Forum Activity for @Lee2

Sorry for the nasty title. I'm currently making a chocolate with a cinnamon inclusion. The cinnamon is from a local source, and I've cleaned and processed it myself. This species of cinnamon actually grows as a root, however, so there's probably no way of getting 100% of whatever was on it underground off. And it is basically raw.

I know things like garlic cannot be stored in oil due to concerns about botulism. Chocolate is largely oil (40%+ cocoa butter?), so I'm wondering if there's any concern here. How much oxygen is in chocolate? Is the pH low enough to prevent production of the toxin?

Haven't seen any info online, and only see one other post on TCL which admittedly says chocolate allows oxygen to "pass through" whatever that means lol

Anyway, jokes aside, botulism isn't funny, so if anyone knows something I'd love to hear it!

Thanks

Lee

Are you certain it's bloom? I've seen moulds - when clean - have soap or mineral residue left behind on them that's invisible to the naked eye - but the chocolate pulls it off the mould and leaves surface discoloration. Could be a potential.

Hey Milford,

I too use Tomric molds and have issues with pull off marks.

Do you mind sharing your "setting" process?

We use a True refrigerator with a chocolate/wine thermostat (55-60F) to set the chocolate.

Thank you for those resources. I have looked into getting Beckett's book Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use, but have shied away because of the price. I think Ill start with Youtube and The Science of Chocolate and see how far I can get with those.

That is all extremely helpful. Thank you. With my next batch I will definitely experiment with warming the molds and using a fan.

It depends on how deep you want to get into it. There are several articles, youtube videosand such on crystal formation that keep it simple, covering the temperatures you use and a little bit on why. For more depth there are several books, Beckett and Minifie are two good ones. If you're just interested in the fats involved with confections then Talbot is good.

Keep searching on this site, there are several discussions that talk about this. I faced these problems too up until the last week or two!

What I've learned about molding is:

• Crystals give off heat as they grow. Chocolate becomes solid due to crystallization. In a mold, often heat has trouble escaping. That's why people tell you to refrigerate once you see clear signs crystallization has gotten off to a good start. Note that simply putting the full mold in a cold place / the fridge might not be enough for very thick pieces, since it'll just warm up the immediate area it's in. Some recommend putting a fan in your refrigerator :D
• Cocoa butter left on the mold from the first batch of chocolate will stick to the next batch if you don't melt it by heating the mold up before pouring in the second batch. Obviously don't heat it too far above 30C or the chocolate you pour in might go out of temper. I have a dish drier that runs at a constant ~50 degrees or so, so I put the one mold in there while I'm pouring another. I guess putting it under a lamp would also work. You just need enough heat for the cocoa butter to warm up so it can integrate into the next chocolate rather than stick on the surface and look nasty.

Ok - so that's probably not interfering. See how it goes with Mark's heating suggestion and let us know.

Good crystal information in Beckett - The Science of Chocolate - but that might be a little more complex than you want. I think that Greweling covers it pretty well in Chocolates and Confections.

Mark,

Thank you so much for that information. I will definitely try warming the molds first before I fill them.

I would really like to expand my understanding of chocolate crystal formations. Are there any resources your could recommend?

Thanks,

Jessica

I have four sizes between 5mm and 14mm.

You mention that the room conditions are 64-68F. If your moulds are this temperature it can be the problem. When you are in temper, only a small percentage of the cocoa butter is crystallized in the type V crystals (~3%). If you deposit the chocolate in a cool mould you can crystallize some of the fat on the surface in less stable crystal forms. Ideally you want the moulds to be at or just below the temperature of your tempered chocolate. The thin plastic moulds are notorious for this as they do not hold the heat. Polycarbonate or thicker moulds are more insulated from losing their heat but they should still be warm when depositing.

Jessica,

How thick is this bar you are making?

Larry,

Thank you for your insights.I am having problems with the bloom on the top of the chocolate bar that does not touch the mold. The outside edge seems to remain in temper, while everything else seems to come out. When I break the bar apart the inside is whitish and chalky as well, while the outside edge retains its snap.

Kerry,

Thanks for the suggestion. I actually did that with two of the batches and still had the same result as the others.

I don't think you have bloom. I think you have release marks from the thin molds.

There are two kinds of bloom. Sugar Bloom -Humidity on chocolate dissolves some sugar & then the syrup evaporates leaving sugar crystals on top. and Fat Bloom - The chocolate melts, some of the cocoa butter separates and comes to the surface, and leaves you with spots on your chocolate.

What you seem to be describing are white marks (possibly circular) on your chocolate right after you de-mold it. I believe this is from the chocolate pulling on the mold as it contracts and the mold not holding firm. - the result is something like scraping the surface of the chocolate. It just makes a smudge. I can't say this with certainty though as I'm still learning.

We don't do a lot of molding, but I experimented with reinforcing some thin business card style molds with epoxy. - (sand the back of the mold to get a rough surface for the epoxy to adhere to, then pour epoxy on the mold.) The reinforced molds did perform better than the non-reinforced molds, in that the release marks were reduced. However they were not eliminated.

Kerry's idea about putting them in the fridge may do the trick. - It is certainly worth several attempts.

Try popping them in the fridge for about 15 minutes as soon as they start to show signs of crystallizing around the edges.

Every time I use my molds for chocolate bars, they bloom. However, If I dont use the molds and pour the chocolate on parchment paper, the chocolate is perfectly tempered, shiny and has a beautiful snap. As soon as I put the same chocolate into a molds, it blooms in the center on the top of the chocolate while the outside edge looks tempered.

This has now happened three times. the air temp is approx 64-68F, and the humidity has been about 40% with moderate air flow in the kitchen. I am using thin theroformed molds from tomric that are unheated before I pour the chocolate into them.

How can an unheated mold pull chocolate out of temper?

Has anyone experienced this before? I appreciate any advise or tips.

And the INTERNATIONAL CHOCOLATE SALON 2014 Awards for The Best Chocolatiers and Confectioners in America go to:

about 70 companies in three levels ranging from 6-Stars to 3-Stars. Click on the link above to see all the winners in all four categories.

And congratulations to all of the ChocolateLife members who received recognition.

:: Clay

I've uploaded the Tasting Panel's notes for each chocolate as an attachment to this comment.

Last week, at a program held at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City, the Fine Chocolate Industry Association's Heirloom Cacao Preservation (HCP) announced their first four designees .

And the Heirloom Cacao Designees Are ...

** Alto Beni, Bolivia provided by Volker Lehmann of Frontier Ventures Bolivia

** Tranquilidad Estate, Beni, Bolivia provided by Volker Lehmann of Frontier Ventures Bolivia

** Hacienda Limon, Los Rios/Cotopaxi, Ecuador provided by Samuel Von Rutte, ORECAO SA

** Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, Maunawili Experiment Station provided by Daniel ODoherty, Cacao Services Agricultural & Scientific Consulting

What is Heirloom Cacao?

[From the FCIA web site:] Heirloom does not mean the beans are present or preserved in collections, old, or wild. Antiquity is welcome but not conditional -- just because a bean is from a tree that has been grown for generations does not mean that it tastes good.

Heirloom cacao are the diamonds of cacao -- cacao trees and beans endowed with a combination of historic, cultural, botanical, geographical, and most importantly, flavor value.

Heirloom beans have terrific overall balance -- complex and intense, long and pleasant -- and unique flavor worthy of preservation, protection, and propagation. While no specific flavor characteristics are required, Heirloom beans must be distinctive in their characteristics and present special/unusual but well-balanced flavors produced through the beans genetics, terroir, and post-harvest processing.

The Process

While the HCP is committed to understanding the genetics of Heirloom cacao, genetics do not drive the process.

Instead, bean samples are submitted for evaluation . At this point they may be rejected for obvious post-harvest processing and other defects (and many, if not most, are, from what I could infer).

Once the beans have passed this initial screening, they are roasted, ground into liquor, and turned into chocolate. There are agreed-upon standards for roasting profiles and chocolate recipe (percentage, ingredients).

The liquor and chocolate are assessed by a professional tasting panel over the course of several tastings spanning days or weeks.

Before the Heirloom designation is awarded, the site where the beans were grown must be visited and inspected .

. kudvic@ya.ru

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10 80 . , . . 21 . http://www.youtube.com/user/Kudvic/videos

Unfortunately, we have not such a wet grinders here, in Georgia. Can anybody advice where is possible to buy one in internet by reasonable price and in good quality?.. Except cocoatown.com and amazon.com

Thanks.

Thanks a lot for information, Clay! That is right i needed, very useful for me!

Have you asked over at the chocolate alchemy forum (aka chocolate talk proboards)? They have a whole thread for Premier Wonder owners.

Hello. We love our Premier Grinders. We do four single origin chocolates in very small batches, so these small machines work very well for us. We also like being able to back off the stones so the chocolate stops grinding but keeps conching. After several hundred hours, the belt got a bit loose so the chocolate was conching but not grinding/refining the particle size down enough. We opened the top, loosened the nuts that hold the motor in place, adjusted the motor so the belt was tight, and tightened the bolts. Problem solved.

We also want to add our thanks to those on this forum who have contributed so much information and advice. We would not be making bean-to-bar chocolate without you.

After your advice and recommendation I am going to go for a premier grinder. From what you and Gap have said the 1.5ltr machine seems to have no problems running for long period of times and has good durability. I was wondering whether or not you have tried/tested the slightly larger premier 2ltr grinder (tilting and no-tilting version)to see whether it is as good as the 1.5ltr one.

I have the same machine and have left it running for 50 hours straight without any fans/modifications. No problems what-so-ever. My machine would have done over 800 hours now without needing new belts or any new parts.

I have the Premier Wonder Grinder which is the non-tilting 1.5 L version.

I've run many test batches in a couple of unmodified Premiers for multiple days with no heat issues. I also haven't heard of anyone having any problems with them overheating.

I'm in the same position as you I'm afraid. No idea! Based on what I've read here on TCL and the user's thread on the chocolate forum at proboards it seems like a winner. Price is right too! Seems to me overheating is not a big deal. Just rig a fan to blow on the motor.

The Premier Wonder gets the thumbs up from various people including Chocolate Alchemy ... I'm pondering getting one. http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/melanger-necessary?xg_source=activity&id=1978963%3ATopic%3A130514&page=3#comments

I've got a Spectra 40, but don't think it grinds nearly as well as my benchtop Spectra 11. One thing I've wondered is about whether I need to 'scale' the time in the bigger grinder given the fact I'm doing bigger loads and, if so, how to scale. For example, does 3 kilos for 10 hours in the Spectra 11 equal 9 kilos for 10 hours in the bigger machine, or 9 kilos for somewhere nearer 30 hours?

Thanks so much Clay for this. As with James, I've had the same dilemma and this information helps a lot. I am a silent member of this wonderful site and has been greedy of all the informations all the members has been generous of.I guess, it won't matter which machine to choose from as long as it does the work and gives you the result you need. Kudos to you Clay and all the members. Cheers!

James:

There are many ways to make chocolate from the bean. The route that most small startups take is using a so-called wet grinder as a "universal" - a grinder/refiner/conche. The reason for going this way is simple - it's very inexpensive to get started.

The wet grinder uses two grinding stones against a stone base. Pressure is exerted on the grinding stones which takes the very large particles of cocoa and sugar and refines them to the desired size while at the same time doing flavor and texture development.

Now, there's no need to fixate on 15 microns - it's not just the particle size, it's the particle size distribution, which looks a lot like a bell curve. No matter what you do in a wet mill you are going to get a distribution of particle sizes - some will be larger than the center/peak and some will be smaller. The location of the peak and the shape of the curve are related and important. It's also important not to have too many particles that are too small as this can make the chocolate gummy and pasty.

Now that that's out of the way.

The real engineering differences between the small tabletop Santhas and CocoaTowns are not all that great. They have small motors (too small), tend to have lousy drive belts, and plastic parts that wear down quickly. The main difference is in the way pressure is applied. The Santha has a knob you turn (adjustable) and the CocoaTown has a spring-loaded lid. There are lots of posts here on TheChocolateLife about the replacement belts and bushings for the small machines.

One of the main price differences you'll see between the CocoaTown and the Santhas has to do with size. The CocoaTown comes in one large size (a 65 liter working bowl). The Santha has more sizes; the 20 and 40 liter machines are the most common. The size difference accounts for most of the price difference.

Well - not really. When you buy a Santha Spectra 40 it comes with an electronic speed controller. When you buy a CocoaTown ECGC65L it does not.

So which is better? It's hard to say. If you are just starting out, you're probably best off with one or three of the small tabletop machines to learn the process so to speak. Once you're comfortable that you know what to do and that you have a business, it's really all about how much production you need. If you are doing 200kg a month that's one answer. If you're doing 200kg a week it's a different answer. If you're at 200kg/week or more you also want to start thinking about bringing other machinery into the mix - a pre-grinder for the nibs and sugar and a dedicated conche so you're using the wet mills only as grinder/refiners -- or, you've moved on to an entirely new suite of equipment.

:: Clay

I am starting out making chocolate from the 'bean to the bar', but it has become clear that I need to invest in a grinder/melanger to get the chocolate particle size to around 15microns to achieve great flavour and texture. However choosing one is proving difficult, I think I have basically narrowed it down to either a spectra or a cocoatown, they seem to do the same things but are very different in price. In desperate need of help to choose!! I should also note I am in the UK.