December 5th, 2008
Posted in Chocolate Guide

Panning: Ever wonder why a Raisinette tm, or an M&M tm are so shiny and perfect? Panning is an art unto itself. A pan is like a small cement mixer. The desired center (a peanut perhaps) is put in the pan. Actually a lot of them. Various coatings are sprayed or poured in to the mixer. The nut is protected, covered in chocolate repeatedly, colored and finally polished.

Enrobing: An enrober is a machine that tempers chocolate, creates a chocolate waterfall that covers the soon to be covered center and send it to a cooling tunnel for the time needed to allow the chocolate to set. Remember the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel were trying to pack chocolate? That was an enrober. And, yes you certainly can “speed it up” when necessary.

Shell Molding: The American style of chocolate making starts with the center and covers it in chocolate. The European style starts with a molded shell that is filled with a center and “capped” to cover it up. That’s one of the ways that they get the liquid covered cherry inside the chocolate. Shhhh don’t tell.

Hand-Dipping: Most artisan confectioners or chocolatiers do not have the space or budget to have much equipment. We also have a different problem. We create an extremely wide assortment of products but make small batches to keep the variety in place. Hand-dipping is the most versatile method of chocolate covering. The dipper’s own creativity is reflected in each and every piece. When we added our first enrober to our arsenal, it was modified to allow us to continue hand-dipping, while utilizing the other features that helped JoMart to grow.