I make my own caramel and haven't had a problem. When it's ready in the pan I quickly pour the whole lot into the centre of the mold and as accurately as possible I spread it out with a palette knife. If you get your volumes right you can fill the whole mold without waste.
Ah. Ok. I was wondering how you did it. I make my own so, if anyone knows how to do it that way, let me know. Thanks for your response!
i use peter's caramel. it comes in a 5 lb block. i soften it slightly in the microwave. still cool enough to touch, but soft enough to work with. then i basically "push" it into cavaties with hard dough scrapers. it takes a bit more time than pouring totally melted caramel, but it sets up quickly and it is pretty easy to work with.
I am curious as to how you manage to fill the molds without the caramel cooling too fast or the caramel in the pan overcooking? I have considered doing this, too, but it seems like I would have one or the other problem with the caramel. Thank you for your help!
i am thinking of trying the molds from truffley made. they are much more "flexible" and you can invert the cavaties to push out the truffle. their instructional video says to freeze the ganache. they also say to use a "curable" ganache. but i think that means putting invert sugar or other stabilizer in the ganache - but i don't want to do that because i am afraid it will affect the texture. if i do try it i will post my results.
Hi Mary,
I've had the same issues. The molds are great for caramels but with any ganache I've tried they never come out in one piece. Almost always there's a little bit of ganache left inside, even after refrigerating or freezing, which obviously affects the final appearance as well as making the cleaning up process longer. I'd love to know if there's something I'm missing but nowadays I only use the molds for caramels/toffees.
Nick.
I don't share my thoughts too often on this forum as most posts are bang on in terms of an answer but I have to say 'Sebastian' made my morning when I read his post. Whether it is someonespalate or the rest ofhis/her body,everything is relative!
Define healthy 8-)
100g of nibs vs 100g of dark chocolate
Calories 720Kcal 605Kcal
Sugar 0g 24g
Fat 54g 43g
Well, remove everything from the list of ingredients for the dark chocolate bar with the exception of cocoa and you're essentially left with the equivalent of cacao nibs. The largest ingredient removed is sugar so in this case the nibs are healthier. 
Hi Forum,
I'm really glad that I found this site to talk about chocolate . My name is Mary from Finland (A frozen Nordic country in northern Europe near the north pole) I would love and appreciate if you guys share with me your thoughts.
I love chocolate so much. In the past, I used to eat chocolate everyday (Especially Milk chocolate). I have spent a fortune on chocolates, and I have eaten SO MANY types of chocolates. I used to go to La Maison Angelina in Paris to enjoy their amazing chocolates.
Anyhow, Unfortunately and sadly for some health issues, Doctors have completely prohibited me from eating milk chocolate. The only allowed option for me is about 10g of dark chocolate. Well, In this beginning this was so difficult for me because I cannot live without the sweet milk chocolate, However, I tired to swap it with dark chocolate and this has been a challenge since I am not used to the bitter and strong taste. Besides, In Finland we have a pretty small market with quite limited selections, the only available options are: Lindt Excellence (Max 85%), Marabou Premium 86%, and some useless local brands such as Fazer dark chocolate that is loaded with carbs and sugar.
Anyways, Thankfully I now can tell that I can eat and somewhat enjoy the dark chocolates.
So, What is my problem?
My problem is that most recently I discovered a new product in the market here which is: Organic Cacao Nibs, and I read that is healthy but I couldn't find any comparison for it with Organicdark chocolate?
I checked the nutrition facts of the Organic Cacao Nibs and found them very close to some of the Organicdark chocolates (85%). But my question is, Regardless the taste or the preferences (Let's discuss ONLY from a pure health perspective):
Which is healthier: Organic Dark Chocolate e.g. (85%) or Organic Cacao Nibs ?
I would greatly and sincerely appreciate your inputs !
Enrobed or molded, if you're sealing the ganache in tempered chocolate you should have at least a 3 week room temperature shelf life.
The industrials have, of course, figured this out in their own ways decades ago, and artisans have learnt many things from the industrials over the years as you know. I believe that the French artisans are very advanced in this area.
Greg - Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see where you're enrobing or dipping your ganache in tempered chocolate. If you're trying to get shelf life for "naked" ganache, I don't think that's feasible. The tempered chocolate shell serves to seal the ganache and preserve it, at least for a few weeks. Just wrapping a ganache with foil won't allow it to be kept at room temperature.
Please forgive me if I've posted this in the wrong section.
I've made ganache filled dark chocolatepralines/truffles/bon-bons and I'm supposed to be selling them for the first time this weekend at a Christmas show. The recipe's been altered to hopefully extend the shelf life beyond the holidays but I'm not sure it's enough.
My old recipe brought together cream, butter,and Lorann Oil natural anti-oxidant (no one I know can taste it) until it starts to boil. That gets poured onto solid chocolate callets and mixed with a spoon until smooth.
Based on what I've read in the forums and a few other places, I've created a new recipe,a mixture of cream, butter, the antioxidant and a small amount of corn syrup. I bring that to just under a boil, cool it to 90 degrees, pour into tempered chocolate that's also at 90 degrees and mix with animmersionblender. I wrap the chocolates in foil, put them in a bag with a twist tie and add a string to make them tree ornaments.
Unfortunately, it seems ganache filled chocolates are only good for three weeks at room temperature. And my new recipe isn't quite as good as my original one. It's really good, just not as good.
My question are: How can I sell ganache filled holiday chocolates that may not make it to the holidays? Should Irefrigeratethem or suggest peoplerefrigeratethem and then put them on the tree the day before Christmas? That seems lame and I'm worried about bloom.
I'm making another batch next week. Does anyone have suggestions to extend the shelf life of my original recipe or is it best to stick with the more shelf stable ganache?
I am refering about it. It's a good way for the production of milk and dark chocolate. Now, i try to find way that I make good white chocolate.
What are you interesting?
Hello Sebastian! Can you sent me your e-mail adress and i ll sent you details about it!
I think, the main problem is process, temperature or moisture.
afraid you still don't have nearly enough information. you list your ingredients, but it's not the formula. The details are incredibly important (ie what fat milk powder? what size media, temp of your mill, and # of passes (i assume you have multiple passes?) what's the temperature increase over multiple passes?)
What do you need to do - you need to provide a great deal more information, i'm afraid.
Moisture is always a problem....
Does anyone know why the barley melt extract use in the productions of chocolate?
Ingredients for white chocolate - suger, milk powder and cocoa butter,dextrose, whey powder. The most important ingredients are milk powder (19%), cocoa butter 33%. We use a ball mill(t=45-50) and we add lecithin on start and 15 minutes the end ago. The whole process takes 1h45min.
Can you tell me what i have to do? I want to make smoother chocolate.
Is it the moisture in the ingredients may be the problem?
Hey Goran,
Are you refering to production management? Because this is a topic I am really interested in discussing.
well, you're going to need to provide many more details if you'd like help. Specifically:
1) Exact formula of your chocolate, including details on the milk ingredients used
2) timing of addition of ingredients
3) how you operate your ball mill.
I will tell you, that using a ball mill for white chocolate isn't the best solution.
I work in a chocolate factory and have a problem to make white chocolate. It isn t taste enough and dense fluid.
I feel the bitter taste, maybe it's from milk powder?
I use Quickbooks Online. I enter my orders as they come in, using the ship/delivery date as the invoice date, then before I start production I run a report of what products are scheduled to ship or be delivered that week. (I now have these reports set to auto-run each week and they are automatically e-mailed to me.) It's also just a great small business accounting tool due to the reports it offers (although I have an accountant friend who hates it!).
In addition, I post each individual order on the wall and arrange them by ship/delivery date, highlighting any important bits (i.e., add extra samples, etc.).
Most of the time this manages to keep us on track.
Hi stephane,
I use excel to manage my orders but like you I always wonder wether there is something more efficient. What I do is I put all the orders together and add the number of every type of chocolate. for example let's say you have 5 places who asked for dark 70% chocolate, I make sure I make all the quantity at the same time to avoid changes and as a result saving time. I also make sure I produce a little extra knowing that this chocolate is ordered alot and future orders are coming the next day/week etc.. This also depends on the shelf life of your products. I usually start producing the chocolate that has the longer shelf life and move down the list.
Also comparing your sales is crucial. I look at last year's sale of each kind I produced. It gives me an idea how much I should expect to produce this month.
Hi
I own a small business, I only cater to retail stores and with the holidays and a recent trade show I signed up some new clients, which is always good news, but with 2013 just around the corner I want to start the new year better prepared.
I want to establish some sort of system for my production, I have been around on the net and didn't really find anything remotely close to what I would like to have, so I am wondering what you guys do.
I currently carry about 20 different products, all available in white,milk and dark, creating over 60 different sku's, and I will have another 20 very soon. I would like some sort of software where I can enter my orders, inventory, etc right now I work with a bunch of papers, with no real order, it's messy and I sometimes end up with not enough of this and too much of that.
What do you guys use to keep things efficient in the production area ? to make sure you are fulfilling your orders on time and correctly ? any input would be appreciated.
thanks !
Hi everyone,
Just having posted my first message I noticed a category "Allow me to introduce myself" so I thought it only right and proper to do that.
I'm pretty new to making chocolate; although I bought a mould after my first trip to Belgium over 2 years ago I've only got around to using it in the past month. I don't think there's any stopping me now!
I am currently experimenting with different types and brands of chocolate and I have just received a batch of cocoa butter to play with. Looking forward to seeing how that goes!
Thanks for letting me come and chat on your lovely forum
Hi folks!
I'm pretty new to making chocolates but I'm jumping in at the deep end and have decided to make everyone chocolates for Christmas. I've have some minor success in my test runs so far so I'm wondering if anyone can help me with fillings.
My favourite type of chocolate filling has to be the milk chocolate praline - you know, the kind you get in the middle of Guylian chocs. I have googled quite hard but I am struggling to find a recipe for creating something of that colour, flavour and consistency.
I've had one attempt so far using the recipe at the bottom of this page ( http://www.jamieoliver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=30086 - careful if you try this, the quantities are massive) and while very tasty it does not match the colour, texture or taste that I'm looking for. Any recipe I find on the web is similar enough to that that I really doubt it'll be much different.
Can anyone help? Do you have a good recipe you don't mind lending me?
Thanks!
Okay, here is a good one for the "fair-trade" discussion (or what I like to call the: "friar-triad missionaries").
From the linked-to page (visit the page to read the rest of the summary and to download the full report):
[Transnational Investigation] The FAIRTRADE Chocolate Rip-off
In a six-month transnational project led by the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR), journalists hailing from Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and the Netherlands investigated the alleged benefits received by cocoa farmers in West Africa via the FAIRTRADE label.
Their conclusions are shocking: whilst the chocolate consumer in the West pays a significant mark-up for honest chocolate, these benefits amount to little or no improvement in the lives of cocoa farmers. In some case, because of FAIRTRADE cooperatives increasing dominance, farmers were even worse off than before.
The full dossier is titled The FAIRTRADE chocolate rip-off, and was partly funded by the Programme for African Investigative Reporters (PAIR). The story, parts of which have already been published in Dutch, has caused a stir in the Netherlands.
Pretty much nothing new that we don't know or have discussed on TheChocolateLife. Just adding more...
Best to all.
-Mark
Hi Lana,
How much cocoa butter should we add? Previously, you said 10 - 20% butter oil. Would be the same for cocoa butter?
Thanks,
Omar
Thanks, Lana. I tried the method with the added cocoa butter and got a great result. The coat is much thinner and the truffle is better. Thanks so much for your help! I'm experimenting with shelf life as well. Will check how the truffle is in 2 and then 3 weeks from now.
Thank you all for your input. I checked the websites of neococoa and intrique chocolates. The latter doesn't give info on shelf life, neococoa says that its chocolates should be consumed within 2 weeks. I will try coating with butter oil, also thought about spraying the truffles with a chocolate gun in order to get a very thin shell. Does anybody have experience with that technique for chocolate candies or truffles?
Also maybe you could use untempered chocolate to coat. As from what I understand untempered chocolate melts at lower temps and is softer.
There's a Seattle chocolate company called "Intrigue Chocolates" that does exactly this.They tell people that their chocolate (interestingly they call their product "chocolate" or "truffles" but never ganache) must be refrigerated and eaten within the month. I bought some about a month or so ago. Their samples were terrific, but once I brought the bar home and refrigerated it the texture was just never the same.
Bottom line - yes you can do this and Intrigue is making a whole business out of it, but you would have to instruct your customers to refrigerate the ganache if they're not going to eat it within a few days. Many (if not most) retailers would not want to sell a product that had such as short shelf life. But I think that if you present the ganache as an artisan product with no preservatives, etc and you're honest with your customers about the limited shelf life you would be fine. Many customers might even see it as indicative of a higher quality, craft-based approach.
I can't remember the exact numbers, but from memory the shelf life of uncoated truffles is considerably less (measured in days rather than weeks)
Hi,
I have been making truffles for quite some time, but have never been happy with the hard shells. What I'm looking for is a soft truffle that just melts in your mouth. So I have been experimenting with different types of Ganache that I let harden over 1- 2 days at about 68 degrees F. Then I cut them on the guitar and just roll them in high quality cacao powder.
The truffles look and taste great. I'm just a little concerned about the shelf life. The ganache consists of cream, couverture and a tiny amount of liquor. The shelf life of my former truffles that I enrobed with tempered chocolate was 3 weeks. Is it less when the truffles don't have a hard shell?
Thanks, Caroline
1cc=~1.27 grams. This is at least for my dark 60% couverture.
