Understanding Callebaut chocolate

[Stuckey]

Kerry, are powder-free nitrile gloves by default safe for food handling, even if food handling isn't declared as a suggested use? Or do I really need to look for nitrile gloves which specifically state that they're suitable for food handling? Thanks!

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, are powder-free nitrile gloves by default safe for food handling, even if food handling isn't declared as a suggested use? Or do I really need to look for nitrile gloves which specifically state that they're suitable for food handling? Thanks! 

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I don't know if they are safe by default, but the ones I use are safe for hospital use. I figure if you can wear them while poking around humans they should be food safe. I do know that a lot of sites you can find them on list them as food safe.

[Stuckey]

Thanks heaps for your help, Kerry!

[mrose]

Thanks heaps for your help, Kerry! 

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Good price on gloves

http://www.prsfoodservice.com/products.asp?dept=64

[Stuckey]

Cheers, Mark, but I'm in Australia, so unfortunately I wouldn't be able to take advantage of those prices! Thanks heaps all the same though!

[prairiegirl]

Cheers, Mark, but I'm in Australia, so unfortunately I wouldn't be able to take advantage of those prices! Thanks heaps all the same though! 

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I buy my gloves at a dental supply place and they should cary a good assortment regardless of where you live on this planet!! I pay about $7 CAD for 100 gloves.

[QbanCrackr]

i too am using callebaut milk chocolate, i just bought a 11# block of it and i'm about to start playing around with tempering.

is this an acceptable product for using as a mold/shell? or should i have bought the 60% and use the milk for making ganache and other treats?

thanks in advance

[Kerry Beal]

What is the number on it, and how many little drops are marked on the wrapper?

[QbanCrackr]

hi kerry, thanks for your response. here are a couple of other pictures from the packaging of the chocolate

[Kerry Beal]

Might be a bit thick for molding.

[QbanCrackr]

would it still be usable for it though? it was given to me as a gift so i could practice learning to temper and neither i nor the other person knew what to buy...we both figured it was just better to use than chocolate chips (which i've heard cant be tempered to begin with)

if its usable to learn how to temper i'd be ok with it i think (id be using it anyways to make ganache and other sugary treats =P

[QbanCrackr]

another question if i might--what chocolate should i look for that would be best for molding/dipping/coating?

[Kerry Beal]

You can certainly use it to learn how to temper. I might not do anything other than solid molds with it - ie avoid filled chocolates. For molding the filled, go for something with 3 or more dots on it.

[schneich]

i didnt read all the postings on this one, but the little dotted line gives you an idea how high you can turn the temp. on a wheel machine WITHOUT loosing temper. while using a wheel machine a lot of crystal are beeing dispersed, bearing more and more crystals over time. if you keep the machine at 31c, the chocolate will solidify pretty soon. by keeping it at up to 34c you melt away enough crystals to keep it workable without loosing temper during the whole day.

cheers

t.

[QbanCrackr]

What would you recommend to do for the tempering then, just temper the chocolate (or try to, haha) then completely fill the mold and then let it cool?(of course after that pray to the gods that it went right)

[John DePaula]

You can certainly use it to learn how to temper. I might not do anything other than solid molds with it - ie avoid filled chocolates. For molding the filled, go for something with 3 or more dots on it.

Alternatively, you could always add more plain cocoa butter to make it thin as you like. Can still be tempered in the normal way.

[QbanCrackr]

really? forgive me for being such a novice at this, i just started working with chocolate within the past couple of months (well by "working" i mean doing some reading & whatnot)

so this chocolate i have doesn't have enough cocoa butter in it to be fluid enough to be a good chocolate for molding, thus the addition of extra cocoa butter will help this out

[John DePaula]

really? forgive me for being such a novice at this, i just started working with chocolate within the past couple of months (well by "working" i mean doing some reading & whatnot)

so this chocolate i have doesn't have enough cocoa butter in it to be fluid enough to be a good chocolate for molding, thus the addition of extra cocoa butter will help this out

that's correct but don't add too much because that can be worse than too little. Why not start with, oh, I dunno, 1% - 2%. I always do it by eye. See how that goes. You'll get a feel for it after you've done it a few times.

[prairiegirl]

Thanks Scneich for that info. I have finally sparked my wheel machine on for the first time. So I will read my box instructions carefully. Any other things I should know? Hints or tips on using a wheel machine.?

[schneich]

if you seeded to much callets and they wont go away, you can always delete them with your bamix ;-)

[QbanCrackr]

so i took out the chocolate and made my double boiler...and then came attempt #1 @ tempering the stuff.

took 2/3 of it, melted to about 112 then seeded with the last 1/3. temperature came down to about 83-85 then heated it back up to 88-90 and poured it into my mold (cleaned with warm water, polished with cotton

let it set at room temperature and then popped it in the freezer real quick before i unmolded them

i would say the vast majority of the chocolates popped out without a problem, had maybe 3-4 that i had to coerce out of the mold (taking off the magnetic back and push them out)

im guessing the streaks on top of the chocolate are from my fingers when i was arranging them (im guessing i should use gloves for this?)

mind you this is my first time tempering chocolate and i know its going to be a long road...i really want to be able to consistently do this by hand before relying on a machine for larger batches

anyways...any thoughts? advice?

[Kerry Beal]

Not bad for a first try.

When you seed the chocolate you don't need to take it down below the working temperature though. I work in Celcius - so I would heat up milk chocolate to around 40 C or so, then add the seed and stir occasionally until it gets to my working temperature of around 31 - 32 C. I'd test the temper then remove or melt out any remaining seed. Now if you are not seeding (ie you are relying on bring the temperature down to the point where a variety of crystals form) you bring it down to 25 C or so for milk, then heat back up to 31 or so to melt out the undesirable crystals and leave you with only the desired beta crystals which are stable at the working temperature.

[QbanCrackr]

with milk chocolate would a properly tempered piece of chocolate end up being firm like a dark chocolate shell for molded? or would it still have the soft and creamy mouthfeel (not to mention it still melts pretty quick when my fingers touch it)\

and another thing--lets say this batch wasn't properly tempered. i have some left over chocolate from this process--could i melt that stuff back down to 40C and then seed that with some fresh stuff from the block?

[Kerry Beal]

with milk chocolate would a properly tempered piece of chocolate end up being firm like a dark chocolate shell for molded? or would it still have the soft and creamy mouthfeel (not to mention it still melts pretty quick when my fingers touch it)\

and another thing--lets say this batch wasn't properly tempered. i have some left over chocolate from this process--could i melt that stuff back down to 40C and then seed that with some fresh stuff from the block?

Properly tempered milk chocolate will be firm, but not as firm as dark chocolate when molded. It will still have the soft mouthfeel - however if it's melting quickly when your fingers touch it - it's probably not in ideal temper.

You can remelt this bunch and reseed it with no problem. I usually add some 'new' chocolate to the stuff I'm retempering.