Colored Cocoa Butter: The Topic

[fandi1]

 

This is my paint booth/box

 

 

this is a heat box

[fandi1]

 

Thanks for the reminder about the colours - knew there was something I had forgotten.  Each is with 100 grams of cocoa butter no more than 40º C.  

 

Chocolate brown

            8 grams red

            6 grams blue

            4 grams yellow

 

Yellow

         8 grams yellow

 

white 

 

       10 grams titanium dioxide

 

blue

   

      8 grams blue

 

red

 

     8 grams red

     3 grams yellow

     20 grams dark chocolate

Hi Kerry,

 

I see that your ingredients make up more then 10% of CB. does that make your colors thick?

Have you made any green CCB? if yes,,, can you post ingredients please?

Plus,. can you tell me if your colors are opaque or translucent?

By adding chocolate  is it safe to assume that colors are opaque?

 

sorry for machine gun questions

Edited March 30, 2015 by fandi1 (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Green has not been a success.  

 

These colours are pretty much transparent (except white) - you need to add titanium dioxide to get opacity.

[fandi1]

This is interesting....

They are transparent even if you add chocolate ? Can you tell me who much TD do you add?

[Kerry Beal]

The chocolate does help somewhat with transparency - but it's still a small amount relative to cocoa butter. 

 

I think you'll have to play with the amount of titanium dioxide.

[Sue Casey]

I recently saw some molded chocolates.  The description given was hand painted with raspberry and apple juice (and cocoa butter I think) as they were very shiny.  I like the idea as it's natural unlike colored cocoa butters.

 

Anyone know of this method or used it?  I'd be curious what the ratios are.

[keychris]

Do you have a photo or a link? I can't imagine how you apply a water-based substance like fruitjuice to a chocolate and not adversely affect the final product.

[Sue Casey]

That's what I thought.  I'll see if I can find a pic.

[mebinsf]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these products? 

https://www.qzina.com/content/colouring-spray-pearl-sheen-red-0

Is it a viable alternative for spraying molds? Haven't made the leap to invest in a pump for my airbrush yet and was wondering if these would work in a pinch? Is there really no tempering involved? Is the product entirely artificial? Seems too good to be true. Thoughts?

[Victor Antonio Padilla]

Hi everybody,

 

Sorry for resurrecting this post. I would like to start moving from traditional fat dispersable products to naturally derived ones, just wanted to know if there are already experiences about this. My primary concern is what to use to create white/opacity, I was thinking about using very fine corn starch (hoping it won't clog my airbrush).

[Bentley]

I've read through a lot of threads on the forum about airbrushes, most of which are quite old.  I am curious if there are any changes in recommended airbrushes.  I am not sure what the difference practically speaking between a gravity fed and siphon/bottle fed brush and which is best for spraying chocolate molds. There's also double action vs single action.  I've been looking at the Badger 105 line as well as the Badger 100LG line.  There is also a badger 250 line which is siphon fed and was popular on the forum at least as of a few years ago.  Then there is the POwermate HVLP spray gun at Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Powermate-3-Piece-HVLP-Gravity-Feed-Spray-Gun-Kit-010-0029CT/202591393).  Sounds like people like the HVLP guns because they avoid a lot of overspray.  No idea which to choose.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Bentley (log)

[lebowits]

I have a pair of Badger 175's which are siphon fed, dual action air brushes.  They're connected (one at a time) to an Iwata Smart Jet compression.  I use a quick disconnect and the appropriate adapter from the Iwata to the Badger brushes.  I warm and keep my cocoa butters in a dehydrator with a thermostat and melt them slowly over a period of about 24 hours prior to use.  I also keep the brushes in the dehydrator when not in use so that they warm up and melt any left over cocoa butter which can then be easily sprayed out between color changes.  My only complaint (if I have one) is that occasionally I want a bit more pressure than the Iwata puts out, but overall, I'm very happy with this setup.

 

I also build a "poor man's spray booth" using 20"x20" furnace air filters that I assemble using packing tape into an open box.  I then place an inexpensive box fan on top of the contraption to pull the air up through the filters.  This keeps all the excess airborne cocoa butter away from my face.  I think the whole setup cost me less than $100 (US) to build.

[martin0642]

For what it's worth....I recently bough the Badger 250/2 with a 1/6 HP compressor. Cost me less than £100....my "spray booth" is basically a large cardboard box. Very low tech set up! However - having tried some molds using coloured cocoa butter//it works amazingly well! Definitely one of the best kit purchases I've made.

 

Whether that holds true when I have to scale up is another matter... but for now, producing a fairly small amount of chocolates, its perfect. The results are shiny and beautiful and i've had no issues with spraying. I have a LOT to learn about it still though. (ie changing teh spray etc). I would recommend more than one bottle (its siphon fed) as changing over between colours is a bit of a pain otherwise..purely because it's time consuming to clean it out, dry it properly etc etc.

 

The HVLP spray may be better is you are spraying actual chocolate though. Not sure how the badger would cope but badger themselves recommend using 50/50 chocolate and melted cocoa butter to make it work.

[lebowits]

4 hours ago, martin0642 said:

For what it's worth....I recently bough the Badger 250/2 with a 1/6 HP compressor. Cost me less than £100....my "spray booth" is basically a large cardboard box. Very low tech set up! However - having tried some molds using coloured cocoa butter//it works amazingly well! Definitely one of the best kit purchases I've made.

 

Whether that holds true when I have to scale up is another matter... but for now, producing a fairly small amount of chocolates, its perfect. The results are shiny and beautiful and i've had no issues with spraying. I have a LOT to learn about it still though. (ie changing teh spray etc). I would recommend more than one bottle (its siphon fed) as changing over between colours is a bit of a pain otherwise..purely because it's time consuming to clean it out, dry it properly etc etc.

 

The HVLP spray may be better is you are spraying actual chocolate though. Not sure how the badger would cope but badger themselves recommend using 50/50 chocolate and melted cocoa butter to make it work.

 

The 50/50 mixture for spraying chocolate seems to be a common formula.  When I took a class at Callebaut we used that mixture in an HVLP gun (Fuji I think).

[Bentley]

I bought some of the small bottles of colored cocoa butter from Chef Rubber.  Do they generally arrive in temper or will I need to temper them for first use?   I'll  be using a brush to apply it, not an airbrush.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Bentley (log)

[pastrygirl]

It generally arrives in temper, but solid. You'll need to melt and re-temper it if you plan to use it in a liquid state. 

[Kerry Beal]

I find that if you simply half melt the bottle - then it will paint quite nicely with a finger or brush. If it gets warm enough to melt the whole bottle it won't work well.

[Jim D.]

The question of whether colored cocoa butter needs tempering (in any traditional sense) has been debated on eGullet at some length.  Many experts say the act of finger-painting or spraying tempers the c.b.  I am not totally convinced this is true:  If all the Type V crystals are melted out (easy to do in the microwave, I have learned), will simply lowering the temp and agitating the c.b.  temper it?  I have had enough failures with decorating molds and then having trouble getting the chocolates out that I have recently begun testing the c.b. each time.  And if it is out of temper, I just add a little cocoa butter silk (from the EZtemper) to whatever container I am using, stir vigorously, then test.  It has always tested as being in temper with this method.  As I say, this may be overdoing it (and who can argue with some of the beautiful results from those who do not temper?) but it cannot hurt.  When using c.b. from a bottle that is still solid, I use the method mentioned by Kerry--but in that case Type V crystals are being introduced from the unmelted c.b.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Jim D. (log)

[keychris]

6 hours ago, Jim D. said:

will simply lowering the temp and agitating the c.b.  temper it?

 

This is exactly what tempering is - lower the temperature to the point that the correct crystals form then agitate it to encourage the crystals to propagate.

[Kerry Beal]

Got to thinking today - IBC Power Flowers are used to colour white chocolate - but perhaps they could be used to make coloured cocoa butter. Since the discovery box comes with a mixing palette I'll bet you could reliably reproduce the shade each time.

 

So I started with 200 grams of cocoa butter (vs 400 grams of white chocolate), melted it and added the predetermined number of yellow and blue 'flowers'. I gave it a mix with the immersion blender then tested on a piece of wax paper. Clearly it was going to be too transparent.

 

 

So I added two white 'flowers' and mixed again.

 

 

 

Still a bit more transparent than i wanted.

 

 

Another two white flowers and I was happy with the opacity. I let it cool down to 33.5C and added a little bit of EZtemper silk to bring it into temper. 

 

 

On the left the opacity with two flowers, on the right - with 4. I had forgotten to keep aside some chocolate for the test - so I dragged a bit out of the bark I was making with almonds and smoked salt - hence the dull spots on the chocolate. 

 

 

 

[pastryani]

I know that plain CB can definitely go rancid in the same way nuts do, but what about colored cocoa butter?  Freezing nuts extends their shelf life but I don't think you can freeze cocoa butter... right? 

 

I'm trying to decide if I should get a couple of bottles of CB to fill out an order, but I know that it'll be a while before I use them given that I  already have a bunch. 

[Chocolot]

I have never had any go bad and I've had some colors for years.

[Kerry Beal]

I've had a few bottles get kind of stinky after a bunch of years - but generally the ones that have become seriously overheated. Like Ruth I've had some for a lot of years.

 

[keychris]

I haven't had any go bad, but I have had colours absorb moisture which made them perform extremely poorly. I vacuum seal all my colours after use now.

[pastrygirl]

I think I did have a bit that I decided had gone off and threw away, but it was probably 5 years old and had been melted many times.  It seems to be good for at least 2+ years if stored properly.  And all those good (for chocolate sales) winter holidays are coming, might as well have lots of festive colors!