Try www.chocosphere.com . They carry Callebaut & Pacaricocoa butters. Just do a search and scroll down to the bottom of each page. I can't speak to your other requirements but they have smaller sizes.
Andrea
I've emailed Callebaut and will let you know if I get a reply regarding availability.
I tried the Enjoy Life Rice Milk Bar - totally gross! I've tried the Sweet Chocolate Dream bar - yuck! Beyond those 2, I'd have to go down to my food co-op to see what other brands they carry to let you know which ones I've tried. I love milk chocolate so much I even tried to make a recipe at home for dairy-free milk chocolate. It was a recipe I found online and it was beyond gross.
I am wondering if the dairy-free Callebaut is available in Canada and could be shipped into the US. Of course I wanted to try a sample of it before ordering a whole huge bag and realizing it either tastes gross or doesn't temper well for use in molding.
I tried to track down the Callebaut dairy-free milk chocolate in the US last fall without luck. If you find it, let me know. I've also tried some of the other dairy-free brands of milk chocolateand they are all fairly disgusting - both in taste and texture. Plus, none of them seem available in bulk. Even if you find them in bulk the costs are high (esp. considering the quality or lack thereof). Best, Andrea
You could also try JB PRince at http://www.jbprince.com/chocolate-and-sugar-work/chocolate-molds.asp
or Chef Rubber ( www.chefrubber.com )
They both havea big selection.
Won't cooling the caramels before dipping throw the chocolate out of temper? I dipped my last batch at room temp and they turned out very well.
I 2nd Brad regarding altitude. I had been having issues with my caramels being too hard and I dropped the temperature I remove them from the heat to 240F and they are a nice soft texture. When removed at 245F they could be used as weapons. BTW, I am at about 5200 feet above sea level.
Andrea
I've had (and made) ganache both with tempered and untempered chocolate. Personally, I prefer untempered chocolate in myganache plus since I temper by hand it saves me a good bit of time when making ganache. Have you considered not tempering your chocolate for your ganaches?
Understanding (at least some of) the science definitely can definitely be helpful with chocolate work. It is absolutely a combination of art and science when working with chocolate. Knowing at least some of the science can help you troubleshoot problems from tempering to shelf life. It can also be helpful for recipedevelopment. No need to go back to school for another degree - an broad understanding of theorycan usually suffice!
You could also try going a bit thinner on the bark as well. A 1/4-inch is fairly thick. I think that was your problem and the reason a quicker cool down worked - the overall mass (i.e thermal mass of the chocolate) was affecting things. Of course refrigeration has it's own problems... condensation leading to sugar bloom.... Sounds like you are on your way to resolving this issue. Probably a combo of different things will lead to an effective long-term solution for you. Andrea
What did you put in the bark? Was what you added to the bark cold or room temperaturewhen you added it? How thick is the bark? Did the temperature cool evenly? This would be based on how thick the bark is as well as the room temperature. Anything you add should be room temperature and you need to cool the bark as evenly as possible.
Andrea
I think it is awesome you are learning about chocolate. Like Gap, I also is a big plastic ladle to put the chocolate in my molds. I've seen these types of ladles at Bed, Bath & Beyond as well as Ace Hardware. You need a nice sturdy one. Some of the plastic ones look like the handle will snap off too easily. The one I have is a dark brown color and may actually be a hard silicone. Also, I use a scraper to clean the mold once I have emptied the excess back into my bowl. For this I went to the hardware store and bought a couple of metal scrapers - the type they use when laying tile. The metal edge is nice and thin. They are sturdy and can be easily cleaned. Don't forget to tap your molds toremove air bubbles... Andrea
Personally, I don't think you need to go to culinary school. You will spend more time there on baking and things other than chocolate work. It sounds like you are already competent in tempering and the basics so I think you'd be better served by taking morespecific advanced chocolateclasses. Chef Rubber is a good place to start but I haven't seen any classes on their schedule lately that are for a more advanced "hobbyist" (as I suspect you are). If you have the time and funds to travel I'd keep aneye on the class schedules for Notter in Florida as well asThe French Pastry School in Chicago. In particular you should consider the class taught in Chicago by Jean Pierre Wybauw. It runs about 3 days and you will learn a tremendous amount from him. It says the class is for professionals but you would betotally fine since you have experience. I think the idea of a localinternship is a good one as well - do it at a place where you like the product or is in line with what you envision our products to be (i.e. same quality or look)
To be completely up front about this, I do not have what I consider "experience" with this- I saw this panning attachment used once in a class I took. It seemed very handy but you needed to go relatively slowly - adding small amounts of chocolate at a time until an adequate coating is achieved.It seemed to do a good-sized quantity at a time though. I thought about buying the attachment but the last time I checked it was about $500. Not sure what you mean about requirements - other than a Kitchen Aid mixer... Limitations - fairly noisy, slowing going. Now that I think about it I am not sure what cleaning is involved say between batches with different chocolates or different types of nuts (glazed, plain...)
There's no reason at all you can't do this. I make lots of molds at once, use what I need and store the rest for later. You need to make sure to keep the filled molds cool and dry, keep pests/rodents out as well as dust. I will often loosely wrap them in plastic wrap once they are totally cooled and set. I store them in a cool dark room (that was intended as a wine storage area). I've never had an issue using a mold like this at a later date.
BTW, there are no stupid questions here. We all started at the beginning of the learning process with chocolate. It just nice to have a place to go to seek answers.
The ganache will go bad long before the nuts turn rancid. I think you can figure about 3 weeks for your truffles until they spoil, grow mold, etc. unless you freeze them. I am assuming you know your nuts need to be toasted prior to using them with your chocolates. Doing this accomplishes a few things but should also extend the time before they turn rancid. I've found old bags of untoastednuts in the back of my cabinets after monthsand they seem fine. How quickly they turn rancid will depend on the oil content (plus storage conditions).
I am not sure you can extend the shelf life of a ganache-filled chocolate to 6 months. If you could it would require serious chemicals/preservatives. Why does this customer require a 6 month shelf life? I think most people who make chocolates on a small scale want them as fresh and as natural as possible. This may not be the customer for you (I know it is a novel idea, but you don't have to accept every customer that comes along). Good luck.
I also think this stirrer would not work as well as you would need it to and I don't think the other stirrer you linked in your reply would do the job either. In my opinion, you'd be better off saving that money for the future and buying a tempering machine rather then spending money of somethingthat probably won't work and/or would be a big hassle.Also, it doesn't seem like you'd be able to temper that much chocolate at once using this equipment. For the amount you could temper using this magnetic stirrer, you'd be just as well off tempering by hand. You can temper a couple pounds of chocolate in maybe 15-20 minutes. To answer your question about tempering, no - tempering is not just about achieving the correct temperature for crystal formation. It most definitely has to do with agitation as well. I highly recommend you know how to temper correctly by hand prior to becoming reliant on equipment. It is a really helpful skill to have. Also, there is a lot of info in JP Wybauw's books about crystal formation, tempering, etc that is good reading. Good luck.
You temper cocoa butter the same way you do chocolate. In this case you might need to do it using the slab technique since you would be doing such a small quantity. There is a chance that if you heated the cocoa butter too high that it may not be salvagable, although it is probably worth a try. I melt my bottles from Chef Rubber in the microwave and do it very slowly (with the caps off BTW). Do not melt the contents of theentire bottle out and once you have enough liquified and ready to work with give the bottle a good shake and you should be ready to go.
I agree with Gap - if you are going to spread chocolate on the acetate sheet it has to be very thin and you need to cut it into your chosen shapes before it has fully set and the pieces will be delicate even once they are set since they are thin.
I, too, am confused about all of the cocoa butter transferring to your dipped pieces - even the parts not touching the chocolate. I am thinking, like Gap,that the cocoa butter design is too thick. I've never had this happen. I have made transfer sheets where the color is too think and pieces of the designare peeling off the sheet even prior to use. If this is happening then I wouldn't use those sheets and the color would have to bespread thinner when remaking new transfer sheets. If you are using multiple colors when making your sheets try not to layer too many colors on each other to help avoid this problem.
Please be more specific about the problems you are having. The answer may depend on the issue. Your cocoa butter might not betempered correctlybefore you start. You could also "work" the cocoa butter too much as you are spreading it on the acetate sheet. You could be putting the cocoa butter on too thick on the acetate sheet which can cause it to not transfer correctly. You can spread the cocoa butter a number of ways to create designs (although I findpaint brushes tend to leave bristles behind) but that is something you need to play with to achieve the look you want. Unlike Gap, I usually just cut my transfer sheets to size and use them without spreading chocolate on them first (I usually use them in magnetic molds). One other tip is that you can spritz your countertop with a bit of water to help hold the acetate in place while you are putting your color on and making your design - just make sure you keep the side you are adding cocoa butter to dry!
I use small paintbrushes. You can pick up a bit of gold leaf on the brush and dab it on. I think it works reasonably well although I still think gold leaf can be hard to control! Andrea
I have no specific instructions (i.e. on how much invertase to use on a percentage basis), but, yes, this is exactly what invertase is for. You can adjust how creamy/liquid your centers will be by adjusting the amount of invertase you use. You centers will be solid and easy to work with and will become more creamy/liquid over a very short period of time once the chocolate has been finished. This is typically how chocolate covered cherries are made. Obviously if you sell you chocolates you will need to allow this process to occur so your customers get the product with the texture you intend.
You don't need to clean between colors. Take one color off, blow out as much remaining color as you can, attach you next color and spray again to make sure you aren't getting residual before spraying your molds or whatever. You need to clean the sprayer when you are done. Check Chef Rubber for a food-safe cleaner they sell for sprayers.
If you are still tempering by hand, your chocolate will stay at your working temperature longer the larger the volume of chocolate you are working with. Reheat as needed as already suggested in the other post. There is no special trick - once you know how to temper, as you already do, it is pretty much all the same no matter how much chocolate you are working with.
Did you let your molds air dry the last time you washed them? If so there could be minerals from the water left behind that polishing the molds might not remove. Stains like this can be difficult to remove. I've never done it with chocolate molds but you typically have to use a white vinegar and water mixture. In this case, I'd probably just soak the molds in this mixture for a while and then rinse welland hand dry.
I have been in a class where a small amount of water was added to the chocolate, it was stirred vigerously (immediately from when the chcolate was added) and it did not seize. It does thicken the chocolate but I think if you did that the chocolate would be too thick to work with for dipping. I asked for a scientific explanation of why the chocolate did not seize but didn't really get an adequate explanation.
The chcolate is not useless after it has seized. It can be used for ganaches. It just cannot be used for tempering even if remelted.
You might try double dipping the chocolates for a thicker coating or as Robyn suggested look for a chocolate with a thicker viscosity when tempered that would give a thicker coating. www.chocosphere.com hasproduct information, at least on some brands, about differing viscosities of the various chocolates.
Try www.chocosphere.com . They are in Portland, OR.
Andrea
There could be a couple of of problems here. The splatters of cocoa butter might be too thick. Your molds would release without problems in the areas with it is not too thick. Your cocoa butter may be out of temper. If you melted all of the cocoa butter out (with nothing solid left in the container) it could be out of temper and simply shaking it will not temper it. If it is all melted out you need to re-temper as you would chocolate. Also, remember that, like chocolate,cocoa buttercan be over tempered (over crystalized). I am no expert in working with colored cocoa butter but keep practicing and you'll figure out what methods work best for you.
Your final texture or firmness (i.e. stability)of your ganache should be a reflection of the ratio of cream to chocolate as opposed to tempered versus untempered chocolate. Your final product may be a little more firm using tempered chocolate but that is something you can experiment with to see what you prefer. Personally I'd give it a shot with untempered chocolate and see what happens. I do the same as you and melt the chocolate with the heated cream and it saves me from tempering more chocolate (I temper by hand since I don't have a tempering machine)
I am guessing that the room temperature butter should be added to the ganache as the last ingredient and once the ganache as cooled enough that the temperature of the chocolate is not melting the butter but only incorporating it. Think about when you make chocolate chip cookies. The butter is added to the recipe softened but not melted. If you added melted butter to the recipe your final texture of the cookies would be different- it is kind of the same concept here.
Take care,
Andrea
Hi Katie,
I do think the butter mixture was way too hot. Definitely cool it down into the low-to-mid 80's before adding it.
Do you mean you are planning to add the room temp butter to the cream instead of the the chocolate? If so, then I would not do that. Adding things at different times and temps can affect the texture and mouth feelof the final product. Also, make sure the butter reallyis at room temp before adding it.
Also, this is just a funny FYI. A few months back I was at a class where they were talking about ganache and the problems one can encounter (i.e. broken ganache, too hard, too soft, etc) and I commented that I had never had a broken ganache before. Well, I cursed myself... just about every ganache I made for that class broke and had to be repaired! It was interesting because I typically do not use tempered chocolate for my ganache and this instructor swears by it. He thinks the texture of the ganache using tempered chocolate is better over the life of the product. I have tested this notion (strictly on myself)and actually found that I prefer ganache made with untempered chocolate no matter when it is in it's life (i.e 1st day it is made versus 2-3 weeks old).I have taken recipes that call for tempered chocolate and just used melted chocolate with no discernable difference in the end - of course I make bonbons and don't usually slab my ganache. Just something for you to think about and maybe test for yourself in the future. I hope your next attempt with this ganache goes well. Let us know...
I agree with Gap's comments and have a few other comments to add. Two hours to temper is way too long and you are definitely over-tempered. Once your chocolate is within your working temperature it should be more fluid than you are describing.
The solution to your problem may not be the end product (i.e. too thick chocolate). Make sure you are melting out your chocolate to a high enough temp to melt out all the crystals prior to beginning the tempering process. If you don'tdo this you will absolutely be over crystalized at your working temperature. If you are stirring for the entire 2 hours, then you will also be over crystalized. What kind of bowl are you melting your chocolate in? Glass will hold heat much longer than metal or a plastic bowl (for microwave only).
One other suggestion for once your chocolate is tempered and you are trying to maintain it's fluidity/working temperaturebesides the heat gun (although I have a heat gun and like it)is to use a microwave. It will take you a time or two to figure out what works time-wise. On my microwave I will put the bowl in for 5-6 seconds on 50% power. Sometimes it needs a bit less and sometimes a bit more but the microwave is a very effective way control the temperature within a few degrees.
As for adding cocoa butter, I don't recommend this as a solution. You can and will figure out how to correctly temper chocolate so that is has fluidity. I think adding cocoa butter is like adding a bandaid and it doesn't solve the issue.
I don't do large molds and have never had the need to put my smaller molds (individual bonbons) in the fridge. It sounds like at your working temperature that you don't need to put them in the fridge unless you are doing large pieces.
I also think taking a class is a good idea. If you live in a large town/city you could even hire someone for a lesson. Call around either to chocolate shops or bakeries and find someone with some experience.
Good luck and you WILL master tempering!
Andrea
I am in Montana and have been looking at commercial kitchen space recently and it ranges here from $15/hour up to $40/hour. Prices can vary widely and, of course,verify the kitchen it "legal" with the Health Dept.
FYI - most if not all states prohibit food production from a home ktichen. You can consider setting up a kitchen that meets code in a garage or basement space.
Good luck!
In addition to the dipping fork or the cork you could also use a piece of sponge (cut to a convenient size and keep for future use)to lightly press down on the transfer sheet.
I agree that if your chocolate is in correct temper you shouldn't really need to do anything else (other than leave the transfer sheet on until the chocolate is crystallized). Redcan be aproblem and I have trouble with some shades of green as well.
I am interested to learn how to price chocolates for both wholesale and retail sale. I have priced other types of products in the past but have no idea to account for the variables between different chocolates (i.e. different sizes, different fillings, decorated, packaging, type of couverture, etc.). Any insights are appreciated. Andrea
