Cooking For Engineers

[catherina]

I tried making white chocolate turtles like I found in Maine. I dribbled melted white chocolate over the caramel pecans. Problem is the white chocolate didn't harden. What did I do wrong?

I melted ghirardelli premium baking bar white chocolate bars in a double-boiler fashion (metal bowl over hot water). After the water came to a simmer and kept it low, I put the large bowl over it. I stirred 3/4 of the two broken up bars until melted. Then I removed from heat and added the last 1/4 of the two bars and stirred. I replaced it over the heat and stirred until all was melted and smooth. I poured spoonfuls over the caramel pecans. It was thick enough to smooth over the candy, but not run onto the pan.

It never did harden. I've put it in the fridge to see what happens.

[Dilbert]

chocolate is a very finicky medium.

what went wrong may be a very long Q&A session.

regardless, one does what one must and chilling it is not a bad start - excepting only for short period.

[Guest]

Does chocolate need to be tempered before mixing in peanut butter? I am making a filling with milk chocolate and peanut butter (2:1). Also should the mixture remain in the 88-90F range when pouring? Thanks for any advise.

[Dilbert]

unlikely.

tempering affects the crystalline structure of the chocolate which then affects the texture as it "sets up" when cooled.

as this is a mixture for a filling with peanut butter (high fat) odds are - lacking the recipe / finished product - just melt&mix will be okay.

[just a girl]

I just made a cheesecake and had a half bag of milk chocolate chips, I decided, why not? and went a head and melted them cautiously, the first time I had tried melting chocolate it got to hot ad turned clumpy, this time I remember hearing about how some people put Vegetable oil or canola oil in it, since both are unhealthy I went with coconut oil and it turned out beautifully O.o, now I'm just waiting for it to harden on top of my cheesecake, I didn't temper it or anything and I don't really care if its soft or 'fudge like' as long as it hardens so it doesn't slide off.
anyway, just wanted to ask if anyone has used coconut oil with their chocolate before, and if they have did it turn out well? (also, it was only maybe a Tsp)

[just a girl]

well, the chocolate set up well.. almost To well XD, its nice and hard... though on a cheesecake that creates a small problem when you're slicing it O.o... oh well, it tastes good even if its not pretty, next time I'll just drizzle it on if I want it prettyful.. but as something for just the family its great! :3, I never really cared for looks anyway, as long as it tastes good it doesn't matter, it all looks the same going down your throat anyway XD

[Jam]

I have read all the post,I'm just wondering I'd chocolate bark,that you see in the super markets ,is that a good chocolate to temper,I have been using that,but I really don't have a clue what I am doing, so maybe some one can tell me if I am wasting my time with that particular chocolate bark

[Dilbert]

within boundaries, chocolate is chocolate.

its quality varies by the amount of coca fat & solids.

tempering is a process which affects how the sugar "crystallizes"

sugar is a bit of an odd beast - it can crystallize into small / medium / large structures at that is what one observes in the issue of "gooey" to "crisp"

which is unfortunately not related to "whatever marketing name" is on the label.

if the label gives a clue as to fats vs solids vs sugar content, you can - with experience - decipher how best to work with that particular brand, but 'chocolate' is not 'chocolate' when it comes to treating everything sold as 'chocolate' in a similar matter.

[Jam]

Thanks

[Guest]

I found the technical article on melted chocolate very interesting and wondered how I could use it to help me with a “very simple” chocolate mousse recipe I have where I simply incorporate whipped egg whites into melted chocolate.
The recipe (“Maman Blanc’s Chocolate Mousse”) instructs whipping in a 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the melted chocolate (to loosen the mixture) before folding the remaining 2/3 in.
No matter how quick I work, as soon as I add the egg whites to the chocolate, the mixture becomes too stiff to enable easy folding-in of the remaining whites and my mousse is lumpy.
I have tried whipping the egg whites less stiffly and also keeping the chocolate as cool as possible so that the “shock” of the, relatively cold, whites on the warm-ish chocolate does not cause it to seize. Perhaps my chocolate is too cold? Any help would be very welcome!

[Dilbert]

if I understood your post,

after adding some egg white to the chocolate to 'lighten' it...
(depending on what is being mixed this technique is often called "tempering")

you then continue adding whipped egg white to that 'lightened' chocolate mix...

that maybe the problem - try:
adding that 'lightened mixture' slowly, while whisking - to the remaining egg whites.

two possible causes for the lumpy outcome:

1 - a little bit of water added to (melted) chocolate can cause "seizing" - lumps; eggs whites have 'free water' floating about....

2 - less likely, but the cold egg whites dropping the temperature of the chocolate mass, causing the lumps.

it's easier / more successful to drizzle a hotter / heavier component into the lighter component _while mixing_ - a 'little bit' of the hot/heavy bit incorporates more readily than the reverse.

[Jim Cooley]

[Dilbert]

think souffle -

I'd venture to say, mixing a trickle of "thick" stuff into a thin "fluid" to make it thicker is easier to achieve a homogenous mixture - than attempting to mix a little "thin" stuff into a "thick mass" - it's all a question of mechanics except for the temperature issue.

whether the directions call for stir or whisk or fold.

the basic principal is "how easy is it to mix-to-homgenous?"

"in cases" there are issues regarding "temperature" - dropping an egg yolk into a hot white sauce is far more apt to result in "scrambled egg" than 'tempering' the egg yolk with smal(ler) amounts of hot white sauce.

the other notable "issue" is specific to chocolate - a little water in chocolate = seizing; a lot of chocolate into a little water = no so seized....

souffle 'prep' is a classic example of that.....

[Jim Cooley]

[Guest]

To what range of temperature should I let the chocolate cool before adding the egg whites to avoid lumps from forming?