Hi, I'm new here. I did read the FAQ, but I didn't see any post etiquette
sections, so please forgive me if I mis-step.

I just got a Revolation I chocolate tempering machine for Christmas. I made
ganache, using a recipe I have used many times before with great success. I
tempered the chocolate for dipping, following the instructions that came
with the machine. The machine said it was done, but it was still very thick.
While dipping the centers, they became covered with a very thick layer of
chocolate, more than I am used to. Also, I had lots of problems with the
ganache centers sticking to the dipping tools, then having a bald spot when
released onto the cooling rack. I applied some tempered chocolate to these
areas. Is this just a matter of practice? Or am I doing something
fundamentally wrong?

Before I got the machine, I made some truffles that had both dark chocolate
and white chocolate ganache centers. the centers were made individually,
then pressed together, gently rolled in the palm, chilled then dipped. I had
major problems with the white chocolate melting while being assembled with
the dark centers, and again while being dipped. I used white chocolate from
a supplier I have had excellent dealings with before, so I am fairly
confident it was of high quality. Any suggestions as to what went wrong with
those? Is this common in using white chocolate?

The final result was delicious, however somewhat misshapen. I would like to
try again, but I need to figure out how to avoid this problem.

--
Wendy
http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
de-fang email address to reply

[original posting follows reply]



Hi Wendy,



A friend loaned me his temperer last spring and suggested the following
method for coating ganache (making truffles.) the clever bits are 1)
coating the truffle while it's in your palm -- that keeps the melted
chocolate warm and encourages a thin coating and 2) do multiple (at least 2,
and maybe 3) successive coats of chocolate -- that eliminates the bald spot
problem.



1) put on some plastic gloves (i use regular rubber gloves for washing
dishes) and wash your gloved hands with warm soap and water. rinse very
well. the gloves let you play with the chocolate without worrying about
sweat or oils from your hands.



2) put a dab (about a teaspoon) of the tempered chocolate in the palm of
your hand and then take one of your nascent truffles and roll it around in
the chocolate by either (or both)

a) poking it around with a finger

b) scrunching your palm so as to roll the truffle in the chocolate



3) keep rolling until the truffle is coated thinly with the chocolate, then
gently slide the truffle onto the cooling rack.



4) continue in this manner with the rest of the ganache, adding more
tempered chocolate to your palm as needed.



5) once the coating is hardened, repeat the process being mindful of not
setting the truffle on the old bald spot.





As for your white and dark ganache issue, i can imagine (I'm guessing here)
several tweaks that might help -- two involve modifying your white chocolate
ganache recipe so as to make the melting point closer to that of the dark
ganache. the third messes with the way you combine the white and dark
ganaches.



The first tweak, and easiest, would be to see what effect reducing the
amount of butterfat would have on the recipe. for example, use the same
volume of half and half, or whole milk, instead of cream and see if that
doesn't result in a ganache that doesn't melt as easily.



The second tweak would be to increase the amount of cocoa butter in the
recipe, by substituting pure cocoa butter for an equal amount of the white
chocolate.



The third tweak would be to start with the white ganache, make little balls,
chill them severely, then coat them with dark ganache. then chill and coat
with chocolate as usual.






pete


--

My mail address is plock at tokla dot com.
"frood" > wrote in message
.com...
> Hi, I'm new here. I did read the FAQ, but I didn't see any post etiquette
> sections, so please forgive me if I mis-step.
>
> I just got a Revolation I chocolate tempering machine for Christmas. I
made
> ganache, using a recipe I have used many times before with great success.
I
> tempered the chocolate for dipping, following the instructions that came
> with the machine. The machine said it was done, but it was still very
thick.
> While dipping the centers, they became covered with a very thick layer of
> chocolate, more than I am used to. Also, I had lots of problems with the
> ganache centers sticking to the dipping tools, then having a bald spot
when
> released onto the cooling rack. I applied some tempered chocolate to these
> areas. Is this just a matter of practice? Or am I doing something
> fundamentally wrong?
>
> Before I got the machine, I made some truffles that had both dark
chocolate
> and white chocolate ganache centers. the centers were made individually,
> then pressed together, gently rolled in the palm, chilled then dipped. I
had
> major problems with the white chocolate melting while being assembled with
> the dark centers, and again while being dipped. I used white chocolate
from
> a supplier I have had excellent dealings with before, so I am fairly
> confident it was of high quality. Any suggestions as to what went wrong
with
> those? Is this common in using white chocolate?
>
> The final result was delicious, however somewhat misshapen. I would like
to
> try again, but I need to figure out how to avoid this problem.
>
> --
> Wendy
> http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
> de-fang email address to reply
>
>
>

"Pete Lockhart" > wrote in message
hlink.net...
> [original posting follows reply]
>
>
>
> Hi Wendy,
>
>
>
> A friend loaned me his temperer last spring and suggested the following
> method for coating ganache (making truffles.) the clever bits are 1)
> coating the truffle while it's in your palm -- that keeps the melted
> chocolate warm and encourages a thin coating and 2) do multiple (at least
2,
> and maybe 3) successive coats of chocolate -- that eliminates the bald
spot
> problem.
>
>
>
> 1) put on some plastic gloves (i use regular rubber gloves for washing
> dishes) and wash your gloved hands with warm soap and water. rinse very
> well. the gloves let you play with the chocolate without worrying about
> sweat or oils from your hands.
>
>
>
> 2) put a dab (about a teaspoon) of the tempered chocolate in the palm of
> your hand and then take one of your nascent truffles and roll it around in
> the chocolate by either (or both)
>
> a) poking it around with a finger
>
> b) scrunching your palm so as to roll the truffle in the chocolate
>
>
>
> 3) keep rolling until the truffle is coated thinly with the chocolate,
then
> gently slide the truffle onto the cooling rack.
>
>
>
> 4) continue in this manner with the rest of the ganache, adding more
> tempered chocolate to your palm as needed.
>
>
>
> 5) once the coating is hardened, repeat the process being mindful of not
> setting the truffle on the old bald spot.
>
>
>
>
>
> As for your white and dark ganache issue, i can imagine (I'm guessing
here)
> several tweaks that might help -- two involve modifying your white
chocolate
> ganache recipe so as to make the melting point closer to that of the dark
> ganache. the third messes with the way you combine the white and dark
> ganaches.
>
>
>
> The first tweak, and easiest, would be to see what effect reducing the
> amount of butterfat would have on the recipe. for example, use the same
> volume of half and half, or whole milk, instead of cream and see if that
> doesn't result in a ganache that doesn't melt as easily.
>
>
>
> The second tweak would be to increase the amount of cocoa butter in the
> recipe, by substituting pure cocoa butter for an equal amount of the white
> chocolate.
>
>
>
> The third tweak would be to start with the white ganache, make little
balls,
> chill them severely, then coat them with dark ganache. then chill and
coat
> with chocolate as usual.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> pete
>
>
> --
>
> My mail address is plock at tokla dot com.


Pete,
Thanks for your reply. I did do another batch of truffles (caramel centers
this time), with milk chocolate coating from the best candy bars I could
find. (I was on a mission to succeed, and had doubts about the cocoa butter
quantity of the chocolate I had on hand) I managed to turn out a batch of
truffles with a delightful thin coating, and almost no problems with bald
spots.

This second batch used a frozen center (although they never did freeze
completely firm), so that was one difference. The other difference was the
chocolate. I used up all the couverture I had on hand with the dark
chocolate/white chocolate truffles, and had made a batch using the
semi-sweet I had for coating, but that also produced thick coatings.

I have seen what you describe with palm-coating in several of my books, but
getting that messy didn't really appeal to me. Your glove method sounds like
a good solution to my Monk-like aversion to mess. ;-)

I will keep playing with my machine, and see what changes I can make. I have
seen cocoa butter for sale, and wondered what it was used for.

--
Wendy
http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
de-fang email address to reply

Hi Wendy, I have a Sinsation tempering machine, which is just an earlier
version of the same machine you have.

What kind of chocolate are you using for coating the truffles? I used to use
Callebaut bittersweet, but, found it too thick for coating truffles. I
switched to Valrhona Equatorial (semi-sweet) chocolate and it melts to a
much less viscous consistency then the Callebaut, producing a thinner more
even coating on my truffles. Not to mention it tastes great, too! The kind
of chocoate you use for couveture makes a big difference in the results. I
would steer clear of candy bars and buy chocolate especially made for
couveture, like the Valrhona mentioned above. www.chocosphere.com has any
kin of chocolate you could possibly need (but not cheap).

Also, on my machine I can slightly raise the "holding" temperature of the
tempered chocolate, which I do for El Rey (Gran Saman) bittersweet chocolate
as it has a thicker viscosity when melted. Bumping up the holding temp a
degree made it slightly thinner for dipping and didn't affect the tempering
at all.

>
> Pete,
> Thanks for your reply. I did do another batch of truffles (caramel centers
> this time), with milk chocolate coating from the best candy bars I could
> find. (I was on a mission to succeed, and had doubts about the cocoa butter
> quantity of the chocolate I had on hand) I managed to turn out a batch of
> truffles with a delightful thin coating, and almost no problems with bald
> spots.
>
> This second batch used a frozen center (although they never did freeze
> completely firm), so that was one difference. The other difference was the
> chocolate. I used up all the couverture I had on hand with the dark
> chocolate/white chocolate truffles, and had made a batch using the
> semi-sweet I had for coating, but that also produced thick coatings.
>
> I have seen what you describe with palm-coating in several of my books, but
> getting that messy didn't really appeal to me. Your glove method sounds like
> a good solution to my Monk-like aversion to mess. ;-)
>
> I will keep playing with my machine, and see what changes I can make. I have
> seen cocoa butter for sale, and wondered what it was used for.
>
> --
> Wendy
> http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
> de-fang email address to reply
>
>
>

Mine won't let me increase the holding temp, but that would be useful! I was
using Callebaut this time. The only Valrhona available to me locally is
hazelnut flavored. I do not care for hazelnut. I plan on ordering some
online, but at the time, under a deadline, I chose the bars out of what was
available. Thanks for the link. I'm off to shop! :-)

--
Wendy
http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
de-fang email address to reply


"Monty" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Wendy, I have a Sinsation tempering machine, which is just an earlier
> version of the same machine you have.
>
> What kind of chocolate are you using for coating the truffles? I used to
use
> Callebaut bittersweet, but, found it too thick for coating truffles. I
> switched to Valrhona Equatorial (semi-sweet) chocolate and it melts to a
> much less viscous consistency then the Callebaut, producing a thinner more
> even coating on my truffles. Not to mention it tastes great, too! The kind
> of chocoate you use for couveture makes a big difference in the results. I
> would steer clear of candy bars and buy chocolate especially made for
> couveture, like the Valrhona mentioned above. www.chocosphere.com has any
> kin of chocolate you could possibly need (but not cheap).
>
> Also, on my machine I can slightly raise the "holding" temperature of the
> tempered chocolate, which I do for El Rey (Gran Saman) bittersweet
chocolate
> as it has a thicker viscosity when melted. Bumping up the holding temp a
> degree made it slightly thinner for dipping and didn't affect the
tempering
> at all.
>

It sounds like to me that you were using the wrong kind of chocolate. A
chocolate for dipping has to be high in cocoa butter (at least 30%). You
usually can't get that kind of chocolate in the grocery store. For instance
Nestle or Ghirardelli chocolate chips probably have less than 17% cocoa
butter. The cocoa butter is what helps the chocolate melt into a smooth
lquid rather than a clumpy one.
Try Callebaut or Vahlrona. Caution..You get used to these chocolates, you
won't want to use your chocolte chips. These chocolates usually have a much
more intense chocolate taste as they have a much higher percentage of cocoa
solids than most. The other problem is you have to order them in 1
kilogram, 2.5 kilogram, and 5 kilogram bars. gets expensive.


"frood" > wrote in message
.com...
> Hi, I'm new here. I did read the FAQ, but I didn't see any post etiquette
> sections, so please forgive me if I mis-step.
>
> I just got a Revolation I chocolate tempering machine for Christmas. I
made
> ganache, using a recipe I have used many times before with great success.
I
> tempered the chocolate for dipping, following the instructions that came
> with the machine. The machine said it was done, but it was still very
thick.
> While dipping the centers, they became covered with a very thick layer of
> chocolate, more than I am used to. Also, I had lots of problems with the
> ganache centers sticking to the dipping tools, then having a bald spot
when
> released onto the cooling rack. I applied some tempered chocolate to these
> areas. Is this just a matter of practice? Or am I doing something
> fundamentally wrong?
>
> Before I got the machine, I made some truffles that had both dark
chocolate
> and white chocolate ganache centers. the centers were made individually,
> then pressed together, gently rolled in the palm, chilled then dipped. I
had
> major problems with the white chocolate melting while being assembled with

> the dark centers, and again while being dipped. I used white chocolate
from
> a supplier I have had excellent dealings with before, so I am fairly
> confident it was of high quality. Any suggestions as to what went wrong
with
> those? Is this common in using white chocolate?
>
> The final result was delicious, however somewhat misshapen. I would like
to
> try again, but I need to figure out how to avoid this problem.
>
> --
> Wendy
> http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
> de-fang email address to reply
>
>
>
>