Discover Chocolate and Live La Vida Cocoa!
- Blog Posts
- Discussions (27)
- Events
- Groups (1)
- Photos
- Photo Albums
- Videos
Mark Heim's Discussions
Crystalization of sugar
Replied Jan 20
Mark Heim's Page
Latest Activity
Don't just look at the molds. A thin vacuum formed mold like that is affected faster by room and table surface temperatures. If you have the molds on a cold surface the chocolate can crystalize too quickly, forming unstable crystals. Try making sure…
To get smaller sugar crystallization, the cooler the better, the recommended 100F will help. Also the more shear you can give it, the smaller the crystals will be, so when you beat it, put as much into it as you can, tabling like you would for tempe…
Are you using the chocolate to tablet or to enrobe?
Beside temperature, you can firm up the pieces for demolding in several ways, some of them changing texture when eaten. These include increasing chocolate while reducing cream (increasing the dispersed phase, and the lipid ratio is more higher melt…
White beans are criollo type. Hard to find pure white beans anymore with all the cross breeding. Forestero are purple and Trinitario some purple as well. Lots of resources out there on advantages/disadvantages of each type, history, flavor profiles,…
I use the ACMC for personal use, holds a nice charge of chocolate. Oh, it does have a fan for the cooling stage. And 2 100w bulbs for heat. Simple, and stands up to a good bit of abuse.
What temperature did you cool them down to? Make sure cool enough to firm up so they can be removed easily.
Talk to them first, I've found them helpful. Depending on what you will spray (water based colors, colored cocoa butter, chocolate) you will have increasing demands on the pressure needed and the type of airbrush that will work.
There are several retail confectioner groups, such as PMCA (Pennsylvania Manufacturing Confectioners Assoc.), NCA (National Confectioners Assoc.), and AACT (American Association of Confectionery Technologists) that have directories of co-manufacture…
There are 2 primary ways to extend shelf life, reduce the water activity, or with cold storage. Common way to reduce water activity is to add a corn/glucose syrup, invert syrup, sorbitol, or glycerol. Each have their advantages and disadvantages, bu…
I make them only for gifts and to bring to holiday gatherings. Something they can't easily find and something special they come to look forward to over the holidays.
Yes. My favorite are sugar crust liquors. Over the holidays I make Brandy, Bourbon, Red Wine, and Fruit (for the kids). The shell looks like a geode, and the filling is almost the consistency of the original liquor or wine. You can cast into starch,…
Andre, Yes, Kee from Kee's chocolates.
Keys Chocolates in NYC.
Save the earth, it's the only planet with chocolate.
Couverture is chocolate but with more cocoa butter, to make it more fluid when tempered, making it easier to enrobe pieces with a thinner coating. You can compensate with adding cocoa powder but you will lose some of the smoothness. Another trick yo…
Profile Information
- Dark, Milk, White?
- Dark
- Most memorable chocolate experience:
- As a child, went on tour of the Hershey Factory, back when you could tour the factory. The room full of conches made it look like a chocolate lake in an amusement park.
- My favorite chocolate is:
- Depends on when, dark, milk, but usually with almonds.
Comment Wall
- No comments yet!
© 2010 Created by Clay Gordon
