Forum Activity for @Dirke Botsford

I'm just checking them out now, looks good. May have to cancel and switch....cheers

To little too late - but DR in Montreal handles Dedy.

Thanks for the advice Daniel, much appreciated. I just actually found one from Bakedeco (NYC) that I bought, just waiting now for the delivery. It's not metal based but it has three frames and from my research seemed fairly common place. So fingers crossed. I am really looking forward to not having to use a knife anymore! Hopefully it will last me a long time! Cheers and thanks again....Happy Easter!

Hello Dirke,

I make my living making chocolate confections and I will tell you that my confectionery guitar is one of my most important pieces of equipment. They are pricey pieces of equipment, but ultimately this tool helps me save money and make money. Several years ago when I was cutting with a knife, I would end up throwing a good amount of chocolate away because the resulting ganache was either too big or too small or funny shaped. Prior to chocolate I spent 10 years cooking in fine dining. I have excellent knife skills; however, cutting ganache is tricky and sticky and it is very hard to cut thousands of pieces into perfect squares. These days, I have very little waste and the guitar helps me produce more chocolate confections in a much shorter amount of time.

If you are looking for a confectionery guitar, I highly recommend the dedy brand from Germany. TCF sales in Texas is a great resource for these. Tom Polk who runs the company is a great guy. I have the base and just 1 frame. It cost me around $2,000 . I am not a fan of the cheaper guitars with a plastic base. They are very hard to clean and the frames that accompany them have a very cheap handle. The Dedy handle makes cutting much better and allows you to distribute your weight on the handle more evenly. The base of the Dedy is metal and it is so much easier to clean. It might be a few hundred more, but you will be glad you spent the extra money. I typically don't see a whole lot of used guitars. I would never sell mine. Whether you buy a used or new guitar, you will be very glad you made the investment! Good luck!!!

I am thinking of biting the bullet and buying a guitar cutter, and looking for a supplier in Canada. Anyone know of anyone? or even a used one....

Secondly, any recommendations? Double guitar or single? Pros or cons...do you find you use it enough to justify the cost? I am sure it beats using a knife but just wondering if it's worth it and would love to know your thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

We did a couple of batches of chocolate in the machine returned and we could not reproduce the rubber smell. We even tried using the machine in a closed room for 24 hours. We also talked to few of our customers and they do not recall having such a problem. One possibility we can think of is that the recipe you are using may be more viscous than normal and strains the belt.

Clement,

As I understand it, that is true of the older machines, but they upgraded the factory belts on the Cocoatowns a while back. So, I dont not think it is the belt.

I actually sent the machine back to Cocoatown when I first received it, because it was giving off such a strong odor. They did extensive tests and said it was running fine, however it is really altering the flavor of the chocolate.

Thanks so much for your input,

Jessica

Not too familiar with Cocoatown machines, but you may need to tighten the belt. Ben Rasmusen of Ptomac Chocolate recommends changing rubber belts to fiberglass. Take a look at his site or DIY on this blog. Good luck !!!

Im using the recipe that I normally use in my new Melanger. Im having serious issues. Melanger chocolate tastes like burnt rubber after a few hours in the new machine.

Has anyone experienced this? Is this just because its new?

Hello Steven, as I see the page was created on www.wix.com platform which is pretty good when you have no web design/programming knowledge and would like to have an acceptable website. As an advice I would recommend you to spend a few more dollars (maybe later when business grows up) to a web designer who will be able to develop a better site and also make it responsive, which means that will show the content the same way in virtually any device, no matter how big/small is the user's screen size.

Hope you take this just as a friendly advice, and if you need any help finding a good designer, I know a couple here in Dominican Republic that could help you with that, or also you can go to www.freelancer.com and hire any person for an affordable amount.

Wow! Thank you so much. That is a really solid find.

Fixing now!

Nice photos and a good explanation of your chocolate making process.

You have very pretty and enticing packaging. Good choice!

A small correction-- typo- on the Grinding/ Conching page ( http://www.stonegrindz.com/# !grinding/c1l7b) "loscious" should be luscious"

Your website is very nice. I especially love your candy bar wrappers. They are too nice to open.

I see no flaws. I like the site very much. Kinda jumps at you, and gets to the point: 'We are real good at what we do'!

Congratulations !!!

Looks great! Love the rolling hi-res pictures. You should consider accepting bitcoin as payment. Bitcoin payments can be done a processor like Bitpay ( https://bitpay.com ). You actually never touch the digital currency, the processor deposits next day in your local currency. A lot cheaper that Paypal or any other CC processor and no chargebacks. You just insert your business to a new and flourishing economy, with, quite possibly, zero risk.

Check it all out now!! I figured out how to just do edits on the mobile page specifically!!

Yeah the $7 symbols I created in photoshop and they look really nice on the computer but when it is on the phone it puts them at the bottom, I used them to cover the small $7.00 that the site automatically puts for the price of the item. Thank you for pointing that out, I will have to check that out and figure out if there is a way to separate the two so it doesn't do that.

And I will narrow the box that has the reviews of our chocolate in it! Thank you so much for being so detailed I seriously appreciate it.

Just uploaded my new website! I wanted to get some feedback on what you all think of it!

The url is www.stonegrindz.com

We have been working really hard on updating this, so be critical.

Thank you so much!!

Okay,

Thanks Omar!

As a beginner you would want to start using premade chocolate.Simply because your chocolate consumption in the beginning (assuming you will be opening a chocolate shop) will not be as high.

To make chocolate with raw materials you will need a machine to cook your recipe, which involves high cost in buying, maintaining the machine, energy bill etc...

Thanks Omar,

My question was about making chocolate from premade chocolate vs creating from raw materials, sorry I wasn't clear.

What do most of the chocolatiers use? What is considered "better"? Making chocolate from raw materials like cocoa liquor + butter + sugar... etc, or using premade chocolate likeValrhona, Callebaut, etc? I am not sure what should I choose as abeginner chocolatier.

I would taste and decide based on that.they all have a wide range of products.It all depends on your customers, what they like and how much they are willing to pay. We cannot really generalize and say callebaut is better than Belcolade for example, the dark chocolate might be better at Belcolade where milk might be better at Callebaut. It is also important to make sure the brand you choose is available in your area.Check with suppliers and compare prices. Good luck!

Thanks Omar,

I am still not sure what should I use. What most of the people who make pralines and chocolate bars use? What is considered "better"?

Hi there,

There are chocolate makers and chocolate "fondeurs" Chocolate makers produce their own chocolate recipe.it can either be from bean to bar or by mixing raw ingredients (cocoa mass,butter,sugar etc..) while "fondeurs" buy the chocolate from the list you mentioned, melt it and work their magic.

Hi,

I am starting to learn the art of making chocolate.
I have a basic question - do chocolatiers worldwide make their chocolates from cocoa butter + cocoa mass + vanilla, or they use premade chocolate like Valrhona, Callebaut, etc?

Thanks

Or M

I would consider enrobing with chocolate twice. first time before cutting and second after. The chocolate creates a thin layer making it easier to cut. Otherwise, your marshmallow recipe might need to be firmer.(more gelatin perhaps)

We picked up a Chicago Metallic Marshmallow Cutting Wheel and it is fantastic. a light spray with oil/butter and away you go.

$10 well spent.

The blade is plastic and perforated.

http://www.amazon.com/Metallic-Marshmallow-Collection-Perforated-Non-Stick/dp/B00FVFQ46S

My friend also used a pizza wheel - but she was very picky about which ones she purchased - some worked well depending on the blade/handle configuration, others more poorly.

We use pizza wheels and knives to cut ours. Coat them (the marshmallows) liberally in cornstarch or as an alternative powdered sugar and you shouldn't have a problem.

A friend who used to have a marshmallow business used drywall taping knives to cut hers.

I did take my guitar there one weekend they were producing and she found it useful to cut them.

When we are in production mode and are running low on chocolate (in our large tempering machine) we sometimes use a large container/bucket to melt about 5-7kg in a microwave. If you want to keep running without restarting the tempering process then just microwave out the chocolate to about the same temperature as the tempering machine runs at- for us its around 29-30c. We then add it in to the machine and retest to make sure its still crystallised (tempered).The stuff from the microwave will quickly crystallise with the rest of the chocolate in the machine.

If you start doing this before you run out of chocolate then you can re-fill seamlessly without losing much time.

It really helps when you are burning through your chocolate- like before easter! I would much rather have a melter/hot box, but that's just more money to spend!

How big is your tempering machine? -Which Model is it?If it issimilar to a Revolation Delta then adding a melter will really increase your capacity (as would a Holey Baffle)

If it is a larger machine, i.e. hilliards 80 lb/dayor a continuous tempering machine i.e. FBM Prima (7kg working bowl) or a FBM Chocolab (12 kg bowl) , I don't know if it would make much difference at your current level.

Have you checked out the DIY tab of this site? Clay referenced an inexpensive melter which can be built to expand your production. It may be well worth it to go ahead and build one nowfor the flexibility you'll need at peak seasons.

Melters can be used to increase the throughput of most tempering machines, so having a supply of melted chocolate on hand is a good thing, especially if the capacity of the tempering machine is less than the amount of chocolate you are using in a day.

You don't need to spend thousands on a melter. Just yesterday I say a home sous-vide machine that can be used to precisely control a water bath to within .1F. If you put a plexiglass cover over the top of the water bath with holes cut out for the chocolate, you can easily create an inexpensive melter. Temperature control might even be precise enough to melt the chocolate without taking it out of temper.

Maybe.

However, it could be used to temper chocolate using the seed method and replace a Mol d'Art costing $1000 or more.

Thank you Larry...we are molding. And we make about 30lb a day. Thanks!

Do you need both a chocolate melter machine and a temper machine? Or does the temper machine do the melting as well?

On it's own - no. It has the potential to, but only if your formulation is appropriate, and just as importantly, if you're materials handling procedures are appropriate. it's meant to minimize the amount of ambient air (and subsequently, ambient microbes) that encounter your product. You'll never eliminate them - that's impossible- but if your water activity is low, and you are careful not to re-introduce lots of ambient organisms post vacuum mixing, then the potential is there.

I'd say there are far more effective ways of helping increase shelf life - most notably via formulation.