Chocolates with that showroom finish, 2004 - 2011

[Skwerl]

Thanks for all the nice compliments, everyone! Once again, I wanted to express my appreciation for all the recommendations. As for specifics, here's the run-down. I used all E. Guittard chocolate(Dark: Premiere Etoile, Milk: Soleil d'Or, White: Creme Francaise) for molding. The Guittard seems to be a fairly easy one to work with.

I used a Revolation 1 tempering machine from Chocovision. The machine was only $360, but it has saved me HOURS of work. I am unconvinced of the unit's quality because it's extremely noisy and occasionally stops for no reason. It's probably defective, but it does temper all three of the Guittards I have, relatively unattended. The major drawback is that the capacity only allows for only one mold at a time. I wish there was a model between the 1.5 and 10-lb ones.

For molds, I used polycarbonate ones I bought from Kerekes (www.bakedeco.com). These worked beautifully.

I started off by buffing the depressions in each mold with a cotton ball. I then dipped a cotton ball into melted cocoa butter and spread a thin layer into each depression. One to two dips was usually enough for a full mold. I found that adding just enough to "grease" the depressions but not make them cloudy was the perfect amount to use. I rubbed the depressions with enough force to get any extra cocoa butter out of the patterns in the molds so it didn't pool there. At this point, I added the vartious luster dusts to the molds. For the gold ones, I used 24 karat gold dust. To achieve the speckled look, I dipped a soft, springy paint brush into the gold dust and tapped the hadle to make chunks of dust fall off and hit the mold. After dropping dust on each depression, I popped the coated mold into the refrigerator for a couple minutes to set the cocoa butter. After it was set, I inverted the mold and shook out the extra gold dust. That way not as much of the gold stuck to the cocoa butter and the speckles from the clumps were retained. I used an extra springy empty coulis bottle to blow any extra dusts out of the depressions. The piece in the photograph is not one of the best examples of the speckling. For the purple one, I froze the cocoa butter to keep it cold so it wouldn't melt while I added the dust. With a very soft sable paint brush, I thoroughly brushed the metallic purple dust into each depression in the mold. This made the distribution very even and gave it the auto paint look since the color was underneath the cocoa butter "clearcoat" when the chocolates are turned out. The green ons were my favorite. I started them the same way as the gold ones, but I used green and blue luster dust clumps. After dusting the molds, before refrigerating them, I spun them around a couple times, Harlen Globetrotter style (No, not really) or slammed them onto the countertop. The spinning gave the chocolates a spacey look, since the different dusts seemed to move at different speeds when spinning. The blue hardly moved while the green spread out nicely. Slamming produced a really nice effect too. It made streaks of the metallic dusts on the chocolates, adding a lot of action to them.

From there I just filled the molds with tempered chocolate and inverted them before scraping and filling. I had soime larger pyramid molds that I painted with chocolate with a brush instead since the small capacity of the Revolation didn't produce enough to adequately fill the mold and dump it only once. I made sure I shook the molds and rapped them on the table plenty of times before inverting them, but I still got a good amount of bubbles. I am wondering if I need to paint all the non-plain molds with a layer of chocolate before filling and inverting.

I bought my luster dusts from AJ Winbeckler (www.winbeckler.com/dusts.asp). It might be worth mentioning that some of the dusts (mainly blue, green, violet hues) contain small amounts of chemicals that can be toxic. I did some research over a couple days on both chromium oxide and ferrocyanide(a.k.a iron blue). For you chermistry buffs, chromium oxide is a chromium state 3 salt which is 1% the toxicity of chromium salts in oxidation state 6. You'd have to ingest 100-300 grams of the stuff at once to poison yourself. Ferrocynaide is safe in products like cosmetics but can be toxic when ingested over a long period of time (water supply). Doses of ten grams per day have been well-tolerated according to Micromedex, and the substance is used as a post-radiotherapy and radiation contamination treatment. For the here-and-there chocolatiering I'll be doing, I am not too concerned, but for real production this might need a little CYA disclaimer on ones that use the indicated dusts, or avoid those particular colors altogether.

Hope this helps any of you that are also diving into the chocolate world!

[Wendy DeBord]

Welcome to eGullet Cotovelo! Your work looks wonderful!!

I hope you don't mind me asking... who do you buy your colors from? Your greens and reds are different hues then what I've purchased to date and very lovely.

[cotovelo]

Welcome to eGullet Cotovelo! Your work looks wonderful!!

I hope you don't mind me asking... who do you buy your colors from? Your greens and reds are different hues then what I've purchased to date and very lovely.

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I am using PCB colored cocoa butters. I used PCB originally, and then tried several others (including powdered) beacause they are not cheap. But, I could never get the richness and concentration of color that I could with PCB. Also, since they are pre-mixed, consistency of color is never and issue.

[Wendy DeBord]

Are you buying dirrectly from them? I've been looking for someone in the States who's rep.ing them because my work is difficult about who I order from.

[cotovelo]

Are you buying dirrectly from them? I've been looking for someone in the States who's rep.ing them because my work is difficult about who I order from.

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There is a company called EuroGourmet out of st. Louis that is a rep for them. They are a great company to work with. I am sure they would ship to you, if not I could get what you need and ship it on to you. The number for them is 1-877-849-3030. Ask for Stacy or Didier.

[Lysbeth]

Chris,

I spoke with Didier yesterday (what a nice guy!) and ordered the PCB colors. They should be here on Monday, just as my tempering machine is coming back from being serviced. I'm so excited to get started. I have tried working with the powdered colors and they've always come out looking crummy. I have seen the PCB colors used at the World Pastry Forum classes and they are fantastic. It's nice to know that we can get them here in the States.

Can you tell me how you heat your colors and if they can be overheated, or heated too many times. In other words, is there anything that will make them deteriorate? I want to be sure to treat them properly, so I can use them for a long time!

Has anyone used the colors from Chef Rubber? If so, how did those work out? I'm interested only because they have a larger selection of colors.

[Ajl92]

I bit the bullet yesterday and ordered some of the chefrubber colors. I would also be interested in a comparison by anyone who has used both. Also, how do the PCB colors compare in price and quantity (as I am an amateur chocolatier at best, I am really only looking to dabble and I tend to go a little crazy loading up on frivelous ingredients)

I bought some white, red, and yellow (which I will also mix for orange, shouldn't be a problem, right?) I also ordered some of the polycarbonate molds from jbprince, as well as that airbrush. I got it for 1 CENT! from ebay! (Actually, I paid 13 for shipping, but hey, it was still a great deal!

I have 22 pounds of E. Guittard couverture from Assouline and Ting as well as a kilo of cocoa butter on the way, so I should be set. All I have to get down is tempering this tempermental chocolate and hopefully I can produce some halfway decent looking chocolates.

btw, this is my first post to eGullet after a long period of just reading, and I hope to learn a lot from all of you great folks!

[cotovelo]

Chris,

I spoke with Didier yesterday (what a nice guy!) and ordered the PCB colors. They should be here on Monday, just as my tempering machine is coming back from being serviced. I'm so excited to get started. I have tried working with the powdered colors and they've always come out looking crummy. I have seen the PCB colors used at the World Pastry Forum classes and they are fantastic. It's nice to know that we can get them here in the States.

Can you tell me how you heat your colors and if they can be overheated, or heated too many times. In other words, is there anything that will make them deteriorate? I want to be sure to treat them properly, so I can use them for a long time!

Has anyone used the colors from Chef Rubber? If so, how did those work out? I'm interested only because they have a larger selection of colors.

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I melt the cocoa butter in the microwave, paying careful attention as to not get them too hot. Other than storing them like you would chocolate, they should last you awhile. You can re-melt as neccesary.

[Ajl92]

Has anyone used the colors from Chef Rubber? If so, how did those work out? I'm interested only because they have a larger selection of colors.

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My shipment of Chef Rubber colors just came, as did my new dome molds from JBPrince, and I couldn't wait to try them out. So, I wipped up some raspberry truffle filling and melted the white and red color as well as some extra cocoa butter to "grease" the mold.

I swirled first the red, then some white color ala Norman Love/Christopher Elbow and I couldn't be happier with the results. I know I have a long way to go with tempering but I think the finish is pretty decent for my early stage of experimenting, especially with the extra cocoa butter in the molds. I can't believe I finally got to make these:biggrin:

Here are the bon bons just out of the mold on a wood cutting board:

[Lysbeth]

Ajl92 - Those are beautiful, nice job! I have mine waiting to be capped and unmolded. Funny, the first combination I tried was also red and white on a dome. I also sprayed some yellow and white for my passion fruit, but I think I may need some green in there too (they were out). I haven't filled these molds yet with milk chocolate, but I will this afternoon. I can't wait.

It looks like the results are similar between the Chef rubber and the PCB colors from what I can tell from the pic anyway. I might just have to order some and try them out.

[chiantiglace]

I just broke into this thread, man it took 2 days to read all this stuff, lord.

Um, i have a suggestion for the "rubbing the colored cocoa butters into the molds with crevaces".

If you skewer up a piece of foam to the end of a very small dowel, you should be able to retain the right amount of coloring without creating "pools"in the in the sides pockets. it will soak up only a small amound and you can press the excess off aswell as when you "smear it in" you should get nasty thread lines.

just a suggestion.

Heres the site I found if you guys didn't already because it wasn't post. (I don't beleive)

PCB online

Edited January 29, 2005 by chiantiglace (log)

[Lysbeth]

Well, I unmolded my chocolates and they look beautiful. I am very happy with the result. The milk hearts are very nice with the yellow and white spray and the dark domes with the red and white swirl just pop. Not all the domes came out of the molds in one piece though. With some of them the red cocoa butter stuck to the mold. I know the molds were clean because I just used them recently. Any suggestions as to why this might have happened?

[chiantiglace]

Um, Lysbeth, did you try cooling them in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes first. That usually helps the release all in one piece.

[Lysbeth]

Chiantiglace - I did stick them in the fridge for about that time. It's really strange as it wasn't a complete mold that would give me trouble. I also had colored half my dome molds one day and the other half the next. The ones I did first released better. The second ones I had more trouble with for some reason. I thought it was particularly intersting since all the ones that were sprayed came out in one piece. Maybe the color wasn't thin spread thin enough?

[Chef Rubber]

Chef Rubber produces close to 100 different types of colored cocoa butter.

We use Beta 6 technology to improve propagation of the crystalline structure and improve working characteristics. We hope you will try our diversified color line and personally warrantee complete satisfaction. It is our attempt to assist you, the chocolatier, in producing appealing, interesting pralines.

Please let us know if you have any questions that we may be able to answer.

www.ChefRubber.com

support@chefrubber.com

702-614-9350

[FWED]

Here are some photos of the chocolates that I made for Valentines Day. The Red hearts are made of white chocolate filled with a white chocolate and champagne ganche. The mold is first sprayed with coco butter then a light dusting of gold powder and then a heavy spray of red coco butter. The white chocolate ovals and rounds are made in magnetic molds with transfer sheets and filled with white chocolate and raspberry ganache. The other photo shows the finished package including several flavors of pate de fruits.

[Wendy DeBord]

Lovely Fred!

Rubber Chef, can you explain more......... You have over 100 types of colored cocoa butter for sale? Would you provide a link to them please, I must have missed them at your site?

I've only seen maybe 10 different colors, from PCB. But if you have more I think that's very interesting.

I've been using cocoa butter for air brushing my plates. The colors must be mixed with white cocoa butter (I got from PCB) to make them more opaque so they show on my plates. Do you have any colors that go on opaque?

[PastryBoy]

hmmm... I think I need to get my hands on some coloured cocoa butter (not too sure where I can get it in Canada as I think Chef Rubber only delivers in the States). I did 400+ chocolates for work (haven't tempered chocolate in over a year... yikes!) and they came out alright.

I tempered dark and white chocolate and coloured my white choc with fat-soluble pigment. The chocolates lack the shine and the punch of colour that you all seem to be getting with coloured cocoa butters. The coloured swirl should have been much redder (I filled that one with raspberry ganache) but I was afraid of breaking the temper of the white chocolate by adding more colouring.

[bripastryguy]

This thread really got me into doing some more chocolate work.... I mad some great looking and tasting bon bons as well. The technique of coating the mold with a thin layer of cocoa butter has proven itself with stellar results and really glossy chocolate (even if my temper is slightly off ) still have trouble getting my airbrush to deliver enough color so I'm still painting and swirling and dusting. I'm using melted cocoa butter mixed chef master candy colors, they seem to be fine for now as I am saving $$$ by not buying colored cocoa butters until we start to sell some chocolate in my shop.

Current Flavors: Keylime, Chai, Mocha, Crunchy Peanut, Coconut, Raspberry, Ginger Pineapple....

[Truffle Guy]

Wow! So many talented people. I've also been bitten by the chocolate bug. I have been working on truffles for a few years now as a hobby and I'm thinking of maybe looking at it as a business. I saw Norman Love's chocolates on the Godiva webpage and it really excited me about the possibilities of making chocolates even more attractive. Chris' chocolates are even more stunning. So many KC people on here (Chris and Josh)...that's where I'm from originally.

I have a couple questions and would appreciate any feedback. I'm looking at getting a temper machinge and it concerns me to see so many "refurbished" machines..are they so faulty? I am looking at the Rev 1 or Rev 2 and possibly the Rev X3210 if the extra investment is worth it. Does anyone have feedback on their experience with these models?

I have some molds now and have orderded quite a few more from JBPrince. My friends actually prefer the hand made look but with the colors I want to try using molds. What equipment would you recommend as essential to start making chocolates as more than a hobby? I have a local vendor who specializes in fudge/ice cream who is interested in having me produce truffles/fruit peels for his stores. I'm also considering approaching some restaurants with my product. I have a good "real" job but I'm leaning towards pursuing my passion.

What kind of experience does anyone have with the Ecole training (both online and the tours)? I live in the Tampa/St. Pete area and have contacted Norman about his classes...does anyone have other suggestions for good training? Right now I need to work it into my work schedule so it can't be too expensive or more than a week. Thanks for any help!

[Wendy DeBord]

Welcome Truffle Guy!

Take some classes from Norman Love......I'd spend my money learning from him before going to a school.

[Truffle Guy]

Welcome Truffle Guy!

Take some classes from Norman Love......I'd spend my money learning from him before going to a school.

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Thanks Wendy...I agree. I emailed him and he said he would contact me after the "chocolate" season ends about the next class. I noticed in your previous posts you went to his training...what kind of format was it and do you remember the approximate price? I didn't know if he did a 1 day class/weekend class or full week.

My focus is very tight on what I want to produce so I'm not concerned about becoming a full-fledged pastry chef...just someone who specializes in truffles and a few other complementary confections. Do you know of any good books regarding chocolate design, in particular using an airbrush and the colored cocoa butters?

GO HAWKEYES!!!! (Except this weekend against KU)

[Wendy DeBord]

Truffle Guy, I only attended 1 demo by him.........I wish I had taken a class with him. He is an excellent speaker/teacher and I got ALOT out of just 1 simple ole demo. The demo was thru The French Pastry School and Albert Uster Company in Chicago. I attended other demos by them but the one with Love was exceptional......because of what Love himself put into it.

[Skwerl]

Hi Truffle Guy! You mentioned the large number of refurbished machines, and I think I have an answer. Ian from Chocovision told me I had a year after purchase to upgrade my machine with them. They'd apply what I paid for my machine to a larger model. That's probably why there are so many refurbs. With that said, I'll mention that my Revolation has gotten to be VERY loud and has a habbit of just shutting itself off in the middle of tempering, or telling me the chocolate has been tempered when I've only just put the seed chocolate behind the baffle.

[Trishiad]

funny, i too just spoke with ian over at chocovision. i have a rev 2 and an X3210. my big boy needed repairs and came back with an extra bowl. my little guy is in the shop now. it's no longer under warranty and needed a new motor, they are replacing the motor and only charging me the labor and shipping, about $50. any other company would carge for the motor as well.

i think the motor fried because i (before getting a bigger machine) tried to feed it too much chocolate and it overflowed into the bottom, sticking up the turny thing and causing the motor too much stress. just my theory.

so, repairs or not, i really like my loud machines. they are easy to use, easy to clean and easy to stash away.

as for truffle guys question of education: i took the ecole chocolate course and would only suggest it if you have very little knowledge of chocolate. Many of my fellow students seemed to get a lot out of the course, i didn't feel that way. i was hoping it would be more than the absolute basics. i love my books and the internet.

trish