Forum Activity for @dominique

spots of adherence in polycarbonate bar moulds

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

Thanks Thomas, indeed the picture of your set up is helpfull. I like the rack you're using, and keep this idea for when I'll make bigger batches. Nice also to see your fan installation.

Actually I've fixed the issue, which was multifactored. I started by checking the temper even in the machine, and 2 times out of 6 the machine was saying tempered although it was not.

Then I set my moulds 10mn in the fridge and let them finish the cooling on shelves at room temp. They were perfect.

I think aside the tempering issue, the problem was due to too much mass in the fridge at the same, resulting in bad air fluctuation.

Thanks for you help, that's great to get support from more experienced people.

Dominique

spots of adherence in polycarbonate bar moulds

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

Thanks for your reply Powell.

You're saying that the temper is off, and I would really like to know what helps you see that in the picture. I don't understand this tempering issue, as I'm using a Chocovision tempering machine. It seems to me that what could bring the chocolate out of temper is a part of the process that does not involve the machine.

What you're saying about the moulds and cooling is very interesting, thank you. I put the moulds directly on fridge shelves, which are glass shelves and not racks. But I feel this is more a cooling issue than a tempering one (even if I can of course be completely wrong!). 

How would you proceed to cool the chocolate ? Do you leave it for the whole process in the fridge ? Or do you let them cool at room temp (what temp?) after a specific time in the cold. What's the temp of your cooling device ?

Thanks a lot for helping me.

Dominique

spots of adherence in polycarbonate bar moulds

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

Thanks Thomas for your quick response.

I set the chocolate in the fridge. What is strange to me is that some are perfect and some have that issue. Could it be a matter of temp fluctuation in the fridge, for example if I open the door too often to get some new moulds in, or if there are too many warm moulds in the fridge ?

spots of adherence in polycarbonate bar moulds

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

Hi everyone,

I'm having an issue that appears in my polycarbonate moulds and I don't understand what's happening here.

As you can see on the pictures, the chocolate adheres on some small areas of the moulds, living an ugly look to the bar. I don't think it's a tempering problem, as 1/ I'm using a tempering machine that does the job perfectly, 2/ not all the bars of the same mould have this. 

Oh, my moulds are clean and dry before use. 

Have you encoutered the same issue ? What do you thing about this and how to fix it ?

Thanks

Dominique

updated by @dominique: 11/05/16 01:35:03PM

help on how to use a chocolate melter/tempering machine

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

Hi,

I've got a 12kg professional chocolate melter using bain-marie and I'm struggling to make a correct use of it. 

What I do now is tempering my chocolate using the bain marie method (but not my melter), then put it in the melter in order to maintain it's temperature, and start working.

But I'm pretty sure I could use it more appropriately. Here are a few questions :

1. I'm usually tempering and working with small batches of chocolates (around 2kg). So as making bars is very quick once the chocolate is tempered, I end up with the temperature of the melter being very quickly too high for the quantity of choc I have in. So the choc grows too high in temp and out of temper. How can I fix that ?

2. Do you use that kind of machine to temper your chocolate ? If yes, how ?

3. If you have to temper outside the machine, how do you manage to get your 12kg in the machine ? I meaning do you temper 6 batches of 2kg that you pour in ? I don't think so...

It seems silly but I can't seem to figure out how to use this machine in the most effective way possible. Your help is very welcome.

Thanks !

Dominique

Hi from France !

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hello everyone,

I'm Dominique from France. I've been making raw chocolate for 3 years now at a home and amateur scale, and now I want to start my own business. I've trained first in pastry making about...20 years ago, which included chocolate making, and I'm back to chocolate after a lot of journeying through life :-D !

I'm glad to follow my passion and to make it healthy with raw chocolate. What I like is to use cristalled flowers, essential oils and all that kind of things to create my chocolates.

I hope to be nourrished by this community of chocolate lovers !

Dominique