Forum Activity for @Sebastian

The problem with 'natural' is that everyone has a unique definition of what it is. Is there a technical advantage? Sure. Do your consumers care? Ask them 8-)

Hey Glenn,

Just a little advice that I have found helpful, go get yourself a book called "Chocolates and Confections" by Peter Grewling. I have been a chef for 25 years and know a something about a lot of different foods but when I started with chocolates, this book became like the Bible for me. It goes through everything you can possibly imagine, from every ingredient you could use to things needed to start a professional chocolate business. I know this book will help you it is fantastic.

Best of luck,

Chris

Hi all -

I've been doing some recipe researching and making for my chocolate business and in the past I haven't used light corn syrup in my ganache recipes.

I wanted to just gauge opinions on reasoning behind it. I'd be making super premium fine artisanal chocolates so would it be acceptable to have it in my various ganache recipes or should I go with a more natural alternative like glucose, etc.

I get it that it would help sweeten recipes and prevent the graininess in the ganache but I want my ganaches to be as natural as possible and uphold the credibility of the fine chocolate industry and I am concerned about it going into them.

What are everyone's opinions? Do you guys use it in your recipes or only in certain recipes. If you do you use it, it there any type of formula for it's usage? If anyone has any resources to provide some guidance for or against its usage with ganache, that would be awesome!

Thanks in advance,
Glenn

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Thank you very much for the suggestions. My room is at around 68 F, but I did neglect to warm the molds prior to filling them I wasn't sure what this defect was called--thank you for explaining that this is a release mark.

Best wishes,

Alan

Either your room or your molds are too cold when you pour your chocolate. Plus there is no need to wait a few hours before de-moulding.

Take a hair dryer and heat the molds with it for about 3 seconds that should take care of your release marks. Leave them in the fridge as long as needed for them to completely release and then just take them out without letting them sit for hours.

I am new to The Chocolate Life and would appreciate the group's thoughts on this recurrent problem I'm having with bar molds. I have attached a couple of pictures of recent snafus. After filling my well-cleaned polycarbonate molds with precystallized dark chocolate (from Guittard), I place them in the refrigerator for around 10-15 minute and then place the molds at room temperature for a few hours before releasing the bars. As the photos DSCF1724.JPG and DSCF1729.JPG show, there are dull spots on the bars and corresponding thin amounts of chocolate on the mold. The locations of these defects changes with subsequent moldings. This leads me to think this is not due to a defect in the polycarbonate mold, but rather a problem with how the chocolate is setting up. The chocolate that I am using appears to be properly precrystallized. I'm wondering if refrigeration could be playing a role?

I would appreciate any thoughts on the cause of this problem and possible solutions.

Thanks, in advance, for your advice.

Alan B

I have brought back a couple of kilos of dried beans from the Dominican Republic to the US, but mostly paste which whatever I could fit into the check-on suitcases. The weight limit is what prohibits bringing back any real quantity. Going on vacation and sourcing good beans is an entirely different issue. You could wander out to the areas where cacao is grown, but good luck in finding fermented beans. You may have to go on some kind of tour and maybe you would be able to access something that has been handled properly during and after harvest.

Hi, I have taken small quantities in personal baggage (-5kg) of dried beans for our own use across from Central America (Honduras, Belize, Guatemala) to the USA, or through USA and to Europe, which involves exactly the same US Customs control in either case.

Authorities, as far as I understand from speaking to themfrankly, are concerned with live material. A dry cacao bean, can of beans, or a roasted peanut are of no concern.

If it is not you going to purchase the beans, ensure that your friends understand that the beans must be sufficiently dry, free of insects and free of any trace of mould to be of use to you and to be allowed into another country. The criteria is the same.

Live material would be mould or insects, not just live beans. The smaller the quantity the easier it is to verify the beans are free of them. On a very few occasions I have found mouldoccurringon inspection before departing and had to discard the beans: I recommend always doing a last-minute inspection before packing.

If in any doubt contact the US customs direct for advice.

Regarding purchasing beans it is a general question and I'd say in general yes it's very easily possible and the smaller the quantity the less advance notice or organising required.

Hello Borncamp,

I run a small cacao sourcing company here in Nicaragua, and we have been happy to host several visits over the past few months here. We have also been sending cacao air freight to the States and Europe in small lots (180-500 kilos). While not super cheap, I feel it has been reasonable ($1.68 per kilo shipping to Ohio was our last shipment). If you are interested, please let me know and we'll see what we can do.

Gifford Laube

Matagalpa, Nicaragua

Hey I was wondering if anybody has any experiences they can share regarding purchasing cacao beans direct from growers. Mostly I'm wondering about people who have purchased hobbyist quantities (20kg or less) direct from growers or grower co-ops while they are visiting another country. Are there generally opportunities for this, or is the volume so low as to be non-existent? Also what sort of constraints are there bringing beans back into the US? Are such small quantities negligible or do they require some sort of registration? Do people generally ship them back or do they take them on the plane? I wouldn't fly to another country simply to buy small quantities of beans. However, I occasionally have friends traveling that could be convinced to make a stop at a cacao farm here or there.

-Thanks!

I have ordered some dates and plan to pan them. Should be here today or tomorrow.

May not be your area (panning) but pleased to share if you'd like.

I am based in Australia.

Colin

Hi,

Where are you based? Dates and Chocolates together are a great idea, I am based in Oman, where retailers are now selling date filled chocolates. There is also commercially produced date chocolate coming in from UAE and Saudi

Dear All,

I am currently trying to develop assorted sweets that combine dates / date paste with chocolate, and would like to work with someone that has experience in such a field.

Please contact me if you (or someone you know) can help.

Kind regards,

Tamara

We found cellophane squares at a local kitchen supply store. They look prettier than parchment because they are perfectly clear. We haven't had any issues with the caramel sticking to the cellophane.

The process is slow though.

I wanted to report back on my R&D batches. After making a few batches of caramel stirring in the cocoa butter as the caramel cooled (hoping to not burn the cocoabutter) and having those batches crystalize, we tried two methods that worked.

1. Add melted cocoa butter to caramel immediately after taking it off the heat.
   1. This worked well and the caramel did not flow and had the added benefit of reduced stickinessdue to the increased fat content.
2. Increase the protein in the recipe.
   1. I read that protein will help the caramel to not flow so I doubled the milk in the recipe. (increasing the net protein by about 0.35% of the total weight.

Both methods have worked very well & we've decided to go with the increased milk. - It takes longer to cook all that milk out, but tastes just right.

Down the road, I'm sure we'll try reducing the milk (from the increase) and increasing the sweetened condensed milk.

Sorry for the late reply but, thank you so much for the information!

Wow this is amazing. Fantastic response and so much great feedback! Thank you to everyone for sharing....I got a lot of experimenting to do and I gather we all got a little something out of this, hopefully you did anyways. Thanks everyone, what a great forum for conversations like these....

I'm really intrigued with the idea of using cocoa butter to control stickiness and am going to try it out.

Daniel, may I ask what % of cocoa butter you use? I'm planning on starting with 2% by weight of raw ingredients is a good starting point but I really don't know.

Any suggestions would really help reduce the quantity of R&D batches.

Thank you,

Hi,

Thanks for all the info. I think you are thinking of another Kerry. I am just getting started and still working on my recipe. I was looking at steam kettles to make my caramel in. Can you tell me the pros and cons of both steam kettle and fire mixer? Thanks for all your help.

I thought sorbitol could possibly extend the shelf life of caramel and prevent it from getting grainy while in storage. With all of my crystallization problems this past summer I was willing to try a lot of things.

I would also love to get Kerry's input. I have learned a lot from her information on the web!

Glucose slows down the crystallization. If you put too much in, you get excessive cold flow. I personally wouldn't use sorbitol because It can cause digestive problems, and I don't want it on my label. It is a sugar that metabolizes slower than sucrose, and binds water in a ganache. Not sure the purpose of it in a caramel. Sebastian???

How is sorbitol bad for caramel?

I use cocoa butter in a different recipe. The cocoa butter helps with high fat caramels from getting to oily or greasy. In addition, it can give the caramel extra structure and make the cutting a little better. I add it at the end of the cooking process.

I cut all of my caramels on the guitar. I've learned that a lot depends on how high the caramel is cooked. I find that 245 farenhite is the best temperature for me. Any higher and it will break the strings. Any lower and the caramel flows too much.

Hi, Ruth ~ Could you elaborate on why you would do this? Thank you so much!

In my experience, your glucose percentage is very low. I would bump up the glucose and cut out the sorbitol (for a lot of reasons).

Daniel ~ I see in a post to me in February - that I just saw. Sorry! - that you were taught to addcocoa butter to your caramels. How much do you add and when? Would you add it to your recipe above? And since I've never added sorbitol to my caramels, what exactly does it do? Does it help with crystallization? Thanks!

This past summer I really struggled with our caramels. I had to throw out several batches of crystallized caramel. I read and researched about every tip. I used clean utensils, pots, lemon juice, added sorbitol (which I am not sure helps?...) and dehumidified my room.

With the recipe that I use, I realized that if I boiled everything together I was more likely to get a crystallized batch. If I boiled the sugar with water and lemon juice(then added the glucose -- followed by the cream) I was more likely to get successful results.

Below is my recipe. I am wondering if I have an oversaturation of sugar or if it was more of an environmental problem considering that my problems were really bad this summer.I stir everything in a copper pot and multiply this recipe 7 times for my typical batch.

I would love to get some insight from you

750 grams cream

700 grams sugar (boiled with water (20% of weight of sugar) and a few tablespoons of lemon juice

200 grams glucose

30 grams sorbitol

200 grams butter

vanilla beans

sea salt

Cook to 245 degrees Farenhite

I agree. The Savage Firemixer works great. We have one, and just dump the ingredients in, turn on the cooking cycle and forget about it until the alarm goes off. Free's up LOTS of time in our shop.

Kerry;

I can provide you a recipe for an amazing cream caramel that is soft at room temp, but can be cooked longer and made more firm. My recipe doesn't need lecithin.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You need to adjust for altitude. Water boils 1.25 degrees C less for every thousand feet of altitude you climb from sea level, and this makes a HUGE difference in cooking caramel.

4L Whipping Cream (35% MF)

3.6kg unsalted butter

3.6kg granulated sugar

4L Rogers Golden Corn Syrup (helps prevent crystalization)

80ml Good vanilla extract.

• Heat the butter, sugar, corn syrup and of the cream until all is dissolved.
• Cover and boil for 3-5 minutes.
• Uncover and boil until 224 Degrees Fahrenheit.
• Add the rest of the whipping cream and the vanilla.
• Cook to EXACTLY 244 Degrees Fahrenheit for truffle centers (our altitude is 3500 feet).
• Pour into a large NON MELTABLE container and date it.
• Remelt and use as needed.

4lb butter, 6lbs (8c) corn syrup, 4 lb brown sugar, 5 lb white sugar,2 tsp salt, 1tbs soy lecithin, 3 qts half and half. 2 tbs vanilla.

Melt butter, add cornsyrup, sugars, salt,lecithin,- stir until mixed well- add half and half- 1qt at a time.

Bring to boil and cook to 240F. remove heat, add vanilla and pour out in confined 30"x30" or +square to cool.

I don't cut or wrap but extrude later to portion for "turtles"

Cooking: A Firemixer-14, a single batch of about 15lbs takes 1-1.5 hours to cook.

Cutting: Savage Bros. large roller cutters. (I also have a Tomric caramel cutter but in my experience it won't work for anything more than .25" or so thick.)

Recipe Scaling: We found that no changes were necessary to the ratios used in our recipe.

Dan,

I am also looking for a larger batch recipe. Could you please share it with me also?

Thanks,

Kerry

I would also like to know the process you guys are using if wrapping caramels (unenrobed) into parchment squares. I cannot visualize how to reduce the time commitment for individually wrapped pieces. Not sure if anyone can describe it in words. Folded, envelope-style? Rectangles with twisted ends? Maybe this is one of those processes that goes very slowly at first, then you get a rhythym and it moves quickly?

Dirke,

I used to make caramel on the stove top and 12 lbs was the max size I could make. It took at least 2 hours and I had to stir to keep it from scorching. I bought a Savage table top firemixer and made a few 25lb batches in it but I didn't like it because it stirs too fast and heats only from the bottom. I bought a Groen TDB-7 Steam kettle (much cheaper than Fremixer and easier to find used)and it makes great caramel. I used to use the sweetened condensed milk but now use half & half because the kettle boils it so fast. The kettle doesn't scorch it either. I make about 25 lbs which is the max the kettle can do. I only cook it to 240F. I have found that commercial corn syrup (confectioner's) works a lot better than the store brands and doesn't sugar as easily.If you want I can give you the recipe, its not very complicated

Dan

Susan, My caramels are firm enough to have straight sides and be enrobed well. I would not describe my caramel as overly chewy. I was taught to add cocoa butter to my caramel recipe so that it makes a very clean cut. Other caramel recipes are indeed to sticky or firm to be cut by a guitar.

We're using a caramel cutter & I've found that after cutting in one direction & getting long strips, I need to separate the strips before they stick back together. Thus I can just score the top & cut with a knife to make the dippable pieces. - It is a relatively soft caramel, but does everyone else cut both ways with a caramel cutter?

The cutter is adjusted by putting little spacers in between the blades so you are limited to what spacers you have. The cutting area is 12in and the total length with handles is 24 in. The blade are fixed to the rod so you have to kind of roll it and reposition. The cutter came with about 20 blades, and you could probably cut something up to 1.5 inches thick.

Daniel ~ If you are using a confectionary guitar, does that mean that your caramels a quite soft? I thought that the strings on guitars were too fragile to cut caramels that had some chew to them. And if yours are soft, how do you get them to keep their shape without spreading?

Caramels are tricky. One degree off and you can have a batch that is too soft or too hard to cut properly. My recipe is designed so that I can cut the caramels on the confectionery guitar. I cut and seperate 250 pieces in about 10-15 minutes I find this to be more efficient that working with a caramel cutter. Of course not all recipes are fit for a confectionery guitar.

How about a copper kettel and a paddle? Anyone work with Real butter and Pet milk anymore? I do. Cook quik and high, temp dependes on if you are coating apples or making pieces.

Jenny, thanks for the info. Unfortunately, the website doesn't give any detail. Could you help me with it?

What is the cutting area (length)?

What is the total length (including handles)?

Do the handles rotate independently from the wheels and rod/shaft?

How many wheels the cutter has?

Can you adjust the width of the wheels to any need or are you limited by spacers or combination of spacers?

What is the maximum thickness it can cut (wheel diameter - spacer diameter)?

Thanks a lot