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Panning?


Edward J

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So, the powers that be have decided that I will make chocoale coated espresso beans. I have ordered a panning attachment for a K.A. mixer as shown in Grewling's "Chocolates", and have read the brief information and caveats he gives in the book.

But I've never panned anything yet. The attachment will come in a week or so.

According to Grewling I need to tumble my centers with starch before the first coat of un-tempered couveture is added. What kind of starch and how much?

Anyone ever done this before? Any wise words of wisdom?

Anyone know where I can get Gum Arabica?

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So, the powers that be have decided that I will make chocoale coated espresso beans.  I have ordered a panning attachment for a K.A. mixer as shown in Grewling's "Chocolates", and have read the brief information and caveats he gives in the book.

But I've never panned anything yet.  The attachment will come in a week or so.

According to Grewling I need to tumble my centers with starch before the first coat of un-tempered couveture is added.  What kind of starch and how much?

Anyone ever done this before?  Any wise words of wisdom?

Anyone know where I can get Gum Arabica?

Tumble them with some cocoa instead. Gum arabic - I buy it in Canada from McCall's Baker's warehouse - in the US try Burke Candy.

There is a demo that I did a while back - not particularly pretty beans. Here it is. I've learned more since on finishing, so we can discuss it more when your coating pan arrives and you start to ply.

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I just talked to Michael Recchiuti about this. From what I know it´s not easy, and there are very few people, if any, who will actually teach it. Very hush-hush, top secret in the industry about how it´s done. Best of luck, let us know how it goes!

Jeffrey Stern

www.jeffreygstern.com

http://bit.ly/cKwUL4

http://destination-ecuador.net

cocoapodman at gmail dot com

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I just talked to Michael Recchiuti about this. From what I know it´s not easy, and there are very few people, if any, who will actually teach it. Very hush-hush, top secret in the industry about how it´s done. Best of luck, let us know how it goes!

You can take a course from the NCA - I learned the basics there - but I also learned a huge amount by spending a day at Tomric. I've asked them to give us a panning demo when we go down on the Friday before the eG Chocolate conference starts.

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Andrew Shotts did a panning demo in the class I took. Didn't seem all to difficult. If I remember correctly, he panned almonds. You just keep adding small amounts of chocolate to build up layers.

While we're on the subject, has anyone panned candied fruit? or is that something you can't use?

Luis

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Andrew Shotts did a panning demo in the class I took. Didn't seem all to difficult. If I remember correctly, he panned almonds. You just keep adding small amounts of chocolate to build up layers.

While we're on the subject, has anyone panned candied fruit? or is that something you can't use?

Luis

You can pan just about anything that isn't too soft and doesn't stick together. Smooth shapes work best.

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Just spent the day panning (literally about 7 hours just me and the machine) with macadameias and hazelnuts at chocolate school. By no means an expert - this was my first real experience - but we were using the Kitchen Aid attachement so I can give a few words of advice. It was also 45.1 degrees celcius today which made chocolate work pretty tough - even with an air conditioner.

- We caramelised the nuts before coating. You need something before putting the chocolate on.

- Re the Kitchen Aid mixer: the one we used didn't have anything on the inside, it was purely smooth. So we taped some hosepipe cut in 1/2 a third of the way around in three spots inside to cause the nuts to "bounce" a little

- You need to have your hand in there to stop them sticking to the pan if its warm

- The ideal is to have the nuts in, drizzle chocolate 7 degrees warmer than its working temperature into the nuts a little at a time and then hit them with cool air. We didn't have the cool air so it became using the hand inside the mixer to stop them sticking and then into the fridge to cool a little. Temperature is very important.

- We used giuanduja to coat as well which was pretty neat

- We finished all nuts (even dark chocolate) with milk chocolate before shining. The milk apparently helps them smooth out and "round" a little better

edited to add; the instructor has done some great panning (he sells stuff out the front of the school) but he said you really do need the correct temperatures when working with the Kitchen Aid attachment unless you've got some way to put cold air into the pan

Edited by gap (log)
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Just spent the day panning (literally about 7 hours just me and the machine) with macadameias and hazelnuts at chocolate school. By no means an expert - this was my first real experience - but we were using the Kitchen Aid attachement so I can give a few words of advice. It was also 45.1 degrees celcius today which made chocolate work pretty tough - even with an air conditioner.

- We caramelised the nuts before coating. You need something before putting the chocolate on.

- Re the Kitchen Aid mixer: the one we used didn't have anything on the inside, it was purely smooth. So we taped some hosepipe cut in 1/2 a third of the way around in three spots inside to cause the nuts to "bounce" a little

- You need to have your hand in there to stop them sticking to the pan if its warm

- The ideal is to have the nuts in, drizzle chocolate 7 degrees warmer than its working temperature into the nuts a little at a time and then hit them with cool air. We didn't have the cool air so it became using the hand inside the mixer to stop them sticking and then into the fridge to cool a little. Temperature is very important.

- We used giuanduja to coat as well which was pretty neat

- We finished all nuts (even dark chocolate) with milk chocolate before shining. The milk apparently helps them smooth out and "round" a little better

edited to add; the instructor has done some great panning (he sells stuff out the front of the school) but he said you really do need the correct temperatures when working with the Kitchen Aid attachment unless you've got some way to put cold air into the pan

A few bits of dry ice in with the nuts works well to cool while you are coating.

Still waiting for hubby to build me a forced air cooler and heater that can blow for hours into the pan. Trouble is hell hasn't gotten quite chilly enough yet. It's on the list though!

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A few bits of dry ice in with the nuts works well to cool while you are coating.

Still waiting for hubby to build me a forced air cooler and heater that can blow for hours into the pan.  Trouble is hell hasn't gotten quite chilly enough yet.  It's on the list though!

Cool idea with the dry ice (pun intended). We were thinking of a few ways of building a cool air fan but dry ice hadn't occurred to us

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I was watching The Food Network Challenge show last night as it was on Chocolate Showpieces.

Due to the excessive heats from the camera one of the contestants had rigged up an ingenious little cooler box with dry ice in it.

It was a simple plastic Coleman type cooler with 4" dryer venting on one side, it must have had some sort of wiring in the venting so he could direct the venting and it stayed put. The cooler was full of dry ice and the back end of the cooler had some sort motor that blew air over the dry ice and it came out the venting as cool air.

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My hubby built a fan that blows over a container of dry ice for the polishing in my pan, but it's ungainly and difficult to direct into the pan. My ideal one will be bendable drier vent from a cooling unit of some sort.

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  • 5 months later...

I've had some success with panning hazelnuts and espresso beans. I did these in the winter and spring in the hallway between my kitchen and the parkade--the ambient temp. was around +10 C, and it worked out pretty good.

However......last week I had a rush order for more panned hazelnuts, and now it's July and the hallway is a balmy +26 C.. I did have a portable A/C stashed in the garage at home, and I was dreaming up a way to rig up hoses and expell hot air when an idea suddenly hit me:

Why not just shove the whole thing--mixer and attachment in the fridge? I don't have a walk-in, but my fridge will accept 18 x 26 sheetpans, and the mixer and attachment fit onto a sheet pan.

Worked quite well--apply left hand to shoulder and pat heartily. But now I can't get a decent shine on the things.....

Grewling is not very specific about "polishing compound" and using his suggested references in "Choc & Conf.", I found an old issue of Minifie's "Chocoalte, Cocoa, and Confectionary" from the "stacks" in the public library. In the end I only photocopied one page pertaining to panning.

Minifie states that all items should be sealed and gives the following formula for a sealing solution: equal parts of gum arabic solution (50% w/w), glucose syrup, and sugar. Pans operated at 20 rpm and held at 16 C.

So far so good.

I sealed the nuts, and for good measure tossed in some cooca power as well. I still have a few nuts from this spring and they show no sign of nut oils seeping or chocolate flaking off.

I have problems with the glazing, mik chocoalte is no prob., but dark couveture just doesn't want to shine up.

Minifie gives the following formula for polishing: 4 parts gum arabic (50%w/w), 6 parts water, and 1 part glucose syrup.

No go for dark choc. Don't know if it's too much humidity in the fridge, too cold, or what. Come to think of it, I had the same problem with dark choc in the spring when I panned out in the hallway too....

Anyone care to hazrard a guess?

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I've always polished with polishing compounds, but when I was at Tomric and a chef from Europe was demo-ing the Selmi panning unit they polished by heating then cooling.

Let product sit for 12 hours. Add to pan. They added warm air to the pan (48º C) and listen to the product. When it gets quiet and you can pinch a piece and it is mallable, stop the warm air. Now immediately introduce cold air - here's where your air conditioner comes in (13-15ºC) for about an hour until a shine develops.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks, will give it a try.

Where did you get the "other" polishing compounds?

I've been using samples I got from Centerchem I think.

I like the Centerchem polishers as well, I think they are called Capol. I try to polish w/out as much as possible but the cool thing about the polishers is that you can add color or other things. I just panned pop rocks and to the polishing glaze I added color (red), strawberry fruit powder and red interference color. I think they turned out really cool!

An aside, I find varnishes to be more important than the polishers. They really help to extend shelf life shininess.

b

Edited by bdonaghy (log)
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