Post by dhschreiber on Sept 2, 2009 10:26:52 GMT -5
I know how to temper, trouble is, once I have tempered chocolate, say about 7 pounds, how do I keep that at 90F and workable so that I can mold it nicely. First time I used I think a Melamine bowl, which retained the heat pretty well and I was able to mold everything without too much trouble. Second time I used a metal (with aluminum base) stock pot and ! the chocolate started to get unworkable pretty quickly. I had to resort to continually using a hair dryer on low to keep it up to temperature. As a result some of the temper got lost and the bars looked pretty poor. Third time I used a cast-iron dutch oven, which I thought would retain more heat. Same trouble as with the steel stockpot, chocolate quickly became unworkable.
Another issue is that I want to first ladle out about 1 lb to mix with nibs so some of the batch are nib-bars, some plain... but again, what kind of bowl to put that in. I suppose since the bowl and the nibs i'm using start out cold, that explains why this gets unworkable fairly quickly... of one batch, the nib-bars are the first I molded, and once I got back to the regular stuff, it was already getting pretty cool!
I guess the thing to deduce is that a thick plastic bowl retains heat the best, and though I have no trouble incorporating things (like almonds and raisins) by sticking them onto the 'back' of a bar on the face-up side of a mold, trying to mix something into melted chocolate is not working, unless perhaps I bring _everything_ (bowl, ingredients) up to temp first.
What kind of 'chocolate melting pot' or chocolate holding tank to larger makers use?? How can I build a home version using cheap things like heating pads...?
Thanks!
--Dan
Another issue is that I want to first ladle out about 1 lb to mix with nibs so some of the batch are nib-bars, some plain... but again, what kind of bowl to put that in. I suppose since the bowl and the nibs i'm using start out cold, that explains why this gets unworkable fairly quickly... of one batch, the nib-bars are the first I molded, and once I got back to the regular stuff, it was already getting pretty cool!
I guess the thing to deduce is that a thick plastic bowl retains heat the best, and though I have no trouble incorporating things (like almonds and raisins) by sticking them onto the 'back' of a bar on the face-up side of a mold, trying to mix something into melted chocolate is not working, unless perhaps I bring _everything_ (bowl, ingredients) up to temp first.
What kind of 'chocolate melting pot' or chocolate holding tank to larger makers use?? How can I build a home version using cheap things like heating pads...?
Thanks!
--Dan