Forum Activity for @Terry Wakefield

Terry Wakefield
@Terry Wakefield
04/15/14 16:15:09
2 posts

Bean to bar viscosity after adding sugar


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

Depending on what kind of grinder you are using, excessive grinding will exponentially increase the aggregate surface area of the particles in the chocolate. When this happens, there can be insufficient cocoa butter to fully coat all of the particles ---this results in a significant viscosity increase. As the viscosity increases, the amount of horsepower energy converted into heat goes up, driving up the temperature of the chocolate. Remember, when you measure micron size, you are just defining the largest particle in the chocolate --- all of the other particles are smaller than the micron measurement. Therefore, micron readings don't tell you anything about the particle size distribution. Excessive ground chocolate will also have a cloying sensation in the mouth as the very small particles actually plug up / get stuck in pores of the tongue.

Terry Wakefield
@Terry Wakefield
11/07/13 13:56:52
2 posts

chocolate covered frozen bananas


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

The addition of coconut oil (76 degree melt point) to your base chocolate will improve its resistance to cracking when the finished product is re-frozen. Depending on how much coconut oil you add, it will be difficult to actually retain temper in the chocolate. As you noted, the only way to determined what is acceptable from an appearance and texture perspective is to do some trials.