Forum Activity for @Lynda Brent

Hi Brian,  Email me and we can talk about what I've accomplished for Caramel.

colocandies@hotmail.com 

HI Lynda, I wish I had some for you also, but I have not found any yet to give. I agree, the shipping is the worst part but I think it would also be less per pound if made by a recipe also, then I can wholesale it better. I am also looking for other things to add to my line. Do you make your own caramel in your firemixer 14? or other things yet? I am looking for recipes or other things I can make in it also. Have a great day, Thank you,

Brian

Hi Brian,  I've heard nothing.  Guess no one wants to turn loose of their recipes.  I'm still using Calico.  Shipping costs are the biggest problem with them.

Thanks! this site looks good indeed and the prices are fair, and the shipping is free so that's a plus!

As for the grinder the original refiner can hold up to 4kg beans while the tilting one can hold about 5kg.

Do you have any idea what's the minimum amount any of them requires to make chocolate?

Thanks again for all your help!

Hi Lynda,

I also have the Firemixer 14 and would like some commercial fudge recipes I can use instead of Calico, Did you receive any yet? thank you,

Brian

The Dutch use bonbon as well as a description of a filled chocolate. I truly enjoy Jean Pierre Wybauw books. There is so much more in his books than just the typical recipes and photograps. If I wouldnt already have his books, I would most certainly get the Ultimate Fine Chocolate book that is coming out next month. I had the privelege of taking a few clases from him and he is one of the kindest and most knowledgeable chocolatiers I know.

Hello.  I’m brand new here and new to the world of tempering chocolate.  I’ve done a lot of homework, reading up on how to temper using the seeding method.  I’ll take about 300g of chocolate and melt it to 120-124F.  Then I add 100g of seed chocolate (which is in temper) and cool it down to 84F.  I then heat it up to 89.5ish F.  I dip a knife in and wait for it to setup properly.  Once everything looks good I proceed to fill my polycarbonate molds with the tempered chocolate.  I then let them cool and release them from the molds.  The chocolate is then stored at proper temperature (60-62 degrees F and humidity at about 50%).  After a day or two or three I get some sort of bloom, but the bloom is only on the chocolate that didn’t touch the mold.  (I can't seem to attach a picture.)  I wonder if anyone can help me out here with my issue?  Thanks in advance!

Full disclosure:  The temperature of my kitchen is always above 74 F.  In order to cool the molded chocolate, I place the molds in a thermoelectric wine fridge.  This fridge does not have a compressor thus the humidity is equal to the humidity in the room.  The fridge registers at 60-62F with 48-52% relative humidity, tested with a thermometer/hydrometer.  If I lived in a cooler climate my room temperature and humidity would be at these same levels. 

Hello Adir,

The Montreal based company chocolatchocolat at http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/home/ has a wide variety of quality molds and with the CND $ where it is, the prices are good.

As for the grinder, I find the tilting capability rather important.

Good luck

Jelly Bean & Candy Gravity Feed Display - Trade Fixtures

Excellent Condition -- $2000

• 48"W x 78"H x 22"D
• 24 bins (12 top and 12 bottom)
• Doors for Storage on Bottom
• Creamy Yellow Exterior- front/sides
• Original Manual included
• Originally $5300
• Perfect for Candy & Chocolate Shop, Bakery, Coffee Shop, Toy Store

Please include phone number with your email inquiry. We will respond immediately.
Thank you for your interest.  Our email: donna@imaginecandy.com

Also available: Chocolate Confectionery Climate Controlled Case, True Freezer, 2 Gallon Candy Jars, Metal Shelving, Tables, Folding Chairs, various Baskets and Packaging.

 gravitydisplay.jpg - 79KB

Excellent condition-  Located in Westchester NY-- $1750

Any questions: Donna@imaginecandy.com

• Model AACCA-48-R
• size- 4L8 x 2D4 x 48H
• Curved Front Glass
• Humidity control
• Under Cabinet Storage
• Exterior finish- Wilsonart Bitmore Cherry
• Hardware and trim- Polished Brass
• White laminate interior
• Mirrored interior ends
• Transparent mirrored rare sliding doors
• Two level lighting
• three adjustable ¼” plate glass shelves
• Eight foot power cord
• top Ledge
• Acrylic Trays- 24 with acrylic tags

 choccase.jpg - 27KB

Anchor Hocking 80142 Glass 2 Gallon Penny Candy Jar

• Chrome lid and stand/holder included
• $10 each / minimum 10 jars

• 90+ 2 gallon jars available
• 20+ 1 gallon jars available

Please include phone number with your email inquiry. We will respond immediately.
Thank you for your interest.

Our email: donna@imaginecandy.com

Also available: Jelly Bean & Candy Gravity Fixture, Chocolate Confectionery Climate Controlled Case, True Freezer, 2 Gallon Candy Jars, Metal Shelving, Tables, Folding Chairs, various Baskets and Packaging.

 2gallonjar.jpg - 62KB

@peter3

Thanks for the detailed response. 

1. Pouring tempered chocolate through the guillotine valve into a bowl. Mixing in inclusions. and pouring into 64g moulds with a portion scoop. 

This has worked well for us to date but its very inaccurate and is not possible with the amount of bars we need to make. 

Our product is Dark Chocolate bars/ Coconut Milk Chocolate bars, with inclusions like almonds, hazelnuts, jungle peanuts, coffee beans, etc

2. It will really depend on how well the stores do, but we feel that we need to have at the minimum of 2,500 bars produced per week in 3-4 8hr shifts. 

3. Already completed the audit earlier this year with UL Everclean

I will look into all of those depositors you mention. It seems that there is no small/mid size chocolate equipment that can handle large inclusions from my short bit of research. The volumetric depositors that we are looking at purchasing are made by Savage Bros. According to the company, it "may" handle very small inclusions, but have had so many issues with customers so they dont recommend it . 

Adding inclusions (temp of choc) to the kettle and pouring out of the valve seems pretty tricky. We have tried that technique with our products that dont have inclusions and things got very messy. I would also thing that it would be hard to have a even spread of inclusions in the bar. 

Cheers

@chocotoymaker thanks for the response. Will look into the Selmi with removable a screw. We started off in one of their stores in Downtown LA as a trial, and have averaged 250 bars a month for the last 6 months. This is with at least one demo per week, but, only 7 skus. We anticipate the new stores to average 200 bars per month, as there won't be as many demos but 3 additional products. 

41*200= 8200 bars per month 

1. What is the process you are using now? What is your product?

2. What is the production capacity you are looking for? As in pieces (what size) per hour or per shift?

3. Will you need to pass an audit of the grocery chain?

4. You can buy depositors that handle large inclusions. Answers to the above questions will help to make a decision on this.

5. You can buy volumetric depositors that will handle small batch production.

6. You can but a mould with raised dividers (which go almost to the surface), fill it in one go and easily break into smaller bars/tablets/pieces that can be individually packed.

We use the last method: Add 18kg of tempered chocolate to a kettle with temperature control on the water jacket (set to 31C), add inclusions,mix for 2 minutes, deposit (manual operation of the valve) out of the kettle into a mould sitting on a scale, vibrate and cool.

After cooling demould, break into 4 x 100g pieces, pack and box (all by hand).

Team of 5 can make over 250kg per shift. 

Two points:

1. Dosing accuracy is not great resulting in large give away (not important in our case)

2. You have to mix small batches so the chocolate does not loose the temper.

Get your self a Selmi with a removable screw. You will be able to use small inclusions and that should alleviate most of your scaling up concern.

  Also, before you start spending $$$, I would suggest toughing it out for 6 months or so to get an idea of how many bars your new accounts are going to move. The bar market is ultra crowded and insanely competitive. 41 or 500 accounts does not necessarily mean several thousand bars a month or several hundred a day.

    Best

As do the Belgians. The French would use bon bon (good good).

look at fineeuropeanchocolate.com there is a video about panning

enjoy

In Germany we use the name Praline for confections enrobed in Chocolate.

Hi Everyone, 

After almost 4 years in business, we finally got our big break. Our 10 Chocolate bar skus have been picked up by a grocery chain in Southern California (41 stores) . As exciting as it is, we are scrambling to figure out how to increase production while staying true to our product/process which has got us here in the first place. 

Our biggest shift is moving from pouring bars by hand to using depositors. The issue is that most of our bars contain larger inclusions ( almonds, hazelnuts, etc) which of course aren't depositor friendly. 

We believe there is only 2 options: 

1. Sprinkle inclusions on back

2. Deposit 1/3 of chocolate into mould and then sprinkle inclusions then top off with chocolate. 

Any Ideas/help would be greatly appreciated  :)

Equipment currently have:

- 120 lb Auto Savage Bros Tempering Machine

- 200 lb Auto Savage Bros Tempering Machine

- Savage Bros Vibrating Table

- 100lb Stonegrinder

- 60lb Stonegrinder

Dears,

We would like to sell Firemixer-14 that we used light at beginning of 2015, more information please find below:

This FireMixer-14 Table Top Cooker / Mixer is a very popular all-in-one electric mixer and cooker for producing confections. Perfect for Artisan confectioners and R & D labs, allowing one person operation from start to finish.

Ingredients are automatically mixed inside the all stainless steel FireMixer-14 Cooker Mixer, and the kettle can be tilted and locked into place for enhanced mixing action while cooking. It's built in agitator incorporates spring-loaded scrapers for fast heating without burning, and its touch control screen allows you to easily control all functions; batch and kettle skin temperature, agitator, temperature alarm, and water-flush cooling.

• Easy PLC operation touch screen
• Stainless steel construction
• Designed so that outside water source can cool product
• Kettle temperatures up to 450° F

The FireMixer-14's unique Water Flush feature prevents burning or temperature overshoot by immediately releasing heat from the kettle when desired. Flowing tap water flushes the heat from the cooker at the end of the cook cycle, allowing time to remove product without temperature overshoot. 

• Kettle locks into place, either upright or at an angle
• Tilt kettle to pour out batch, or add optional sanitary valve
• Optimum batch size is 20 lbs / 10 Kg (depending on recipe)

The FireMixer-14 is all stainless steel construction. It uses 1 phase electric power with a 16 Amp line, and requires a source of cold water with a drain.

• Made of stainless steel
• Requires 208/240 V, 50-60 Hz, 1 phase electric power

you can email me on kunoozbh@outlook.com

Hi Adir,

Molds have been discussed on this forum many times. I'd suggest doing a search for 'molds' here on TCL and reading the existing threads. There's a ton of great info here, including discussions on where to get them, materials, cleaning, and more.

I don't have any insight on which refiner to use. I use the original Premier Wonder grinders for test batches and they do very well. The Chocolate Refiner is an upgraded version of that, so I'm sure it'll be good, too. 

-Ben

Hello everyone,

I'm about to purchase some chocolate making equipment, before I start I'm looking for molds to buy, mostly interested in flat bar designed molds.

I've found a few websites but they aren't cheap, where do you guys buy your molds from? And what type of material is the best choice?

Next I'm about to buy a melanger, I'm considering between either the original Chocolate Refiner or the Tilting Chocolate refiner. Which one would be better? Is the tilting ability really that useful? Any other advantages over the non tilting version.

Thanks a lot, much appreciated

Glad to hear it helped.  :)

Tried it once and it seems to help, thanks.

3'x3' beautiful marble slab. Currently located in San Diego

$75

 marble_slab.jpg - 108KB

I made this machine on a budget and have tweaked and fine tuned it to the point of winnowing perfectly clean nibs every time.

$400

Transportation on this machine would be rather awkward, so sales within California would be preferred, we are in San Diego

 winnower.jpg - 416KB

If you don't do something like this already, try rubbing a little chocolate around the inside rim of the syringe before putting in the stopper/plunger part. This makes the stopper move easier.

I've had problems in the past with the rubber stopper coming off of the plunger, especially with older syringes, but this trick has solved the problem completely for me.

Hi,
Perhaps this is a stupid question but very important, how do you prevent from the rubber to fall off when you draw chocolate? my chocolate is not too thick.
I use 150 ml syringes that I order from ebay.

Thank's

An almost new Dedy Confectionery Guitar Cutter, 5mm spacing with 3 frames.

It was bought new six months ago from TCF Sales. I have since decided to only produce molded candies so the guitar cutter is surplus to my needs. It was used about 12 times. Below is the description from TCF Sales:

DEDY confectionery equipment presents the 5 mm single arm Confectionary Guitar Cutter that produces true 1" squares. Not to be compared with guitar cutters made with a nylon (plastic) base, Dedy guitar cutters cut uniformly and precisely, and perform precisely not only initially but over time. Cuts most any soft confectionery food products like ganache, pralines, fudge, jellies, soft caramel, almond pastes, etc. DEDY quality is exceptional and preferred by professionals worldwide.

• Base Surface: 350 mm x 350 mm. Made of high quality aluminum alloy for precision and durability, and to minimize weight.

• Guitar Cutter Frames: Made of stainless steel. Three (3) frames included: 15 mm, 25 mm, and 30 mm. o Other frame sizes can be ordered separately, but must be divisible by 5 to fit this base.

• Also Includes: Pick-Up Pan to move food product to and from the Guitar cutter, spare wire, and tools. Dedy Guitar Cutter are easy to use and easy to clean. Simply remove the frame and spray or submerse in hot water using a small amount of detergent as desired. Spray base with hot water and use a firm brush as necessary.

New it was $2,395. I am asking $2,000 plus shipping. It will ship from Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. Shipping to most of the USA should be around $50.

 chocolate-confectionery-guitar-cutter.jpg - 50KB

Hi,

I assume that your theory is correct sometimes and not always, when I mold 1 kg of chocolate to flat aluminium vessel (thickness of approximately 1 cm or a bit less) no releasing marks..

Still in great working condition. Purchased a few years ago. This unit has a temperature dial and heating light indicator.

$400

This machine is still in great condition and fully functional. Included 2 bowls, new baffle, holey baffle $1,600

Skimmer, used 3 times $400

Im looking for a selmi tempering machine. Please get in touch if you're interested in selling one.

you're going to be adding so little to be honest it doesn't matter. Essential oils are incredibly concentrated.

I can assure you this can happen on polycarbonate molds, I spent a few good years trying to get rid of them! My theory-It is basically the heat in the bars last stand, If you have long flat surfaces the chocolate cools, shrinks- releasing heat and this collects in the middle of the bar. I would not recommend any physical cleaning of molds as they do in fact scratch up, wash in dishwasher with a good non filming detergent. When we did photoshoots I used to make bars with undertempered chocolate  and then freeze them came out LOOKING beautiful.

Warming cabinets work fine, buy a used one  at a restaurant supply company and under worst case scenario you have to change the thermostat.I ran with two of these for 5 years. As an aside to anyone using a refrigerator to cool your chocolate. you may want to consider changing your thermostat to one that will run a bit warmer, we got a lot of cracking with a thermostat running very cold.

Curtis, I am interested in these molds! Can you email us lunechocolat AT hotmail.com

thanks! or feel free to call the shop

315 692 4173Thanks

Hey everyone,

Is it best to add essential oils before or after you temper chocolate?

Thanks!

Trudy

These are the questions I have put to Selmi and their response. Would be good if anyone had any practial experiance to back this up:

- what is the maximum sized inclusion?

Should be lesser bigger then 4 mm 

- what is the max % of chocolate to inclusion that is can run.

We advice maximum 18% of inclusions for each kg of chocolate you will have inside the machine 

- Can the machine be fully cleaned. We are interested in the removable screw pump option, but does this clean to a standard where to could still not contaminate other batches with previous allergens used, I am thinking nuts here.

The machine with the removable screw such as COLOR EX and PLUS EX allow you to remove the screw pump and wash the machine complete. 

- Is there any wastage when swapping form Dark to milk etc.

from Dark to Milk we usually advice to not wash the machine but empty it as much as you can then put the new chocolate inside, for the swap from Dark to White the waste of product is very small because you can empty the machine and then wash it.

Hi all,

We are looking at one of the Selmi machines, possibly the Top Ex. What attracts me is the removable screwpump for easy cleaning. Now I know that this isn't unique to Selmi but they are the only comoany I see saying that you can use nuts in the machine and then clean. This makes mean think that they must be very confident of ease of cleaning.

- Anyone have first hand experiance of this?

- Does anyone know max inclusion size.

thnaks

calum

Here is specs of the roaster

http://www.crzmakina.com/urun/150ro-elektrik.pdf

I second Clay's recommendation. Asking Ken about a proof box at Charyn Auctions in SF.

c: