Forum Activity for @Alan Caldwell

what did I do to my chocolate?

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Ive been dabbling a bit lately with making bonbons.

I have used a friends tempering machine to get the temper right. For the first batch of bonbons

Ive had a few bonbons stick, but thats a different post.

Ive gotten a bit of "leftover" choc. Its from when I empty the molds. Ive tried to reheat the choc to retemper it. I put the choc into a small plastic container, into the water bath of my thermocirculator. 48C till its all melted, and I checked the temp. It was kind of lumpy, small sand grain sized "lumps". They are barely perceptible on your palate, but you definitely see it.

I bumped the temp upto 50C, and let it sit for 45 min. No better. I have attached a pic of the choc, at 50C after I tried to blend out the lumps with a stick blender.

Whats going on?

-choc; is callebaut callet c811

Cheers

Alan

updated by @Alan Caldwell: 04/11/25 09:27:36

hot chocolate dispenser

Posted in: Tasting Notes

I don't own one myself, but I've talked with numerous people who do and the only real negative feedback I get is that the bowl is made from plastic. As such, over time it can get scratched and even "cloudy" looking. I would recommend that when you clean the bowl you do it by hand, avoid harsh detergents, and use a soft scrubber.

The other issue is that they only hold about 5 liters, so if you are serving 6-8 oz portions you're only going to get 20-25 servings before the unit is empty. Depending on the foot traffic in your shop you might go through that pretty quick. And that, as you might imagine, can create operational difficulties on a busy day. As long as you keep issues like this in mind, the feedback I have gotten is that they work as advertised.

hot chocolate dispenser

Posted in: Tasting Notes

Does anyone have thoughts on a hot chocolate dispenser? We are making our hot chocolate with ganache, and wonder if you can help us anticipate any problems. This machine

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/cecilware-choco-1-delice-countertop-hot-chocolate-dispenser-120v/385CHOCO1.html

is what we are thinking about getting.

Thanks

updated by @Nicole5: 04/10/15 08:31:12

Need a details of manufacturer of transfer sheet,edible confetti,wrapping foil in India

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Hello friends,

Can anyone tell me the manufacturer of transfer sheet,edible confetti,wrapping foil in India?

I want to be a supplier of chocolate material.How is the scope?

updated by @Aarti: 04/07/25 13:00:14

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

If you are in Adelaide you are welcome to come and see how do we make our chocolate and the rest of processing.

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I think next time I am in Australia I would love to pop over .. I'll call you before hand .. do you know any good place here in NZ that might be able to lend me a hand ??? I am eger to learn and vedios on the internet give a bot of help but does not really make you feel the exsperince and most are so diffrent than what I need to do .. I really really apprciate you taking the time to reply to me .. its indeed very kind of you.

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

A bit too far for a drive to Adelaide in South Australia to see how we are doing it.

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

i live in Hamilton, Waikato in New Zealand

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I would suggest that you:

a. Do a lot more reading about chocolate tempering.

b. Find a method that would be suitable to your situation.

c. Practice with chocolate to learn how to achieve the correct temper (this you can do with normal chocolate from the supermarket). Remember that you canmelt and temper again and again so there is no waste. There are a few methods of tempering that work on the small scale beside seed tempering.

d.Once you have agood feel for this you can practice with your chocolate till you find the best way of doing it.

There are polish and varnish products that are used for panned goods (made with untempered chocolate) but this is a very complex application process.

If your chocolate will be well tempered it will be nice and shiny without any need for spraying.

Where abouts are you?

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thank you so much for that .. my next step now is that I need the choclate to be warm enough to cut !! that mean leaving it in a room of 16-18 dergee or sometime I put it in a cold low heat oven for few seconds just to give me enough time to make the product possible to cut in shapes with a cookie cutter tyep. is that again going to damage my Choclate!!

Also is there is any product out there that I can spray my choclate to make it more shiny ??

much apprciate your kind attention and time to reply. this is a very important subject for me and we dont have anyone near by that I can go for advice.

Thanks

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I'm afraid that you may need to do a bit more reading on the subject of chocolate tempering.

Putting things in a really simplified way:

1. In hot (over 40-45C) chocolateall the cocoa butter present will bemelted, no crystals present.

2. Such chocolate needs to be cooled to around 25-28C so some of the cocoa butter present will crystalize. This crystalization will produce a variety of crystal forms (cocoa butter is polymorphic which means that it can crystalize in many different types of crystal forms).

3. Chocolate cooled in previous step with different forms of crystals is warmed up to 29-31C which melts the unstable crystals leaving only stable ones. This is tempered chocolate and can be used to form products that will not bloom and look good.

This is a very general process description and temperatures are just for indication.

In your case if you take the tempered chocolate and melt it at 40C you effectively melt all the cocoa butter crystals making chocolate untempered.

If you make product with such chocolate it will bloom.

If you have your bought chocolate already tempered you may try seed tempering where you add some solid tempered chocolate to liquid chocolate. Something along these lines:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-temper-chocolate

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

thanks for your kind attention .. the chocolatethat I buy is pre-tempered so i just melt theboth type of chocolate in around 40Cin my Choclate machine :

http://www.roband.com.au/roband/bainmain/Chocolate%20Tempering%20Bain%20Maries/Chocolate%20tempering%20bain%20marie.htm

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

You have not mentioned tempering your chocolate.

How do you temper?

Blooming and white spot on my Slabs!!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi, I melt high quality belgium white chocolate then I mix peanut butter into it, I put it on a tray then I swirl pure 70% chocolate through it .. This has to set as after that i need to cut it in squares for serving!!

I do that at Home but I use a melting machine to melt my chocolate, then I put the tray in a chillier to cool down some time over night!! i take the tray out to warm the chocolate to a room tempture so I can cut the size i want.

some days the chocolate is looking super!! other time the chocolate get those little tiny white spots and blooming happen.

I am so disparate to know why some time its ok an other time its not .. some times even half the tray is good and the other is not. the ecstatic look of my chocolate as the taste is very important to me, so Please help with any advice out there.

also is there s anyting I can spray to make the chocolate look shiny without effecting the taste??

much apprciate any help.

updated by @OD: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Vanilla Bean

Posted in: Tasting Notes

For a patch of dark chocolate I'm working on and I want to add vanilla to it. What form of vanilla should I use while conching? ( whole vanilla pod/bean or vanilla powder) And at what stage is the proper stage should I add sugar, cocoa butter and vanilla into my chocolate?

Thank you

Terry

updated by @TerryHo: 04/09/15 09:20:17

Need to buy injection PC molds for bars, where to buy?

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi Corinne, thank you for your suggestions, I will try them out.

I also want to put in a kudos for Renee at Chocolat Chocolat, she read my query here on TCL and contacted me with their 4 closest matches, and two of them might work for me.

I was very impressed, she went to a lot of work.

In gratitude,

Mack

Need to buy injection PC molds for bars, where to buy?

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

i would suggest martellato and cambrellon 2 italian brands. their molds are very goid

Need to buy injection PC molds for bars, where to buy?

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hi TCL friends,

I have Tomric bar molds, and get release marks. From research on this forum I get the impression this is due to the molds not being made by injection mold process. I emailed Tomric who said "Our molds are made out of sheets of polycarbonate, the sheets of polycarbonate are heated up and vacuum formed over the tooling". My guess is the injection molds are thicker and thus hold temperature more evenly?

So, I now am on a quest to buy injection PC molds. Chocolat-Chocolat does not have the size I want. I am looking for suggestions of which companies to contact. I looked at Pavoni, their website is not very user friendly, and I could not locate bar their molds. Micelli if I understand is set up to make custom molds. I just want to buy stock molds.

Specifically I am looking for bar molds, 4 cavities, each bar being approx 5.5" x 2.25" x .375, and the molds would have break apart lines. The Tomric molds I have feature all the above, but sadly leave the release marks.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

In thanking you in advance,

Mack

updated by @Mack Ransom: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Introducing ChocoSombra!

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

ChocoSombra is dedicated to bringing you the highest quality cacao and coffee directly from single estate farms in Peru. These farms were selected for their excellence in products, biodynamic farming practices, and cultural preservation. Combining state of the art technology in their plant in Frederick, MD with the highest quality raw beans, ChocoSombra brings you the best that this Amazon region offers. Experience quality taste in good conscience.Biodynamic Farming Direct Trade Native Shade Grown Single Estate Premium QualityLearn more at www.chocosombra.net https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAfLkriZn0c http://youtu.be/OR8-FgSYq4o Introductory offer formembers of The Chocolate Life:Raw cacao beans - $16.90/2 pound bagRoasted cacao beans - $18.90/2 pound bagNibs: 1LB - $17.25, 6 ounce - $9.3540 gram 80% dark chocolate bar - $2.75 eachPlease use the "Contact Us" link on the website with "The Chocolate Life" in the subject line to coordinate ordering or negotiate pricing for greater quantities.
updated by @Wayback When: 04/11/15 22:06:01

Chocolate bloom questions

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I am use Belcolade and Callebaut. I make mostly hollow, decorated articles. I like to work a little on the hot side in a cool room and let molds finish the tempering for me. The molded items are then packed in a plastic box ( that is not air tight) and there after placed in a cardboard box ( which is airtight). When I taste freshly molded items they taste fantastic with strong chocolate flavor and great melting. As the pieces get older 1/2/3/4 months the flavor becomes weaker and they no longer " instamelt".

Chocolate bloom questions

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

When does it begin? immediately. it's a process who's rate depends on many things - total fat content, if you have milk fat present, and if so how much, are there nuts present, how 'good' was your temper to begin with, what are the storage conditions, etc.

Generally speaking, a good rule of thumb is that most of the changes are going to work their way out after a month. the chocolates certainly not done changing by that point, however the average person's not going to notice significant changes after that time.

Should you switch? that's a big question - that's entirely up to you. i don't know enough about what you're using, how you're using it, or what your customer want to answer that!

Undertempering a bit and sealing in air tight plastic wrappers could extend the peaks and valleys a bit, but undertempering's a very trickily proposition if you don't have a way of accurately measuring it, and many people don't have hot/cold sealers to seal their bars in airtight plastic overwrap film...

Chocolate bloom questions

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Sebastian,

When you say " over time". How long before the still liquid cocoa butter begins to solidify and at what rate?

I currently use fairly expensive chocolate that happens to agree well with my pallet and the pallets people that I have surveyed. Most of my products have at a minimum 3 months from being made to being eaten by the customer and in many cases customers hold on to our products for 6 months or longer (as they do not change much visually). When comparing my day old products to my month old products to my 3/6/9/12 month old products I have noticed " huge peaks and valleys" turning into foothills, which makes me ask two questions;

Since 6 months to a year later the difference in flavor is not as easily noticeable, should I keep using such expensive Belgian chocolate or switch to something domestic.

Is there a way that I could maintain the "peaks and valleys" for a longer period of time?

I appreciate your thoughts

Best

Victor

Chocolate bloom questions

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Chocolate flavor does indeed change over time in tempered chocolate - the main driver of this has to do with how tempering works. When you have a 'solid' tempered bar - there's still actually quite a bit of liquid cocoa butter present in it. Over time, much of that liquid cocoa butter will begin to crystallize and solidify (this is also why your chocolates get harder over time). The dynamics of flavor release with solid fat are quite different with the dynamics of flavor release with liquid fat. Generally what you'll see is a 'rounding out' of the flavors - where you might one have had huge peaks and valleys of flavor, you'll now have foothills. This isn't true for all flavor categories, and the ability of acids mitigation depends heavily on the type of acids you have present.

Chocolate bloom questions

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I will not comment on aging chocolate as a method of flavour development.

Yes you can take chocolate from the conche without tempering and mould it into big block using plastic trays(smaller 3-5kg blocks work better, easier to use later). After it sets take it out of the trays and keep for later use.

This chocolate will bloom very fast but this is not a problem.

You will need to melt it down again when you want to use it and in this proces you will melt all the unstable cocoa butter crystals that create bloom.

Chocolate bloom questions

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques


updated by @TerryHo: 04/11/25 09:27:36

chocovision skimmer vs dispenser

Posted in: Opinion

chocovision skimmer vs dispenser

skimmer is more expensive. But dispense just like the dispenser (cheaper). What are people paying more bucks for? I am debating on which one to get.

I will make molded chocolate bar.

Thanks

updated by @Susie2: 04/12/15 23:12:53

online school for chocolate making

Posted in: Opinion

I'd like to hear about this too - specifically the bean-to-bar program

online school for chocolate making

Posted in: Opinion

Can someone please advise on the ecole chocolate online school
updated by @Rashmi Anand: 04/10/15 13:19:01

Seattle area Chocolate folk

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Make sure to attend the NW Chocolate Show this weekend - you should find what you are looking for there.

Seattle area Chocolate folk

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hi y'all,

Freshly transplanted to Kirkland from North Carolina, I am looking to meet some local chocolate folk for talk, collaboration, or even for a job if there are any available. I have moved here so my wife can get her Doctorate. While I am here I would like to make the most of the amazing local chocolate scene and hope to work with dark chocolates, especially with added super foods such as blueberries, goji berries, blue green algae, etc. or perhaps even MMJ. If any of that sounds interesting to you, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks in advance!

updated by @Reverend Pearson Hobart-Beaumari: 04/13/15 05:52:50

my dark chocolate is white out of the mold, help with tempering

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Aloha,

I'm a beginner making chocolate in Hawaii with Hawaiian cacao. At first this was a challenge in my home 82 degree kitchen, but I am now getting a stable temper (does not melt in my hand), but a lot of my chocolates are getting white streaks and the outer layer of my last batch is completely white (see attached picture). With other batches, some have looked great. The only batch I have made that did not bloom at all had added cacao butter which I do not usually add and they are looking great a month later, so I am wondering if a factor is low fat content. In a previous batch of dark w/no butter, some had streaking and some did not. At the time I attributed that to the fact the streaked chocolates were the last to be molded and the melted chocolate was difficult to pour and had already cooled considerably and probably unevenly.

The batch pictured is 72% criollo with no added cacao butter. I've been letting my chocolate age in a bowl for about a week. By then it has tempered on it's own. It seems that doing this helps the stability of my end product but I don't know why. I realized I could probably do a seeding method with this, but I have been heating 4lb batches to 120 degrees, then cooling half on a slab of granite by hand with many fans, getting it down to 80-82 degrees, then back up to below 91. Then molding by pouring or syringes and using a heating pad for the melted chocolate. This white, problem batch I let harden at room temperature whereas I have hardened previous batches in the refrigerator. I decided to try room temp because the drastic temperature change and condensation upon removing my product seemed to affect its flavor over time.

Where am I going wrong? Any feedback on the art and science of tempering (Hawaiian) cacao much appreciated! Thank you!

updated by @sterling: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Sweating Sea Salt

Posted in: Tasting Notes

I had this happen to me a few times in the past, but it was due to the humidity in the room. I haven't had it happen again since I got that under control.

Sweating Sea Salt

Posted in: Tasting Notes

I'm looking for help with an odd thing happening with Fumee De Sal smoked Sea Salt and our dark and milk chocolate. After we top the chocolate with the salt, hours later the salt begins to sweat; on some days, it went so far as to completely dissolve into salt water puddles on our chocolate bark. Temperature, humidity, and many other factors seemed to be the same or similar as many times when this did not happened. No other outside factors seem to play a part that we can deduce. Something was different! Any thoughts?

updated by @Michael Beery: 04/09/15 15:27:08

confusion about chocolates

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I am not making ganache. I was thinking of mixing the dark chocolate with the milk chocolate

confusion about chocolates

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I don't understand what you mean about the percentage. Are you making a ganache? so with a compound you would use 3 parts chocolate to 1 part cream?

- If that is what you are asking, I'll defer to the more experience members of the chocolate life for that answer. We don't make any ganache center chocolates right now.

Searching this website will behelpful for that.

Thanks

confusion about chocolates

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

thank you so much Larry. You have definitely put my mind at rest. And am definitely going to give it a try. I was worried that I had wasted all my money as I wont be able to handle the chocolate well. But your reply has surely given me a confidence to try it out.One more thing I would like to ask is that generally what should be the percentage of dark and milk chocolate while moulding. (for the 70% compound I was using the proportion of 3:1)Will it be different for the 50% dark and 30% milk.Thank you

confusion about chocolates

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Rashimi,There is nothing to worry about. The difference between compound coating and real chocolate is the type of fat used. Real chocolate will have cocoa butter which requires it to be handled differently.With chocolate you need to temper it to make it set up.There are several ways to temper chocolate. The seed method of Temperring is done by gently heating the chocolate, then adding some unmelted new chocolate as seed to cool it down. The tableing method involves gently heating the chocolate, then pouring 1/3 of if on a stone slab (marble, granite,,,) then scrape the chocolate and stir it on the slab til it cools a bit. Then add the chocolate back to the bowl and stir it in.Temperatures are very important, so a good thermometer will be valuable.There are lots of good videos and articles about tempering. Here is one I like. http://www.chocolatealchemy.com/illustrated-tempering I would practice tempering with the chocolate by filling the molds and letting the chocolate cool until you can get them to come out if the mold cleanly and with a pretty shine. You can remelt the molded chocolate so there isn't waste that way.I think you will enjoy the taste of real chocolate more, but it is more difficult to work with.Also, try to keep the chocolate cool and dry.Welcom to The Chocolate Life. Larry

confusion about chocolates

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

friends am new in the field of chocolate moulding. did a short course where I learnt to do different types of chocolates using 70 % dark and milk compound chocolate. However where I live in Ghana compounds are not available and unknowingly bought the 50% dark callebaut and 30% milk callebaut. .Now I am in a soup because one it is very expensive and I have invested the money and secondly I don't know how to use this is the correct way. I would be grateful if someone could guide me on the correct method. Really would be grateful.
updated by @Rashmi Anand: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Calculating density of chocolate

Posted in: Tasting Notes

Thanks, Cheebs

Calculating density of chocolate

Posted in: Tasting Notes

Very simple to do: Get a 10cc syringe, weigh it and with the syringe on the scale set your scale to 0. Fill the syringe up to 10cc and weigh it. Divide by 10 and there's your density. In my experience it is around 1.27g/cc.

Calculating density of chocolate

Posted in: Tasting Notes

Any leads on this?
updated by @Amaleah Brigitte Black-Smiley: 04/09/15 07:36:57

Roaster review

Posted in: Opinion

I would like to test the convection oven roasting method. Reading up on past posts, some members swear by this method and have yielded successful results. Is there a way to modify your oven to ensure even air flow?