chocolate making/tempering

[wanye]

anyone here make chocolates? i've been experimenting recently, but would like some tips from people who might have done this sort of thing before, as results have been patchy in places.

one batch came out really gritty in texture. i suspect i may have over-microwaved it. some (especially milk choc) seems overly-melty and would be useless within 10 minutes of taking out the fridge (didnt help it was during the hot period a month or two ago, but i would have hoped they would be a bit more stable?!)

i am mostly using commercially available bars of chocolate, adding a couple of flavourings, melting them down and pouring into molds... most of the ones ive done have been ~80% dark choc ones (i particularly like the lidl ecuadorian one for ~£1.30 a 125g pack, but have experimented with cadbury bourneville (not great), dairy milk (awful, and by far the most melty of them all) green and blacks and a couple of others) - should i buy some sort of bulk chocolate instead of this? (i'm generally making ~60 chocs at a time, 150g of choc gets me roughly 20 chocs)

i'm assuming pre-tempered chocolate, needs re-tempering after melting? i've been looking at using my sous-vide stick to do this. i'll be following kenji's guide here

seriouseats/2014/12/...chocolate.html

any thoughts, tips, ideas, suggestions?

also, any tips for presentation/storage boxes? the flat pack ones i bought from the range are far too large and way too expensive (they worked out at around 60p per box!)

[angelbabe]

Have you tried a double boiler and thermometer for melting instead of the microwave? Tempering chocolate requires a specific temperature that will be difficult to achieve in a microwave.

[Apricota]

The chocolate needs heating to temp (different for differing types of choc ie milk dark etc) then raising, lowering etc to break the crystallisation. Then to smooth crack and glossy temp.

Your link looks good and has the differing types. Raising and lowering temps I have been assured is the better way (other being seeding). Mostly it works for me and chocs all good. Anyway lots of fun to do.

Making your own crunchie is great fun!

[wanye]

Originally Posted by angelbabe

Have you tried a double boiler and thermometer for melting instead of the microwave? Tempering chocolate requires a specific temperature that will be difficult to achieve in a microwave.

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the microwave has been retired as a chocolate melting device after the first gritty batch. i was doing it in a pan/double boiler setup, but was really fiddly, which is why i'm probably going the sous vide method (with regular agitation) linked above. its easy to set specific temps and hold them using SV

[angelbabe]

Originally Posted by wanye

the microwave has been retired as a chocolate melting device after the first gritty batch. i was doing it in a pan/double boiler setup, but was really fiddly, which is why i'm probably going the sous vide method (with regular agitation) linked above. its easy to set specific temps and hold them using SV

See more...

Isn’t the sous vide even more fiddly than the double boiler? Do you lose much of the chocolate sticking to the bag? Interested in trying this (well my daughter lol, she’s the baker).

[wanye]

the bag is only as big as the chocolate i'm putting in, and i'll be able to pipe it straight out of the bag into the molds, so hopefully wastage will be minimised

and it may seem more fiddly, but being able to prcisely control the temp, and then hold it at certain temps for long periods of time (kenji says up to 12 hours) seems like a no-brainer to me

[Guest]

He's not on TV much these days but Anton Mosimann used to make the most amazing chocolate I'd ever seen. I think he had a series about it many moons ago.

[Vanillapod]

Chocolate tempering is a nightmare! I absolutely dread doing it andnit just so much mess with the slab. And then it blooms sometimes even though you were so sure it was right 😫
Have you got a thermapen? They react the quickest which is essential I find.
Alternatively I have considered a Thermomix to keep the temperature constant.
Not sure if this is accurate enough. I link Libby (OhDarling) works for Thermomix so you could try sending her a PM? It depends how serious you are about your chocolate making though!

Callebaut is the easiest to work with IMO.

A friend of mine has just taken over a fancy chocolate company so I’m never doing it again! I shall employ her for all chocolate cake topper requirements!

Good luck! Would love to see some pictures!

[wanye]

heres ones i did last night. didnt use sous vide this time though. thats my plan for later today...

sous vide can control temps to within .5 of a degree so may be a better idea than the thermomix? (although looking at them now, i want one! but i just dont have room in the kitchen for another gadget... maybe after i'd had the kitchen redone, and there is more than twice as much counter top/storage space...)

what chocolate do other people use? can you get good quality bulk dark chocolate, or should i stick to melting half decent 100-200g bars from the supermarket? any tips on where to get supplies from? (being able to sample different types in advance of buying a large block would be useful)

being vegan-friendly would be a bonus too, i know the G&B stuff i like is vegan, so can give some to my best mate for an xmas present

*edit*
i just googled callebaut, thanks for the info, i think ill put an order in to try it

*edit2*
ive ordered a free 150g sample pack to try, although i wish they did sample packs of the whole range. just a few nuggets of each to try the different ones, i'd even pay for it if they did one!

for now though, i've just gone to lidl and got 6 packs of the ecuadorian 81% stuff which my vegan friend confirmed are ok

[wanye]

two packs of green and blacks going in as a test before i try 6 packs of the lidl stuff in one go

sous vide warming the water up to 115f at the moment. should be ready to drop in shortly...

seriouseats/2014/12/... html#sousvide

The Short Version: Vacuum seal any amount of chocolate in a bag. Drop it into a water bath set at 115°F and let it sit until completely melted, about 5 minutes. Set your sous vide cooker temperature to 81°F and add ice to the water bath until the temperature drops to 81°. Set your temperature to 90°F and let the chocolate heat up, lifting the bag out of the water once every minute and squeezing it around to agitate it as it warms up. Hold the chocolate at 90°F until ready to use. Snip off the corner and pipe or drizzle as required.