I have a Dedy with 4 frames. $1,800 + Shipping
Joe,
I found the mold listed on another website. They should be about 100 grams.
Classic break away bar
approx 3.5oz, 3 cavities,
5 7/8x 3 x 3/8in,
stripes on each small rectangle
Dallas,
I suspect the 2m take-off belt is too short. I've read that chocolates about 8 minutes in a cooling tunnel to set properly. Thus with an 8 foot cooling tunnel, the belt can move 1 foot per minute. a 16 foot cooling tunnel allows the belt to move at 2 feet per minute and so forth.
The challenge with just having the take-off belt (no cooling tunnel) is the chocolates would have to sit for quite awhile before being able to touch them to take them off the belt. Like Clay mentioned, the paper take-off allows you to move the chocolates elsewhere to cool and set.
Do you have space for a cooling tunnel? the old chocolate life website has basic instructions on building one, or you could add a manufactured one to your system.
Does the JKV 30 need 3 phase? I had a pair of older machines & they just took 220V. This required some specialized wiring, but was relatively easy to do.I ran both machines on one 20 Amp 220 circuit. What style outlet does the machine need? Mine needed a NEMA-6 outlet. (indicating 220V).
Ian Mackenzie is the JKV rep I've dealt with. you can reach him at his first name @JKVNL.com
Thanks,
Larry
I had string troubles as well. I ordered some 0.8 wire from TCF and while it is a lot thicker than the original 0.5 wire, I havent broken any of the thicker wires. Our coconut fondant is pretty tough to cut because the shredded coconut catches on the wires and essentially makes them thicker.
the thicker wire has been worth the cost.
are your belts loose? It may be a bit too large. You can shorten the belt by cutting the tubing at the union, then trimming a small piece of belt and re-inserting the union. I had to shorten the belts to get enough tension for the belt to grip.
How much play is in your belt? Pictures would be good.
I wish there were like buttons. Like to all the above posts.
I'm not aware of a standard size. the 7.5MM base worked out well for me, and we were lucky enough to find one on here.
When we hand-cut our pieces, they were just under 1" square. Thus the 22.5MM frame was a flawless transition.
There should be plenty of packaging to fit your piece.
-a word on ordering candy cups from my experience. pay attention to the base size and the # cup. Make sure they match. I ordered a case of candy cups that were "Supposed" to be exactly what I needed. However when they came, they were a different size. The seller's PDF showing the different cups available had a space in the wrong location. So, the size was actually a LOT smaller than anticipated. The candy cup number i.e. #4, #5... was correct, but it had the wrong description. The seller worked with me to correct the problem, and offered me a discount on another case of candy cups that were the right size, but I still have a large case of very small candy cups... Just sayin, read the label on the case before you open it...
Oh the things you learn.
Annalynn,
I saw your post about looking for a guitar cutter. I wanted to point out a few more helpful things.
There are several frames that have the wires strung across with different spacing. identifying which spacing you are looking for would be helpful to get what you want. The wire spacing options for the 7.5mm base are 15mm, 22.5mm, 30mm, and 37.5mm. You could remove some wires if needed for different spacing. i.e. if you wanted a 45mm piece cut a 15 or 22.5mm frame with some wires removed would do the trick.
Also, they don't make a 7mm base. it is 7.5mm.
Happy guitar hunting,
Larry
I'd like to learn more about caramel making as well as panning and cream centers.
Annalynn,
I haven't used a guitar with the plastic base, but I was able to pick up a used guitar on here. It is a dedy. I love that thing. As a high-demand item it retained it's value and while we were able to pick it up for a few hundred bucks below retail, it wasn't cheap by any stretch.
As you can imagine, having the guitar helped us make far better use of our time. It saves a lot of time in cutting the pieces of candy and it is great that they come out uniformly shaped.
I think one of the best things about the metal framed guitar is how easy it is to clean. - I imagine that a plactic base one would have little pieces of chocolate, ganache, fondant, or whatever else you are cutting that would get stuck down inside the grooves. Yuck. Cleaning that out would take awhile. With the metal frame, you just wash the top and bottom. - the grooves aren't an issue because they are only as deep as the metal is thick.
The dedy's come in two spacings 5mm and 7.5mm. this is the spacing of the grooves in the base. Depending on the width of your final piece, you may want one or the other. i.e. you can do 22.5mm on a 7.5mm base, but not on a 5mm base. Please keep that in mind as you look for a used one.
Welcome to TheChocolateLife. It's great here.
Larry
Tony,
here's a link to a TheChocolateLife discussion with a wealth of technique information.
You've probably already seen it, but I wanted to share it anyway.
In this discussion Jim Greenberg suggested using centerchem.com to acquire polishes etc. I just requested samples from them and am looking foward to playing. I just picked up a Kitchen Aid panning drum and while it is itty bity, it will be good enough to learn on.
Thanks,
Larry
Cocoa butter extraction is done after roasting the beans.
To extract cocoa butter from cacao beans, the beans are roasted, cracked to help separate the shells from the nib. (The sells are a significant source of the nasties mentioned by gap.) After cracking, the nibs and shells are winnowed to separate the nib (broken beans) and the shell.
The nibs are then ground into Chocolate Liqour. Chocolate Liquor can be pressed to expell the cocoa butter. The grinding process helps allow the cooca butter to separate out.
The leftover cake of non-cocoa butter can be ground into cocoa powder. Thus as Gap said, you can think of cocoa beans as cocoa powder and cocoa butter. Cocoa butter and cocoa powder are just beans in a different form.
Re: the different fat content of your beans vs. 100% bar. The bar has a higher fat content. This could indicate the manufacturer added cocoa butter to thier recipe for 100% chocolate. It could also mean the beans they are using have a higher fat content, or it could simply mean they developed thier nutritional data table from different sources or methods. I suspect the latter is the more accurate diagnosis given the variance in saturated fat quantity, carbohydrate quantities between them. The manufacturer or producer may not have sufficient budget to outsource their products for detailed testing so the accuracy of the nurtritional tables you posted is suspect in my mind.
It looks like you are using a light plastic mold (as opposed to a stiff polycarbonate mold). If so, here is a link to a good discussion we had about that issue. https://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/forums/my_posts/12032/mold-release-ring-formation-issue-in-mold
Take a look at the linked discussion & see if it answers some questions.
My quick thoughts:
Swirls in your chocolate are caused by unevely tempered chocolate or the light molds flexing as the chocolate cools. I have some light molds and haven't figured out how to get perfect release every time.
That is really neat. I had always heard to use oil based flavorings/colorings for chocolate. I'll play with alcohol flavorings. This will be fun. Thanks for the insight Sebastian.
Now that is really challenging. is the beet blend in the same oil? Could it be the particle size?
I googled annato coloring and found a website which mentions using norbixin to prevent annato bleeding , but the chemical is not mentioned on the beet page.
I don't know much about norbixin yet. Have you bounced the question off the annato manufacturer?
Could there be some form of osmosis (but in oil). i.e. the annato suspension migrates along with the oil from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. As the canola oil isn't crystalline at room temperature, it could flow.
Here is something to try. Add some of the same oil (canola) in the same proportion as the oil in your color to the white chocolate.
This would theoretically make the concentration of oil the same, thus mitigating the area of high oil concentration and the oil migration/color bleeding.
As far as why the annato is the only one to do it.... I'm not sure. Could it have something to do with particle size?
are other colors next to white chocolate?
Link to your picture https://www.thechocolatelife.com/chocotoymaker/gallery/9866/img-6900#gallery_img
(Edited to add link)
No, the stand is there to keep the stirrer from acting like a lid. When the stirrer was resting on the cooker, the caramel quickly boiled over. With it raised up a bit, the water evaporates faster and helps prevent boilover.
The spindle is in contact with the pot, however the stirring blades are 1/16" to 1/8" inch from the bottom of the pot. You could sand or machine the tip of the spindle to reduce that distance, but there would still probably be some gap.
I tried adding silicone scrapers to the blades. That experiment failed as the caramel still scorched. I found it more effective to simply use the stirrer til 218 degrees, then stir by hand. No more scorching, but I still saved time over stirring the entire time.
I've toyed with the idea of stacking two stirring machines to increase the power of the stir, and hopefully stir the caramel faster, thus helping prevent scorching, but I haven't sprung for another stirrer to test this.
If you try it out, please let us know how it goes.
Thanks,
Larry
That is really great to hear! Way to go on selling & getting things rolling.
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. 
I've found a reasonable way to stir caramel for most of the cook time. It's the Ardente Gourmet Stirrer. It is a battery powered stirrer that has two blade sizes. One is 9" and the other is around 14". Another chocolate site suggested that a deep fryer makes a good caramel cooker. I bought a Presto Multi Cooker (6 quart). It works pretty well.
I can let the caramel stir in the device until it reaches 218 or so. Then I have to stir it by hand to prevent scorching. It's not a perfect solution as the batch size is really small, I still have to stir it by hand for a little while, and it is easy to overshoot the target temperature, but it sure is wonderful to be able to put a batch of caramel on, then continue prepping the pans and such to recieve the caramel. It takes the hands on time for a single batch of about 4 pounds from 40 minutes down to about 10 minutes.
I haven't tried it with my regular large pot because frankly my stove is crappy (glass top) and the presto cooker gets the heat into the caramel so much faster and more consitently.
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?
We use LorAnn oils.Several stores sell them, or you could get them online. http://shop.lorannoils.com/chocolates/super-strength-flavors/1-dram...
They are much, much cheaper than the "Super Healthy, Super Duper, Super Commissioned" essential oils.
I couldn't speak to if one is better than the other.
Note: some are oils, some are flavors with water & alcohol.
It sounds like tempering. Your chocolate can come out of temper as it sets if the room is not cold enough or is too cold.
Could you reply with the temperatures you are using? i.e. melt the chcocolate to xxx, add seed, cool to xx degrees, the room is xx degrees.
You could also add air movement.
Reading the little dipper manual would be helpful. discussions/1-1000/90-LITTLEDIPPERanalog.pdf
yes, I realize you are using a minirev. There is a lot of very valuable information about chocolate quality in general you can glean from the little dipper instructions.
Thanks,
Larry
Bryan,
You could look into flow wrapping, but it would probably be cost prohibitive.
Could you put the caramels into glassine candy cups and then put them in a box?
Pictures would also be helpful.
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
Larry
Crystals won't form at 118. They'll just melt. However you may get some benefit from holding it there for a bit to ensure complete melting of the crystals. - Think ice cube in boiling water. Even though the water is boiling, there can still be ice. But with a little bit of time the ice will melt.
Taking the chocolate to 118 will help ensure you have melted all the pre-existing crystals.
The crystals will form at lower temperatures. The link I posted above really helped me to understand tempering. Take a look.
Matt,
Thanks for the additional information. What is the temperature of your room?
One of thethings that will take your chocolate out of temper can include the temperature of the room/environment the chocolate is in. If it is too hot, the chocolate will not set quickly enough and lower forms of cocoa butter crystals will form before it sets.
The x3210 puts out a lot of heat. That could bring the temp of your room up.
Do you have any air movement over the cooling chocolate? - This will help pull heat out of the chocolate and preserve your temper. Not too much movement though. A small fan on low should suffice. - Play with it.
Is the thermometer on your machine accurate?
Also you could try raising the temperature of your chocolate on the last step a few degrees. Say to 88 or 89. The chocolate we use does best at that higher temp even tough it is a milk chocolate.
Is the chocolate melting immediately upon touching it or after several seconds of holding it?
I'm a novice too, but have learned a great deal from the generous members of The Chocolate Life.
No, the meltage is probably due to the temper (or lack therof) of the chocolate.
There are 6 types of crystal structures cocoa butter can form.
Type V is the 'desired' crystal that results in shiny, snappy chocolate that won't melt immediately.
The crystaltypes I-IVmelt at lower temperatures, and thus if your chocolate has lots of those crystals, it will melt very quickly.
Please check out this tempering explanation on the chocolate alchemist website. http://chocolatealchemy.com/illustrated-tempering/
no, the chocolate around the edge will seal to the dot.
We used to do this to dip cream fondant. Now we've switched to dipping the fondant with the slab method that Gap mentioned. - precoating the bottom & using a dipping fork to dip.It is MUCH faster, easier, and it has eliminated our spurts altogether.
Sarah,
This is a novice answer, so please take it with a grain of salt, or better yet, a truffle.
Skipping the step of grinding the nibs into chocolate liquor prior to further processing could affect the particle size or shape of the finished chocolate.
I've read that you can add nibs directly to some machines and the chocolate will come out just fine. However, the processing time will generally be shorter if you work with chocolate liquor. - The particles are already much smaller.
I've read that there is a point at which each cocoa solid particle is coated in a layer of fat. This coating allows the chocolate to glide smoothly and gives it a nice mouthfeel. If the particles are too small, then the surface area for a given amount of cocoa butter is too great and there isn't enough cocoa butter to coat the particles.
See Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use Chapter 7
http://books.google.com/books?id=xYe5oTopUTAC&pg=PT174&lpg=PT174&dq=cocoa+particle+shape&source=bl&ots=WOF_pOOz4k&sig=LK0tWpX2yZ5L7veU58faW-fiyGo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bQkLVOa4ENHboAS77YKYDw&ved=0CHkQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=cocoa%20particle%20shape&f=false
If the cocoa butter is not sufficiently coating the cocoa, sugar, and ?milk? particles, then it would make sense that it cannot form a uniform tempered structure and thus crumble easily.
Again, I'm still a novice and chocolate is complexso I'm sure there is more going on.
13 grams is a small but decent weight. I find making a paper with the dimensions listed helps me to visualize the chocolate.
Could you make a paper/clay/dough/caramel... form with the same size? What do you think about it with a real one in front of you?
is it 1.5CM tall? it seems like those dimensions don't fit the picture. The chocolate in the picture is about as tall as it is wide. 2.5cm tall makes more sense. (I do see where they listed the size on the website) but hey, it could be worth ordering one to test the mold.
I hear you, but the machine could have a miscalibrated thermometer, or something else going on. I'd still use the machine, but check the temps to be sure they are correct.
