Small equipment for pouring chocolate.

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Permalink Reply by Kerry on December 12, 2009 at 8:56pm

That would be a confectionery funnel - not actually all that useful for chocolate, given the speed at which chocolate cools. Look under kitchen equipment here - http://www.dr.ca/ I have seen a european version that is heated which might be more helpful.

I either use a disposable plastic pastry bag if I need the control piping chocolate into particular items - or I scoop with my favorite ladle for filling plates of molds.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 12, 2009 at 10:03pm

Thanks for the info. I've tried the bag, but I find it difficult to make it stop pouring.

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Permalink Reply by Ilana on December 13, 2009 at 1:31am

piping bags are ideal IMHO. If the tip is cut small enough-by experience you will know how much to cut for each shape in the molds. I think on the callebaut site they have a video of filling molds so you can see how akind of quick lift and small twist of the hand allows filling exactly with no extra drips-usually. Practice makes perfect-and it really is not difficult. I don't have the best "hands" as they say, and I do it...! Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by cheebs on December 13, 2009 at 8:25am

Rich,

For small jobs where it's not worth turning on the Savage pump, I use a 100cc syringe. It's cheap and convenient and avoids a lot of the messes of having to fill up funnels or pastry bags because you draw the chocolate directly from its container. It also allows you to dose very precisely.

If you want to go fancier and higher capacity, the funnels are a good choice. They call them dosing funnels in the chocolate supply websites, and there are manual models and automatic ones with pre-set doses. Be prepared to separate yourself from at least $200 with this alternative. Both Tomric and Chef Rubber carry them, among others. Kerry's comment about rapid cooling is spot-on, especially with the metal models. I suppose you can prevent some of this by pre-heating the funnel

HTH

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 13, 2009 at 3:48pm

Thanks Ilana and cheebs. The piping bags 'look' easy. I'll try them to see if I can get the hang of it after watching a couple videos.

The syringe is still interesting to me. Makes sense, especially since you can draw the chocolate into the syringe.

Those funnels are expensive. I found a polycarbonate one online which is on sale for $175. Wow! The polycarbonate should eliminate some of the cooling effect of the metal funnel, but $175????? Hmmmm......

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Permalink Reply by Brad Reardon on December 17, 2009 at 4:23pm

Just a side note from the new guy:

You may want to do some investigating before using polycarbonate these days. Even if the full effects of BPa haven't been truely tested, the shoppers I have heard from will still react if it is used. Safe or not. Just something to keep in mind.

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Permalink Reply by Andrea on December 18, 2009 at 10:57am

I don't know how large you are looking for but Wilton makes a small, very cheap one.

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E310260-475A-BAC0-...

You can pick them up at Wal-Mart or other stores that have a cake/candy decorating section.

Andrea

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 17, 2009 at 9:45pm

Thanks for the input. I don't sell my product and I don't have any friends or family who are so concerned about plastic that they would turn down Valrhona because it went thru a polycarb funnel to get into a paper wrapper.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 18, 2009 at 1:42pm

You know I saw this small funnel online, but didn't know where to get it locally. At that price I think it's worth a look. Thank you.

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