rlevine

Some random thoughts on the NSF issue and health licensing generally. We've taken the retail licensing approach because we did want to keep the option to open a retail space in the future, but also because, in Colorado, retail licensing is done on a local (county) level and wholesale through the state. We've found the licensing process is a lot easier if you start involving your local health dept rep very early on in the licensing process, before you start construction. Getting their informal feedback on plans (if they're willing to comment,) ask questions about options and generally look for their input and feedback. Keep checking in with them, asking (intelligent!) questions. You'll generate goodwill you can draw on when you hit sticky issues. Doing a local (ie retail) process means your rep is local, and you can reach out to them more often, and usually get better service. The intent behind the NSF/UL/BISSC/"commercial" rule is to make sure you have equipment that won't create sanitation or food safety issues. Lots of chocolate equipment (especially the more esoteric stuff from overseas) doesn't have US certifications, but that lack shouldn't stop you from using it, if you can convince your local health folks that the machine in question is indeed intended for commercial use, and it doesn't have obvious sanitary maintenance problems. Every health dept will have a "variance procedure" used to approve exceptions to their rules. Often the variance must come from the State level, but often the local rep can be an advocate for a particular exception. If you can make the case that a specific piece of equipment is critical for the success of your business you can use the variance procedure to get permission for its use. You'll need a rationale for the equipment that isn't based on "this is cheaper for me." The health folks care about food safety, not your costs. If you can say "this manufacturing process cannot be accomplished without this machine" and give them a line of reasoning they can credibly argue with their superiors, you can often get a variance. It helps to have done your homework on other options, having all the facts on hand to show that you know what you're talking about and aren't wasting their time. $.02 rick

Chilling the mold for a few minutes before spattering will reduce the tendency to drip. Here's the revisted spattering. Heading in the right direction. Thanks again for the white tip! rick *** (And around here, it's not the rain that hurts, but the drought! :-)

Check your local hardware store for 1" diameter foam air conditioner insulation. It's the snaky stuff you poke between a window air conditioner and the window jamb to stop air leaks. Here in Boulder, McGuckin's sells it by the foot. It's dark greyish, heading towards black in color. You can find it smaller or larger, but 1" seems to be the right size bite, either one gulp for the adventurous or two or three for the savorers. Cut the foam with scissors into 1 1/2" lengths or a tad longer. (It's usually coiled up in boxes at the store, and the curve will stay with it, so try to cheat one end square when you cut it, but it really doesn't make that much difference in the finished cups. I use plain plastic wrap to cover them. Pull 6" lengths from a 12" roll, and then snip each piece into to 6"x6" squares. (The cutter on Reynolds plastic wrap rolls is actually worth something here.) To wrap a snob, squish a foam piece on its side down in the center of a plastic square, fold/pull over the plastic tightly to keep it slightly tapered, pick it up and pull the two open sides of the plastic down over the foam. If you stick a finger under the wrap and push in on the foam as you pull the sides down, you'll get a slightly tapered profile to the form. With the sides tucked in, twist the plastic closed on top tightly. No need for tying it off. I dip mine slightly less than an inch deep. Depending on your chocolate, you may need two coats to get them to release evenly. If you go to two coats, wipe off the bottom on the first coat pretty vigorously, down to bare plastic, to reduce the base thickness, and minimize developing a foot on the snob. After they've set thoroughly, snip off the twisted top of the plastic wrap (it's much quicker than untwisting them,) open the plastic at the top, and gently ease out the foam plug. Then gather the ends of the plastic and twist carefully to remove it. Done. Repeat until your eyes cross. Filling them is fun. Squeeze bottles are great, fillings warm enough to self-level are best if you're going to cap them, but well under melting temperature for your couverture. My customers love them, filled with a middling soft infused caramel and capped with milk chocolate, but they're too worky for serious production. Either outsourcing the shells or having a conversation with the silicone mold folks is in my future. rick (ps - does anyone know the origin of the term "snobinette?" Inquiring minds... :-)

Wendy, thanks for the great tutorial! Your suggestions and pictures gave me a boot in the right direction. I tried a spatula, and it works fine, as long as I'm just spattering plain cocoa butter. I'll try adding some white to increase the opacity of the cocoa butter as soon as my white from Chef Rubber gets here. Trishad, thanks for the tip on adding white, and for the welcome in! rick

Ya, that was my first thought, as that's the look I'm trying for. The chocolate is too viscous for it to work. I've been using tempered white chocolate tinted with colored cocoa butter. Cocoa butter by itself didn't give much contrast against the dark base, and when I upped it to get more opacity, it was tastable. I could probably drop the mold temperature and make sure the cocoa butter is well set to get less diffusion into the dark chocolate, didn't pursue that with the straight cocoa butter attempts. Here are two snaps of this afternoon's experiment. If you see green spots in the images they're cell phone camera artifacts, and I've overdone the splattering a tad: And here's the direction I'm trying to head, Pollock wtih more spots than streaks: Thanks to all for your suggestions! rick

Can any of you suggest how best to spatter tempered, colored chocolate into a mold? I've tried fingers and assorted body parts, various utensils and brushes of a range of stiffnesses, but I can't seem to get a decent, predictable spatter. Varying the temperature gets me a range of striginesses, but no real spatters. Might be the chocolate, too, but I figured I'd ask before I go too much further. (I grabbed some Callebaut CW2NV for my experiments, which is fairly high yield/viscosity...hmmm...) Ideas? (Yeah, you're going to tell me to get out the airbrush, but I'm hoping for a simple mechanical solution not needing all the setup and takedown for each color. :-) Thanks! rick