I hand pour my chocolates into 2.5oz bars. I use regular plastic molds. Does anyone have a source of a piece of equipment that measures oz and would make my life easier to not have to then scrape the bars after they harden? And create a more uniform bar?
simply put the mould on top of a scale (that most probably you have...) and just add till right measure.
Chocolate change its density depending on the temperature and always a good layer stay attached to the vessel.
the colder it gets the thicker it becomes.
We do our 1 kg blocks in this way and we use to do the bars with the same system..
Then we bought a continuos tempering machine with pneumatic valve that measures on the dot... and we smile ever since!
A 100cc syringe works perfectly. Chocolate has a density of ~1.27 grams/cc so it's very easy to measure out your bars. Look for them in vet supplies.
What about a metered funnel? Chocolate World has one that is available from Tomric in the US.
brian
We've tried the cheap funnel and there is just not enough back pressure for chocolate. YMMV.
Good Morning Kat
What piece of equipment are you currently taking your chocolate from?
Is a type of melting vessel with a turning wheel on, because you can have a pouring spout on these that will fill your moulds and then you can put the mould onto a vibrating table to level the chocolate, this would probably be easier, i have attached a photo of a machine that i am talking about.
Thank you Alan! Right now, because I doing things out of my home, I am doing the old school double boiler, and then using a ladle to put it into a measuring cup to pour. I am hoping to find a pourer that will measure out exactly 2.5 oz so I do not have to eye-ball the exact amount.
Just FYI, I can do ~100 bars per hour or more using the previously mentioned syringe and a cheap dental vibrator. It's really very convenient because you only have to use one device to extract, measure and pour your chocolate.
For example, your 2.5 oz bars would translate to ~71 grams or just about 55cc (using the formula I gave you above) of chocolate.
Everyone else seems very fond of the $500 (funnel) or $10,000 (wheel machine) solutions, well here I am giving you a $5 one...
So to use this plate (1950 Euro) she also needs a 12,000 Euro Selmi... yes that's by far the CHEAPEST solution anyone has come up with.
just giving an alternative idea not saying Kat should purchase just showing what is available or is that not what we do on this website???
Wow! 1950 euro!! i paid 600 by FBM.... and it look the same.
I use this injection system (we call it shower) to make our 100gr bars, so it makes 3 bars in one shot.
as soon we can effort a tunnel we can use "the shower" to make callets automatically.
Anyway, going back to the original point of discussion from Kat:
see how much production you do and forecast what could be the next step and buy what you need towards that forecast. Otherwise you will spend $$$ and soon you will be short in production again. That's why we bought the "shower" with our tempering machine, we believe that soon will pay off.....
Ciao
Nino
