Cleaning chocolate molds after airbrushing

[pastrygirl]

31 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

I have a terrible time getting the excess CCB off the molds and I continue to get the little bits of CCB staying in the cavities.

 

I don't know if those two issues are necessarily related.

 

In the pic, was the orange CB backed with another layer of white, or is the white the chocolate shell?

[Jim D.]

22 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

I don't know if those two issues are necessarily related.

 

In the pic, was the orange CB backed with another layer of white, or is the white the chocolate shell?

The orange was backed with white.  The issue may be showing up with other molds, but of course the white makes it more obvious.  It does happen more commonly when I back with white, but I don't see any connection, do you?

 

How do you clean off your molds after spraying?

[pastrygirl]

1 minute ago, Jim D. said:

It does happen more commonly when I back with white, but I don't see any connection, do you?

 

 

Another layer of CB is another layer of unpredictability The white has to stick to the orange and the chocolate has to pick them both up.  Has it been particularly cold?  I think I have more issues with CB sticking when it's cold. 

 

As for cleaning, I do a cursory swipe with my stainless scraper and don't really worry about it.

[Jim D.]

12 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Another layer of CB is another layer of unpredictability The white has to stick to the orange and the chocolate has to pick them both up.  Has it been particularly cold?  I think I have more issues with CB sticking when it's cold. 

 

The basement where I spray was about 70F, or even warmer when the Fuji has been running for a while.

 

I think a post-Valentine's round of experiments may be in order:  spray just orange, spray with white, clean using heat, clean using just towels. 

 

I posted this issue on the "Bonbon and chocolate painting techniques" FB group and got the usual confusing mix of explanations.  The most comforting one started "I've run into this too."  The consensus was that I am taking the CCB out of temper: "You are 100% taking the CCB out of temper. Plus, you have WAY too thick of a CCB layer. The combination of the two is your problem."  That person concluded:  "if you’re using milk or dark chocolate, just let it be. That minuscule amount of CCB isn’t going to affect your whole batch."

 

But I don't clean off the mold just for appearance.  Leaving the CCB makes it more difficult to seal the chocolates and scrape them so that there isn't a thin--or not so thin-layer of cocoa butter everywhere).

 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Jim D. said:

As displayed in the accompanying photo I am still having trouble with bits of colored cocoa butter staying in molds.  The pattern is the same, suggesting there may be a single cause  This is driving me crazy as the saga goes on and on, and I am looking at every possibility to eliminate the cause.  My latest inquiry brings me to the use of silk.

 

I have tried using the warming tray method (described earlier in this thread), but with the heat barely on.  It's better, but I have a terrible time getting the excess CCB off the molds and I continue to get the little bits of CCB staying in the cavities.  I mostly use my Fuji sprayer, and  there is no question it sprays out a lot of CCB.  I have tried moving the gun farther away, but that didn't seem to make a difference in the coverage.  All these explorations have brought me to the tempering possibility, namely, is the CCB overtempered and is therefore crystallizing immediately?  I watch experts decorating shells, and they casually turn a mold upside down and easily wipe away all the excess CCB.  I cannot do that.  So I am brought to a new question:  is it possible to add too much silk when tempering CCB?  I don't weigh it, I just put some in (following the example of the esteemed inventor of the EZtemper).

 

I don't temper coloured CCB for the Fuji (or any airbrush) - 35º C.

 

Edited February 5 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Jim D.]

21 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I don't temper coloured CCB for the Fuji (or any airbrush) - 35º C.

 

I know you have said that previously.  And you don't have any issues (such as the ones I have mentioned above)?  Do you use that high a temp for regular airbrushes, or just for the Fuji?

 

What about the overtempering issue?  I have never known whether adding extra silk leads to overtempering (whether chocolate or CCB).

[Kerry Beal]

28 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

I know you have said that previously.  And you don't have any issues (such as the ones I have mentioned above)?  Do you use that high a temp for regular airbrushes, or just for the Fuji?

 

What about the overtempering issue?  I have never known whether adding extra silk leads to overtempering (whether chocolate or CCB).

I use that temp for all airbrushes - even more important for compressors cause they blow cold. 

 

Extra silk does cause over tempering and thus less contraction. 

[Jim D.]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Extra silk does cause over tempering and thus less contraction. 

Excellent information.  Thanks.  I will start weighing--though if I don't temper airbrushed CCB, I suppose it's not an issue.  Among my upcoming experiments, I will try your high temps for CCD.

[pastrygirl]

3 hours ago, Jim D. said:

But I don't clean off the mold just for appearance.  Leaving the CCB makes it more difficult to seal the chocolates and scrape them so that there isn't a thin--or not so thin-layer of cocoa butter everywhere).

 

 

It gets scraped again and more thoroughly when casting the shells. 

 

I'm with Kerry on warmer CB, try 93-95F.  Once you've blown cold air through it and it has hit the chocolate mold it'll be a few degrees cooler.

Edited February 6 by pastrygirl (log)

[RanaMN]

On 2/5/2024 at 3:30 PM, Jim D. said:

 

 

I think a post-Valentine's round of experiments may be in order:  spray just orange, spray with white, clean using heat, clean using just towels. 

 

 

Did you experiment more? I have been recently cleaning mine right before capping- I have a very sharp scraper (it's a no-brand one I got on Amazon and I like it better than my CW one) . Most of the cocoa butter curls up and stays on the scraper- after that, I swipe the scraper on a paper towel. A couple of things though I don't have a fuji -I spray with grex- so likely a lot less cocoa butter than yours. Very minimal cocoa butter may get into your bonbons- I don't worry about it but as I said mostly its on he scraper for me. 

[Jim D.]

Yes, I have continued with experimentation.  I am reasonably sure the heated warming tray was the cause of the missing colored cocoa butter.  I was able to replicate the problem with heat; it did not occur without heat.  If the tray's thermostat were more reliable, I think this would be the perfect solution, but it's not.

 

So I returned to wiping the freshly sprayed molds upside down on shop towels, and the difficulty of removing the CCB returned.  I followed Kerry's information on not adding too much silk and started going through the annoying procedure of weighing the CCB, using a chart to add 1% silk.  Alas, the issue continued.  I find it puzzling to watch countless videos of people turning their sprayed molds upside down and effortlessly wiping off the CCB.  But it's one mold, and they are usually employing an airbrush not a spray gun.

 

Next attempt:  It occurred to me that even a tiny amount of silk may be contributing to overtempering and thus CCB crystallizing almost immediately.  So I started using the ancient tempering method of melting the CCB, lowering its temperature to 27C, then raising it to 28-30C.  I didn't have a lot of molds left in the current batch to give this idea a real test, but it seemed to give better results.  With reputable chocolatiers not tempering their CCB (see above in this thread), I also was less careful when using the heat gun between molds, and that also seemed to help.  Since a huge majority of chocolatiers do temper their CCB, I am not yet ready to abandon the practice.

 

As @RanaMN pointed out, a Fuji blows a lot more CCB through the gun and creates unique issues.  If I recall correctly @Chocolot uses a scraper on her molds after she has finished spraying them.  Scraping makes a huge mess and sometimes removes chips of color below the tops of cavities.

[Chocolot]

Jim, when we scrape, it isnt when the ccb is dry. We scrape excess ccb and reuse the next time, while it is still wet. It would be very difficult to do this alone. I don't spray heavy and I use paper towels if I am doing it alone, which I plan not to do:). Also, I never temper the ccb. I wait until temp drops to low 90's, and shoot. If I wait until cooler, it is a mess to get off molds. I rarely have sticking unless I let the ccb get too cold.