Forum Activity for @Brad Churchill

The problem in this case has nothing to do with mold temperature, or fridge temperature, or even humidity.  It has to do with the type of crystal the cocoa butter has formed in the tempering cycle.

I've seen this happen many times when I'm teaching a new employee to temper chocolate.  They go through the tempering cycle too quickly, and then bar up the chocolate.  The bars at first come out of the cooler with a super nice shine, but within 24 hours, the inside of the bar turns all grainy, and eventually all look exactly like the photo.

Solving this problem is very simple.  When taking the chocolate through it's tempering cycle either:

1. Lower the cooling temperature a couple of degrees (allowing more crystal propogation)or
2. Let the chocolate remain at the cooling temperature for a longer period of time.

The problem you are having is that you are not allowing enough time for the appropriate types of crystals to propogate, BEFORE you reheat yoru chocolate to the working temperature to mold up your bars.

You also need to remember that when working with different kinds of beans and making single source varieties of chocolate, the cocoa butter in each will exhibit different behaviours, and will temper slightly differently from the others.  The tempering cycle is more of a "rule of thumb" for tempering all chocolate, but with experience, you will see that each chocolate you make will temper slightly differently.  It's not something you can just apply a boiler plate heat/cool/reheat cycle to (although for small batches you will get VERY close).

I hope this helps.

Cheers and Happy Chocolate Making!

Brad

I am able to find sources for milk chocolate truffle shells but want I really want is the shape of somethign like the cherry cordial.

This way I can place the fruit and fondant in and seal the bottom. The truffle shells have I think too small of a hole from what I can see int he pictures.

I could mold these myself, but at this point in time, I want to make a large batch with minimal effort.

So, if you know of any sources that would be great.

Thanks,

Joe C.

(1) Savage Bros- 125lb/55kg, chocolate melter/tempering unit $5,500

(1) Cotton Candy machine- Econo Floss $350

(1) Sephra chocolate fountain- 34in commercial, $2200 

(1) 6ft Federal chocolate case- FCCR-6, 72in/ Black and silver display- LED lights $6000

    Climate Controlled & Humidity Controlled,  

(1) 4ft Federal chocolate case FCC-4 $3800

138 polycarbonate chocolate molds- (all shapes and sizes) $1,932 = 14.00ea

(3)  Double sided Easter egg molds- 10in mold $150= $50ea

(1) Extra Large Easter mold- Great for display creations! $100

(1) turbo air- under counter- 2 door freezer. $900

(1) M3 Turbo Air –single door freezer, Sub Zero $900

180 -Grape wine hangers boxes (includes candy trays) $90 = .55ea

110 -white wine hangers boxes  $55 = .55ea

185 -white window baliton box $55.50= .30ea

30 – 4in square white box $2

475 -brown macaroon trays, 4pc $52.25= .11ea

22- bunny boxes $30.8= 1.40ea

23- egg boxes $25.3 = 1.10ea

26- 18pc red truffle box, (Chocolat’ Chocolat’ box) $59.80= 2.30ea

11- pink  truffle box- can be used as a 9pc or 16pc , (Chocolat’ Chocolat’ box) $14.85=1.35ea

149- sm clear heart boxes- 4pc truffle $111.75 =.75ea

750- pretzel bags - 3”x11” bag $22.50= .03ea

200- candy pads $15.00= .07ea

125- candy signs $312.50= 2.50ea

10- silver heart boxes $10.0= 1.00ea

4- flower buckets $4.00 = 1.00ea

20- lg pink and brown striped window box $25= 1.25ea

925- 5pc clear box $462= .50ea

100- spools of ribbon $200= 2.00ea

90- white gable boxes $40.50= .45ea

240- clear cylinders 4x4in $120= .50ea

400-black balliton boxes  $120= .30ea

3- hot chocolate dispensers $75= 25.00ea

300- chocolate spoon sticks $9= .03ea

75- kraft boxes- 12pc truffles $26.25= .35

30- holiday boxes 24pc truffle $45= 1.5ea

75- red window box , (holds a standard 9pc or 16pc tray) 93.75= 1.25ea

150-  red window box- 4pc $112= .75ea

1850 gold stretch bows $55.50= .03ea

70-pull bows $17.50= .25ea

150- business card chocolate boxes $30= .20ea

550- 2pc white boxes  $99= .18ea

18,000- brown candy cups $48= .002ea

50- gold trays, 4pc $5.50 = .11ea

75- black balliton boxes- 1/2lb $22.5.=.30ea

250- 9pc trays brown $30= .12ea

250- 16pc trays brown $30= .12ea

100- black balliton boxes-1lb  $30= .30ea

26- sm pink & brown $19.5= .75ea

30- gift baskets- assorted sizes $30=  1.00ea

3- feximat baking sheets  $225= 75ea

1200- clear wedding favor box- 4pc truffle  $600= .50

100- clear cylinders 2in x 6in $ 50.00= .50ea

500- clear 7pc truffle boxes $250= .50ea

1,000- clear 3pc truffle boxes $500= .50

200- burgundy boxes- 4pc truffle $100= .50

80- lg gift basket boxes $45= .45ea

40- sm gift basket boxes $18= .45ea

175- XL red window box $218.75= 1.25ea

10- plastic case trays $20= 2.00ea

150- brown bags $22.50= .15ea

6- steel tables  $600= 100ea

3 part chocolate warmer $150

150 shipping Ice packs $90= .75ea

 I will separate or as a complete package. Let me know your interest

Ph# 239-980-9753 Call or Text

Email: jschaffer@irresistibleconfections.com

Justin 

This has been fascinating and I've learned so much from this one thread. And for all the technical conversation, I'm getting that two things may be happening with Alain's chocolate:

• His molds may be too warm when he pours the chocolate in them, which is likely because it is hot in the Domincan Republic and that is where he is making the chocolate. (Peter, I had never known about this, or thought about it, but it makes so much sense - thanks for the info!)
• The fridge often has too much moisture. When chocolate is placed in the fridge during a humid season, it only makes the situation worse.  You can only use the fridge for short periods of time to shrink the chocolate and release it without spots, or moisture will accumulate and the chocolate becomes 'sticky', then bloom happens when it dries. But sometimes, if humid & hot weather, the fridge is not an option at all for me (I realize in Canada that I only have a 2-month window for this to be a problem  )

Hopefully you can solve your tempering troubles soon Alain!

so, i just looked around zürich and found some chocolate stores. Mostly Sprüngli stores but also Läderach, Teuscher and Vollenweider. Sprüngli has a big Shop in the Center at Bahnhofstraße with a cafe on the first floor.

like the other answers , the ganache is evidently too cold and, in my own experience, too soft. I have a rhubarb ganache that was really soft at room temperature so I froze it to be able to scoop it. I refroze the balls and dipped them in untempered chocolate as a first coat , the second,tempered, layer I did the following day having stored them at room temperature and one or two out of 50 bonbons cracked. I adjusted the ratio of chocolate to make it firmer and they no longer crack. I'm no physicist but the combination of freezing and lower viscosity seems to do it because I have soft filled molded pieces and they never crack or leak.... 

Hello Vera. We got the Papua Kerafat, Beni Wild Harvest & Piura Porcelana. And we're happy to sell them.

Recognized your name also from your commentary on the Tibor Szántó bars on the chocoweb-site

Nice to hear from you !

The speed you cool the chocolate is key to keeping in temper.  When the chocolate is tempered, only ~3-5% of the cocoa butter is crystallized.  Doesn't sound like much until you realize shortening is only about 15%.  If these seed crystals are small and well dispersed you're at ideal temper.  When cooling you want it to be gradual enough to pull the heat created with further crystallization and slowly cool.  If it cools too quickly it will start forming unwanted crystals, typically type IV, causing early fat bloom.  Once set you gradually warm back to room temperature.  Sugar bloom is initiated when the surface temperature of the chocolate is below the dew point temperature for the room.  You see it on the surface of a glass of ice water.  This moisture formed will start to dissolve the sugars.  One percent moisture will create three percent syrup.  This surface syrup then dries out and crystallizes, giving you the sugar bloom.

I'm commenting on this thread b/c I think we have a similar problem (our exterior environment is not as humid right now (in a few months it will be high) but still perhaps too much & too high of room temp.) For our last few batches (and after reading this as well as other sources), I believe we have lots of sugar bloom - white dots, tackiness, and crumbliness. We've been following the practice of putting the moulds into the fridge to "set" the crystals in the chocolate. Is this the best practice to use in the first place? However, I do think it is when we take it out of the fridge to room temperature (70F) that the problem arises. Would 65F room temp be reasonably low enough for the moulds & chocolate to come back up gradually? Or, could we leave the moulds out at that or another temperature and avoid the fridge all together?

I accidentally added an extra 75% cream than what was called for to a caramel I made recently.  While texturally it seems fine right now, I wonder if there might be any negative impact in the shelf life?  Perhaps it will just have better, richer taste?  Better 'stand up' quallity?  Would you use it?  Thanks!

Hi Joe,

Thank you for sharing your formula, i will have to try it tomorrow and let you know how i like it. 

Maybe its done that way commercially by the big guys because its easier for foil wrapping machines to fold against a flat back? And then its just become the norm - no idea.

But its a valid point.

Hi Clay - great site and thanks for all your work to get it running and with your troubleshooting.

A couple of things I've noticed about the Groups:

1: as Ben mentions above, the discussion threads are sorted by Start Date rather than Last Contribution Date.

2: I don't seem to be getting e-mail notifications for new Group discussion threads when they are started like I did with the old site (I've tried looking through my profile to make sure everything is set to send me e-mails, but maybe I've missed some notification setting).

I've never understood why almost everyone does this. Utterly weird.

Hi Clay, 

I just noticed something when doing a search. I did a search on 'pricing' looking for an old thread to send to a friend and several of the results didn't display a title or link. So, it was impossible to actually click through to the thread.

There are a couple on the third page of results:

https://www.thechocolatelife.com/search/results/jrForum/3/10/search_string=pricing

There's one by me and one further down by Matt Caputo that aren't working. There's also one on the second page of results.

Thanks,
Ben

May I ask why dextrose is used in your recipe? I've not used it before and just curious.

Thanks

Hi Paul & Emma, thanks for selling Original Beans Chocolove, Vera

Hello, we are paul & emma and we are Chocoladeverkopers - dutch for chocolatesellers. We started last november selling chocolates in our own part of a store in a lovely street in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

We sell dark bars by amongst others Marou, Chocolatemakers, Tibor Szántó & Original Beans. We started our little business because we love dark chocolates and because we want to make the world a tiny bit better. That's why we only want to sell bars we like ourselves, we prefer bars that are made by companies who think carefully about what they do and their impact on the world. Also, we get all our bars by bicycle (currently from Amsterdam, Wageningen & Heteren).

We really have a lot to learn, and i think this site is one of the good places for that - that is the main reason to make an account here. 

Thanks for your attention & wishing you all the best in your chocolate adventures,

Paul & Emma

www.chocoladeverkopers.nl

facebook.com/chocoladeverkopers

You mention that they develop a powdery texture, and that you have high humidity.  Look for sugar bloom.  When you hold the bar, does the bloom remelt or remain, and when tasting the surface is it the dry powder you describe.  To prevent, after you cool the chocolate, let rewarm gradually, keeping product above the dew point for room conditions.  It doesn't take much moisture to condense on the surface to cause the problem.

thank you all are very friendly and I wish them well and many positive vibes!

gracias muchas!

shopmodpac.com

Thanks Sebastian. I will look for a set screw refrig.

The issue i suspect you're having is one of sugar bloom, and that results from condensation.  You get condensation when something cold runs into warm air (warm air contains more water than cold air) - and when the warm, wet air hits the cold chocolate, that decrease in air temperature means the air can't hold the excess moisture, and it promptly deposits itself on your bar.  When it does so, it dissolves some sugar in your chocolate, and then it eventually evaporates and leaves behind the dissolved sugar that looks now like white film.

Your typical consumer fridges have thermostats that aren' meant to go as high as 55 - some models have a cowling that, if you remove the cover, there's a set screw that you can turn to further adjust the range of the condensing unit to enable it to achieve warmer temperatures - its a trial and error thing as there's no gradations on the set screw (and not all modesl have it) - you just have to turn it, put a thermometer in there and read it 4 hours later to see what's happened.  If yours has the set screw, it's the least expensive way to modify your fridge.  If not,  you can replace the thermostat - it's not hard to do, but not everyone's comfortable cutting wires.

A very helpful tool for managing condensation is a psychrometric chart - big scary word, the chart itself is also scary looking, but once you understand how to read it, will help you understand what the temperatures of your fridge (or the room  your fridge is in) need to be to minimize the odds of condensation.

A Cool Bot will control an air conditioner to make your own cold room.

box and wraps.

Papermart.

Thanks fo the info.

I put in 10-15 minutes and refrig. temp is 48F.

I tried to cool in at RT and found out it won't release off the mould....

I will definately check the DIY cooling tunnel.

I wonder if anyone came across refrig unit that can be adjusted to 55F. ( My mom in law's wine cooler is definately 55F capable, but too small and too expensive...)

Some where on the site here Clay posted plans for a DIY Cooling tunnel. I Tryed bulding something like it and it did a pretty good job for us. Came in around $800

Try a hair dryer and microfiber cloth...

Hi there, Nashville wraps and the rever group both sell wrapping stuff if that is what you are looking for!

That would be great, We always like to try new things around here. You could send a sample to our shop here. 

Starchild Chocolate

101 N Main St Willits, Ca 95490 USA

Hi Ash,

I can provide you with certified organic Inian Cocoa

Kindly let me know if you would like a sample

Regards

any recommendation for cleaning the molds?

thanks

Hello Everyone, I can recommend a website that sells wrappers or boxes for chocolates. thank you all

 We would be willing to try your beans provided they are certified organic. I have yet to try an Indian bean.

How long are you leaving it in the fridge?  I generally put it in for 10 to 15 minutes when it is actively crystallizing to carry off the latent heat of crystallization - then take it back out to room temperature.  Too long, it gets too cold and moisture will condense on the surface causing sugar bloom.  

Room temperature may result in the latent heat causing some pieces to get thrown out of temper.

Anything between a couple of hundred grams and 5 kgs.

I've previously read advice to put moulds in a refridgerator immediately after pouring the chocolate to "set it." Is this wise or a best practice technique? If this is an ok practice, what conditions (specifically temperature and humidity) within the fridge are recommended?

Dear Nabil,

I'm a bean to bar chocolatier.

Please feel to reach out at +91 810 843 8800.

Thanks,

Devansh

I cool the entire mass to 25 to get 'wild' crystallization, then reheat to 30 (which eventually will get raised to closer to 32 as it becomes overtempered) to melt out the undesirable crystals and leave only the form 5 crystals. 

And how much chocolate do u do at any one time???

Do u temper it down to 25 and then ring it back up to 30???