Colored Cocoa Butter: The Topic

[curls]

@tikidoc I haven't checked their catalog, but maybe you can get the powdered colors from Albert Uster...?

[keychris]

I use regular (non-metallic) colours from PCB

[Jim D.]

43 minutes ago, tikidoc said:

Where do you find metallic colors? Which powders are everyone using?

I used those from Chef Rubber.

[pastrygirl]

I have not used them, but was recently shopping at chocolat-chocolat and noticed they carry fat soluble colors.  For those in Canada or who want to comparison shop vs chef rubber. 

 

http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/home/c210060/c378157873/c378157875/index.html

[Kerry Beal]

15 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

I have not used them, but was recently shopping at chocolat-chocolat and noticed they carry fat soluble colors.  For those in Canada or who want to comparison shop vs chef rubber. 

 

http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/home/c210060/c378157873/c378157875/index.html

Well priced too I'd say for the 50 gram size. 

[ptw1953]

This s a most informative thread. Thank you tikidoc, and all contributing members. I'm off to search for materials to begin my colouring-cocoa-butter journey...

 

Philip

[Tri2Cook]

I'm only 3/4 convinced I even want to mess with colors to any great extent, I don't think adding the additional task of making the colors myself would be conducive to pushing through the laziness barrier that is the remaining 1/4. 

[Jim D.]

4 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I'm only 3/4 convinced I even want to mess with colors to any great extent, I don't think adding the additional task of making the colors myself would be conducive to pushing through the laziness barrier that is the remaining 1/4. 

Even though I mixed some colors in the Dubovik course, it is not something I long to do as a regular thing. It's too messy, especially if the cocoa butter needs to be strained. I also found that arriving at the right amount of colorant for translucent colors is (for me) a matter of guessing because if you spread colored cocoa butter thinly enough, it all looks more or less translucent. So I take the easy way out (not typically what I do, but sometimes we all have to be practical) and use Chef Rubber already-mixed colored cocoa butter, and if I really want translucent, I add some plain cocoa butter to the CR product to thin it out. 

[Tri2Cook]

1 hour ago, Jim D. said:

Even though I mixed some colors in the Dubovik course, it is not something I long to do as a regular thing. It's too messy, especially if the cocoa butter needs to be strained. I also found that arriving at the right amount of colorant for translucent colors is (for me) a matter of guessing because if you spread colored cocoa butter thinly enough, it all looks more or less translucent. So I take the easy way out (not typically what I do, but sometimes we all have to be practical) and use Chef Rubber already-mixed colored cocoa butter, and if I really want translucent, I add some plain cocoa butter to the CR product to thin it out. 

I have plenty of colors and even use them but that doesn't stop me from occasionally thinking "it might be kinda nice to not have to". I realize, of course, that there's nothing actually saying I have to... but you see all of this really nice work people are doing and it's hard to fully accept having a box of plain chocolates while constantly saying "but the flavors are really nice!" 

[Jim D.]

1 minute ago, Tri2Cook said:

I have plenty of colors and even use them but that doesn't stop me from occasionally thinking "it might be kinda nice to not have to". I realize, of course, that there's nothing actually saying I have to... but you see all of this really nice work people are doing and it's hard to fully accept having a box of plain chocolates while constantly saying "but the flavors are really nice!" 

I know exactly what you mean. When my sister has brought me boxes of chocolates from her European trips, there is scarcely a decoration on any of them (beyond the most basic), and the makers of those chocolates have done fine for at least a few years as chocolatiers!  But we are stuck with where we are, and with people's expectations. I live in a small city where many people had never seen chocolates decorated with cocoa butter (maybe a transfer sheet from time to time), but now that they have seen the possibilities.... I myself do not like the taste of cocoa butter, and I can certainly taste it on most of what I make. But not a single person has ever mentioned that taste (even people who are not my friends and can be blunt about mentioning other things they don't like). I have read that Norman Love is the first chocolatier who used colored cocoa butter. If so, curses on you, Norman Love.

[Rajala]

Haha. Yeah, when I visited Antwerpen a year or so ago, I couldn't see a single trace of colors. I remember some Instagram person writing about that we shouldn't care too much about the colors and look at Europe how it's handled. Yet, he continues with his colors. 😂

[prashamk]

I've just received a trial pack of coloured cocoa butter from Indonesia. 

 

I tried swirling the colour by finger tip in batch one but when I demoulded some colour stick in the mould. I read one of the articles here on eG and found that I had not tempered cocoa butter. 

 

I tempered it by shaking for a while and then tried again but result is same. 

 

Another problem is that I had left chocolates of 1st batch outside of refrigerator. After a while the cocoa butter liquidated making it even more messy. 

 

What to do?

[Kerry Beal]

Perhaps try tempering again by cooling down to 26 or so celcius then heating back up to 29-30.

[prashamk]

Sir room temperature is around 30 Degrees. I had to put the cocoa butter bottles in 50 Degrees to melt it. 

 

Should I put the bottle in refrigerator and start the process again? 

 

Update: I tried using Silicon Mould and the cocoa butter stick properly to chocolate. But problem of colour liquidation still persists. Please Check the image. 

Edited September 30, 2018 by prashamk (log)

[keychris]

If your room temperature is 30C, working with cocoa butter and chocolate is just too hard. I'd say it's approaching impossible. You really need to have a cooler environment to get this stuff to do what you want.

[Lisa Shock]

15 minutes ago, keychris said:

If your room temperature is 30C, working with cocoa butter and chocolate is just too hard. I'd say it's approaching impossible. You really need to have a cooler environment to get this stuff to do what you want.

 

Indeed! Your room should be at 22°C or a bit lower.

[prashamk]

9 hours ago, keychris said:

If your room temperature is 30C, working with cocoa butter and chocolate is just too hard. I'd say it's approaching impossible. You really need to have a cooler environment to get this stuff to do what you want.

 

I can manage to make the chocolates in an Airconditioned room with temperature around 22-24 Degrees but how do I manage transportation as it wouldn't be cool then  ? 

 

A small chunk of cocoa butter doesn't melt if kept at room temperature but then why is the cocoa butter colour that I applied on chocolate melting at room temperature!!! Room temperature in both case is same at around 30 Degrees. 

[keychris]

17 minutes ago, prashamk said:

A small chunk of cocoa butter doesn't melt if kept at room temperature but then why is the cocoa butter colour that I applied on chocolate melting at room temperature!!! Room temperature in both case is same at around 30 Degrees. 

 

Thickness. You only have an extremely thin layer of cocoa butter, it takes very little heat to melt it. You'll need to work out how to transport using insulated containers and ice bricks to keep it all cool!

 

If your room temperature is 30C, your chocolates are going to be extremely close to melting. They'll be soft and won't have that crack that is associated with properly tempered chocolate. If you're not worried about that then no problem, but you put in a lot of work to make beautiful product, so you need to do all you can to keep it in the best possible shape (in my opinion)

[prashamk]

I am thinking of trying today in an Air Conditioned room where temperature will be between 22-24 degrees. I have following queries 

 

1) What is ideal room temperature to make Bon Bons?

2) What is the ideal temperature to start working with Coloured Cocoa Butter?

3) What is the ideal temperature of chocolate to pour on the coloured cocoa butter?

4) Considering the slightly higher room temperature, Should I put the mould in freezer after I have applied the cocoa butter? 

5) The chocolates that I made yesterday didn't have good shine like what I had seen the pics here on egullet. What to do about that?

 

Sorry for so many questions but I want to trouble shoot the process to get good result.

Edited October 1, 2018 by prashamk (log)

[keychris]

1,2 & 5: 18 - 20C is great, up to 22C is fine, over 24C in my kitchen at home I stop doing chocolate unless I have absolutely no choice. The shine happens because you get the chocolate contracting, which only happens when the environmental temperature is cool.

4: fridge your chocolate moulds immediately until they're set but you're really going to have issues with a 30C room. Unless you really understand what is going on with the chocolate, the tempering process & setting, I wouldn't try to do in and out of the fridge, you just get poor results.

3: the working temperature of the chocolate you're using, so 31-32C for dark.

 

You have to remember that just because the working temperature of the chocolate is 32C, that doesn't mean you can work in that temperature!

[eglies]

Hi there,

I have found a Danish company who produce 100% natural oil based coloring in liquid form that can be mixed with cocoa butter. I received samples and will test. No E in all colors. 

They require large quantities in kg to be purchased and the specs say 270 days shelf life once opened. 

It is so important to get clean labels nowadays why haven’t other companies in europe come up with solutions for small quantities for small businesses?

I will try it out if I have good results, is anyone interested to share thes quantities with me? Preferably in Europe as shipping would be impossible to the USA. 

If anyone has another supplier to suggest please let me know. Chef rubber doesn’t supply europe yet and Roxy and Rich are powders not sure what I think of them yet. But none are 100% natural like the company in Denmark. 

 

[LePetitPrince]

Interesting. Whats the name of the company?. I live in Denmark myself 😉

[gfron1]

Thanks to Kerry for pointing me to this topic. I live literally a half mile to these guys, and learned about Sensient when I was scouting tours for the upcoming chocolate and confections workshop. They made it clear to me that they didn't play with small players, but I am interested, and if there is some momentum then we can buy their kilos and split it up at the workshop (and mail it to others).

[Sweet Impact Mama]

Yes! I'm buried under V-day production, but I still love their stuff. 

[TandemChocoPC]

On 2/12/2019 at 7:51 AM, gfron1 said:

Thanks to Kerry for pointing me to this topic. I live literally a half mile to these guys, and learned about Sensient when I was scouting tours for the upcoming chocolate and confections workshop. They made it clear to me that they didn't play with small players, but I am interested, and if there is some momentum then we can buy their kilos and split it up at the workshop (and mail it to others).

I'd be interested in being part of a group purchase. Looking forward to the May workshop.