curls
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Posts posted by curls
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Yes, another rabbit hole has opened up... spent a part of the day looking into the current state of 3D printers. Way more options and lower price points now then when I looked at this stuff a decade ago!
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Wood, metal, etc. and a CNC should be able to create a nice smooth object to be thermoformed.
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5 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:
So I wandered in to the shop today where they sell the thermoform units. He told me that given the temperature they operate at the thicker poly should be usable. They had a chocolate mold they had made from a Jack o Lantern they had printed on a 3d printer - it had significant lines on the mold from the 3D process.
Good to know that the thermoform units can handle the thicker poly. Yeah, a lot of the 3d printed stuff is covered with lines -- would either have to smooth it or come up with another material to put in the thermoform so you have something that you want to mould.
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7 hours ago, RobertM said:
Just don’t try and take them through TSA ......
Should be like taking chocolates thru... just get them swabbed and examined. Did TSA take your brownies away @RobertM?
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56 minutes ago, gfron1 said:
I do and its on my short list. My concern has always been if the flimsy polycarb would be durable enough, and seeing his poor shine (he loved it, I only saw the sheen and waves) did not give me confidence.
All very good points. Perhpas a thicker polycarb could be used in a thermoform unit. Would also be interesting to see the results if the tempering, molding, and unmolding were done under ideal conditions. I have gotten good results from some of the Tomric thermoformed molds. They won't last as long as regular polycarb molds but I have gotten better results from them than what I saw in this video and it would be nice to be able to create custom designs on ones own.
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Made my first batch of Paul Young brownies. First seen here https://forums.egullet.org/topic/157568-chocdoc-and-eg-friends-in-lala-land/?do=findComment&comment=2177722.
Made them in a round pan since I did not have a small enough square pan -- they still taste like brownies 🙂. Oh my, what a tasty brownie, this one beats my previous favorite fudgie brownie by a mile. Made these with 73% Becolade Noir Vietnam chocolate. Thank you @Kerry Beal for all your help!
Now to find out if the office loves these or hates them (tempting those with New Year's resolutions to abstain from sweets). 😉
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Would be great if we could make our own molds and try out thermoforming at this year's chocolate workshop. @gfron1 know anyone in St. Lois with this sort of machinery?
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Thanks for the link, interesting videos!
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Happy New Year! Time to putter in the kichen this morning. 🙂
Waffle with bacon. Not pictured is the coffee and maple syrup.
Made a few extra waffles to go in the freezer for easy weekend breakfasts. I prefer to go light on the waffle batter (or get it just right) instead of putting in too much and having to clean up the mess. Did rather well today.
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chocolate house - pre-decorations
Planning to go real simple with the decorations... maybe just some icing/snow. Many thanks to @Chocolot and @lambrecht gourmet for the inspiration.
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This year's Winter Holiday flavors:
chocolate truffle, bourbon ganache, milk chocolate peanut butter hearts, dark chocolate peanut butter hearts, marzipan & cherry-raspberry pâte de fruit, and chocolate dipped candied ginger. For lagniappe, some milk & dark chocolate dipped pretzels.
arranging the box of chocolates
completed box
milk chocolate pretzels
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Great question! Sorry I don't know the answer but I agree, would be nice to have small scale automatic wrapping machinery. I would make a lot more caramel and taffy if I could give the wrapping job to a machine!
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Quite a selection @Haley! I really like the green one in the front with the two shades of green and a bit of white. Would you please tell us the flavors for all your chocolates.
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I also use cellophane. Purchased mine from Glerup Revere. They work very well and are available in a number of precut sizes. https://glerup.com/shop-now-candy-packaging/confectionery-packaging/candy-cellophane-sheets.html
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Ah, sorry, thought I had included the link to the English version of the site. Glad you figured it out. Pretty moulds.
I haven’t tried many other mould manufacturers. I like Chocolate World and Callebaut moulds. I would like to try the JKV moulds but haven’t foind a good US distributor. Some of the Italian moulds (Martelleto, Cabrellon, etc.) are good but they seem to make a lot of moulds with interesting shapes that are more prone to trapping air bubbles.
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@JoNorvelleWalker you should also consider the Chocolate World polycarbonate moulds (looks like they are calling them injection molds / polycarbonate molds) they have egg, tablet, bar, and many other moulds https://www.chocolateworld.be/winkel/vormen/kadervormen#0.
Search their site to find what you want and you can order the mould from Tomric (https://shop.tomric.com/Category/16_1/Chocolate_World_Injection_Molds.aspx) or Chocolat-Chocolat -- they are both distributors of Chocolate World moulds.
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Canning jars should work if you don’t want to use foodsaver bags.
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Thank you so much for the detailed instructions @patris!
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1 hour ago, patris said:
I do. All credit for the technique goes to @Chocolot, who posted it at length here somewhere. White chocolate, vacuum sealed (I do it in 500 g packages), pressure cooked 2 packages at a time for 90 minutes in my Instant Pot. You will think you have ruined it but it will thin out some as it cools. Add cocoa butter to thin out further - I usually add around 20 percent of the weight of the chocolate - and temper as usual. Works great every time.
Well that sounds doable! How much water do you put in the Instant Pot? Do you place the packages of white chocolate on a trivet? Natural release or quick release?
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@patris do you make your own carmalized white chocolate? If so, would you mind sharing your technique/recipe?
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Great setup. So organized! I hope everyone has lot of fun.
How are you cutting your marshmallow? Confectionary guitar?
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Not done with chocolate moulds but an example of creating dendrite patterns
And some discussion about how to do this in the pastry forum
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48 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:
Gorgeous pottery! I also spy a wonderful collection of custom chocolate dipping bowls and the new dipping wires. 🙂
Looking forward to seeing the results of this year's Tonawanda Workshop.
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14 hours ago, gfron1 said:
Floating an idea for the Master Class - anyone interested in 3D molding? I know Bissingers does quite a bit of this. Still exploring a few other ideas as well.
Regular filling of 3D chocolate moulds or do they have some unusual techniques to share?
Fun DIY Chocolate Bar project
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Indeed it can be! We also have some maker spaces in the vicinity and some of them have amazing equipment. Join the maker club and you get access to lots of tools. Still, in the end I don’t know if this route winds up being any cheaper than ordering custom moulds from a professional (if your order is large enough). Definitely should be cheaper for small quantities of custom moulds. Either way, the equipment is fascinating, takes tons of research, time, and money.