Rajala
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Posts posted by Rajala
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1 hour ago, curls said:
@Rajalaif tabling is your preferred method, keep doing it and enjoy. If I recall correctly, tabling is also the method that @Chris Hennes prefers.
I like it because I think it's fast. I can be sloppy and get chocolate in strange places, some times - but I also want to learn the other ways so I can understand and help others.
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So I was reading about invert sugar in ganaches. I also read that heating invert sugar above 70° will stop it from helping lowering the AW of the product. What happens above 70°? Does some sugar stuff melt?
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37 minutes ago, Jim D. said:
So you didn't try the seed method? It's so much less messy. Or perhaps you enjoy playing with chocolate? 😄
Not yet! But I will try it also, I want to learn all methods.
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Okay, I did another test an hour ago. Going down to 27,1° before pouring the chocolate back in to my bowl. So it was probably even less than 27°, when reheating. All shells except one contracted from the mold. When everything else fails, listen to Kerry?
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1 hour ago, Jim D. said:
Why not try using seed? Since it rarely (if ever) fails, at least it would restore your confidence. And it's so much less messy than tabling.
Why not? I've never tried that earlier.
What are your pro tips when it comes to seeding?
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Nope. Not the thermometer. But it's still so bizarre. How can I basically forget how to temper chocolate? I have no idea. But I will go for 27° instead. See if it'll work.
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3 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:
So I would work down to 27 for dark and 25 for milk. Reheat dark to 31 for dark and 30 for milk. As it starts to thicken over time push temps as high as 34.5 for dark, 32.5 for milk.
I'll give it a go if I fail with the other thermometer.
It shows a ,5 difference just when I measure the "air" of the room. That's quite the differene for chocolate. But not sure if it always was like this or not. 3,5 hours left of the work day. Will temper after that.
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6 hours ago, Jim D. said:
Which tempering method are you using?
I melt the chocolate to 50°, pour EVERYTHING on my counter top, work it down to like 28° and then up to 31-32° in the microwave oven. I don't save a third of it or so. I guess this is a bit strange? But it always worked for me.
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37 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:
I like a much cooler kitchen, around 18 C. My tenants are all bundled up and probably hate me but if the chocolate is happy, I'm happy.
I'd say don't rush the un-molding, give everything time to fully crystallize.
I normally handle chocolate at 21-22°. But I got the idea to have it at 20° just to see if I got better results, and I just fail with everything. I tried to mold with Caraïbe minutes ago and it doesn't even set. Someone suggested that maybe my thermometer is off? Might be I hope so, because I can't really understand how I lost the ability to temper chocolate otherwise.
One thing is for sure, I'm going back to the roots with using small pieces of paper just to check if it's tempered and if not? Well, start over.
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Those images look to be the same image. Weird that Chocolate World haven't updated their images for some of the older models yet.
However! Yesterday I tried to temper again, regular room temp at around 21,7°. One single shell contracted from the mold. I'm either losing my mind or the chocolate is messing with me. I'm gonna try with some classic Caraïbe today and see if the result gets better.
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4 minutes ago, ChristysConfections said:
Thanks for that feedback, @Rajala- I get the sense that it’s what I’m looking for in a chocolate. I thought about getting some from Chocosphere, but it looked like it was going to be expensive to ship it to Canada (maybe more so because I wanted it quickly). I’ll explore that option again.
Yeah, It'll probably cost a bit. But if this is your business, maybe it's a worthwhile investment when you realize it's your favorite milk chocolate ever?!
It's weird though, they don't seem to have this chocolate as a bar. It's usually easy to grab a bar to test a variation out.
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2 minutes ago, Muscadelle said:
My advice would be to use less sorbitol (half of it) and make sure your ganache is tempered
I'll try that together with less cream. When I made some calculations, it seems like it's a little bit too much sorbitol.
I'll report back later.
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1 minute ago, Kerry Beal said:
One comment - change one thing at a time as you work to sort this issue. If you change a bunch of things - you'll never discover what the problem is/was!
Haha, good idea. I always try to rush things. And I would believe you would tell me "you can't rush chocolate"?
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Is there anything one can do about the contraction marks? Or or do I have to live with it? A chef once told me; "a cake always have a front and a behind." - I guess you can apply that to bonbons as well then?
I'll try your suggestion. I'll lower it to 14° when I put them in the fridge next time. I'm gonna do a new test soon. This time going down to 27,5° and heating the molds to around 25-26° just as a test.
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3 minutes ago, Jim D. said:
They definitely are not always soft, but don't usually set up as firmly as a dark- or milk-based ganache. I think balancing the ganache is the key. For that I use a formula calculating amount of cocoa butter, fat, water, etc. When I have my Christmas chocolates more under control, I'll run your recipe through it and see what it says. It is based on Melissa Coppel's and Ramon Morato's formulas, but is annoying to the degree that it requires you know amounts of the categories in each product you use, and, as we know, labels often don't provide all that info.
Yeah, I've been working and reading about Morató's formula quite a bit. But I'm more and more thinking that the bonbons should last maximum a month or so (I do don't sell these things), but I do measure AW of any ganache I make to make sure that it's not at 0,9 or so.
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6 minutes ago, Jim D. said:
I read somewhere (probably eG) that overtempered chocolate does not release well from molds. I don't know if that is true, but it might be a clue.
I think it is so that the over tempered chocolate contracts before it hits the mold. And if the chocolate don't contract... We know the story.
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1 hour ago, teonzo said:
I suppose that at this stage you know how to temper chocolate and check if it is tempered or not.
If you are making multiple molds then the answer could be this: you did not stir the bowl after emptying the excess chocolate from the previous molds. After pouring chocolate in the mold it starts crystallizing quicker than when it's in the bowl, mainly due to the drop in temperature becoming in contact with the mold. Then you let it rest for a bit of time before emptying the excess, so it crystallizes even further. Result: the excess chocolate that gets poured back in the bowl has many more crystals than the chocolate that was left in the bowl. If you don't stir it, then with your next ladle you risk picking a part of chocolate that has few crystals (the one that was always left in the bowl) and a part of chocolate that has lots of crystals (the excess that went back in the bowl). Some cavities will be filled with the one with few crystals, these will contract normally; others will be filled with chocolate with lots of crystals, these will not contract much.
The volume contraction is given by the crystallization: the more cocoa butter changes from non-crystallized to crystallized, the more contraction. If you start with chocolate with lots of crystals, then the contraction will be really small.
The one in your last photo has 2 different stages: shiny chocolate (the one which was always in the bowl) that contracted, non-shiny (the one that fell as excess) that contracted really few.
Solution: stir the chocolate in the bowl (just a couple rounds) before each time you pick up a ladle.
Teo
Thanks Teo. I usually never check my chocolate, so I'm thinking that it's not tempered properly now. As I wrote, it's much colder than normal, so maybe I'm off with the temper for some reason here. I just made a new test and went down to 27,5° with my dark chocolate - with much better result. Still 5 of the shells didn't contract successfully. I wish I could figure out why certain shells behave like this. I'm only doing one mold right now, testing things out.What do you guys think about this? That little streak below the spot reflection. It's not a reflection but some kind of mark on the shell. Dirty mold? Something else?
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1 hour ago, teonzo said:
You should switch from 100 g cream to 75 g. If a ratio works for dark chocolate then you can bet it won't work for white.
To rescue the bonbons you can't cap, try spraying chocolate (the one you use for the shells) until you have a barrier thick enough to avoid troubles.
Teo
I'll try with 75 grams. Thanks. I guess it was too long ago I made a white ganache, because I can't remember it being this soft.
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I've only made ganaches with it so far, but I think it's a lovely chocolate. Pretty milky and maybe plain when talking about milk chocolates? But it's not like Jivara is like a crazy stand out in taste, taking away from other parts of your product? I probably wouldn't hunt down Orizaba just for the sake of it, but can't you just order a smaller bag of it from a place who repackage, to try it out.
https://www.chocosphere.com/default/brand/t-z/valrhona/orizaba-lactee-les-feves-1kg-bag.html - like here? Not sure where you're located though.
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I made a ganache with 200 grams of white chocolate (37% cocoa butter, overall fat content at 44%), 100 grams of cream (36% fat), 20 gram of glucose (around DE 40), 18 grams of sorbitol and 15 grams of invert sugar (yeah, this came out sweet.) I've been using these ratios with milk and dark chocolates getting a great result in terms of texture - but this white chocolate ganache becomes so soft I can't cap the bonbons.
Any suggestions on how to balance it? I tried adding some extra cocoa butter, but the texture ended up a little grainy - maybe I didn't emulsify it enough though. Maybe just a bit of less cream is the way to go? But how much less?
I made a test with the same chocolate and just cream. No sugars added and it's still a little soft in room temperature, but not as soft. Maybe I've just forgotten that white chocolate ganaches are really soft? 😂
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Look at this shell, do you see how there's a difference in the shade of brown? Look a few millimeters below the reflected spotlight
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4 hours ago, Jim D. said:
I had a similar issue today with some cavities releasing the chocolates without any coaxing at all, others took banging on the counter, still others took time in the freezer. I also find this very frustrating because there seems to be no logical explanation. For what it's worth, my space was 20C, the molds were room temp, I don't heat the molds (I have tried it for caramels that tend to leak, but it seems to make no difference). All molds had been painted then sprayed with colored cocoa butter--all done at the same temp, same place, more or less same time. I don't think there is any limit to how often you can temper the same chocolate since I don't think Type V crystals know how old they are. I have not encountered an expert who said chocolate could be too old (as far as tempering it goes--taste might be another matter).
The good news was that every single chocolate eventually came out of the molds in question, with only one damaged with cocoa butter left behind in the mold. Obviously they are not contracting properly. But with some other molds every piece fell out immediately or with slight coaxing. All had been done on the same day, same chocolate, etc.
In desperation, I'm now looking at two additional factors. So could you first tell me what molds you were using? The mold that gave me the most trouble today was CW 1433 (15g dome).
Strange this. But as @Muscadelle is writing, it's probably not tempered well enough. But if it isn't, how come some of them contract? Is it that I need to keep it at the end temperature for a bit longer to ensure that most crystals have melted away?
I'm using CW1217 - 30 mm diameter hemispheres. The most simple mold of them all? Well with that said, I'm going to try again today in an hour or two when my brain has awoken. This time without heating the molds. Just to see if there's a difference. The reason I'm trying to heating the molds is just to play around, see if there will be less marks on them. Greweling is writing about "uneven cooling spots," and that unheated molds can cause that.
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So, I spent the night reading all posts in this thread, maybe skimming a few text heavy posts. My question and what I want to talk about, might have been answered elsewhere. But due to my so-so English skills, I really don't find anything good while searching the forum. Please point my in the right direction if you know where I could find an answer.
I've been experimenting with getting my kitchen temperature down to 20°, which works fine, humidity is at around 40% or sometimes hitting high 30s. Which I guess should be fine - if there aren't any issues related with too low humidity that I'm not aware of. The issue I have is that multiple shells really don't contract from my mold at the moment, and I have no idea why - it's not like they're all in the same spots, they can be all over the mold. I've made two tests today with dark chocolate (Cacao Barry Extra Bitter Guayaquil - I had to google that
). With one test I heated up the mold to around 25° before pouring chocolate in the mold, and letting it set in room temperature (20°) - around half of the 21 shells contracted from the mold. With the other test I begun with the same process, but I let the chocolate set in my chocolate fridge at 16°. In this case, only 6 of the shells have contracted as they've cooled down.
What do you think? I must also say that earlier I just haven't cared about the temperature in the room. It have been at around 22-23°. Can it be that I don't agitate the chocolate enough while tempering it on my counter top? That it cools down much faster with less movement, due to the lower temperature? Should I don't bother with heating the molds? I'm thinking that maybe the chocolate I'm using also have done all the heavy lifting it can do - it's a 5 kg bag I've used for a while and re-tempered many times. Maybe a few too many? People usually state that chocolate can be re-tempered "forever" (okay, I might be reaching,) but maybe there is a limit after all?
Well, I'm going to try some more tomorrow without heating up the mold. Just to see if I get a different result. If I still have problems, I think it's time to open a new bag of chocolate.
You may ask why I even do this when it worked earlier? Well, I just want to try other things I guess - also since people say that 20° is the temperature to work at. 😁
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On 11/17/2020 at 2:56 PM, Jim D. said:
How fine were the cookie bits and how did you manage to pipe them while still leaving them large enough to have crunch? That's the question!
Some of them tiny, some of them larger. I had probably twice the normal opening on the piping bag. I think one just need to work on the technique.
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Ganache: Tips, Techniques & Troubleshooting
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Yep, that's the one I read it in.