Forum Activity for @Clay

Paul:

The thing that occurs to me right away is that your centers are coming from the freezer and they're cooling the chocolate really, really quickly causing the cocoa butter to crystallize a lot faster than you expect.

First thought is to raise the temperature of the chocolate to as high as you possibly can and still keep it in temper. After dipping a couple of centers, stir the chocolate and check to see what temperature it is, and adjust accordingly.

Now - this may introduce other issues, such as the shells cracking because of the differential in temperatures.

Greetings chocoholics!

I'm having trouble dipping truffle centres in white chocolate, and I'm hoping someone can help out...

I'm dipping by hand, small batches, and using Valrhona Ivoire. Heating with a double boiler, following Valrhona's suggested temperature curve, and seeding with chips of the Ivoire.

Also - and this may be significant I'm adding a very small amount of lemon zest to the chocolate.

The problem I have is that the melted Ivoire isn't quite fluid enough, and seems to become less fluid after I start dipping. On its way down to 79/80F it seems to have a good consistency, but less so once it has reached the lower temperature and is then heated to working temperature.

I expecially want a fairly fluid chocolate here as the centres that I'm dipping have to come more or less straight out of the freezer (they're quite creamy, and too soft at room temperature to dip), and I want them to spend as little time as possible in the chocolate... and the thicker consistency (compared to the dark chocolate I'm working with) is making this difficult.

Can I thin the chocolate slightly with cocoa butter perhaps? Or am I maybe not being quite careful enough with temperature?

Another update from Saturday....

So my husband goes in to work and it has melted the chocolate fine. It's nice and warm and the whole bowl is melted.

So from when I used it friday and turned it off because it was tempering horrible and then turning into sludge in the bowl, it melts over night to it's right set temperature.

Any thoughts on that? Why it can't cycle and temper but can seem to keep the heat? Could the heater fan be working intermittently? Or maybe the combination of the fan not working and the block not keeping heat...

Today we have a friend who is a mechanical engineer coming to look at it, because maybe someone else's eyes can see what we can't...

I might try to make it come to temper if I have time...or I might put it back on the sidewalk again with the free sign.

****UPDATE*****

news flash...what ever you want to call it...

It was working after I cleaned the fan that goes to the heater. I kept heat all night last night and it was all melted this morning. To a lovely 112 degrees. (dial is set at 115) So I load several lbs of chocolate in and run it, turn it down, turn it back up...and the chocolate looks hideous. I got it to temper enough chocolate for me to line 4 molds and cap two of them and then it was not staying melted on the baffle, and it was creeping up the corner like no tomorrow...WT#....So I put it on the corner with a free sign attached to it.

The heater block wasn't hot. (the block on the baffle, yes the bowl was moving.) So while stressing over this and dealing with a PITA salesman about packaging I turned it off and set it to 115 again. It sat like that for a good hour. Chocolate in front bowl turned to a thick sludge. The heater was working because the back of the machine was hot as usual. I am thinking it's the blower on the heater....but that doesn't explain the block not working, and I know the block wasn't working by sight and by the fact it was cold, the chocolate all over the baffle was setting.

So, yeah, I mopped the floor and filled the case, and I am home now eating a steak dinner. I don't know what else to do...

I suppose get a fan from Hilliards. I am unsure of why the block was cold. All connections inside have been double checked for tightness and such. I suppose several hundred dollars in parts is better than several thousand in a new machine but this is getting old fast and the bunnies cannot make themselves....

Any thoughts on todays debacle-ness...

( mine are get a good bottle of wine )

Emily:

I've been on the tech-help side of these things after you've tried ninety-eleven ways to try to fix things and nothing seems to work.

Although not relevant to your problem, I got some panicky emails the week before Valentine's Day from someone who'd purchased a specialty chocolate holding cabinet through me. They pressed a button on the front during cleaning and changed the temperature and it would no longer reach and hold the correct temperature - too warm! ... and it had work flawlessly for three years. They tore it apart, cleaned the insides, had tech help from the company on the phone for hours and in the end, the solution was exactly what my initial thought was: in the three years they had never checked the refrigerant level. The refrigeration repair tech who came in diagnosed the problem in about 2 minutes and within another 15 minutes the cabinet was back up and working. The moral of the story there is that the pre-season checkup now includes not only a cleaning but also recharging the system.

I imagine that it will be something that either has never happened before in the history of this machine (I've run into that scenario) OR it will be something so obvious in hindsight (like the above) that everyone will be slapping their foreheads.

Please let us know how things turn out!

Greetings all...So we have a 240 hilliards temperer...

2 weeks ago it started not being melted in the bottom of the bowl in the mornings when I would go in. (I leave it set around 110 degrees over night) So then...it took about 4 days and one day I walked in and it was all solid, in the front of the bowl, in the back of the bowl it was barely warm. It was set at 110/115 and registering around 85 in the back bowl)

So we have changed the thermal cut out twice, we changed the temperature probe, we changed the board. We in turn changed the relay 2 times with that...today I got yet another thermal cutout. Put it in and nothing...I set it at 110 and it cannot get itself over the high 80's...BUT....if I take the two wires off the thermal cut out and connect them...I can get the heater to kick on and work.

However today... I had for me what is a small amount in the front of the bowl, it was below the heater block. The room temp was about 68 and when I got it down to 83 and back up to 87 it looked horrible, it was way too thick. I tested it on a spoon and all I had to do was cap molds so I used it but I don't think it would have passed for molding.

So I have stumped the folks at Hilliards and tomorrow I am going to clean the blower that forces the heater air thru the cabinet to see if that is the issue...they are sending us new wires for the thermal cut out as well...

Does anyone have any thoughts on this....tomorrow when I pick up the can of air I am also picking up and air horn to sound it when I get this thing fixed... keep an ear out...

It's just a kitchen aid mixer with a panning bowl--they are commonly available.

What I have is a portable air conditioner, made a "mask" for it, and stuck on a length of flexible dryer vent hose.

With this set up, I can direct a steady blast of cool air into the panning bowl. This greatly cuts down on the time needed to pan items. I can let this set up run unattended for 5-1o minutes while I do other tasks, run back, squirt in a shot of couverture, go back to other tasks and repeat.

I grabbed a free standing air conditioner unit a year or so ago for doing just this - waiting for hubby to produce the interface for it.

Edward, can you elaborate on how this works? Looks cool though.

Thanks - it's as I suspected. I'll try it this week...

Like Daniel says - it's all about the latent heat of crystallization. As chocolate crystallizes it gives off a lot of heat and that can throw the chocolate out of temper. So particularly with solid items as soon as you see the edges starting to show signs of crystallizing throw the mold in a well ventilated fridge to carry off the heat.

There is still too much heat trapped in the solid chocolate when you cast it. I don't mold solid pieces and tabletts, but I have seen other chocolatiers pop the filled molds into a fridge briefly (with low humidity) to get the heat out.

I'm looking for any insight or help on a problem I'm having getting solid chocolates to set up properly. I'm using properly tempered dark chocolate, room temp of 70 deg F. I filled two molds, and emptied one out as a shell to fill later, and kept one as solid. Left at room temp overnight, and the next morning the shell is set perfectly, and the solid chocolates have white swirls throughout, as if it was not tempered.

Thoughts on this and advice on how to avoid this unsightly problem?

Thanks,

Heather

Tempting chocolates implies Zoroy Luxury Chocolates. Here I have found wide variety of chocolates nutty centers, crunches, rich truffles, soft caramels and many more with the good quality and considerable price. I was searching for good online chocolate shopping in Bangalore and I found that Zoroy Luxury Chocolates is the best choice.

www.zoroy.com

I will be traveling to Malaysia (Kuala Lumpar), Singapore, and Cambodia (Angkor Wat) in late March.

Would anyone know of any chocolate related places of interest that you would recommend to visit, tour, experience, taste?

Thanks for any suggestions.

- Lynn

Donny,

I have a Mol d'art 6kg melter. They are made to melt slowly and evenly. Even though your chocolate had melted, the thermostat was probably still kicking on and off, and would have continued to raise the temp if given enough time. Like if you were going turn it on at night for the next morning.This gentle heating process allows the temps to reach a sort of equilibrium throughout the chocolate as it warms, allowing you to leave it completely unattended. Usually, when you're in production, you're busy with some other part of the process, so you're not just hovering over your melter, waiting for what feels like FOREVER. But, I know that when you just want to temper some freakin' chocolate RIGHT NOW, the wait is frustrating. If you turn the thermostat all the way up and stir frequently, you can probably speed the process along a little. I never take the temps on the dial literally. I determine the temp with my thermometer and when I have it where I want it, I move the dial slowly to find the point where the thermostat just wants to click on and off. I think this is what most people do, rather than trust the temp on the dial. You'll sort of get to know your machine after some practice. When you first add the seed, you can add a larger amount, but need to be careful to add progressively smaller amounts as the chocolate gets closer to the desired temp (Otherwise you'll be going on a very aggravating fishing expedition). I am suspicious of your thermometer. An accurate thermometer is your best friend. Get a decent digital instant read probe thermometer. I have a few made by Deltatrak. I have some complaints about the newer design, and the fact that a couple have fritzed out on me too soon considering the $30+ price, but I have found them to be very accurate and quick (They have a very thin sharp tip that is very sensitive). I'm sure you could find something decent for 1/2 that price even. Just make sure you check the calibration. Don't waste your money on an IF thermometer. IF's only tell you the surface temp. They will not tell you what temp even 1/4" below the surface is. In my experience, the only way to get a remotely accurate reading on a liquid with IF is to be stirring so vigorously that you arm falls off. They are useful for checking the temps of molds, containers, airbrushes/sprayers etc. after you warm them to make sure they're not too warm as to cause your chocolate to go out of temper when it comes into contact with them. Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Giovanna

I used my chocoa chocolate melter for the first time to practice my tempering. Its a 6kg melter. I used 2kg of 54%semi-sweet dark chocolate couverture. The melter temp was set to45 C (113 F), and I left it alone foR about 2 hours. Once it was completely melted, I inserted my chocolate thermometer to get a read. It was only at about 90 F, so I turned up the melter. I basically had the melter at full blast at about 65 C and it took 30mins to reach 113 Fon the thermometer.

I then removed the tray from the melter, added a handful of seed, and stirred. The temperature dropped very slowly. 2 more handfuls of seed, and 25 mins later, the thermometer still read 90 F. At one point I noticed the 3rd handful of seed was not melting at all. I stuck a finger in the chocolate and it was barely lukewarm, yet the thermometer still read 90 F.

The thermometer is a basic glass thermometer. Arent these supposed to be accurate? Shoud I invest in a infrared digital thermometer, or is there something I am doing wrong?

I appreciate your comments.

Donny

Hi

Carley -

Give Puratos a call and ask if there is another distributor in your area. While they may not schedule truck deliveries like Sysco there should be something close enough that you're not shipping pallets from NJ.

As for how many cases/pallet it depends on what size(s) and form factors the product comes in. I know Guittard has a 500lb minimum and they sell in 500gr bars (E Guittard line), 5kg boxes, and 25 and 50 lb boxes not to mention in bags and drums. So, depending on what you order, the number of cases can vary considerably.

You can get Belcolade from Puratos USA. I believe they deliver nation wide. Their typical pallet is 40 cases x 55 lb, but you can order less. ( like 30 x 55) They will charge you a few 100 bucks for delivery though

I am having a little difficulty finding Belcolade distributors that I can use in my area (rural Colorado) The one I am currently using is being absorbed by Sysco and won't be carrying Belcolade anymore. So this leads to my question(s) about ordering in pallets from Belcolade in NJ itself.

Does anyone have any experience ordering pallets of chocolate? Shipping methods, costs etc. I would prefer not to have to order a whole pallet at a time as we are not that large yet, but it is looking more and more like that is what we may have to do. So I am trying to get as much help and info on this topic as I can. Please let me know if you need further details to help with this problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Carley

Currently I make about 18 varieties of 50 gram bars plus another 25 varieties of bon-bons. My volume on bars has increased now to about 200 per day, peaking at 400 day every now and then. I have problems with my workflow in regards to cooling.

Most of my bars are made with a "sandwich" (caramel, fruit, honey, etc), so the molds are cast with a thin layer, cooled, sandwich deposited, and capped off. Currently I trott out of my chocolate room 10 feet way to the hot kitchen with a tray of 4 molds(24 cavities) and place in the fridge, when I return with the next tray, I remove the first.

Cooling tunnels would be nice, but I do not have space for that. My chocolate room measures 8' x 8', but if I get another client, I will tear out one wall and "annex" the office, giving me roughly 8' x14'. Upright or vertical cooling seems like the best way for me to go at the moment.

I could get a cheap single door upright fridge to put into the chocolate room. But I have lots of questions:

-What temp should the fridge run at? This is assuming the fridge is dedicated for chocolate only--no storage of any products.

-Will running the fridge raise the temp of my room significantly?

-What are some other options?

Hello, I'm not in India, but I'm very interested in Indian market.

Once you get order from India, how do you ship them? Wouldn't it melt over time?

Song.

Hi We will just about be opening in India.

www.chcocolateworld.co

Friendship Day is coming nearer and it is a day dedicated to pay profound respect to friendship. The day is meant to express your love and affection towards your friends for their contributions and love in our lives. All around the world, people celebrate this day on the first Sunday of August and exchange greetings and gifts with their friends.

Chocolates along with a Friendship greeting card imprinted with personal pictures is considered as a best gift for friendship as it carries an extra personal touch. For unique gift ideas, you can visit the online gifting portals on the Web. Websites like Post My Greetings offer numerous friendship day gift ideas with personalization options.

Hi All,

I am operations manager of www.ChocolateCity.in
We are not a chocolatier. We do not make or manufacture chocolates. But yes, we are fascinated about Chocolates.
We just sell chocolates online. Chocolates that are made by Indian Chocolatiers.

We are inviting chocolatiers across India to join us.

To join us, you should be a good chocolatier from India and should know how to package the chocolates. Your chocolates should be suitable for gifting purpose.

Listing your chocolate products on Chocolate City portal is free of cost.

Warm Regards,

Amruta

Please see pics. Obviously on the 3 bars pic, the left one is untempered, middle is tempered, and right is somewhat(?) tempered.

First question, does the chocolate have good shine?

Second question

As you can see, it has some white spots on the right one, and minimal spots on the middle one.

I notice this white spots occurs when the mold has some residue (maybe a sugar residue) from the previous chocolate that was molded before this one. What is this residue? and How do I prevent residue on the mold? I use a non prof mold, maybe that's the reason? Or I didn't preheat the mold.

Third question

On the second pic, you can see some holes. How do I prevent this holes?

Thanks.

I'll do that. I have an infrared thermometer to be more accurate with the temperature as well.

When you microwave, just do it in 20-30 second bursts with plenty of stirring inbetween.

I would not have thought to use the microwave...Thanks for that tip. I don't believe that moisture was the problem so I will go ahead with your suggestion and I'll let you know how it goes. I now must wait for the new motor to arrive.

Thanks Gap!

I don't know Jack. I think all you can do is experiment a little. If it were me, I'd chop up the block you have into little pieces and then try to melt in the microwave. If it doesn't go liquid then maybe something else is amiss (could it have siezed due to moisture?).

If it does melt OK, then add the cocoa butter and incorporate by stirring and try to add it to a warm wet grinder while the mixture is still relatively warm (say 45C).

Thanks Gap!

I really appreciate your responding to my question. I will add the additional cocoa butter. I would like to not add the soy lecithin so I will see how the butter works without the soy. Do you think that warming up the now hardened mass will liquefy it enough to get it going in the melanger and if so, how much heat?

I'm not Tom, but I might be able to help.

I think your total fat content is too low. Assuming the cocoa beans have 53% cocoa butter, your total fat in the recipe would be 50% x 53% + 25% x 26% = 33%. If you are using a standard wet grinder, you should probably aim for 36-40% fat and maybe add some lecithin (liquid lecithin up to 0.4%) to improve the "flow" of the chocolate.

Just looking at the math, if you add 10% cocoa butter and 0.4% liquid lecithin to your current recipe by total original weight, the new recipe ratios (by total new weight) would be

Liquor: ~45.3%

Sugar: ~22.6%

Whole Milk powder: ~22.6%

Cocoa butter: ~9.1%

Lecithin: ~0.4%

That would have a fat content of ~39% based on the assumptions above and should spin in the wet grinder. I have no idea if it's what you're aiming for (it would be a 54% milk chocolate) or if it would be to your tastes, but I think it would work in the wet grinder.

Hi Tom,

I recently tried to make milk chocolate using 50% liquor, 25% whole milk powder and 25% sugar. I had the liquor in the melanger for 48 hrs. added the sugar and all was well. Then I added the milk powder and things literally ground to a halt. I used a blow drier to heat it up enough to get things moving again but by that time the motor in the melanger was fried. I removed the chocolate from the machine, placed it in a stainless steel bowl and put it in the refrigerator. I have two questions: First, what is wrong with my formula and secondly, is there anything I can do to turn the chilled, thick mass into something that I can return to the melanger without burning up another motor. I really don't want to waste what I have made so far, if that's possible.

Appreciate your advise.

My darker milk is:

32% cocoa nibs

13% cocoa butter

27% sugar (sucrose)

9% skim milk powder

19% full fat milk powder (26% fat) - spray dried milk powder

0.4% lecithin

To me, this one tasted like a chocolate milkshake

It gives a result pretty close to what most people associate milk chocolate with. For me, I prefer a darker milk but this keeps a lot of friends and family happy.

Wow that is almost a white chocolate!

Thank you.

My last batch of milk chocolate (which we were pretty happy with) was:

11% cocoa nibs

26% cocoa butter

28% sugar (I split it 19% sucrose and 9% lactose)

4% skim milk powder

28% full fat milk powder (26% fat) - spray dried milk powder

0.4% vanilla

1.75% dark malt extract

0.4% lecithin

This recipe gave total milk fat of 7.5% which means the tempering can be tricky. Also, the milk powder I was using was spray dried - if it was some different sort, there may be more free fat available meaning 7.5% total milk fat is too much. I added malt because I like the taste, but 1.75% was probably too much - would try 1% next time.

When I think about the next batch it is still unclear to me. Assuming all milk chocolate is not as think as the last batch, the only way it would be less viscous, is to increase the percentage of butter. The liquor is around 53% fat and with the added butter being an 20% - 25% butter getting to the 35% + total cocao fats. I used 26% liquor on the last batch and it still is a little dark.

I still have another 55-60% left of sugar and milk powder. I tend to stay above the 35% (total bar) sugar content. That still gets me over 20% and probably closer to 30%. Do I need to add more sugar, keep the milk powder content to 20 and lower the liquor and raise the butter a little to get a good milk bar.

Thanks