Learning quickly!!!

Hi. I am a newly graduated culinary student. I have recently taken a pastry position at my new job. I really like my job and my chef is very educational. My only problem is, is that no one is a pastry chef!!!!:( So i am on a mission to perfect this station. I have started out slowly. My latest adventure is mignardise. Ive been dipping a lot of chocolate. But im not satisfied with how it's coming out. Ive learned how to temper my chocolate. My chocolates always look really nice when im dipping them. until i go and try to pick them up....i have tried to use parchment paper i have tried to use grates. I even tried a silpat which worked much better. So i guess my main question is once you have dipped your chocolate how do you place them so that they don't get the big ring of chocolate on the bottom? Or they don't stick to whatever you but them on and pull the chocolate off of the bottom of the candy? I havent used sprays for fear of tainting my chocolate? Ive tried to read about it in my books but i havent found anything. Can someone share with me a trick to the trade? Pleeeeaaaassssee!!!!

To avoid the chocolate ring of death you will need to tap your dipping utensil on the side of your bowl once or twice then invert it onto parchment paper. It should not stick to parchment. One thing you may be using the wrong kind of chocolate, try to find one more suitable for enrobing which will be less viscus. I have found chocolates with a lot of emulsifiers tend to be thinner when tempered. For dipping the Guittard Solei d' Or comes to mind it is a nice 61% chocolate. The Michel Cluizel chocolates are also very good.

thank you very much i never thought about inverting it to stop the "ring of death". I appreciate you taking the time to answer.

Chocolate Dip

Hey ganner17,

Ever thought about piercing the chocolate with a toothpick (after dipping) and placing the other end into a piece of styrofoam to finish?

Hope this helps.

Bill

I have all my dipping items on a small stick with I then "twirl" to avoid that ring of death..lol

But sometimes it still pools a little, but I like my items nice and clean...so I stand there "twirling"..lol

Everyone has different tricks. You can always thin out your couveture with 2%-5% cocoa butter. When dipping, some like to drop the item to be dipped in the couveture and fish it out with a dipping fork, then hold the fork as close as possible to the surface of the couveture, and dip slightly so the surface tension of the tempered couveture "pulls" the excess couveture off of the dipped item. Some don't bother with this but "wipe" the bottom of the the dipped item on the side of the bowl. Some like to hold the dipping fork at an angle and let the dipped item "slide off" onto the recieving tray, some like to use another fork to help it off. Whatever works, works, all is fair in love, war and chocolate work. Don't use a wire grid though, any couveture that drips down will weld itslef onto the grid and the item, making it imposible to remove with out destroying it.

The europeans--irregardless of what language--call the pooling effect around dipped items "feet"

Some like to use parchment paper to line their recieving tray, some wax paper, and the crafy ones use 18" x 26" sheets of lexan or plexiglass. (this can be cut to size on a woodworker's tablesaw with a carbide tipped blade) The cheap AND crafty ones trott of to the local Home Despot and get those clear plastic lenses used to cover those recessed ceiling 2' x 4' florescent lighting fixtures.--Heckuva lot cheaper then plexiglass... The main advantage with rigid plastic sheets vs paper lined trays is that you can scrape clean the plastic sheet with your scraper, over and over and over (ad infitimum) again, whereas with the parchement only a few times. PLUS the rigid plastic gives you a glossy bottom, not matte as with parchment.

Hope this helps