringer/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Thanks,

O

www.sevvalmakine.com

Greetings Chocolate Lifers! I'm new to the forum, but I'm working on a project in Belize were we'll be doing bean to bar production. I'm on the hunt for a small to medium size roaster and winnower that isn't too high tech and could be worked on in the region of Punta Gorda. Any resources would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

mruneare

Mara,

Others should be able to correct me but the issue with the fat in supermarket dried milk is more of a 'stale' flavor than shorter shelf life.

It seems that commercial manufacturers have access to better dried milk than what we do in the regular food stores.Roller dried milk is hard to come by and spray dried milk is what most people use. Some sources like Beckett mention the benefits of using milk crumb, but that is also a sophisticated and complex process because it starts with wet milk.

If you look at commercial chocolate ingredients you will see that they sometimes mix the nonfat milk with whole milk. I guess an added advantage of using the ghee is that you can control the amount of fat very precisely.

I didn't get back to testing other formulations with the regular whole milk but if you have more than one machine you could try it and taste them side by side.

Felipe

Hi Felipe !

thank you so much for your help ! The information is very useful, really... just one question about whole milk. when you say that the full milk goes stale quickly, do you mean that it can happen some weeks after, or the chocolat can be ok for some months but less than an year ?

Now, I make some dark milck chocolat, with only 10% full milk inside, and the best before is 1 year.

I hope that my question is clear, sorry for my english.

I have had good success with formulations shared by others, including Chocolate Alchemy and some notes by Brad Churchill.

From my notes Cocoa Butter is generally 25% with the Cocoa Liquor ranging from 18% to 20% although taste is an important factor.

Here is the table with reference percentages adding to just above 100% but you get the idea:

For the Milk Powder, I've used 72% of non-fat-milk and 28% of ghee as it seems that the fat content in the full milk powder goes stale quickly.

Some threads which discuss the topic:

On powdered milk:

http://chocolatetalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=formulations&action=display&thread=410

On swiss milk chocolate:

http://chocolatetalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=formulations&action=display&thread=311

Hope it helps!

Hello !

I make dark milk chocolate ( 60%) and I would like to try to make milk chocolate... 25% or 30% of nibs. Do you have some advices for the quantity of cocoa butter I have to add ?

Thank you in advance !

Very helpful, thank you!

Hi,

In all honesty I have had a very bad experience with customer service from Inno Concepts and tend to avoid using them as a resource if I have any problems. The belt I bought is a micro-v 31"x 3/8" belt. Not the powertwist, as it is not a v-belt. Here is the link to the specific product I bought on Amazon, you may find this in an autoparts store as well. These belts have universal part numbers regardless of the company that may produce them, in this case 310J4

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NUROHAY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hi Laurie,

Sorry for the (very) late reply. If you still need the info:

You need to remove the bottom of the machine, and remove the old belt, which is the simple part. The difficult part is getting the new belt on. Inno was extremely unhelpful when I called after trying for hours to get it changed out. Here's the trick, and I couldn't believe how simple it was:

Thread the belt on the metal piece towards the back of the machine, then take a very strong twist tie, and tie the belt securely to the back wheel (closest to the metal piece). Thread the other end of the belt over the front wheel, and spin. As long as your tie stays secure, the belt will slip right on. Remove the tie, and voila!

If I remember correctly, I think the belts on the small melangers are about 3 feet long.

Hi Ben,

Could you tell me an approximate length on that belt? I'm looking to order one of the Powertwist belts.

Hi Katherine, would you mind sharing how you changed the belt on Cocoatown's SL12? I'll be doing the same thing as soon as my new on arrives and would love to hear how you did it. Thanks!

Great! Thank you so much.

The older model ECGC12 that I had used a 3/8" width belt. I'm not sure what the newer model ECGC12SL uses, but I'd assume it is the same. I don't know how long it was/is, but it doesn't really matter since the link belt's length is easily adjusted.

Thank you Katherine for the tip. However, I am here in Ecuador and it's a real challenge to find the replacement with that information. But I did manage to find on today after visiting a million shops. Hope it works.

I will however with more time look for a fiberglass link belt that Ben mentions because it is a real hassle to change these belts so often and with less luck the motor will get damaged. Do you know how many cm or inches the fiberglass link is for the ECGC12?

Thanks both!

I'd really recommend switching to the PowerTwist fiberglass link belt that Felipe linked above. They don't stretch and you'll probably never need to replace it. I ran a few Cocoatown ECGC-12s for 3 years or so using them without ever having to change or tighten the belt.

Hi Cat,

On my receipt, it said "Belt for ECGC12SL Deluxe Melanger". If you have the same model, this is what you need. If not, call them & give them the model #, and they'll be able to provide the correct item. Good luck!

Hi, i'm trying to find the belt to relace the snapped one and i was wondering if you could tell me the code of the belt you bought since their seems to be a variety of sizes..... or which one you bought on Inno Concepts?

thank you!!

The issue was that the seal on the bottom of the drum wore away, thus creating an air vacuum which stopped the drum from having enough power to spin. I resealed the drum using some food grade epoxy, and voila, issue resolved!

before you add stuff make sure they are pre-warmed and fluid and add little by little...not all together. help with hot air gun if needed

**Update** I was able to get this changed out with no issues. I have no idea why I was lead to believe that it would be so difficult. Haha. Unfortunately, it didn't resolve the issue, which is, the machine jams up as soon as I put something in it. It runs fine with nothing in it, but as soon as I add ingredients, the wheels get stuck. Back to the drawing board. Thanks to all who replied.

Looks like we have different machines. Mine isn't a grinder, but a melanger ECGC-12SL. It's a lot smaller than what you have, so I'm thinking (hoping) that it shouldn't be that difficult. Inno is offering to walk me through it over the phone for the first time. Should be interesting.

Hi Katherine,

we have ECGC 65 A grinder from cocoatown. my husband changed the belts a week ago and it was ok. he used a wrench 19. we did not remove the motor, just raise it, but don't remove it.

I don't think we're talking about the same machine. There isn't any metal coupling on the bowl. The bowl is a completely separate piece which lifts right out. I just need to flip the machine over, and remove some screws to get the bottom off, in order to get to the belt. I got the exact belt I needed from Inno. The first one lasted about 6 months, but I know it was my fault for overloading it with something too thick & sticky. Patience this time....

Hi Maria, thanks for the reply. I got the exact belt it needs directly from Inno Concepts, so that shouldn't be an issue. So no motor removal necessary? I actually found a tutorial online on how to replace the belt in a Santha, and I assume it's a similar process (although Inno told me no) I think they're just trying to get me to ship it back to them & pay them to do it....

It shouldn't be too hard to do it yourself. When I was starting out I went to a hardware shop that also repaired appliances like blenders to help me put it together.

I didn't see why the motor would need to be removed to remove the belt.

What you need to know if that the black plastic ring which holds the metal coupling to the bowl is removable. This allows you to separate the top of the machine from the bottom, with the large wheel and makes running the new belt from the motor to the wheel easier. It needs a bit of stretching to fit tight.

As for replacements I read good comments about using Powertwist belts which may last longer.

Hope this helps. How long did the original belt last?

It's time for my first belt change on my Cocoatown Melanger. Inno Concepts tells me that I shouldn't attempt this myself, and that the motor "may" need to be removed in order to change the belt. Has anyone on this forum done this themselves? I'm a newbie.

Not positive but this might be the same mold at Chocolat-chocolat

http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/home/chocolate-molds/chocolate-molds-easter/p16408224.html

Thanks Lana. I just saw your other posting on this subject. Great looking bunnies, by the way!

http://www.jbprince.com/

I have a question...

Where can you get good quality 3D molds like this?

Does anyone know the proper way to use these two-piece molds? This style has two buttons that let the two pieces "snap" together. Should I deposit some chocolate in, snap them together, and shake? Or, make twoseparatepieces and then stick them together later with melted chocolate?

I tried the snap-and-shake method, and a small amount of chocolate oozed out of the cavity, making for an ugly looking rabbit.

Any guidance would be appreciated!