Thanks for your trouble Ashley. I don't have any cocoa butter here, but I'll try this next time.
But hopefully things are under contol again, the first batches look promising: dropping right out of the mould and nice shine. It's probably a combination of things that causes problems:
-I washed the moulds with NaOH, great tip I found on this forum.
-Maybe I was overheating the moulds, I do a more gentle preheat at lower temperature.
-Keeping an even tighter check on the temper of the white chocolate. I guess it was overcrystallizing when I got to the last moulds.
With my fridge I'm not too worried about moisture, this one keeps the humidity low.
Hello all,
I hope I'm not asking something which has been asked before (I did a search), but hopefully someone can help a beginner out. It gets a bit frustrating having to melt back half of your work ;-)
Here is what I'm trying to do:
I made some custom moulds (PETG) of a logo, for casting a tablet. The mould has several shallow cavities (about 2millimeter or 0.1 inch) for different colours of chocolate: small details in dark, and larger area's with white and milk.
First I fill in the small details with dark, then a few larger areas with white and finally milk (using piping bags), tapping the mould each time to get bubbles out and fill the cavities. After filling in the logo, the rest of the tablet is topped off with milk or dark. Total thickness is about 14mm, just over 1/2 inch.
The problem I'm having is a some sticking and 'flaking' of the white chocolate in small spots, ugly! The milk and dark release nice and shiny. I'm a bit stuck: I tried a few things but running out of ideas.
Moulds were cleaned and polished (very thoroughly!) with cotton wool in between.
I believe the temper is ok: the white chocolate sets up nicely. Sometimes it shows some 'cloudiness' or swirls where it comes from the piping bag, maybe it's overcristallised? (Although I try to keep it in control with the heatgun before pouring).
I tried preheating the mould (room temperature is about 19degC), but that doesn't seem to help. Also it takes a lot of time to put all the colours in, so the mould is probably cooled down anyway. Reheating is not really possible as the other colours become fluid again and start mixing when pouring the next colour...
I tried working fast, pouring one colour after another. And I tried working slow, letting one colour solidify before applying the next one (with a quick run of the heatgun in between to make the layers stick together). Fast or slow didn't seem to make much difference in succes rate...
Any tips how to tackle this? Is white chocolate more difficult to work with than milk or dark? And should I work fast, or is it ok to have previous layers semi-solid and then pour a new layer on top?
I'm also not sure anymore what the proper cooling procedure is: should I pop it in the fridge straight away or let it cool down first at room temperature?
Thanks, Bart
That's my interpretation.
One thing to note is that if you sell (for example) a one-ounce bar and an eight-ounce bar of the exact same chocolate then the eight-ounce bar counts as eight units towards the 10,000 limit.
However, if you use the same chocolate, and make bars with different inclusions or flavorings, then each recipe counts as a unique product, each with its own 10,000 unit limit.
Thanks for the link, Clay. One line says: " If a person isnot an importer, and has fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees, that person does not have to file a notice for any food product with annual sales of fewer than 10,000 total units." Would you interpret that as not needing the exemption if those qualifications are met? Also, I'll check with my insurance agent to see what the savings would be like if I use a batch tracking system. Thanks again for the help.
Here's the link to the FDA page on the small business nutrition labeling exemption.
The batch/lot tracking is a form of insurance if/when it ever comes to having to recall product. Though it does cost money, you may actually lower the cost of the liability premium if you can show your insurer that you have these procedures in place.
Hello Clay. As usual, excellent information. I wasn't aware of the labeling laws exemptions. Do you know how I go about applying for that exemption? Also, do you think batch / lot tracking requirements are close to fruition for small shops? Thanks again. John
Corey -
These are separate things.
You can purchase UPC codes from brokers and then just print them directly on your labels or print UPS labels and stick them on your packaging. You don't need inventory management software to do that.
I am not exactly sure why you are focused on scanners that connect to a PC. You certainly don't need a barcode scanner to track ingredients for recipes. What you do want is lot traceability and the ability to calculate the cost of a recipe based on what is spent for a particular batch of ingredients, not what you last paid.
I was recently introduced to a service from a company called Mobia Solutions ( www.mobiasolutions.com ). I would check them out to see if they can do what you need. There are also some really helpful resources under the Links tab on food safety, labeling, and more.
BTW, you probably qualify for a small-business exemption to the FDA nutrition labeling laws - but you do need to apply for it if you haven't already.
Clay,
We dont really know what we want. We know a bunch of store require bar codes. We would like to get the most bang for the buck. If there are features we don't need yet, eventually we hope we will. We are looking to track our inventory, both finished products and ingredients.
Most of the scanners are PC based, like Wasp. We will use it to sync with Quickbooks, which we are looking to purchase as well. The simpler the better since my wife and I are not accountants. My head spun the first time I saw Quickbooks but it is something we have to bite the bullet and learn. Need it for accounting, payroll and inventory as well.
Thank you for any input. We are very confused. Why can't we just make delicious treats? 
Corey
Corey -
There's a lot more to inventory management than just bar codes. Are there any other features you are looking for?
There are several cloud-based solutions (run in a browser) that can do things like track ingredient costs across purchases so know exactly how much a particular recipe costs.
We need some help. We are starting to speak to markets that require bar codes to be on their shelves. We use Macs and would like to stay with them if possible. Seems most products, like Wasp, are PC based only.
Does anyone have anything they use that they like. We have a netbook that we were given but I don't know if it will have enough power to run a program.
Any info would help. Thank you!
Corey
I run a chocolate festival in Dallas, TX. You can look through our website:
I have listed a lot of the classes that we've done. The most popular classes have been about how to taste chocolate. Also popular has been when we've brought in unique people from out-of-town and had them tell their story.
Well the first problem was to find actual professional chocolatiers cause Cyprus is a pretty small island and without any chocolate tradition. I was planning for something small to see how it goes and then if it went good to be repeated next year, and actually we had sooo much attendance no one ever expected (it was even broadcasted in the news!). In total we had about 15 participations, only 3 of those were 100% chocolatiers, others were chocolate brands giving samples, eg. Lindt, and others were into it as hobbyists.
It took me about 6-7 months actually and I might have needed even more time in the ned cause I work full time and didn't have enough time every day for the organization but i got much help from friends.
The workshops where on filled chocolate demos and tempering chocolate and they both ended with friendly discussions between the audience and the chocolatiers giving advice about chocolate.
For kids we had a chocolate tree decorating session and a fairy tale presentation about chocolate.
It would be great if we could gather as many ideas as possible here to enrich all the festivals! 
Hi Porfyra,
What an excellent idea to organise a chocolate festival! I would love to know more about it. How many professionals did you get together? How did you spread the word? How long did it take you to put it together?
Did you talk about single origin chocolate? You could pick 4 to 6 single origin chocolates and have people conduct chocolate tastings. That seems to be pretty popular.
Also, did you have workshops on just simple hand-rolled chocolate truffles? There are lots of people who would like to make chocolate truffles, but who do not want to get into tempering chocolate. You could also have chefs give demonstrations on using chocolate for savory preparations - like salad dressing, sauce for chicken, chilli chocolate pasta etc.
Anjali
Good luck!
Even though I'm not a professional, after some trips to Brussels I got more into chocolate, (almost at an addiction level) its history and its science and researched the subject deeper. My country is not really known for its chocolate so I had the idea of setting up a chocolate festival for a beginning to see how it goes and help people get more into the real chocolate.
I gathered some professionals and serious hobbyists in the field and we eventually got a lot more visitors than anyone ever expected. Since then potential sponsors also contacted us, so this time I'd like to prepare something bigger, more organized and with more workshops.
We had exhibitions on how filled chocolates are made,real hot chocolate and tempering techniques for this time.
I'd really appreciate any ideas for further workshops or anything you believe would be interesting for someone to see in the next chocolate festival.
Thank you!
The tempering machines used in the Ritter Sport shop are from a company called LCM. They are very good machines, but they are also very expensive and even the smallest size may be more capacity than you need. Ritter obviously has a lot of money to spend, so it makes sense for them to go with LCM.
If you are just starting out and you don't know your demand (you are in Cyprus), it makes sense to be a lot more conservative.
Tabletop continuous tempering machines can cost as little as 5000 ex-works and be able to temper up to 10kg per hour of chocolate (enough to make 100, 100gr bars). Floor-standing tempering machines that can temper up to 20kg per hour start at about 6900, again, ex-works.
Three smaller machines (one for milk chocolate, one for dark chocolate, and one for white chocolate) could give you the capacity to produce hundreds of bars per hour cost effectively. If you are interested, I have a relationship with FBM (Italy) that enables me to offer a 10% discount on tempering machines to ChocolateLife members.
I was able to find a picture online of the 'taps' - looks like any sort of automatic tempering machine could be used. So you could look at a Selmi (various sizes available) - not sure of the pricing in europe but since most are manufactured there it should be less than north america I suspect. Pomati makes various sized machines as well. Chocolate World also sells something similar to the Selmi.
Hi all. I have been to Ritter Sport shop in Berlin and liked their idea of making custom chocolate bars right there with the chosen ingredients of each customer. They had a chocolate tap with continuously flowing chocolate and mixed some of that with the chosen contents eg. Nuts , biscuit etc to put into a mold and then in the fridge.
I would be interested in that tap and theidea of custom chocolate. Does anyone know where I can find one of those taps and how much they would cost approx.in europe?
Thank you!!
Glad you think they are high quality. I have already placed an order.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Chef Rubber is certainly not a super market. Paul specializes in specialty items for the pastry/chocolatier market. I have never found any of his products to be less than top quality. Chef Rubber does not make the products, but distribute them is small enough quantities that yu are able to buy
The chocolatier I talked to said to not buy any products from supermarkets since they are inferior to the products you can obtain from wholesale distributors in the confectionary industry. Following this advice, since Chef Rubber is not carried by any of these distributors, I thought it may be less quality.
It looks as if I have no choice anyway. They are the only company that I'm aware that sells it ---- thanks for mentioning them.
I am curious as to what you mean by "high quality." I doubt that any vendor is going to acknowledge that his product is of other than high quality.
Yeah I am in the US.
Thanks for the reference, I will look into and call the company to ask about its quality. Thank you Jim.
If anyone else has any other companies that would be great! Thanks : )
I see that you are in the U.S., so you can find it at Chef Rubber: http://www.shopchefrubber.com/Sorbitol-Liquid-4-Liter/ . I don't know about the quality of the product.
Where can we buy liquid sorbitol?
It has to be high quality. I checked with some main top food distributors in the area and they don't carry the item.
Crime against the cacao and chocolate in Brazil.
Watch the film "O N, ato humano deliberado" that describes the terrible attack of biological terrorists that disseminated the disease witch of broom in the cacao plantations of the State of Bahia. The film has an English legend.
The film is in:O nó Ato humano deliberado
In answer to the first question about adding warm cream to warm chocolate your desired combined temp is too much and it breaks, maybe try lowering the temp of the cream. The way I do it with 85 degree C cream onto solid room temp chocolate.
As for the reason not to boil cream, well I read this somewhere and then in my head my reasoning was that the hotter you heat cream the more the proteins denature (unravel) and then when they cool again they agregate with other proteins. And if your emulsion (ganache)is stabilised by the proteins then changing their form is likely to change their ability to stabilise the emulsion. Also practically this works very well, before when I used boiled cream, quite often I would have the ganache break, implementing the method of not boiling cream and only taking it to 85 degrees C I don't have a problem anymore.
Thanks!
Thanks, Tom, for those ideas. I had heard the trick of adding some cold milk previously but not tried it, but I will do so--when needed (as I stated earlier, I have heated some cream and beat the ganache into it).
Why do you think the heated cream (at 41C/105F) is too hot for the tempered chocolate (at 29C/84F), whereas cream at 85C/185F is not?
I am interested to hear that you do not follow the advice of tempering the chocolate when slabbing it, as I have much better luck using the method of pouring hot cream over room temp. chocolate (which, of course, if it is coming from the bag, is already in temper).
Thanks again for the help.
Thanks for the reply, which I found very interesting. Previously I had been doing what you recommend, that is, bringing the chocolate and the cream (plus flavorings) to the same temp., then mixing them. This sometimes worked, but sometimes did not. Some time ago I posted this issue on another forum, and a knowledgeable contributor wrote, "I try to never have my ganaches go under 35 degrees [95 F.] when I work them because under that temperature cacao butter sets....If you are using a chocolate that is at 55 degrees [131 F.] then your liquids can be at 28 [82 F.] ish you will have an end result in theory around 35 degrees. Other way, if your chocolate is at 35 degrees your liquids around 40 ish [104 F.], same result." As you can see, this is a different approach, and since it is what Peter Greweling recommends, I have been following it.
But because I have been having trouble (only with white chocolate) with this method, I will again try what you suggest and see what happens. Thanks again.
I have been experiencing separation of ganache and have sought in vain for answers. When I make ganache by pouring hot cream over chocolate, then stirring, all goes well. But when I temper the chocolate to 84-86 F. (for white) and add cream plus flavorings at 105 F., the emulsion seems to be forming, then breaks with a mass and a separate pool of yellowish liquid. An immersion blender doesn't help, nor does the food processor. The only technique that has worked is to heat several tablespoons of cream and slowly mix the broken ganache into it with a whisk. This has worked every time (so far), although the result does not have the silky texture it should have.
I use several books for making ganaches, but the technique is basically from Peter Greweling (Chocolates & Confections). He states that a slabbed ganache should always be mixed with tempered chocolate. It is his recommended temperatures that I am using. The issue has occurred when I use Valrhona's Opalys white, although sometimes that chocolate (tempered) performs perfectly and mixes without a hitch. The Valrhona bag gives 84 F. as the desired working temperature.
What could it be? Temperature is a consideration, but I am using a Thermoworks infrared thermometer and also a Thermapen to check it. I am tempering with Mycryo, which I use for small batches. The recipe I was using most recently was Greweling's "toucans" (passion fruit ganache), with the change of tempering the chocolate before mixing it with the cream and passion fruit pure (because I was going to slab the ganache).
Any help would be most appreciated.
As Sebastian pointed out, this kind of financial information is highly guarded. You should, however, be able to make a generic analysis. It should be pointed out that Mast Bros operation is completely different from Torres - small vs. large factory.
First, what is the price of beans? Bean to bar makers are paying higher than Fairtrade pricing so estimate around $3500/ton. Add in the cost of shipping - $400 per ton. And the cost of sugar - Organic sugar is $2/lb. These are the raw materials.
Now processing: the beans must be sorted, roasted, cracked, winnowed, ground, counched, tempered, molded and packaged. For small batch operation that might take two people, 20 hours and produce 100 lbs of chocolate. For large factory like Torres - no idea as it is a highly automated process. You will have to research the typical cost of employees in NYC.
Equipment: A small factory might have $150,000 in equipment - a large factory $2-$3M. A portion of the cost must be added in along with all the other overhead - sales, marketing, IT, wages, taxes, websites, packaging, maintenance, travel, utilities, etc. Overhead could run 500 - 1000% of the cost of the beans.
From there you can derive the cost per bar - with plenty of assumptions of course. Most of the costs are variable and controllable by the company.
Or use an industry estimate - one book on specialty food retailing said that the typical retail food cost was 35% of retail so a $8 bar would cost $2.80 to produce.
Hope that helps.
I know what the bars sell for in the stores where with the Mast Brothers bars can go from $7.99-$13.99 but at their factory it is $7.00 per bar or 3 for $20.00.
I haven't been to Jacques Torres for a long time but their bars in retail may go from $5.00 and up depending on which bar.
Cacao Prieto plain bars sell for $10.00 in the retail shops but cheaper whole sale and each store will charge different prices. Hope this helps a bit.
oh, i imagine they'll consider that to be a closely guarded secret...
