bbrizend

Question for you AUI customers: I have an account but I don't think I've ever purchased from them because I find their prices to be high. That said, I am a home-based hobbyist that probably doesn't order more than $500 per year. Do you find AUI cost competitive? Are you ordering on more of a commercial scale and therefore getting better prices?

Afraid I can't help you with this specific issue but I did want to reach out to you because I think we may share some commonalities. I too am self taught, home based, and I live in Florida. Tampa specifically. I don't sell my products currently. I make them mostly for friends/family and on special occasions. If you are interested, I'd be happy to connect more directly, say via Facebook or email, to share information, war stories, supplies/suppliers, etc....

Was there a reason that you made your cutter not as wide as your slab of caramel?

Wow! Thanks for sharing. I've been wanting something like this but didn't want to spend the money. But I can definitely swing this. Thanks again.

You'll have to pardon my ignorance but why is Milk easier to deal with than Dark? And, thanks everyone for the insight. You've given me new options for working out my issues.

Dark chocolate

First off I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone that has assisted me with their knowledge and advice. It is truly appreciated. Now on to my next issue: I've been making chocolate covered peanut butter balls for several years now but I have 2 issues that I cannot seem to over come. The 1st issue is getting the ball, which is about 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter, fully covered in tempered chocolate. I use a round dipping fork to hand dip each ball and deposit it onto parchment. But inevitably, once the chocolate sets, the bottom of the piece is no longer covered with chocolate. It's like the center is too heavy and pushes the chocolate coating aside as it rests. The other issue is that while the coated piece is cooling it 'leaks' an oily substance that I believe is coming from the fat in the peanut butter or the butter that is added to the recipe. It leaks from the exposed bottom and, sometimes, from the top where the chocolate shell is thin from where the dipping fork made contact. I've tried reducing the butter in the recipe, but the center only gets crumbly without it and won't hold together. As always, any thoughts, tips, advice is much appreciated.

As it turns out my molds were 9, 10, and 11 gram. So I just ordered the Chocolate World CW1081 mold which is 22 grams. I would think that would be sufficient. Thanks everyone for your help.

Yes these are polycarbonate molds and thanks for the insight.

Not sure. Bought them some time ago and they’re in the wash at the moment. How could I figure it out? Fill a cavity with granular sugar and then weight the sugar?

I have purchased 3 different polycarbonate molds that were supposedly suitable for making cherry cordials. None of the 3 have a cavity that is large enough to hold an entire cherry and some fondant. 2 of my molds will hold about 1/2 of a cherry. The other will only hold about 1/4 of a cherry. The cherries I'm referring to are pretty standard maraschino cherries purchased Sam's Club in a large plastic jar. Typically I drain off the syrup and then refill the jar with Brandy and allow it to sit for 6+ months. Has anyone else had this issue? Are my cherries too big? Are my molds too small? Does anyone have a source for a mold that would hold an entire cherry? Any advice is appreciated.

My advice is to stay away from Frigidaire. I have a kitchen full of their products (installed by previous owner) and would not recommend one of them. More specifically the gas cooktop is hard to light and doesn't not seem hot enough. And, the double wall ovens take forever to heat and seem to cook slow.

I see a pattern here. LOL. Thanks for the input.

One in particular that is kind of a pain is a Snickers-copykat. Otherwise most are caramel or fondant.

Hello All, I'm looking for any tips you may have on cutting centers for hand-dipped chocolates. I am a small, home-based operation and I make centers that sometimes includes things like nuts. Up to this point I've been using a rather large cheese knife to cut up 12"X12" forms of centers but it's a bit of a hassle as the knife tends to stick to the centers and needs frequent cleaning. I should also note that I typically spray the knife with non-stick spray to reduce the sticking. I was wondering if a guitar/confectionery cutter might be a good investment. My hesitation is 1) the cost and 2) I'm not sure if it will handle centers with inclusions or not. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding the cutter or better ways to go about portioning the centers prior to dipping? Thanks, Brian

Thanks for the feedback. Seems the chocolate was not spending enough time down about the 80 degree mark. I re-tempered the batch, without seed, and let it stay down there for 20 minutes then increased the temp to about 89. The chocolate tempered as expected.

Essentially no time. As soon as the chocolate hits 80.6 it begins the warming cycle.

Very certain. It's a calibrated Thermapen.

I have a Chocovision Revolation V tempering machine and about 5 lbs of left over Callebaut Dark, Recipe 811 chocolate that is not in temper. I used the chocolate to make some chocolate covered cherries the other day and they all, almost immediately, bloomed. So I did some reading and decided to try a tempering test. Using the crystallization chart on the side of the Callebaut bag as a guide I set my machine to have a melt temperature of 118 degrees, a delta temp of 80.6 degree, and a temper temperature of 89 degrees. The room was about 72 degrees and the humidity was about 60%. I ran the machine through its tempering cycle, melt to 118, cool to 80.6, and warm to 89 all the while being stirred, and then took samples of the chocolate. I did not use any ‘seed’ chocolate during this process. I realize using seed may have been more successful but based on my understanding of the melting and formation of cocoa butter crystals I shouldn’t have to. I sampled the chocolate as soon as the machine said it was in temper, at 5 minutes post temper and at 10 minutes. I spread the samples on parchment on a granite counter top. The samples took longer to set than I think they should have, I’m talking like 10 – 15 minutes, and, in a short while, they bloomed. By the way: as check I used another accurate thermometer to check the temperature of the chocolate at the 3 stages and the machine and the thermometer were within a few tenths of a degrees of each other. So, what’s the problem? Why did this chocolate not temper?