Forum Activity for @Dirke Botsford

I've started using coconut cream in my ganache and it works perfectly. Question in how long will the shelf life be?

Check out Chocovisions tempering machines, varied sizes and not overly expensive. Sounds like you might be over seeding your chocolate?

I used the tempering machine from Perfect Equipment out of Quebec, it doesn't pump but it works amazingly well for creating bars just with the standard set up. Check them out, they might have something up your alley?

Thank you Gerhard!

Well done on your sculptures!! :D I couldn't find info on your website, but I will check again ...

excellent! thank you sir!

I am a chocolate sculptor and carve mostly out of a solid block..lots of infos and sculptures on my website: gerhardpetzl.com

If you need more infos, you are very welcome to ask me! 

Hi Jason,

You do not have to use seed chocolate when tempering. This is just one method usually used by people that melt tempered chocolate for making truffles and such. There are many YouTube videos on tempering chocolate. I would suggest watching some these and then giving it a try. You can always buy a bag of chocolate chips and practice. 

- Thomas

I use the Mol d'Art 6 Kg melter just for that purpose and it works great for me. They also make a 3Kg melter. I have no affiliation with the company.

http://www.moldart.be/en/producten/chocolate-machinery/chocolate-melters/

Clay--

I totally agree with you about learning to temper chocolate by hand first.  Good advice.  Thank you for your input and I look forward to learning from you and others who have such deep knowledge about the amazing world of chocolate.

Thomas,

Is it always necessary to use seed chocolate when tempering?

Jason

Hi guys,

Do you know anything about sculpting with chocolate? I have searched around and didn't find much info. I mean, kinda like the creations by Patrick Roger (France) and Stephane Treand ...

Do they temper chocolate and work with it, or as I'm assuming, they work with a different type of chocolate?

Thanks!

Hello folks,

Any idea how to keep the chocolate in temper. I make one mould, and it gets too thick for a 2nd one, so I will need to heat it carefully each time, and stir like a maniac.

Heard you can buy a chocolate melter and putting the tempered chocolate in it to maintain at working temperature. Seems like a good idea. Any (inexpensive) melters you would recommend? I don't need a huge melter. I'm based in Europe...

Thank you!

Hi! 

Is this still available? 

Info@whimsychocolates.com

Thank you!

http://chocolatetalk.proboards.com/thread/1673/sale-hilliard-chocolate-tempering-machines?page=1&scrollTo=8889

Hi, I am looking for another one or two Hilliards little dippers. I dont care if they are super old as long as they work well and are a good price. Thank you for looking

Thanks, Larry! All very helpful. Based on sizing, I think I'm more keen to having a 15 mm and 22.5 mm frame. I shall update.

Cheers,

Annalynn

Annalynn,

I saw your post about looking for a guitar cutter. I wanted to point out a few more helpful things.

There are several frames that have the wires strung across with different spacing. identifying which spacing you are looking for would be helpful to get what you want. The wire spacing options for the 7.5mm base are 15mm, 22.5mm, 30mm, and 37.5mm. You could remove some wires if needed for different spacing. i.e. if you wanted a 45mm piece cut a 15 or 22.5mm frame with some wires removed would do the trick. 

Also, they don't make a 7mm base. it is 7.5mm.

Happy guitar hunting,

Larry

I temper chocolate, bean to bar that I make, in one stainless steel bowl. I use a double boiler to heat it, place it in a sink with a couple inches of cool water to cool it, and back on the double boiler to heat again. All while stirring with a spatula. I can do up to 6 pounds at a time. I would say this is about as low tech as one can get. I did buy a melter to pour the tempered chocolate into to maintain a working temperature. I started making bean to bar chocolate at home about a year ago and have made about 40 batches of different types. Although no white (yuck). 

Holy cow Clay.  I just about fell off my stool when I read your post!

We finally agree on something unilaterally!

Gotta go.  I need to print and frame this thread!  

LOL

Brad

Matt -

You might want to look into the small business nutrition labeling exemption. As a small business (under something like 500 employees and $50,000,000 in sales) you are not required to put a nutrition label on a package, especially if it it's small. And I think federal law trumps state law on this. You do however, have to have the nutrition information available and it has to be easily accessible. But, I am not a lawyer and you should check.

That said, some retail outlets will demand it, along with UPC codes. Ingredients labels with allergen statements should be considered mandatory no matter what the regs require. 

As you are in the US you only need to really worry about internationalization if you find yourself selling outside the US. As near as I know there are no special requirements unless you are wholesaling to a retailer unless the retailer requires it for liability reasons.

Jason -

For such small quantities learn to do it by hand if you can't afford the machines. The experience you gain learning to hand temper will pay huge dividends going forward. In the end, machines can only do what you tell them to do. If they don't produce correct results and you don't know what tempering looks and feels like then you are not in a position to know why the machine "failed" to temper properly. 

It's not the machine's fault, actually. They are not artificially intelligent and cannot read your mind or evalaute the chocolate they are being asked to temper. They don't know the external temperature, or humidity, or anything like that. So they can't react to changes in ambient environment, for example, that will affect temper.

Finally - and I really don't want to dissuade you from pursuing your chocolate dreams, at this stage if the difference in price between a Rev 1 and a Rev 2 is straining your budget then wait and save until it's not an issue for you.

:: Clay

Brad:

If you go to the Academy of Chocolate web site you will find the criteria for what constitutes "bean-to-bar." Specifically:

BEST DARK BEAN TO BAR (%)

Open to manufacturers who use cocoa beans (as opposed to cocoa liquor, paste, or couverture) as their raw material in any of the three specifications below.

Please specify on the entry form which best describes your bean to bar product. This is for office information only and will not be disclosed to the judges. [Emphasis in the original.]

• Tree to Bar. Made from beans managed by the producer. This is the end-to-end process of manufacturing owned and controlled by a single business.
• Tree to Factory. Management of cacao at the source with a third party manufacturing the bean to bar process.
• Factory Roast to Conch [sic]. Bar made from beans purchased from a grower or an intermediary. All manufacturing processes i.e. roasting, grinding, refining and conching owned and controlled by a single business.

IMO, these "distinctions" make it possible for virtually everyone to claim to be bean to bar. As I interpret the guidelines, I could make a phone call to ECOM and get a container of beans - sight unseen - delivered to ICAM and have chocolate made and I would qualify.

WRT to Papa Chocolat - if Callebaut sources the beans and someone else makes the chocolate for them then it fits under the Factory Roast definition. That said, I can see how Original Beans, Idilio, and Åkesson fit the definition - they source beans and have the chocolate made for them - Factory Roast again. But it's harder for me to see how some others fit. And I am fairly knowledgeable.

To me, bean-to-bar means – at the very minimum – all stages of the transformation of raw cocoa beans into finished chocolate are performed under the direct supervision and control of the company claiming so. Secondarily, it means that the company actually has to sell product (bars) at retail in a package with their own name on it. 

I have long had a problem with the phrase bean-to-bar because of this malleability and I strongly encourage the Academy of Chocolate to take a long, hard, look at their classification criteria before the next installment of the Awards. This is because, in the long run, the context of the guidelines will get stripped from the award itself when it appears on a box or wrapper and the uninformed consumer will not see the asterisk that a knowledgeable professional might.

:: Clay

Please let me know if you've got a guitar cutter that you're willing to sell. I live in the Bay Area and if you're local, will gladly pick it up.

Ideally, I'd like a Dedy 7.5 mm base with a 15mm and/or 22.5 mm frame Guitar Cutter, please.

Thanks,

Annalynn

Larry,

Thanks for the warm welcome and the tips on the Dedy. The more I look into a guitar cutter, the more I'm inclined to purchase a Dedy and it sounds like I should go with the 7mm.

I've only been around TheChocolateLife for a week and I love it already!

Now, I'm on a hunt for that guitar cutter.

Cheers,

Annalynn

Hello,

I'm slowly accumulating equipment for the purpose of making dark chocolate.  Some equipment will be affordable; others, like a good tempering machine, probably won't be.  I've read good reviews of the Rev 2 temperer, but it is a little too expensive at this point, and the Rev 1 seems to have mixed reviews.  Any hints or clues about different low-tech tools for tempering chocolate would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,

Jason

I'd like to learn more about caramel making as well as panning and cream centers.

Annalynn,

I haven't used a guitar with the plastic base, but I was able to pick up a used guitar on here. It is a dedy. I love that thing. As a high-demand item it retained it's value and while we were able to pick it up for a few hundred bucks below retail, it wasn't cheap by any stretch.

As you can imagine, having the guitar helped us make far better use of our time. It saves a lot of time in cutting the pieces of candy and it is great that they come out uniformly shaped.

I think one of the best things about the metal framed guitar is how easy it is to clean. - I imagine that a plactic base one would have little pieces of chocolate, ganache, fondant, or whatever else you are cutting that would get stuck down inside the grooves. Yuck. Cleaning that out would take awhile.  With the metal frame, you just wash the top and bottom. - the grooves aren't an issue because they are only as deep as the metal is thick.

The dedy's come in two spacings 5mm and 7.5mm. this is the spacing of the grooves in the base. Depending on the width of your final piece, you may want one or the other. i.e. you can do 22.5mm on a 7.5mm base, but not on a 5mm base. Please keep that in mind as you look for a used one.

Welcome to TheChocolateLife. It's great here.

Larry

Thanks, Clay. I haven't heard/read great things about the plastic pieces. Sounds like I may need to wait for a used guitar. Hopefully something reasonable pops up soon. 

Annalynn -

There are not many options for small guitar cutters. One is available through Chef Rubber (www.chefrubber.com). Click on the Search box and type ' guitar ' into the search box on the next page. The mini-guitar plus accessories are listed there.

They are still not cheap, and one difference between this and larger options is that the base is plastic, not metal.

Final price - motivated to sell!

$500 plus we split shipping from Seattle. (Continental USA, Canada only)

if outside that area, you pay shipping. 

Sold 

My name is Jason and I really really like artisan dark chocolate!  My introduction to the world of craft chocolate was in May 2014.  I'm hoping to make some small batches of chocolate for family and friends over the winter, so I'm sure I'll have many questions to ask.  Looking forward to interacting with members here at The Chocolate Life!

btw, sorry about the way my profile pic is tilted.  I haven't figured out how to correct this

Trying to find some thing like this in the UK , would probably fly to the U.S. for it.

very little available here apart from callebaut courses and I'm looking for something more in depth .

Does anyone recommend or have any experience of the valrhona week long course ?

I need some advice in relation to Meltaways. I have had issues with Meltaway centers dipped in dark chocolate displaying bloom within a couple of weeks of dipping. Research has revealed this is a common problem and can be rectified by adding some milk chocolate to the dark chocolate for dipping .

I would like to avoid this if I can , is there any other way of preventing the bloom , anything I can use as a barrier ?

Id be really grateful for any advice anyone can offer .

Thanks in advance (and with anticipation haha) 

Dallas, you are completely missing the point here.

The point I'm making here has nothing to do with Bernard Callebaut as a person.  It has to do with HONESTY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND FAIR PLAY in competition.

What REAL bean to bar manufacturer didn't win the award because a competitor lied and submitted product made by a large company?  Was the misrepresentation fair to them? Why should THEY be deprived of an award for their hard work?

Why would I want to compete if nobody is honestly representing themselves or at the very least there is no accountability or audit system?

What is the value of such a competition if people can cheat with impunity?

Forget Bernard Callebaut for a minute.  What if I said "Information has come to light which can prove that company X didn't actually make the chocolate they submitted and won an award with?"

Does it hold any less merit than my original post?

I don't think so.

It just so happens that I make a point of knowing my competitors in my market, what they do, what they don't do, and that my friend is simply intelligent business, and it just so happens that in this case the fraudulent submission is made by Bernard.

Over the years I've publicly pointed a lot of fingers at other people too.  If you lied in a competition and I found out about it I'd publicly slap you wherever I could too.  Somebody has to.  There's too much deception in this industry done in the name of selling chocolate to the consumer.

Brad

Brad, what has Bernard done to you personally that causes you to constantly attack him and his products? I would think one's time would be better spent improving their own product and offerings, than to belittle and criticize others in the industry. Have you actually worked for him, and he slighted you, in some way? Bernard has done a lot to put chocolate confections on the map in Calgary. Props are due, and respect is earned for what he's done over the past 30+ years in the city. 

If you think your products stack up, why not submit them to be judged? What have you got to lose? As you stated to me personally, your products qualty speak (taste) for themselves, and taste rules...why not throw them into the ring and see how they stack up? 

I currently use the Spectra 65. I don't have a good way to heat the nibs or the bowl, so I just use a heat gun to warm everything once I've added a small amount of nib. I usually run it for about 10 minutes or so and find that that heats things up enough to keep everything flowing until heat from friction takes over.

Over the years, many people have asked me to enter my chocolate into competitions.  My answer has been a resounding "ABSOLUTELY NOT" for many reasons - one of which is that there is no "audit" step with respect to submissions.

Simply put: contestants can submit anything without being required to prove that they actually made the product.

Case in Point:  This past April, the "Academy of Chocolate" held a competition where chocolate makers and chocolatiers from all over the world submitted entries to be judged.

These contestants spent cumulatively THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to get their creations to the competition.  They also spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours crafting their wares to be judged.

...BUT DID THEY ALL???

WHO VALIDATED THEIR WORK???  After all, if the winners are going to proudly celebrate their awards in order to entice more consumers to buy their wares over their peers', shouldn't there be some kind of audit - some kind of proof that they actually did what they were awarded for doing?

...and what if it was revealed that competitors fraudulently submitted entries simply to be able to use the perceived "prestige" created by the contest and it's award?  Would that not taint ALL of the contestants' awards?

I don't know.  I think it would.

What I do know is this:  In April, Papa Chocolat of Calgary (aka Bernard Callebaut the person) submitted an entry in the 80% Bean to Bar Category.  That entry he claimed was his Peruvian.

What I also know is that Bernard Callebaut (aka Papa Chocolat) has never made an ounce of chocolate in his entire life, and currently buys his couverture from ICAM Spa.  Ironically one of the 70%'s that ICAM Spa produces is Peruvian.  Now... Add a little liquor to it, mix it up, and presto!  You have an 80%.

Does that make his submission Bean To Bar?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Could it be a mistake?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  This man is the grandson of Eugenious Callebaut himself, and owned a successful chocolatier company with 20 stores for 25 years.  HE ABSOLUTELY KNOWS THE DIFFERENCE.

Does his blatant disregard for the rules taint all the hard work that HONEST artisans are doing?   ABSOLUTELY

I got into this business because of slimy, deceptive practices of people like Bernard Callebaut, and I will continue to speak out against them, because if even one single customer of mine sees his website, sees that award, and questions my claims, the poison taints MY business and MY hard work.

I truly hope the Academy of Chocolate sees this, does something about Bernard's lies, and sets the record straight.

Respectfully

Brad Churchill, a guy who REALLY DOES MAKE CHOCOLATE.

I find that preheating both the stone and the nibs (and keeping some heat on the bowl once in use) is very helpful.  I've never used the Spectra 100, but suspect the easiest way to do so may be to build a frame around it, and place a small portable heater inside it.

Speed is going to be a function of the details of your environment (how warm it is), your ingredients (how much fat is in them), and your formulation (lower fat formulas or those w/o emulsifiers will require a different approach than high fat, emulsified formulations).