A Reader Writes, asking, “What is the best chocolate to use for melting & dipping? I make chocolate-coated peanut butter balls and have recently had difficulty with the dipping.” As long as you’re using real chocolate and not compound coating, the answer is pretty much anything with a cocoa content of under 70% ...
... However that’s too simplistic an answer and I suspect that you are having some specific problems you are looking for the answers for. My best guess is that the chocolate is not setting properly and it’s blooming, cracking, and/or flaking.
If you’re using real chocolate, you really do need to temper the chocolate to make sure that it sets properly. You could just put the dipped balls into the fridge to set the chocolate but you run the serious risk that the chocolate will bloom (turn white) fairly quickly. There are many techniques for tempering I can recommend The Chocolate Bible by Christian Teubner as a good basic resource for tempering and many other techniques.
The reason that 70% is a limit is that much above this and the chocolate becomes too brittle when it sets. This leads to cracking and flaking. Staying at 65% and below reduces this possibility.
Another cause of cracking and flaking is when there is too great a difference in temperature between the center and the chocolate coating. If the center is (comparatively) cold and the coating too warm the coating will crack as the center expands as it warms up and the coating contracts as it cools down.
Irrespective, make sure that you’re using a chocolate that is made to be used as a coating (couverture). Eating chocolate, baking chocolate, and chocolate chips all have a higher ratio of cocoa solids to cocoa butter making them less suitable for tempering and dipping.
You could also use compound coating, but that’s not really chocolate.
Posted by
on 01/31 at 10:43 AM
Previous Questions and Answers:
- You recommend keeping the cocoa content below 70%. How would one go about tempering unsweetened chocolate (cocoa liquor)? What ratios of sugar, milk, extracts would you suggest to create a temper-able product from cocoa liquor?
Posted by
on 02/07 at 11:29 AM
- Zen ... You'd temper unsweetened chocolate the same way you temper any other chocolate. Raise the temperature to the point that all the cocoa butter crytals melt, slowly lower the temperature to about 87 and then raise it to about 92-94 degrees. However, the exact temperatures vary depending on the specific chocolate. I don't actually have any particular experience making (for example) my own milk chocolate from chocolate liquor so I have no specific suggestions that I know work to make a temper-able product from liquor. By weight, a "standard" European milk chocolate is about 1/3 liquor and butter, 1/3 milk, and 1/3 sugar. This should provide a starting point for experimentation. :: Clay
Posted by
on 02/07 at 03:40 PM
- WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COATING AND CHOCOLATE. DO SOME COATINGS HAVE COCO BUTTER IN THEM ? JIM :: Jim, Coatings have very little or no cocoa butter in them at all. The cocoa butter is replaced by fats that are "naturally" solid at room temperature, which is why they don't need to be tempered. :: Clay
Posted by
on 01/24 at 06:32 PM
- Why is the compound chocolate cracking when cooling finish? thank you :: Yusuf, There are a couple of reasons that I can think of. A) The coating is too thin (you may be getting it too warm). B) The coating and the interior are cooling at different rates and, in fact, the interior is expanding slightly when the coating is cooling. I would make sure the coating is cooler when you work with it and the center and the coating are as close to the same temperature as possible. :: HTH, Clay
Posted by
on 03/20 at 09:30 AM
- I have a recipe using pistoles. Where do you buy this and could I use just regular chocolate chips. I understand the pistoles melt faster . I would love to find where to buy them as my grocery store does not have them. Thanks Shelby Shelton.
Shelby::
Pistole is a fancy word for a chocolate drop. They come in all shapes and sizes.
They are used by professional chefs to make it easer to measure the correct
amount of chocolate for a recipe. It's not really a question of melting faster
or more easily -- because the drops are all the same size they tend to melt
more evenly. The go by many different names. Felchlin calls them rondos,
Callebaut calls them callets. They are designed for professionals so it sometimes
hard for the home chef to find them. One good source is http://www.chocosphere.com.
They are not a requirement even when the recipe calls for them. Just weigh out
the correct amount of chocolate you chop from a large block.
:: Clay
Posted by
on 06/10 at 11:39 AM
- how long could you keeps liquid compound chocolates in a tank ? and what could be the correct temperature for the chocolate tank?
Pranesh:
I don't have a precise answer for you. My guess is that as long as
you can keep any oxidation from happening the answer is
essentially forever. Certainly months at a minimum, perhaps years.
Much of the world's reserve stock is kept as grindings (chocolate
liquor) in liquid form so the answer is probably closer to a year or
more for chocolate. As compound coatings have no cocoa butter
in them my guess is that they are stable for a longer period of time.
The concern will be to keep oxygen away from the liquid either by
completely filling the storage vessel or by nitrogen flushing the tank.
The correct temperature would be as low as possible to keep the
compound coating liquid and to keep any fat crystallization from
happening. Any more would waste energy and there is the potential
of burning the solids if the temperature gets too high.
The Guittard company is a large manufacturer of compound coatings
so you may want to visit their web site and ask the question there.
:: Clay
Posted by
on 10/12 at 09:22 PM
- differances between compound and real chocolate?
Pranesh:
Technically (in the US, anyway) a chocolate-flavored product in
which the cocoa butter has been replaced with other fats (typically
hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogeanted tropical oils such as
palm kernel oil) can't be called chocolate. They are usually called
compound coatings in the industry and often come in garish colors
including bright yellow, hot pink, and sky blue, and they might or
might not be chocolate flavored.
There are many advantages to using a compound coating over
chocolate. Main ones include: the coating does not require tempering
(the fat will crystallize [harden] properly when it cools down), the
melting point is higher than cocoa butter (good for warm climates),
and palm kernel oil is a lot cheaper than cocoa butter.
The disadvantages are that compound coatings are not real chocolate
and they tend to be very, very sweet.
:: Clay
Posted by
on 10/12 at 09:24 PM
- when coating mellow biscuits with milk compound chocolate at what range should the base biscuit moisture be to get and mellow biscuit coated that lasts long?
:: Karan,
For the answer to this one, you'll need an expert on candy production or
a great reference book. I refer you to the standard work by Bernard Minifie.
It should be able to answer a large number of these very specific technical
questions you are asking me.
The book is Chocolate, Cocoa, and Confectionery : Science and Technology.
:: Clay
Posted by
on 10/13 at 09:45 PM
- i have got a 200 kg chocolate tank in that i have got 150 kg millk compound chocolate and some water has leaked in to the choc tank is there any possibilities that i can heat up the tank and to get rid to the water.
Karan,
You will have to contact a company that manufactures compound coating
to find an answer to this one. I have no idea how to solve the problem.
My sense is, however, is that if you were to heat the compound coating
to the point that water evaporates (100 degrees C) that there is the
chance you will ruin the compound coating.
:: Clay
Posted by
on 10/29 at 08:26 PM
- 1)when coating compound chocolates what could be the best temperature when chocolates are coated
in the enrober machine?
2)for coating will the temperature (milk / dark compound chocolate ) shall be same or different
when coating?
thanks
Karan:
These are questions to ask the company whose compound coating
you are using.
:: Clay
Posted by
on 11/03 at 05:53 PM
- from where can i buy coverture chocolate 39% cocoa butter?
Monique:
Why do you want exactly 39% cocoa butter? Most chocolate
manufacturers to not break out their cocoa butter/cocoa
solids content. Do you mean 39% cocoa content? In this case
you need to just look at the cocoa content designator on
the box. 39% total cocoa content is high for a milk, low for
a dark.
:: Clay
Posted by
on 12/11 at 11:58 PM