mix bubbles out through the stillsoft coating, longer crystallization time and, in extreme cases, separation of the coating on the ice cream. But wait! Can’t you counter an increasing layer thickness by simply raising the temperature in the chocolate bath and thinning it down again? Yes, you can, but I can’t recommend it. Doing so speeds up water migration and causes heat damage to the ice cream itself. Of course, you may be thinking of adding more fat, which would help to reduce thickness, though it would add to costs and its fluctuating use would make final costing a difficult exercise. In fact, there are many adjustments one could make during a production run, but such an approach is unlikely to create the right environment for smooth runs and a consistent result. tries also allow CBEs (cocoa butter equivalents) to be added without losing the status of a real chocolate, further supporting plasticity. WANTED: HIGH-PERFORMANCE COATINGS beans or sunflower oil is used in order to have a buffer against water migration during the production process. This is working but it is possible to achieve a far better result! To achieve still more resilient buffering against water migration – and to improve the flow properties of the liquid chocolate mass, emulsifiers of a different kind are the weapons of choice. By now, alert readers will have realized that the answer to these issues is to in some way change the coating’s recipe so that it acts in the same way throughout the entire production run, despite being exposed to various amounts of melted ice cream mix. That may sound like a tall order, but repeated successes have informed us that the right combination of emulsifiers, determined via both expertise and experimentation, can create a buffer against variations in the rheology. And it can help to create an ice cream coating that is stable, uniform and resistant to viscosity changes during a production run. AMMONIUM PHOSPHATIDE EMULSIFIERS SAVE THE DAY CRACKING THE CODE An ice cream whose outer layer of chocolate cracks too easily while being eaten or, worse, is already cracked before the wrapper is removed might be considered to have a serious effect on consumer judgements of a particular brand’s quality. The more plastic a coating is, of course, the better it can withstand changes on the product’s inside. Yet, both coconut oil and palm kernel fat form relatively hard, brittle layers upon cooling. One way to counter this is to boost plasticity by adding approximately 8% liquid oil (maize, peanut, sunflower or rape seed oil). Milk and white chocolate contain milk fat in addition to cocoa butter, increasing softness and plasticity, and showing less contraction during crystallization. But, if it’s ice cream coatings you’re interested in, I highly recommend you add 4 to 5% of anhydrous milk fat even with dark chocolate, especially in extruded ice cream types where the hard centre leaves no room for contraction. Finally, many coun- Many confectionery manufacturers have traditionally used lecithin, (E322) to regulate the rheology of an ice cream coating. In chocolate, lecithin is typically dosed around 0.4% as this is where the optimal functionality is found – and is this exceeded the YV will increase. In ice cream coating, typically 0.7 – 0.8% lecithin, derived from soy- Ammonium phosphatide, also known as Emulsifier YN or E442, is a product typically made from rape seed oil or sunflower oil. It’s more effective than lecithin in the battle against water migration, and it can be added in higher dosages without negatively affecting YV (thus avoiding the dreaded ‘thickening effect’ often associated with chocolate production). And it’s this unique dosing ability that makes Emulsifier YN so perfectly suited for ice cream coating applications. In recent years, we’ve thoroughly tested the effect of both lecithin and Emulsifier YN in our labs and in actual production. Clearly, compared with the emulsifier-free ice cream coating, the addition of lecithin or Emulsifier YN (in the form of Palsgaard® AMP 4448 for our In recent years, we have tested the effect of lecithin, Emulsifier YN and PGPR at our application centers. 3
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