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Post by raazyukt on Sept 24, 2010 13:11:18 GMT -5
I've got a melanger and have been happily making chocolate in it for a few years. However, recently I'm encountering a problem; after a few hours of grinding, the sugar forms into lumps even though any lumps in the sugar were ground away within the first few minutes of grinding. When dissected, these lumps are indeed the sugar which for a reason currently beyond me, is clumping together rather than staying separate and getting finer. Of course this makes the grinder bump around and it generally breaks them up, but it is certainly concerning as the effectiveness of grinding down to make a smooth chocolate seems to be much less. Why would the sugar, after 7 hours of grinding form into lumps (sometimes 8cm across)? The moisture of the sugar is between 1-2%. Could someone tell me what the moisture level normally is for sugar?
any suggestions, particularly from experienced chocolate-makers, would be greatly appreciated (there's a lot riding on this chocolate going right).
thank you in advance. Raaz
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Post by Sebastian on Sept 24, 2010 14:30:04 GMT -5
What makes you say your sugar moisture is between 1-2% Commercially available sugars will stabilize at 4-5% mosture, so if you're at 1-2% to start with, you're either pre-drying your sugar, having someone do it for your, or your testing procedure is likely off My strong suspicion is that you've got moisture in your process, more than you think you do. is it possible you've got some moisture residing in the nooks and cranny's of your equipment, left over from cleaning? As an additional thought - are you starting with granulated sugar, or something else? White, refined sugar, i assume? Posting your formula might be helpful as well.
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Post by raazyukt on Sept 24, 2010 17:17:19 GMT -5
The supplier has confirmed the moisture level is 1-2% as they also pre-dry the sugar. However, I would like to verify this. Does anyone have a hand-held moisture detector they could recommend? The sugar is unrefined. The machine is completely dry. How likely is air humidity likely to be a variable that could effect the chocolate in such a drastic way?
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Post by Sebastian on Sept 25, 2010 5:57:40 GMT -5
I doubt your humidity is the problem if it's granulated sugar you're using - possibly if it's powdered sugar. Based on what you're describing, i would not trust supplier results. I'm skeptical they dried it to a 1% moisture level, and even if they did, once it leaves their factory, it's out of their control, so there's no telling what the conditions were that it was stored in, so how could they possibly know the moisture level at point of use?
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