John DePaula

There was very very little chocolate on the exhaust fan. That may change when I get the droplet size smaller. The nice thing about this setup is that the exhaust fan assembly is designed to be easily taken apart and the screens can even be placed in the dishwasher, so it's super easy to maintain. The paint was about 33C, and it was tempered. I viewed a video on Callebaut recently and they said you needed to temper the chocolate for spraying, but I was sure discussions (on this thread?) said that tempering isn't necessary. Yes, I was saying the same thing today. Best to have all of the molds ready with an assistant ready to scrape away. Then you can hit them, boom, boom, boom, all in one go without having to stop the spraying for too long. Good to know that the heat gun will keep things moving. I really need to bump up the amount of cocoa butter. I knew it should be at least 30% (50% is probably better) but when I started adding it I just couldn't bring myself to add that much. Will do better next time. One good thing I learned from it, though, is that you can still get some nice splatter from the thicker chocolate.

I’ve been collecting materials for the past few weeks so that I could begin airbrushing chocolate. I’ll try to give you a quick overview of what I’ve done so far. First, I needed a good place to spray the chocolate so that I’m not breathing the atomized chocolate and not getting it all over my clothing. Since I can’t afford a nice chocolate spraying cabin like Design & Realisation offers, I decided to convert the space by my stovetop which, of course, has a nice strong exhaust fan. I wanted something that I could setup and breakdown very quickly. I went to a recycled building materials store here in Portland and found a nice piece of Corian kitchen counter top that was already cut to exactly the right dimensions. For only $10, it was almost like stealing. Next, I purchased a shower curtain to wrap around the exterior of the hood and keep the chocolate sequestered under the exhaust fan. I bought magnets at Home Depot but they weren’t strong enough so I ended up using some kitchen clips. Four rubber feet and a wooded dowel, also from HD, to support the corian and keep it above the burners were about $4. Total cost of my make shift chocolate spraying cabin: less than $20. Here are some before and after pix: I needed a hook to hold my spray gun, a Fuji XT-2, and the pull on the recessed cutting board was just the right size: To begin with, I put my spray gun atop a heating pad and covered it all with a kitchen towel. I’m paranoid about the chocolate setting up inside the gun and I think the pre-warming helped. May not be necessary… Although I specifically searched for a surface that would not be harmed by scraping, I decided at the last minute to just lay down some wide plastic wrap (film) to make cleanup quicker. I’m really glad I did that. Be sure to tape it down or the spray gun will blow it around. While the gun was warming up, I tempered some dark chocolate thinned with 15% cocoa butter. It seemed pretty thin but next time I may increase that to 30%. I loaded up the canister and off I went. So here’s a pic of beginning to spray a chocolate bar mold: And another: Notice how big the splatters are… That’s not especially good for what I’m trying to achieve: a smooth, shiny, seamless, and bubble free finish. I still have a bit of a learning curve to go through to get the aerosolized chocolate blobs smaller. I sprayed the mold pretty heavily, maybe too much?, and then filled with the left-over chocolate that I used for spraying. Here’s a close-up of the bar mold after spraying: Cleanup was as easy as removing the plastic wrap: Results I was very happy that the bars did not have any bubbles, but the finish was less than what I wanted. You can see some splotchiness and they were not shiny at all. Compare that to bars that were brushed in manually: The bonbon cups were successful: bubble free and shiny. The African mask, like the bars, was bubble free but the surface was not that great: The spraying cabin worked perfectly. There was absolutely no chocolate spray outside of my work area and more importantly, in my lungs. I need to figure out why the surface was not that good on the bars but other than that I consider it a good first step.

Kerry - what mold did you use for these? I've been trying to find a long triangular mold without much luck. This rectangular one seems like it might be a good substitute for what I'm looking for. Your effects look great. ← Are you looking for a mold like this one? Oblong Shape Triangle Mold at JB Prince

I agree. I really like the hearts. It's kinda hard to tell what's going on with the other ones because of the pattern of the mold, but I see nothing wrong with them either! ← And I'll third that sentiment - very nice effect, I'd say.

And pop was something you got as a treat once in a while in the summer. Do you remember how good those little blue bottles of Coke tasted out of the machine? And how about the A&W root beer when they hung the tray off the window of your car? ← Nothin' beat those little bottles of coke, with real cane sugar!, on a hot summer day...

Yes, I wonder about the hair dryer on the very thin chocolate... I also just reread the 'chocolates with that showroom finish topic' (apparently I wasn't too tired!). 2 different people said they had more success when the sprayed layer was thin. Paul DeBondt said he does 7 or 8 very thin layers and then uses a brush to brush in chocolate before filling. I did 4 or 5 layers but maybe they were too thick?? (I didn't do the brush though...) Do you just do 1 layer of spray before filling? I'll do more experiments tomorrow and report back. I have 1 more question: What is the best way to spray so the sides get evenly coated and the chocolate doesn't pool to the bottom? At first I had my mold on the counter and was spraying directly downward. That didn't get the sides very good. Then I tried keeping the mold on the counter but angling my gun more toward the wall rather than down and turned the mold to get all of the sides. Then I held the mold and sprayed more accurately on the sides. Problem here is that it's more difficult to keep the chocolate contained and off of the walls! Anyone have a successful method? And how many layers do most of you spray when spraying chocolate or coloured cocoa butter? Thanks! ← You could try to adjust the spray pattern and/or the pressure. Is it possible that you've thinned the chocolate a bit too much, or perhaps it's a bit too warm? Or the mold could be too warm, I guess...

I think the hot air must have thrown the thin chocolate layer out of temper. Would the following be correct? spray a thin coat of chocolate into the mold allow to set ladle in some tempered chocolate empty the mold to create a shell scrape and allow to set

In the Deep South, I've never seen a banana pudding without a meringue topping; however, Ruth makes a good point. Modern times, I guess...

I'm not sure how you are putting the sack in the gravity feed? ← No, this won't work in the gravity-feed pressure pot; only the regular one. My system came with a regular pot (the one your hubby is going to use to paint the house) but I also ordered the gravity feed gun which, apparently, is having an extended stay at US Customs... ← So do you just line the can with a plastic bag then screw it in place? Sorry to hear about the delay in customs - must be difficult waiting. ← I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like you could take a bag of melted chocolate and let the top of the bag flop over the rim of the pot, then secure the top and you're good to go. I had been waiting for the gravity gun but decided to go forward with what I have - the basic Q4 system. I washed everything out today and am waiting for it all to dry out. Seems to make a nice strong mist, at least with water. Kerry, have you tried the No. 4 tip yet, or are you only using the No. 6?

I'm not sure how you are putting the sack in the gravity feed? ← No, this won't work in the gravity-feed pressure pot; only the regular one. My system came with a regular pot (the one your hubby is going to use to paint the house) but I also ordered the gravity feed gun which, apparently, is having an extended stay at US Customs...

By the way, I emailed Paul from FujiSpray, and asked if it might be possible to use a plastic sack, e.g. made from a ZipLock bag, in the non-gravity feed pressure pot. He says that some people do use a plastic bag for spraying paint. I don't think there are any food-safe issues to deal with but using a sack may provide a very fast way to switch colors.

Anyone know where to find molds like Debondt uses? Large egg, hinged double mold. I think it's a spinner. The ones on JKV don't look like they're doubles.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

I'll just add thermometers are often inaccurate. Is it possible that your thermometer is off a bit? When I cook mine to 107C, they're always at 75Brix; but I always check both ways.

Very nice. Do you mind describing your technique. On the ridged domes, did you just spray half the mold? Did you have to block off half? On the yello/green ones geodesic domes same technique? Are the colored ones white chooclate? And the round domes, is that luster dust? ← Thanks. Yeah, the ridge domes are just half sprayed, but it's all in the angle you hold the airbrush. The mold just blocks the cocoa butter from getting in the cavities if you hold it at a low enough angle. the badger250 sprays with a wide enough mist that you get a nice fade effect with it. Same idea with both geo domes as well. Started spraying with green and did the other half in yellow. Also did them in red to yellow - which came out more red to orange. the geo domes are dark choc, actually, as are the red with the white stripe. and yeah, the round domes with the gold is luster dust. I think next time I'll spray them with uncolored cocoa butter before hitting them with the dust. I'm trying for a "gold marble" look that I've seen before, just not sure how to execute it just right yet. Ive got some close up shots too, if anyone wants to see detail. ← Closeups are always appreciated!

Thanks. I am not very familiar with most US grocery stores. We will look along the way for a Safeway or TJs. In Moab there is only a Kroger and and a Village Market and they don't carry these items. Heck, they don't even carry parsnips at Kroger's. Anyone else suggest any other stores to look in? ← Just to clarify, I have NOT been in TJ's or Safeway in a while.

Here in Portland, OR, I find both at most grocery stores though I haven't been to Safeway or TJ's in a while...

Ditto (with the exception that I haven't done any hollow figures).

Hey, thanks! I thought it might be months before those recipes appeared on their site.

I think those look fantastic, Kerry. When you mentioned that you got a different effect if you didn't wait for the first splatters to dry, I thought it might be really cool. Is it possible to just spray air? I'm wondering how it would be to lay down some splatters and then hit it lightly with just compressed air...

And David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop is an example of a cookbook aimed squarely at the home cook that uses volume AND weights very successfully.

Exactly. I think there are only 3 writers on staff plus the editor. IMHO It's the magazine's job to write the article and the featured Chef's job to supply the recipie. I am sure the magazine has criteria and one of them should be that the ingredients should be given in weight. This does should not cost the magazine anything time wise, as it is the featured Chef who supplies the recipie. Am I making a moutain out of mole-hill? Probably. Yet, new pastry magazines are a rarity, and while looking at the pastry-porn and articles, I had hopes of at least ONE magazine trying to do something about the state of N.American media's attitutudes towards food editing. A while back I had the opportunity to meet D & C Duby in a very relaxed atmoshpere. I really enjoyed their book "wild sweets" but wanted to know why the ingredients were given in a back-azzwards hodgepodge of weights and volume. Dominique laughed and told me the only way a N. American publisher would accept the book for non-professional sales (huge market compared to professional sales ) was to have flour and chocolate given in weight and the rest of the ingredients in volume. I mentally kicked myself in the head, I should have realized this back-azzwards standard--it is the same standard used in most cooking magazines. I particularily enjoy "Cook's Illustrated" and "Fine cooking", my collections go back to the late 90's. The obviously well researched and well written articles in these two magazines are very interesting and helpful. Yet both of these magazines refuse to acknowledge the use of a scale, both give caveats at the back of the magazine acknowleging that scaling flour will give consistant and accurate results. "Fine cooking" has, from time to time, sold advertising of digital scales in it's pages. To the best of my knowledge, no N. American cooking or baking magazine has ever spoke up about this issue. It's like a taboo or something. Editors and owners, please, this isn't an issue like abortion or gay mariages. The N. American has been purchasing virtually all of their foods (other than liquids) by weight, uses weights at the post office, and many uses weights in their line of work. Why will no media decision maker acknowledge the use of a scale in the kitchen? ← WTF (and I don't mean "Welcome to France") abortion, gay marriage? Whatever... Clearly, the solution is to put BOTH volume AND weight measures. I've seen it in some cookbooks and seems like everyone would get what they want. Why not lobby for that.

Here's how they look. Lana - hubby says the pressure on the cup is not independently adjustable from the gun. The only knob I played with was the incoming air pressure from the turbine. ← Well, those look pretty good. The splatter effect is great! Are they as shiny as they look? Did you just use the molds at room-temp or did you warm them up a bit?

Not much experience here, but what about a Coconut Pie with macadamias or a Tarte aux Noix but using macadamias instead of walnuts.

Kerry is amazing. She hears about a technique and BAM!, there she is experimenting with it. I admire her. Me, I seem to take forever to get going... I ended up getting the same system that Kerry bought: the Fuji Q4 Pro system + the Gravity feed pressurized gun. Also, got a set of the little bottles for different colors but sounds like it's so easy to change colors, may not be necessary.