Forum Activity for @Jenny Bunker

Omar, here is the link to the cutter that I bought.

http://tomric.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=2960

Hi Jenny, what caramel cutter did you buy? Thanks.

Omar

Thanks for the replies. So from the response I'm in line with time and batch counts. I've been in touch with Savage, we'll see where to go from here....

My batch makes about 350 pieces and takes about an hour. I have the round-bottomed copper pot and a Savage stove. Cooking caramels can be fast or slow. If you want more color and possibly deeper flavor, it takes a longer time. For me, I want a medium dark color and a nice caramel flavor. I can do it with my recipe in the hour. If I need to slow it down because of not having someone around to help pour, I can cook slower and just let it cook for several hours. As Jenny said, cutting takes almost as much time as cooking.

I am not sure what you consider a large batch, but it usually takes me about 45 min from measuring ingredients to pouring the caramel and it makes about a180 pieces. Most people that make huge batches use a rounded copper sugar pot with an open flame, but that is some serious stuff! I dip them and I find the most time consuming part cutting them up. I just bought a caramel cutter so that should help. Hope this helps.

The folks at Savage equipment should be able to help you with both.

Besides loving to eat caramel. yes by the handful, I make it and it's a great seller. only problem is I need some equipment to make it in large batches and faster then what I am doing on a stove top. I need help and suggestions. If you have any great recipes and want to share, I would love it.

I have a great recipe but I think it needs to be tweeked or changed altogether as it takes 2-3 hours sometimes to make a large batch. Maybe I am crazy and it does take that long but I don't know many others that have the patience to make caramel so they don't. I've only just started digging deeper into the world of caramel so any seasoned advice would be greatly appreciated. this stuff is tricky!

Thanks in advance.

I would use black too, and I didn't think either about using sugar. But maybe I should test both, or at least be very clear about the fact that I don't use any sugar.

Hi Lowe,

I'll ask the guy, which is a roaster. He doesn't work at a caf. I'll see what he knows (or doesn't know) about all these methods, maybe he knows a lot anyways. What I explained to Giovanni is that the first thing I'll do is a video only with the guy, for a webtv. So the first time, it won't be a real tatsing with people attinding it. But I want to do these kind of tastings soon.

With what you tell me, I think this first step with the roaster will tell me if I can work with him for real tastings or if I should find a barista or someone who knows more the art of coffee tasting.

I'll try with espresso, just to see and make some tests. I'll let you know what I find and if it really overpowers the chocolate.

Giovanni,

You make a good point about people using sugar in their coffee. (Thank you google translate.) I was assuming that all of the coffee would be black because that is the only way to get the true coffee flavor. But many people won't drink black coffee because they aren't used to it.

When I do this pairing I will still use only black, though. That is the best way for people to truly taste the single origin and not to adulterate the coffee.

Infatti, cercher di parlare della degustazione in modo generale, e non so neanche se parleremo dei caff: la gente sapr che sono quelli del barista che sar l con me. Ma io cercher di parlare dei cioccolati che porter.

Mi sa che dovr sedermi col tizio prima e vedere insieme a lui di quanto tempo dispongo e anche cosa importante per lui e per me (cose da dire assolutamente).

Non conosco i caff di Gianni Frasi: da provare quando torner in Italia!

Grazie Giovanni per i consigli!

Karine,

Is your coffee person just a roaster or a barista at a cafe? You need to partner with someone who knows about coffee. You should ask your coffee partner about pour overs or French Press (not to mention Clever Coffee dripper or the aeropress or other brewing methods...) If they can't tell you what these are and the advantages and disadvantages to a cup of coffee then you need to find someone else.

IMO pure espresso is much too concentrated to pair with chocolate. It is one popular brewing method, so it might work, though. I haven't gotten into espresso all that much because it is so concentrated and powerful. I think it would totally overpower any chocolate.

Se cos allora cambia tutto, potrai raccontare le origini e l'evoluzione dei due coloniali pi diffusi al mondo e come si sono incrociate le loro storie e credo che saprai consigliare come prestare attenzione negli assaggi.

Io uso solo i caff arabica mono origine di Torrefazione Giamaica di Gianni Frasi.

Oggi ho preso il Chickamagalur Karnatka che indiano e ho abbinato un cioccolato 70% Paupasia

Ciao Giovanni,

S, far un bel po' di prove prima per vedere cosa succede in una degustazione del genere. Per non sar una degustazione con gente: star da sola con il barista e saremo filmati per una webtv: cafebarista.tv Magari avrei dovuto spiegarlo, anche se il mio obiettivo di organizzare degustazioni con gente eventualmente. Quindi tutti i consigli mi saranno uitli.

Quindi per il momento l'obbiettivo soltanto di spiegare come abbinare il cioccolato e il caff, cos la gente potr provare a casa e vedere cosa esce fuori. Quindi mi organizzer con i caff del barista, anche se non sono single origin. Ma chiaro che preferirei che entrambi i prodotti siano mono-origine.

Quale cioccolato e quale caff hai abbianato oggi?

Karine

Ciao Karine

Interessante quesito. Ho sempre ritenuto la degustazione cioccolato/caff pi uno scontro che un abbinamento, entrambi molto complessi e ricchi di aromi che tendono l'un l'altro a sovrapporsi. Amo sia il cioccolato che il caff di cui faccio grande uso. Proprio adesso mentre leggevo il tuo post stavo prendendorilassatoil mio caff della domenica pomeriggio e cos ho pensato di abbinarlo ad un cioccolato ed proprio cos gli aromi in bocca si moltiplicano e non facile fare pi di un assaggio.

Credo che dovrai fare molte prove prima di abbinare le due cose, cio dovrai scegliere bene sia il caff che il cioccolato da mettere assieme in base a quello che hai a disposizione. Ho capito che il caff sar servito espresso. E' molto importate come hai detto che il caff giunga caldo all'assaggiatore e valuta anche se devi essere tu a somministrare e dosare lo zucchero nel caff o servirlo amaro e che ognuno faccia da se perch una cosa molto legata al gusto personale, almeno in Italia cos.

Sarebbe ottimo abbinare sia cioccolato che caff single origin.

Giovanni

Hi Lowe,

Thank you for the tip, but why is a French press coffee or pour over better than espresso for a tasting? I know chocolate, but I'm new to the coffee world, and these are the things I want to know and understand for a tasting. I want to understand the basics, at least, and a little bit more.

I'll ask the roasters if they have something else, not only espresso machines, but if I'll do so, I'll have to explain them why.

Karine

The Simonelli website says that it makes Espresso machines. Are you really going to use espresso for these pairings? I hope not.

If I do a coffee and chocolate pairing, the coffee will be made by pour over or French press.

I hope the guy is used to do coffee cupping, because I'm not used to it... The Simonelli equiment is italian: http://www.nuovasimonelli.com/ . They have coffee machines for coffee shops and restaurants.

I would prefer too single origin coffees. I know that this coffee roaste make his own blends with beans from all over the world. It's a choice, I asked him.

I'm curious... why is a roaster only using blends and not single origins? The roasters that I've seen use mostly single origin beans. I think this would work better for a tasting.

And what kind of equipment isSimonelli? Have you or he done any pour over cups? Does he know how to do a coffee cupping?

I don't know if chocolate and coffee pairing is more popular here than in the West Coast. But that's true that I don't see a lot of pairing events with coffee. You are right, the pairings are mostly done with wine and ports, at least here in Montral. I'll see the answer and the interest of the public.

Can I ask you what kind of pairs you've found? Were you using coffee blends or origins? And for the chocolate?

Thank's!

Karine

I will be working with a guy that is a coffee roaster. He has very professional Simonelli equipment for the brewing, so I guess it would be a quality brewing. He asked me to do the pairing, so I will use his coffees, which are only blends.

I think it will be a "live discovery", unless I can try at home his coffees before the real event.

Like we said, a hot coffee is important, but I suppose that too hot can complicate the tasting? I mean that when something is too hot, it's harder to taste and to recognize flavors.

I'll keep you updated, and I would be interested to know what pairing you'll do if you

organize an event.

Thank you for your tips!

Karine

We attempted a coffee and chocolate pairing with a local roaster as I agree it seems like a natural pairing. Tried a variety of different types of beans and coffees, there are so many commonalities it was easy to come up with concepts to discuss. BUT... after doing marketing andpromotionalthere turned out to be very little interest in the general concept from potential clients. We've sold our products in coffee shops but again people tended to buy more baked goods then chocolate with their coffee. Maybe it's a west coast thing?

So in a nut shell we didn't find it worthwhile to pursue any further. It was fun exploring the pairing but beer, wine and scotches seems to be more agreeable. I don't think people care as much about the process or nuances of coffee as they do wine or beer etc. I maybe wrong but I asked a few people while doing research after to see if I could find a reason why it didn't work and the generalconsensuswas they just liked there coffee because they need their coffee fix. nothing more.

Not to put a damper on your question or the experience as you may find you get a great response? You just never know. Good luck with it and have fun.

Cheers,

Dirke

Great topic! For about a year I have been delving into the world of fine coffee, so I have been learning all I can about good beans and brewing techniques. I think that coffee and chocolate are a very natural pairing, hence the many coffee flavored bars out there.

What brewing method are you considering using? Yes, I think you're right that having the coffee hot is crucial. It also needs to be brewed in a quality way so that knocks out theubiquitous drip coffee makers or percolators. It takes some time to grind the beans, set up the equipment, and then brew it.

How many cups of coffee are you going to make? I assume you will pair several kinds of beans with one chocolate. If you had 5 types of coffee beans then you would need to brew 5 batches. I think it would go much quicker to have 5 sets of equipment ready to use. I guess a coffee cafe or a brewer would be the best place to do it so you have access to that equipment.

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head... I've been thinking of offering some chocolate and coffee tastings so this has been on my mind for a while.

Please keep us informed of how you progress.

Lowe

Hi!

I was asked to talk about coffee and chocolate pairing. I've already done pairings with whisky and beer, but never with coffee.

Does anyone has ever done pairings like this? Do you have some guidelines you can give me, or tips? Are there big diffrences between pairings with alcohol and pairings with coffee? I'm thinking, for example, about the fact that coffee is drink hot, not beer or whisky.

Thank you very much for your help!

Karine

Hi

i do not usually deal in cream centered chocolates but I want to do a special series of products for a an upcoming show in February.

The problem I am having is that I cannot make these with ordinary ganache, I cannot afford to make these chocolates a few days before and since I do not have a retail location i'm stuck with unsold products.

What I would like are ideas for centers that could last for a while, like 2 months. I was thinking about caramel but I would like to have at least 6 choices.

any ideas ???

thanks !

Thanks Clay. My big problem is in the polishing stages. I use Capol 5021A (Gum Arabic) for the polish and Capol 425M for the seal.

The instructions for dark chocolate for Capol 5021A is that the temperature is to be 16-18C (12-14C for milk and white) and the RH 40-50%. Same with the seal (Capol ). Also, once done, the product must go onto trays for at least two hours before packing. In practise I usually leave it overnight and then either pack or put into bins for later packing (so I can select the pack sizes that I may need as I sell product).

The dehumidifier I use is a refrigerant type which means that it freezes water out of the atmosphere. There are two drawbacks. One is that it suddenly goes into a "de-ice" mode where the humidty soars - suddenly it's up to say, 65% from 48% which of course renders shock to the job I am working on making it sticky and then the seal layer of one piece fuses with the seal layer of another piece and then they tear and the job is bad. Secondly as the temperature reduces I can hit the dew point and then my dehumidifier fights with my air conditioner and the humidity goes up beyond acceptable levels.

Much of this is a problem of being very small. There are dehumidifers that dry the air then heat it to avoid the dew point problem. I have not really examined this in detail as I know that it's outside of my budget. I would also need to install bigger air conditioning - also costly.

Part is also that I work from home and the sealing on the room I use is sub-optimal.

So I wondered at installing a dessicant dehumidifer and was not sure if going ever lower for the RH% would be an advantage.

You say "no" and I have now had advice from Capol that it would be a bad idea too. So I won't do that.

So I am still seeking a way to get the RH dwon and keep it constant. Temperature is not so hard - although anoything below 18C gets challenging - especially here in Sydney in summer time (now) where it has been up to 42C in the past month.

Thanks for your thoughts - I'm going to try to find some of that bio-char here!

Colin

30% is way too low for chocolate. 50-55% is about right.

I suspect a combination of approaches will work. I would hate to invest $5k in a big dehumidifier and find out it doesn't work.

When working with the Moso bags (you might be able to find a local supplier for something similar in bulk and you could use another wood - bamboo is used because it's so fast growing) I always make sure to increase air circulation if I can and make sure the bag is in the airstream. They are small, but I used one for a self-made walk-in cooler of about 80 cu meters and had no problem, in part because there was very little air transfer. They are surprisingly effective. And cheap. Hanging one in the bowl and covering it up would remove excess moisture from the air in the bowl for sure.

That is seriously interesting Clay! I do wonder how it would go in a commercial sense though. A possible application is to pop one of the bags in the pan overnight and seal it when I've done a batch and then the load should be be ready to polish in the morning!

The room sizes they speak of are tiny - for muppets I think! Very interesting concept though!

I WAS wondering about using a system to take my RH to 30% but have had feedback that this would dry the job out too much and make it chalky.

Colin

Colin -

Try using quantities of bamboo bio-char. I ran across this company a couple of years ago and have used this product in a number of installations where the problem was not quite as severe as the one you're describing. This is a US company but I know they source their bamboo bio-char in SE Asia.

They are quite cheap (the large bags retail for US$23 each) and are good for about 50 cubic meters. You might need four or five or more to address the problem - but they are still really cheap and they require no energy. You could get many more than you need and instead of cycling them monthly, cycle them weekly.

BTW - these bags are also good in refrigerated display cases where there is no humidity control as well as for any application where refrigeration is required and humidity is a problem.

Here in Australia we are having really strange weather. Bushfires and record temperatures a couple of weeks back and then very heavy rainfall. It's all adding up to high humidity which is proving "interesting" for chocolate - especially polishing in a pan.

At the moment I can't get below about 60% RH although I have had my dehumidifier on for days with the room closed.

I have a home based business working out of a converted "spare room". I know that I need to work more on sealing it better. But there is more to the problem than that. When the temperature reduces the RH increases. Sadly the dehumidifer also stops working or it goes into a "de-ice cycle" and then the RH soars and if I am polishing I have MAJOR problems.

While there is seemingly nothing I can about it (the manufacturer tells me) I HAVE to fix the problem.

One thought is a dehumidifier that also heats the air to drive up the "dew point". More "non-chocolate" technology to get my head around and pay for too. I think costly.

Another is to use a dessicant dehumidifier. In essence, the raw, moist air is blown into a silica gel wheel where the water is removed. The wheel then goes through a heater where the water is driven off and exhausted to the outside air and then the cycle is repeated.

SOUNDS like a neat solution and seemingly not too costly (about $5,000).

But I don't know anyone that has done this.

Does anyone have any comments please? I need to fix the problem!

Thanks!

Colin

Am looking for how best i can do caramel bits quated with chocolates ?i got customer who wants them for ice cream topping and some customers just want to nibble on them

help please

Thankyou and glad to be here

Hi Gap,

I really appreciate your post! great stuff and from my limited experience and reading I have come up with similar times. Im glad you made a point on the little dipper machine because Im very close to purchasing an analog model. On the Hilliard website it says that it is a compact melting and tempering unit so I think it should be fine.

Again thanks for the reply

Kelly

Kelly - this is a bit like asking how long a piece of string is but I'll try and give some guidance from my (limited) experience.

I seem to remember the Behomer Roaster has a 2lb - 2 1/2lbcapacity and the times seem to be roughly 16-20 mins per roast (I haven't used one before, so I'm just going from what I've read). So 20lb would be 2-3 hours of roasting time.

I haven't used a Crankenstein, but cracking doesn't take a long time - 20lb would take me approx 10-15 mins at home using a Champion, so I can't imagine it would take much longer than that . . . maybe half an hour??

Homemade winnower will depend entirely on your design and how efficient it is.

Pre-grinding I don't do but I have seen it done on Youtube videos and it seems fairly quick with a hand-crank device . . . maybe another 30 mins

Spectra . . . this is your swing variable. I've had my chocolate in the machine for as little as 8 hours and as long as 30 hours. Depends on the beans, sugar, milk powders etc you're using and flavour you're aiming for.

Tempering and moulding can be time consuming initially but is something you get quicker at and depends on your setup. I have not used a Little Dipper, but believe it is a melting tank rather than a tempering machine. I hand temper and mould my bars with a Mold Art 6kg melting tankand would take ~2 hours for 20lbs based on my setup. 20lbs is a lot though - if you wanted to do it all in one go you'd need quite a few bar moulds and a large capacity melting tank.

Cleanup also takes time and depends on your setup and how clean you work.

I have been doing some preliminary research into home brewing chocolate set up. My question referes to time allotment for each step in the process using the following equipment,

Behmor Roaster

Crankanstein Cracker

Home Made Winnower

Pregrinder

Spectra 11 Melanger

Little dipper temper

If anyone has any suggestions or other forums to point me to please by all mean and any help is appreciated. Im costing and would like to know approximate times on say 20lbs of cocoa.

hi everyone

can anyone tell me please about brands of chocolate that i could use for doing bon-bons ?

and if so, where to buy them? cause ordering on-line will cost a lot cause of the weight, and i don't want to pay an addition 30 something dollars just for shipping and all

i live in northfield NJ... i would love to hear if they're shops that i could buy from

thank you

uriya

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

Javier -

I was not far from you last week -- in and around Piura and Lima.

Any "batch" tempering machine, like the Chocovision (including X3210 or Delta) need seed chocolate. This means that in order to temper properly you need already-tempered chocolate. If you are making chocolate bean-to-bar this means that you probably have to table temper the chocolate by hand for at least the first batch.

As you are already tempering by hand, this should not be an issue for you.

As for the difference between the two, it's really a question of how much you need to produce in a day, you match the working bowl capacity to your production. Chocovision offers a baffle that takes the Delta from about 4.25kg to about 8kg, and they also make a larger machine - at about 15kg and I hear there are even larger machines being worked on. With a Rev Delta and the holey baffle you should be able to temper 25kg per day or so.

Hilliards say The Little Dipper can do a max of about 12kg per day.

The difference in capacity could make it easy to choose one over the other.

Hello The Chocolate life members

Let me introduce myself, my name is javier and i am from Peru

I have been making chocolate from bean to bar the last six months.. we have always been tempering the chocolate manually ... eventough we now have enough knowledge to not mess up the chocolate it is still a hard task so we are thinking on investing into a Chocolate temperer..

We have been using quite sucesfully the Cocoatown melangers machines.. since we have the Cocoa in liquid I would like to know if any of you can reccommend me a good machine to temper the chocolate\

Im thinking about buying from Chocovision Revolation Delta or Hilliards Little Deeper.. which one do u guys think will temper the chocolate better (knowing the fact that I have the chocolate in liquid straight out of the Cocoatown melanger)

I will really appreciate your comments

FYI I hope you can come to visit Pucallpa in Peru one day! beatiful Criollo beans

I hope you can help me and sorry for my grammatical mistakes but my first language is Spanish

Gracias

Javier - Chaqchao PERU

Hi

I'm looking for templates for my choc. molds, specifically the heart (DCRPDR9013) & the oval (11271). Other than making my own (last resort) I was hoping that someone might already have some templates that they would like to share, possibly?

I have looked into the Chocolate Artist Software, and apparently that has been discontinued according to Chocolate World/Deco UK (plus it was ridiculously priced). I was able to download the software but I need a USB stick to print, perhaps someone has one that they might like to sell?

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks

Deb

In the multiple links posted above your comment...

Hello everyone, I need too plastic chocolate molds. Could you tell me where I can buy it?

Thanks lot!