keychris

I recently finished a couple of courses (Chocolates and Pralines levels 3 & 4) at Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School in Melbourne, with Paul Kennedy and Robyn Curnow. Here's a bunch of pictures of the products we did Coriander and hazelnut praline Marscapone ganache Mandarin

I agree!

You could try using something like dextrose or trehalose instead of invert. Invert is quoted as a third sweeter than sucrose, iirc. This sounds like ... a really large gap. 1/3" is like 8mm. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying - I fill and cap aiming for as thin a base as possible - 1-2mm!

How much shelf life are you after? What is your current shelf life? It may be that you need to educate your customers that your chocolates won't last as long as something they buy in the supermarket... "Preservative free!" or something like that I usually label mine with four weeks from production date, but obviously products that have fresh fruit or high water content materials will be shorter, whereas things like jellies (high sugar) and pralines (little to no water) will be much longer.

Just FYI that this technique has been added to Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School's online class content - you do need to subscribe to see the video though.

In my opinion, if you knead for 30 minutes, you're either going to have very sore arms or well overkneaded bread Moisture doesn't inhibit the formation of gluten to my knowledge - it's critical in the process to create it from the two proteins that form gluten. Fat, however, coats the strands, making it harder for them to stick together, which retards the gluten development. You'll often see a formula recommend to develop the gluten first, and then add butter later in the process. In my limited experience with high hydration dough, I feel they develop faster, not slower, than a "regular" dough. I think this is why stretch-and-fold technique is so effective with high hydration dough.

let's call it 1a! I've never had the opportunity to work with an enrobing machine, so couldn't envisage being able to do what you're describing - it makes sense now!

when it's not 35-40C here I will do some dipping

This is option 1 that Pastryani has presented, just using an enrobing machine instead of hand dipping

The answer (for me) is simply that it takes a lot longer for my full batch of dough to return to temperature for baking. If you only do half the dough, you get the same value out of it, but you warm it faster by mixing it. Might not be the right answer, but it makes sense in my head

Option 1, in my opinion I don't wash or polish!

Slightly off topic, but why did you leave it so long before piping? in terms of food safety, you want that ganache sealed into your shell sooner rather than later.

They look wonderful, how do you get the perfect orange pattern?

I get the same thing, there will be cocoa butter in the corners of the mould still

This will only work with the eztemper silk cocoa butter. As for tempering, browse https://forums.egullet.org/topic/19524-tempering-chocolate/ for more info I can message you more details you if want, but tempering is covered pretty exhaustively on here

Did you beat enough moisture out of it?

How long does it take to cool couverture from 45C to 32C to add the silk?

how would you get anything to set in a room at 90F?

Here's the ingredients list for the Felchlin sugarfree: cacao kernel, sweetener (E965: maltitol), cacao butter, emulsifier (E322.: sun flower lecithin), vanilla* Madagascar. Cacao minimum 62%. HTH Chris

have all the chocolate coloured and in temper before you add them to the bowl. then mould as normal.

It sounds like sugar bloom. If they got some condensation on them at some point, it dissolves sugars in the chocolate, then the water evaporates and leaves sugar granules on the surface, giving the exact thing you're describing. Where were you storing them? Edit: Ninja'd by the Chocolot!

Kris's chocolate mojo

That was a really interesting video, Kerry! Thanks for posting it. Given that in the cocoa butter colours thread we say that cocoa butter can absorb moisture from the air, does the water in the mix not end up in the cocoa butter you're taking off? Or is it all absorbed by the cocoa mass?

In my experience what you show there is that your cocoa butter is not tempered correctly, or that some moisture has gotten into it. How do you store it when not in use? Matte finishes are usually the mold being too cold when you add the chocolate - this could also shock the cocoa butter when you apply it and cause issues. The finish underneath your coloured cocoa butter will *always* be matte, because it was touching the cocoa butter as it set, not the smooth shiny mold. So if your CB doesn't contract from the mold with the chocolate, you will always have matte patches. Nothing will change this, other than getting the CB right! I always leave my product overnight at 15C before capping. I understand this might not be feasible in a production situation, but it takes overnight for the chocolate to fully contract. I then will cap, leave to set, refrigerate the mold (4C) for 15-20 minutes, then unmold. I rarely have any products stick in the molds, however occasionally you do just get one that is a pain in the butt!

coconut oil (well, depending on the type you have) melts around 24C so will still be very fluid at temperatures you would expect chocolate to be setting