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Post by Fat Rabbit Coffee on Oct 28, 2022 19:29:31 GMT -5
Relative newbie here. As I've gone through this process a few times now, I'm feeling like with all the work involved, it's better to make a whole bunch at once. Question being, after I've molded the small amount for current sharing and consumption, what's the best way to store the rest for future use?
By that I mean I'm thinking of getting some sort of mold that's just a big plain block and pouring the rest of the tempered but excess chocolate into that and storing it in the pantry. Then I can just break off what I want for baking or melting and putting into more molds for sharing/consumption.
What do all of you do?
Dan
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Post by Ben on Oct 31, 2022 9:54:49 GMT -5
You can use lots of things for this. Stainless or plastic bowls, ice cube trays, etc. should all work fine. I use some plastic tubs from webstaurant store. They're a bit flexible so I can pull the sides away from the set chocolate easily.
Another option would be to just mold up all the chocolate and store it wrapped.
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Post by Fat Rabbit Coffee on Oct 31, 2022 10:57:44 GMT -5
I use a big plastic bowl with a bit of a spout to pour into molds. If I just let the extra sit in this bowl and harden, will it easily pop out? I need the bowl for other stuff. I suppose this might be the easiest solution with the least waste if it works. I guess I assumed I would have to pour it all out into some sort of separate mold.
I don't have enough molds to mold it all up into final forms and find that it starts to harden fairly quickly while pouring so I just want one big chunk left over.
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Post by soseattle on Oct 31, 2022 20:18:28 GMT -5
I usually make about 2 kg (4-5 lbs) of chocolate at a time. After the chocolate is made I pour it into a nonstick foil lined pan to set up. Then I break it up into chunks and store in a plastic container until I want to use it. I take what I want to use for molding/dipping and temper only that amount. I can also use the untempered chocolate for baking or making truffles as I need it.
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Post by Ben on Nov 1, 2022 7:42:06 GMT -5
You could just leave it in the bowl and put it in whatever you're cooling the molds in. It should shrink a bit as it cools and easily pop out. I store untempered chocolate in the tubs I mention and it pops out easily.
Soseattle's suggestion is also a good one since you'll end up with a bunch of smaller chunks without having to cut a big block.
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Post by Fat Rabbit Coffee on Nov 2, 2022 23:09:14 GMT -5
I got a reply from John Nanci who said he just pours the extra chocolate in a ziploc bag. But these all sound like great, easy solutions.
Followup with a very newbie question based on Soseattle's reply...in my mind I would temper it all, pour what I want to mold at the moment, and pour the rest like you suggested for storage which would also be tempered (right?). But you mentioned taking what you want for molding and tempering just that. Does that mean you take the freshly melanged/conched chocolate and pour that into the foil lined pan/plastic container and then separate out what you want to mold?
Experience will answer this for me but my current inexperience would question how I figure out how much to temper for the molds I have as opposed to tempering it all, molding, and then storing the extra. And if I do temper it all first, is there any advantage to storing tempered vs non-tempered chocolate or not really?
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Post by Ben on Nov 3, 2022 7:45:04 GMT -5
You can store it tempered or untempered. Either way is fine. You just going to be melting it anyway. There's not much benefit one way over the other. Have you weighed your molds before and after adding the chocolate? If so, you should know how much goes into each mold. Multiply that by how many molds you want to fill and you should know how much chocolate you need to temper. That being said, tempering larger amounts of chocolate is easier than tempering small amounts, so it may be easier to just melt and temper all of it.
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Post by soseattle on Nov 3, 2022 17:55:08 GMT -5
I got a reply from John Nanci who said he just pours the extra chocolate in a ziploc bag. But these all sound like great, easy solutions. Followup with a very newbie question based on Soseattle's reply...in my mind I would temper it all, pour what I want to mold at the moment, and pour the rest like you suggested for storage which would also be tempered (right?). But you mentioned taking what you want for molding and tempering just that. Does that mean you take the freshly melanged/conched chocolate and pour that into the foil lined pan/plastic container and then separate out what you want to mold? Experience will answer this for me but my current inexperience would question how I figure out how much to temper for the molds I have as opposed to tempering it all, molding, and then storing the extra. And if I do temper it all first, is there any advantage to storing tempered vs non-tempered chocolate or not really? Yes you can certainly temper it all, mold what you want, and store the rest. When I make chocolate I don't always have time to do all of that when I make chocolate. Yes I make the refined (melanged/conched) chocolate and pour that into the pan. At that time it is not tempered. I let it set up, then break it up. I can then use it or store it for use whenever I want. I have found that works best for me and my schedule.
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Post by Fat Rabbit Coffee on Nov 4, 2022 1:11:34 GMT -5
I'm having a 'duh!' moment. Right - I'll have to melt it anyway and can melt it to temper temp for molding.
Never realized weighing the molds was a thing so thanks for that tip.
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Post by Ben on Nov 8, 2022 8:46:25 GMT -5
Yep, when molding by hand, I fill molds on a scale so each mold is the same weight.
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