Forum Activity for @Amy T

tempering choc too thick

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Susan,

I'm no expert but I'll tell you what helped me... first, much more aggressive stirring. After every 6-10 candies were dipped I'd give it a quick but aggressive stir with the dipping fork, and I didn't turn my back on it for a second. In the past, I've often run out of prepared centers before I run out of chocolate, then I turn away from the machine to scoop more truffles, and when I turn back I've got chocolate the consistency of taffy... but I'm realizing the turning motor on the temperer is not enough agitation, it takes regular stirring and if you aren't actively dipping you need to stir very frequently, if not constantly! So this time before I started I made sure I had more centers prepped than I could possibly need, and had my mom hold the baby and made sure my bladder was empty so there was no reason to neglect my chocolate!

Also, today I was getting a lot of "feet" so I dipped at a lower temp of 89, which meant I had lots of room to ease up the temp as Brad suggested as it thickened. I did not wait for it to be too thick to dip and then try to recover, this doesn't work for me either. But this time I watched like a hawk as I dipped, and as soon as I noticed the consistency was the slightest bit thicker than ideal, I scooted up one degree and stirred like a madwoman. I only got as high as 92 and was still in business when I finished my chocolate, but see above - Brad thinks we can get away with 95 depending on thermometer accuracy.

Good luck!
Amy

tempering choc too thick

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Brad -

I've read all these facts before, but this is the clearest explanation I've seen and I think I'm finally wrapping my mind around it - THANK YOU!

Amy

tempering choc too thick

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Hi

I've been a hobbyist chocolatier for a few years. I have an ACMC table top temperer.
Two frustrations - when dipping with 65 percent Tcho, I fully temper (up to 119,
added seed, back up to 91 for dipping), it works great for about an hour, then it gets too thick to continue dipping. I heated up to 94 but it was still too thick. I understand I could add cocoa butter, but I love the flavor of the superdark stuff, and it works so well for the first hour. For now my plan is to do smalleramounts so I use it up before it thickens, any other suggestions? I don't understand what's happening from a chemistry perspective.

Also, I've often tried not tempering since new chocolate is already in temper, right?
My understanding is that I should be able to melt it and dip at 92ish. But I find
that it won't melt unless I get it much warmer than this, and if I understand
correctly, once I get it above 94 I have to go through the whole temper process
to avoid bloom. Can you correct any of these assumptions?

Any advice appreciated.

-Amy

updated by @Amy T: 04/21/15 07:18:17AM

After action report on my first attempt at Caramels

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I'm all with you on not wasting, believe me - I live off-grid and milk the goats on cold winter mornings to get the dairy for my candies so I treasure every ingredient and every watt! But my caramels have never come out too soft - three times too hard. The first time I tried to suffer through them and my husband broke a tooth! This was a very expensive effort at thrift. Rework is valuable, but knowing when to quit is as well

After action report on my first attempt at Caramels

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Are you sure your thermometer is accurate? Test it in boiling water. I can never find reliable therms, even fresh out of the package. I use them as guidelines only, I rely on the cold water test - have a bowl of cold water in the fridge, drop a small amount of the cooking candy in when you think it's close to done, after a minute in the water the candy is the consistency that it will cool to if you stop cooking now. The thermometer tells me when to start testing, but I never trust it to tell me when the caramel's actually done to my preference. After they're cooled and cut up, I refrigerate til dipping time and they are firm and easy to use. Hang in there, every good candy maker has thrown away a good many batches of caramels!!

-Amy