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Post by Ben on Jul 18, 2023 10:01:44 GMT -5
I guess it *can* work that way, but cooling removes a bunch of possible problems. For example, that higher quality mold is probably thicker, so it's insulating the chocolate more and not allowing it to cool as quickly. Cooling solves that issue. And yeah, at a certain point in the crystallization process, the process starts to generate heat. Without active cooling to remove that heat, it can cause the chocolate to go out of temper. Generally this is more of problem with thicker pieces of chocolate, but from your photos it looks like the fat rabbit bars are thinner than the ones below, so it could be that your problem is something else entirely. How long did it take to mold the full batch? How are you maintaining temperature throughout the molding process? Are you constantly monitoring the temperature and stirring?
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Post by Ben on Jul 14, 2023 8:41:34 GMT -5
Yep, leaving it at room temp is probably the culprit. At a certain point while chocolate is crystallizing, the process turns exothermic which can definitely knock your chocolate out of temper. To avoid it, it's best to use some active cooling, but it can sometimes work to let it crystallize at room temp if you have some added airflow.
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Post by Ben on Jul 13, 2023 11:01:11 GMT -5
I wait until the nibs are somewhat flowing, but that's just to take it a little easier on my grinder. Like Alchemist John's tests show, my experience has been that the timing of the sugar doesn't have an effect on the final flavor of the chocolate. I've spoken to a few chocolate makers who wait a full 24 hours before adding the sugar, which I think makes the chocolate more viscous with a thicker mouthfeel.
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Post by Ben on Jun 29, 2023 11:54:30 GMT -5
Hi Kelli. How should someone get in touch with you if they're interested in one of these?
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Post by Ben on Jun 22, 2023 9:36:01 GMT -5
Hello! This website and forum are mostly focused on making chocolate from the bean, so that's what we're going to most knowledgeable about. My guess is that none of us are 'resorting' to making bean-to-bar chocolate due to not being able to find affordable bulk chocolate. That being said, tons of chocolatiers buy bulk chocolate from the companies you mention and are able to make and sell products for a price they're happy with. What do you consider an affordable/acceptable price? Doing a quick search for traceability info for those companies (and Guittard), it looks like they all provide some info, with Guittard and Valrhona being more open than Callebaut. It is possible that you may be able to find better info on any of them with a little more digging. To directly answer your question about if it's possible to find affordable, organic, and traceable chocolate in bulk, my answer is yes--but that depends entirely on what you consider affordable.
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Post by Ben on Jun 14, 2023 14:30:26 GMT -5
I believe the powertwist belts are still the best solution.
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Post by Ben on May 29, 2023 9:54:24 GMT -5
Hi Jacob. I think the heated dosing head makes a big difference, although if it were me, I'd still try to keep the chocolate flowing constantly unless I were actively filling a mold.
I guess I don't really understand why you wouldn't just use some sort of timed depositing. For my KeyChoc temperer, it just flows until I hit the foot pedal, at which point it pauses for a second to let me put a mold under the depositing head, deposits 3 bars' worth of chocolate with short pauses to allow me to move the mold for each bar, pauses again to let me withdraw the mold, and then just flows again. This way, the chocolate is always flowing through the head, ensuring that none ever has a chance to solidify in there. I'm sure the GAMI has the capability of doing something similar.
Can you provide more info on why this is undesirable?
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Post by Ben on May 22, 2023 10:32:53 GMT -5
Hello. This is an issue that has come up several times with various machines. There have been a few suggested fixes. IIRC, there are several threads in the refining and conching forum dealing with this.
I don't think it's an issue of chocolate getting into the axle shafts (which happens to some degree with all stone grinders), but more that there's not enough pressure to keep the wheels down when the chocolate gets refined to a fine enough point. I haven't used one of those specific grinders in 9 or 10 years, but I think I had some success by increasing the pressure on the stones.
Another thing to try would be to keep the chocolate as viscous as possible for as long as possible. I'd try just adding the nibs at the beginning and then add the sugar once the nibs are liquid. Then, only add any extra cocoa butter at the very end of the refining process.
I also seem to remember someone saying something in one of the older threads about adjusting the scrapers.
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Post by Ben on May 22, 2023 10:18:17 GMT -5
Hi Jacob. I think this approach is asking for trouble. Generally, tempering machines just run chocolate constantly through the depositing head and then you can stop it temporarily to insert a mold, fill, then remove mold. After that, the chocolate would just flow again. Alternatively, some just constantly pulse the required amount, so you'd wait for a pause, insert the mold, fill, remove the mold. Either of these processes keep the chocolate flowing through the whole machine, including the depositing head, and avoiding any potential hardening. I haven't used a gami, but my guess is that it is designed to do one or the other of these.
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Post by Ben on May 13, 2023 11:01:28 GMT -5
If you're not already using a vibrating table, I'd recommend getting one. I find them to be better at getting out air bubbles that banging the molds on the table by hand. This is due to the type of non-Newtonian fluid that melted chocolate is. Basically, vibration temporarily lowers the viscosity, allowing the chocolate to settle into the mold and release air bubbles.
To actually lower the viscosity of the chocolate, increase the percentage of the chocolate that is cocoa butter. Assuming that your nibs are roughly 50% cocoa butter*, you can figure out the solid/fat ratio pretty easily:
70% cacao, 5% cocoa butter, 25% sugar = approx 40% fat, 60% solids 65% cacao, 5% cocoa butter, 30% sugar = approx 37.5% fat, 62.5% solids 65% cacao, 10% cocoa butter, 25% sugar = approx 42.5% fat, 57.5% solids
So, all else being the same, the final ratio have the lowest viscosity. It may not have the taste you want, though.
On a side note, keep in mind that there are other ways to lower the viscosity, or to work with higher viscosity. Moisture in chocolate makes it thicker, so any way that you can reduce moisture will help to lower the viscosity. Adjusting the roast or adding heat during refining/conching can help, and I know of several chocolate makers who put their roasted nibs in a proofing cabinet overnight. Additionally, real conching helps a lot, but that requires an additional machine if you're using a stone grinder.
* They're generally somewhere between 50%-55%, although I'm sure there are some that go higher and lower. I generally just use 50% when thinking about this sort of thing.
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Post by Ben on Apr 24, 2023 8:47:14 GMT -5
I've not tried it, but my guess is that you could go as high as 1/3 peanut butter and still have a moldable chocolate (soft, but moldable). I do a gianduja bar that's about 1/3 hazelnuts. Hazelnut butter is far runnier than peanut butter, so it's possible you could go even higher that 1/3 peanuts. Flavor-wise, my guess is that you wouldn't need to. I've always wanted to do a peanut butter bar using local Virginia peanuts. Someday I'll get around to that and then would have a better answer. If you try it, let us know how it goes.
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Post by Ben on Apr 18, 2023 8:47:33 GMT -5
As this user hasn't replied in two and a half years, I'm assuming it's been sold (or at least that they're never coming back to this forum ).
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Post by Ben on Apr 7, 2023 7:36:03 GMT -5
Also, humidity would be something to be aware of.
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Post by Ben on Mar 30, 2023 17:07:01 GMT -5
Awesome! Congrats, Brad!
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Post by Ben on Mar 27, 2023 8:41:41 GMT -5
Hello. I'm not sure I understand your question. Assuming you know the volume of the bar you want to make, it shouldn't be too difficult to design a mold to hold that (assuming the mold is a relatively simple shape, of course). My guess is that if you're designing it in some sort of 3-D design program that the program would be able to tell you the volume of the object you're designing.
Can you provide more information of what issues you're running into?
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