I currently have one of the small version of a chocolate dipping machine
which has two settings, warm to keep the chocolate liquid and hot to melt
the chocolate from solid. It's a great machine and I love to use it for the
holidays for dipping all sorts of candies. My question is - Can you use a
crockpot on low to do the same thing? I got an advertisement in this months
Good Cook magazine selection and it is for a unit called Chocolate Heaven,
being toughted as a candy maker and a fondue pot. It basically looks like a
crockpot. Has removable insert and everything. It's $12.99 and holds up to
24oz. The one i have, which was some special unit, cost me twice that and
holds about 8oz. I do a LOT of candy making, especially at Christmas and I
was wondering if this Chocolate Heaven would be a good thing for me to buy
and use for dipping large batches or if buying a small crockpot from
Wal-Mart would do the same thing. I'm not looking for pristine style dipping
as I am only a basic home candy maker, but I would love to be able to dip
more than a few at a time and not have to stop to add more chocolate every
10th peice of candy. Anyone have any ideas on this unit or their use of it
or a crockpot to dip candies??? It would also be useful to keep both units
and have one for chocolate and one for white chocolate or something as well.


I guess my main question is, Do I need the Chocolate Heaven unit (is it
something special?) or can I do the same thing with a low heat crockpot?

Thanks in advance

In rec.food.cooking Bunny McElwee wrote:
the chocolate from solid. It's a great machine and I love to use it for the
holidays for dipping all sorts of candies. My question is - Can you use a
crockpot on low to do the same thing? I got an advertisement in this months

I think a crock pot would get too hot. Chocolate melts around 80 to 85 F and
really should be kept under about 120 F for most things. In fact, you probably
want to keep it below 95 to keep it in temper for dipping. Crock pots
have to get above 140 F to cook foods at temperatures that are safe.

You might be able to get a crock pot and add a soldering iron heat controller
to it to keep the temperature down, but I don't know how stable it would
keep the temperature.

Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.

Bunny McElwee wrote:

I guess my main question is, Do I need the Chocolate Heaven unit (is it
something special?) or can I do the same thing with a low heat crockpot?

First, I assume you're not talking about chocolate that requires
tempering. I'm 99% sure you're not, you're using some sort of
compound chocolate, but I ask anyway.

I'm no crockpot expert, but the ones I've used lately have a *much*
higher minimum temperature than the ones I used, say, 20 years ago.
Too high to use for holding chocolate.

For comparison, I did use an old crockpot years ago for dipping
chocolate. On it's lowest setting, it held a temp of around
110-115 F. On a cold enough day I could even use it to ferment
yogurt. It takes a pretty darn low temp to do that.

On the other hand, I've used several much newer crock pots
lately and they wouldn't go below about 160-170 F on the
lowest setting. That's too high for your purposes, even if
you're just using compound chocolate.

I suspect that since it's nominally designed for chocolate
the CH unit runs much cooler than a crockpot.

--
Reg

Bunny McElwee wrote:
I currently have one of the small version of a chocolate dipping machine
which has two settings, warm to keep the chocolate liquid and hot to melt
the chocolate from solid. It's a great machine and I love to use it for the
holidays for dipping all sorts of candies. My question is - Can you use a
crockpot on low to do the same thing? I got an advertisement in this months
Good Cook magazine selection and it is for a unit called Chocolate Heaven,
being toughted as a candy maker and a fondue pot. It basically looks like a
crockpot. Has removable insert and everything. It's $12.99 and holds up to
24oz. The one i have, which was some special unit, cost me twice that and
holds about 8oz. I do a LOT of candy making, especially at Christmas and I
was wondering if this Chocolate Heaven would be a good thing for me to buy
and use for dipping large batches or if buying a small crockpot from
Wal-Mart would do the same thing. I'm not looking for pristine style dipping
as I am only a basic home candy maker, but I would love to be able to dip
more than a few at a time and not have to stop to add more chocolate every
10th peice of candy. Anyone have any ideas on this unit or their use of it
or a crockpot to dip candies??? It would also be useful to keep both units
and have one for chocolate and one for white chocolate or something as well.


I guess my main question is, Do I need the Chocolate Heaven unit (is it
something special?) or can I do the same thing with a low heat crockpot?

Thanks in advance
I think you are much better off using a large stainless bowl and a bain
marie as a crockpot gets waay too hot, even on the lowest setting. Are
you using couverture or melt and mold stuff? I just bought an 11 pound
block of Callebaut milk chocolate which will be made into truffles
shortly. If you have never tried it, see if you can get your hands on
some. It is fantastic!

"Bunny McElwee" wrote

I guess my main question is, Do I need the Chocolate Heaven unit (is it
something special?) or can I do the same thing with a low heat crockpot?

I took a little candy making class once, they melted the chocolate
?? disks? and kept the bowl on a heating pad turned on high, and
on one of those heated things they put dishes on at a buffet.

Just a thought.

nancy

Thanks to everyone for the quick responses. Yes, I am using plain
chocolate, mainly for dipping cookies, some truffle like candies, nothing
fancy, and I do it in BIG lots, so using coture is not an option, moneywise.
I'll save that for my Chocolate Fountain time. I appreaciate all the helpful
advice, and I do know about using the waterbath and using the heating pad,
but for the amount I am looking to do, it seems both of those methods might
not be the right way for me to go, personally. My small chocolatier unit
works great, I just spent 8 hours at a friends house dipping 7 batches of
candy and it really does work great. Nothing fancy, but much easier than
trying to keep melting chocolate at the right temp. I figured that the
crockpots would be too hot, but because this particular unit (Chocolate
Heaven) looks a lot like a crockpot, I was wondering if I was just buying a
crockpot. I can't find any info on what temp it keeps it at etc, but as
someone stated, sine they are touting it as a candy dipper/maker, I have to
assume it is a low heat type of crockpot. So, for the $13 I'm going to
check it out. Worst that happens is it ends up in the next yard sale, or it
could be the best thing I ever bought!



Thanks again for all the helpful info!


"Bunny McElwee" wrote in message
...
I currently have one of the small version of a chocolate dipping
machine which has two settings, warm to keep the chocolate liquid and hot
to melt the chocolate from solid. It's a great machine and I love to use
it for the holidays for dipping all sorts of candies. My question is - Can
you use a crockpot on low to do the same thing? I got an advertisement in
this months Good Cook magazine selection and it is for a unit called
Chocolate Heaven, being toughted as a candy maker and a fondue pot. It
basically looks like a crockpot. Has removable insert and everything. It's
$12.99 and holds up to 24oz. The one i have, which was some special unit,
cost me twice that and holds about 8oz. I do a LOT of candy making,
especially at Christmas and I was wondering if this Chocolate Heaven would
be a good thing for me to buy and use for dipping large batches or if
buying a small crockpot from Wal-Mart would do the same thing. I'm not
looking for pristine style dipping as I am only a basic home candy maker,
but I would love to be able to dip more than a few at a time and not have
to stop to add more chocolate every 10th peice of candy. Anyone have any
ideas on this unit or their use of it or a crockpot to dip candies??? It
would also be useful to keep both units and have one for chocolate and one
for white chocolate or something as well.


I guess my main question is, Do I need the Chocolate Heaven unit (is it
something special?) or can I do the same thing with a low heat crockpot?

Thanks in advance

Bunny McElwee wrote:
Thanks to everyone for the quick responses. Yes, I am using plain
chocolate, mainly for dipping cookies, some truffle like candies, nothing
fancy, and I do it in BIG lots, so using coture is not an option, moneywise.
I'll save that for my Chocolate Fountain time. I appreaciate all the helpful
advice, and I do know about using the waterbath and using the heating pad,
but for the amount I am looking to do, it seems both of those methods might
not be the right way for me to go, personally. My small chocolatier unit
works great, I just spent 8 hours at a friends house dipping 7 batches of
candy and it really does work great. Nothing fancy, but much easier than
trying to keep melting chocolate at the right temp. I figured that the
crockpots would be too hot, but because this particular unit (Chocolate
Heaven) looks a lot like a crockpot, I was wondering if I was just buying a
crockpot. I can't find any info on what temp it keeps it at etc, but as
someone stated, sine they are touting it as a candy dipper/maker, I have to
assume it is a low heat type of crockpot. So, for the $13 I'm going to
check it out. Worst that happens is it ends up in the next yard sale, or it
could be the best thing I ever bought!



From your description, it's probably a modified crockpot. It either
has a lower wattage heating element, or a thermostat built in, or just a
resistor in series with the standard heating element to lower the
wattage. (It'll be whichever is cheapest to manufacture)

Bob

Thats what I am thinking. I'm mainly just looking to be able to do large
batches of dipping at a time instead of spending all my time waiting for
chocolate to melt. Thanks for the info, I will let everyone know how it
does.

I'd love to be able to use couture chocolate, but alas, money doesn't go
that far and I like to make a large variety of things. Since everyone
patiently awaits my goodie trays each year, I have to assume I'm doing
something right!


"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
Bunny McElwee wrote:
Thanks to everyone for the quick responses. Yes, I am using plain
chocolate, mainly for dipping cookies, some truffle like candies, nothing
fancy, and I do it in BIG lots, so using coture is not an option,
moneywise. I'll save that for my Chocolate Fountain time. I appreaciate
all the helpful advice, and I do know about using the waterbath and using
the heating pad, but for the amount I am looking to do, it seems both of
those methods might not be the right way for me to go, personally. My
small chocolatier unit works great, I just spent 8 hours at a friends
house dipping 7 batches of candy and it really does work great. Nothing
fancy, but much easier than trying to keep melting chocolate at the right
temp. I figured that the crockpots would be too hot, but because this
particular unit (Chocolate Heaven) looks a lot like a crockpot, I was
wondering if I was just buying a crockpot. I can't find any info on what
temp it keeps it at etc, but as someone stated, sine they are touting it
as a candy dipper/maker, I have to assume it is a low heat type of
crockpot. So, for the $13 I'm going to check it out. Worst that happens
is it ends up in the next yard sale, or it could be the best thing I ever
bought!



From your description, it's probably a modified crockpot. It either has a
lower wattage heating element, or a thermostat built in, or just a
resistor in series with the standard heating element to lower the wattage.
(It'll be whichever is cheapest to manufacture)

Bob

Bunny McElwee wrote:
Thanks to everyone for the quick responses. Yes, I am using plain
chocolate, mainly for dipping cookies, some truffle like candies,
nothing fancy, and I do it in BIG lots, so using coture is not an
option, moneywise. I'll save that for my Chocolate Fountain time.

You aren't using "plain" chocolate, you are using "summer coating" or "candy
melts" or "compound chocolate"--whatever you want to call it--which, as a
professional candy maker told me years ago before I became a professional,
isn't really chocolate.

You DEFINITELY don't want to try using couverture in a chocolate fountain.
Chocolate fountains are designed to use inexpensive thinned "chocolate" of
the type you are already using--and they aren't thinning it with cocoa
butter because then it would be really expensive. Every chocolate sold for
fountains that I've seen is a thinner-when-melted version of candy melts.

If you are going to use candy melts, it seems to be generally agreed that
Merckens has far and away the best taste.

As to equipment, one inexpensive setup that works well if tempering is not
an issue is putting a heating pad inside a larger bowl, making a warm nest
for a metal bowl containing the melted candy melts. If the heating pad has
heating controls, so much the better.

Bunny McElwee wrote:
snip
I'd love to be able to use couture chocolate, but alas, money doesn't
go that far and I like to make a large variety of things.

If you are buying in bulk, you can get good couverture--not "couture,"
that's clothing--for about $4.75 per pound. (More than melts go for, but not
necessarily prohibitive.)

Your bigger problem would be tempering, and even bigger would be keeping it
in temper while you dip. You are probably wise to stick with candy melts,
since your audience is satisfied with them, unless you want to get into that
whole thing.

Correct, I am using generally things such as Almond Bark or Candy
Coating or plain chips from a bag. I use high quailty chocolate for my
Chocolate fountain which is 38% cocoa butter and I do NOT add oils to it.
The recommened use of chips is what you normally add oil to, however, the
ratio of oil to chocolate did not seem like it would make a very tasty or
eye pleasing sort of chocolate that I would dip anything into. SO I go to
Whole Foods and buy huge chunks of GOOD chocolate (I can't think of the name
of it) and melt and pour into the fountain. Works great and tastes a heck of
a lot better than anything I could use that was thinned with oil.

But, for dipping, I use inexpensive candy coating or chips (when called
for) and I'm pleased with the results.


You aren't using "plain" chocolate, you are using "summer coating" or
"candy melts" or "compound chocolate"--whatever you want to call
it--which, as a professional candy maker told me years ago before I became
a professional, isn't really chocolate.

You DEFINITELY don't want to try using couverture in a chocolate fountain.
Chocolate fountains are designed to use inexpensive thinned "chocolate" of
the type you are already using--and they aren't thinning it with cocoa
butter because then it would be really expensive. Every chocolate sold
for fountains that I've seen is a thinner-when-melted version of candy
melts.

If you are going to use candy melts, it seems to be generally agreed that
Merckens has far and away the best taste.

As to equipment, one inexpensive setup that works well if tempering is not
an issue is putting a heating pad inside a larger bowl, making a warm nest
for a metal bowl containing the melted candy melts. If the heating pad has
heating controls, so much the better.

Bunny McElwee wrote:
Correct, I am using generally things such as Almond Bark or Candy
Coating or plain chips from a bag. I use high quailty chocolate for my
Chocolate fountain which is 38% cocoa butter and I do NOT add oils to it.
The recommened use of chips is what you normally add oil to, however, the
ratio of oil to chocolate did not seem like it would make a very tasty or
eye pleasing sort of chocolate that I would dip anything into. SO I go to
Whole Foods and buy huge chunks of GOOD chocolate (I can't think of the name
of it) and melt and pour into the fountain. Works great and tastes a heck of
a lot better than anything I could use that was thinned with oil.

But, for dipping, I use inexpensive candy coating or chips (when called
for) and I'm pleased with the results.


You aren't using "plain" chocolate, you are using "summer coating" or
"candy melts" or "compound chocolate"--whatever you want to call
it--which, as a professional candy maker told me years ago before I became
a professional, isn't really chocolate.

You DEFINITELY don't want to try using couverture in a chocolate fountain.
Chocolate fountains are designed to use inexpensive thinned "chocolate" of
the type you are already using--and they aren't thinning it with cocoa
butter because then it would be really expensive. Every chocolate sold
for fountains that I've seen is a thinner-when-melted version of candy
melts.

If you are going to use candy melts, it seems to be generally agreed that
Merckens has far and away the best taste.

As to equipment, one inexpensive setup that works well if tempering is not
an issue is putting a heating pad inside a larger bowl, making a warm nest
for a metal bowl containing the melted candy melts. If the heating pad has
heating controls, so much the better.

You would be sooo much happier with couverture, altho it needs to be
tempered. The flavor and appearance are much better. I used to work in
a bakery that used chocolate chips for making ganache, which worked
most of the time, but sometimes not. Chips are made to keep their shape
in cookies. Couverture has no added crap to it, and results in a far
superior product.

Yes, I now I probably would, but I do not want to mess with tempering it
and my wallet would rather I us Almond bark I rarely if ever use chips,
unless they go INTO the batter/dough/candy. I never use them to coat, as I
don't think they work as well as Almond Bark does. I've used couverture
before for truffles, and yes, it is better, but the cost for me is just not
wht I want to do for stuff that I eat little to none of! Most of the candy
making I do is for gifts for friends neighbors and some family for
Christmas. They seem happy, so I will stick with what works.

You would be sooo much happier with couverture, altho it needs to be
tempered. The flavor and appearance are much better. I used to work in
a bakery that used chocolate chips for making ganache, which worked
most of the time, but sometimes not. Chips are made to keep their shape
in cookies. Couverture has no added crap to it, and results in a far
superior product.