Forum Activity for @RawChocolateLife

Your suggestion worked great, the grit went away from just a short time of grinding. Thanks

24" Diameter Stainless Steel Revolving Pan in excellent condition for $ 2500.00. 

Easy to use for panning fruit or nuts in chocolate.

 Revolving-Pan-Web.jpg - 31KB

Cat -

Perfectly acceptable to put product in a food-safe inner bag inside an outer pack that is not.

One question might be how non-food-safe the tin is because people might empty out the contents of the inner bag into the tin once opened.

I know people who think highly of PBW - professional brewers wash - from Five Star Chemicals.

Looks like your chocolate is not properly crystallized plus no adequate cooling. Do you put your molds in the cooler? That is important to complete the crystallization. 

Thanks for the feedback, everybody!

Since my first query, I've adjusted my methods a bit.  I am making small batches (6-8 oz) at a time to test flavors, because I did not have a large amount of chocolate to use until today. Thankfully I've finally set my wholesale account up, and am ready to go. I am now using guittard organic chocolate wafers. Today's experiments are with a 66% cacao. 

I put each bowl (with micro doses of flavor oils) over warm water, so that the chocolate would not fall out of temper, and made sure to warm my tools for each batch as well. I mixed as well as possible... I did see just a little bit of streaking in some of the batches, but no bloom so far! I let them set in a room which was cooler than mine. The milk I made yesterday, one of the moulds did have some bloom, so I've got to go back and re-mould one variety. I did not add any additional fats, as my extraction team has told me that I shouldn't need to activate my cannabis oils before adding to the chocolate, hooray for one less step.

One of my issues was the baffle for the Chocovision Rev V... the temp I was receiving from the machine was 2-4 degrees off of what both digital & analog thermometers read. I am using the "holey" baffle and it seems to be better. The tempering machine company is sending me a replacement baffle.

Today I started out with a floor model air conditioner, which I have positioned in front of the speed rack where I am now able to set my chocolates. This makes a huge difference in the ambient temp of the room already... from 75* yesterday to a balmy 69. Also the fan is blowing the cool air right over the moulds.

I think some of my problem was also in relation to my moulds being a little bit dirty. I have since bought several soft paintbrushes and am double-washing them with Dawn dish detergent. 

What dish detergent/soap do yous guys prefer?

Again, thank you for the feedback and troubleshooting help. 

Hey folks- Thinking about new packaging and wanted to run a question by the forum to be double certain. I'd like to pack panned choc in FDA approved food contact safe compo-stable "plastic" bags. These bags would then be put in a tin that IS NOT food safe... and then sealed. I figure it's ok as long as the choc doesn't come in contact with the tin...just the bag. Does anyone see any problems with this idea?

Thanks so much for your time!

It makes sense, thanks for your input.

How many molds do you have?

We will take them off your hands

- Ilya

ilya@luvicecream.com

Chocolate inside the grinder would make the mass flow, and get sugar under those wheels. This is a "wet-grinder", after all. To get fine sugar without additions you would need another kind of mill.

I usually can get most of the chocolate out with a spatula while it's still warm, taking out only the wheels.

Yes, I wanted to powder the sugar so when I used it in chocolate it would take away the grit but it didn't work so am asking if there is a better way. I would prefer not to grind the chocolate and sugar in my grinder because I know chocolate is fairly hard to clean in it as the drum is not removable. I would rather do chocolate batches in my tempering machine as it is much easier to clean after the batch is complete as every part is removable and doesn't weigh 200 pounds. Plus if I did chocolate in the grinder I would then still need to put it into the tempering machine anyway as well.

If there are any suggestions please let me know or would it be best to just process the chocolate and sugar together in the grinder and then temper it? 

So, this was completely dry, and you want to make powdered sugar?

The grinder is a spectra 40 stone grinder, i did not grind the sugar and chocolate in it but only the sugar which was completely clean before using. I normally do not use it for chocolate but only use it to process coconut and nut butters. I processed it for a full day and since it still wasn't fine enough I tried to also use the vitamix but it doesn't hold enough so it had to be done in many smaller batches.

What grinder are you using and did you clean it before adding chocolate and sugar?

I've been trying out batches using organic cane sugar instead of the honey I am used to using.  The first batch was quite gritty so i stone ground the sugar in the second batch overnight, it still seemed a little gritty so I also used a vitamix to process through it and it seemed fine so I used it but still have that gritty texture in the chocolate.

How do you get sugar to a consistency that will be smooth in the final product? 

You don't actually create the classified in this post. You create a separate post.

**THIS ITEM IS NOW SOLD**

I have a Design & Realisation confectionary guitar (7.5mm base) available for sale. It comes with the following cutting frame sizes: 15mm, 22.5mm, 30mm, and 37.5mm. 

All tools, extra wire, and two pick-up trays included.

Retails for $3,400 CDN. Asking $1,500 CDN + shipping.

I am based in British Columbia, Canada

 DY701600-guitare-chocolate-confectionery-guitar-cutter13793731075237903381a6f.jpg - 63KB

For Sale - W.C.Smith Chocolate Enrober 7' - South Jersey

Thanks Clay for the information. 

New - Never Used.

Purchased from Chocolat-Chocolat.

Mold design: cacao pod .

Size 4 15/16 x 2 3/8 x 3/8

4 cavity 2 ounce.

Cost new is listed as $18.54 per mold.

Sell for $8.00 a mold.

All sales final with no returns.

 P1011121.JPG.jpg - 4KB

In my experience, coconut sugar in dark chocolate has an unpleasant aftertaste..

I am trying to create a few non raw bars but am having trouble finding decent suppliers in Canada. Our low dollar value and shipping costs makes it really hard to use any suppliers outside the country until I am able to order pallet quantities.  All the suppliers I currently use carry only raw cacao products. I do prefer to use organic and fair trade products but if none are available then would be willing to settle. I need somewhere that can do decent prices on 55 or 66 pound blocks. I'd rather mix everything from scratch rather than using couverture so finding cocoa liquor and butter would be great. Thanks for anyone who can help out.

Hard to argue with that.  I am also looking for the best alternative to step out of the "hobby" melangers and into a real machine.  Then on to the tempering machine. In answer to your question, I have no idea.

I mean Santha 11,20 and bigger..

There is no point to purchase belt when it can fit just to small malengers. I aim to enlarge my business

Not sure what you mean by "bigger machines" but they work well on the 1.5L and 2 L premier wonder wet grinders.

Thank you!

Anyone knows if the 3/8'' will fit also bigeer machines? The shipping is not cheap..

Below is a link to Amazon for the belt I purchased and used on the Primier 1.5 L. It takes 23 links to make the right size belt and you will can make four belts from this length. I don't know if the 2L Primier uses the same size.

http://www.amazon.com/PowerTwist-V-Belt-Profile-Width-Length/dp/B00CLG38JQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445901088&sr=8-2&keywords=powertwist+v-belt

Coconut sugar in dark chocolate?

In my experience even 15% of sugar has a really bad taste and strong aftertaste.

However, in milk/white chocolate you don't feel the aftertaste, it's like the milk powder "engulf" the coconut sugar taste.

I'm now tring to make chocolate and spread using coconut sugar or xylitol, as I suspect dark chocolate is unfit to coconut sugar while in spreads and milk/white chocolates it can be replaced (in white chocolate the color is very strong so I will try the xylitol)

Hi,

heard already on the Power Twist.

What is the width that I need to Premier Grinder? Approximate length of the belt?

In case that I will expand my business I will purchase bigger grinders like the Santha 11 or 20. The belts will fit to all sizes of grinders?

I ponder if to buy regular belt or PowerTwist, and if so what will be the length?

Thank's

I'm going to Majorca/Mallorca next week, and I was seeing if anyone could recommend different types of chocolate brands that I could buy in the supermarkerts there, also wanted to see if there was any local chocolate makers there, that I could maybe visit, if anyone knows of.

krista@stilettochocolate.com

Del:

You need to turn off the machine (from the control panel on/off and the master Schneider switch on the back) and then unplug it for five minutes. The master Schneider switch is thermo-magneto-resistive and it needs to be unplugged in order to reset itself.

While you are waiting for the reset you will also need to open up the machine and press the blue stop/reset button on the Schneider LR2K0306 module(s) on the electrical panel. Depending on the electrical configuration there may be 0, 1, or 2 of them.

Close up the machine, plug it back in, and then go through the turn-on order. Everything should be okay. 

If not, empty the machine - especially the tempering pipe - and contact FBM on Skype at FBMSRL. They are closed now, but they will see the request for tech support when they arrive in the morning. You should also send an email to Carlo Roveda at fbm@boscolo.it explaining the issue. They'll get back to you when they arrive in the morning.

:: Clay

My prima just started beeping and flasshed the following. ALL rot A.05

I shut it down and restarted it and get the same result. Can anyone assist?

Thanks!

Del

I will be giving an AMA - Ask Me Anything - at 2:00. Hope to see some of you there!

I do.  What is the best email and I can send you photos and all the details?

Thanks,

AJ

As far as I can see in tempermeters we use:

1. Aluminium cup is filled with sample chocolate, this is placed in "cup holder", covered, temperature probe is inserted in the centre of the sample and test is started.

2. Tempermeter provides consistent cooling (by controlling the temperature of "cup holder" at +8C).

3. Temperature recorded by the probe is recorded as it the sample is cooled and solidified.

4. This data is plotted and analysed.

5. If chocolate is perfectly tempered and monocrystaline structure is formend during crystalisation time temperature curve will be: down, stay at constant temperature and down again (close to how it would look for freezeing water) and temper index will be calculated as 5.

6. Undertempered and overtempered chocolates produce different time temperature curves (there is no "stay at constant temperature" part of the curve).

7. We agree on acceptable temper index range and if sample tests show that chocolate is within the range we start production, keep testing through the day and adjust tempering settings (on tempering machine) if needed.

Making one yourself could be done. As the whole test takes 8 minutes no more than 3-5 recordings per second would be needed (maybe even less). Containers are aluminium coffe capsule cups. Consistent "cup holder" temperature can be achieved by flowing constant temperature water through the coil), large tank and basic cooling control system will achieve this. Probes, hardware and software can be easily done as Kevlarcoated above stated.

For somebody with knowledge and time this is not so complex.  

Hi, how old is it? Do you have any pics?

Hey Krista,

If you are still looking for a little dipper, I'm selling ours as well.  $1000

Let me know. 

Thanks.

Hello! We are selling a gently used Savage Bros. table top tempering unit, with depositor included.  This unit is in great condition. We are asking $7500 + shipping.  I can email you photos.

Call or email  

cell: 435.313.3519   shop: 385.212.4474   email: aj@eatchocolateconspiracy.com

Thanks!

Selling a used Chocovision X3210 tempering machine in excellent condition. Includes bowl, baffle, and cover. Asking $1100 or best offer. Shipping included. If interested, please email qbautista@gmail.com. Thanks. 

CATIE is always a good resource

It seems like recording the exact temperature and time would be a trivial matter, all you need is a small micro controller and a thermocouple, logging at 1KHz with sub millisecond timing accuracy would be easy to do.

It looks like the commercial ones have a temperature controlled environment to measure the change in which again shouldnt be too hard to achieve using a PID controller and heating element.