Small equipment for pouring chocolate.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
You know I saw this small funnel online, but didn't know where to get it locally. At that price I think it's worth a look. Thank you.
Forum Activity for @Rich
Small equipment for pouring chocolate.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thanks for the input. I don't sell my product and I don't have any friends or family who are so concerned about plastic that they would turn down Valrhona because it went thru a polycarb funnel to get into a paper wrapper.
Small equipment for pouring chocolate.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thanks Ilana and cheebs. The piping bags 'look' easy. I'll try them to see if I can get the hang of it after watching a couple videos.The syringe is still interesting to me. Makes sense, especially since you can draw the chocolate into the syringe.Those funnels are expensive. I found a polycarbonate one online which is on sale for $175. Wow! The polycarbonate should eliminate some of the cooling effect of the metal funnel, but $175????? Hmmmm......
Small equipment for pouring chocolate.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thanks for the info. I've tried the bag, but I find it difficult to make it stop pouring.
Small equipment for pouring chocolate.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
This rank amateur is looking for a piece of equipment to use for pouring melted chocolate into molds and papers. I'm tired of having messy streaks on the side of my nice white candy papers. Can someone make a recommendation please? I'm only doing around 50 small pieces at a time.I remember seeing a metal funnel with a trigger mechanism, but I don't know what it's called so I can't Google it. I've seen a small plastic funnel with a trigger. And I've thought of a syringe.Any thoughts?Aloha
updated by @Rich: 04/29/15 07:13:55
Temper, temper!
Posted in: News & New Product Press
As someone who enjoys chocolate, but is not an expert, and decided to start making my own with very mixed results I feel your pain. I can share what I have 'learned' in my attempts to temper dark chocolate. I have been eating Valrhona Quanaja every day for years. I recently lost my inexpensive source for finished product here in Hawaii and started buying the Le Feves by the 3 kg bag to make my own. I am also using Des Alphes 72% because Vahrhona is sometimes difficult to buy here.As Ms. Boudar says, each manufacturer gives their recommended temperatures for tempering and working their product. I have found this info on the package or online. I read a couple books and was very careful in what I thought was the correct technique for tempering. Living in Hawaii, even in air conditioned comfort, may contribute to my past issues of sugar and/or fat blooming. I had very limited success going with the books. I'm sure it was my shortcomings and not the books.Here's what I do now that works for me. I put the chocolate I'm heating in a glass bowl. I put another quantity of chocolate which weighs approximately 1/4 of the quantity in the bowl on the side....chopped. I put the bowl in the micro.....this was actually recommended by someone on this site and I poopooed it until I tried it......and begin heating it somewhat slowly. I zap it for 30 seconds, stir a little, zap it again stir it and measure the temperature, zap it again, etc. It usually takes 4 or 5 zaps to get it at the right temperature as recommended by the manufacturer. Working with a micro you have to be a little careful as the temperature will keep rising if you're not careful because the bowl gets too hot. I find Pyrex works best for the bowl. I keep a sheet of ice pack close if I want to stop the temperature peak in an emergency. When the temperature is correct .......I find that it's ok to go over the temperature 2 or 3 degrees.....I throw in the chopped chocolate and stir a little. I let it sit as the chopped chocolate melts into the heated chocolate.....it takes quite awhile for the chocolate to cool to working temperature. I stir a little more. Don't over stir. I used to stir constantly, but I think over stirring disturbs the little crystals that are trying to form. Keep measuring the temperature until it comes down to the working temperature as listed by the manufacturer.... I find working with the chocolate at a temperature a couple degrees higher than recommended is ok. Do whatever you want to do with the chocolate. Then, I put it in the refrigerator on a cookie sheet. Yeah, I know.....the refrigerator??.....but here in Hawaii even in air conditioning I get sugar bloom if I leave it out to cool. I think it's a combination of humidity and temperature.I make chocolate covered mac nuts and plain chocolate pieces this way and it works every time. Go figure yeah? I hope this helps, at least until you can find a better way.Aloha
help with El Rey tempering!!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I'm sorry to say I can't help, but I am looking forward to responses to your question. It seems the only consistency I have is inconsistency. I think temperature and humidity is very important. I'm still looking for the right combination. In the past, I've stored Valrhona Guanaja individually wrapped pieces in the wine cellar with great results. As soon as I started making my own pieces the wine cellar seems NOT to be the place to store them. I think too much humidity. I'm getting sugar bloom/grainy consistency. And this is after they are set and seem to be fine. This chocolate making is not for sissies. Aloha
Valrhona Carre Guanaja Pieces
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thanks for the replies. I had a feeling this is the way it would go. If it were so easy....... everyone would do it? Probably.I've tried the thin wafer method with less than satisfactory results, but thanks for the thought. I guess I'll hope for a local supplier to bring Valrhona in again.Aloha
Valrhona Carre Guanaja Pieces
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I know there are some on this forum who are not favorably impressed with Valrhona and I am certainly not qualified to get into that discussion. However, I have been eating the individually wrapped Valrhona pieces for years and enjoy them very much. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to buy them here in Hawaii in a quantity or at a price that even remotely approaches sanity. This dilemma is what started me down the path to learn more about chocolate.My question for you experts is this: How does Valrhona make the Guanaja chocolate squares that they sell in the individually wrapped gold colored paper with a black outer wrapping? What form is it. Tempered? I would very much like to make something similar in texture and taste. I like the manner in which it melts on the top of your mouth with that silky finish. The 73% Des Alphes that I'm currently using is not cutting it. This could very well be due to my ineptitude. It just doesn't melt the same in my mouth.Any suggestions?Aloha.
updated by @Rich: 05/07/15 08:03:43
Spicy dark chocolate bars?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Listening to me is really dangerous, but when I was in Williams Sonoma looking for Chili oil I saw what I think were tea oils? It was in the oil section and it had to do with tea. Sorry I can't be more specific. It didn't really capture my full attention as it's a different direction, just a thought.Aloha
Spicy dark chocolate bars?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thanks John, I never thought about the powders in the mouth if not really fine. Also nice to know about water and alcohol based products reaction with chocolate.I'll let you know how it goes.Aloha.
Spicy dark chocolate bars?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thanks for the information. I was thinking powder as liquid tends to make the chocolate behave poorly right?I believe, from what I've read, that I should I put the oil, peppers, pepper into the chocolate when I first start melting it, as opposed to at the end before molding it. Is that correct?
Spicy dark chocolate bars?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I searched the forum for a recipe with negative results. Now that I've got tempering more or less under control (maybe and with John DePaula's help) and my chocolate covered Macadamia nuts are working, I'd like to branch out.Can anyone tell me a proper way to add heat to dark chocolate? Heat as in hot and spicy. I've tasted some dark chocolate bars with heat in them and like them. How do you make that?Chilly powder? How much and what kind?Any suggestions?Aloha
updated by @Rich: 05/09/15 05:25:03
Making Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Success! Thanks for your help. The issues seemed to be the humidity and the lack of proper mixing.I placed the covered nuts in the refrigerator for a couple of minutes right after I enrobed them, then placed them in the coolest room in the condo. No humidity damage.I also mixed the chocolate much more vigorously this time and that seemed to have eliminated the lighter colored swirls.Aloha
Making Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thanks John, I just looked at that website. I saw that link and several others at this website: http://www.chocolategourmand.com/technique/candies/tempering_chocolate.cfm I'm going to take another shot with some changes in mixing, storage while cooling, and heating.Thanks for your help.
Making Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thanks for the thoughts John.In regard to the nuts, I do seem to be getting a lot of oil in the finished product in the paper cups I'm putting the enrobed nuts into. I'm not sure if that is from the chocolate or nuts. I try to have the nuts at room temperature before working with them. The milk chocolate idea is interesting.Speaking of temperature, I'm thinking I need to either move the covered nuts out of the kitchen area to set or place them in the cooler temporarily after enrobbing. This in itself brings in another issue.In regard to tempering, I thought I had to heat the chocolate to a higher temperature, add seed chocolate, then cool to the lower temperature around 80F to temper. Then again raise the temperature to around 88 to work with the chocolate. One area of confusion for me - one of many obviously - is the temperatures. My impression was this higher temperature is dependent on the cacao percentage. I thought the melting temperature I posted in my original post was the temperature I had to reach before seeding. I've searched this site for info on tempering, but nothing comes up. I'll try again.Any good links you, or anyone else, can give me would be great.Could the lighter colored streaks in the finished product be an indication that the chocolate is not mixed enough? I've read that if I mix it too hard air will get into the chocolate which makes it grainy. Is this not really an issue as long as I'm not really beating it hard?Thanks for the help.
Making Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Aloha Happy New Year.I've been eating Valrhona Guanaja dark chocolate for over 10 years. Until recently my wife and I have been enjoying a few of the individually wrapped pieces every night after dinner with our red wine. Now, there doesn't seem to be anyone bringing the 1kg box of Valrhona into Hawaii and the bars are just too expensive. So, I reluctantly switched to Des Alphes 73% Couverture Onyx Coins. These little coins are not the smooth, melt on your tongue chocolates the Valrhona is.My problem started when my wife asked me to make her some chocolate covered Macadamia nuts - which she loves. No problem say I, how hard can it be. Duh, yeah right. Little did I know. And judging from the problems I've had, I'll say it another way. Little do I know.According to Des Alphes these are the specs on the 73% Onyx: Melting - 115F, Pre-crystallization 81F, Actual Working 86-88F.Since this is my first experience with chocolate, nuts, and tempering I went onto the internet to gather information and I received a new book on chocolate, The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg.So far my nuts (the chocolate covered macadamias, please) have come out with a bunch of milk chocolate colored dots on them or with milk chocolate colored streaks of varying widths. In addition, most of them have not set up crisp at room temperature without cooling in the wine cellar. Some of the candies without the nuts have turned out smooth and creamy although not crisp as I would expect them after tempering. They actually approached the consistency of the Valrhona pieces.We live in an air conditioned condo. I do not know the humidity, but the temperature is between 70 and 75. I have been attempting to temper small batches of the chocolate - 2 to 3 ounces at a time.So, questions for the experts:1. What are the dots? Humidity?2. What are the streaks? Not mixed enought at the proper temperature?3. Can I do small batches like 2 or 3 ounces or is it much easier to do a pound at a time? Everything I read says I should do at least a pound, but I'm not sure why that is.4. What temperatures should I use? In my research I've seen 95F, 115F, 118F. For this chocolate, with the above specs, what temperature should I be using?5. Does the temperature of the nuts being coated make a difference?6. What do I have to do to the Des Alphes coins to make them the same consistency as the Valrhona Guanaja? Is it possible?7. My wife actually stuck one of the warm chocolate covered nuts in the freezer for a very brief time and it came out without the dots or streaks. This made me think humidity is an issue since the freezer is very low humidity. I know there is the issue of freezing which is not good for the chocolate.I'm sorry for all the questions, but this chocolate work is not as easy as it might appear. Hats off to all you experts who work with this wonderful product.My goal is to use the Des Alphes to make nuts nicely covered in chocolate without all the spots and streaks as well as pieces of melt in your mouth plain chocolates without nuts.I appreciate any help anyone can offer.Aloha,RichHappy New Year or Hau'oli Makahiki Hou
updated by @Rich: 05/10/15 10:42:55