I buy my cello bags from Flora Designs in Burlington, Ontario - they have flat clear or can make them from prints. Website is kind of useless but contact through e-mail and they should repond and be able to help you figure out what you need. http://floradesigninc.com
It's a bittersweet that is one drop (i.e. viscous) so would be better for making ganache than for use in moulding etc.
You can - as long as you don't somehow manage to throw the chocolate out of temper by using coloured cocoa butter that is too warm.
Alternately you could simply put a dab of coloured cocoa butter on the bottom of the mold.
What Ruth said!
There is a eutectic effect of one fat on another. So if you combine chocolate and coconut oil the cocoa butter and the coconut fat interact. Ditto with the peanut butter fat. The melting point of the new fat produced is different from the melting point of the starting fats and it will not necessarily be a temperature half way between the two - it can be higher or lower than either alone.
The tempering allows that fat to crystallize in a stable form.
To little too late - but DR in Montreal handles Dedy.
My friend also used a pizza wheel - but she was very picky about which ones she purchased - some worked well depending on the blade/handle configuration, others more poorly.
A friend who used to have a marshmallow business used drywall taping knives to cut hers.
I did take my guitar there one weekend they were producing and she found it useful to cut them.
Removing a percentage of the clips early in the cooling can help a lot with cracking.
Ok - so that's probably not interfering. See how it goes with Mark's heating suggestion and let us know.
Good crystal information in Beckett - The Science of Chocolate - but that might be a little more complex than you want. I think that Greweling covers it pretty well in Chocolates and Confections.
Jessica,
How thick is this bar you are making?
Try popping them in the fridge for about 15 minutes as soon as they start to show signs of crystallizing around the edges.
I was able to find a picture online of the 'taps' - looks like any sort of automatic tempering machine could be used. So you could look at a Selmi (various sizes available) - not sure of the pricing in europe but since most are manufactured there it should be less than north america I suspect. Pomati makes various sized machines as well. Chocolate World also sells something similar to the Selmi.
Do you have a way of checking the temperature of your thermometer or perhaps using another to compare?
Sounds on the surface like it should work. When you get down to 27 C - how thick is the mixture? Also how certain are you of the calibration of your thermometer?
Drupa,
It sounds like your problem is in the tempering - it's challenging to temper in a humid environment and you may find that you continue to have problems until you can get an air conditioned space set up to temper. But in the meantime can you tell us how you are tempering your chocolate so we can help you troubleshoot?
I find that starting with the ratios in Greweling's book and varying the flavours works very well. He also discusses ratios at length in the book.
Haven't tried it but this looks to have potential - http://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/2010/11/handcrafted-dairycasein-free-chewy-caramels/
We got some fabulous transfer sheets for our recent chocolate workshop from ChocoTransferSheets.com
Lovely people -and they do custom as well as off the rack.
I second the Mold'art. I have 3. I like the capacity and ease of dumping back into them when making molds.
Some folks use a excalibur dehydrator. I've been eyeing reptile incubators lately!
They are pretty low tech - don't think you need to worry too much about a lemon. They are made in Quebec so if a thermostat goes you should be able to get replacements easily. I like the idea of the Air vs their water version.
You can add a Perfect enrober to the Air 2 as well when your business grows more (I think I saw one for sale on the classifieds here on CL) .
I'm for the dry, dark and cool storage area. I would worry about condensation with the fridge.
Yup - that would be traditionally hollow. You could put some little eggs inside and glue the two sides together.
I don't know that you can make a successful solid egg with that mold with the flange in place. I tend to make my eggs in two pieces then heat both sides on a heated sheet pan and gluing them together.
http://www.oldmolds.com/SpecialEggs.htm
Scroll down this page - there are several eggs with flanges - I wonder if this is what you are describing?
If it's the sort of mold I think it is - the piece between the two molds provides a decorative edge on one side of the egg and allows you to have a two piece egg.
I always toast nuts before adding to chocolate.
I like it - but have an issue with only being able to scroll the bottom half of the screen.
It's a great shop - love to visit it when I'm in Montreal.
In Montreal you can buy from Chocolat-chocolat and Design and Realization. Qzina is doing online sales now and it's free delivery if over $100. They are out of Toronto. Also in Montreal there is France Decor.
Perhaps tempering it by hand so that you don't need seed?
I grabbed a free standing air conditioner unit a year or so ago for doing just this - waiting for hubby to produce the interface for it.
Like Daniel says - it's all about the latent heat of crystallization. As chocolate crystallizes it gives off a lot of heat and that can throw the chocolate out of temper. So particularly with solid items as soon as you see the edges starting to show signs of crystallizing throw the mold in a well ventilated fridge to carry off the heat.
Page 60 - http://books.google.ca/books?id=P-hFBMEBLBAC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=baume/brix/celsius+table&source=bl&ots=d3aoLI4MC2&sig=hQ8Qj6LoLCljk4Kmp_hShpTu-2k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4qpTUYLUDuLbyQHMr4GYCw&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=baume%2Fbrix%2Fcelsius%20table&f=false
That makes perfect sense.
As I understand it though - if you use cream then you are using a 'high risk' food and that's not allowed.
Those are actually really high in alcohol - minimum 70% (you can see the numbers if you click on the individual products). I have a couple of bottles and haven't found them useful in chocolate making. They are more for pastry.
You'll be better off with flavouring compounds - Sosa makes some nice ones. Mec3 makes the nicest strawberry compound that I've ever had.
Chocolates by Chloe is also in Montreal - just down the street from Au Pied de Cochon.
Chef Rubber - it's simply white chocolate colouring. Link here - http://www.shopchefrubber.com/Powdered-Color-White-OIL-100g-3.5oz/
The cosmetic stuff doesn't seem to be as oil soluble - I tried it!
