If you have 400g of chocolate in a chocolate fountain how much vegetable oil do you need?

Answer 1

The questions is like asking, 'how long is a piece of string?' There are a number of factors to consider. The main factor being the actual chocolate itself. "Cheap" chocolate will not contain enough cocoa butter to make the fountain flow properly.

A good guide (but not necessairily accurate) is: the chocolate MUST have a minimum of 32% cocoa butter for it to even stand a chance of flowing. The higher the percentage the better (within reason!)

If you put a piece of chocolate in your hand, it is not the chocolate that is melting first, it is the cocoa butter inthe chocolate that is melting.

We would NEVER, EVER (even in a million years) suggest using vegetable oil in Chocolate. It will dilute the chocolate and leave the chocolate with a film of 'grease' on the top of the bowl. Why do it? Do you want to taste chocolate or vegeatble oil?

The BEST, and I do mean the best thing to use is Cocoa Butter. As professional chocolatiers as well as runnning a professional Chocolate Founain hire business for all types of events, we use cocoa butter by Callebaut (a large chocolate manufacturer) called 'Mycryo'. It is pure, 100% cocoa butter.

Making chocolate is a science and an art. For 400g as the question asks, I would suggest a table spoon or two of cocoa butter - it is not expensive. There are other considerations such as the ambient temperature the chocolate is in, the type of chocolate (white, dark, milk), the variety of chocolate and so on and so forth. An easy question to ask; we are asked this type of question just about everyday with people calling us at The Chocolate Fountain Guild, and relatively simple to answer!

Chris Tabor

Passion for Chocolate