Post by lilypa on Aug 29, 2013 18:32:15 GMT -5
Hey All,
I've had an issue the last two times I've tempered (one in a Chocovision Rev2 and another in my new Chocovision x3210). Both times, after tempering was finished, the chocolate was pretty viscous and quite hard to suck up in my molding syringes. It also didn't flow very easily in the mold during vibrating, which didn't end up looking pretty when finished. Has anyone experienced this before? (Both tempering attempts finished at a temperature of 88.7F. Each batch was a 70% dark, just beans and sugar, but with different bean origins. Note that I used Mode 2 "hard to temper" as the room temp was kinda warm about 76F, while the humidity was great at about 37%. This was even while our AC was set to 70F.)
I'm wondering if the issue may be the fact that I "aged" both batches of the refined chocolate in a stainless hotel pan for a week prior to tempering. However, I simply covered the chocolate with a stainless pan lid and left it in my "choco cabinet" for the week. I didn't cover it with plastic wrap at all. Do you think that the daily changes in room humidity and temperature could be causing the chocolate to absorb moisture from the air, thus causing it to thicken up during tempering? (The weekly humidity range was probably 40-65% and temperature range about 68-82F.) In the past, I would cover the chocolate with plastic wrap and didn't seem to have these problems. I'm also wondering if after say letting the chocolate sit in the hotel pan overnight, I should try to dump the solidified block of chocolate out on the counter and then wrap the block up in plastic or zip-lock it to keep it from absorbing moisture while "aging". Any thoughts? Have any of you ever experienced this before (extra thick chocolate after aging and then tempering)?
I asked Ben (on the forum) his thoughts on this and he thought it may just be over-crystallization during tempering and that I should try bumping up the final temperature to 90F. Also, I probably should just use Mode 1. I was also using Mode 2 to attempt to temper without using seed chocolate.
Thoughts?
Cheers All,
Dave
I've had an issue the last two times I've tempered (one in a Chocovision Rev2 and another in my new Chocovision x3210). Both times, after tempering was finished, the chocolate was pretty viscous and quite hard to suck up in my molding syringes. It also didn't flow very easily in the mold during vibrating, which didn't end up looking pretty when finished. Has anyone experienced this before? (Both tempering attempts finished at a temperature of 88.7F. Each batch was a 70% dark, just beans and sugar, but with different bean origins. Note that I used Mode 2 "hard to temper" as the room temp was kinda warm about 76F, while the humidity was great at about 37%. This was even while our AC was set to 70F.)
I'm wondering if the issue may be the fact that I "aged" both batches of the refined chocolate in a stainless hotel pan for a week prior to tempering. However, I simply covered the chocolate with a stainless pan lid and left it in my "choco cabinet" for the week. I didn't cover it with plastic wrap at all. Do you think that the daily changes in room humidity and temperature could be causing the chocolate to absorb moisture from the air, thus causing it to thicken up during tempering? (The weekly humidity range was probably 40-65% and temperature range about 68-82F.) In the past, I would cover the chocolate with plastic wrap and didn't seem to have these problems. I'm also wondering if after say letting the chocolate sit in the hotel pan overnight, I should try to dump the solidified block of chocolate out on the counter and then wrap the block up in plastic or zip-lock it to keep it from absorbing moisture while "aging". Any thoughts? Have any of you ever experienced this before (extra thick chocolate after aging and then tempering)?
I asked Ben (on the forum) his thoughts on this and he thought it may just be over-crystallization during tempering and that I should try bumping up the final temperature to 90F. Also, I probably should just use Mode 1. I was also using Mode 2 to attempt to temper without using seed chocolate.
Thoughts?
Cheers All,
Dave