Forum Activity for @Clay

In many places in the world where cocoa is grown, water security is still a major challenge. Small solar purification plants are one solution to the problem but they tend to be very expensive and many can't be used in places where brackish - salty - water is a problem.

There's an Indiegogo campaign going on right now for an innovative small-scale solar water purifier. Called the Desolenator , this award-winning project has been under development for several years and is calling for support to move it from the prototype phase into production.

We can help the campaign in several ways:

1) Tell your friends about the project and ask them to tell their friends and go to the campaign page and pledge a perk.

2) Buy a Desolenator at $650 each (pays for delivery, installation, and training). I don't think that many people reading this need one, and many of the rest of us don't have the resources, especially at this time of year, to go out and buy one to give one away.

3) #1 + #2 - This is where the power of our global community comes in. Tell your friends to tell their friends to help TheChocolateLife purchase at least one

I am happy to collect donations (through PayPal) from members of the community and then purchase a Desolenator on behalf of the worldwide ChocolateLife membership. If I receive enough to purchase two Desolenators then I will purchase two of them for the community. (Any monies below/above evenly divisible multiples of $650 will be donated for other perks in the name of TheChocolateLife community.

Once I make the pledge we will have a discussion about where to deliver the Desolenator to a location in India and Africa.

To make a donation, please send it via PayPal to paypal@discoverchocolate.com. PLEASE earmark your donation as a donation or personal payment. PayPal does not charge transaction fees for donations. If you want to mail a check, please contact me privately. I will keep track, here on this post, of the amount collected, plus provide updates on the campaign.

There campaign closes on January 14th, so please help me in supporting this extremely worthwhile campaign.

:: Clay

Hi! Just opened a store a couple of months ago. We make caramel apples, chocolate-dipped everything.... We have a Savage Bros. commercial stove and copper kettle top and would like to use it to make fudge. I am having the devil's own time trying to find a basic recipe for chocolate fudge and for white fudge for commercial copper kettles. Does anyone out there have a couple of good ones to share please???

Once we have the two basics we know how to make about 20 different kinds of fudge. Our store manager is used to a Calico Cottage kettle and mix, but I do not want the extra equipment or to use mix, since we make everything else from scratch.... HELP!!! :

Is it possible to get your recipe amounts for the peanut butter meltaways?

Thanks

Thank you so much for helping me with this!

What Ruth said!

There is a eutectic effect of one fat on another. So if you combine chocolate and coconut oil the cocoa butter and the coconut fat interact. Ditto with the peanut butter fat. The melting point of the new fat produced is different from the melting point of the starting fats and it will not necessarily be a temperature half way between the two - it can be higher or lower than either alone.

The tempering allows that fat to crystallize in a stable form.

Meltaways need to be tempered. You may have lucked out in the past. Combine tempered chocolate and cooled coconut oil. stir in peanut butter and place over a bowl of ice. Keep stirring until mixture thickens. Pour into frame. That should get the correct crystals forming. You can always remelt the grainy batch and retemper.

I've been making a peanut butter meltaway using peanut butter, milk chocolate and coconut oil. There are times when that meltaway center develops a...texture. It's not quite gritty, because the little lumps melt away, but it's not as smooth as I'd like it.

I'm not sure if this has something to do with the temps of each item in the meltaway, or the order in which they are put together.

Can anyone shed light on this? Most often they are perfect.

thanks - since water and alcohol turns melted down chocolate into flaky hard mud . ... how could extracts with water or alcohol be used if at all?

We use LorAnn oils.Several stores sell them, or you could get them online. http://shop.lorannoils.com/chocolates/super-strength-flavors/1-dram...

They are much, much cheaper than the "Super Healthy, Super Duper, Super Commissioned" essential oils.

I couldn't speak to if one is better than the other.

Note: some are oils, some are flavors with water & alcohol.

I haven't gotten a level where I am producing the chocolate in my kitchen.... rather my homemade chocolates are just melted down dark chocolate blends.So I am a definite beginner.

My question is how do I add almond or peppermint to my melted chocolate? Most extracts I have seen (clubhouse etc) have water and alcohol. Unfortunately, I already learned what that does to cooking chocolate! I did a search for peppermint oil or almond oil and all I could find is essential oil for aromatherapy! hehe What do I do / buy?

Thank you

Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noel

Even in my very-limited-production chocolatiering, I have an idea of what the Christmas insanity is like for someone who is actually in the business, so I appreciate that you took the time to respond. I will give your suggestions a try. Thanks very much.

Jim

Working with chocolate in small batches (by hand) is like shooting at a moving target; you always have to be making minor adjustments in order to keep the viscosity consistent.

Here are a couple of hints that may help:

1. White chocolate takes longer for the beta crystals to propogate appropriately, as there are more "non-cocoa" particles in it. You need to have more patience.

2. When you see your chocolate start to get thicker than you would ideally like, hit it for a moment or two with a blow dryer, and stir like crazy.

3. Don't wait until the chocolate is unbearably thick (over tempered). Make constant adjustments as you go, but keep in mind that you need to stir it very well.

I'd type more, but I'm on hour 16 of today's version of Christmas insanity and I desperately need food. Hope that helps.

Brad

...PS.... When you think you've stirred enough, Well... You haven't.

Brad,

Very helpful document. You mention that one should not let the tempered (dark) chocolate go above 95F. How low can it go while one is working with it?

In connection with another post about over-tempered chocolate you wrote about melting additional chocolate then bringing it down to the working temperature to add to the bowl of chocolate that is thickening too much, and I asked a question: I was using Valrhona white chocolate and (as usual) it began to thicken as I filled molds. So I added some of the chocolate I had melted (untempered) and then cooled to 84-86 F., and it successfully thinned out the chocolate in the bowl. But it lasted only a short time, and when I added more untempered chocolate, it did no good. In my work this problem occurs mostly with white chocolate, and I am not sure what more I can do. Any ideas?

All chocolate works under the same principles, whether milk, dark, or white. You just need to keep in mind that in the case of white chocolate, there are more "tiny bits" separating the cocoa butter crystals, so it takes longer to crystalize. That's all.

Thank you all for your input. Really appreciate it.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Hello Brad:

Thank you for the info sheet. Really helpful. Does your dog give tempering lessons on white chocolate by any chance?

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Callebaut's reasons are self serving to say the least.

At no time do I advocate adding cocoa butter during the tempering process, whether it's properly crystalized or not. For the most part, the viscosity of a good couverture can be controlled by temperature and crystalization.

My philosophy is simple: You wanna work with chocolate? Learn to temper chocolate.

Having said that, I have attached to this post an EXCELLENT document I have written on tempering chocolate. Why is it excellent? Because it makes tempering chocolate simple, and tells you all the things that online posts don't tell you.

This document makes tempering chocolate so simple that I taught my dog, and he how holds courses on chocolate tempering! LOL

DON'T CHEAT. LEARN TO TEMPER CHOCOLATE!

There is a difference between adding cocoa butter and adding Mycryo. With Mycryo you are adding beta crystals, not just cocoa butter. Of course the cocoa butter is the beta 5 crystals, but just plain cocoa butter isn't the same thing.

Brad - Callebaut has been pushing this idea. Not surprisingly, they suggest using their "Mycryo" brand of cocoa butter. It probably works, and for a home hobbyist it might very well be an easier method. I don't know; I haven't tried it myself.
I wouldn't imagine too many professionals would go this direction however. And chocolate makers would probably be dead set against it, since they have already made their chocolate with whatever cocoa butter content they think it should have.

Tempering with Mycryo

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea at all, and it certainly won't improve taste. In fact, adding cocoa butter in most cases will MUTE the taste of the chocolate.

Hello:

I am new to chocolate and just read that it's possible to add cocoa butter when tempering to make the chocolate more shiny and improve taste. Can anyone comment on whether this is a good idea? I would like to know before starting to do this in case it's wont' turn out.

Thanks and have a wonderful holiday season!

Julie

Hi, I'm mostly a lurker here, now it's my time to post. I'm a hobby chocolate dipper for few years, I've fairly experienced at what I do, but have probably pick up all sorts of bad habits since I know almost no one with experience handling chocolate.

I occasionally make meltaways and have been using oil based flavors, but I just read a recipe at serious eats that calls for alcohol based flavor OR oil based. The recipe supposedly is based on Greweling's, but his book only lists oil. So the question is, does alcohol seize or affect chocolate or not? Does the added fat content make the alcohol less harmful to the texture? Anyone here with experience with using both oil and alcohol based flavors for meltaways?

Thanks for any help.

Thanks for the reply,

We currently do not warm the molds, and havent had issues (yet) as described in the link you added.

If the mold is filled in from below it would then contain a larger mass - wouldnt it then cool faster? I can only imagine a greater dispersion of heat from the chocolate into the mold itself. Its worth noting I am not knowledgeable in this by any means, and am just creating my own theories.

Something like this was discussed in this thread: http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/mold-release-ring-formation-issue-in-mold

In that one, though, the idea was to glue a rigid bar to the bottom of a mold.

For yours, I think you may have problems with the mold retaining temperature and the bars not cooling correctly. Do you warm your molds?

Hey guys,

I purchased custom molds from Tomric, and they look awesome. I am definitely happy with them apart from the bit of flexibility they have. I immediately began wondering if you could flip the mold over, exposing the underside, and fill it with some sort of resin to fill in the cavity, creating a solid block. Has anyone ever done this? It could be a cheaper alternative to purchasing the injection molds.

Any thoughts? suggestions?

Great Clay. Cheers!

Andre:

Whatever works, works. If the refrigerator works for you then you don't need to invest in other equipment.

The real solution is to find a way to work in a room that's 20C. While it will take longer for the molds to cool than at 15C, you will find that tempering will be easier and much more consistent when the room is around this temperature. You should a temperature and humidity gauge in the working area and take notes as you work. If you have problems you may find that changes in temp/humidity may be the cause.

Many thanks Clay.

It's been a hot summer over here in Sao Paulo and room temperatures frequently stay above 28C (82F), so I bought an air con to help temper my chocolate. After that, I put the the chocolate in a refrigerator to cool it down, but I'm not sure if this is the appropriate. I read in other posts that it ok as long as the chocolate does not stay long. Is that so? Or I should buy an equipment that does that and sets the temperature in the range you mentioned?

Thanks!!

Andre -

The temperature will affect the time it takes to cool. As important is airflow above and below the mold to remove the heat. The combination of temperature and airflow will determine the amount of time it takes to cool completely.

55F-60F is a good place to start.

You do need to think about humidity. If the difference in temperature between ambient and the cooling environment is great enough condensation can form on the bars - and this is a bad thing.

I studied a little about the Kuna Indians and the effect of their cacao drink on cardiovascular health at university. I have decided to visit San Blasthis Christmas as part of a 4 week trip. Although there seems to be a lot of info on the studies of Kuna Indians and their cacao consumption, there seems to be little or no mention of cacao on any San Blas tourist websites.

I've booked into a tour and really hope to find something when I'm there, but wondering if anyone has any recommendations or contacts that they can share which mayhelp mefind cacao on San Blas?

Thanks!

Hi, I just created an album for myself... Joey's Chocolates....

Hope you can take the time to have a look.

Hugs, Joey

Hello, I have added these chocolates to my list. Hope the photo is OK to post. Hugs, joey

If I'm organised, I turn the tanks on the night before at 45C, let the chocolate melt and the next morning I take it out the tanks, hand temper on tabletop, turn the temp to 31C and put the tempered chocolate back in the tank. From there you can keep it in the tank all day, stirring it and occasionally adding heat to stop it "over tempering".

If I'm not organised, I just melt my chocolate in the microwave to 45C, table temper it and then add into the melting tank at 31C.

I usually have two tanks going at a time - one for dark and one for milk.

You can also melt your chocolate to 45C (either overnight or in microwave), then turn the tank temp to 31C and add seed chocolate to temper. I find this takes a LOT longer though. Much quicker just to table the chocolate.

Hi Gap,

thanks again for the reply. These look like a great option, but how do you work it? as in do you melt all your chocolate in one tank between 45-50c then temper on marble and put into other tank set at 31C to hold temper during the day? or do you melt in both tanks to 45C,take out approx 2/3 of melted chocolate, cool on marble, then add back into same tank but turning down the temp to 31C to hold the now tempered chocolate? or do you melt, remove it all, temper then put back into tank at lower temp?

cheers

Hi James - that sounds like the one. I use an earlier model of this:

http://www.moldart.be/en/shop/chocolate-machinery/dry-heat-chocolat...

I use two tanks and often set them up in the morning with 5kg in each and mould during the day (moulded chocolates rather than bars). I've used them for my bean-to-bar as well just to hold chocolate tempered until I mould as well.

Hi Gap,

thanks for your very helpful reply. Are the holding tanks called 'chocolate melters' by mol d'art? as looked on their website but couldn't find anything referred to as a holding tank. something called a chocolate kettle but that was insanely expensive. How much chocolate do you work with throughout the day in your tank?

thanks again

Yes there are heated holding tanks. Mol d'Art are the most common (and what I use) but there are others. You temper all your chocolate by hand (they have a smaller units, a 6kg and a 12kg unit) and then put it in the tank which is set to working temp (sat 31C). You can then leave it and it will hold temper. The biggest issue is that you need to "keep" it in temper with a little work during the day. This mainly involves stirring every now and then and, as the chocolate can over-crystallise, hitting it with a heat gun when it starts to thicken too much (but not letting the temperature get so high that it goes out of temper). Its pretty easy when you get the hang of it and I often work with chocolate all day kept in a couple of these tanks and managing the temper of the chocolate just becomes second nature while you're doing other things.