chocolate spray gun

[isaac]

anyone ever use one? i was thinking of buying one but as i looked like a dumnie in the paint gun isle of home depot, i have no clue what to look for in a paint gun used for chocolate. any recomendations?

[W.DeBord]

Although I have no experience spraying choc. I'm certain the brand your looking for is Wagner. It's in the $40 to $50 dollar price range, last I heard.

[monpetitchoux]

We spray at work frequently, using the Wagner sprayer. For the spray, we melt equal quantities by weight of chocolate (white, dark or milk) and cocoa butter over a double boiler. Strain through chinois into the paint receptacle, screw everything on and spray. It makes a phenomenal noise. I have one very important piece of advice. Find a huge carbdboard box (we use ones for mini refrigerators), tape up any openings, leaving only one side for putting your dessert in. Then we set this box on a surface, put whatever it is that we are spraying (already on parchment in a sheet pan) into the box and spray into the box. This way you won't have a horrendous clean up job. Trust me on this one. Sometimes we even cover the floor with paper. Any stray spray is slippery (even on rubber mats). The big boss still doesn't completely trust me to do this job by myself. But I found out what my problem is. Hold the sprayer far enough away from whatever it is that you are spraying so that you get a nice and velvety effect (what the boss wants). If you hold the sprayer too close like I have a tendency to do, you get a slick surface that is not all that dramatic. Spray with an even hand on one side at a time. Give the object(s) you are spraying a quarter turn every few strokes for an evenly sprayed surface. During clean up, I suggest you put all the parts of the sprayer into a large bowl and personally wash by hand. Any part loss will result in your not being able to use the sprayer again. The most important piece is this tiny little spring thing that fits into the nozzle. It's what makes the sprayer spray. I actually get more nervous about washing the parts than spraying desserts. If I don't do as good a job as the boss wants, he usually encourages me to do better next time. But if I lose anything, the boss will lose his temper. Not good. Finally, the leftover chocolate coating can be poured into a dry container and saved for the next time. Just chop up finely and remelt over double boiler. Oh, and save the box. We keep ours on the top shelf of the walk-in with huge warnings not to throw away.

Have fun. The actual spray job takes less time than it did reading my post.

[monpetitchoux]

Oh, I forgot. When you go to buy your sprayer, also buy an extension cord. The cord on the sprayer is too short. The extansion cord will allow you wider range of motion. Very important in keeping nice steady sweeps when spraying.

[isaac]

i have an idea.... again

if u just needed a spray gun and wanted to go cheap could you use a water sprayer (mister as my mom calls it)?

i was thinkning that you would melt the chocolate and add more cocoa butter to it to thin it down alittle and then use it. you think this would work?

[LotusCakeStudio]

issac, do you just mean like a spray bottle? I tried it once with coloring paste thinned with a lot of alcohol and put it into a very fine mister instead of using an air brush. It didn't come out even at all. I had rolled out gumpaste and cut flower shapes that I was going to stagger on the sides of a tiered cake. I needed them to be a very bright aqua and handpainting was getting to be tedious. Anyhow, they were pretty small so I thought the mister would get an even coat, or at least an even two or three coats, but it was pretty pointless. Being that alcohol is much thinner than melted chocolate and cocoa butter, I'm guessing it wouldn't work...?