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Post by ripvanwinkle on Feb 23, 2008 7:22:28 GMT -5
Alchemist, Thanks for the guidance on the Behmor settings. I have been sidelined for a few months but am getting back in gear. I actually made a pretty good batch of white chocolate this week. I followed the advise to use 0.4% Lecithin, not three times that (!) Makes a difference for sure.
Anyway - I will do my first roast soon and make some milk chocolate.
1.) One question: When I grind the beans in the Champion I will get cocoa butter and cocoa liqueur. Do I recombine those to add up to the weight of cocoa liqueur or add the cocoa butter into the cocoa butter weight? (And add more cocoa butter to make up the amount needed for the recipe.)
2.) Question: Will you be getting in some Criollo beans? It's may be a waste for me to be using good beans considering my amateur status, but hopefully I will live up to their good flavor - soon.
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Post by ripvanwinkle on Feb 23, 2008 8:01:30 GMT -5
joyojoy, google "marble and granite orlando" - I'm guessing that you are close to Orlando - and you will find what appear to be some good sources for marble. Most will sell odds and ends at reasonable prices.
I am going to a similar place in Greensboro - but for granite or something to line my oven. The people who have done so rave about the better bake, and not just pizza. Seems worth a try.
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Post by mistacandy on Apr 7, 2008 15:20:17 GMT -5
Wow, Johan Nanci is REALLY inspiring. If if wasn't for him, i would not be making money off my chocolate! I'm glad someone took the quest to find a way to make chocolate at home.
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Post by ponyexpresso on Sept 1, 2008 19:14:37 GMT -5
Hello from Canada everyone. I am new here so forgive me if I start breaking any rules. I have been making chocolates (not from scratch though) for about five years now. It's been mostly for family, friends and as fundraisers for various charities. I love to experiment with different flavour combinations and techniques. I've recently started giving consideration to making chocolates commerically on a small scale. I don't want to open a shop at all but would rather supply establishments with wholesale chocolates.
My roots are in the equestrian world so I hoped to make that my niche. I used to have wonderful horse molds but they seem to have gone missing at some point in my travels. All the ones that I find now are too cute and cartoonish. I'm looking for more sophisticated and realistic looking horse molds if anyone knows of a good resource. My old ones were about 2" X 1 1/2 " for each chamber and that seemed perfect.
I have a background in stone and wire sculpture and have started incorporating that into my chocolate making. I am currently working on two horse sculpture pieces. One from a solid block of chocolate and one wire horse that is drizzled in chocolate. They are actually turning out really nice!
I look forward to meeting everyone and learning some new skills!
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Post by dwj19 on Sept 4, 2008 13:36:00 GMT -5
Hello to all,
It has been a year since finding this informative site and it is only now that I can take the time to really introduce myself and start to get to know others here. My background is in food as a cook, the last eleven years raising my three children (my most difficult critics) and supporting my husband in his career. When my twins began first grade two years, I began to explore ideas to start a small business. I fell in love with chocolate at nine years old when I purchased a European chocolate bar. For forty years I have eaten chocolate nearly every day and it is this area that I hope to create a new career. I purchased the juicer and santha from John and began to make lots and lots of mistakes. Edible, but mistakes. I will be attending a chocolate class soon in SF with Richard Researches to learn the candy making process on a large scale. I hope to contribute and learn from this forum. I just started to learn how to use the blogs and realize that there are some unwritten rules and I ask for guidance if I break any. Also, writing is not my strong suit and I am often running out the door volunteering for three classrooms. I will make it a point to check for BIG mistakes but I was never an editor.
Thanks for reading and looking forward to spending more time on this board.
Danyle J
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Post by Sebastian on Sept 5, 2008 5:30:00 GMT -5
Welcome Danyle! Which of the RR classes are you taking? He used to offer 3, not sure anymore. I've both taken and taught - they're all great, i think you'll learn much from them!
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Post by dwj19 on Sept 5, 2008 10:54:41 GMT -5
Thanks Sebastian. He is only offering one class this year, the bon bon class. I am really looking forward to spending five long days talking, creating and eating chocolate. I know he is very knowledgable in chocolate from bean to bar. I am reading The Science of Chocolate right now. It is over my head but if I read it a few times I can glean some interesting information from it.
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Post by dwj19 on Sept 5, 2008 10:56:49 GMT -5
Also, a quick hello to Ponyexpesso. Wow, are you able to posts pictures of your chocolate sculptures>
danyle
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Post by rabarber on Sept 5, 2008 14:03:24 GMT -5
I don't consider myself to be an alchemist. Nevertheless i have two decades of experience in industrial chocolate manufacturing. So chocolate is an important part of my life even if i'm not working. It's science, history, algebra, geography economics, art,... and above all it tastes wonderfull I've always asked myself why people would make there own chocolate. There was only one reason that I could think of; they don't live in Belgium as i do. But as i've discovered this website I can imagine that it could be fun to. I've always believed that is was not possible to make chocolate whitout big investments. I believe that i was wrong. I hope that i can learn here still more. But i'm quite sure i can. Kind regards Stoffel
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Post by nawteeschocolates on Oct 24, 2008 1:48:30 GMT -5
Found this website from Rogue Chocolates, somehow...I think he mentioned it in an article. I researched him, due to a Martha Stewart segment about him. Looks like this website got him started. Hum....I want to do that, too!
During the depression, my Grandmother, opened a chocolate and confection business to support a family of nine. My Grandfather had gotten seriously ill with tuberculosis and could not work. My Great-Uncle Pierre, also had a store in New Bedford, Massachusetts that was a chocolate and ice cream store. The love of making our own molded chocolates, hard candies, fudges and ice creams was handed down, along with the original formulas, to each subsequent generation. It's part of the family tradition to pull out the formulas and produce items for different holidays and events.
I used the formulas to wholesale chocolate fudge to a chocolate shop in La Jolla, CA. What a fun thing that was! To see people really enjoy something you made felt great.
While I don't, at this moment, want to open a store, I do want to learn more about chocolate. The gentleman that directed the creation and production of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory's line was Everett Seely. He was from San Diego; the suburb of El Cajon, to be exact. When I was making chocolate fudges for the store in La Jolla, I also did truffles. I don't know how I found out about Mr. Seely, but, I contacted him when he returned to El Cajon to visit his daughter. I took my chocolates over and he delighted me by liking them and putting them in his Rocky Mountain box of chocolates that he brought home to give to his neighbor. What a great man he was. He always encouraged people. And, his encouragement caused me to always wonder about making chocolate at home.
I did look into the steps of making chocolate. But, I am glad that this site exists, cause there is a lot of learning to do, and John Nanci has saved me much time by putting this site together. I doubt that I would have ever gotten where I wanted to be without this site. I am certainly standing on someone elses shoulders! Very grateful to you, John.
Okay. I started making my own chocolate molds. Silicone, first. I am going to make my own vacu-form operation and use food grade PETG to make production molds. I asked a friend to sculpt some items for me, and he did. Now, I will have molds that are unique and my own. Now, I need to have chocolate that is unique and my own, too. Over the next three months, I plan on getting all the equipment to do this, along with the cacao beans. What fun! I am continuing the family tradition Grandma started, and expanding on it. And, I am teaching my son as I go along, so, I have hopes that this is something that will get passed on to him.
Making ones own chocolate appeals to me for the uniqueness it gives. I am really looking forward to getting started in this. One question that I have is whether or not any of you get together and have any classes among yourselves? I would love to visit someone that is doing the chocolate making at home and would be willing to pay for instruction, ya know? To watch the different stages and ask questions before doing it myself, is of interest to me. I am in Mesa, AZ, so, if there is anyone close by, please let me know!
Also, if there is anyone interested in my family's formulas for your stash of "recipes", I have posted them for anyone who is interested in downloading them. None of us are going to open a business with these and they did make money for the family at a time when they needed an avenue of support, and I would really like to pass them along to anyone that could use them. Just email me and I will get back to you. These are great recipes and I don't want them to be lost and not used.
Also, one last question. Where can you buy cacao trees from to grow? I need to know more! Thanks again for this forum, John. You have done a wonderful thing!
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Post by Sebastian on Oct 24, 2008 16:25:25 GMT -5
There are a number of places online you can purchase theobroma seedlings from - however, given your location, they're not going to grow well....even inside, with carefully conrolled conditions, we have a difficult time getting ours to grow
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Post by layla on Mar 9, 2009 15:10:07 GMT -5
Aww, what a great website, and what great stories!! I just stumbled across the Chocolate Alchemist, cause I want to make zero waste chocolate The store-bought glitter and excess packaging annoys me, so I wanna try to do my own /with no packaging/ I already started making my own milk conoction (just cocoa powder+milk) and even found raw cocoa beans in a health food store (a tad expensive though, and they don't seem to sell many, so this year they look a bit moldy (?) - it seems they are the same from a year or two ago..?) I do wonder if it's okay to use those to make chocolate too.. Anyway, have been already intrigued by the different tastes of cocoa powders (some with and some without additives, and in different packagings:)) Hope to learn a lot at this site.. Don't consider myself a true alchemist yet (as I haven't still made real chocolate), but definitely want to start experimenting!!
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Post by infotechproximity9 on Jul 8, 2010 0:37:19 GMT -5
I STARTED ON THE BIRTHDAY PARTY OF MINE.... all started through a rather circuitous route. I roast my own coffee at home. I got into it because of a gift from my partner a couple of years ago (Yule 2001). It was a coffee roaster called a Fresh Roast, plus a sample pack of 8 different beans from the best green coffee bean supplier, Sweet Maria's. In addition to selling meticulously cupped and rated beans of top quality, they also have a e-mail list for those who want to really get into roasting coffee and want to talk to other people of like mind. It is really a great list in that it is a real think tank. Anyway, one thing led to another and we on the list set up to meet up for a day of roasting, talking, showing off of roasters and some really fabulous food and drink at what we dubbed the Pacific Northwest Gathering (PNWG) ________________________ Used Auto Parts | Used Car Parts
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Post by cocoa on Jul 27, 2010 17:01:42 GMT -5
I'm a certified chocolate addict. Chocolates is now part of my life. Becoming a Chocolate Alchemist?Wow!sounds interesting and challenging. I want to be part of them.
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Post by charlieangel on Jul 30, 2010 0:18:29 GMT -5
Hello, I've been making chocolate confectionaries for friends/family for about a decade. I finally went to culinary school in 2006, dropped out after I realized just how much chocolate was involved in the curriculum (a couple weeks out of 6 months), and just started winging it at home. My sense of aesthetics sucks, though, so while my creations may taste good, they don't have the visual appeal of what the "pros" are doing, so I just stick with just trying to get my tempering perfect and let the chocolate look like chocolate. A few years ago I decided my goal would be to start making from bean to bar. Earlier this year, I saw an blurb for mast brothers chocolate and I shot them off a quick email when I was thinking of enrolling in an online chocolate making class. Rick Mast responded and pointed me to this site and I've been lurking ever since. Of course, one day I'd like to have a small business producing chocolate in small batches. However, I'd like to take it one step at a time. Let' s just learn how to make chocolate, and make it well, first.
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