An enrober is a machine used in the confectionery industry to coat a food item with a coating medium, typically chocolate. Frequently enrobed foods include nuts, ice cream, toffee, , and . In addition to its effects on the taste and mouthfeel, enrobing with chocolate extends a confection's shelf life.
Process
The process of enrobing involves placing the items on the enrober's feed band, which may consist of a wire mesh or containers in which the confection to be enrobed are placed, with each container having drain holes to recover excess chocolate. The enrober maintains the coating medium at a controlled constant temperature and pumps the medium into a flow pan. The medium flows from the flow pan in a continuous curtain and bottoming bed that the food items pass through, completely coating them. A wire mesh conveyor belt then transports the coated confection to a cooling area.
Output mainly comes from the belt width and cooling tunnel length. Excluding compound chocolate, most chocolates need to spend eight minutes in a cooling tunnel.
History
The enrober machine was invented in France in 1903,
brought to the United States, and perfected to perform the work of at least twenty people.
See also
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Sugar panning, a method to cover a candy or nut with a hard candy shell
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Couverture chocolate, a form of chocolate with a high proportion of cocoa butter, used in dipping and coating
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Food coating
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