Caramel? Kinda/sorta if you spray "pam" on the wheels, but I just use the wheel to mark the slab. Any regular kitchen knife will work to cut caramel (Grewling's recipie) as long as you keep the knife moving.
No.... Wile E. Coyote was an "Acme" man, through and through......
Lets see if I can upload a pic of my cutter.
If the cutter is heated in the oven for a minute or two, it does a reasonable job of cutting the ganache. Cutting is best done just after a bottom is put on the slab--when it is fresh and still sticks to the paper--this way it won't get picked up by the cutter.
I have had some experience "fooling around" with a home made guitar. My attempts were with alum. "L" bar riveted together and using bicycle s/s spoke nipples and pieces of s/s spokes as the tensioning device. Problem with alum. is is that it is soft. After a few months the frame warped-- all those strings under tension probably did it. But then, if alum is soft, the rivets are even softer, and when I tightened up a few wires one fateful day, I ended up shearing off the heads of the rivets.
Thing is, in order to cut a slab of ganache, the wires have to exit the slab to make a clean cut. This means the wires have to end up below the slab when the cut is finished. To do this, I took a large nylon cutting board, and cut a series of 1/8" deep x 1/8" wide grooves in it with a table saw. This does the trick, but now I had to anchor and hinge the frame to the base, as any shifting when I pushed the frame down would make for messy cuts. And, a lot of crud gathered in the grooves of the cutting board. Probably close to 100 hours of farting around and "Wile E. Coyote Back to the drawing board" moments fooling around with this contraption, and now it sits in the attic of my garage.
I do 3 slabbed ganache varieties at work. What I use is a cutting wheel. At dollar stores, I buy a dozen s/s pizza wheels, usually 3" dia. I cut out the rivets, throw away the handles, and mount the wheels on a length of redi rod (all-thread rod) I have a lathe at home so I turn sections of hollow oak, cut them to 7/8"lengths, and space the wheels with these, make some handles, and cap off both ends with acorn nuts. Matfer has a version of this, which I un-shamefully ripped off, the 2005 catalouge listed it for over 300 USD. A picture is worth a thousand words...
After I pour out the slab, I wait until semi-firm, not fully crystalized, and then paint on a top layer of couverture, flip it over, then paint on a bottom layer. I put my contraption in the oven for a minute or so and then cut through the slab in strips, then in squares. Works quite well , and I spent far less than 10 hours making the thing.........
There is a cheaper and easier route...
Go to a drugstore and get the cheapest heating pad (electric blanket). The more expensive ones have auto-shut off and terry clothe covers which you don't need.
I just flip over a 1/2 sheet pan on the counter, put the heating pad on top, the bowl or hotel pan of cold couverture on top, and walk away overnight. The "medium" setting is usually pretty darn close.
Stirring is a different matter. Chocolate is thixotropic, which means it is best mixed with a shearing action, any other action for longer periods of time usually incorporates bubbles. Most melters and temperers usually use a wheel/disc with a scraper, or a rotating bowl with a scraper.
Rights to ALL square chocolate products, or only rights to the square in the size Ritter produces?
Sounds like my type of operation........
You gotta go back and look at stuff 100 years old when there was no refrigeration
Candying
Drying
perserving
nuts
Caramel
Nougat based (including croquant)
Butter ganaches can be quite shelf stable if you remove the 18% or so water in the butter....
Now for instance, honey is a partial inverted sugar
Dried fruits last for years
Pate de fruits are very shelf stable
Nuts and nut pastes/marzipans are good for 6 mths
Am I giving you enough information without "giving away" my farm?
The stuff I get from QZINA is certified Kosher--blessed by Rabbi Schlessinger himself.
I'd still love to know what is in that stuff..........
Nothing exotic as blood and cherries, I'm afraid.
mango and jalepeno (white choc ganache) is about as off the wall as I get.
Chai spice is another -butter ganache with typical chai spices
Nanaimo bar is another, a typical Canadian treat, but mine are mini sized--graham crust base, coconut custard top, enrobed in bitter 70%
Strawberry and black pepper work well--again, a white choc. ganache
