Forum Activity for @Ning-Geng Ong

To me the whole bean chocolate marketing and to some extend the raw chocolate marketing are NOT targetting the flavor-centric audience like me (and you?). I have an aunt that swears by the benefits of raw food, and naturally would grab for the raw chocolate on the shelf, despite its flavor, or lack-of. The motivation here is one that is emotional, and no amount of rationalizing against whole bean / raw choc would change any minds... For the record, I made a chocolate with extra shells that were winnowed, just for kicks, and I really don't taste any merits in terms of flavor. I first hoped that the sugars from the pulp may come through slightly but after the fermentation and roasting, only the cardboard profile is dominant. I've since moved on.

thankss Sebastiann!

My Robot Coupe only has a 5 minute duty cycle. How are you able to make a oaste in that much time?

A colloid mill could easily handle that.  search JKV colloid mill, but be prepared to clean the living daylights out of it.

I am currently making a lot of almond praline paste in my robot coupe. It does a good job, but it can only handle small batches and it does take quite a while to get a nice paste.  I think I will need to upgrade to a bigger machine. Does anyone have any reccomendations on what to buy. I am looking at making about 30 pounds of praline paste in a day.  Thanks in advance!

Daniel

Wow!  Just re-read this whole thing and to be honest I'm frustrated as all hell.  I tried to get a case made up just like Carlos up there but my Wood working friend went bigger.  But it's an eye catcher.  

 https://www.facebook.com/488149624570362/photos/a.812392278812760.1073741827.488149624570362/818352691550052/?type=3&theater

(hope that link works...)   It is a wood and plexiglass tabletop case 35"x26"x25" with sliding glass doors in the back.

It's big and bad ass...but the Thermal Electric never worked.  He Macgyvered it using XBox powersupply to power most of it.  

After the show I cracked it open and replaced and rewired everything.

 I got 2 PSP's  ( http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Regulated-Switching-Computer-Project/dp/B00D7CWSCG/ref=pd_cp_hi_0?tag=vglnkc4130-20 )

A Temp Control Unit  ( http://www.amazon.com/Elitech-All-Purpose-Temperature-Controller-Thermostat/dp/B008KVGWT4/ref=pd_sim_lg_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0N16Q2Z9B58JMHBBHR0Z&tag=vglnkc4130-20 ) 

Two TEC1-12726 Peltiers  

I wired everything the way I THOUGHT it should go, tested full flow with a meter- got lots of juice but I'm not getting any Temp Diference.  

I was hoping to have 2 smaller display units built and working by now but I can't get a temp difference.  

Anyone have any suggestions...good grief- it's been almost 4 years already?  

Sorry for all the links...it's been such a long time since I posted on a bbcode board.  :/ 

yes.  lecithin makes the chocolate 'thinner' (more like water when you pour it - less viscuous) - it's a way to use less cocoa butter and make the chocolate easier to work with.  It's an emulsifier.

if two wheels mill stone.

process lasts 12 hours, I would add the crushed cocoa butter and then sugar and milk. but especially at the beginning. this also correct?

Lecithin is it for?

thanks Sebastian!

It is Chinese.  I've had very good luck with it, but it will arrive very dirty.

Order of ingredients can vary greatly depending on what equipment you have and what you're trying to do.  If you're using a wet grinder (the stone mill), add your liquor, dry ingredients, and perhaps some cocoa butter (it's difficult for me to say w/o knowing the exact formulation - youll need enough cocoa butter to keep it fluid during mixing).  Always add lecithing if you choose to use it towards the end of the process.

Thanks sebastian, this mill is Chinese?

I see you know a lot of chocolate, I started with this issue about 7 months ago.

I can ask you a question?

I have doubts at the time of placement of the ingredients, Nibs, cocoa butter, sugar and milk.

You know the order and times?

sebastian many thanks and sorry so many questions!

You might want to consider a JML colloid mill (JML 65 is the smaller one, JML 120 is the larger). Both will require EXTENSIVE cleaning when you recieve them, but are quite effective at a lower cost than $5k ($1.5-3.0k).

The water cooling will be important to ensure you don't burn your liquor during grinding.

Hello Sebastian, I recommended a colloid mill but the price is 5000 dollars.

I need to grind 40 kilos per day

Can you give a sense of what you consider to be 'not too expensive' and the quantities that you're looking to mill?

Youngs Double Chocolate Stout - you should be abvle to get this anywhere

Boatswain Chocolate Stout - I get mine at Trader Joes

and my favorite beer of all: Gearys Winter Ale - the brewery is a mile from home.  

Lucky for us, our chocolate bars go into boxes, so the slope doesn't matter.

In fact, wrapping the bars "updside down" helps us, because our bar boxes are translucent, and having a very smooth surface actually works to our benefit, as opposed to being able to see the pattern of the bar as it's pressed through the foil when it's wrapped.

Hey there, Haven't checked out the dogfish brew yet. Looks like they are selling it here in California too. 

Clay, I'm a former Los Angelino now living in Panama (and making chocolate in the Chiriqui Highlands).  I will be visiting family in Los Angeles in mid-May and would LOVE to find Solbeso.  Will be available for purchase by then?  The company website says they are not yet launched in CA.

Any recommendation of machines to grind cocoa, before placing it in the Melanger that is not too expensive?

thanksss

Have you checked out Theobroma from DogFishHead Brewery?

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/theobroma.htm

Most 'off the shelf' vanilla extracts are what's called a single fold (1x) concentration, and use alcohol.  alcohol based flavors will be just fine in chocolate, just keep the concentration less than 1%.  As there are higher concentrations of alcohol (2x, 4x, 6x, etc) one can't really say  how much is the right amount, you'll need to p lay with levels a bit to find that out for yourself.  Other oils have differenet strengths - essential oils for example can be very, very, very potent - to the point where you may have a difficult weighing out a small enough quantity accurately to be consistent.  If you're getting oils from grocery stores (ie consumer type flavorants) those have already been heavily diluted to make it easier for the home cook to manage.

A cut test is *always* a good thing to do if you're looking for quality control.  The thing is - there's no right answer, what you're looking for and willing to accept is a function of what you want in your end product.  Purple beans indicates either the beans were unfermented or lightly fermented, and they will be higher in bitterness, astringency, and lower chocolate flavor.  Brown / dark beans indicates they are well fermented - how well is difficult to say from the cust test alone, but they'll likely have higher chocolate flavor, and less astringency and bitterness.  Very dark and crumbly probably means they're very old beans that have been in the pipeline for a long time.

Are you happy with the chocolate those beans are making for you?  If so, then do taht cut test 10 times and use those results as your baseline fo what you want to see.  Sadly, doing a cut test *after* you've recieved your bulk shipment makes it very difficult to do anything about your bulk shipment if you're dissatisfied. I have no idea what your scale is, but you may want to consider setting up a sampling/preshipment program where your supplier sends you a small amount for y ou to test, after which you give the green light to ship based on the results.

Buon giono a tutti vorrei un aiuto dove posso trovare in italia o in europa piccoli quantitativi di fave

Hi Larry, 

i saw this link posted to someone else on here (think due to their roasting issues) which is what made me think that I have never actually checked the beans using a cut test, and now I am wondering whether I should mention/complain about the fairly major differences between just 100g of these beans. I don't suppose there is much I can do if they are under fermented is there?

That's quite the mix of beans. Here is a useful link. http://ccib.gov.tt/node/116

I'm not an expert, just regurgitating what I've gleaned from TheChocolateLife

It looks like your purple ones are underfermented and the yellow/brown ones are unfermented.

Hi everyone,

read on here that it is a good idea to do a cut test of the fermented cocoa beans when they arrive. So i took a 100g sample of the cocoa bean and started chopping them up. I have a little picture table with examples of what the colours in the beans mean/represent, and am now a bit concerned about some of the ones i have cut up. I have attached pictures and grouped them in their colours. First one (biggest group) is the partly purple-chocolately brown coloured ones which are all good?

2nd group (and 2nd largest group) are these yellow/brown ones, i am worried these are mouldy? or maybe overfermented?

3rd group are these very obvious purple ones i am not sure if this is a good purple or a bad insufficiently fermented purple? plus one of these purple beans has a bit of white on it, not sure what this is?  

this last group of just the one bean was a very dark brown and was very crumbly which i think probably means it has been overfermented?

any help and advice would be brilliant. i dont know if this is quite common to have such a variety in just 100g or not, and so i dont know whether i should keep using them, or contact my supplier etc.

cheers chocolate community!

Hi everyone,

read on here that it is a good idea to do a cut test of the fermented cocoa beans when they arrive. So i took a 100g sample of the cocoa bean and started chopping them up. I have a little picture table with examples of what the colours in the beans mean/represent, and am now a bit concerned about some of the ones i have cut up. I have attached pictures and grouped them in their colours. First one (biggest group) is the partly purple-chocolately brown coloured ones which are all good?

2nd group (and 2nd largest group) are these yellow/brown ones, i am worried these are mouldy? or maybe overfermented?

3rd group are these very obvious purple ones i am not sure if this is a good purple or a bad insufficiently fermented purple? plus one of these purple beans has a bit of white on it, not sure what this is?  

this last group of just the one bean was a very dark brown and was very crumbly which i think probably means it has been overfermented?

any help and advice would be brilliant. i dont know if this is quite common to have such a variety in just 100g or not, and so i dont know whether i should keep using them, or contact my supplier etc.

cheers chocolate community!

Hi everyone,

read on here that it is a good idea to do a cut test of the fermented cocoa beans when they arrive. So i took a 100g sample of the cocoa bean and started chopping them up. I have a little picture table with examples of what the colours in the beans mean/represent, and am now a bit concerned about some of the ones i have cut up. I have attached pictures and grouped them in their colours. First one (biggest group) is the partly purple-chocolately brown coloured ones which are all good?

2nd group (and 2nd largest group) are these yellow/brown ones, i am worried these are mouldy? or maybe overfermented?

3rd group are these very obvious purple ones i am not sure if this is a good purple or a bad insufficiently fermented purple? plus one of these purple beans has a bit of white on it, not sure what this is?  

this last group of just the one bean was a very dark brown and was very crumbly which i think probably means it has been overfermented?

any help and advice would be brilliant. i dont know if this is quite common to have such a variety in just 100g or not, and so i dont know whether i should keep using them, or contact my supplier etc.

cheers chocolate community!

I just made some chocolate and then flavored it with some orange and peppermint oils. It was two different batches. I used about 15 to 20 drops per pound. This was the first time I used essential oils to flavor my chocolate. After I tempered my chocolate, I added drops of oil, stirred and then tasted it. I kept adding drops until I was happy with the taste.

It's because most tablet molds have a pyramid slope from wide to narrow (narrow being the front). If you wrap this way you'll have to invert the outside label and your customer will have to flip the bar over to open it, defeating the purpose. We experimented with this when we started and it made wrapping more difficult and customers thought the bars looked "backwards" when they were wrapped. I guess it depends on your mold.

What is the temperature of the room? What cooling temp and for how long? Only time we really ran into that issue was when the molds were too warm. We also aim for 68F ambient room temp.

Dunno if you've figured out since you posted but vanilla extract tends to have alcohol and won't work in chocolate - in fact, the more you add, the more you'll end up with a thick sludge and won't be able to temper. Have you tried using vanilla bean? You can add as much as you want.

Does anyone know how to make chocolate chips in 5 to 10 pound batches without having to buy a big machine that costs thousands of dollars?  Thanks!

Hi all, I have them a query.

  what temperature should reach the chocolate when finished molding.

How long to wait for that chocolate is ready to be packed?

If I need to save for long a milk chocolate, at what temperature is the most correct?

gracias, thanks!

brad prefect, very good thanks for your help!

Thank you Ben! This is helpfull. Just finished editing my chocolate truffle book. I have your upala bar as a recommended chocolate for one of the truffles :-) It was supposed to be 125 pages. But it is 250 pages without photos :-( So I have a little reducing to do. Will be ebook published first, then do a limited print run.

Yup.

Interesting, I think that could be it. So then to rememdy the situation I should keep the walls thicker, and try to keep the base the same thickness as the walls?

You are correct. I should have said expanding/contracting at different rates. It looks like the bottom "stuck", but snapped off where the base is.

Yes I noticed these walls were pretty thin. What do you mean the bottom is expanding? I was under the assumption chocolate contacted slightly once set.

Could it be the walls were too cold when I appied the cap and it was not able to melt and reset into one piece? 

Just a guess here...It looks like your walls are very thin and your bottom very thick. Perhaps the bottom is expanding at a different rate than the sides and popping.

Hi,

So I have been making chocolate bon bons and the area where the cap and the walls of the bonbon are suppost to meet and melt together have not been lately. There is a hairline crack going all the way around the chocolate and therefore the bottoms fall off when I unmold them. Are my walls too thin? I am not sure how to correct this? Photos attached, any comments appreciated.

image (1).jpeg - 1.9MB