Hello everyone,

   I have a question pertaining to tempering fresh chocolate from the refiner.  What way do you think is most effective

 1. hand table some chocolate beforehand and bar it up to use as seed for when the new batch comes out of refiner 

  2.  Hand table some fresh chocolate and add it to the un- tempered melted chocolate hold in melter and working temps

 I think I saw a post where Ben was taking about adding it straight to the machine untempered at the lowest temp but I'm not sure I understood properly. I ask this because I simply cannot afford a batch tempering kettle or continuous at the moment and importing to Colombia is very expensive, so I need to make good decisions  with that I have.  I read a while back a chocolate maker from Costa Rica would hold his fresh chocolate  under an air conditioner to shock it and  added agitation such as stirring and it would temper but I'm Not sure how possible that really is not to mention practical or reliable. If anyone has any ideas please share I would like to find the best solution.

updated by @mark4604: 06/24/16 00:37:47

Could you please describe in detail your process. What you do, what are batch sizes, what are you trying to achieve.

Without this it is very difficult to offer any advice.

To start, there is no difference in tempering "fresh" chocolate from old chocolate that has been melted.

Second. If you can not temper whole batch in one go it may be much better idea to hand temper and mould small batches. This may avoid wasting a lot of work making untempered product in large batches (please remember that if you mould just plain chocolate and temper is not right you can always remelt it and start again).

Hey peter,

    Thanks for your input and yes I'm aware tempering fresh is the same as melted. What I was trying to ask is  if their is a more efficient process to temper fresh chocolate ( just out of refiner) My process well I guess I'm not sure what you mean it was more of a hypothetical question because I have not yet put any process into motion.  My batch size will be around 25 kilos.  Since I don't have the funds to buy a batch kettle  etc that would auto temper my chocolate for me I will have to either  hand table and  pre mold some bars and use them as seed or table some  fresh liquid chocolate and add it to the other fresh chocolate just out of the refiner and add to a holding tank. what  I really wanted to know was if there was a more efficient process or logistically  was there any advantage to one verses the other or even maybe another idea  that I  not aware of at the present moment.  thanks for your input every little bit helps.

updated by @mark4604: 07/27/16 19:36:15

Hi Mark,

If I understand correctly you are just planning your process.

This is a good moment to ask questions.

I will start with what I understand of your idea.

1. You will make chocolate in 25kg batches using refiner (what kind of refiner as this word can have many meanings in chocolate world?).

2. You will need to create some sort of tempering process.

3. You are going to make a finished product using this chocolate.

You will need to look both at point 1 and point 3 before deciding on point 2.

1. What will be the temperature of chocolate out of refiner? Can you control this temperature? If chocolate will be very hot or very cold tempering will be affected.

2. How will you control viscosity? Adding cocoa butter in different quantities to each batch will affect tempering.

3. What are you planning to do with your chocolate? Mould plain bars? Add inclusions? Use it to enrobe centres? 

4. Critical question: how fast you will be producing? How much time it will take you to use the 25kg of chocolate? If you can use the whole batch within 30 minutes you can look at tempering whole batch, if you will use only a few kg per hour you will need to temper in smaller batches. Once correctly tempered chocolate needs to be used within a short time, it will not remain correctly tempered if just held in a tank.

5. How good are your hand tempering skills (on a cold table), have you tried tempering a few kg at a time? Do you have a room with suitable conditions? Do you have sufficient cooling for both tempering and for cooling/setting the finished product?

I think that all of these questions will need to be considered.

Peter

Thank you peter but this problem has been solved!

updated by @mark4604: 07/23/16 10:41:17

Excellent.