wannabechocolatier

Hm, not in the position to pick it up at that price just now, but if you've still got it in a few months you can count me in.

$200? edit: Actually, would be irresponsible. Disregard

Long shot, but would you take $200?

Any updates?

If you're continuing your correspondence with them, could you ask if this has always been an issue, or just with recent batches or new manufacturing processes? I can't help but feel this is a more recent issue since if most of the cavities in a mold had hairline cracks in them, we'd have seen more discussion on it in the past.

I see, thank you. I was fooled by similar cocoa % in conjunction with so many people saying they use normal chocolate without issue

Is there a difference between the two products? Assuming same cocoa %, will they perform in chocolatines the same way? Is the baton thing just a gimmick?

I don't know what it is, but every mold I've ordered so far has had scratches in it. Both in the cavities and on the rest of the mold. Ordered the same molds from two different vendors, scratches everywhere on both. Chocolate World and Martellato molds from bakedeco and pastrychefsboutique. No idea what's going on.

Here's a site that conducted testing for lead and cadmium content among popular brands. Agostoni isn't on there, but hopefully it'll be helpful anyway: https://www.asyousow.org/environmental-health/toxic-enforcement/toxic-chocolate#chocolate-tables

Don't know anything about this, but might be helpful to mention the brand you were using to begin with.

If this is the case, then it'd be prevented by creating a shell first, as you would with bonbons, wouldn't it? Want to try that next and report back?

@jedovaty Didja run any tests?

It wouldn't bloom because cocoa butter is hydrophobic. There's no chocolate there yet, so no sugar bloom. The surface tension of the droplets cause that shape and after it sets and contracts, the miniscule amount of water evaporates. My theory, anyway.

I've bought Martellato and Chocolate World domestically from different vendors and they've all come with hairline scratches running into the cavities. They look like manufacturing defects. I ordered some bar molds from Alicake and while they weren't perfect, most were in better shape than the ones bought domestically. They were also packaged about a million times better. Any experiences/recommendations?

If that's the issue you could also try gently piping rather than dumping the chocolate in. Maybe start with the piping bag's tip in contact with the mold surface so that there's no 'drop' to begin with.

I've come back to this comment of yours after finding another one from you earlier describing issues with your badger 250 not spraying. Did you end up getting that figured out or was that particular gun just faulty?

Wow, how long had the pâte de fruit been sitting?

Asked a chocolatier about this, and they said it could be solved by either spraying a clear coat of cocoa butter first or experimenting with your environmental conditions, cooling process, and working temp. I asked about coating the cavity the same way you would for a bonbon shell and they said it would not work. Easy enough to try out and make sure, though.

Wybauw has that recipe listed at 0.84 Aw. Are you doing anything differently that you can tell? Alternatively, have you ever cross referenced a result from your meter with a lab to check for calibration?

😭

I isolated the layer and it seems very similar to those cheap styrofoamy ice cream cones you can buy at the grocery, sometimes called 'cake cones.' I've read their main components are wheat flour, tapioca flour, and sugar, so maybe some experimenting can be done here

So far I've only seen mixes of chocolate and either crispy rice or feuilletine. I came across a truffle that had a cool wafer crispy layer, but not sure how I'd go about accomplishing that (shown in the accompanying image). Any other suggestions I might be missing? wafer layer:

Would white chocolate shells suffice instead of mixing in titanium dioxide? France having banned it has kinda scared me off.

Also, as an aside, which do you folks find more economical: powdered color or pre-colored cocoa butter? Assuming the latter has the color you want to achieve.

They've got powders. Their colors are $1/gram, which is half the price chef rubber has for red, for example (in the smallest quantities): https://www.americolorcorp.com/product/3-gram-powdered-food-color/?attribute_pa_powder-food-colors=red Gets to be a bunch more expensive when you buy in bulk, but I just find it strange there's no info on anyone using them for chocolate work online