Archive for Artistry
12.26.09
Posted in Artistry, Snacks + More, Your Business at 10:17 pm by admin
The importance of tempering cannot be over-stressed because only if you do it would your chocolates become shiny and smooth since chocolates don’t possess these qualities by nature. Conching refines the cacao grains but tempering makes them undetectable.
Chocolates become creamy, smooth, shiny and firm and their shelf life improves because of tempering. If you temper chocolates, you have no reason to worry about blooming which turns chocolates flaky and granular and makes whitish-gray crystals appear on the face of the chocolates. You just can’t gift or sell such unappealing chocolates.
During tempering, chocolates melt at temperatures higher than 90F and hence lose the temper they come with from the manufacturers. You re-temper to return the shine and snap they lost.
Certain occasions (like an out-of-order tempering machine) may demand that you do tempering by hand and for these times, it’ll be best if have the knowledge of how to do it. There are two ways to temper manually.
France gave us the first method of tempering by hand, tabliering, which is otherwise called the marble-slab method since it is on this stone that you work the chocolate to cool it down.
You should maintain medium heat on the double boiler when you’re melting a pound of chocolate bars cut into thin strips so that you don’t scorch your base material. One-half of the molten chocolate is poured into a marble slab and worked upon till it flows thick and cooled to the proper temperature. After this, you can pour the other half also on the marble slab and both the portions are mixed together to the same temperature and consistency. You must ensure with a regularly calibrated thermometer that right tempering temperatures are maintained.
The second method, “seeding,” is almost the same except that “seeds” in the form of tempered chocolate is used as base for the unbounded crystals to model during crystallization. While melting, too, only three-fourths of the chocolate strips are used. Once melted, the remaining one-fourth of the chocolate strips that weren’t melted are worked into the chocolate melt and blended together till the entire mass melts and cools at the correct tempering temperature. You can’t deviate from the appropriate temperatures in the seeding method as well. Only after tempering can you start your work on chocolate design and presentation.
Tempering by hand is difficult, as acknowledged by even expert chocolate makers, since you’ll need to constantly make sure accurate temperatures are maintained. Even tiny deviations will lead to repeating tempering. Tempering needs your whole concentration and hence you may not be able to devote a lot of time on creative improvements in your chocolate making process.
When large quantities are planned for gifting and business needs, a tempering machine can only give you uniformly high-quality chocolates.
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12.10.09
Posted in Artistry, Snacks + More, Your Business at 4:35 pm by admin
Chocolate candy making isn’t an easy task, if done manually. The requirements for doing this are an accurate thermometer, a double boiler, a rubber spatula and candy molds in addition to the basic ingredient of dark, semi-sweet or milk chocolate bars. For chocolate truffles, you’ll need cream also.
Candy making commences with melting of the chocolate chunks in a double boiler and you should continuously stir the contents to prevent over-burning from happening. Fruit-filled chocolates can be got if you mix the fruits of your choice with the melted chocolate in a bowl. By pouring the molten chocolate into candy molds, you can make candies of different shapes. You can keep these chocolate candies in a chiller for a while and you are ready with your chocolate candies.
Manual candy making is a difficult task because you need to preserve accurate temperatures during tempering. But if you skip this process of tempering fearing this step, you are committing a big mistake because your chocolates will not be snappish and burnished. It’s perfectly alright if you skip this step in candies that are made for your own use but if your chocolate candies are meant for commercial ends, you should not skip the process of tempering that can only make them attractive with shine and snap.
When the chocolate’s melted, it loses its original temper and hence you’ll need re-tempering again. If you don’t do it, blooming will occur and the chocolates will look ugly and unattractive with the crystals of the cocoa butter show on the surface of chocolates.
Cocoa butter has many fatty acids and these fatty acids possess the unique characteristic of crystallizing into six types of crystals. These six types of crystals tend to dominate at six different temperatures. To deal with this, you need to maintain specific tempering temperatures that will facilitate production of large quantities of type V crystals that give the chocolates excellent shine and snap. Dark, semi-sweet and milk chocolates have specific temperatures at which more type V crystals are created. Another crystal, namely type IV, also form when type V are produced but since type IV crystals quickly and easily melt away, only type V crystals are capable of imparting that firmness, snap and shine into chocolates.
An accurate thermometer is an absolute necessity for manual tempering without which you can’t preserve precise tempering temperatures. You can’t compromise on even slight deviations in temperatures because these may also mess up the chocolates. But you can get rid of this hassle if you use a tempering machine in which the entire process is automated. Even production of type V crystals to the required level and maintaining of specific temperatures are also monitored by a computer chip on the tempering machine. You are also assured of consistently high-quality chocolates. If you use a tempering machine, you save a lot of time and energy and you can expend them usefully to devise ways to improve your business and products.
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07.08.09
Posted in Adventurous Life, Artistry, Promotion at 2:15 am by admin
Here at the wedding wish lantern business offices, we have for a long time adhered to the conjecture that wedding lanterns should be white. Not only are they elegant and sylphlike with a swan-like majesty in their white attire, they are also more well-ordered and- more often than not- blend in well with the creams of the bridal colours. When people have asked for wedding lanterns for their wedding day, in many cases they would never even have thought of having anything other than a beautiful white lantern at their wedding. As of a few days ago that has all changed We are now very happy to say, that as well as our traditional white lanterns, we offer coloured lanterns to future brides and grooms. Though many people might still prefer to stay with the plainer white kind, there is a growing need for variety in a wedding lantern, and it is only natural that our company should meet this growing need for choice by adding a splash of colour to our incomparable product.Weddings are, after all, a fun affair, as well as a important gesture of commitment and dedication to a mate. There are a growing number of couples that like to inject some fun into their special day by having a themed wedding - just think of the Jordan and Peter Andre bash awhile back. For this reason, a colourful lantern may be much more appropriate for the occasion.
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04.01.08
Posted in Artistry at 3:37 pm by admin
The date and manner of the origin of coats of arms, often called family crests, has been a matter of much speculation. There is no evidence of coats of arms being present at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, nor were family crests apparent by the beginning of the twelfth century. However, in the 13th century, coats of arms were used throughout Europe and the whole ’science’ of heraldry - its rules and terms - had been established. During this time the Crusades undoubtedly helped spread the use of coats of arms.
Various suggestions have been put forward regarding the origin of coats of arms, for example: shields, banners, tabards and possibly the use of seals. Probably, once a design had been adapted, it would have been put to many personal items at the same time. To qualify as a coat of arms, a design must be capable of being depicted on a shield, but the name ‘coat of arms’ is derived from the linen tabard which was worn over the armour and upon which the design was shown.
It was in battle that the need for armorial bearings arose. In times of warfare it was the nobility, the land-owners, who were called upon for leadership, and each landowner would control his small group of illiterate men in battle. With the helmet of a suit of armour closed in battle it would have been difficult to identify the man inside, hence the distinctive coat of arms or family crest pictured on a shield and embroidered tabard became essential, the latter giving rise to the name ‘coat of arms’.
Armorial devices were the prerogative of the upper class. In early times even land could not pass from one person to another without the license of the king, and the sovereign was also involved in the granting of coats of arms. However, pretty soon other families in what
About the Author:
Tony Luck has an interest in heraldry. His website has additional information on coats of arms and family crests.
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