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Post by tedbell on Feb 12, 2022 18:14:19 GMT -5
Hey everyone, This was my first batch of chocolate. I am fairly certain I didn't temper properly, but maybe not. I used homemade silk and used 1% (7g), let the chocolate cool to about 93-94, and added it in. Stirred it up and waited a min, then stirred it again and poured into molds. I rapped them on the counter and gave the rest of the liquid chocolate to my wife so she could try making chocolate chips. After about 5 min, I saw some white streaks on the backs of the bars, and just left them alone to fully set in the kitchen. About an hour later I thought they were set well enough (they wern't) so I popped them out and saw this: link
Here's a top view of what came out of the molds:What in the world happend? Is it a tempering issue? if so, this is a big one. And have you ever seen or had layering like this? As an aside, the chips my wife made came out perfectly fine, no issues.
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Post by soseattle on Feb 13, 2022 1:49:31 GMT -5
Hi,
I am a newbie too that just finished my first batch of chocolate. I would definitely say a tempering issue because it looks just like my batch of chocolate before it was tempered. I made my first batch and stored it untempered for awhile before continuing with the process. The reason being, I decided to purchase some silk and a tabletop tempering machine before continuing to do the final steps. I didn't feel confident with my ability to manually temper the chocolate. I wanted to purchase the Chocovision Rev2, but turned out to be more difficult than I planned (supply chain/COVID issues?). I finally ended up purchasing a second hand Chocovision REV1 for now. I am so glad I did! The Rev1 worked perfectly and the chocolate has an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G temper. I felt using the tempering machine made the learning curve a bit less steep, though it is still there.
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Post by Ben on Feb 14, 2022 9:39:29 GMT -5
The temper is probably off or they weren't cooled adequately. Silk does make tempering easy, but I think it's worth learning how to temper manually. I'd recommend the two bowl method. You can find a video from Brad on these forums showing how it's done. Also, be sure to always test the temper before molding by dipping a knife or a bit of parchment paper in the chocolate. It should set up with a good snap and no streaks or bloom.
For cooling, room temperature is usually not cool enough. I'd recommend popping them in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
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Post by mark on Feb 15, 2022 1:48:20 GMT -5
Hey Ted, there's no need to be ashamed, you're learning and that's great. I agree with Ben it's a good idea to understand tempering first by using Brad's method. That one will always work if you follow the instructions but it's a lot of effort. Once you've mastered that you can move on to silk and I'm convinced you'll nail it based on your new experience.
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Post by Thomas on Feb 18, 2022 11:23:31 GMT -5
I've seen many post about tempering failures. In my experience there are a few issues that not all understand when starting there chocolate journey. I'm listing them here so it may help someone in the future. 1. Tempering - There are several methods to accomplish the pre-crystallization of chocolate (i.e. tempering). Tabling, Seeding or Silk, using a machine, Two bowl method, etc. Here's a link to Brad's two bowl method www.facebook.com/SoChoklat/videos/1132903850118884/. Don't forget to test your chocolate once you think it is in temper. 2. Keeping the chocolate in temper while molding - Once the chocolate is in temper, it will start to setup and thicken if you do not maintain it at a working temperature. 3. Mold Temperature - While not an absolute necessity, heating the molds helps. Pouring chocolate into a mold that is much colder than the working temperature of the chocolate can shock it and make it setup too quickly. This will not make your chocolate loose temper, it just helps make a prettier chocolate. 4. Mold Setup Environment - This is the one that got me when I first started. I tempered and tested my chocolate but it bloomed in the molds. That was due to the room temperature being too high during setup in the molds. I personally prefer a room temperature of 68F/20C and I also use a fan to keep the air moving around the molds. The fan helps remove any latent heat that occurs during setup. Hope this help someone. -Thomas
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