Post by Randy on Feb 2, 2014 11:40:00 GMT -5
The following problem happened to me last batch, and identically the same this time. I've made the recipe previously and successfully, an I've been unable to see why I'm failing now.
So here's the recipe:
Nibs, processed to liquor: 700g
Cocoa butter: 1011 g
Cane sugar: 1400 g
Milk Powder: 778 g
1 vanilla pod
This creates about 8.5 lbs of 44% milk chocolate.
I refined it in the Santha for 15 hours. All was fine. I table-tempered as I always do, and that seemed fine, too. I added the tempered chocolate back into the batch, and the whole mass converted into peanut-butter thickness. I'm now warming it in an oven to see at what point it will take a more liquid character. It's still a bit thick for molding at 103 degrees. Can anyone tell me what's wrong or what to do about it? My present plan is to warm it until it's a thick pourable liquid and try some bars at whatever temp that may be, but I can't imagine a 104-degree chocolate is going to hold temper.
I did retest the thermometer. It's not that.
Edit: Next day.
I thought I'd post a bit more, for what it might be worth. Recall I said my previous batch did this too, so it was sitting in storage awaiting its fate. Well, since the problem was the same one, I decided I might as well mix the two and either succeed or fail with the whole amount. Long day of dorking with temperatures and losing my confidence, but what I ended up doing was working the chocolate by sense rather than by temperature -- table some chocolate till it's behaving like it's tempered, then melt it into the too-hot batch, continue doing this until the mass is at the lowest temperature where flow into the molds is still possible. Turned out I set my molds at about 98-99 degrees. 14 hours later, it's looking like it took temper and is going to be fine. I couldn't be more confused. Maybe my idea that chocolate ALWAYS goes out of temper after about 93 degrees is too simple? Anyway, that's my report. Any forward-looking advice is very welcome.
So here's the recipe:
Nibs, processed to liquor: 700g
Cocoa butter: 1011 g
Cane sugar: 1400 g
Milk Powder: 778 g
1 vanilla pod
This creates about 8.5 lbs of 44% milk chocolate.
I refined it in the Santha for 15 hours. All was fine. I table-tempered as I always do, and that seemed fine, too. I added the tempered chocolate back into the batch, and the whole mass converted into peanut-butter thickness. I'm now warming it in an oven to see at what point it will take a more liquid character. It's still a bit thick for molding at 103 degrees. Can anyone tell me what's wrong or what to do about it? My present plan is to warm it until it's a thick pourable liquid and try some bars at whatever temp that may be, but I can't imagine a 104-degree chocolate is going to hold temper.
I did retest the thermometer. It's not that.
Edit: Next day.
I thought I'd post a bit more, for what it might be worth. Recall I said my previous batch did this too, so it was sitting in storage awaiting its fate. Well, since the problem was the same one, I decided I might as well mix the two and either succeed or fail with the whole amount. Long day of dorking with temperatures and losing my confidence, but what I ended up doing was working the chocolate by sense rather than by temperature -- table some chocolate till it's behaving like it's tempered, then melt it into the too-hot batch, continue doing this until the mass is at the lowest temperature where flow into the molds is still possible. Turned out I set my molds at about 98-99 degrees. 14 hours later, it's looking like it took temper and is going to be fine. I couldn't be more confused. Maybe my idea that chocolate ALWAYS goes out of temper after about 93 degrees is too simple? Anyway, that's my report. Any forward-looking advice is very welcome.