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Enrober Questions


Truffle Guy

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Yes, just enough pressure so they get flush.

One way to eliminate the rounded corners of the structure sheet is to use a puffy blush/cosmetics brush on the top. It would be a lot more work. I think you'd have to cut the structure sheet into individual squares and place each piece one at a time.

Currently I don't have an enrober, but that's what we did when I worked at a chocolate shop in France.

I use a 4-tine dipping fork to apply just enough pressure to set the individual squares of structure sheet to hand-dipped pieces. (No enrober for me either; I haven't found one small enough to fit in my kitchen.) The 4-tine fork is the right size to fit the dipped pralines and allows me to apply the sheets quicker than when I used a narrower fork or my finger. There's still a bit of rounding on the finished piece, but it's usually not very noticible unless the chocolate is too thick. The thicker the chocolate, the more pronounced the rounding seems to be.

One of these days I'll get a brush and try it for comparision.

David

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Thanks for the pics!!

I also noticed from your pic that you don't need some fancy and hard-to-maintain guitar. You can just buy one of those rollers that they sell at JB Prince instead. It costs a lot less money and can also be used for cutting Joconde cake!

Thanks again!!!

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Thanks for the pics!!

I also noticed from your pic that you don't need some fancy and hard-to-maintain guitar.  You can just buy one of those rollers that they sell at JB Prince instead.  It costs  a lot less money and  can also be used for cutting Joconde cake!

Thanks again!!!

Actually, we do have a guitar cutter but you can't cut caramel with a guitar. And you really can't cut ganache with a caramel cutter; the pieces will stick inside the blades. :biggrin: You can score firm caramel with the cutter so you get good straight lines, and if it's soft enough, you can actually cut it. However, you need to dip or enrobe soft caramels within just a few hours, or they will begin to lose their shape from as the caramel starts to very slowly and imperceptibly flow.

Another thing to watch out for is to make sure that when you cast your slab of caramel or ganache, using either a frame or confetionary bars, that the height is very even throughout. This is sometimes tricky as hot caramel firms up fast on top and properly pre-crystallized ganache also starts to firm up rather quickly. If you don't get an even slab, then your pieces will be of differing heights and will not be uniform.

Finally, a guitar cutter is actually pretty easy to maintain, just keep it clean and don't ever use too much force, always gentle slow pressure, or you will have lots of broken wires! :sad:

Jeffrey Stern

www.jeffreygstern.com

http://bit.ly/cKwUL4

http://destination-ecuador.net

cocoapodman at gmail dot com

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We have often looked at getting an enrober, but we can't figure out how to get the precision placement of our transfers that we need for the look that we are after. Here are two examples:

gallery_20935_3191_9372.jpg

and

gallery_20935_3191_52680.jpg

We find that they have to be very carefully placed on a piece of chocolate and I can't imagine being able to place them well on a moving belt.

Does anybody have any ideas?

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Not about placing precisely, but JPW had very simply made himself a utensil that he gently pressed transfers with onto the pralines. I had wanted to take a picture and forgot! It was somethingsoft perhaps a sponge, that he cut into a squarish shape. It was poked onto a short stick and covered with saran wrap or something. I will email a friend and see if she has a pic or more precise info. It worked beautifully.

The only solution for time saving perfect precision would be magnetic molds, I think.

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I have been using a puffy make up brush to flatten the transfers after laying them on by hand just as John DePaula suggested and it works quite well. I feed 12-15 pieces through my enrober at time, which gives me enough time to apply the transfers after stopping the machine so that I can work on them without the machine running. 12-15 pieces is about as many as I can safely do before the chocolate sets up and it's too late to apply a transfer.

There are also small sponge brushes available at places like Michael's or A.C. Moore in the US that would make a good applicator for transfers.

Jeffrey Stern

www.jeffreygstern.com

http://bit.ly/cKwUL4

http://destination-ecuador.net

cocoapodman at gmail dot com

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I have been using a puffy make up brush to flatten the transfers after laying them on by hand just as John DePaula suggested and it works quite well. I feed 12-15 pieces through my enrober at time, which gives me enough time to apply the transfers after stopping the machine so that I can work on them without the machine running. 12-15 pieces is about as many as I can safely do before the chocolate sets up and it's too late to apply a transfer.

There are also small sponge brushes available at places like Michael's or A.C. Moore in the US that would make a good applicator for transfers.

Hey, glad that worked out for you.

Lloyd, yes you'll definitely not be able to place the transfer on a moving belt. BTW, those chocolates are a nice bit of beautiful work!

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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you get those custom printed transfers from pcb. they are quite reasonably priced, if you choose not more than 2 colors its the same price as the regular sheets. you can also get the transfers precut for single chocolates. what you do is to enrobe 30 or so chocolates, after enrobing stop the belt and put the transfers on, its really no big deal...

cheers

t.

toertchen toertchen

patissier chocolatier cafe

cologne, germany

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  • 2 weeks later...
My 3 year trek to starting a company is coming to a conclusion as I now have a space picked out and some revenue streams established.  The next big step is moving to some production equipment that makes sense for me.  I'd love to get an LCM machine but the price is high and the time to deliver is 4+ months.  So, I'm looking for a quicker turnaround time and a solid machine. 

Currently, I'm strongly considering the 50KG Mol D'art model Mol D'Art machines as it would be good for moulding which is a big part of my business.  It also has an attachment so it can be used for enrobing.  The capacity would work and the price is very reasonable.  I'm considering 2-3 machines with 1 being an enrober.  My concern is the dependability and tempering performance.  The turnaround time is quick and would allow me to launch faster. 

Anyone have experience with these machines for moulding as well as using the enrobing attachment? 

I'm also interested in any other good machines that won't cost me $20,000+ that are strong for molding.  I need to produce white/dark chocolate molds so I'd prefer 2 smaller machines at this point until I can afford the larger dual LCM machines.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Has anyone taken a look at the Pomati tempering machine tomric is now selling? I wonder if the mechanism for tempering is better than the usual wheel.

Luis

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Has anyone taken a look at the Pomati tempering machine tomric is now selling? I wonder if the mechanism for tempering is better than the usual wheel.

Luis

The Pomati's are automatic tempering like the selmi. The little units don't have a shaker table. The quantities are small.

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Has anyone taken a look at the Pomati tempering machine tomric is now selling? I wonder if the mechanism for tempering is better than the usual wheel.

Luis

The Pomati's are automatic tempering like the selmi. The little units don't have a shaker table. The quantities are small.

Thanks kerry,

I see the quantities are small, but as a starter it might not be too bad. they also have more upgraded models, but I can't seem to find what the costs are. Info is hard to find. Any idea what the T20 model runs?

Luis

Edited by sote23 (log)
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Has anyone taken a look at the Pomati tempering machine tomric is now selling? I wonder if the mechanism for tempering is better than the usual wheel.

Luis

The Pomati's are automatic tempering like the selmi. The little units don't have a shaker table. The quantities are small.

Thanks kerry,

I see the quantities are small, but as a starter it might not be too bad. they also have more upgraded models, but I can't seem to find what the costs are. Info is hard to find. Any idea what the T20 model runs?

Luis

Not sure about that one, but looking at it online it looks equivalent to one of the Selmi machines, so I suspect you are looking at $15,000 or so before adding any sort of enrober or anything.

Here is the other thing, if you are looking at a machine like that, consider going to the slightly larger 30 kg machine, so that you can add an enrober if you want. It seems that the enrobers don't get put on machines smaller than that.

I was looking quite seriously at the little Pomati Java T6 that was good for 6kg. It is a cute little number, but no shaker, no ability to add an enrober and still around $8,000.

Edited by Kerry Beal (log)
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Has anyone taken a look at the Pomati tempering machine tomric is now selling? I wonder if the mechanism for tempering is better than the usual wheel.

Luis

The Pomati's are automatic tempering like the selmi. The little units don't have a shaker table. The quantities are small.

Thanks kerry,

I see the quantities are small, but as a starter it might not be too bad. they also have more upgraded models, but I can't seem to find what the costs are. Info is hard to find. Any idea what the T20 model runs?

Luis

Not sure about that one, but looking at it online it looks equivalent to one of the Selmi machines, so I suspect you are looking at $15,000 or so before adding any sort of enrober or anything.

Here is the other thing, if you are looking at a machine like that, consider going to the slightly larger 30 kg machine, so that you can add an enrober if you want. It seems that the enrobers don't get put on machines smaller than that.

I was looking quite seriously at the little Pomati Java T6 that was good for 6kg. It is a cute little number, but no shaker, no ability to add an enrober and still around $8,000.

I think it's an option, but I think I will eventually just go with the Selmi. It's what Jean Pierre recommends, and many other people use.

I was looking at the Sollich Minicoater, but I've heard Sollich is expensive.

Luis

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  • 4 weeks later...
Yes, just enough pressure so they get flush.

One way to eliminate the rounded corners of the structure sheet is to use a puffy blush/cosmetics brush on the top. It would be a lot more work. I think you'd have to cut the structure sheet into individual squares and place each piece one at a time.

Currently I don't have an enrober, but that's what we did when I worked at a chocolate shop in France.

Thanks for the tip. I have cut the texture sheets up but hadn´t heard of the brush technique. I will have to try it.

I was at Bernard Callebaut last week and they line up the bonbons in rows 7X7 and then run under the enrober. The person at the other end puts on the transfer sheet and then with a normal 4 inch paint brush she brushed the bonbons lightly to get the sheets applied properly.

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Yes, just enough pressure so they get flush.

One way to eliminate the rounded corners of the structure sheet is to use a puffy blush/cosmetics brush on the top. It would be a lot more work. I think you'd have to cut the structure sheet into individual squares and place each piece one at a time.

Currently I don't have an enrober, but that's what we did when I worked at a chocolate shop in France.

Thanks for the tip. I have cut the texture sheets up but hadn´t heard of the brush technique. I will have to try it.

I was at Bernard Callebaut last week and they line up the bonbons in rows 7X7 and then run under the enrober. The person at the other end puts on the transfer sheet and then with a normal 4 inch paint brush she brushed the bonbons lightly to get the sheets applied properly.

Interesting. I've never heard of anyone using a paint brush.

Luis

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  • 1 year later...

Bring this older topic up again. I have been looking at a Perfect. Anyone have new information about reasonably priced enrobers?

Ruth Kendrick

Chocolot
Artisan Chocolates and Toffees
www.chocolot.com

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  • 1 year later...

I am also looking to buy a small (possibly used) enrobing machine. I really like the Dedy 220 but with everything and shipping is about 18K. The Hilliard's six inch coater is cheaper but I am not sure how well will it work. Any experience?

Thank you.

PS: I haven't been on the forum in a long time, sorry and well re-met everyone.

Vanessa

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I am also looking to buy a small (possibly used) enrobing machine. I really like the Dedy 220 but with everything and shipping is about 18K. The Hilliard's six inch coater is cheaper but I am not sure how well will it work. Any experience?

Thank you.

PS: I haven't been on the forum in a long time, sorry and well re-met everyone.

Vanessa - we've missed you. Glad to see you back on the forum. Have you noticed that upcoming conference in Washington - we'd love to have you join us?

The problem I have with the Hilliard 6 inch coater is that there is no paper take off when the product comes off the chain.

You might want to look at one of the Perfect Equipment setups - you attach their enrober to either their air or water machine. I've forgotten the pricing - but I think it comes in less than 18K. Link here.

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I bought the Perfect, and mostly we get along just fine. There are days when I am not happy with it, but for the most part, it does what I ask. It was just under $12K. Come on over Vanessa and I will show it to you:-)

Ruth Kendrick

Chocolot
Artisan Chocolates and Toffees
www.chocolot.com

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Awwww I 've missed you too :-(

Thank you so much for your input as always Kerry <3

Ruth I really need to come pay you a visit, we are so close!!! I saw the video of your enrobing machine online, soo cool. I know it is a big investment, I am moving into a slighlty different field with my confections and I need to move faster than I did in the past 6 years, no more waiting, but I really want to grow in sinc with my possibilities.

The Perfect enrober look very nice, I will look into and plan a trip to Utah asap :-)

Thank you ladies, is good to be back <3

Vanessa

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 9 months later...

Im sorry for bringing up old threads but im trying to price enrobers and so far the only one Ive looked at is Hilliards and they seem a little high. Im on the perfect website now and im trying to download their catalog. I live in Texas so how much is the mini-enrober and could it be shipped to Texas?

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  • 2 years later...

Alright, going to revitalize this thread as I need some advice.  

 

As many of you know, I'm in the process of putting the plans in place to start my chocolate business.  I would like to upgrade my chocolate melter/tempering unit and want to get a unit that I can eventually attach an enrober to, but I'm trying to decide which brand to go with.  Price as always is an issue.  

 

Of course the Selmi would probably be my first choice, but financially I don't think I can swing it.  

 

Looking on TFC Sales, they have a Dedy Mini Moulder that seems like a good choice for my needs, but I've heard some debate on the wheel temperers and how they tend to thicken the chocolate quicker.  I also cannot seem to find any reviews on the Dedy Mini Moulder.  But the price is reasonable, and they have a mini enrober attachment available.  

 

I guess I'm curious the thoughts of the veterans on this thread are on this particular brand, and if it's no good, a decent alternative in the 5-7k range.  Any feedback would be appreciated!

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Bakon also has a mini enrober (http://www.bakonusa.com/enrobing-machines/mini-enrober). They are on the west coast, so shipping costs might be better for you. I have two of their melters and am very happy with them. I think Rob has the Bakon wheel temperer. There is also the enrobing line from Perfect (http://www.perfectchoco.com/en/perfect-equipments)... that is what Ruth uses. Looks like Perfect's pricing for a regular enrober is close to Dedy & Bakon's pricing for a mini enrober.

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