Marmalade

I'm using a Prefamac, and the detailer is similar to what you mention, a small rod that spins just as they come off the conveyor belt. I've tried adjusting to different levels, but still can't seem to get consistently finished bottoms.

White Chocolate is usually more expensive in my experience, most likely because it has only cocoa butter and no cocoa solids. Cocoa butter is about twice as expensive as chocolate where I am (Ecuador) $8/kg., chocolate is around $4 kg. Since cocoa butter is used frequently in industry, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, etc. it is pricey.

Hi: Yes, cocoa prices have gone up substantially over the last two years, just like every other commodity. So you're right, chocolate prices are moving up worldwide.

I've been going into large scale production (thousands of pieces a week) using my enrober, and am occasionally having trouble getting a perfectly smooth bottom on my chocolates. I cut my slabs on a guitar cutter after putting a thin layer of chocolate on what will be the bottoms of the pieces. I've got the viscosity of the chocolate just right on the enrober, pretty thin so that the chocolates pass through a nice pool of chocolate before coming out through the second curtain of chocolate. Yet there are still sometimes small spots where the chocolate from the enrober doesn't quite meet up with the edges of the bottom of the pieces where the chocolate was initially applied before cutting the squares. Nor does the chocolate always adhere fully to the bottoms of my pieces, making them perfectly smooth as I would like them. My concern is that if the pieces aren't fully sealed all around, they will dry out faster than necessary and the shelf life will be compromised. Any help troubleshooting this problem would be great.

It's usually a matter of time and having the perfect temper. I sometimes have the same problem and no matter what, I have to refrigerate the molds, even after waiting a day. Chocolate will continue to shrink for up to 48 hours, as far as I know, so patience is key here. If your chocolate has been properly crystallized, you should have at least a 95% success rate in getting the chocolates to release, or higher.

I make caramels for dipping/enrobing, and despite my best efforts to extend shelf life and prevent crystallization, they usually turn crumbly after a couple of weeks. Anyone have any idea how to extend shelf life and maintain the chewy texture and prevent crystallization over time? I have tried recipes using corn syrup, glucose, etc. as well as making sure all sugar is well dissolved.

They are very good. I use the jewel line with an airbrush or finger or q-tip.

I have been using a puffy make up brush to flatten the transfers after laying them on by hand just as John DePaula suggested and it works quite well. I feed 12-15 pieces through my enrober at time, which gives me enough time to apply the transfers after stopping the machine so that I can work on them without the machine running. 12-15 pieces is about as many as I can safely do before the chocolate sets up and it's too late to apply a transfer. There are also small sponge brushes available at places like Michael's or A.C. Moore in the US that would make a good applicator for transfers.

Do those enrobers really run from right to left as it appears in the photos? Seems kind of weird. Or did the photos somehow get reversed? I would love to know, as mine runs from left to right.

whoa! Awesome! ← Very cool and different!

← Actually, we do have a guitar cutter but you can't cut caramel with a guitar. And you really can't cut ganache with a caramel cutter; the pieces will stick inside the blades. You can score firm caramel with the cutter so you get good straight lines, and if it's soft enough, you can actually cut it. However, you need to dip or enrobe soft caramels within just a few hours, or they will begin to lose their shape from as the caramel starts to very slowly and imperceptibly flow. Another thing to watch out for is to make sure that when you cast your slab of caramel or ganache, using either a frame or confetionary bars, that the height is very even throughout. This is sometimes tricky as hot caramel firms up fast on top and properly pre-crystallized ganache also starts to firm up rather quickly. If you don't get an even slab, then your pieces will be of differing heights and will not be uniform. Finally, a guitar cutter is actually pretty easy to maintain, just keep it clean and don't ever use too much force, always gentle slow pressure, or you will have lots of broken wires!

One way to eliminate the rounded corners of the structure sheet is to use a puffy blush/cosmetics brush on the top. It would be a lot more work. I think you'd have to cut the structure sheet into individual squares and place each piece one at a time. Currently I don't have an enrober, but that's what we did when I worked at a chocolate shop in France. ← Thanks for the tip. I have cut the texture sheets up but hadn´t heard of the brush technique. I will have to try it. ← I saw that Lior just posted some pix from her class (Trendy Pralines Callebaut) and if I may borrow one, it partially illustrates the technique about which I was talking: To me, the acetate in the pic doesn't look quite stiff enough to get a nice flat surface, but you should be able to do so with a stiffer grade acetate and certainly with the structure sheets cut into squares. ← I saw that, I also appreciated the tip about putting the pieces on the enrober to feed corner first, hadn't thought of that.

One way to eliminate the rounded corners of the structure sheet is to use a puffy blush/cosmetics brush on the top. It would be a lot more work. I think you'd have to cut the structure sheet into individual squares and place each piece one at a time. Currently I don't have an enrober, but that's what we did when I worked at a chocolate shop in France. ← Thanks for the tip. I have cut the texture sheets up but hadn´t heard of the brush technique. I will have to try it.

Yes, just enough pressure so they get flush.

I want my textures or transfers to end up with a more square pattern that is more flush with the actual shape of the piece, without the rounded corners. It would be a bit hard to do on caramels since they take a while to cut, but for regular slabs, that would be easy. I have also read the suggestion of letting your cut slab pieces dry out an additional night to firm them up after the cutting. Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try that.

I've used one and I didn't really like it. No paper take off is a big problem, no vibrating portion of the belt, no detailer, no blower. It's fine if you want the rustic look, say for truffles, but for guitar cut pieces, rather difficult to get good results. And it doesn't have, say, the dual capacity of a machine like I purchased (description below), that can be used for both molds with a vibrating table, or with an enrober attachment. Sure, the price is 2x as much, but you get better results and dual use.

Wow nice photos! The edges are very clean. Thanks for all this great info Ilana! Jeff

Thanks for the tip. I have been considering getting one for a while now, just never got around to it. Maybe in August when I visit the US. Any other ways to polish chocolate? I know those brushes are expensive.

You got it, those are hearts. It was hard to get them to show up well in the photo.

I have dozens of molds from them. More than once they have thrown in the random freebie. They are always good to do business with and prompt.

Thanks a lot! You have to be pretty meticulous and I'm still unhappy about the uneven shine on the heart.

I wanted to start a new topic for showpieces since we have just begun doing them with little guidance. Here are some of the first ones. Comments are much appreciated. These are for a wedding this weekend for a client here.

Welcome Jeff, we'll be interested to hear about your products and hope you'll become involved in our many discussions about chocolate. Did you catch the earlier thread about 'Balancing your Ganache'? I'd be interested on your take on shelf life of your products. ← I did read the Balancing Your Ganache entry. I use many recipes from both Greweling´s CIA book and Wybauw´s Fine Chocolates. I like Wybauw´s because they all provide the Aw, and find the guidance provided for shelf life is just about spot on, except for the Gianduja. I´ve had them mold up after about 6 weeks, which is a bit too long anyway. But I think there is too much free water in the formula, and have tried reducing the dairy. Also, dairy hygiene is not quite as good here as in the US which may have affected the shelf life, despite boiling the cream. Also, butter here is not consistent like in the US; depending on the time of the year I believe the amount of fat and water varies because of the changes in season from rainy to dry and back again. Things are not nearly as high tech for quality control. I do find that most of my products have easily an 8 week shelf life, without any preservatives. I had all my products lab tested here and they were given 90 days. I am still, however, tweaking recipes, especially for export, to extend shelf life as long as possible. ← Marmalade, would you care to share a sample ganache recipe? I don't get anywhere near a 90 day shelf life and I think others would be interested in taking a look at what you're doing; for myself, especially, since you're not using any preservatives. Thanks! ← John, Kudos on the gorgeous web site. Very nice photography. I am curious to know, what kind of equipment do you work on? I have just purchased a Prefamac machine and am anxiously awaiting its arrival sometime next week. Been doing everything by hand up now on Mol D'Art melters and a small vibrating table. ← Sorry for taking so long to get back, I've been playing with my new enrober. This is one of my favorite recipes with a long shelf life, from Wybauw's Fine Chocolates. 400 G Whipping Cream 50 G Corn Syrup 40 G Finely Ground Coffee 1,200 G Milk Chocolate 60 G Invert Sugar 200 G Butter Bring cream, corn s. and coffee to boil and pout liquid onto melted chocolate. Blend in invert sugar. At 86 F, add butter. Spread in a fram and let set over night. Cover slab with a thin coat before slicing on guitar. Dip or enrobe, garnish. It has a creamy soft texture that holds up very long. According to the recipe this has an Aw of 0.751 which means up to 3 months shelf life.

I thought I'd put my two cents in here on enrobing since I never could find much info on the web, and now that I own an enrober, I'm sure other people will appreciate the input. I looked at LCM, Savvy, and Prefamac, JKV, and Mol d'art. The last three look pretty similar in all the photos. I decided on Prefamac after having seen them operating in a number of places, because it's a simple machine, fit my budget, and couldn't wait three or four months for the order to be filled, and they had good customer service, both from the US and Belgium. I ordered from bakonusa.com in the US and my equipment was ready within a month and airfreighted to Ecuador, where we are located. It was cheaper than ordering direct from Belgium. We just purchased a Prefamac 30kg melter, enrober and detailer attachment. First, after using it a couple of weeks, I have to say I think enrobers and chocolatiers are a bit like cameras and photographers. The skill of the person using either is far more important than the equipment, the amount you paid, or the number of bells and whistles. I'm in Ecuador, and I don't have access to many different chocolates with different viscosities and for different purposes. Basically, I have access to two or three types of chocolate, and I have to adjust them all myself using cocoa butter to thin. This has been a bit challenging to find just the right percent to add, but it's been an interesting learning experience as well to see how the chocolate changes shine and snap with different amounts of cocoa butter. For the Prefamac, I have found the detailer attachment is a must. It's a little spinning rod at the end of the take off belt before the pieces hit the paper. You adjust it just right and the pieces sort of get lifted gently and carried over, while the spinning takes off excess chocolate, eliminating feet, and cuts off any tails. It took me about 1,000 pieces to figure out how to use it just right, as well as run the whole operation. At first I couldn't figure out how to keep up with the fast speed of the belt, but it really didn't matter once we figured out you simply pull the paper taut when needed, just as the pieces are coming off the wire conveyor belt. Then you loosen up slack a bit until the next row of pieces is about to come off. So you don't waste paper by having a mechanical pull moving the paper all the time. Ideally, the paper belt and conveyor belt would have perhaps separate foot pedals for control, but those are some of the bells and whistles I wasn't willing to pay for, and my volume doesn't justify the costs. Yes, it really does take two people to operate this thing optimally. The vibrating of the belt is adjusted by tightening or loosening a spring loaded arm that is under the belt shortly after the pieces are enrobed. There is also a blower attachment, but I haven't shelled out for that yet. Perhaps later. A lot of people have asked about the chocolate thickening during the day, which it does, but is easily remedied by a couple of minutes with a heat gun or turning up the thermostat gently. I have found this to be a very minor inconvenience. Production wise, we used to dip say 100 pieces an hour. I can easily put out say 1500 to 2000 pieces in an hour, so as the Savvy-Goiseau sale rep said to me, your volume should increase easily 10x-20x, which it has. Of course, right now the equipment (especially the enrober) is underutilized, but as I was wisely advised, buy a machine you will grow into in a year or two, not one that just meets your needs for the present. And by the way, the vibrating table which is standard is great for molds! NO bubbles! Photos! Chocolate Caramels Scored and Ready for Cutting The enrober Me at the Machine Chocolate Caramels Enrobed with Texture Sheets Finished Pieces, Still would like cleaner squares on top, but they'll sell!