Forum Activity for @Greg Gould

Everything else inside works. It seems like a shame to get a whole new machine. I guess I could keep this one for parts.

Hi. I'm looking for some advice. I noticed that the frame inside my ACMC is broken at three of the four spots where it screws into the frame. The metal where the screw sits has snapped off from the rest of the frame in all three spots.

It seems to me I will need another machine very soon. Maybe I'm wrong. Has someone else dealt with this?

Greg

It was a loose connection on the circuit board and it's up and running. Whew.

At the worst possible time, the motor on my ACMC isnt working. The machine turns on, the bulbs light up and the temp display is working.

How can I be sure it's the motor before I order one?

How hard is it to install a new motor?

The package is just one ingredient, fondant sugar. It's just pre-portioned and I'm new at this.
However, I agree that fondant is too sweet.

Any recipes for buttercreams I can pipe into molds?

It's all on the back of the package. I don't have a pack near me, but I think it's one package, 3 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp of cream and only a drop of invertase.

http://www.shop.partyshopga.com/Dry-Fondant-for-Candy-Centers-76-5501.htm?gclid=CKHyuv38v7YCFe5xOgodlycA_Q

I use CK brand Dry Fondant Mix in a bag with some invertase. You can't get any easier than that and it's good. I was going to develop my own recipe, or do something from scratch, but everyone seems to like these.

Search the forum for shelf life and extending shelf life.

Thanks for the 411 on Amoretti. It never came up an the dozens of Google searches I did.

And the perfume spray sounds amazing! It may be just what I'm looking for.

Does anyone have experience using alcohol concentrates like the ones at Chef Rubber?

http://www.shopchefrubber.com/Liquor-Concentrates/

My ganache recipe contains alcohol which is great except I can't sell it if it has over .005% alcohol. I'm wondering if I could use less alcohol with these and get the same flavor.

Please forgive me if I've posted this in the wrong section.

I've made ganache filled dark chocolatepralines/truffles/bon-bons and I'm supposed to be selling them for the first time this weekend at a Christmas show. The recipe's been altered to hopefully extend the shelf life beyond the holidays but I'm not sure it's enough.

My old recipe brought together cream, butter,and Lorann Oil natural anti-oxidant (no one I know can taste it) until it starts to boil. That gets poured onto solid chocolate callets and mixed with a spoon until smooth.

Based on what I've read in the forums and a few other places, I've created a new recipe,a mixture of cream, butter, the antioxidant and a small amount of corn syrup. I bring that to just under a boil, cool it to 90 degrees, pour into tempered chocolate that's also at 90 degrees and mix with animmersionblender. I wrap the chocolates in foil, put them in a bag with a twist tie and add a string to make them tree ornaments.

Unfortunately, it seems ganache filled chocolates are only good for three weeks at room temperature. And my new recipe isn't quite as good as my original one. It's really good, just not as good.

My question are: How can I sell ganache filled holiday chocolates that may not make it to the holidays? Should Irefrigeratethem or suggest peoplerefrigeratethem and then put them on the tree the day before Christmas? That seems lame and I'm worried about bloom.

I'm making another batch next week. Does anyone have suggestions to extend the shelf life of my original recipe or is it best to stick with the more shelf stable ganache?

I pay $85 for a 22lb ofcallebaut 811 callets.

You want to check out this discussion. I just received my bottle of sodium dioxide yesterday and I'm excited to try it out.

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/cleaning-chocolate-molds

My only problem with this method is that it sets up fast. It's usually faster than I can pipe it into shells so I have to -re-warm the ganache making sure not to go over the 90 degree threshold.

I recently bought the book "Fine Experiences, Great Chocolate 3 - Extending Shelf Life" by Jean-Pierre Wybauw. This is what you need. It explains everything scientifically. I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Chocolates-Great-Experience-Extending/dp/9020990209/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363789337&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=greay+experiences+fine+chocolates+3

Yes. Cool the cream to about 90 degrees.

Greased Lightning leaves a scent on your molds so don't use it. I tried it on a mold I never use. Dawn and water got rid of the film.
I'll try Sodium Hydroxide again later.

Tried it again with very very hot water and doubling the lye and I still have a film, just not as thick. I wish I had access to whatever solution you're using Brad, as I just have food grade lye, and now I'm out of that. A few questions:

Do you soak your molds in the Sodium Hydroxide solution for some amount if time or do you just swish them around in it?

I'm rinsing the molds in a bucket of hot water. Maybe I want to run hot water from a sprayer?

I'm using a solution of 5 oz Sodium Hydroxide to 15 pints of water, or about 2% Sodium Hydroxide. Clearly that's not enough. What % do you think your solution comes out to?

I can't get any food grade lye around here, I have to order it. I can get pure Sodium Hydroxide crystals, but I don't know if it's food grade or what that means. It's sold as a drain cleaner. But if I rinse it, SH should be gone either way. Do you think that's safe?

What's the brand name of the product you use?

What is the film? Is it soap (sodium hydroxide+fat from the cocoa butter=soap)? Can I just polish it off or should I clean the molds with Dawn?

I'm about to try a 4:1 solution of Greased Lightning on one of my molds that has the film. I'll post how it goes.

I got a film on every mold. I don't know what to do next. Clean them all by hand with soap? What went wrong?

I used Sodium Hydroxide (lye) today for the first time and it worked pretty good. I used 15 cups of water to 2-1/2oz of pure fod grade lye. I thought the solution would do everything but some crevices on the undersides needed to be lightly scrubbed out. I used a potato brush.

How can I be sure all the washing solution is off the molds? I swish the molds around in clean water I change every 10 molds or so. Is that enough? I'm thinking of running the molds through my diswasher on rinse.

http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Chocolates-Great-Experience-Extending/dp/9020990209/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363789337&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=greay+experiences+fine+chocolates+3

A few months ago I bought a used ACMC Tempering Machine for only $500. I like my Rev 2, which I paid almost as much for, but I needed a larger capacity.

I love my ACMC. It's not totally automatic but it's close enough.
There's an extra slot next to where the main thermometer goes and I slide in probe thermometer in to alert me when the chocolate reaches a certain temp. I hear they're super easy to fix. The only drawback is they use 100W light bulbs that are supposed to be discontinued due to some law. Companies like GE are now producing 95W light bulbs and I've read about people using ceramic heater bulbs.

I would love one of the bigger Chocovisions machines but it's 3x the price and they seem to have lots of issues. For the money, a used ACMC is the way to go. They're often on Ebay for around $500.