Forum Activity for @Lane Wigley

I was in your shoes a few months ago so let me share some thoughts.You need to get a melanguer. I'm happy with the Santha 11 I got from chocolate alchemy. Get polycarbonate molds, the ones called "hobby molds" probably won't last a week and I can't see how you'd get air bubbles out with them. You probably want to get some cocoa butter. If you want to start very slowly, you can skip quite a few steps by buying some roasted nibs, put them in a Cuisinart and then into your melangeur without additional processing. My best batch so far was done this way (I got some Madagascar nibs from Amano so not very cost efficient). Beyond that you need a way to temper. You can learn to do it without special equipment or buy a tempering machine. This is the only mistake I feel I made. If you get a tempering machine, spend the extra money for the one that's 6 lbs or 6 kgs or whatever. The Revolation is just too small to handle a full load from the Santha, probably would take 10 cycles.

Good luck.

I have settled in buying nibs or liquor and doing my own conch/grind ($600 machine), then temper ($530 machine) and mold ($200 so far). If you roast in your oven, crack in a big mortar pesto, winnow with a blow dryer and do a first grind in a champion juicer (I think $150), I think that is about as basic as you can go.

I second that. That's the place to start and figure it out.

John over at chocolate alchemy sells everything you need. www.ChocolateAlchemy.com

Have fun!

I own both. (actually two tempering machines AND a firemixer)

the most important difference is that the heating element in the firemixer heats the chocolate ONLY on the bottom via an element that can get very hot, whereas the tempering kettles use heaters submerged in a water jacket to ensure the chocolate never burns.

The second you overheat the chocolate on the bottom of your firemixer (and it CAN happen), you will destroy ALL of the chocolate you have put in it - a very costly mistake.

Another significant difference is that the firemixer agitator turns at almost twice the speed of the one in the chocolate machine - which will most likely cause bubbles in your chocolate.

I've always believed in the right tool for the right job, and would never consider using the firemixer to heat and temper something as delicate as chocolate.

Brad

I have observed a local business that uses their fire mixer 14 for their white chocolate. Seems to work for them. Why don't you call Javier at Savage and ask him the differences?

A question for all of the Savage Bro experts. We own a Firemixer 14 Tabletop and we are looking at the 50lb Tabletop Temperer. The machines themselves appear to be very similar. Other than the automation of the temperature controls and agitator, is there much difference between these two machines? IF I wanted to go through the bother of manually controlling the Firemixer to temper, agitate and hold, are there any tips or techniques I would want to look out for? I realize this is a specialized question and I may not get a reply, but thank you in advance for looking and pondering.

Fine Chocolates 3 by Wybauw is a great book on how to extend the shelf life of chocolate confections. As per Daniela's post, I have never used lecithin for this.

http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Chocolates-Great-Experience-Extending/dp/9020990209/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351052172&sr=1-1&keywords=fine+chocolates+3

You should use glucose or alcohol for extending shelf life in ganache. Lecithin is used in the chocolate formula as an emulsifier and it's added during the conching process

Hello!

I would like to introduce ourselves as we are new members here..

We are a new, artisan chocolate company in Victoria BC created by my mother and I. We are making Organic vegan truffles and other products like clusters and chocolate coated honeycomb. We use Cocao Barry Organic Fair Trade 71.7% dark for all of our products. To make our truffles vegan/dairy free, we use organic coconut cream instead of heavy cream. At this moment we are only doing farmers markets and events, and have no storefront. We are working out of my mothers home.

In our experience at markets, besides appealing to people who are vegan or lactose intolerant, we have also found that there have been quite a few people who are soy intolerant as well who are very happy to be able to enjoy our products. We want to stay committed to creating products that are dairy, soy and gluten free.

We have never used any lecithin before, but with Christmas fairs coming up, we are looking to extend the shelf life of our truffles a bit more in case they sit a while before being gifted. We found some Organic sunflower lecithin from a nearby supplier and purchased some. It is in liquid form, almost being the consistency as honey. As we have never used any sort of lecithin before, and from the limited info I found on sunflower lecithin which says you need a bit more than soy, I am hoping someone might have some info on how to use it properly? We tried it in a small batch, but it caused the ganache to break. Our standard recipe is 16 oz chocolate to 250ml coconut cream.

Any info on how much to use, and when and how to add it, or if anyone has used it before and can let me know any other tips, that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

I was wondering, can one use Agave syrup instead of sugar in a chocolate formulation when making it from scratch? what are the pros and cons?

My only problem with this method is that it sets up fast. It's usually faster than I can pipe it into shells so I have to -re-warm the ganache making sure not to go over the 90 degree threshold.

That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming.

I recently bought the book "Fine Experiences, Great Chocolate 3 - Extending Shelf Life" by Jean-Pierre Wybauw. This is what you need. It explains everything scientifically. I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Chocolates-Great-Experience-Extending/dp/9020990209/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363789337&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=greay+experiences+fine+chocolates+3

Yes. Cool the cream to about 90 degrees.

Wouldn't the 115 cream take the tempered chocolate out of temper?

How long would you say the shelf life would be by doing it this way?

I believe a butter ganache is also supposed to last longer than a cream ganache. Even more so if you use clarified butter.

In my experience, melting and tempering the chocolate being used in ganache is a ridiculously easy way to extend shelf life. Boil cream, cool to 115 degrees, THEN add to freshly tempered chocolate. Use an immersion blender to create an emulsion. It will be much more stable.

Thanks Ryan,

I am actually melting the chocolate first then adding the cream to this. But if it means a longer shelf life then I can change this to cooking the cream first.

I managed to find out that the problem with the lollies is due to sugar bloom. I was putting in the refridgerator then bringing out intoa humid room, therefor ecausing the bloom!

If you are cooking the cream and adding chocolate to it for your ganache it has a longer shelf life than you think. That is how I make mine and then roll into balls by hand before dipping them, get 3 months shelf life... even longer if stored in refrigeration. Your lollies crumbling sounds to me as though your chocolate is not tempered correctly and therefor has too much crystallization.

Hi,

I have just starting my own small business from home making Chocolate truffles. I make them with a ganache recipe of 400ml of chocolate with 150ml of double cream, I have been advising people that they have a shelf life of 5-7 days due to the cream content. I am now wanting to start selling them in local farm shops/delis but they all require a longer shelf life,

My questions on this are:

Does anyone have any advice on how I can make them have a longer life?

Does anyone know any truffle recipes that do not use cream therefore increasing the shelf life?

I also have also started to make chocolate lollies & chunks. I melt the chocolate and then leave to first set at room temperature then put in the fridge but my problem is when I take them out of the fridge and leave for a period of time at room temperature, they seem to look like they have separated and when you bite into them they go all crumbly. What am I doing wrong?

Please can someone help as I seem to have built up quite a few regular customers & I dont want to disappoint them.

Thanks from a new chocolate fan xx

Yup--go to Walmart and buy a $40 Hamilton Beach. Drew Shotts put me on to these. They do a great job and outlast R-C's and Cuisinarts. They have a plastic shaft and all the bad China stuff, but they last and last. The last time I made Praline, I caramelized the hazelnuts and tossed them in. Ran it for about 15 minutes until the oil released. It won't take it down to a totally smooth paste, but much better than the other options.

Forget about a Robot Coupe. It has a duty cycle of only 5 minutes. A cheap Hamilton Beach will work until the oil separates from the nuts.

Thanks Patti. I did this and it still was a nightmare to husk them all (but better than other ways). I'm going to buy paste next time. I used 7 cups of hazelnuts. It tastes wonderful, but what a pain.

When I mix a gianduja at home from commercially available products, I use ~50% milk chocolate and ~50% hazelnut praline paste (which is itself, ~50% sugar and ~50% hazelnuts). So breaking it down, mine is approximately 50% milk chocolate, 25% sugar and 25% hazelnut.

I'm not sure how much further/higher you can push that hazelnut %. Too far and the hazelnut fat will start to interact with the cocoa butter and make tempering the gianduja hard.I'd think you could go higher, but don't really know.

I forgot to ask, what's a reasonable range of chocolate to nuts? Can I do it without any milk powder or should I do at least a bit?

To remove the hazelnut skins more easily:

Gianduja is one of my favorite topics It comes out great from the grinder after a few hours. We did pre-grind in the food processor to make it easier.

The real pain is to quickly de-hull the hazelnuts. The rubbing on a wet cloth method works fine, but there are a few nuts which don't release their hull, it gets really hot and is time consuming.

Any alternatives for a better process? Any equivalent to the small scale winnowers we use for cacao?

The second major issue is sourcing quality hazelnuts consistently and making sure they are not rancid when you buy them. Treat yourself to the 35 part Gianduja series from Dallas Food Org.

Either a large colander or a wet cloth... Rub the hazelnuts against the screen of the colander or put them in the wet cloth, fold over itself and rub.

What's the best way to de-hull?

Thanks cheebs - that's what I was curious about. When I've "made" a gianduja for chocolate work, I've done so by mixing hazelnut praline paste and chocolate. I was wondering if the grinders could take the nuts/caramelised sugar without any problems, but it sounds like they can if I pre-grind.

Cheers

It does and that will work perfectly. It only takes a few hours to get the paste super-fine. Remember to de-hull the nuts!

Gap... I only roast the hazelnuts... if caramelized I would then be making pralin (which I actually do make by caramelizing, running through the Champion with the blocking plate in and finishing for a half hour or so in the Santha)

I'm assuming that if I put the hazelnuts through a food processor first the Santha should be able to take it from there. I wouldn't think I'd need to buy paste. Make sense?

cheebs - do you caramelise the hazelnuts first and then grind them down for your gianduja?

Lane - a gianduja is usually tempered at a lower temp . . . 27C is what I normally use.

Basically just thoroughly mix the melted chocolate with the hazelnut paste. I've seen some makers in Italy refine/conche them together and others just mix. Personally I just mix well with a stick blender.

Here's a shot of our cremini, as you can see the gianduja is nice and smooth. Any roughness visible in this pic is from the cutting.

such as: when to add the hazelnuts, anything different about tempering, molding, etc