Twitter, Facebook, etc. are listed as optional but I cannot submit other changes without an entry in those fields. I do not participate in those sites so do not have any data to enter. Please do not require info for those sites.
Just jumping in incase someone else has the issue. I just got done dealing with this for about the past year. Was thinking my chocolate skills after almost 8 years were in decline for some reason. Turns out it was just my thermometer.
Sometimes I'd have streaks of lighter colored almost pale yellow on the mold side, and sometimes faint streaks on the back. Problem was it was inconsistent, even though tempering was being done consistently and it was passing the "spoon test" After calibrating my thermometer I found that it drifted from being accurate at 32F but then was off by an inconsistent amount and wasnt accurate again until 233F.
So, new thermometer and validating that it's properly calibrated solved the issue. Now I'm getting consistent temper anytime I try.
BTW: I thought it might be airflow, because I keep cieling fans on in the work area. So I turned them off with no change in temper. Some suggested humidity; but I live in a desert, where if I'm seeing 25%, it's a wet day. But that can also affect things if you're in a humid area. I do tend to keep my molds out at room temp, no heating or cooling of them specifically; then place them in a cold box at around 65-68F on a wire rack.
Thanks for that sebastian. I was always told to stay away from non-oil based flavorings in chocolate, so for the most part I have. Most of my experience is from flavor extractions for cooking and baking. And what you said does make a bit of sense since a lot of extractions try to concentrate the flavors/potentcy of the extract through distillation.
I've also noticed most non alcohol based flavorings I've found in the industry use Propelene Glycol as the medium as well and some using Vegetable Glycerin(may be labled as Glycerin or Glycerol). I would think that may be safe for chocolate as well without seizing. Both of which are an alcohol, but not water based.
Fat based flavors will always give you the best dispersion. Alcohol based flavors can work just fine in chocolate, but disperse less well as they're hydrophillic (it's the nature of alcohols). As time notes, due to a phenemonen called azeotroping, you're never going to get a 100% pure alcohol - it will always carry some water with it. Almost all your vanilla liquid flavors are alcohol based, for context, and the industry uses them all the time. Will you be ok with either one? Absolutely, but you may need to mix a bit more witih the alcohol based. If you use excessive amounts (ie > 1%), expect more challenges. Most of your texture is coming from the interaction of your cocoa butter and whatever liquid fat you're adding to get the meltaway texture.
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I have another question or two about corn syrup.
We've been using Karo corn syrup - the small 32 oz bottles because they don't have High Fructose Corn Syrup.
In an effort to bring my costs down, I picked up a pail of corn syrup. - Liquidose 434 (42 D.E. / 43 Baume')
This corn syrup is much more viscous (thick) than the Karo. The Karo has the consistency of maple syrup and the Liquidose has the consistency of.... very cold honey.
I'm guessing that a major difference between the two is the amount of water in the syrup. Karo has more relative to the Liquidose 434. This would also mean that if measuring by volume there are more corn syrup solids per unit in the Liquidose.
Am I right to believe this may also mean there is more anti-crystalization and AW reduction effect per unit of volume for the liquidose?
Do you think I should adjust my recipes? Will this change in corn syrup help increase my shelf life? Has anyone else encountered this?
Not seeing an answer here, so hopefully this will help. Let me start by saying I've never used an alcohol based flavoring for chocolate, so I'm not speaking from experience in that regard; just knowlege of the products/ingredients.
Alcohol is mixed with water. So any alcohol based flavorings are going to contain water. It's very difficult outside of medical grade stuff to get pure alcohol, so you're going to have a distilled mixture that at best will be about 98% pure, then diluted with distilled water down to approx 80-100 proof (40-50% alcohol) And that's the base.
The process is used because some flavors are simply not fat soluable and some flavors are. Further some flavors are naturally oils (like citrus).
Hopefully this info helps.
BTW: Did you try it and if so how did it turn out?
As for doing anything to help ... you are. I have only two eyes and limited bandwidth to do all the testing that needs to get done. By pointing things out to me that you think don't make sense I can focus on getting them fixed.
Thanks Clay. The reordered comments are working for me, and are much better, in my opinion.
And thanks for looking into the search funtionality. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.
Ben -
I have noticed this, too. I believe I can add the body of the group discussions into the global search capability pretty easily. As for the number of Forum results displayed - that's an issue I have brought up with the developers in another context and so finding a solution is already underway.
Ben -
Changing the sort order is trivial to do and I have already made that change. Let me know if it's working the way you think it should.
As for changing the display of the search results that requires programming. I think it's a very good idea and when I get a few free moments I will work on it. Over the weekend I hope, but not before. Another reason I did not do this is that there have been some issues I've been experiencing with comment sort order with threading enabled - the display order goes wacky for me. I have to work with the developers to clear up those issues as they would not be in my code.
Just noticed an issue with the search function. It appears that it only searches titles for group discussions, and the first post for forum discussions.
As examples, a search for the word 'foil' does not return the following group discussion, which has 'foil' in the first post:
http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/1134/chocolate-bar-wrappers
...and a search for 'infrared' does not return the following forum discussion, which has 'infrared' in the second post:
Thanks Clay. I think the search results look a little weird since they're inconsistent between the forum results (with detail) and the group results (without detail). My preference would definitely be to have the group results show the same detail as the forum results. It just gives you a little more info to help you decide which link to click.
For the group discussion comments, I would definitely prefer them to be oldest to newest. This is how the forum discussions work, so it would be consistent. But I also think it just makes more sense, considering that existing/older discussions on this site are used as a resource for new and existing users. Newest to oldest may work ok if you're actively tracking an ongoing discussion (although, I think oldest-to-newest makes more sense for this, too), but doesn't when referring back to it later or reading a discussion for the first time. In those cases, the user would read the original post at the top, then jump to the last page and scroll to the bottom, and then read a comment, scroll up to the top of the next comment, read down, scroll up, and so on.
Welcome and best wishes to you on this venture.
Clay, I might not post much on this site, but I want you to know how much this site has helped me when it comes to my chocolate business. If I ever have a question about anything chocolate -- this is the first step I take to look for an answer. I've never been disappointed in searching for the answer here first. I've found different used equipment to purchase (and the transactions have always worked out great); ways to "fix" my caramel cooking process for the perfect tasting caramel; suppliers to purchase needed supplies; answers to my questions about "what to do if...."; and more things than there is room to discuss. Thanks for creating a great "GO TO" site when it comes to every thing about chocolates.
Hey Clay,
Just noticed that I need to upload both a profile and an account photo. Didn't realize these were different things until the default image kept showing up even after updating my profile. You may not need to change this ... just a point of minor confusion. Site is great!
Jonas
Hi everyone. As the forum says, just wanted to introduce myself. I've been making chocolate truffles for about 9 years now and ventured into making chocolate from the bean about 6 years ago. My friends and family have convinced me that I should venture out and start a business making chocolate, so I have.
As the intro says, I'm in Arizona. Specifically the Phoenix area. And yes it becomes difficult to work with chocolate when it's 115+ outside, which may explain the utter lack of bean to bar makers here. 
New to the site, but have heard about good stuff and of course my google-fu leads me to various forum and blog posts here so I figured this would be a good place to be active. I look forward to getting to know you on the forums.
Greetings o chocomasters!
I recently bought a used Rev Delta and received a bunch of baffles. One of the baffles has a slight "burned" dark splotch over one of the two metallic sensors that touch the base (which tells the machine the baffle is installed correctly). So if I try to use that particular baffle, after about 5-6 minutes the drum stops and the alarm sounds with the LED warning ***PLEASE REPLACE BAFFLE*** even though it's screwed down all the way. I've tried (with more or less success) to unscrew it slightly which seems to help for a few minutes, but then it stops and gives the error message again. Using other baffles works just fine. When I emailed ChocoVision, they told me that the baffles can't be repaired and I have to buy a new baffle. Boo.
Anyone have any luck with this?
Speckledhen,
yes, please send me some photos. As I've asked, can you tell me the pros and cons of your machine? I've never used a smith before.
Patches as in discoloration? Do you have a photo?
Ben -
Having the name of the discussion without the detail makes a lot more sense when there are two or more search results.
The comments are being displayed in Newest to Oldest order. Do you want them in Oldest to Newest so that it's easier to follow the conversation? The page picker at the bottom makes it easy to jump to the last page.
Yep, I see the Shared Journey discussion now, too. I think it just didn't register that it was a link to the discussion since it didn't have the date, icon, first lines, etc. I must have just thought it was another section header.
The first post I see on that discussion is yours of 12/1/14, which is the most recent comment posted to that thread.
Thanks,
Ben
Ben:
When I click on Search in the top nav and enter " Shared Journey " as the search term I get the following page:
I see the Shared Journey discussion - as well as a forum topic that rererences the discussion. You see something different?
What is the date on the first comment displayed for you? For me it's 12/01/2014 - posted by me. I will look into the search thing.
Hi Clay,
On Thechocolatelife.info I am unable to post a classified. Is the functionality just not done yet? I press submit listing and nothing happends.
Thanks!
Thanks Clay. I will try option 1 out.
Thanks for looking into this Clay. The discussion that I first noticed this was this one:
http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/1068/barbecue-grill-convert-to-roaster
But the issue is much more apparent on a thread with more comments, like this one:
http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/666/shared-journey
It would be very awkward to ready that discussion start-to-finish with the current sorting.
On a separate issue, the search doesn't seem to search the group discussions. I tried to search for 'shared journey' but it didn't find the thread linked above.
Ben -
The answer is I think yes on all these questions. I have been working on the sort order of comments specifically. Some things are set globally and there are some new features that were just added that changed the way some things worked. For the group discussions could you post the URL of a page where the sort order is wrong?
The "best" way to handle the comment update is for adding a comment to by synonymous with updating the original post, which are now different things. That's being worked on by the developers.
Hi Clay. In the group discussions, is it possible to have comments displayed chronologically top-to-bottom like they are in the forums? Currently, they're showing in reverse order which makes it difficult to read an entire conversation.
Also, is it possible to have the group discussion list be ordered by the date of the last comment, instead of the creation date (again, like the forums)?
Thanks,
Ben
I have a Smith and Sons enrober that I'm looking to sell...I'm in Pittsburgh PA. It's an older enrober, probably 70's era?
It's an 8'' belt, so a smaller unit...it runs off of 110/220 and includes the bottomer a mid unit cooling unit and the enrober. I can send pictures if interested. Asking $11,000 + freight
Good day to you all.
Newbie to the forum here. I am just curious to know if there are any Kinder Surprise collectors out there? Their chocolate might not be the finest when compared to others, but the kids love them (why wouldn’t they, two 4 one).
I have collected the toys inside the eggs for many years now, and have a huge collection stored at my folks house. Living in the states, I am restricted to our annual Canada trip to stock up.
Anyway, hoping to get the ball rolling on a conversation.
Regards.
Shadowmeister
David - is this recipe in Peter's book?
Ian -
I can make your life a little easier, maybe, experimenting with Option 1. Put the chocolate you want to conche into a stand mixer. Get one of those new scraper paddle blades that scrape the entire bowl. Use a hair dryer for the hot air source. This is going to be a lot easier than the drill method you're suggesting.
Option 2 is a non-starter for lots of different reasons.
There are two processes during conching. One affects texture and the other flavor. To affect texture you need shear force that will break of small clumps of particles and coat every particle with cocoa butter. You won't get that with an air bubbler. The part that affects flavor is about evaporating volatile aromatics you don't want (mainly acetic acid) out of the chocolate. This can be done by blowing hot air across the chocolate and stirring the chocolate to make sure that all surfaces are exposed to the air blowing over it.
If you wanted to experiment with making a small home conche, I would suggest that playing with stirrer/scraper designs that were more effective and efficient would be the way to go. You could also experiment using a dough hook. The reason why no-one has created a small home conche on the scale of the small table-top grinders is that the market is too small.
So maybe I am going out on a limb here but I am looking to create a dedicated conching machine for home use. I have looked at possibly doing a metal bowl with a drill over the top pointed down with a baffle attached at the end to agitate the chocolate. I am sure this will work with a pod pad to provide the heating element, and a stand to hold the drill and keep pressure on the trigger.
Option 2 which is the one I am more interested in to see if it works. Imagine a glass or plastic container, taller than wider, filled with chocolate. Through the bottom and possibly the sides if need be there would be air nozzles through which air would be coming out of. Think an aerator in a fish tank, I would probably use one of these to make a easy. The air would be passing through at a near constant stream going through the chocolate and in turn, I hope, agitating the chocolate.
Would this agitate at the required force to actually turn over and coat the cocoa particles for a noticable different?
Would the chocolate fill with so many micro air bubbles that it would be a major pain to release them all when it came time to mold into bars?
IF this seems like a crack-pot theory/idea, has anyone made conche machines? I am having a hard time finding any at the home level (I doubt they exist) and as for commerical grade (even large ones) I am having a hard time finding them.
Suggestions, comments, all are welcome.
Can't wait to read what you taste on in Washington State!
Paul - I will get you info and we can take a look at your needs over the next few months.
Dave, you are right. There are other factors at play. One of them is the shape of the working bowl. The bowls on FBM machines are narrow and deep, whereas others tend to be wide and shallow. This bowl shape makes it easier to melt crystals out of the chocolate while reducing heat loss and energy consumption.
You are right when you say that the machines are more efficient when you keep the working bowls full, but that's a matter of organizing work and scheduling production.
I am still working on it. I will let you know when it is fixed - if I fix it for one person I fix it for everyone. Need to get the attention of the developers.
Sarah -
I am excited, too. I am also excited to find out what members like you are going to do with it. TheChocolateLife is a platform for anyone and everyone interested in chocolate ... it's not (just) about me.
Hi Clay,
I would be interested in looking at a catalog and price list. I should mention that I'm hoping to have the shop open in October, so I'm not in a great hurry to buy a machine. I'm also on a bit of a budget and might have to start with a cheaper, used unit to get up and running until I can afford a nice unit.
