Thanks for explaining the differences Brad. Your right about expensive! I was getting quotes of $5,000 +... yikes! I like your suggestion as I need my Oompa Loompas for future work!
I am going to try and see what I come up with. Definitely I see a challenge.
Cheers!
1/4 inch in size eh? Hmmm.... Thermoformed mold probably won't work for you. Essentially what thermoformed mold is a sheet of heavy plastic laid over top of a "negative" of the mold, heated almost to melting point, and then sucked down on to the negative by vacuum pressure. The detail is nowhere near the clarity of polycarbonate, and is certainly not going to get you the 1/4 inch inclusion squares you want.
Polycarbonate molds are essentially little pellets of plastic that are melted and then forced into a metalmold shape under intense pressure and heat. The plastic cools and then the mold is popped open to let out the molded shape - which is usually very hard and clear (some are white). A machine that could handle a 2 foot sized mold would be huge. I'm sure they are out there, but holy cow your molds will be expensive. Prepare to sell off your first born for those bad boys!
My suggestion would be to create a negative out of wood, or molding clay, or something like that, and then use silicone. You can then make your own. There are lots of videos online to do that, and most cities have craft stores where silicone molding supplies are sold.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for your reply Brad. I appreciate it! I'll check it out. Do you know if there is a big difference in terms of the material used? I am actually looking to create small cavities or inclusions within the large mold that will be approx. 1/4 inch square in size so you can imagine just how many cavities it would hold. Thanks again.
Go Flames Go!
That's pretty big for polycarbonate - essentially the dimensions of a full sized sheet pan. You might want to consider a thermoformed mold and the use a sheetpan to help stabilize it.
Hello everyone including all lurkers!
I saw the Micelli polycarb molds advertised on the Chocolate Life but I am looking for a much larger industrial mold. I am looking for a mold that is 24" x 16". Anyone have any suggestions on who to contact for this size of mold?
Your help is much appreciated!
Thank you.
Jeffray D. Gardner
Marsatta Chocolate
Heat to 115 F to break the seed crystals and then re-seed with tempered chocolate and bring to temper again. Should work.
Yes you can retemper the chocolate that has bloomed.
Interesting. Thanks Brad. I'll experiment with all your suggestions. 
I instruct my staff to take all of the chocolate they temper to 120, just to be safe, and make up for potential discrepencies in thermometer readings. 120 won't hurt any chocolate at all, in fact during processing, the temperature often gets MUCH higher -closer to the 130's.
Ah, okay. excellent. Thanks for the numbers! Again, thank you Ben and Ruth for your help. Much appreciated.
I also use EGuittard. I take the 55 or 61 to 118, 38 or 41 to 115 and the 31 or 35 to about 112. If it is "new" chocolate and not been used, I might not take it that high, but with bad crystals, you need to.
Thanks for the reply Ruth. I'm using primarily E. Guttard chocolate. I'm working with: Milk, white and Dark (55-72% Blends). So, going up to 118 won't be too hot for the chocolate?
Depending on which chocolate, I would probably take it to at least 118 if it has bad crystals. That way, you will be sure and melt them all out.
Glad to help! 
Cool. Thanks! Yay for saving thought-to-be-lost chocolate!
Yep, just temper it like you would normally.
Great. Thanks Ben! I have a Chocovision rev2 (just starting out). So I assume that you just remelt all the chocolate to the first stage (108 deg), then add brand new seed chocolate to temper, and all is good?
Thanks again.
Hi Brian. Yep, you can remelt and re-temper bloomed chocolate.
Okay, quick question: I've had a few of my pieces of chocolate that I've been trying to mold have some "bloom" in them. I was wondering if I can re-melt and re-temper the chocolate and use it again or since it "bloomed" it's pretty much not useable anymore..
Thanks in advanced.
I'm having trouble with some two-color transfer sheets I had custom printed. In the past, I've used single-color custom transfer sheets from the same manufacturer without problems, but for some reason the second color in the two-color sheets is not adhering properly (see photo at bottom).
The transfer sheets are printed with vegetable fats (not cocoa butter). The gold "outline" is actually a solid gold shape with the red printed on top. I'm dipping my room-temperature centers in tempered chocolate (Valrhona Extra Bitter) and immediately putting the transfer sheets on top, as I've done in the past. Then I allow it to harden for several hours to overnight at room temperature (65-70 degrees). But the transfer sheets are not transferring properly.
I've noticed in the past that the vegetable-fat transfer sheets seem to require more time to bond with the chocolate. I tried leaving the chocolates overnight to see if that improved adherence, but no luck. I also tried chilling the chocolates in the refrigerator to firm up the chocolate coating. Chilling for 20-30 minutes had no effect. Chilling for several hours did work, but of course would cause problems with moisture as soon as the chocolates were removed.
I'm wondering whether anyone can provide suggestions, either for how to make these sheets work, or how to fabricate a custom transfer sheet that will adhere better. I'm particularly wondering if the vegetable fat base is part of the problem - I've noticed that transfer sheets with actual cocoa butter transfer faster. If so, I'd also love to know where I can get small runs of custom transfer sheets that are printed with cocoa butter, not vegetable fat.
Thanks!
Tien
Thank you Michael and Sebastian, very helpful information. I should also mention that I'm actually tempering fudge, but I believe the points you both made still hold true for my purposes. I've only been using a marble slab, but getting ready to expand my work area and thought I'd consider other stones surfaces. But I must confess, I do like the elegance of the carrera marble slab.
Thanks again gentlemen!
I wouldn't overthink it to be honest. if you're tempering on a slab, you're using small quantities of chocolate. I've never done the math, but suffice it to say that i temper more than the average bear, and i've never encountered the thermal limit of the stone whereby it had absorbed so much heat that it no longer was an effective heat sink for my chocolate. Mike's right in his answer, but the chances of you tempering so much that you saturate your stone is very low. If you are tempering so much chocolate that you hit your stone's thermal limits, you're at the point where your equipment is jacketed and made of stainless steel, not rocks.
Yes.
There are two factors you want to look at when choosing a stone for this purpose: thermal conductivity and thermal capacitance. The first is the ability of the material to conduct heat (or cold), the second is the ability of the material to hold on to that heat (or cold).
When it comes to tempering you need a material that will conduct heat well enough to cool down fairly quickly, so that your slab will be cool in a cool room or easily cooled with refrigeration. That's the conductivity part. But at the same time you want that material to hold on to that cool temp for an extended period of time while you place warm chocolate on it. That's the capacitance part. That part is actually even more important.
This is why people don't use metal to temper chocolate. Its conductivity is terrific. Better than marble. But its capacitance is crap. In other words metal heats up or cools down easily. But it loses that heat or cool too fast for this purpose.Marble is used because it hits the sweet spot of cooling relatively quickly, but holding onto that cool for a longer period of time. In other words just the right mix of thermal conductivity and thermal capacitance for this job.
Can you get other stone or artificial materials to work for you? Probably, but you'll want to check their thermal properties compared to marble first. Tempering chocolate with this method is finicky to begin with, and there's no reason to make your job harder than it has to be.
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I'd have to ask next time I get the chance! The rep seemed convinced that looking for a way to lower copper content was his only route to break the impasse. Maybe it's as you say though, and he just didn't pick up on the subtext of what the official was hoping to receive.
They're not. The hurdle isn't copper. What you've got is a local official who's looking for some extra money. I'm going to guess that you've not been given any official documentation with the official's name on it, pointing to copper standards?
I was speaking with the Asia rep of a chocolate company not too long ago, and he asked me if I might be able to get to the bottom of what his company could do about the fact that his higher percentage bars were being refused by China due to their higher copper content.
Chocolate IS in china, and higher percentage bars are higher in copper, but as for dark chocolate I'm not sure what percentages are most common in this market or if certain ways of making chocolate could help reduce copper. After researching his problem further I have a few hunches as to why China might be concerned about copper content of imported food, but I'm still drawing a lot of blanks. Anyone have any insight?
Hi Thomas
I was in Lyon last year and in Zurich the year before.
Lyon is nice, but not that big. Zurich was great, but like Lyon very focused on the local manufacturers. I guess it depends in which market you are actually interested.
I will be giving presentations on Friday and Saturday, so look me up and introduce yourself.
Thanks Clay for all those information, I live in London anyway so I think I'll go to the Salon here, and see if I can find what I'm looking for.
I was just wondering if it was worth the trip to Paris, or even Lyon because it is the capital of the gastronomie, in France as you already know. I guess I'll decide after see how it is in London.
Thomas:
I am going to be at the Salons in London and Paris but not Lyon. In between I will be attending the Origin Chocolate conference in Amsterdam - which has a very different audience.
This is the 1st year for the Salon in London (previously Chocolate Unwrapped). This will be my 3rd visit to the Salon in Paris and my 3rd visit overall to Unwrapped/SdC in London (where I will be giving presentations on Friday and Saturday).
Paris is certainly the largest of the three. You probably get the widest variety of participants (as exhibitors), and this year the Salon du Chocolat Professionnel overlaps the consumer Salon on the 30th.
That said - you'll end up learning mostly about French chocolate. The reason to consider London is that it probably has the most vibrant chocolate scene in Europe at the moment - maybe even the world. It will attract mostly smaller companies doing more interesting work, but you don't get any of the French stars.
A lot of the exhibitors in Paris are large companies from other parts of the country. Their appeal is to people who grew up in those cities who now live in Paris and who want to go buy "childhood favorites." LOTS of varieties of guimauve - shapes, sizes, and flavors.
So it really depends on what you're looking for. In Paris you can meet Stephane Bonnat, Franois Pralus, Jean-Paul Hevin, several of the younger generation of the Cluizels, and more. I don't know who's going to be at Lyon. In London you will meet Paul A Young and a host of others doing lots of really interesting work, but who mostly don't have the same status as some of the French.
Is anyone already been to the Salon du Chocolat?
I will go this year but I'm not sure which one of those three cities is the most interesting, London, Paris, Lyon?
That's not a question that's easily answered i'm afraid. I could attempt but i'd likely end up boring even myself with long technical explanations, followed almost immediately with caveats depending on particular formulations. Try it, and see what happens 8-)
If I use invertase in my product would it be effective in stopping lactose crystallization along with stopping sucrose crystallization?
My truffle genache consist of using Sweetened condensed milk and after a while it starts to crystalize. I don't know if the crystals are from sucrose or lactose. Would using invertase be effective to stop both types of crystallization?
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Thanks a lot for the help I appreciate it! Say the crystals that are forming are from the Lactose (lactose crystals) will the invertase work to inhibit their growth also?
Invertase will soften a fondant center but may not necessarily prevent crystallization or give the same result in a ganache. While cooking, you may want to add a tablespoon of glucose-or any amount in small enough proportion to your recipe that it will not change the consistency much. Glucose can help prevent crystallization. Hope this helps.
I'm not sure about a specific recipe to refer you to, but this thread has some great information on invertase.
http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/invertase
I'd also suggest looking into Wybauw's book Fine Chocolates - Great Experience 3 http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Chocolates-Great-Experience-Extending/dp/9020990209/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380666490&sr=1-1&keywords=fine+chocolates+3
It specifically discusses shelf life and is very insightful.
Have a great day,
Larry
So this is my issue. I have a truffle recipe I am trying to create and after a few days it crystalizes(sandy texture inside the filling). The ingredients inside consist of sweetened condensed milk, table cream, cocoa powder etc. I then put this in a pot over the stove to cook it until it reaches a certain consistency then cool it off until it is ready to go inside truffle shells.I would really like to extend the shelf life by stopping the crystallization from occurring. Some people told me that invertase is the solution to the problem. I ordered some from Lorann oils but I have no idea how to use it. Please, anyone who may have some information will be helpful!
Thank You!!
A gum arabic solution is often used to seal items such as dried fruits and nuts for panning because it stops fat and moisture migration and enhances shelf life. My guess is a similar process could be used on inclusions by spraying the proper solution with a compressor onto inclusions in a panning drum, letting the solution set on items, then dropping them into your bars/bark/whatever.
