I am also in Upstate NY and am looking for a company that makes white chocolate that can be tempered. I am in the process of formulating a vegan full fat milk powder that I am hoping can be used to make a vegan white chocolate that has a comparable taste and texture to traditional white chocolate. Do you know any small batch processors that may be interested in giving it a try?
Thanks Andrea for all the tips, it is greatly appreciated.Can I friend you in case I have any more questions? It is nice to talk to someone that is using the same chocolate as I am.
Thanks Andrea! I did have better luck using your method of heating, dropping temp and reheating but it still had bloom, just not as bad. I tried this method to see if there would be a major difference and there definitely was. The chocolate tasted chalky and was light on the inside of the bar. As I said, I am new to this and am trying to figure it out by reading and experimenting. I do not currently have a machine (am looking into a few different ones) but I thought I should know how to temper by hand anyway. I figure it is important to know how to do it by hand as well just in case you get in a bind in the future. Thank you for the temperatures, I will give it another try tomorrow as it is about 40 degrees where I am, so it should be good working conditions tomorrow.
Andy,
Thank you for your reply. I am new to this and have been reading as much as possible but the temperatures vary for dark/semi-sweet chocolate from site to site so I have been trying to stay within the range I have been reading. I am using a Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate that is 65% as it is the ONLY allergy-free chocolate that I have been able to get my hands on. It is in mini-chip form and melts extremely quick. Any idea what temps. you would start experimenting with?
I am with you Maggie! I have been trying to temper dark chocolate as well and am having all kinds of problems. I bring my chocolate up to 115 then I add 25% seed chocolate and bring it down to 90 to work with it. I am wondering if leaving it out to harden on the counter is causing the problem. I have read that 55-60 is the best temp. to let it harden at. If I refrigerate it to hardenit looks great. What is the best method on bringing it back to room temperature as I know humidity will be an issue as well?
Yochy,
Do you use Rice Milk for your dairy-free milk chocolate or something else like soy milk etc.
I have spoken to a company that is allergy-free and thye have informed me that Callebaut will not sell it to them unless they can buy 10,000 lbs. at a time (I believe it was).
