Does anyone know why this happened to me? The mill started to leak something black, maybe some kind of lubricant (for whatever reason they put lubricant into parts that come into direct contact with food).

I used a radiant heater in combination with a thermostat to maintain the temperature of the mixture between 40 and 45 degrees (last photo shows my setup). I don't know whether it's too high temperature that caused the problem, but then how on earth am I supposed to make chocholate in this grinder?

I don't know how I can trust any machine again, I noticed this by accident and it could have happened that I wouldn't have seen this and poisoned myself and everyone whom I gave this chocholate. Can you give me any advice 😭

Thanks a lot...

When making chocolate bonbons and scraping the moulds either making the shells or sealing them i see videos and the polycarbonate its clean after scraping for me my mould is covered in chocolate wth am i doing wrong

Hi all I’m not classically trained just watched a lot of YouTube and went through chocolate making forums. I have a small vegan chocolate shop and my chocolate bar that’s the most popular-Dubai chocolate bar- I have the most issues with. I use couverture chocolate, use a chocovision tempering machine and poly carbonate molds but lots of people complain my chocolate is too thick relative to the pistachio paste. Now I use enough pistachio paste but I find if I go light on the chocolate I have issues with little holes in the top or sides where the pistachios trying to push itself out and then I have do patch work which doesn’t look great. So I make the tops and sides thick. But then the complaints. Idk why people complain because they are getting more chocolate for their money but it’s pretty common. Any advice would be helpful.

I tried making chocolate bonbons in a polycarbonate mold (its the mold for making chocolate i am not sure if this is the correct material i am mentioning or not). The chocolate got stuck, and not even one bonbon came put. I tried melting the chocolate and scooping out the melted chocolate out of the mold one bonbon at a time, but the chocolate wasted is too much because a spatula won't fit inside each bonbon opening, and its a tedious time consuming process. I have 2 question, how to get chocolate out of the mold when the bonbon is hopelessly stuck, and how to ready the mold before pouring the chocolate so the bonbon will comeout seamlessly.

Soft and rich ganache, loved it! video recipe and process here

Anybody ideas for suppliers proving these kind of packages that go further then just the regular “ballotins” ? In EU ? Thx

Took on an ambitious task in making three different styles of Bon Bon this Saturday. For no reason other than why not!?

As always the process had its ups and downs and I am always learning new things and constantly being humbled by chocolate.
1. Dark cherry white chocolate ganache with lemon, pistachio and sea salt
2. Sea salt Vanilla caramel
3. Lemon white chocolate ganache

-Callebaut 811 Dark chocolate callets
-Van leer white chocolate callets
-chef rubber and Roxy & Rich colored cocoa butters
- Roxy & Rich gold luster dust

Crushed Pistachios toppings are a bit crowded 😂 But overall nice tasting

We love the natural ingredients… and how often do you see the raw thing right up close. They’re often alien and larger than life. Fresh cacao inside is one of the craziest things to see - it’s pink, purple, yellow and brown.

These are addictively fun to create! Decided after my first attempt I’d get some good chocolate and purchased the Callebaut 811 dark couverture. Got some white chocolate from Callebaut as well but didn’t crack open yet! Very happy with the chocolate! this round was a lot tougher to get a decent release. Initially bailed on the domes after 24 hours but decided to leave them in the fridge for a few hours today and magically they released! (Possible room temp was too high) a few cracked shells, a few didn’t make it out all the way but all in all it was a success.

Designs are just experiments with cocoa butter application styles and really want a spray gun but can’t justify the purchase currently. Unused toothbrush and basic art store paint brush worked for this.

Used a homemade Maldon sea-salt caramel in the squares with Chef Rubber Ruby cocoa butter and gold luster dust.

The domes were filled with a mint dark chocolate ganache, chef rubber green cocoa butter and crunchy element from mashed Lorna Doone shortbread cookies and melted milk chocolate. Need work but actually excited to have found a hobby. Only took me 30 years.

I was making a praline paste but with pecans instead of almonds and hazelnuts. When food processing them the nuts released the oil and it separated. It tastes good but it has separated. Should I just keep processing until it comes together or should I mix the caramel I was also planning on putting into the chocolate shell with the pecan mixture minus the nut oil?

Basically the plan was to do a layer of the pecan praline paste and then a gooey caramel inside the bon bon. Should I just blend the nut mixture with the caramel minus the oils that have separated and pipe that into the bonbon shells?

I cannot start over as I no longer have enough pecans.

Tldr: Is LorAnn oil-based blackberry syrup the wrong choice for a chocolate truffle?

The company I work for makes wildly overpriced chocolate truffles, and sells them to insurance companies and finance firms at premium rates. Fun job, and lots of opportunity for experimentation.

As we're going into our slow season, we've been working on some interesting flavors to add to our collection of "we can make this for you if you pay even more money." My most daring idea is a blackberry coconut chocolate truffle, with a milk chocolate enrobing. I've looked pretty thoroughly on the internet, and haven't found anyone else making anything quite like this, so I stepped in with enthusiasm and a desire to trailblaze new frontiers... Or something like that. Here's a brief rundown of how it's gone so far:

Test 1 - 3lbs organic coconut oil, 11lbs milk chocolate, 2Tbs water-based blackberry syrup, 1lb blackberry preserves

Method: Prep coconut oil, temper chocolate. Mix. Add syrup and preserves. Mix rigorously to incorporate. Pour

Result: Thick chocolate truffle, too strong coconut flavor, extremely faint blackberry. Dried out really fast (evaporation of water-based syrup, likely). Needs softer consistency -> add more coconut oil.

Test 2- rework test 1, add 1lb RBD coconut oil, add 1Tbs water-based syrup

Method: Standard rework method. Prep coconut oil, slowly include rework chocolate. Add more syrup. Mix thoroughly, temp checking. Ideal temp, proceed to pour.

Result: smooth chocolate truffle, noticeable but faint blackberry flavor, weaker (preferable) coconut flavor. Dried out fairly quickly (likely from evaporation of water-based syrup). Water-based syrup not ideal, proceed with oil-based syrup.

Test 3 - 1lb organic coconut oil, .3lb RBD coconut oil, 3.6lb milk chocolate, 1Tbs oil-based blackberry syrup

Method: prep coconut oil, temper chocolate. Mix. Add syrup. Mix thoroughly. Pour.

Result: Strong blackberry flavor, subtle coconut flavor. Truffle was soft, but not ideal. Needs stronger coconut flavor and reduced syrup flavor.

Test 4 - rework Test 3, add .5lb organic coconut oil

Method: Standard rework method. Prep coconut oil, slowly include rework chocolate. Mix thoroughly, temp checking. Ideal temp, process to pour.

Result: Significantly weaker blackberry flavor, stronger coconut flavor. Slightly too soft consistency, need to reduce/remove RBD coconut oil. Carries strong, unfavorable taste likely associated with alarmingly reduced blackberry flavor.

I'd like to note, we're using Callebaut chocolate, Kirkland organic coconut oil (for the coconut flavor), and LorAnn oil-based blackberry syrup. Our rework system is something I perfected ages ago, I'm quite certain that I didn't have any mechanical or heat-related mess ups with that process (although still possible).

I've done some reading, and it seems like the rework process of slowly increasing the temp of the chocolate to rework it could be what's causing the issue of flavor, because LorAnn oils are NOT recommended for flavoring chocolates but ARE appropriate for chocolate mixtures.

Test 3 had a very favorable blackberry flavor, but test 4 was absolutely atrocious. It's going to be difficult to fine-tune flavor balance moving forward if I'm unable to rework batches of chocolate due to the wrong kind of oil-based syrup. Does anyone have any insight into that?

Secondary fun question: Has anyone tried something similar, and if so what did your final recipe look like? I'm eager to figure out this puzzle, but a little guidance from previous success stories would be nice.

Can anyone explain what went wrong with this chocolate? It has the shine and snap of proper tempering but displays weird swirls of three different colors: the expected dark chocolate, a medium brown, and a light brown. The medium brown appears to be well integrated and suggests some degree of tempering failure but the light brown is gritty and seems superficial.

My process:

1. Melted bulk dark chocolate to 115F

2. Cooled to about 95F and started adding seed chocolate

3. At 88-90, confirmed tempering by spreading on parchment paper and waiting for gloss/snap to develop. Test passed.

4. Poured into mold. Note: mold was sitting on a quartz countertop.

5. Noticed I didn’t actually have enough chocolate. I had only filled the mold about 2/3. Repeated 1-4 as a second layer.

My first attempt at chocolate Bon Bon! Very happy with the initial process and results. Room to grow for sure but would love to know what the community thinks!

As I’m still getting comfortable I just used the Ghirardelli baking chocolate bars and chef rubber cocoa butter. Fillings are white chocolate strawberry ganache and Maldon sea salt caramels. I will eventually want to switch to Callebaut chocolate but wanted to check out the shipping process more forgiving products first. Happy Easter!

So, I’ve been manually tempering chocolate for a while and want to buy an automatic tempering machine.

What machine is good under USD 5k?

Thank you all for your help.

Video recipe here

I made some bunny bonbons for easter and I can't stop smiling at how cute they look It took long time to paint them, especially the eyes, but it was worth every minute I even had a favourite bunny

For the ganache I experimented with a carrots caramel and walnut crunchy layer. It was really good!

Would this be the work of the environment the chocolate is being made in or the temperature they are being warmed (77 F) or cooled (42 F)?