Forum Activity for @Nicole5

Actually, no, I didn't realize it would still pop out cleaning if it's not tempered.  Ugh!  I'll remember that next time!

Hi Andrea!  No, I have never cleaned with cotton balls, only a soft cloth.  Unfortunately, with all the breakage, I've had to wash them (only with hot water) a million times, which I've read (somewhere) is not recommended.

I'll let them set up a little longer, although I have to say that I fear shells becoming too thick.  Clearly, I'm on the wrong path right now, though!

Thank you!

http://confectioner.tap-usa.com/specialtypackaging.aspx

http://confectioner.tap-usa.com/winehanger-wht-pk.aspx

This looks similar, and they have various truffle boxes.

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Is the "silk" just cocoa butter or does it have any other ingredients? How and when would you add lecithin to the chocolate?

Hi chocolatiers,

We're looking for a tempering machine.30 or 60 liters, used or new in good condition.

I live in Honduras, but I Have This Test could reach Florida and imported it to my country!

Thank you,

hi, i need tempering machine

mi email is marianohonduras@yahoo.com.ar

It sounds like your chocolate is too thin.  Try making the chocolate shell a bit thicker.  Also, are you using cotton balls to wipe out your molds prior to use? 

Can anyone tell me why I might have 50% of my shell molds pop out beautifully, and the other 50% break within the same tray?  My thought is that because I bought these used, perhaps some cavities were cleaned out with something abrasive?  Sometimes the entire circumference breaks, sometimes just a piece at the top.  But I always get some portion of the molds that are perfect.

Generally speaking, the lower your humidity the better.  I think you'll have troubles if you're moulding in a hot (35C) room.    20C might be a bit cool, so i'd shoot for something in between personally.

I've noticed folks using it for years, it's sort of a one stop shop app for message boards on mobile devices.  I've just installed it a few weeks ago, and it does make board life easier when not at a desktop, but there must be an 'opt in' requirement from the board site itself to participate...

Potomac Chocolate:
Therein lies the reason why I've only given some thought vs. executed the idea.  With my limited space, I don't have space for a real press and I'm not sure if one of the little olive oil presses would work.

Here you go Ben - the finished product -  http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151287-eztemper-the-help-you-need-to-achieve-perfectly-tempered-chocolate-fast/?p=2030981

Ok - gotta check this out - I've figured out how the bean to bar two ingredient guys can extract their own cocoa butter easily with no special equipment.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151287-eztemper-the-help-you-need-to-achieve-perfectly-tempered-chocolate-fast/?p=2030981

Sebastian:

I have never heard of Tapatalk. I will take a look into it. I do know that I need to make some coding tweaks to make it usable on mobile browsers - something is messed up and I am looking into it.

Fabricated chest insulated with 1 1/2" household type rigid foam on wheels. Exterior is textured fiberglass sheeting that is easy to clean with aluminum corner protection. Chest holds full 18 full size cookie sheets (not included). Size of chest is 30" tall, 44" wide, and 29 1/2" deep. Separate trolley has 5" locking soft wheels. 

This was used for outdoor shows and farmer's markets to hold stock of candy. By placing large cold packs on bottom sheets and using battery powered small RV refrigerator fans this chest can easily be kept down to 70 degrees or below. Located in Seattle area. $500.

Also have 48 quart cooler with 2" plastic tubes filled with water that can be frozen as substitute for ice, lid has 12 variable 3" duct fan installed with variable speed control for cooling displays. $100.

Contact Sue at Sasquatch Chocolate Co, sue@sasquatchchocolate.com.

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Dear Clay and Sebastian, thank you for the reply. That is what I thought.

I have just ordered a 50Liter per day dehumidifier and will move it and the refiners in a 15m2 room, that will be sealed off as much as possible. I hope that will do the trick. I am not planning to aircon it, it is installed though. Lets see how low I can get the humidity.

I was also wondering about the temperer location. Which is better for moulding?

- a dehumidified room at 50%-60% humidity at 29-35C (80-95F)

or

- an aircon room at 60-75% humidity at 20C (70F)

I use a continous temperer with 2 temp zones

I am keeping ny moulds in the tempering room at 20C which might be too cold for them.

Setting of the chocolate in the moulds will have to be in the aircon room.

Thank you

Thanks Clay - That's a great idea!

I have sold the enrober and panner.The other pieces are still available.I'll post pics when I return from Portland on monday,

                                                                    Lou 

                                                                             Chocofin Chocolatier

So I experimented a bit today - made some liquor from nibs in an Indian spice grinder, added water, then cooked down until it 'cracked' and the cocoa butter separated out.

I can't seem to get the pictures in order - but I ended up with around 20 grams of cocoa butter. You can see in the 3rd picture the butter starting to separate, then in the second one a little puddle of butter at around 11 o'clock. 

It could well be that as every iphone release marches boldly into a brave new technological world, i am slowly taking a step backwards until someday you'll hear me asking how to get the 12:00 to stop flashing on my iphone - but is it possible to configure the site to be readable via the tapatalk app?  I'm using it for all my other board activity, but not seeing TCL on it...

Sebastian: I was going to say the same things. I would start with getting the humidity under control to see if that helps (might need to get it down as low as 55 RH, at least that's my experience in some places). If not, then cooling things down is the next step.

Jennifer -

You can get residential chest freezers really quite inexpensively. They do require a little more thinking about how you pack stuff into them, but it's hard to beat the cost per cu ft. The Johnson controllers work with these quite well.

Hello all! I know this is a long shot, but I'm working in Quito, Ecuador right now, and my boss is looking for a used grinder/conche machine, as well as a larger-scale winnowing machine, to use in making very small batches of chocolate for his cafe. Right now he has the Premiere Wonder Grinder in use at his farm, but would like another similar machine for the cafe in Quito... if you're looking to sell one that's already in Ecuador, please message me! Or, feel free to send me a direct email at katrin2max@gmail.com, and I can put you in contact with my boss. He's willing to go several hours outside of Quito to pick up machines.

Thanks Robert!  I appreciate the feedback.

Jennifer, I'm using a Johnson temperature controller in a 3 door Continental refrigerator.  I run a temperature of 45F and the humidity is 35 with no problems

Mark - it may be worthwhile to suggest a course on cocoa microbiological food safety for the artisinal bean to bar maker.  If that emerging industry can't self regulate, the FDA will do it for them, which nobody wants.

May not be what you want to hear, but it's likely that until you condition your refining room, the problem will not go away.  It's also possible that you're not tempering sufficiently.  Could be a combination of the two.  Best to get your RH down in the sub 70% range.

I currently use an undercounter refrigerator with a Johnson temperature controller as a storage unit for my chocolate. I need more storage space and I'm wondering if anyone is doing the same, but with a full size commercial refrigerator? If so, can you tell me how well it is working for you?  How are you dealing with humidity issues?  Are there any special issues to consider?

Thank you!

Dear All,

I have been making some good chocolate on a tropical island but running into some problems with the appearance and texture  of the bars.

The bars come out dull in appearance and change texture after kept at "room" temperature (at 25-27C). they become gritty in the mouth and the fat doesnt melt so well.

I believe that the high moisture content is to blame as the liquor takes up water from he air during refining and conching. This in turn promotes sugar to absorb it and I think causes a mild siezing effect but not so much that the chocolate is not workable.

Here is a sample recipe:
45% nibs
25% butter
30% sugar

The refining room is not climate controlled and the humidity can be between 60-80%, sometimes even 90%, with temperature between 25C - 35C. I use conch refiners

The tempering room is climate controlled and using a continuous temperer with two temperature zones. The conditions in the tempering room: temp set 24 hours at 20C and humidity moves between 55-75%. The chocolate tempers ok but it always solidifies dull. I set the bars with the air blowing on them at 18-20C placed on a wire rack.

I would appreciate some suggestions regarding the problem I am having.

Happy chocolate making

Is this still available?  Where are u located?

wilma@chocolatefx.ca

Check this out -The making of cocoa butter

Not sure of the solvent though as I have no volume.

Therein lies the reason why I've only given some thought vs. executed the idea.  With my limited space, I don't have space for a real press and I'm not sure if one of the little olive oil presses would work.

Hi Mark,

In terms of panning, I am most interested in chocolate panning versus something like jelly beans. I would be very interested to learn about coloring and decoration techniques.

For candy bars, caramel and other crunchy elements would be really nice. When you say biscuit, are you referring to a shortbread or something like a kit kat? Both of those sound great to me.

Toffee is something that a lot of artisan chocolatiers sell. There is not a whole lot of information on the science of getting that perfect texture. That could be a great subject too.

Keep us posted!

Daniel

I'll look forward to hearing from you Ben!  Out of curiosity what means would you use to press cocoa butter?

It is possible to temper without seed in the Revolation machines. I do it with test batches regularly. I essentially just go through the same process I do in my Savage Bros: melt > cool to 82 > warm to working temp. As Michael says, it is not a necessarily fast process, but it can work.

Adding an EZTemper to the process would definitely make it faster and easier, of course. So much so, that I've given some thought to pressing some of the cocoa butter from a batch to use in the EZTemper and still maintain my 2-ingredient recipe.

Thank you for your areas of interest. 

Locations can be anywhere in the country.  Most have been on the east coast but typically wherever a host company offers, as long as they have the facilities and equipment to give everyone the hands on experience they are looking for.  There has been a lot of interest in offering courses in the west.  Their largest obstical has been in finding more than one or two host companies that can and are willing to do this, however these classes, being designed for the artisan rather than industry, we will be looking at culinary schools and the like, expanding the possibilities.  And depending on interest, they would try to be closer to where people live, ideally offered in more than one location.

Again, what I'm looking for here is what you would look for, what they would need to offer, how best to do it, time of course, and consider the concerns and desires of the artisan.  So all your ideas, suggestions, concerns will be a great help as we don't want to start by assuming what you would want.  Letting you tell us.

Thank you again. 

Where is that 'like' button?

I think a lot of people purchase the Revolation machines not realizing that they depend on well tempered chocolate as part of the process - and as Michael points out - that's the catch-22 of bean to bar - if you could temper your chocolate you wouldn't need the machine!

Michael,

Thanks for those thoughts.  I had not realized you were speaking of bean-to-bar when discussing tempering.  I'm sure that makes a huge difference (particularly considering that you have no ready-made seed for the seeding methd).

That is an impressive tribute to the EZTemper (we should make sure Kerry Beal reads that).  Although many have said that it does make a difference even when one is using something like the Delta machine for "store-bought" chocolate, it would seem to have less of an impact on the latter process.  I work in such small quantities that in making a ganache, for example, I just melt the tempered chocolate slowly enough that it never goes out of temper.  But I have read enough to know that once I have the machine, I will find uses for it I never considered (you can see my resolve not to spend the money is already weakening).

Jim - this may be the case with wholesale chocolate such as Valrhona, but it does not seem to be for bean-to-bar chocolate. At least that's been my experience. With bean-to-bar a number of issues come into play such as potential lack of seed (you don't have the tempered chocolate to use as seed until you make the chocolate and temper it, leading to a bit of a catch-22 situation), non-trivial differences in varietals, little or no added cocoa butter in the chocolate making process, etc. In general, I think those of us who make our own chocolate tend to struggle more with the tempering process.

As for myself, for example, I've almost never experienced over-crystallization. Maybe once or twice. My biggest problem was getting my single origins to temper well at all. With a lot of trial and error, I finally found that I had significantly more success with the lower temp and larger delta. Maybe other chocolate makers here will disagree, but it's the only thing that ever consistently worked for me.

The EZTemper, at least so far, has changed my process in a very positive way. Here's how:

PREVIOUS TEMPERING METHOD
1) Melt untempered single origin chocolate in Rev Delta (or pour straight from the melangeur)
2) Go through custom-programmed tempering cycle (which depending on the amt of chocolate would take 2 hours or more)
3) Pour "tempered" choc into large molds (This first tempered chocolate was almost never tempered very well)
4) Take most of that first "tempered" chocolate and run it through the entire process AGAIN, setting aside some to use as seed
5) Pour the second tempered choc into final molds (This second tempering usually did the trick, but not always)

EZTemper METHOD
1) Melt untempered single origin chocolate in Rev Delta (or pour straight from the melangeur)
2) After melting, lower temp to 92º
3) Add 1% precrystallized butter by weight and stir. Wait a few minutes. You're done.

My previous method took 4-5 hours per batch, and gave me an 80%-90% success rate.
The EZTemper method takes less than an hour, and so far gives me a 100% success rate.

Significantly easier, faster and more reliable tempering sessions with less wasted time and less wasted product.
And while I am currently only using it with 5 and 10 pound batches, I see no reason why it wouldn't scale up.
So far I am very happy and very impressed.

I had thought that taking the temp down to the 80s F. was not necessary when one is using already-tempered chocolate as seed.  I would be interested to know why you think that makes a difference.

I experience over-crysallization far too often (particularly when using Felchlin Maracaibo and Valrhona Opalys).  With the Chocovision tempering machines, the user cannot control the agitation since the bowl rotates constantly.  All I have found to do is raise the temp gradually and/or add untempered heated chocolate to dilute the Type V crystals.

I am also interested in the EZTemper.  Could you say more about how it has helped you?

Hi Mark,

Where is the location where you give your courses, online or at physical location? City/State?

I am interested in the subjects that Daniel mentioned Panning (Coffee/Nuts/Fruits and Jordan Almonds) and Candy making (Caramel, Ganache, Praline, Croquant, Nougat), in addition to that I am interested in the chemical composition of chocolate (specialty chocolate) and mainly in best practices of making chocolate without soy lecithin in addition to temperature/humidity controls of room/chocolate/mold (including mold cleaning techniques) to achieve the best shine and shelf life.

Thanks,

Tony

Panning for the artisan, would it be just chocolate, but include decoration techniques?  Such as river stone or marbling?

Artisan candy bars, what kind of centers are you thinking about?  Maybe ganache or a nut praline as a component?  Croquant?  Baked biscuit or wafer? 

Where hosted would most likely be at a culinary school, locations could be anywhere.

Cost would be determined mostly by how long, but costs a small shop could afford is part of what I'm looking for.  PMCA starts their cost at where they would break even, not looking to make money, but money they do make they put back into the industry for things like scholarships.

Thank you for your input.