Forum Activity for @Daniela Vasquez

Hello!

I was wondering if someone knew of Chocolate Technology courses other than the one that Chocolate Academy and ZDS Solingen offer.

Thank you  

I arrived quite late in this subject but I'm very interested. I'm reading and re-reading The Science of Chocolate book, it's one of my all-time favorites but I haven't gotten to the part that speaks of beta 6 crystals and its tendency to bloom.

How can you know if your packaged chocolate blooms and it's due to change in temperature or crystals? Why is the 6th called "the more stable" if it blooms with time? I haven't read about this topic anywhere else.

Well if it's sugar bloom it's due to humidity. That looks like fat bloom and it could be because of your room temperature during the night perhaps or incorrect tempering. Try doing the temper test at room temp instead in the fridge to see how it comes out.

Your chocolate might need a cooler environment to take out the latent heat produced by cristallization itself. It might also be affected by the thickness of your piece.

Hmm what's your room temperature? Did you make a temper test before pouring it?

Does anyone know the difference it makes in a ganache when the butter is added melted, creamed or solid? Or when there is none? Is there a difference in shelf life?

I'm refering to a cream-based ganache, where there is an emulsion with milk fat particles present, do they remain as a separate droplet structure in the fat phase?

People have told me is a preference thing but I'm pretty sure there's some explainable science behind it.

Sounds like you have a problem with your center temperature, I agree with what Jonathan recommended.

Maybe you have to re-check you tempering curve, go a degree lower or higher and do temper tests all the time, it could also be your room temp as mentioned above. They look beautiful though I love the patterns bloom creates.

Cocoa butter for chocolate, the other colorings for airbrush contain water and are usually used for decorating fondant. You can also temper your own cocoa butter and add the fat-soluble coloring of your choice

I tried grinding the sugar first but it takes a while. I usually add the sugar + cocoa butter first, leaving some to add at the end, then we add the couverture/cocoa powder. We have a low GI chocolate bar made with Sweetwell sweetener and it works

Good luck with the coconut sugar, keep updating! !

Never heard of that one sounds nice!

Well at first, we refined the sugar ourselves with a good processing machine, it worked but the chocolate needed a looong time to decrease the particle size due to the sugar crystals.

Good luck !

We're tried different brands of refined sugar, unfortunately we did had an accident once with one brand of sugar that contained starch (even though they said it was "pure sugar") and our Santha basically overheated and created a big smoky mess and the machine was, of course, unusable after that. About the noise, it's not that bad, we conch the chocolate in the shop, right in front of the customers so they can see And well, the sugar we're currently using it's made in Costa Rica.

You can read this article on Chocolate Alchemy about conching, if you haven't already. http://www.chocolatealchemy.com/conchingrefining.php

Hi Mack, we use the Santha for conching small quantities of chocolate (3.5kgs/batch aprox), it homogenizes the mixture, lowers the particle size and I have noticed changes in flavor and texture. We recently came upon a very fine sugar so we were able to lower our conching time but we're looking for a sugar mill to make it ourselves

We have made chocolate from an already conched chocolate (like 70%, just to add different flavors) and chocolate from fine powder and the Santha works fine.

haha I thought so, but I wanted to ask anyway to be certain about it. One never knows thank you again.

thank you !

But aging is different from just letting it rest for 24hrs for example. I was just wondering why some people suggest letting the chocolate rest for some days prior to tempering and molding. It's not like chocolate completely solidifies or anything like that but I was thinking maybe it had something to do with crystal structure or improved aroma and flavor?

What is true about that? Is it really necessary to the let chocolate rest once it's out of the conching machine? If so, how much time is needed and why?

I've read this a couple of times before but I'm not sure why it should be done... or not. Supposedly to get rid of some unwanted bitterness in the chocolate?

oh I didn't see that, thank you!

Does anyone know of a good, easy-to-use micrometer for chocolate?

it will clump, it'll become "untemperable" haha I dont think it has something to do with moisture, I live in a very humid area (mostly 70-90% ) but I temper different kinds of chocolate and not all of them develop this kind of bubbles, but who knows? haha I always thought it was the way I temper that incorporates the air into the chocolate

Hmm I think I know what you are describing there because my chocolate reacts the same way, as if there's too many bubbles inside the chocolate, I've never had grainy though. I'll try to take a picture of it just to make sure we're talking about the same thing. But I don't know why some chocolates like to keep the air bubbles, a lot of them, maybe it's the way you're tempering the chocolate?

It's a french word. It's supposed to mean "fool", there's was a helper in a pastry shop who spilled hot cream over chocolate by mistake and the chef called him "ganache" but the cream was a complete success. they don't use the word in its original context anymore though

We have trinitarian cacao beans from Costa Rica you can contact me at daniela@chocolate-nahua.com if you're interested!

Hmm in the western Costa Rica I'm not sure. I suggest you look at the northern plains. We have our cacao farm there. ( http://www.chocolate-nahua.com or FB: Chocolate Nahua ) Let me know if I can help you with anything

Does anyone know how, why, when the magnetic molds made their appearance in the chocolate world? Who invented them? who was the first to commercialize them?

When they're already set, you could freeze them in a air tight container, if you need/want to make them im advance, then when you need them put them in the fridge, than at room temperature, always inside the container. You could definitely try letting them come back up to room temp before packaging, That's how I make my truffle in advance and I never had problems with sugar bloom

Good luck!

have you tried just using your fridge (with adjusted temp) instead of the freezer? you just need a temperature around 10-12C for your chocolates to set, plus you avoid getting all the condensation when you take them our (since they're not that cold)

Wow, his work is great! I had no idea, thank you

Thank you, I'll look it up

I was wondering if anyone knew some chocolate shops in Quebec worth to visit. I might have an opportunity to visit for a long time this year, so I also wanted to see if there was an opportunity to work in any good chocolate shop there. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

thank you!

I'm having somewhat the same issue. I temper my chocolate by hand in the marble. But I'm having trouble lowering its temp because of the amount of chocolate plus the weather won't help me, it's so frustrating

Haha I'm not sure actually, they never last that long, but I've opened them within 2 weeks and they're still perfect. I've read that using glucose, boiling the cream and using tempered chocolate makes your chocolates last very long (about a month). But it also depends on your recipe.

You can also freeze your ganaches, and finished truffles as well so you can work the heavy seasons in advance

You can extend shelf life by adding glucose, corn syrup, invert sugar or alcohol to the recipe. also be careful about not leaving any air bubbles inside the truffle, or it'll be a certain spot for mold. I boil my cream and let it rest until it reaches 30C, then I mix it with the tempered chocolate.

I've heard wonderful things about this book http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Chocolates-Great-Experience-Extending/dp/9020990209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352238527&sr=8-1&keywords=fine+chocolates+3

I'm still not able to get it, but want to

You should use glucose or alcohol for extending shelf life in ganache. Lecithin is used in the chocolate formula as an emulsifier and it's added during the conching process

I was wondering, can one use Agave syrup instead of sugar in a chocolate formulation when making it from scratch? what are the pros and cons?

I just did a salted caramel chocolate with a 70% dark chocolate shell and a cream caramel with sea salt. It's great, but I was wondering if anyone has any "research" on caramels. Sugar crystallization, effects on chocolate, etc

I just did a salted caramel chocolate with a 70% dark chocolate shell and a cream caramel with sea salt. It's great, but I was wondering if anyone has any "research" on caramels. Sugar crystallization, effects on chocolate, etc

Hmm you should warm your molds before filling them with chocolate, just a little bit with hair dryer or a heating gun, that should avoid the temperature shock in the chocolate. Do you have a marble table? or granite? perhaps you can try decreasing the temp in the marble. The inverted bain marie method you used it's tricky.

The important thing is to heat the chocolate til it feels warm, then decrease it. It'll feel cool when you put in on your lip and it'll "shrink", then warm it just a tad so you can work with it.

You have to wait for the chocolate to contract in the fridge, you'll see a air gap between the mold and the chocolate, that way you know it's released

Lecithin is known for having a direct effect in cacao butter's properties and texture when it melts and it does affect particle size and its emulsion.

I read it influences sugar behaviour, cocoa butter crystallization, crystal growth, viscosity and oil migration. One can add 0.3-0.5% of lecithin to the chocolate formula during conching. It forms like a veil over sugar crystals making them more fluid and increasing its moving capability.

A chocolate with small particle size, high content of cocoa butter and low level of lecithin will take longer to melt.

I guess you just have to try and see how it works for you, choose one and jump right in. There are so many variables you have to consider, I'll discuss it with my pillow and think about it

Thanks for all the advices!

Hmm it's kind of difficult to find someone who works in a similiar environment and has the same machine. Since I live in Costa Rica, I had to equip our shop with dehumidifiers and stuff like that. But I've heard great things about both brands and they're kind of similar.

What's your favorite brand? outside Pomati and Selmi, is there any other worth looking at?