Jim D.

For the micro-batch accessory for the Premier melanger, the stated minimum is 0.5kg, but I could not find a maximum on the Premier website. I did locate this statement: This new optional economy-size drum and roller stone set are ideal for recipe testing or small batch sampling as yield is only 1.1 pounds/0.5kg. It would seem odd if the maximum and minimum were the same (that is a rather tight specification to work with). Does anyone know what the maximum is?

Just so we don't leave this dilemma unsolved: After colleting every tool I could borrow without success in removing the center post and collecting the names of some local machine shops, I just spoke with Bhavani to see if there were any hints about removing the center post. He acknowledged the difficulty and said sometimes the center post gets "welded" to other steel parts when it is initially screwed in, but he had the ultimate solution: He is sending me the brand-new stainless holders for the micro bowl (I have the plastic ones), so I will not have to remove the center post. I'm a little disappointed because I wanted to see how much force it eventually took to remove it (just kidding).

I know it's a very long thread, but I strongly suggest you read through the eGullet thread on airbrushing, which includes information on selecting an airbrush and/or spray gun and a compressor--and in that thread you will see that people (including this person) change their minds on various subjects as they learn more and more. What in the beginning seemed to me a very loud and strong and scary compressor before long seemed quite pathetic. You may waste money if you don't do the research. If I sound authoritative, there's nothing like making mistakes for learning, and I made plenty. The size of the airbrush needle, for example, is crucial, as is the capacity of the compressor. Many people (again, including me) wasted money on airbrushes with too little cocoa butter capacity, airbrushes with siphon feeds, compressors that can't push sufficient cocoa butter through a hose. Unless you have the patience of Job, you will probably find these issues becoming major irritants in time. You began this thread by stating that you are a hobbyist. I think this is the place where many of us started. So I would recommend that you discover whether you want to be more than that--and if you have success and people like what you make, chances are you will want to become more than a hobbyist. If you make that transition, and depending on where you live, you could look for professional kitchen space (some cities have buildings that have been recycled as startup spaces for new businesses), and then you wouldn't have to worry about accidentally painting your house with colored cocoa butter.

For some reason I don't understand, different colors produce differing amounts of overspray. White is the worst for me, and any color that includes a substantial amount of white (I don't know whether this applies to the new non-titanium dioxide white or not). I would not attempt spraying anywhere that you care about.

The Cakesafe spray booth is what I use. It works very well at containing cocoa butter. @jauhe, I would be glad to tell you all I know about it, and here is a link to the eG thread that includes it. My basement no longer has white/blue/green/red clouds hovering over everything for a day or so (I exaggerate, but not by much). And I no longer have (too many) telltale signs when I blow my nose. But the spray booth is not inexpensive.

Since cocoa butter is hydroscopic, it will absorb moisture from the air immediately. On a humid day I can sometimes see, inside an air-conditioned kitchen, thickening chocolate that is quite difficult to work with. Colored cocoa butter should also be in temper for spraying (to be fair, some people disagree with that statement), which means the temperature outdoors cannot be much above 90F/32C. In my opinion you would have to be incredibly fast to spray and then rush inside to the AC without having a mess. And the problem with decorating molds is that you don't usually know until the absolute end of the whole process whether the spraying of color was successful or not. There are spray booths for indoor spraying, including some homemade devices, that work reasonably well to contain cocoa butter. But what I would do if I were in your situation is to use brushes, sponges, other odds and ends around the house to color the cavities. It's not as finished looking as an airbrush, but at least it would give you an idea whether this is something you want to pursue. I can tell you from sad experience that turning a mold upside down and expecting it to release 21 or so attractive chocolates but instead seeing most of them stuck to the mold is not an activity a sane person would seek out.

Thanks for the information. So how soon can hubby be in Virginia?

I just received a micro-batch accessory kit for the Premier melanger. Providing manuals and keeping instructions up to date are not a strong suit for the company. There was no manual, and so far no one has answered my request for help. I realize that mechanically inclined people would immediately know what to do, but I am not in that category. Companies should realize they need to provide really basic instructions for all their users and make no assumptions. A shorter center spindle was provided with the kit, so I realize that replaces the longer one, but the longer one is, so far, impossible to remove (with pliers or channel-lock wrench). I don't want to do any damage, but does it take a lot of effort to remove it? Next, does the small bowl replace the large bowl or sit inside it (as is the case with many food processors)? Thanks for any help.

@pastrygirl, would you add the coconut powder during the melanging, or is it easy enough to mix in that it could be added at the end?

Thanks for the coconut cream powder idea. As I picture the macadamia oil getting released, the thought of adding more oil does not sound like a good idea. Yes, Kirsten calls for mixing with milk chocolate, which is what made me concerned about weaker flavors getting lost.

That might work, though too much could make the praliné too thick. After I wrote the initial post I found coconut flavoring made from oil. I started thinking about the issue because a coconut ganache (Notter recipe) doesn't have enough flavor on its own (for my taste), so I add an Amoretti natural coconut flavoring and/or compound.

I understand that substances ground in a melanger must be water-free, so I am looking for a way around that restriction that will provide the flavor I am looking for. I'm following a Kirsten Tibballs recipe that includes a macadamia and coconut praliné. She includes precautions for a regular food processor (which, she says, can overheat and cause the nut oil to separate from the mixture), and she mentions the possibility of using a melanger. Since so many people dislike the texture of coconut, I plan to go with the latter alternative. But I am concerned that the coconut flavor will be overwhelmed by the caramelized macadamias. So my goal is to add more coconut flavor. In a ganache I would turn to one of the natural flavorings on the market, but they are water-based. That led me to the idea of adding some non-deodorized coconut oil, which has a great coconut flavor. My question is simple: does anyone see any problem with adding coconut oil to the nuts and toasted coconut in the melanger? When chocolate is added later, it would make the mixture more of a meltaway than a gianduja, so I'm getting a cautionary light in my head that adding coconut oil to macadamia oil might be problematic.

I just received notice that Valrhona has released a new dark milk chocolate, Hukambi (53%), made from a Brazilian single-origin chocolate. It sounds intriguing, and 53% has got to be close to the highest number for a milk chocolate. If anyone has tasted it, I would be interested in your reaction. Valrhona's marketing certainly takes a prize for over-the-topness, as in: The name “Hukambi” is a contraction of the words for black (“Hu”) and milk (“Kambi”) in Tupi-Guarani, a language spoken by one of the indigenous peoples living in Brazil’s Mata Atlantica. The company has even created a new category: "The first ever Ombré couverture chocolate"

I had not heard of Kreuther, but I agree about the box--it is, as you say, a piece of art.

After spending a long time searching for packaging that would work for me and that I really liked, I turned to having custom boxes made. I decided on rigid rather than folding boxes--and that is a major decision to be made early in the process. Most box manufacturers will not accept small orders, the minimum usually being somewhere in the 1000-piece neighborhood, but I finally found two that would work with me. I won't mention the first because their customer service turned out to be unacceptable (my very early Christmas order was pushed down on the production schedule to make room for larger customers, and too many boxes arrived damaged), but the second one has been a success, Brimar Packaging in Ohio. They have a minimum of 500 pieces and do very good work. I've included a photo of the boxes I had them make. When I introduced a new box size, I sent them a sample tray that would fit inside the box, and they did all the measurements and made the box. It turned out that finding appropriate trays to hold the chocolates was the hard part of packaging. I spent a huge amount of time determining the largest size of bonbon I make--or ever would make--before I made a large tray order. Then I took Andrey Dubovik's online course and discovered the wonderful cocoa pod molds that are just a couple of millimeters longer than my tray cavity size! Some people (@gfron1is one) have found a vendor in China who does the whole design process of packaging, but I don't have information on that.

If you should decide to get a dehydrator, be sure it goes low enough in temperature; many do not.

I have had trouble with some scrapers fitting too tightly, making it impossible to get the baffle attached. I guard the ones that work carefully so that I don't lose them. I have never tried the baffle without the scraper. I suppose it would be fine as long as a large amount of chocolate was in the bowl, but when the amount gets low, the chocolate would (I think) even out between the two sections, and the level would get too low more quickly. I never melt in a Chocovision machine (Rev 2 or Delta)--the process takes entirely too long. 6kg of chocolate in the Mol d'Art melts easily overnight, same for my dehydrator.

My effort at making a bonbon including the tastes and textures of baklava (pistachio gianduja, crushed phyllo, cinnamon, honey, and a dash of rosewater):

Felchlin's Maracaibo line has two dark choices, 88% (which I have not tried) and 65% (the one I use), and two milk, Criolait at 38% and Créole at 49%. I formerly used Criolait for milk, but @pastrygirl introduced me to the darker Créole. It makes a significant difference in sweet fillings. And, as Kerry wrote, I sometimes mix in some dark. Customers who are militantly opposed to milk chocolate (for mostly ridiculous reasons) don't even seem to notice they are eating milk. Some fillings work better with milk.

I think you were directing this comment to the OP, but I get out my small Chocovision (Rev 2) for dipping rather than use the Delta or the Mol d'Art. The Rev 2 holds 700g. I initially melt 1050g, then pour 700 into the machine, keeping the remaining 350 over warm water, making sure it is around 95F. Dipping in the Rev 2 is really convenient. The center section of the baffle is a great place to tap to remove excess chocolate. When the choc level gets too low, I add the reserved 350g, which not only raises the choc level but also takes care of the overtempering that has occurred by then. I ordinarily don't dip more than 120 pieces at a time, but as long as there is choc in reserve, the process could go on forever. Just my way of dealing with a tedious process. I had some friends for dinner recently, and they wanted to see how I make chocolates. Of course most people don't realize that it takes days, and most of those days are spent waiting for things to crystallize. For this demo, I used the Mol d'Art, and its inexact holding of temperature caused the dipped pieces to have coating varying from too thick to too thin. My guests did, however, have fun. Having people suddenly "see" the invisible process of crystallization is quite satisfying.

Our summers here in Virginia make our local farmers' market an impossibility for chocolates, but I did have experience at an experimental winter indoor market last January-March. I was there on only four occasions (there was a large list of those who wanted to participate). It was a great experience (except for lugging boxes of chocolates to a church basement early on Saturday mornings) and an eye-opening event for me. Ordinarily I sell only through online orders; my small city would not have the foot traffic to support a shop, so for the first time I met my customers as they looked over and selected from the chocolates. It gave an opportunity to branch out and make things like bars and tablets in addition to boxes of bonbons and truffles (which are insanely popular for some reason). Some of the buyers have become regular customers. One caveat about the melter: Don't expect it to maintain anything like an exact temperature (at least that's my experience with a Mol d'Art). It's better than the dehydrator but (surprisingly) not as good as the heating pad. But melters are very convenient. I use a Chocovision Delta to keep the chocolate in temp (it's very good at maintaining temp), fill molds from it, then dump them into the melter, recyclying the chocolate from melter back to tempering machine as needed. Good luck with your new adventure.

Glad you had more success with this batch. I don't know which version of the melanger you have, but the new model has a lid. Somewhere on eG I did a comparison of Sicilian and California (Fiddyment Farms) pistachio paste, and having them both on hand now has brought me to the same conclusion: Fiddyment Farms has a brighter, fresher, more pistachio-y taste, whereas the Sicilian (this brand is Corsiglia and is available from L'Epicérie) is richer and darker. I don't understand why the texture is so different; it must be due to the nature of Sicilian pistachios. Fiddyment does not grind the pistachios into a completely smooth paste. The price is very different. a 2-kilo container of Fiddyment is $134; same amount of Corsiglia is $222.

Which size do you have? For the 8-lb. melanger, here are the figures: Minimum capacity 2.5lbs/1kg; Maximum capacity 8lbs/3.5kg . Nuts differ a lot in the amount of oil they contain. The California pistachio paste I often use is rather thick, certainly not fluid enough to pour. I just got some Italian pistachio paste, and it's the consistency of olive oil. Did you "pre-grind" the hazelnuts before putting them in the melanger?

I did the same thing with Felchlin Maracaibo dark sitting on ships outside East Coast harbors. Who could resist?

Good point about the milk fat (I didn't think of that).