Forum Activity for @Clay

Roger:

There are many sources for cocoa beans. One I recommend is a new sponsor of TheChocolateLife - Meridian Cacao .

:: Clay

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for a source for small quantities (less than 10 pounds) of raw cocoa beans.

So far the only place I found any is Chocolate Alchemy. Does any one know of another place that is fair priced?

Thanks!

You can pipe any buttercream into a mold, have you never made buttercream icing for a cake? Tasty experiments!

Just google buttercream icing and have a go at it. Worst case is you have something which you can throw on some brownies or a quick cake hehe.

It's not shelf stable but they are good and creamy.

You can store your bag of buttercream in the fridge but will need to allocate some time for it to "thaw" before piping.

While this isn't our recipe I just grabbed this one off Foodnetwork as an example of the ingredient breakdown, not rocket science--

1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla or other desired flavoring
2 pounds confectioners' sugar

The package is just one ingredient, fondant sugar. It's just pre-portioned and I'm new at this.
However, I agree that fondant is too sweet.

Any recipes for buttercreams I can pipe into molds?

Or don't use a package, just look up buttercream recipes. We sell the hell out of some straight up old fashion buttercream filled products during easter and use a slightly modified version for a bon bon year round. Fondant is just way too sweet and in the end a really neutral product.

It's all on the back of the package. I don't have a pack near me, but I think it's one package, 3 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp of cream and only a drop of invertase.

http://www.shop.partyshopga.com/Dry-Fondant-for-Candy-Centers-76-5501.htm?gclid=CKHyuv38v7YCFe5xOgodlycA_Q

Would you share your porportions on the dry mix, water & invertase you use?

I use CK brand Dry Fondant Mix in a bag with some invertase. You can't get any easier than that and it's good. I was going to develop my own recipe, or do something from scratch, but everyone seems to like these.

Just use a cream fondant. 4 cups sugar, 1 cup cream, 1/2 water, 2 tablespoons corn syrup or honey, pinch salt. Cook to soft ball (238 sea level) Pour out to cool. Stir when about 115 degrees. For chocolate, add 3 oz cocoa mass when beating. A bit of vanilla if desired.

I am a University of Utah student doing Marketing research for a chocolate project. It is a fun chocolate survey I have released so if you are an American that loves chocolate, please take the 2 minutes out of your day to take this survey. If you feel uncomfortable answering any of the questions, feel free to skip the question and move on to the next. It is 100% anonymous. The link below will take you to the Survey!

http://eccles.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_37zDED8IezRSmoJ

Thank You,

Andrew

Clay,

If you go through the website of Warrell Corporation, I am sure you will understand what I am looking for. ( http://warrellcorp.com/ManufacturingProcesses/HotP )

I was there for PMCA chocolate panning class. For Hot panning you need Copper pan with burners below the pan to caramalise the sugar. Those you mentioned are definitely the ones I am looking for. But it seems they can`t produce big batches. I needPan with 15-20 kgs (i.e around 30-40lbs) capacity. Any insight? Thank you so much.

Raji from India.

I don't entirely understand what you are looking for. A hot pan for nuts to cover with chocolate? Roast? Caramelize (that is, make pralin)?

Panning is the process of covering a center with chocolate or sugar, or some other coating.

Here's a site for a US company that sells machines for cooking nuts in sugar . Here's the web site of the company that makes them (they're in Munich, Germany).

Here's a site for a German company that makes machines for roasting nuts and cooking them in sugar.

I plan to buy a Copper hot pan with gas burners at the bottom. The one I already have is Selmi Comfit. It is very efficient in soft panning, chocolate panning and sugar panning as well. Now I want to add hot panned nuts to my product line. My plan is to buy a pan which can produce 30-40 lbs in a batch.

Anyone have the idea who manufactures this kind of Copper hot pans with gas burners at the bottom?

Raji from India.

Matt could you be a little more specific about the problems you've had with the chocovision?I've seen a few people complain about the smaller chocovision temperers, but the people who own the larger ones seem to really like them. Did you own one of the smaller ones? I am looking into the chocovisions myself, so any feedback from someone who has owned one would be helpful. Thanks.

It looks like a good machine. I have experience using a 6kg Mol D'art melter. The user must keep the chocolate in temper, but it is easily accomplished. This melter is great to get one started producing molded or dipped confections. Good luck to you!

has anyone used a matfer choco 15R?

http://www.matferbourgeatusa.com/catalog/part3.htm

http://www.jbprince.com/chocolate-tempering-machines/chocolate-temperer-machines.asp

It is listed most places as a tempering machine, but I understand that it has manual temperature controls, which makes it a dipping machine really

I have not had good luck with the chocovision machines, I don't find that it gives a good temper at all.

comments?

oh, ok. Can't have soy

we use soy powder

Yochy,

Do you use Rice Milk for your dairy-free milk chocolate or something else like soy milk etc.

Valerie,

How many lbs do you need? Let us know at info@premiumchocolatiers.com

I have spoken to a company that is allergy-free and thye have informed me that Callebaut will not sell it to them unless they can buy 10,000 lbs. at a time (I believe it was).

I use rice dream, which is dairy free (pareve) both in peppermint patties, creme centers and truffles. It works great and makes delicious centers for my semisweet dairy free chocolates. I even slowly cook it down and make dairy free (pareve) "evaporated milk" from the rice dream.

Valerie,

In what quantity are you looking to source this? Please shoot an email to info@premiumchocolatiers.com and we will quote it.

Hi Clay. I think Callebaut was using rice milk. I don't know if that classifies as dairy. I don't think so, because they are saying it's dairy free. I know that I use clarified butter at times, and although it's dairy, it is casein free and lactose free. I don't say it is dairy free or parve, just casein free. All I really care about is that I can make some casein-free products for my people. Now, while goat's milk does have casein, it's supposedly a different casein then cow's milk and some people can tolerate it. But it's way too complicated to get into that if you know what I mean. And I think the Askinosie bars would most likely be too pricey to use. But I think it's really cool that they are making it. Coconut milk would be awesome-but you are saying they just sell it for chocolate bars? Not couverture. Oh well.

So-it is possible to make? You mean like using cocoa powder, a dairy-free milk product, and clarified butter type thing?

One of the challenges is that in order for it to be called milk chocolate here in the US, it has to have dairy in it:

(4) Dairy ingredients:
(i) Cream, milkfat, butter;
(ii) Milk, concentrated milk, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, dried milk; and
(iii) Skim milk, concentrated skim milk, evaporated skim milk, sweetened condensed skim milk, nonfat dry milk;

Callebaut might not be selling it here in the US for labeling reasons.If you import it from Canada you should be careful how you label it.Calling it "dairy-free milk chocolate" won't work - at least as far as the FDA is concerned. That's why some companies refer to "mylk" chocolate.

There are a couple of bean-to-bar companies I know that use coconut milk powder and it's really quite good. Not making it as couverture to sell, though. Askinosie uses goat's milk and while it is goat-y it's not too goat-y.

It is possible to make.

HI there what about the best one? www.premiumchocolatiers.com

I've emailed Callebaut and will let you know if I get a reply regarding availability.

I tried the Enjoy Life Rice Milk Bar - totally gross! I've tried the Sweet Chocolate Dream bar - yuck! Beyond those 2, I'd have to go down to my food co-op to see what other brands they carry to let you know which ones I've tried. I love milk chocolate so much I even tried to make a recipe at home for dairy-free milk chocolate. It was a recipe I found online and it was beyond gross.

I am wondering if the dairy-free Callebaut is available in Canada and could be shipped into the US. Of course I wanted to try a sample of it before ordering a whole huge bag and realizing it either tastes gross or doesn't temper well for use in molding.

I wonder why it's not being sold in the US. Anyway, what are the sources of the dairy-free milk chocolate brands that you have tried. I know you haven't done too well with them, but I have a group of people who aren't too picky, so I would like to try it. Thanks!!

I tried to track down the Callebaut dairy-free milk chocolate in the US last fall without luck. If you find it, let me know. I've also tried some of the other dairy-free brands of milk chocolateand they are all fairly disgusting - both in taste and texture. Plus, none of them seem available in bulk. Even if you find them in bulk the costs are high (esp. considering the quality or lack thereof). Best, Andrea

After making non tempered raw chocolate for 5 years my typical ingredients are.

Raw cacao butter, raw cacao powder, maca, sweetner ( agave or maple syrup, yacon syrup or honey), vanilla exstract , pinch of sea salt.

what order are ingredients added ? Using Brads sochoklat.com post on tempering ?

Hi Everyone,

I have just started creating moulded shoes and was using white chocolate to decorate them (with dots). So I put the dots on the mould and let it set. Then I add milk chocolate to create the shoe. Sometimes when I un-mould, the dots stay stuck to the mould and I'm left with little craters in my shoe. Any advice?

I've attached a photo of a shoe that looks ok and another with the problem.

Remember that Fairtrade US and Rest of World split last year - one may not be as likely to be well with the other any longer..

I had a look at the USA website maybe this might help http://www.fairtradeusa.org/products-partners#tabset-tab-2

Here is the licensee database for New Zealand and Australia

http://www.fairtrade.org.nz/sites/default/files/PublicLicenseeDatabase@20130301.pdf

Thanks Rochelle. I called Fairtrade USA and they just referred me back to their web site. They were afraid they would be showing preferences. I'll try sending an email too, maybe I'll reach a different contact.