Forum Activity for @Wim

Thanks Garfoid!

Hi Ben;

Seeing as you are an "extra over the top clean label", you definitely don't want to use anything that has cocoa powder in it.  Cocoa powder is the bottom of the barrel in the chocolate industry - almost always a by-product of making cocoa butter.

A natural stabilizer doesn't mean the product isn't good. In fact sometimes the best ingredients NEED a stabilizer to remain in stasis.

As a chocolate manufacturer, I would take more pride in using xanthan gum, guar gum, or corn starch than stating that we use cocoa powder. Even the Aztecs and Mayans used stabilizers in their drinks.  Their stabilizers were in the form of starches (ground maize) in the drinks to make them rich and frothy.

...just something to think about.

Brad.

No, tabling it is not practical in my production environment, although in small batches its fine to table it. I temper all ganaches.

I use cocoa butter silk to temper my ganaches. 

Welcome buddy

Hello people,

I am looking for a small guitar, to produce small quantities of cremini, truffles and pâte de fruits. Does anyone have experience with the one from Martellato?

I have this one in mind: http://www.martellatoprofessional.com/en-GB/0/0/0/Double-cut-mini-guitar__p-33141-33174-33185-2304.aspx

I have to special order it, so I'd like to know if it's any good.

Thanks!

Hello fellow chocolatiers! My name is Wim, I am 33 years old and I live in Belgium. I love making chocolate, and confections. My specialities are pâte de fruits, marshmallow and caramel spread

I hope to learn a lot on this forum. I have been reading through a lot of posts and I'm excited to become a part of it. Where I can, I'd love to help out.

Cheers Dallas.

Do you just table it? What about truffles? 

Hello Nabil, 

we are a beans to bar artisan chocolatiers factory factory at Lonavla near Mumbai. You can reach out to us on madanpatil@hotmail.com or WhatsApp 0976235119 

Thanks

l

I temper ganaches in filled bonbons 100% of the time. The difference is night and day.

Hello Stephen, 

im Madan from Chocolate World, Mumbai. I read of your offers of Ghanaian cacao. We are a beans to bar artisan chocolatiers factory and source our single origin beans directly from the producers. 

Could you you please elaborate on the bean varietals, it's characteristics, fermentations and drying methods, volumes you produce and prices. Thanks 

you can mail me on madanpatil@hotmail.com or WhatsApp on +91 97623 50119 

Hi Bert, 

would you be interested in supplying small quantities of cacao beans from Madagascar to Mumbai, in India - 500 kgs st a time 

Madan

Hi Tony 

How are you doing with The Unox?

Which one did you finish buying and have you had any problems with the software?

Hello chocolate people!

I work for a beverage manufacturer and we are currently looking for a partner who can make a chocolate syrup for one of our beverages.

We would probably require a custom blend; as we are extra over the top clean label, this would have to be made without any gums, stabilizers or preservatives. We currently make a very simple blend of cocoa, water and sugar but this is a messy hassle for us that we want to do away with.

We manufacture in Connecticut currently, although we plan to expand to the West coast as sales increase.

If anyone is interested in manufacturing this for us, or knows of anyone who might be, please send me a message here or my email is: ben.smith@harrisspice.com

Thanks!

Ben Smith

Hi Virgilio,

      Do you still have these ? I am looking to get the 60 Kg unit.

     Thanks

      Best

          Victor

Hardly used filling machine, We used it for filling out chocolate moulds before moving to get cooled.

.33 oz to 10 oz piston filling machine adjusts by moving knob in the back. 

 Had a temperature controlled cover made to regulate the hopper to accommodate tempered chocolate, set it desired temperature about 30 minutes before using for production.

Hopper can hold 30lbs or chocolate

Full pneumatic control, easy to operate, manual or automatic,  we only used the manual foot pedal, easy to

easy to disassemble and clean, parts commonly found at plumbing/hardware store if replacements are ever needed

Single filling head,   but had a four-way heated dispensing plate made to fill two chocolate bars at a time

Asking price $1800 OBO 

shipping cost and arrangements are buyers responsibility

 IMG_0949.JPG.jpg - 502KB

Used C. Skerman & Sons Enrobing and Coating Drum with:

Output: up to 180 pounds per hour (depending on product)
used only two dozen times
Construction:
    Stainless steel drum

    Cast iron base

3 phase motor converted to single phase, 220V
Drum opening: 25 inches wide
Drum Dimensions: 34 inches deep x 38-inch diameter x 54 inches overall height

Located in Southern CT

Asking price $5,000 OBO

local pickup or

Shipping cost and arrangements buyers responsibility.

 IMG_0812.JPG.jpg - 471KB

Used C. Skerman & Sons Enrobing and Coating Drum with:

Output: up to 180 pounds per hour (depending on product)
used only two dozen times
Construction:
    Stainless steel drum

    Cast iron base

3 phase motor converted to single phase, 220V
Drum opening: 25 inches wide
Drum Dimensions: 34 inches deep x 38-inch diameter x 54 inches overall height

Located in Southern CT

Asking price $5,000 OBO

local pickup or

Shipping cost and arrangements buyers responsibility.

 IMG_1119.JPG.jpg - 535KB

Thanks Sue!  This looks exactly what I need!  And they have a lovely range of other products too that look really exciting!

Thanks a million!

Colin

Try Chicago Mold School they have silicone sphere molds all sizes

My pleasure!

I have a bunch of Ateco-brand spatulas that I am very happy with.

Hey guys, i'm in the market for a good set of offset spatulas to buy. I have a good budget so I want some good quality ones, amazon reviews are tricky to trust these days so I wanted to ask some pros!

Any recommendations?

Cheers!

Thank you Clay !

My one final, final idea is to buy some cheap food grade silicone to make your own mould and pour it over a few dozen marbles/ball bearings of the right size or 3D printed spheres or something like that, glued down. spaced closely and not poured too deep you should be able to get a lot of moulds from around a 2kg silicone mix. 

There are a 2 methods you could use.

Put them half in clay, pour silicone over, remove clay, pour silicone over second half and then fill both halves and then fuse them together once set with some extra chocolate. 

Or just glue to a base and squeeze out them through the small gap/make the gap bigger with a scalpel. 

I won't come up with any more ideas! 

Hi @peter3.  Yes - that is exactly what I wish to do.  I already have a range of "Chocolate Nibbles" and these are created by starting with "callets" of chocolate which are small half-spheres that come from my chocolate supplier.  I pop these into my pan and add a tiny bit of melted chocolate.  The callets then "double" on the flat side and then I can build from there.  They are popular and easy to make.  I do about 60Kg at a batch.  However I want to do something with a completely different chocolate that sadly ONLY comes in 5Kg blocks - not callets. So I'm basically trying to make either callets or balls from the 5Kg blocks to get me started.  On close examination now it is clear to me that the callets are made by depositing but depositors are big and very expensive.  So I wondered about making balls with moulds (molds) but no-one that I can find has small ones.  They all seem to be 20-25mm diam.  Far too large for me.  The "completely different chocolate" is sugar free - so I can't use the callets I use now as they have sugar in them.  I'm a bit stumped.

If I understand correctly you want to have a solid chocolate  centre for panned product?

Are you going to use the same chocolate for both?

We have tested starting a panned product from a very small chocolate drop (like a small piece used for chocolate chip cookies), if you start building the chocolate up around this "seed" very slowly you will get a round ball and avoid doubles.

Once you have your centre you can do with it whatever you want next: sugar coat, pan with the same or different chocolate etc.

Thanks for the thought @garfoid  That's "panning" and where I'm trying to head towards once I have the balls worked out  Let me ponder.  Thanks again.  Colin

That's what I'm doing​ now.  In the winter, they dry out perfectly after a day.  In the summer, even with a dehumidifier in the room, after 6 hours they're sticky.  After a day they're unsellable.  I don't think the dehumidifier is strong enough to get the whole room so I'm wondering if a much smaller area might work.  

Sure, I mean buy a portable dehumidifier and store it in the winter? 

That's not working during the humid months.  In the winter that's fine.

The only method I can think of is a tumbler style. Putting all the chocolate cubes into a mixer and letting it tumble like a cement mixer. They may stick together so starch could be used, but i'd imagine they'd get round pretty fast and this wouldn't take too long. 

Best of luck! Let us know how it works out? 

Hello, Are the displays still for sale? You mention that they are 48" in length but your photo makes it look like they may be a bit longer? Can you confirm the length of these? 

Where are you located? Do these need to be picked up or are they ready to ship? 

Thanks!

Carley - Animas Chocolate Company

Thanks for the thought @garfoid It MIGHT be a solution.  It would be slow and I need to do runs of around 16Kg at a tine.  I think that each ball will be about .7gm so I think that is around 2,300 balls per batch. Also I will be further processing these with panning and flat edges tend to "double" although if I could cut them into cubes I might work through that.  Appreciate the thought.  Will think about a guitar - had not considered that route.

Why not dehumidify the whole room? To save building a box? 

Couldn't you cut the blocks into the rough sizes you want and then, with gloves, roll it into balls like truffles? Keeping your hands hot might just round the corners to give you a sphere shape? Failing that, do they have to be balls? Can't they be cubes? 

Hi All!  I need to make a LOT of small chocolate balls. Say 10mm diam. I had been panning callets but a project I'm working on only has bulk chocolate in blocks.  I only want chocolate in the centers.  I've spent hours seeking moulds on web sites world wide but can't find anything.  Even if I can only make half spheres that would get me started.  There are spheres and half spheres 20mm and up but I really want them smaller.  Any thoughts please?  Thanks!

Clay,

Thanks very much for that helpful reply.