Chocolate mold heating

[Choky]

When working with tablets and bar molds how necessary is to heat the molds?

What will be the difference doing it or not?

 

How do you heat them when working with a large number? Air gun, heating cabinet?

 

Your help is deeply appreciated!

 

[Chocolot]

I never heat them.

[RobertM]

I don't heat mine either

[keychris]

If they are especially cold, you might wave a heat gun over them, but if you heat them too much you're more likely to have too much heat when the chocolate is cooling and it won't set properly (the latent heat of crystallisation + the heat in the mold will knock the chocolate out of temper)

[Kerry Beal]

Yup - me neither.

[pastrygirl]

Me 4?  5?  

 

If it is super cold in the kitchen I might wave a hair dryer over them, orherwise no heat. 

[curls]

Joining in - I don't heat my moulds.

 

@Choky are you just curious or are you having some issues with your chocolate that you think may be helped by heating your moulds? We might be able to give you a better answer if we knew more about your question.  :-)

 

[Choky]

Thanks for your answers!

 

I'm in the process of setting up a small chocolate production business, so this question is to better understand the workflow and acquire necessary equipment.

 

In a month or two I should have hands on issues 

[pastrygirl]

Molds that are too cold can cause your shells to be too thick because the chocolate will crystallize rapidly when it hits the cold mold. A good working room temp and therefore temp of your molds is around 65-68F. If room temp is below 60, that's when you need to work extra quickly. Lately my kitchen has been around 55, at that point it is cold enough to make a difference.  And in the summer when it gets up into the low 70's, molding becomes a challenge due to heat. You may want your chocolate at 90 degrees, but not your molds or your kitchen!

[Choky]

7 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

Molds that are too cold can cause your shells to be too thick (...)

 

OK, I understand that this can be a problem for Belgium pralines (bonbons), but shouldn't be for solid tablets.

[pastrygirl]

5 hours ago, Choky said:

 

OK, I understand that this can be a problem for Belgium pralines (bonbons), but shouldn't be for solid tablets.

 

Correct, not really an issue for solid pieces, except you have a little less time to shake the bubbles out.  

[curls]

@Choky no idea how large your planned operation will be... but curious about what other equipment you are considering... continuous tempering unit? cooling tunnel? packaging plans?

[Choky]

Thank you for your interest.

 

- continuous tempering machine 25 kg with removable screw.

- 50 molds of 3 cavities (won't be using tempering machine full capacity for now)

- 18 levels trolley equipped with grids (each grid fits 4 molds)

- cooling chamber: local refrigeration / air conditioning company is projecting it, should fit 2 trolleys and be designed to lower from 30º to 15º celcius (how much time it will take to cool is a good question). Hope that humidity won't be a problem.

- packing by hand in flat heat seal bags and then custom printed cardboard.

 

If something seems strange or missing please say so... 

[keychris]

you won't need the cooling chamber to start at 30C, I wouldn't think. I've not worked with many solid blocks, but you should be able to put them directly into a 15C holding cabinet without needing a cooldown ramp. People who actually do it might have better advice though

[Kerry Beal]

15C is above the dew point - you can leave them in there indefinitely.