Hello All! I’m still new here, and new to the industry as well, but have been a chef for just over 25 years.
I’m looking for a little help with chocolate, specifically how to get around the eutectic effect in setting chocolates that have been infused by using a carrier oil such as mct/coconut oil. Anyone have experience with this? I’m working for a new extraction and edibles company, and we’re trying to do great artisan chocolates, so texture is of paramount importance. I am doing R&D runs now with cbd before we get into our distillate, but cant seem to get the bars to set with the “snap” that a quality chocolate should have. aany guidance would be greatly appreciated
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I would suggest not using a carrier oil. Paraffin wax also gives the chocolate that look and feel that Americans are used to as well.
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@MedicineManHempCo , thanks for your advice. Istill would like to look for another option, as i would like these chocolates to be a bit more on the “purist artisan” side of confections, but will give it a try!
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Yeah, I did too when I started. Not saying you can’t get there without, I just hope you don’t use clear packaging. No matter how gentle you are getting them in the bags, it will scooge up with chocolate, especially if they experience ambient temps above ~75. I used to use the whole “no wax bc purist yada yada” and then realized that our shit was melting in the mail. After changing the recipe a bit and changing the molds, we have a product that sells like hotcakes. Americans are used to waxy chocolate, if you give them something that they don’t expect or aren’t used to, to them, it feels like you did something wrong.
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might i ask what % of wax/batch you’re using? Or a reasonable starting point? Also considering using beeswax as a more “organic” ingredient vs. the parrafin?
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I agree. You have to have a carrier oil. I’ve found that paramount crystals (which I believe contain paraffin wax) work best. Melt the crystals, add your extract, homogenize, add to chocolate. It’s also used my chocolatiers to make the chocolate spread better, have a brighter sheen, and still maintain that temper snap.
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trying out a batch with some food grade bees wax i had, we’ll see how it goes,
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Paramount crystals also contain lecithin, which i was considering giving a try as well, for multiple reasons.
When I was researching, I too wanted something more “natural”, but my goal was a higher melting point, and to achieve that, we needed a higher melting wax. When I read that most companies use paraffin, and that it was generally regarded as safe, I chose that. Plus, when you run out, food city has it! Let me check my SOP to see what our effective % w/w it is.
Okay, so I just checked, and it looks like we are at about 2-3%. I urge you to play with it at different amounts to determine what works best for you. We did that and settled on our SOP but off the top of my head I don’t remember all of the nuances and problems we experienced when we went more or less on the amount.
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I use cocoa butter as my carrier oil because its already an ingredient in the chocolate and it will keep that snap texture
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The only problem with cocoa butter I have found is that it doesn’t help the melting point any. In fact, I believe it is much worse. We do not have HVAC in my shop, and we are in the south east where shit gets HOT. We have managed to make our chocolates sit fine on our shelves but we still have issues with the chocolates melting during shipping especially the further south the packages are shipped.
Hey sorry to bring back an older thread but I figured it was better than asking in a new thread when this already has done very specific things to what I’m wondering. I have a small amount of D9 Distillate and was trying to make some chocolate for personal use for me and my family. We do have food grade paraffin wax but I was trying to figure out a good amount to use in relation to the amount of chocolate. I know it’s in Hershey chocolate and that’s the texture I’m trying to go for (we’re in the southeast US and that’s what everyone here eats), but I don’t want to over do it and have basically candle sticks for edibles. Any advise is appreciated.
The answer you’re looking for is 2 posts above your own.
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This is what happens when you surf the forums after drinking your infused coffee…
I found that if you use too much of the wax it literally feels like you’re rubbing a candle. I also discovered that many brands of ‘melting chips’ for chocolate coating come with the wax already in it in the right proportions, the only issue is you have to get it to a slightly uncomfortable temperature before incorporating any distillate in the mixture. It seems to never form a perfect solution. If you can mix the fat, wax, and distillate before mixing with the double boiled chocolate it seems to be more consistent. I haven’t had anything tested but from anecdotal evidence some worked too well and some just didn’t work at all.
Distillate mixes really nicely into the wax. We always get that hot and homogenized, then toss the chocolate in. We use bark blocks instead of chips because the chips always caused the bars to come out pretty shitty in comparison to the blocks. Probably right about the wax in there being the culprit.
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