Forum Activity for @Jessica Conrad

Benoît Nihant Chocolatier goes "Bean to Bar"

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Can't wait to try it!

Benoît Nihant Chocolatier goes "Bean to Bar"

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Good luck!

Benoît Nihant Chocolatier goes "Bean to Bar"

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Congratulations!I would love to taste your chocolate! You can put me on the order list And of course visit "the factory" sometime! Did you know Kees Raat, a famous Dutch chocolatier, also bought equipment? Chocolove, Vera

Benoît Nihant Chocolatier goes "Bean to Bar"

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Best of luck in your new venture. It is indeed an exciting and very different world than being a fondeur.

I'll be in Belgium in September and would love to drop by.

Benoît Nihant Chocolatier goes "Bean to Bar"

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Very exciting. Look forward to stopping in and tasting your creations!

Benoît Nihant Chocolatier goes "Bean to Bar"

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

well done and congratulation!!! i also just did the "big step" and you will see how exciting it is!

a new world of possibilities has open to me and you will spend so much time in research, blending, roasting in different levels.

Being "the master of your own disasters" is actually really cool....

keep posted, we might share experience and knowledge..

Nino

Benoît Nihant Chocolatier goes "Bean to Bar"

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

It is the certainly one of the most exciting steps in my chocolate life: I am now producing my own chocolate from fantastic beans! Only Giants like Callebaut and Marcolini ( aka Nestle) do it in Belgium. I am then proud to say that we are the only belgian craftsman to work from the bean!

..more to come in the following weeks, including a new experimental website!

updated by @Benoit N: 04/12/15 10:16:37

Salon du Chocolat Paris, oktober 20th - 24th

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

possibly, haven't decided yet. it's smack in the midst of mid / main crop flow (depending on where in the world you are) - so need to keep that in mind..

Salon du Chocolat Paris, oktober 20th - 24th

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Anybody from this site who will be in Paris for the Salon du chocolat?

This year it will be from 20th to 24th of oktober.

http://www.salonduchocolat.fr/(S(rddtfh4h43tlswzkxnsspctb))/accueil.aspx

updated by @Davy Asnong: 04/10/15 12:43:32

Does any ChocolateLife member own a Cacao Cucina Roaster? Questions about ...

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

www.sevvalmakine.com

Does any ChocolateLife member own a Cacao Cucina Roaster? Questions about ...

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

If any ChocolateLife member owns a Cacao Cucina roaster, I am interested in getting

1. overall impressions of your experience with them
2. the dimensions (length and diameter) of the drum

Thanks,
:: Clay

updated by @Clay Gordon: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Adventures with Colored Cocoa Butter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Very simple, if it stuck to the mold, it was not tempered. It is the cocoa butter in fact in all chocolate that requires the tempering. Cocoa is a very complex fat. Tempering in a bottle, is not really a well recognized method, although it can be done if you have enough experience to understand when and how to get the mixture tempered.
Cocoa butter on it's own actually will temper at a lower temperature than chocolate, and become very foggy in color as it crystalized, so with food color added this makes it even harder to tell when tempered. Remember, tempering basics, always....time, temperature, movement.
Always be an expert at tempering when using any cocoa buttter based product and once that skill is mastered you set, along with your chocolate creation.

Adventures with Colored Cocoa Butter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Along with watching the temper of your cocoa butter, also look at the temperature of your molds. Try to warm them up to within adegrees or two of your temper. If too cold, even a good temper can be ruined, especially since you have a thin coat.

When tempering cocoa butter watch the temperature. For chocolates, rule of thumb is the more other fats/oils in the chocolate, the lower the tempering temperature, with dark being higher than milk, and milk higher than white. A gianduja tempers down to room temp. You would think then that pure cocoa butter would be the highest, but it's lower. Reason here isyou can't just look at the fat(s) in your system, but other solids. With pure cocoa butter you don't have the sugar/cocoa particulates to help induce seeding.

I've had a lot of luck using your "shake it in the bottle" tempering. I warm the bottle in hot water until about half is melted. This works better than a microwave since hot water melts outside to in, leaving center cool and hard.I getthe melted portionto about 105F, but stillthat solid center. Then I shake it until the solid center cools down the melted portion to tempering temp. The seed coming from the unmelted center. Didn't take much practice to get it working consistent.

Adventures with Colored Cocoa Butter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

There could be a couple of of problems here. The splatters of cocoa butter might be too thick. Your molds would release without problems in the areas with it is not too thick. Your cocoa butter may be out of temper. If you melted all of the cocoa butter out (with nothing solid left in the container) it could be out of temper and simply shaking it will not temper it. If it is all melted out you need to re-temper as you would chocolate. Also, remember that, like chocolate,cocoa buttercan be over tempered (over crystalized). I am no expert in working with colored cocoa butter but keep practicing and you'll figure out what methods work best for you.

Adventures with Colored Cocoa Butter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thank you everyone for your comments. I'm not certain what the temperature of the cocoa butter was, I warmed the bottle and shook it up to "temper it." The cocoa butter solidified in the mold after about 15 minutes, then I poured 32C tempered dark chocolate into the mold.

Could the colored cocoa butter be out of temper? I didn't have a problem with it before, so I'm wondering if somewhere along the way, all the continued melting and shaking of the cocoa butter bottle has brought it out of temper?

Although, if the cocoa butter is out of temper, I don't know why most of it releases without a problem. Seems like if it is not in temper, then none of it should release.

Adventures with Colored Cocoa Butter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

firstly, cocoa butter must be tempered before splattered.

This might work: pour a little bit of chocolate in the mold, tap it/vibrate until every pcs has a a thin layer of chocolate in it. Then mold the rest of the chocolate. The chocolate might be too cold too.

Adventures with Colored Cocoa Butter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

What temp is your cocoa butter when you are splattering it? It looks like it might not be warm enough.

Adventures with Colored Cocoa Butter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques


updated by @Robby Booth: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hai Dragane.

Dali si jos u potrbi informacia.To nije tako tesko.samo ne znam koliko mislis da proizvodis.Mozes mi se javiti na pmiladinovic@yahoo.com.bilo bi mi drago da ti pomognem.

Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi everyone!

My name is Dragan, I am from Serbia (southeast Europe) and I would like to start small-scale production of chocolate dipped pretzel rods. I have to organize production of pretzel rods, since it can' be bought here, as well as dipping process which puts me in rather difficult position because I am not professional baker nor candy maker. I would try to use some homemade equipment for manufacturing pretzel rods (dough extruder, lye bath). In the beginning I would apply hand chocolate dipping. Major part of the pretzel rods would be dipped in cocoa coating which doesn't require tempering. For small part of production I would temper chocolate by the seeding method. Cooling of the chocolate dipped pretzel rods would be in the cold room with portable a/c.

Planned daily output is in range of 100kg (about 220lbs).

Please, if anyone has some advice regarding best recept for pretzel dough, dough extrusion method, baking process, process of chocolate dipping, cooling after dipping, storage, method for extension of the shelf life etc.

Thanks

Dragan

updated by @Dragan: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Your final texture or firmness (i.e. stability)of your ganache should be a reflection of the ratio of cream to chocolate as opposed to tempered versus untempered chocolate. Your final product may be a little more firm using tempered chocolate but that is something you can experiment with to see what you prefer. Personally I'd give it a shot with untempered chocolate and see what happens. I do the same as you and melt the chocolate with the heated cream and it saves me from tempering more chocolate (I temper by hand since I don't have a tempering machine)

I am guessing that the room temperature butter should be added to the ganache as the last ingredient and once the ganache as cooled enough that the temperature of the chocolate is not melting the butter but only incorporating it. Think about when you make chocolate chip cookies. The butter is added to the recipe softened but not melted. If you added melted butter to the recipe your final texture of the cookies would be different- it is kind of the same concept here.

Take care,

Andrea

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Andrea, that is an interesting aside!! I usually just use hot cream to melt my chocolate and use that -- untempered!-- and it has never broken... I decided to use tempered chocolate for the same reason you did (someone swore by it), and this is when I encountered problems. I would happily go back to using untempered chocolate in my ganache but I am wondering if this will effect the truffles' stability when they are not refrigerated. What is your experience with that? I am looking to make truffles that can be stored in a cool place, but don't have to be refrigerated.

Also, If i continue trying to use the tempered chocolate in the ganache, what order would you do things in? I'm particularly interested in when you would add the butter.

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi Katie,

I do think the butter mixture was way too hot. Definitely cool it down into the low-to-mid 80's before adding it.

Do you mean you are planning to add the room temp butter to the cream instead of the the chocolate? If so, then I would not do that. Adding things at different times and temps can affect the texture and mouth feelof the final product. Also, make sure the butter reallyis at room temp before adding it.

Also, this is just a funny FYI. A few months back I was at a class where they were talking about ganache and the problems one can encounter (i.e. broken ganache, too hard, too soft, etc) and I commented that I had never had a broken ganache before. Well, I cursed myself... just about every ganache I made for that class broke and had to be repaired! It was interesting because I typically do not use tempered chocolate for my ganache and this instructor swears by it. He thinks the texture of the ganache using tempered chocolate is better over the life of the product. I have tested this notion (strictly on myself)and actually found that I prefer ganache made with untempered chocolate no matter when it is in it's life (i.e 1st day it is made versus 2-3 weeks old).I have taken recipes that call for tempered chocolate and just used melted chocolate with no discernable difference in the end - of course I make bonbons and don't usually slab my ganache. Just something for you to think about and maybe test for yourself in the future. I hope your next attempt with this ganache goes well. Let us know...

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

awesome, thanks Andrea! I will definitely whisk tonight.

As for the temperature issue, do you agree that the honey/cream mixture needed to be cooler? Also, my plan is to melt the butter right into the cream mixture. Do you think that is a smart plan?

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Grainy ganache and oil leaking out in a fewspots- sounds like your ganache was broken before it was poured into your frame. Did it have a sheen to it before it was poured? Did it look like therewas oil that was not incorporated? This could be related to the temperatures at which you added various ingredients or even the stirring technique (I've seen 2 people make the same exact ganache next to each other - one used a whisk and one used a spatula - the whisked ganache turned out perfect and the one made with the spatula was broken). Broken ganaches can usuallybe fixed - do a search online for suggestions on how to do this or look in Wybauw's books. Sometimes a broken ganache can be fixed by adding a little bit of liquid (usually alcohol) or by incorporating additional ganache that is not broken.

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thank you all for the tips! Sorry for my late reply -- computer out of commission. I am going to use all of these tips slowly but surely and hopefully the will fix my issues.

I'm still freaked about the grainy ganache -- I'm hoping adding the butter at a different time, cooling the cream more and mixing with a little more vigor will do the trick! I will try this all tomorrow night.

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I use parchment paper when I slab truffles. No problem with release once the ganache sets.

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Here's my two cents, would love to hear anyone else's technique as well...

1. you need a spreader that is just a bit wider than your entire slab, so that you can run it flush on top of the ganache frame and even out the thickness in one sweep (or several). It helps to have a little bit more ganache than what fits in the frame so that as you hit the edge, the whole top surface remains flush and you remove any extra as you hit the end of the frame.

2. not mixed well enough? not tempered? not firm enough? could be a number of things. i've had this problem too, but usually when the ganache is too soft. also, your ambient temperature needs to be just right (65f-69f) seems to work best, firm enough for it to hold together, soft enough to cut on a guitar without breaking strings.

3. maybe improperly tempered...fats will separate out if the ganache is not properly tempered (and the chocolate within) which leads me to 4.

4. I would say the 105 honey/butter mix is way too hot, should be more like 86F or so when adding, that could throw off any of the good crystals in your butter/chocolate mix if the quantity was big enough. The sequence seems kind of odd to me too-most ganaches using butter and another sweetener (honey, fondant, glucose, invert sugar) are processed by first mixing together the butter and sweetener, then adding the chocolate. You might try just combining all the butter and honey first without heating it (at room temp) then adding in the chocolate. Your mileage may vary but I think that's a better route to try.

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi Katie,

For your releasing issues...have you tried putting saran wrap inside the frame? I put the frame on a tray, then put saran wrap over the frame so it hangs over the side of the frame. Then I pour the ganache onto the saran wrap in the frame and tap the whole thing on the counter so that it evens out. When the ganache is set, I put the cutting board on top of the frame and flip it upside down. Now the side of the ganache with the saran wrap is on top and all I do is peal off the saran wrap. So far, I haven't had anything stick...just a few wrinkles from the saran wrap that I smooth out with a flat spatula.

Slab truffle issues

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi there -- This weekend I made slab/cut style truffles rather than the traditional round style I am used to and I ran into a few issues that I'm hoping you veterans might be able to help with.

1) I had varying thicknesses in different parts of the slab. I know they sell vibrating tables to ultimately fix this problem, but I'm wondering if there is a technique that I could try that might be a hair cheaper. My current "technique" (ha) is to just pour the ganache into my frame and spread it around the best I can with an offset spatula.

2) I had releasing issues. I made my frame out of some metal bars I found at Lowe's based on a post I saw at egullet, and as it noted in the post, I put them right on my Silpat. It molded beautifully, no leaks, but after taking the bars off, brushing on some tempered chocolate and flipping the whole thing to get it ganache side up for cutting, I went to pull the Silpat off and in a few spots it stuck and broke. I'm wondering if I needed to 1) let the ganache crystalize further (mine was about 18 hours old), 2) coat the Silpat with tempered chocolate first (I know this helps releasing from silicone molds), 3) put the whole slab in the fridge for a few minutes before flipping. 4) something else.

3) Some tiny cracks and pin holes formed on maybe 6 of the truffles and something oily oozed out. I'm guessing that is just liquified cocoa butter. It isn't a huge deal, but I'd like to avoid this. Any thoughts on what happened?

4) Slightly grainy ganache. I don't think this has anything to do with the shape of the truffles, but the recipe. I used a new recipe that called for tempered chocolate, cream, butter, and honey. Room temperature butter thoroughly worked into tempered chocolate. Butter and honey scalded together, cooled to 105, and then added all at once to the chocolate/butter mixture. My guess is that it was adding the butter to the tempered chocolate directly (generally I put it with the cream) or the fact that I did not incorporate everything fully enough. I just read something scary that said too much air whipping into ganache dramatically reduces shelf life, so I was probably a little stingy with the stirring.

I know this is a boatload of questions. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

updated by @Katie Perry: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Thanks for the warning. I found a couple of references to grinding and roasting (and smoking) which I presume is a translation error.

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Hi Ice Blocks,

Yes, the mamey seeds have to be carefully roasted to detoxify them of the cyanide that makes them smell so wonderfully almondy. Mexicans and Guatemalans do this differently but both involve some combo of roasting, drying, and boiling that we're still getting the hang of. Because of the cyanogenic compounds, I wouldn't want to adviseyou incorrectly how to do this. Get a book like Diana Kennedy's Oaxaca al Gusto for detailed directions.

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Any idea how they prepare pixtle or the seed of the mamey sapote?

I have two Mamey Sapote trees growing in the garden and have never tried to eat theseeds.

The flesh is wonderful.

The seeds are quite large and have a thick black shiny case. I presume they are roasted?

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

I live in Oaxaca city and would love to know about your trip here. Can you recommend some places to visit. think we can put a tour together? I do gardening tours and general tours now but chocolate is my passion.

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

great post! lots of amaranth here too and the wonderful amaranth popcorn too!

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

What a great post. Makes me want to go off & explore the world of Cocao!

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

An update on Dave & Nat's research forMadre Chocolate in Oaxaca, Mexico....

After the success of finding exactly the right delicious cacao in Xoconusco, Chiapas to make you all hundreds of bars of Royal Aztec Chocolate, our trip to Oaxaca state was an even bigger success, where we located great sources for Vanilla from its geographic origins in Chinantla, Rosita de Cacao flowers and the foamed chocolate drink Tejate they are used to make, tons of nifty molinillo foaming sticks, plumeria flower infused bupu foamed drinks in Juchitan, and plenty of other chocolate drinks and preparations wherever we turned. As soon as you enter Oaxaca city you are struck by the wonderful rich smell of chocolate drinks like champurrado , mole vendors in each market, and cacao grinders on practically every corner, grinding up ingredients for chocolate recipes to your specifications. Though there is almost no cacao grown in Oaxaca state, this is truly the Mecca for traditional chocolate use and where the idea for starting Madre Chocolate was sparked.

The most common form in which you see chocolate in Oaxaca is in mole . There are many kinds of mole (at least 8 in Oaxaca alone) with different colors, spices, and bases, but the one most known outside of Mexico and the one with chocolate, mole poblano meaning it is a mole that comes from the state of Puebla. It usually has roasted chilis, roastedpumpkin seeds, tomatoes, raisins, almonds, garlic, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, and many other indigenous Mexican spices. To make a mole base, you can spend hours toasting, peeling, and grinding cacao and other spices or you can go to one of the plethora of these cacao grinding shops:

Where you can just tell them what amounts of cacao, cinnamon, cloves, and almonds you want ground together and they'll do it for you in a few minutes for a tiny charge. The Soledad shop I talked to said they grind about 400 lbs a week on their machines and they have to redress the grinding stones each week! The smell in these shops is absolutely heavenly for any chocophile, and you can get plenty of chocolate drink bases (with the rich cocoa butter still in there, not just cocoa powder) to satisfy your chocolate cravings by making something like this excellent champurrado with corn, water, and loads of rich chocolate:

Another part of our chocolate that was inspired by Oaxaca aside from the company idea was our Amaranth Crunch bar, based on the Alegria bars that are easily found in any market or street corner vendors. Alegrias are like rice crispy treats made most commonly from the popped healthy supergrain amaranth mixed with honey but also can be found made from pumpkin seeds, puffed corn, sesame seeds, peanuts, or a blend of all the above. Collect the whole set like we did pictured here in a small market in SE Oaxaca city in front of a tasty glass of horchata, a delicious and refreshing drink made from rice milk, almonds and cinnamon.

When Dave was living in Oaxaca last year he so loved snacking on the healthy & tasty amaranth alegrias that he was decided we just had to make a chocolate bar with the popped amaranth. Amaranth is the north American relative of quinoa, both supergrains in the spinach and beet family that have a complete set of amino acids, unlike regular grains like rice, corn, and wheat in the grass family which need to be mixed with legumes to have a complete set of Amina acids. Because of its nutritiousness, amaranth was a staple crop of the Aztecs that the Spanish conquistadors unfortunately outlawed since they thought its use in making temple sculptures was sacrilegious. This outlawing of their staple food possibly contributed to the downfall of the Aztecs and its use and growth now are supposedly at about 1/10th the levels at the height of the Aztec empire! We met the great group Puente de la Salud Comunitaria who are working in Oaxaca to encourage the replanting and use of this great food. It's a beautiful ornamental to boot that grows easily intemperate North America, Hawaii, andMexico (as pictured here at the gorgeous lush Oaxaca ethnobotanical garden).

TheOaxaca ethnobotanical garden is the only solely ethnobotanical garden we've ever seen or heard of in the world and it's a stunning celebration of all food, medicinal, dye, and psychoactive plants of the West Coast of Mexico. Another plan that was great to see there was the rosita de cacao, flor de cacao, cacahuaxochitl, or poyomatli , an incredibly heady smelling flower said to be redolent of maple syrup, fenugreek, and curry. Here a vendor in the vast Abastos market sells rosita de cacao along with several of the other spices used to make the delicious foamed drink tejate , like pixtle or the seed of the mamey sapote fruit, cloves, jaguar cacao, and regular cacao:

Just around the corner from the spice and flower vendors, you can find women selling the white foamy tejate, which theyve been mixing and foaming all day with sticks or tools called molinillo (little grinder) that are like low-tech hand blenders and were introduced by the Spaniards centuries ago where they quickly supplanted the Mayan foaming technique of pouring back and forth between to vessels from a height of several feet. The molinillos you can find in Abastos market as well, in nearly a million sizes and configurations:

The foam stirred up by the molinillo comes from the combination of the fat from the cacao beans, calcified jaguar cacao, and some of the spices. This foam is what most people in Mexico enjoy most about chocolate drinks. When you are served this drink in the beautiful jicara (painted calabash fruit shells) you can see at this vendors stand, you actually mainly get a bowl of foam that you eat with a spoon, not a liquid. I like to say that the indigenous Mesoamericans were making high-tech foams with keen plant chemistry thousands of years before the new rash of molecular gastronomists like Ferran Adria and Grant Achatz, who are obsessed with foams, were even born. This white foamy drink is a bit chalky at first from the calcified jaguar cacao, but the flavor and aroma are so addictive that you find yourself craving this foam that is like breathing in chocolate laced with the beautiful scent of the Oaxacan air.

These great flavor combinations and spices unknown outside of this area of Mexico are what we are trying to bring to the rest of the world with chocolate bars like our rosita de cacao bar made with Xoconusco cacao. With all of your incredible help backing us and spreading the word, weve gotten over halfway to our $15,000 project funding goal in just 1/2 the time allotted. Wed love it if you could continue to tell your friends, family, and coworkers who lovedeliciousartisanal chocolate or like supporting organic farmers about our project so we can make the final push to fund our project before the deadline in 20 days and get all those chocolate bar rewards out to you!

In our next update wellcover the last part of Oaxaca- Juchitan where they make the mythical bu'pu chocolate drink with the super fragrant plumeria or flor de mayo flower, commonly found in Hawaii leis, and how our Xoconusco chocolate with rosita de cacao was a smash hit at the Fine Chocolate Industry Association meeting in Washington DC last weekend. Stay tuned for more great updates!

updated by @Nat: 04/09/15 04:28:40

CocoaT roaster?

Posted in: Opinion

Thanks for a great discussion everyone, so helpful to have these topics available for browsing!

Allison

CocoaT roaster?

Posted in: Opinion

Hi Holly,

I have never hear CocoaTown Roasters but I can offer our roasters for cocoa roasting http://www.coffeenutsroasters.com/product-groups/1001/coffee-roasters.aspx

Our customer in S.Africa Cocoa Fair using our roaster I sqaw nice comments from them in this forum.

If you contact with us we can give offer.

CocoaT roaster?

Posted in: Opinion

Hi Brad

We have been struggling to find the right roasting method. We have tried coffee roasters and convection ovens. We like the idea of the convection ovens but have had too much temperature fluctuation with the ovens we have tried.

What type of oven do you use?

Do you need to stir or rotate the sheets during the roast. And if so how often?

Would you get the same oven again, if you were purchasing it again?

Thanks for your input.

CocoaT roaster?

Posted in: Opinion

Thanks for the info

Yes the turbo seem to be a good oven and they do heat up fast. I've used them before in a couple of restaurants I've worked at. The fan was a little over powering as it would blow the tops off some of my macaroons and other things, but I'm guessing that's a good thing when roasting cocoa beans.

CocoaT roaster?

Posted in: Opinion

Rochelle:

I recommended, for a client, a Moffat Turbofan D25. The D25 (not sure about the (D24) can be plumbed so you can inject steam into the cavity during roasting. Salmonella (in particular) can survive longer in dry environments than they can in moist ones.

Though getting the beans hot and keeping them there should kill all pathogens there has to be a reason why virtually every major chocolate manufacturer has a sanitization step the includes steam. There's no reason not to be err on the side of caution and food safety. Pressing the steam button for five seconds at least two or three times during a roast should be enough. If you are taking the pans out and rotating them (not a bad idea, along with shaking them, too), then do the steam after each turn.

The Moffats are good ovens and they quickly recover temperature after opening the doors.

Looking at the replies to the post, if Sebastian gives it a thumbs up then I would pay very close attention.