Hi John,
Don't underestimate the usefulness of freezing your confections too. If you've got Greweling's book he goes into detail in the procedure you need to follow to do it correctly. Particularly useful in the busy seasons and none of my customers have ever noticed the difference.
Nick.
Hi Mike,
I'm surprised you've got to this stage without knowing what chocolate you're going to use but I'm sure you know what you're doing! If you looking for a safe, mainstream, decent value couverture then the standard ranges from Callebaut or Belcolade are probably the most popular ones. Next level up in terms of quality (and price) would be either the higher-end ranges from these companies or Felchlin, Cluizel or Valrhona.
Good luck,
Nick.
Hi Clay, yes $20,000 is a little out of my price range!
My molds are 3/8ths deep and 90 grams in weight which allows for most inclusions to be added as the first layer of chocolate dries. Assuming they fit I can then add the remaining chocolate and scrape off the excess cleanly, leaving a nice, flat base (which is what I'm after). Most problems are caused by nuts - I can zap them in a blender but they then tend to come out too small and leave an insignificant taste and texture. But if they're too big then of course I can't scrape without losing some of the nuts back into the machine, which obviously I don't want to do. I've also tried to pour chocolate delicately into molds but find that, without scraping, the bars can have up to 20% more chocolate than the customer will be paying for. For now I'm individually cutting the inclusions by hand - be they nuts or dried fruit - which works ok but is very time consuming. The other way around it would be to allow the inclusions for poke out from the chocolate base but it makes the package looks lumpy and I'm not sure about shelf life if they aren't fully enrobed
Not sure if there's a better solution but if anyone has one I'd love to hear it.
Thanks,
Nick.
Hi All,
I want to use some new bar molds I've bought to include caramelised nuts and other inclusions and I want to have a professional appearance with the nuts enclosed within the bar and the shell smooth. I've molded them as i would a bonbon so that there is a shell of chocolate, then dropped nuts into the shell before filling with chocolate. My problem with that is that when I then cap them off it looks messy and 'homemade', for want of a better word, because of the nuts. I also can't use whatever is scraped off as I can't return it to the tempered chocolate (as there are nuts within it), so I'm left with lots of waste. I've also found that the bars tend to curve slightly out of the molds when I fill them so that I can't even scrape them clean within the mold.
Are there any obvious ways of sorting this out? I could just fill the molds and drop the nuts in at that point but I like the idea of not having any of the inclusions showing.
Thanks in advance,
Nick.
Hi David,
As Brad said, there's tons of stuff online and written in forums like this one that will help you get started and understanding the basics of tempering is critical. It's a case of reading everything you can find, checking out Youtube and experimenting in the kitchen. There are loads of great books too.
More local to you, there's a company called Keylink in Sheffield who have a very useful set of instructional videos that are free to watch on their website.
Good luck!
Nick.
I make my own caramel and haven't had a problem. When it's ready in the pan I quickly pour the whole lot into the centre of the mold and as accurately as possible I spread it out with a palette knife. If you get your volumes right you can fill the whole mold without waste.
Hi Mary,
I've had the same issues. The molds are great for caramels but with any ganache I've tried they never come out in one piece. Almost always there's a little bit of ganache left inside, even after refrigerating or freezing, which obviously affects the final appearance as well as making the cleaning up process longer. I'd love to know if there's something I'm missing but nowadays I only use the molds for caramels/toffees.
Nick.
Having read numerous books and threads on the topic it seems that the consensus when making a ganache is to temper it on a marble slab as a final stage before moulding/dipping. In an effort to speed up the process (and because the slab I use is just too small to be useful) I thought I'd just add 1% Mycryo cocoa butter to the ganache as you might do when tempering just chocolate. It firmed up nice enough but I don't know if it has the same effect as slabbing the ganache in terms of improving texture and shelf life. Has anyone else tried this? Does it do the same job?
Thanks.
Nick.
Hi Jan,
I've haven't yet used it but like you I was intrigued and went to a demonstration organised by Belcolade a couple of weeks ago. I was cynical to begin with but came away largely converted. It's very easy to use and really versatile. You can add pretty much anything to it - nut pastes, alcohols, fruit concentrates, syrup, oils, inclusions - and it aerates well too. It can also be used either for dipping or moulding dependent on the ratios you use. It also crystallizes much quicker than a traditional ganache. The real beauty is the additional shelf life and that the taste also apparently remains stronger for longer (though I can't personally vouch for that). It's also very reasonably priced.
The downsides: well, you still need to add additional chocolate to remove the 'fatty' taste of the product. It also must be heated to exactly the correct temperature before use and other users said that this could be a problem at least until you got used to the product. The biggest problem for me is how customers will view a non-dairy fat based/long-life product. Once you start going down this road I feel you're moving away from what makes the small, 'artisan' chocolatier different and special. But perhaps that's just me. You would certainly be hard pressed to call it a 'fresh' product though whether that is an issue for you depends on the sort of customer you're going for. While a 2-3 week shelf life shows just how fresh my products are (and justifies the higher price), admitting that my chocolates last for 12 months is not necessarily a selling point (though obviously makes production more convenient). As far as the taste is concerned I would say it wasn't quite as good as a traditional ganache but again, the question is whether your customers would tell the difference. For me the difference wasn't significant.
All in all, I certainly intend to give it a try at least in a small way to see the reaction I get. If people don't recognise the taste difference and don't care that it's a vegetable rather than dairy fat then the advantages it offers will certainly make me think hard about where I would go with it.
In terms of recipes, there are several online and, as I say, it's very versatile and a trial and error strategy is worth trying. We got several from the demo so if you contact Belcolade they will no doubt send some to you.
hope this helps,
nick.
Hi Daniela,
A really good starting point is to read the recently re-ignited thread just below:
Lots of helpful advice there. General conclusion seems to be, as with much in life, you get what you pay for...
Nick.
This is probably a stupid question but I thought I'd run it by you experts anyway!
Is there any reason why you couldn't fill multiple molds at one 'sitting'? I mean, assuming you're willing to use the same chocolate could you fill - i.e to create the initial outer shell - scores of different molds in one go? Then you could just reach for them as and when you need them, which presumably could save some time and effort further down the line. Surely better to blitz the issue in one big go than do the odd few molds here and there? You could store the molds as you would empty ones, perhaps with some parchment paper in between. There would be no shelf life questions as it's only chocolate (so no water activity issues) and if stored correctly I can't see why you couldn't do it and then not have to mold (beyond backing them when needed) for months.
Any thoughts?
As usual, another informative and helpful discussion...
I'm sure we can all agree that, in an ideal world, we would only use fresh ingredients that gave a maximum shelf life of 2-3 weeks and our chocolates would be stored correctly by the customer and eaten within a few days. But once you start producing in any quantity this must surely be very limiting in terms of wastage, keeping on top of expiration dates and the risk of selling something that is no longer fit for consumption. I've played around with glucose and invert sugar which presumably raise the shelf life to somewhere around 6 weeks (a much more acceptable compromise v taste and texture) and, after all, these are natural sugars so shouldn't put customers off.
I'd like to know from those already in business - is there really anything wrong with using these sugars? Do customers really care, or even ask? As I say, I'd love to just use the freshest ingredients without messing about with recipes but I'd like to make this hobby into a business and I think a shelf life of closer to 6 weeks for the enrobed ganaches would give much more flexibility without really affecting in any noticeable way the taste, texture or perception of the customer.
I like the idea of using ghee as well. Has anyone actually tried this?
