Forum Activity for @Albert Kirchmayr

I see that there are some discussions about Enrobers.

FYI it is more important that you have a cooling tunnel than the perfect enrober. I started with a 60 year old Nielsen ,then I used a

KreuterLiliputfor 10 years. But the most importantequipment was the cooling tunnel,when you are busyyou want to be able toenrobe continuously.

By the way my Kreuter is for sale and other equipment like a stefan mixer for making perfect emultions with temperature control ,there could also be a vacuum pump attached to remove the air from your ganache.

If you are interested please contact me or visit our website to get a feel of the production we do with this equipment.

www.fineeuropeanchocolate.com

akchocolates@verizon.net

Albert

Lind uses 'artifical flavor' to round of their product. I have experimented with many industrial flavours at varying dosages but the main issue I hit (I use a combination of Belgiumchocolateand compound chocolate) is that the flavour stability starts to degrade after few weeks.

Usage of flavour gives an amazing lift to the product but unable to nail the reason for loss. I have tried Soy lecithin but that has not helped.

Does using pure chocolate (i.e. no vegetable fat) have better stability. Because of weather conditions and handling difficulties mixing compound chocolates keeps my chocolate stable and yet gives a reasonable soft texture.

Thanks

I used dark malt extract from a brewing store. I initially used 3% and, for dark malt extract, it was too much. I dropped that to 1.75% for my second batch and that seems closer to the mark.

I haven't tried using light malt extract yet.

I refined for 24 hours and the texture was smooth - no mouthfeel difference. It was noticeably less sweet (which is what I was aiming for).

Hey Felipe,

What Brands of Vanillin do you recommend?

Gap,

Thanks for the update!

Did you find the texture or mouthfeel different? Considering the hardness of lactose I'd be concerned of a 'grainy' texture.

FWIW - the sugar makeup of my recipe being 1/3 lactose and 2/3 sucrose worked quite well on the weekend.

FYI French Broad Chocolate makes a 45% milk malt bar. It's quite addictive

Cant wait to try it out. Thanks Felipe

OK, thanks Felipe. I was going to give it a try this weekend with 1/3 of the sugar beinglactose and 2/3 being sucrose.

very interesting conversation guys.I have two questions here please:

what flavor does malt give to the chocolate? and what is the approximate percentage to use?

What brand of Vanillin do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

Felipe - did you end up trying to add lactose to your milk chocolate? What is a good proportion of sucrose to substitute with lactose as a starting point? For example if you had 100g of sugar in your recipe originally, would you say 70 sucrose and 30 lactose is a good place to start experimenting? Or should I increase/decrease that lactose proportion of the sugar?

Not looking to get my hands on your recipe, just trying to get a feel for a range to start experimenting in.

Cheers

OK, thanks Sebastian.

malt is made from wheat, maltose is a sugar.

When people talk about adding malt to chocolate, are they referring to malt extract/powder or maltose? Is there a difference between the two in terms of making chocolate?

Vanillin is available in two types - ethyl and methyl. The ethyl version is much, much stronger than the methyl - so use it very, very judiciously. Assuming it's pure (which it may not be - it my have a very substantial amount of what's known as a carrier or bulking agent added to it - usually dextrose or maltodextrin - your supplier could tell you) - I'd say you're off by 2 orders of magnitude. Remember, it's easy to add more if you don't like it; it's awfully hard to take some out if you've overdone it.

I think malt makes for a wonderful addition to milk chocolate, by the way. I wish more used it, but it's wheat derived, so allergens play into things for most folks.

Sebastian, thanks for the response!

It was surprising to hear its use is driven by cost-saving purposes and that it is hard to grind. Either way I got some lactose (not sure if anhydrous or alpha monohydrate) and may get to do some tests on a home grinder. I would be more inclined to reduce sweetness than save costs.

Either way it is useful that it is not a key ingredient for 'better' chocolate in your own scale.

My next steps are:

Malt Extract -The latest test, which is in progress: to add dried malt extract at 2% of total weight. The extract itself is not especially tasty, but I guess it balances ok with vanilla.

Vanillin / Ethylvanillin - I read that a significative amount of vanillin is desirable for a swiss milk taste and it is not present on the beans themselves. I sourced vanillin and ethylvanillin - do you know which one is better for our purpose? I plan to mix vanillin (0.2 - 0.3% of total chocolate) with about (0.1% of the weight in real bean) - considering it is pure, is it too overpowering?

Lactose, by definition, is milk sugar. You can get it in two forms - anhydrous and alpha monohydrate.

It's far less sweet than sucrose (40% or so). It's much, much harder than sucrose (harder to mill). You willcertainlyget a sweetness reduction by using it, i'd not say you'd get an increased milkiness as a result. Historically, it's been added to help lower costs as it's less expensive than milk, and may be considered a milk ingredient in some countries (important distinction for standards of identity). You also may end up with a chocolate with a slightly harder texture as a result of it's use.

In my opinion, if used at the appropriate levels and in the appropriate process, you can produce a product that may be quite similar to your 'control'. I do not believe you'll make something that's better as a result. But 'better' is a tough thing to define 8-)

I have been getting encouraging results making milk chocolate and I'm looking to experiment with malt extract and possibly lactose.

Studying the ingredient list in several milk chocolates one can see lactose is sometimes included as in individual ingredient.Eg. see Lindt's Swiss Classic Milk Chocolate which lists sugar, cocoa butter, milk ingredients (?), cocoa mass, lactose, soya lecithin, barley malt extract, artifical flavor (?).

Does anyone know if milk chocolate has lactose added separately, in addition to that present in podered milk? If so, how much?

I am thinking it will contribute to less sweetness and added 'milky' flavor.

Thanks Kerry.

World Chocolate Master's rules - less than 50% can be sprayed.

I'm entering my first competition next week and my design has a lot of white in it - very little natural brown. The comp doesn't have written rules about the matter but I suspect there's a standard of when you've gone too far with color. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Thanks for your replies. Like I said it is not for me, just trying to assist someone who called me.

The fellow is in the NY area and I am in Redondo Beach. Don't know why he called me but nevertheless wanted to help.

Cheers!

Hi Jeffray,

A store recommended by Adam G on a similar thread seems to carry what they call 'authentic' jute bags:

http://www.cocoapodshop.com/products/Authentic-Jute-Sack.html

Hope it helps.

Talk to a warehouse at a receiving port. You'll not get new bags, but so what, they're made out of plants. They'll have them by the truckload.

I apologize in advance if this question has been asked previously. I had a person who called our company looking for jute bags. Unfortunately I had no extras tooffer him. Does anyone know of someone who has them.

Thanks very much,

Jeffray D. Gardner

Marsatta

Here is a link to that thread Sebastian mentioned - http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/105238-demo-making-chocolate-transfer-sheets/page__p__1443315__fromsearch__1#entry1443315

I've never been very impressed with the consumer grade food printers out there - if you look up some of the threads on the pastry and baking section of egullet, kerry has done some silkscreening of transfer sheets you might consider...

Hello All:

I have taken the Chocolatiers Workshop at Peters and have been tinkering perfecting my batches. I am interested in purchasing a food grade printer where I can make my own transfer sheets, does anyone have a recommendation as to quality of production and cost of use?

Thank you

Eric,

The webpage mentioned onyour blog is correct in some ways (chocolate's main stimulant is theobromine, not caffeine) but wrong in many other ways (chocolate does contain minimalamounts of caffeine, mateine in caffeine is NOT a stereoisomer of caffeine as that is chemically impossible, like saying the mirror image of a chair is totally different from the original chair) so take what it says with a grain of salt.

So the main stimulant inchocolate is theobromine, but not everyone responds to it as much as caffeine. In one study only 2 out of 20people could feel any difference from fakechocolate bars made with and without theobromine. It's more likely that the stimulant effect of mostchocolate comes from the sugar inchocolate bars (~30% in good darkchocolate and up to 50%or more in milkchocolate) and the other minor psychoactive compounds inchocolate like phenylethylamine (like the street drug MDMA), serotonin, cannabinoids, dopamine precursors, tryptamine, beta-carboline alkaloids, and more. So taking the caffeine and theobromine out ofchocolate may not really reduce it's stimulating effects,though it may helppeople who are alergic to these similar alkaloids.

Given that, it may be possible to decaffeinate and detheobrominate cacao using the standard water or dimethylchlorate techniquesthough I wonder if the fact that more of the flavor compounds in cacao are water soluble vs. the more oil soluble flavors of coffee, if these techniques based on the solvent's polarity would take out more of thecacao's flavor than just the caffeine & theobromine. It would take some seriousexperimenting!

-Nat

____________________________

Nat Bletter, PhD

Chocolate Flavormeister

Madre Chocolate

http://madrechocolate.com

I've been waiting all my life for someone, someone who nows how to make good chocolate to make caffein-free chocolate: http://daisybrain.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/free-ideas/

I think it would have a huge market for those who love the taste but can't do the caffein or for parents who want caffein-free chocolate treats for their kids. Am I crazy? What's the problem? It's my understanding that it would be as easy as decaffeinating coffee.

Marcus,

Perfect is Canadian. Not sure if they wire for Europe or not. There is a group buy in progress right now so you might want to look at the thread about that and contact Lana.

Here is a link to their website. Not easy to find!

http://www.perfectinc.com/

HI Daniel

Thanks so much for the info - I had not come across Perfect Equipment before. It's definitely well priced. I can't seem to find a website for them although I imagine they are US based, which is a downside, as I am based in the UK. I am now looking at some second hand prefamac machinery which I think may be the best option, working out cheaper than a new compact coater, esp when shipping is included.

Thanks again

Hi Marcus in previous threads, I have gone into detail about my enrobing system , Perfect Equipment's Compact Coater. I think this is a great system to get started with and at around $11-12k brand new, it is a very good deal. This machine works great for me and I am obsessive how my enrobed products turn out. The Prefamac and the Selmi are better machines; however, they are signifigantly more expensive. My plan is to continue using the Perfect Compact Coater and when I have the funds to upgrade, the Compact Coater will become a secondary machine. As for the Chocoma, I have not seen it in action so I cannot comment on it. Good luck!

Here is a link where I go in depth about the Perfect Enrober http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/what-s-your-dream-machine?commentId=1978963%3AComment%3A120724

Hey guys - thanks so much for all the responses and info.

I had heard of Selmi before, and having looked at the website they look like a classy act! I am sure their machines must be some of the best. However, the price for a simple tempering and enrobing set up would be almost double that compared to some of the other options. Keeping initial investment costs down is definitely a requirement for me as it stands.

@ Clay - thanks for the question. I think initially 50-60kg a day is more realistic, although I would hope that we will be producing volumes more like 100kg an hour in the near future. Investing in a machine with a larger capacity which allows us to grow I imagine would be more sensible than having a smaller a machine that we may soon grow out of?? Maybe I wrong however. As far as I have seen also, most of the basic tempering and enrobing options, apart from FBM and Hilliards, only come with tempering bowls around the size of 25kg and above, and they cost the same as amount as the smaller machines offered by FBM and Hilliards.

In terms of price and size the Prefamac and Chocoma seem like the best options? However, as I mentioned, I have no experience with any of these machines so I could be making some very poor assumptions!!

Once again, many thanks for your help!!

Marcus:

When you say "small scale" enrobing, what kind of throughput are you talking about? Some of the systems that support enrobing lines have large (25kg) work bowls with a nominal throughput of up to 100kg an hour (if you have a supply of melted chocolate on hand to re-fill the work bowl).

If you're only going through 50-60kg a day, 100kg per hr might be way more than you need to invest in right now.

So - knowing what "small scale" means (and what your budget is) will help us understand how to answer this question.

:: Clay

Marcus

I would look at the Selmi equipment as well as some of the ones you have listed. They provide the versatility you discuss. Let me know if you have additional questions about Selmi.

brian

i have used chocoma andselmi i likeselmi's as they areportable and easy to workwith the chocoma i worked with was a very old one much older then the one you are looking at

Dear Fellow Chocolate Folks

My brother and I are in the beginning phases of setting up a small chocolate business, initially focusing on created enrobed chocolate bars (ie candy bars). Does anyone have any relevant experience with the different selection of brands/machines available for small scale enrobing?

Top of the list at the moment is the ChocoMa E220, however I am aware that Prefamac, FBM, Hilliards and some others offer tempering and enrobing units for similar prices. (We're ideally looking for a machine which will enable us to make chocolate moulds as well). A machine which can keep chocolate at the right temper for prolonged periods which be an advantage I am imagining.

Anyway, I am really a bit of a novice, having no experience using any of these machines, so I wonder if there are any folks wiser than myself who could offer a few tips of wisdom!!

Many thanks

Marcus