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Post by Alchemist on Apr 9, 2008 11:13:52 GMT -5
Same reason as for refining and conch other chocolates.
Refining: To reduce particle size. A blender will only get you to 100 microns at best, and 500 more like it. You want an order of magnitude lower to feel smooth in the mouth.
Conching: To release volatiles (there are some in milk I have found) and lend a smoother mouth feel (different than grittiness)
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Post by ripvanwinkle on Jul 28, 2008 1:23:33 GMT -5
I wonder if a chocolate "fondue" fountain wouldn't rid the chocolate of volatiles.
On one side I can see pickup of odors in the ambient air but still - the fountains do present a lot of surface to the air.
Does anyone have experience with the fountains? I wonder if I can find one that will hold the temperature high but not too high. Hmmm, a variable temperature control.
The Sepha Elite is recommended and looks like it would expose lots of the chocolate to air - it is tall. Price is $199, or $150 refurbished, on the web. Rival makes an acceptable one that Amazon sells for $40. (Cheaper ones are noisy and tend to be hard to clean.)
I am thinking of a tent to limit air flow past the chocolate - just enough to be rid of the volatiles. This would hold some heat too - could be helpful to boil off the volatiles.
Any thoughts about this?
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Post by Sebastian on Jul 28, 2008 6:16:30 GMT -5
Fountains won't work to get rid of volatiles, and it will thicken considerably due to picking up ambient moisture. Conching for white chocolates is done, primarily, to reduce moisture (white has a higher lvl of moisutre than it's darker counterparts), and to affect mouthfeel.
There once was a company making a thin film processing unit that took your liquor/chocolate at high temperatures in a very thin film over a roller surface (Called a PDAT i think) to affect flavor - i've n ever used it, so i'm not sure how effective it was, but you may try something if you can figgure out the mechanics of it. it's not a widely used piece of equipment, if that tells you anything...
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