Keeping Coloured Cocoa Butters Warm
We are fairly new to Chocolate design and making them.
We have been up and running nearly a year. Currently working on bonbons and decorating by spraying the chocolates. We currently temper the cocoa butters in a microwave. However, it can be a slow process and sometimes easy to have hot spotting due to overdoing it in the microwave. We have seen that some chocolatiers use Dehydrators to keep the butter in a continuous warm environment. I am currently researching which are the best alternative methods. From what i have seen many of the dehydrators at 35c sorry im obviously from the U.K
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as our current method is long and tedious
kind regards
Spennie
thank you having the chocolate warming at 30c would be ideal .Which particular dehydrator is that you are referring to
@Spennie –
I know that some people use yogurt makers to melt their colored cocoa butters and keep them warm. These can be quite inexpensive but you need to make sure that you can set the temperature.
Another option is to use a tabletop bread proofer. One I have recommended and that I know people use is the one from Brod & Taylor. It can be purchased here in the US on Amazon.com https://amzn.to/2JA1r7R … I am pretty confident you can get a 220/50 Hz version in the UK.
One dehydrator I have used here in the US can be set as low as 30C, but that does not help you in the UK. You are right, the lowest temperature many of them can be set to is often higher and 35C might be too warm for the best results.
What you might consider is fashioning a unit of your own using a properly-equipped Arduino or similar single-board computer (SBC, such as a Raspberry Pi) a small heat source such as a light bulb (or a terrarium mat), and a personal computer fan. The SBC, equipped with thermocouples (one to measure the temperature of the air, the other could be in a pot of the cocoa butter) would turn the heat source on and off, controlling the heat and fan would circulate the air in the cabinet. If you have a local Maker collective I am sure you could find someone to help you out.