Hello everyone,

I own a bakery and we make a ping pong ball sized product that is currently hand dipped in chocolate using, ahem, a spoon. As our volumes (about 2,000 per 8 hour shift) have outpaced this antiquated method we are about to invest in enrobing equipment but really need your expert advice. I am using a couverture chocolate so tempering is not necessary. I simply need to get a nice, even coat on a round product.

I've thought about the Hilliards Compact enrober but want to get ideas on used equipment as well. I'm trying to avoid a cooling tunnel due to costs, hoping that a six to eight foot belt at the end of the enrober will give me enough cooling time at room temp to move these to a tray.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks for the help!!

Steve

updated by @steven-rivard: 04/27/15 15:15:04

When you say you are using couverture so you don't need to temper - do you mean you are using compound chocolate?

Round things are a little harder to enrobe on an enrobing line due to the shape. If you are using chocolate that doesn't require tempering - then I expect a cooling tunnel is less necessary.

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www.eztemper.com

www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

Like Kerry, I am confused with your term Couveture chocolate. If it doesn't need tempering, I don't think it is couveture. If a compound coating, I don't know that an enrober would help much. Have you tried using a loop rather than a spoon to dip? An enrober (at least mine) has a height restriction. Not sure a ping pong ball would fit. Probably need more info to be of much help.

Iworked at a place in London many years ago and was introduced to a chocolate enrober, the hard way. I helped design and build one.After scraping the chocolate of myself we spent days scraping it of the floor and walls. We finally perfected it and delivered it to Dixons in Myrther TidfillWales UK

There is a company in London that makes enrobers. Thier name is Jahn and Co. they are located near Kings Cross station. Get in contact with fhem they are very friendly.

Thanks for replying Kerry. You are correct, it is compound chocolate.

Best,

Thanks Ruth. Yes, it is compound chocolate. I thought an enrober might not work well with a round product, but perhaps a "shaker" attachment might make it work.

Best,

Steve

The truffle attachment for the Selmi allows you to handle round things - but it dumps them into a container of 'stuff' like sprinkles or nuts or cocoa powder.


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www.eztemper.com

www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

Steve,

Did you ever solve your enrobing a round product issue?

I too have this situation, my product is smaller than a golf ball but bigger than a malt ball, and am thinking of attempting the panning process.

Please let me know what you came up with.

Thanks,

Margaret

Steve:

If you could post a photo of what one of the items looks like, next to something that will give a good size reference, that would help.

You could probably use an enrobing line that comes with a "bottomer." If you post a photo, I can forward to someone who does this for a living and he can let me know if it will work for you.

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/

Margaret:

Panning is an interesting concept, put would only work if the center is really solid. It wouldn't work on a ganache center for example.

What kind of center do you want to coat?

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/

At 250 pieces an hour (based on your 2000/day assumption) you will need some type of cooling whether a tunnel or take off paper to refrigeration even though you are using compound.

I am assuming you are doing a cake ball of some description and they do enrobe because they tend to have a somewhat flat bottom and thereby are more enrobe-able. I have seen cake balls done on Selmi enrobers both with and without tunnel.

With Clay on the panning - great solution to items that are firm but would not be a solution to cake ball or the like.

brian

Clay,

It's a round shaped pretzel product.

Thanks for your input.

The panning machine I looked at cost $16,000 which is crazy out of our reach - are enrobers less expensive and/or more readily available second hand?

Margaret

If it's pretzel like - it should be able to be panned. Suspect you can put together something for panning for less than $16,000 unless you want a nice one with built in heating and cooling like the Selmi panner.

--
www.eztemper.com

www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

You can certainly get panning machines for a lot less than $16K. However, they do require a good deal of skill to learn to use well. (Hint #1 - you do NOT use tempered chocolate when panning). If you don't want to learn, or don't have the time to learn, a system like the Selmi Comfit is basically automatic. However, you do pay for it.

Enrobing does sound like it could work, but one thing to look for is that the enrober has a "bottomer" feature. This is when the carry chain goes below the level of the chocolate for a brief period to ensure that the bottom gets coated, not just the top.

In the Selmi line the smallest machine that accepts an enrobing belt is the Plus, and the combination is well over $20k, last I checked. FBM's smallest continuous temperer/enrober combination is about 10K Euros (~$13,500) after TheChocolateLife member discount. You may be able to find a batch/wheel combination for less.

Otherwise, a used machine may be your best bet.

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/