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Post by Barbara Ann on May 29, 2019 8:46:57 GMT -5
My chocolate is a bit of a nightmare to temper. I am making more Keto style milk chocolate, so it is made with sugar alternatives and heavy cream powder instead of milk powder, so the high milk fat is tough. I've tried any and all tempering methods. So my best way so far is to take my chocolate out of the melanger and let it harden for a couple of days. Then put in in the my Rev V, bring it to 115, let it stay there for a bit to get out air bubbles, bring it to 93 and stir in about 1% grated cocoa butter silk and leave it for at about 15 min until I see all the silk is dissolved, then bring it to 90 and pour. When I do this it is better then other methods but chocolate still has lots of little white spots. My best results is when I have gone through this whole process, let the bars harden, and then take those bars and temper them all over again. Some of those bars come out almost perfect. So I'm wondering if anyone else has found that double tempering has made better chocolate? Or does anyone have an idea why it is working better for me? Thanks!
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Post by Ben on May 29, 2019 9:20:28 GMT -5
Hi Barbara Ann. Milk chocolate is tempered at lower temperatures. Try adding the silk at 91 and lowering the final temp to 87 before molding. Make sure to test the temper before molding, though. If the test gets the spots, wait 5-10 minutes and test again.
On a side note, if you're melting the chocolate to 115F each time, there should be no crystallized cocoa butter left. You're not 'double tempering' them, as the temper has all been removed through melting--there's no additive tempering going on. My guess is that there is some other variable that is responsible for the somewhat better results you're getting when tempering the second time.
Along with that point, there should be no reason to wait for a few days before tempering. Once you melt the chocolate to 115, you're resetting the crystallization back to zero.
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Post by Barbara Ann on May 30, 2019 12:02:17 GMT -5
Thank you for the response Ben, I tried the temperatures you suggested and got interesting results. When I poured the chocolate it was a beautiful even color, but 2-3 hours later it was still soft and I could leave fingerprints in it. Even though it had already been 2-3 hours I experimented by taking one tray and putting it in the fridge for 15 minutes. This morning when I woke up the chocolate that had been in the fridge was perfectly tempered, everything else was practically white. So I am tempering today with the same temps you suggested and then will experiment with different times in the fridge.
The reason I think leaving it harden out of the melanger before tempering and tempering a second time seems to help is that I'm guessing the process of melting and hardening is releasing air or moisture.
I live in Ventura, CA and the temperature in my home yesterday was around 68.
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Post by Ben on May 30, 2019 22:57:23 GMT -5
Hi Barbara Ann. You're welcome! I hope it helps. Are you normally just cooling at room temperature? That would definitely contribute to the bloom you're seeing. A little time in the fridge, as you've found, will help, as would generating airflow over the molded chocolate. As the chocolate crystallizes, it releases heat, which if not drawn off can definitely knock your chocolate out of temper. Air in the chocolate won't have an effect on the temper, although it should be vibrated out when molding just to avoid air bubbles in the finished bars. Also, the amount of moisture released from the chocolate during melting is negligible if any. Most of the moisture remaining after roasting comes out during the grinding process. When you melt chocolate, you don't go hot enough to really drive off any moisture. I'm not sure why it seems to work better the second time you do it, but I don't think it's related to moisture or air in the chocolate.
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