Posted by Gerard on December 06, 1997 at 05:11:21:
In Reply to: Whew! posted by Susan L on December 05, 1997 at 22:47:39:
Tell me, is it possible to dip candy centers in chocolate without having to chunk a lump of paraffin into the melt? I've been reading about people who use shortening instead. A viable option? Or are they just kidding themselves?
: Thanks for listening ...
Well if its expensive quality european choc, couverture ,they'd be fools to put anything in it to make it set, tempering is the only way to fly, some cheapo US choc won't temper due to contamination and lax fda rules regarding cocobutter content vs the euro specs for choc. I've run Peters choc thru the machine with no problem then hit a bad batch that refused to temper, switched to French choc and it worked immediately, I put that down to contamination, water etc. The only thing I'd do to make it easier at home is blend compound and couverture 50-50, that retains the good and takes advantage of the bad.
My partner did that for yrs , she couldn't temper and we didn't have the machine in the early days. We tried most US brands and liked van leer, the rest are good for mousse etc.
Hershey is so under-conched you can feel the particles on your palate as it dissolves, something around 18 microns (for the techy writers), I *think quality choc is 3 micron(?).
Hershey's is producing Cadbury choc under license and they not following specs, its not as good as in England.
Gerard