wannabechocolatier
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Posts posted by wannabechocolatier
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$200?
edit: Actually, would be irresponsible. Disregard
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Long shot, but would you take $200?
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On 12/11/2021 at 11:11 AM, Rajala said:
For sure! It might be so that I'm too slow, I don't have the moulds on hand yet. They're with a customer. But I'll let you know.
Any updates?
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11 hours ago, no10 said:
Thanks for your perspective, @minas6907. I think I'll be returning these molds and seeking a different manufacturer. The occasional hairline is okay, but there are hairline defects in over 50% of the cavities on a given mold.
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.
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11 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:
Batons are much lower cocoa butter and higher cocoa mass - not quite as meltable as couverture.
I see, thank you. I was fooled by similar cocoa % in conjunction with so many people saying they use normal chocolate without issue
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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?
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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.
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7 hours ago, DJ Silverchild said:
Agostoni
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
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Don't know anything about this, but might be helpful to mention the brand you were using to begin with.
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2 hours ago, Douglas K said:
My experience with this is the bar contracts as it cools/solidifies. Since the back of the bar cools faster, it contracts faster than the top of the bar, and the bar cups.
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?
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@jedovaty Didja run any tests?
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6 hours ago, CaitlynA said:
I'm not sure how to send a link from Instagram, but I just saw a video of someone doing this the other day. The instagram is Montezuma788 and it is a video from Sept. 7th. They use a small spray bottle with alcohol and water (or just water), spray it into the mold cavity then lightly spray over the water droplets with cocoa butter. I'm not entirely sure how it doesn't cause blooming, but the final result looks the same. Hope that helps!
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.
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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?
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4 hours ago, jedovaty said:
Had another thought. With my specific results, the big mark is always precisely where I first drop the molten chocolate. I'm just pouring a very steady 50g chocolate directly into each mold, since I work with at most 2lbs at a time, in order to minimize waste. You all think results would be different if I let the chocolate "drop" on another part of the mold, fill the whole thing up, then scrape off? I see the "pros" doing it this way, but again, I have such a small amount of chocolate, this method wouldn't work well with my lack of scraping experience (I suppose I could increase the amount of chocolate I make, but then, I want a roaster that can handle more).
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.
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On 6/12/2021 at 3:38 PM, Bentley said:
A $20 Badger 250 siphon feed airbrush with the large nozzle will be just fine for doing molded bonbons. Norman Love puts out close to 15 million pieces a year using one. It's a very inexpensive way to get started.
Just get a few extra jars and siphon tubes so you don't have to clean them between each color.
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?
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3 hours ago, Jim D. said:
I have found that Aw readings differ from one batch to another, always within the same general range but different numbers. Of course that is not difficult to understand since measuring is an inexact science (at least when done by me). I followed Wybauw's recipe without any changes.
No, I have never sent a sample for testing elsewhere. I am content with a reading below 0.80 (with a couple of exceptions--both Wybauw recipes too delicious to give up in spite of readings above 0.80). If the reading for a new recipe is too far above 0.80, I look for ways to change it to add some solids or eliminate some water or else I abandon it entirely. I have had one mold episode and have never forgotten the sight! Of all things it was in a pâte de fruit (one assumes all that sugar will protect it), so now I add a bit of sorbic acid to all PdFs. As for the meter, it is the least expensive one that I know of (if $2200+ can ever be called inexpensive), and I don't expect it to provide extreme accuracy. It is a model that many food inspectors commonly carry around with them and so has to endure some abuse. It does come with test vials of salt water, and so far the reading has been exactly what the vial says it is supposed to be. My kitchen inspector is impressed that I have the meter, and that counts for something, I suppose.
Wow, how long had the pâte de fruit been sitting?
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On 9/9/2021 at 1:56 PM, jedovaty said:
I can't get rid of that shiny spot where the chocolate first hits the mold. Here's what I've tried:
- super clean the mold
- extra polish on mold with super soft microfiber cloth
- more expensive, professional mold
- two tempering methods (bowl over hot/cold water, silk)
- bringing the mold to 90-95F
Attached photo shows my typical result (photo with 4 bars) and the best results so far (photo with 3 bars). The best result came from the mold being at roughly 90F this time. The chocolate I make is from home-roasted beans, using a little cacao butter and sugar, no other ingredients. I usually do silk tempering right in the wet grinder, but have wanted to improve the "snap", so changed recently to pouring the contents into a bowl, heating to 130F for complete melting, then chilling to roughly 93-95F, adding grated silk, mixing like crazy, then pouring into the molds, smack on the counter rapidly several times, and into the fridge to chill quickly, ~30 minutes.
I make chocolate in kitchen ambient range 60-75F, and humidity typically averages around 65%, although it can be as low as 40% or high as 80%, since I keep my windows open and live near the ocean.
Can it get any better, or is this the best one can accomplish at home?
I'm 5-6 years into this hobby and finally starting to tweak these finer points
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.
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On 8/2/2021 at 1:21 PM, Jim D. said:
I have performed the experiment once more and am getting what one might call a "consistent inconsistency." I made Wybauw's pear recipe (Fine Chocolates Gold, p. 309). The Aw reading immediately after the ganache was piped was 0.78. Approximately three hours later, the same sample produced a reading of 0.64. For someone who is quite cautious about shelf life issues, these readings are very good news.
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?
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1 hour ago, minas6907 said:
its a kind of a bummer sometimes since this hobby is difficult to do on the cheap
😭
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1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:
That would be the wafer similar to that in the Ferrero Rochers. Not really a make at home option - but might be purchasable?
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
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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:
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2 hours ago, minas6907 said:
I have used the Americolor powders for cocoa butter, they work fine. I also thought you were asking about the Americolor oil colors. Like @pastrygirlsaid, you wouldnt use those for molded bonbons, they are generally for coloring confectionery coatings like @JeanneCakementioned.
But I have used the Americolor powers you linked to and have had good results. Keep in mind that you need to mix a little white cocoa butter in order for the color to become opaque, and show up nicely on the bonbon. Say if your cocoa butter only has red color added to it, it will show up on the bonbon, but it can be a little transparent, it wont be as vibrant as the roxy or chef rubber cocoa butters.
As for your questions about what is more economical, what I personally have done is bit the bullet and purchased chef rubbers white cocoa butter for a bright vibrant white to have on hand, so thats the only color I have purchased. Otherwise, I got a case of cocoa butter in bulk, and make my own colors, generally with food grade luster dusts, I just like them better then the plain Americolor powders, seem to have a bit more depth. Generally, when I make a cocoa butter color, I'll add the luster dust and a little bit of the chef rubber white so I can have a nice solid color on the bonbon. In the last few years, I got some food grade titanium dioxide, so more recently I'll just add a little of that instead of melting down the chef rubber white. I keep all my prepared colors in small glass jars, and reheat as needed.
I dont produce bonbons all throughout the year, as if I had a product line to maintain, normally its been for weddings and showers, so I'll make a new color as I need it. Making colors as I need them suits my needs.
Would white chocolate shells suffice instead of mixing in titanium dioxide? France having banned it has kinda scared me off.
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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.
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3 hours ago, pastrygirl said:
If it is a liquid, it's not what you need for decorating chocolate bonbons.
Color painted into molds needs to be cocoa butter based and solid at room temp. I like Roxy & Rich, sampler sets on sale here: https://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/product/assortments-of-11-pearl-gemstone-cocoa-butters/
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
VacPak-it VMC10DPU Chamber Vacuum Packaging Machine
in Culinary Classifieds
Posted
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.