13 replies to this topic

[markg109]

Hi All,

I am an artist ( oil and pastels) by trade so the coloring of artisan chocolates really appeals to me. I was wondering if I could make my own colored cocoa butter using oil candy colors and cocoa butter, or is there more involved.

Also, if I add the oil candy color to white chocolate will it affect the temper?

Thanks,

Mark

[tammylc]

I've tried coloring cocoa butter with oil candy colors, and it works, but you end up with something that's pretty translucent. For deeper colors, you can use powdered colors instead. However, people report that it can be hard to get the powdered colors adequately blended. I've bought an assortment of colored cocoa butters from Chef Rubber and have had pretty good luck mixing them, at least to create lighter colors - I haven't tried mixing to create a new color yet.

[John DePaula]

Adding the oils to already tempered white chocolate will work fine. If I have any leftover, I just reheat until about 2/3 is remelted and stir to melt the remaining. You just need to heat enough to melt. The colored white chocolate doesn't have a problem with being too translucent.

If you want to color cocoa butter with powders, you can use a palette knife to mash the powder and oil together over and over until well blended. Adding titanium powder will give more opacity.

[markg109]

Do you know of a place i might purchase these powders?

[tammylc]

Here's a powdered color set from pastrychef.com
http://www.pastryche...set_3754142.htm

If you do a google search for "powdered food coloring" you'll find lots of other sources.

[markg109]

Thanks Tammy,

And by the way, your adventures in starting a chocolate business, is really quite informative. Thanks for sharing.

Mark

[markg109]

Thanks John,

Is Titanium powder something you can buy at a candy supply house?

[John DePaula]

Thanks John,

Is Titanium powder something you can buy at a candy supply house?

I haven't bought it here in the states but I assume it's "findable." (Thought I didn't see it when I did a quick search). It's what we used in France - "poudre de Titan" I think...

[alanamoana]

look up food grade titanium dioxide. this is what makes colors opaque.

[Spring]

What would be better to buy: coloured cocoa butter, oil colours or coloured powders? Thanks in advance.

[takomabaker]

Yup, I do it all the time when making chocolate.

The previous poster's comments that using cocoa butter results in insipid colors is correct. Unless you want a translucent effect, which sometimes I do.

I use Pastry Ideale white cocoa butter (I buy at Albert Uster) and add chocolate coloring (purchased at Kerekes in Brooklyn). I've used both oil and powder colors successfully, but it does seem like a need a lot more powder color to get a deep color so I use a lot more. I'm sure there are other outlets for both of these products, but that is just where I happen to buy them due to convenience. I live near Albert Uster, and my significant other lives in Queens, so I have easy access to both retailers.

I typically melt the white cocoa butter in warm water. You don't need to melt the whole bottle if you are not adding color to the entire bottle.

I pour what I need into a shot glass or a small spice mis en place bowl. Something always microwavable, so I can heat it up if it starts to solidify. I usually mix a very small amount at a time, adding a few drops of chocolate color and using a toothpick to mix until I reach the density of color that I want.

When I am finished, I let it harden and I can store the hardened colored cocoa butter in plastic, and can heat up again when I need it.

I made the red this way for the poinsettas in these:

[Spring]

Oh wow, that poinsetta is beautiful :)
SO if I understand correctly, for a strong, opaque colour the gel or ready to use coloured cocoa butter would be better and work out cheaper than adding powder colour to cocoa butter?

[takomabaker]

Thanks. I was very proud of them. They were very labor intensive.

The Pastry Ideale white cocoa butter already has that titanium dioxide in it. It costs about $20 a bottle. But when you mix it with color, because it already has a white base, the color comes out stronger and opaque.

I HAVE mixed color with straight cocoa butter, and with white chocolate. Mixing with straight cocoa butter gives a translucent effect. Pretty, if that is what you are going for, but it is more of a glaze effect and you will see the chocolate through the color. It will never be opaque.

I have mixed color with white chocolate. When I tried using powder, I was never able to fully incorporate the color into the white chocolate. It always stayed a little spotty. When I used an oil based (chocolate) liquid color, I had a hard time keeping the white chocolate in temper. I don't know if it was the color, or if the color made it harder to tell the chocolate was in temper, or if the color threw the chocolate out of temper and I should have started from scratch and retempered (which, for that trouble, I'll just buy white cocoa butter). But, for whatever reason, I have never been able to add color to white chocolate and mold the chocolate successfully afterward. I tried it once as a decoration over dark chocolate, and it was just a disaster. I'm still scarred from it (just kidding, but it was an ugly mess). Perhaps others have been more successful and I'm just unlucky with white chocolate, but I have had success with white cocoa butter so that's what I am sticking with.

This is what I use (although I buy it in smaller quantities from Albert Uster):

Make sure you are buying confectionery or candy color -- not just gel color. Only the candy color is good for chocolate. Take it from someone who accidentally grabbed regular gel color by accident. It ain't pretty.

[Edward J]

I've got the primary colours at work--that is the fat soluable powders.

On the whole it is much cheaper tomake you own colours with the powders and cocoa butter. Melt the butter, stir in the powder, let it cool completely until hard, then warm up again. Some people I know insist you have to wait 12 hrs, but I have done this many times, and it always works.

To colour the white chocoalte you can use the same technique or just add in the coloured cocoa butter.

I've never bothered with the titanium what-sis-name, I brush in coloured cocoa butter in the mold, then when dry, brush on a thin layer of white, then my mold as usual with milk or white couverture.