Forum Activity for @Clay

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/30/13 08:23:16
1,680 posts

Slightly out of my depth! :-0


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

You bought directly from Selmi? Or through a dealer in some other country? Whoever you bought the machine from should be your first line of contact for training and technical support.

Contact TomBauweraerts here on TheChocolateLife. He works for Selmi and has chimed in on a number of discussions related to continuous tempering. There is a lot to know about using continuous tempering machines that is different from batch tempering. Selmi may be at the Salon du Chocolat Professionnel next month and if they are you might be able to get some hands-on training there.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/30/13 08:18:04
1,680 posts

Slightly out of my depth! :-0


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Sebastian -

Good to know, thanks for that tidbit. Goes against everything I have ever heard on this subject.

Any way to process the inclusions to form an effective oxygen barrier that's not to heinous (from an ingredient perspective) or cost-prohibitive overall?

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/29/13 13:10:11
1,680 posts

Slightly out of my depth! :-0


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Steve -

You should talk to your local dealer to get specific instructions on how to clean your machine and change over from one chocolate to another (those two procedures are not the same thing).

I know that Tom B., who know Selmi well, is a member here, and he may have some guidance on those topics for you as well.

It's also my understanding (and I know Tom can provide exact dimnsions), that the maximum size of inclusion that you can add to the chocolate will be about 3mm (1/8"). If your inclusions are larger than that they can't be pumped through the machine so you can't add them to the working bowl of chocolate. You need to sprinkle them on top of the chocolate after the mold is filled and then vibrate them in. This creates a shelf life issue if the items are not completely covered as the nuts can go stale or rancid if they are not completely covered. [ Turns out not - see Sebastian's reply below. One reason why I still read TheChocolateLife - I learn something new almost every time I do. ]

:: Clay

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/28/13 19:35:53
1,680 posts

perfect flavour and idea


Posted in: Opinion

Satish -

There's not enough question here for us to know (me to know) what you are looking to do. "... in this field" covers a lot of ground.

:: Clay

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/30/13 09:52:21
1,680 posts

Upgrade from Champion Juicer for making cocoa liquor


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Ben -

These commercial machines have 5 hp motors and are designed to work with viscous ingredients. The nib will turn from powder to paste once enough heat has been generated as you learned. However, having a powder and not a paste is not a bad thing, necessarily.

Robot Coupe does make VMCs and they also are expensive - new. The Hobart that you can buy used for <$5k costs over $13,000 new.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/30/13 08:49:24
1,680 posts

Upgrade from Champion Juicer for making cocoa liquor


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Madeleine:

One model of vertical cutter mixer (VCM) is from Hobart (link to Hobart web site page for the HCM 450). They tend to be expensive when new, but you can get them for under $5k used through eBay or Union Equipment. In fact, it was a conversation with Jim Greenberg at Expo East that brought using a VCM to my attention. You should be able to process ~20lbs of nib into liquor in about five minutes or so. If you start with smaller quantities of nib, after grinding it into liquor you should be able to add sugar to it and pre-refine in the VCM.

Many schools and colleges with food service operations have VCMs. You should be able to find one locally and run a test before going out and buying one.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/29/13 11:32:39
1,680 posts

Upgrade from Champion Juicer for making cocoa liquor


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

The Old Tyme peanut grinders work well for many bean types. However, if you have one that does not have a lot of fat in it, it does slow down.

There are machines I have seen that look like meat grinders, but have stainless steel grinding burrs that are specifically designed to handle oily nuts, seeds, and beans, including cocoa. Throughput is over 20kg/hr and the fineness is 80-100 microns. If you are interested I can look into them more closely.

Another alternative I have been looking into is vertical cutter mixers. You could probably process about 30 pounds of nib into coarse liquor in under five minutes. You can find them used for very good prices, especially for the capacity and throughput. Also, you can add sugar to the liquor to pre-refine before putting into the grinder.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/27/13 17:33:35
1,680 posts

Upgrade from Champion Juicer for making cocoa liquor


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Madeleine -

What's your budget and what batch size are you contemplating (not what you're doing now) and how long do you want it to take?

:: Clay

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
11/04/13 11:10:19
1,680 posts



Classifying after cracking and before winnowing is a great step to increase the efficiency of the winnowing process. I have done it manually as making (or buying) the screens is significantly less expensive than buying a vibratory screener from Kason, Russel-Finex, or elsewhere.

Brooklyn Cacao uses (or at least used; I haven't seen the winnower working close-up for over a year) the vibratory screener because the integrated cracker was over-cracking and cracking unevenly. Putting the entire mass into the winnower resulted in very low yields and/over very low throughput. Things may have changed in the last year in those last two regards, I don't know. I see they are now offering a multi-stage vortex winnower but at something like $70,000 (or so I have been told) I think there are far less expensive ways to achieve similar or greater throughput.

One key is to run as much classified material through the winnower at a time as possible. Constantly changing the settings (the amount of vacuum) leads to inefficiencies.

You want to scalp off the large pieces (only partially cracked, flats), then pass through all the fines (and the germ). Work with the "hearts" fraction.

You can also pre-classify before roasting and before cracking to achieve more consistent results.


updated by @Clay Gordon: 01/22/15 07:43:22
Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
10/02/13 11:18:11
1,680 posts



Yes -but you don't necessarily need to make all the passes at the same time on the same day.

You can focus on the "hearts" fraction in a single pass, knowing that you're not getting the greatest yield. Collect the tails fraction (the heads pass is through a classifier) over a series of roast/crack/winnow steps, and then run several batches of tails through at once.

I think the mistake people make is that they think they have to do all the passes from a single roasting batch before they process the next roasting batch. You have to re-set the winnower for each pass.

Far more efficient if you run multiple batches through at the same setting.

Also - the feeding mechanism is what takes time if you're hand feeding the winnower. Fine some way to automate the feeding and you can get the process started and walk away from it. That's where you'll pick up efficiency after pre-classifying.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
10/02/13 11:04:49
1,680 posts



Steven -

As with everything, your mileage may vary and it all depends on your interest in tinkering and your skill levels. Even with the winnower off Chocolate Alchemy the yield will vary based on many factors - the cracker is just one of them (size variability and residual moisture level and roast level would be other). I would tell you to expect to make multiple passes to get the highest yield. How many passes will depend on your patience.

If you want to put something together yourself so that you can tinker and tune, then this approach works fairly well without requiring a whole bunch of mechanical or construction skills.

You may want to make multiple passes, you may want to pre-classify (or both).

That's the beauty of these approaches - you pick the level of patience you have various parts of the process and make your choices based on that.

All other things being equal, you're going to be able to get roughly the same efficiency out of these various approaches. The Crankandstein and the Champion juicer (as a cracker) each have their own advantages and drawbacks. You would tune your winnower (and process) to match the output of the cracker.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/30/13 08:40:05
1,680 posts



Rochelle -

Cracking on a small scale is a challenge most craft chocolate makers face.

Most people start with a Crankandstein . This machine, too has a reputation for over cracking, but it's one of the best solutions out there that you can buy.

John Nanci, over at Chocolate Alchemy, has been (pun intended) championing using the Champion juicer without the bottom screen as a cracker. (The link is to Amazon US.) From what I hear, people are pretty happy with it but it's not a barn burner in terms of throughput.

On this note I started a new discussion thread in the DIY group about two different approaches to building crackers that should be easy to do, relatively inexpensive, and, more importantly, adjustable.

As with any discussion on cracking and winnowing it's my experience that pre-classifying the output of the cracker before winnowing is one of the most effective techniques you have to increase yield. I have been recommending gold classifying screens designed to fit standard (food-safe) five-gallon buckets. With a little ingenuity these can be stacked, semi-automating the screening process.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/29/13 11:24:08
1,680 posts



Rochelle -

In Dave's single-stage vortex winnower, the majority of the fines will end up in the second bucket and not end up in the shop vac. But I don't think that's the question you are asking.

The percentage of dust (or fines) will depend mostly on the type of cracker you are using and something to do with the beans - variability in size, residual moisture content/roast. I use a multi-stage classifier to remove all of the fines before winnowing because I find it to be more efficient. But out of 10kg of beans I might get 50-200gr of dust, a mix of fine bean particles, mostly germ, and minute shell fragments.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/27/13 20:54:00
1,680 posts



Fun hack, David. This is turning out to be a real fun discussion.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/27/13 17:26:37
1,680 posts



I am really curious to know what Kitchen Aid mixer attachment you think would work. I've been looking at the idea of custom-crafting attachments for a variety of purposes, using the motor in the Kitchen Aid the way people use the motor in the Champion.

It occurs to me that something you might be able to do is incorporate a classifier into the second bucket. This would let the fines drop through while keeping the larger pieces - might help reduce the number of passes required. Of course, pre-classifying before you drop the nib into the winnower is another way to do that.

I wonder if there is also a way to "fluidize" the bed of nib that is waiting to drop into the first bucket using air being drawn through the system. This would mean you would not need a separate machine with a motor (the Kitchen Aid) (or a small vibratory motor) and the supply of nib would not "clog" the hopper. Sounds like a relatively straightforward thing to make.

OR - take a look at the BC machine, they use the vacuum to suck up the nib rather than pouring it A lot to be said for that approach.


updated by @Clay Gordon: 01/22/15 07:33:52
Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/24/13 09:13:08
1,680 posts



This is the first winnower I ever built. There is a blog post and photos about it here on TheChocolateLife.

Based on all my experience using this PVC pipe device (with the pre-classifier method that Ben and I discuss elsewhere in this thread), I firmly believe that the zig-zag winnower is an overall better technique. In part because the process of air mixing, turbulence, and separation is visible.

This makes tuning a whole lot easier to understand.

Plus, I learned that whenever I am using a vacuum (e.g., a shop vac) some sort of vortex dust collector is a requirement to keep the vacuum from getting clogged.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/24/13 09:09:02
1,680 posts



Classifying is a great technique, and it can be used both pre- and post-winnowing. Getting all of the pieces into more or less the same size/mass for a pass makes the overall yields much higher (and, interestingly, the overall process faster).

I use a large mesh (1/4") to sieve the output of the cracker.

I then use a smaller mesh (1/10") to sieve out most of the fines.

Whole beans that don't go through the 1/4" mesh can be run though the cracker again. Pieces (usually long and skinny with shell attached) can be pushed through the mesh by hand.

The fraction that falls through the 1/10" mesh can be further separated to eliminate the small dust which is basically not usable. I collect the larger-sized fraction from several winnowing batches and winnow it all at once when I get a decent amount.

The medium-sized fraction (that passes through the 1/4" mesh but not through the 1/10" mesh) winnows very cleanly once the airflow is tuned properly.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/20/13 08:20:45
1,680 posts



Ben -

The purpose of this group - DIY - is to encourage all sorts of experimentation on small equipment for the craft chocolate workshop. If you think you can rustle up something built from multiple dust deputies then you have a solution that other people will want to at least look at. So posting drawings (don't need to be plans), as well as photos and videos is always encouraged.

This above is an image from the Oneida web site showing two dust deputies plumbed in series. If you had valves to tune the air flow in the right places (as you start to outline above) then I think this is eminently do-able.

I encourage you to start a separate discussion to present your experimentation and link to it from this discussion.

One of the things that I'd like to see is working to create a large feed hopper for whatever winnower solution is adopted. That feed hopper could sit above the cracker and/or above the winnower.

One vessel I have been looking at for the feeder is 5 gallon water bottles. I'd cut the bottom off (and invert for use) as well as play with cutting the neck to widen the feed opening. 5 gallons is about 15-20kg of beans (whole / cracked). Water bottles are also cheap and, importantly, food safe. The other reason to go with a 5 gallon water bottle is that the dust deputies sit on 5 gallon buckets, so everything is sized appropriately.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/19/13 18:00:40
1,680 posts



The dust deputy is not built for winnowing, it's a filter that collects dust and small particles that would otherwise get sucked into a shop vac and clog the fan, lowering the suction of the fan.

From personal experience I can tell you that the Brooklyn Cacao Vortex winnower does not work as advertised.

One reason is that the built-in cracker over-cracks the beans resulting in lots of size differentiation. This results in very inefficient winnowing unless you use the cracker as a cracker and then pre-classify and separately put the different fractions through the machine, altering the vacuum setting for each run.

At $35,000 this is obviously not an ideal situation - you want something that is basically fill it and forget it.

Now - the BC winnower is a two-stage device. You could theoretically add extra stages and handle the classification that way but that increases the complexity of engineering (the need to control the vacuum and votex precisely in each stage) and the cost.

It's a fun idea, hugely expensive for what it delivers, in part because of the cost of parts (lots of custom-blown glass).

FWIW - pre-classifying works extremely well and when it's used on conjunction with a zig-zag design, ( http://www.thechocolatelife.com/video/diy-seedcleaner )throughput and efficiency are very good.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/04/13 08:25:32
1,680 posts

Mold Release / Ring Formation Issue in Mold


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Andy -

These look like thermoform molds. Right?

One possible culprit is that the molds are the wrong temperature, likely too cold, and things are cooling down (too) unevenly.

Try warming the molds (to within a couple of degrees of the chocolate - experiment; a couple of degrees either may make a difference) and make sure the room is not too cold. Also check your airflow. If there is none, try blowing some air past the molds to remove the heat more evenly and efficiently.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/03/13 16:52:54
1,680 posts

Weird Chocolate flavors


Posted in: Tasting Notes

How is the flavor of this chocolate "weird," David? I don't see how the post text matches the headline.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/02/13 13:43:37
1,680 posts

Recipe for Britain's first chilled chocolate treats discovered


Posted in: News & New Product Press (Read-Only)

Dr Kate Loveman of the University's School of English has published a new paper, The Introduction of Chocolate into England: Retailers, Researchers, and Consumers, 16401730, in the Journal of Social History exploring the early history of chocolate in England.

She has found the first English recipes for iced chocolate treats, collected by the Earl of Sandwich in 1668 some hundred years before his great, great grandson allegedly invented the sandwich.

The Earl's own recipe reads: "Prepare the chocolatti [to make a drink] and Then Putt the vessell that hath the Chocolatti in it, into a Jaraffa [i.e. a carafe] of snow stirred together with some salt, & shaike the snow together sometyme & it will putt the Chocolatti into tender Curdled Ice & soe eate it with spoons."

Dr Loveman said: "It's not chocolate ice-cream, but more like a very solid and very dark version of the iced chocolate drinks you get in coffee shops today. Freezing food required cutting-edge technology in seventeenth-century England, so these ices were seen as great luxuries."

The entire article can be found here . [ Opens a new window. At phys.org ]

The article concludes:

Dr Loveman's research provides an illustration of the social and commercial mechanisms by which an exotic import won English consumers and began the journey to becoming an established part of our culture.

It also reveals some of the continuities in chocolate advertising across the centuries, as well as sharp differences. Dr Loveman added: "Today's chocolate promoters, like some in the seventeenth century, often find cause to highlight women, pleasure, and sexuality.

"In the seventeenth century, however, the fact that frequent chocolate consumption might make you 'Fat and Corpulent' was an attraction, something advertisers now prefer to keep quiet about."


updated by @Clay Gordon: 12/13/24 12:16:07
Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/04/13 19:32:18
1,680 posts

Need an internship.


Posted in: Chocolate Education

Brad -

Actually, Diane is a neighbor of mine. I have known her for over 15 years. And yes, she is a professional according to the dictionary definition you cite. In fact, one of the things I have been doing over the past few months is helping her to open her first retail location here in Westchester. But Diane has been an active professional for as long as I can remember.

Here's the point. It always comes back to this. We've had this conversation in private more times than I care to remember. So here it is in public:

You can be spot on, as you say (though I don't agree that you were spot on). It's not about polished verbiage. It's about coming across as a bully. The attitude that you project is that you simply don't care what people think. You come across as thinking that your opinion is the only opinion that matters and that anyone who begs to differ even one iota is not just plain wrong but incredibly stupid not to see the brilliance of your wisdom. Any insinuation that you might not be right (or professional, in this case) sends you into a tirade where you attack attack attack.

If you want to have that attitude in your place of business, then that's your prerogative. This is my place of business and I am asking, once again, for you to contain yourself.

This whole thing about bringing up the dictionary definition of the word professional is, to put it bluntly, not professional. One can be a professional (according to the dictionary definition you quote) without acting professionally. Your reply to Diane is not professional in the lattersense.

You may be technically correct. You often are. Sometimes you aren't. But that's not the point.

It's not about polishing your verbiage: STOP SHOUTING AT, AND BELITTLING, PEOPLE WHO DON'T AGREE WITH YOU.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/02/13 13:05:31
1,680 posts

Need an internship.


Posted in: Chocolate Education

Lynn:

The answer to finding an internship is ... you need to do your homework.

You need to decide how far you can travel and how long you can be away, if at all.

The Internet is a good place to start locating places within range. As are directories of chocolate shops and the directories of professional associations such as RCI.

Once you have the list of potential places you should do some homework on each prospect. What kinds of work do they do? What kinds of things can you learn? What sort of value can you bring?

From this work you will create a short list of companies you want to approach. You need to contact them, introduce yourself, and find out if they are even remotely interested in the idea of having interns. They may not be and you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that no one on your short list is interested in having an intern - unpaid or no.

Some of the reasons they will say no are ones that Brad brings up, but it can go either way. Right now companies are just entering the busy season. They may say they don't want to take people on because it is too much work and trouble to try to train someone at this time if year. However, others might say that having an extra hand around the kitchen at the busiest time of year is a good thing.

Keep in mind that it may have nothing to do with you personally. However, there are some things you can do:

1) If you do your homework on the company you can include in your pitch that you have some specific experience similar to work they make. Showing that you took the time to learn something about them cannot hurt.

2) Make the contact in person and bring samples of your work. They can see the level of fit and finish you are capable of.

3) Don't oversell yourself. The quickest way to be asked to leave is to say you know how to do something and you can't. They will find out immediately when you get into production.

4) Be eager, but not overeager. You have to fit into an existing production team.

5) Make yourself more hirable by getting a food safety certification that your local health department recognizes and probably requires. NYC's food handler's course is online, as is ServSafe.

Now I do have to say that the more you are willing/capable of traveling, the better your options and chances are. I have been lucky to take part in several World Pastry Forums and I can personally attest that many of the top practitioners in the world are completely open to interns and that the practice of interning is alive and well. Many top practitioners consider that part of their legacy is the people they've trained and they're not worried so much about people "stealing" or copying their techniques or recipes because they're interested in what to do next, not what they did last year.

But - some people are just not interested in bringing untrained or semi-trained people into their kitchens. It does introduce management challenges and there may be other issues to consider - such as insurance.

And some may worry that you'll take what you learned and copy them and compete with them, but that's the least common reason for not wanting interns that I have personally encountered. The most common reasons, in my experience, are ones related to management. Some people just don't like to manage people.

Whatever the response, you actually only want to work with people who want you in their kitchen in the first place.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/27/13 20:38:13
1,680 posts

Incredibly great flavors for chocolate!


Posted in: Tasting Notes

Hank -

Thanks for this recommendation. Good to know.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/27/13 20:36:38
1,680 posts

Looking for Chocolate Moulds


Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

Karen -

It would also be helpful to know how many molds you are looking for - and I assume you are looking for professional-grade polycarbonate?

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
09/19/13 17:51:59
1,680 posts

London Chocolate F(r)iends


Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Connor -

ChocolateWeek in London is coming up and is the perfect time to connect with the London chocolate community. Chocolate Unwrapped is now the London Salon du Chocolat - but check in with the organizers ( Nudge PR ) about volunteering and the like - a great way to make introductions and get caught up on the scene.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/21/13 09:34:02
1,680 posts

Adding cocoa butter to thin chocolate


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Brianna:

You should only need to add a fairly small amount (<5% by weight) so the answer is ... it depends on the chocolate and the cocoa butter you are using. Unsweetened chocolate (like Guittard Oban) is fairly high in cocoa butter, so if you think you're diluting the flavor, cut down on the butter slightly and add some unsweetened chocolate to the blend. Alternatively, consider using an undeodorized cocoa butter which will have a pronounced chocolate flavor (compared with a deodorized butter).

As for the melt point - some butters have lower melt points than others. Butters with low melt points are considered "soft" and butters with higher melting points are considered "hard". If you add a low melt point butter to a chocolate it may affect the melt point of the blend, also depending on the amount of butter you're adding.

In the end, you'll need to do some experiments to see what works best for you.

Is this related to the enrobing question?

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/21/13 09:40:01
1,680 posts

Achieving a super thin layer of chocolate on a hard center


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Brianna -

I assume you've done tests to know that the chocolate adheres well to your center.

Can you specify thinness as a measurement, not weight? 8-10gr of chocolate on 28gr of center is 25-30% by weight which seems fairly thick, actually. And the pieces are fairly big. What shape are they? Not sure if the can be panned or if they need to be enrobed.

You can thin out the chocolate a tad (is this the point of the cocoa butter question?).

There is usually a movable blower attachment on an enrober belt. The blower can be positioned quite close to the work to remove a significant amount of chocolate.

Enrobers should also have pre-bottomers and de-tailers so I would not "settle" for having a foot around the pieces.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/20/13 09:25:56
1,680 posts

Is my Cocoatown Melanger 12SL broken forever?


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Carrie -

Yes, please post photos. And, I agree with Ben - unless a part got broken or lost during disassembly/assembly it should be able to be put back together correctly.

Also, CocoaTown representatives are members of TheChocolateLife and once the photos are posted they should also be able to help.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/19/13 11:09:08
1,680 posts

DIY Winnower


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I noticed you posted a question on a DIY seed cleaner winnower that I posted a while ago.

If you are looking to DIY something yourself, I recommend this "visible" design where you can see what's happening, take it apart, and tweak it. I posted some thoughts about how to improve the basic design for use with winnowing cocoa in the comments to the video.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/19/13 11:04:32
1,680 posts

DIY Winnower


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Donny -

This blueprint is from one of the early iterations of the "sylph" winnower that John Nanci over at Chocolate Alchemy designed. Have you asked on that forum?

BTW, you uploaded a very small thumbnail that's impossible to read.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
12/15/13 13:14:27
1,680 posts

Using a 110V Revolation 2 Machine in other countries with 220V


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

My experience tells me that it's quite likely that you will not be able to successfully run a 60Hz machine at 50Hz.

This is a question I would ask directly of Chocovision to be perfectly sure, but

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/12/13 21:57:06
1,680 posts

Rev1 Problems - won´t melt!


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Andre -

You've done all the right things, except I would call Chocovision and see what they can do for you. There are some electronics in your Rev 1 and it's possible, after a long period of inactivity, that something worked the first time when it was plugged back in, but then stopped working.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/12/13 21:54:48
1,680 posts

SIPPING CHOCOLATE...Dense Haute Chocolate


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Anna -

There are many different ways to do this ... all depends on what you want to achieve. For the most part I do not like the use of starch thickeners in my chocolate drinks as it changes the texture in ways I do not like. One thing however, is that (I find) it takes time to fully hydrate the starch so you don't really want to make it up a la minute. You can make a dense mousse with the starch in advance and then add the liquid

In my town, the local chocolate shop makes their (French-style sipping chocolate) in advance and dispenses it out of air pots. It's "just" chocolate and dairy - and one of the best sipping chocolates I have had this side of the Atlantic. They use very fresh organic cream. Personally, I think this is the secret - very high quality dairy.

At Bonnat in their salon, they make up the chocolate in advance and put it back in a milk jug in the fridge. They then steam it to heat it for service. At least they did back in '98 when I visited.

You could make a water-based ganache and add the (hot) dairy of choice to the ganache and then whip it using a frother or steamer. I like this approach as it makes it possible to vary the density of the product quite easily by changing the ratio of ganache to dairy - thinner for kids, thicker for adults.

You don't have to steam the milk, you could keep it hot in a coffee urn, as they do for Cuban caf con leche. This adds a nice caramel note as the lactose in the milk gets cooked.

Another idea - line the inside of the cup with a layer of tempered chocolate (any milk, white (!), or dark) and use (homemade) chocolate syrup. The hot dairy melts the chocolate lining the cup and adds interest to the drink.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
08/02/13 09:00:53
1,680 posts

Problem with grinder


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

When you added the milk powder the mixture became too thick.

There is not enough pressure being exerted on the stones - evenly - against the bottom of the bowl - so one or more of the stones stops turning.

If you take out some (or most) of the chocolate does this solve your problem? If you can get the chocolate started and fluid you may be able to add the rest back in in small amounts.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
07/26/13 08:06:57
1,680 posts

Cocoa town and Chocolate 70% and below Question


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Steven:

From your description of the problem I am guessing that you're using one of the 12 (5 kilo) machines.

What's happening is that there's not enough pressure exerted on the rollers to keep them reliably in contact with the bowl surface when the chocolate reaches a certain viscosity.

To some extent your telling us the percentage in your recipes doesn't help because we don't know the fat content of your beans and whether or not you add any cocoa butter to your recipes. You can have two recipes with the same cocoa content with very different viscosities.

Cocoatown is now offering machines that enables users to increase the pressure on the stones to help keep them in contact with the base. This might be what you need. However keep in mind that this extra pressure will probably reduce the life of the nylon bushings, which will cause other problems.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
07/24/13 13:55:24
1,680 posts

Need Help Calculating Volume of Chocolate For Mold Cavity


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Brian -

Actually, I think the empirical way to arrive at the solution is the elegant one. The challenge you face is that you don't own the mold - a single-cavity prototype? - so doing the work is a little cumbersome.

You could come up with a mathematically precise answer, but to do so you'd need to know the exact volume of the mold (non-trivial) and need the densities of each chocolate at the temperature you're using for each mold (contact Guittard for this information - but I don't know that they have it handy). You could end up with a different weight of chocolate - probably within a percent or so - for each chocolate you use. Precise but inelegant - and maybe more work than doing it empirically.

Plus, I have to agree with Sebastian - I find working with chocolate a lot more fun than working with calculators.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
07/23/13 14:14:07
1,680 posts

Molds, adjusting existing mold


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Darlene:

When asking questions like this, photos of the mold will help us visualize what you're trying to achieve.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
07/22/13 11:02:44
1,680 posts

New Machine


Posted in: Opinion

Corey:

Which machines are you referring to when you say,

"Many of the larger units temper through a pipe and I am pretty sure that the chocolate in the bowl is not tempered, just melted."

If you are referring to continuous tempering machines (e.g., FBM, Selmi, Gami, Pomati), then yes, the chocolate in the bowl is not going to be in temper. The chocolate coming out of the tempering pipe is. To do what you're doing in your Rev 2s you'd "draw off" some tempered chocolate into a working bowl, do your covering, and then any chocolate you did not use you'd return to the working bowl.

The ChocoTT is like the Rev2 in some respects except the wheel spins, not the bowl. Once the chocolate is tempered you could just throw the stuff you're dipping into the working bowl, but the normal way of working would be do draw off smaller amounts of chocolate into a separate bowl. On the follow-up point it's not a continuous tempering machine - it's a batch machine.

As for capacity ... is that 25-50 pounds in the working bowl? 25-50 pounds per day? 25-50 pounds per hour?

Once the continuous tempering cycle is established, a continuous tempering machine can temper up to 3-5 times the capacity of the working bowl, per hour, if you "top up" the bowl as you draw chocolate from it. Following this guideline, a continuous tempering machine with a 25 pound working bowl capacity can temper between 75 and 125 pounds of chocolate per hour.In reality, the only way you can use this much chocolate is if you're doing a lot of large molds - it's very hard to use this much chocolate when dipping or enrobing.

When you're using a batch machine, it can take 60-90 minutes to get to temper from a cold start (solid chocolate). Therefore, you tend to have much larger bowl capacities because when you empty the bowl you have to wait a long time to start work again waiting for the chocolate to temper.

One approach is not inherently better than another, they are different, and suited to different styles of work and working and personal preferences, working conditions (e.g., shared space, permanent kitchen) and budgets.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
07/19/13 13:42:51
1,680 posts

Re-tempering in Chocovision Delta machine?


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Cherub -

One thing to keep in mind is that the temper points the manufacturer recommends are designed for different equipment than what you're using - they should be used as reference points, not benchmarks.

One thing that occurs to me is that 112F is too low. 115F at a minimum, and let the chocolate sit there for at least five minutes to ensure that all the crystals are melted out. If you don't then what's left will influence seeding as you cool down.

The same is true when the chocolate reaches temper. The probe is measuring at one particular point. It can take many minutes for the crystals to spread through the chocolate. I always waited at least five minutes after the machine says it's in temper before using the chocolate to ensure more even spread of crystals.

As you empty the working bowl the machine has to work harder to keep temper. At some point, when there's less than 15-20% in the work bowl I often found that the chocolate started to streak (not bloom) because the temperatures were uneven. On a large diameter bowl that's an awful lot of surface area radiating heat into the room (and being influenced by room temperature). The difference between 19 and 22C might not seem all that different - but consistency is. If the room temp changes the temperatures of the chocolate may need to be changed to compensate.

The machines are aids - they are not panaceas. You still do need to know what properly tempered chocolate looks like.

Clay Gordon
@Clay Gordon
07/18/13 20:39:21
1,680 posts

Re-tempering in Chocovision Delta machine?


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Cherub:

What are you currently doing (process), and when you say it fails, what does that mean?

In theory, there should be no problem in re-tempering, assuming that you are getting a good temper in the first place.

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