The Machinery Modernizing Andre's Confiserie Suisse

Editor's note: We previously wrote about Andre's Confiserie Suisse but we recently met up with René at the Summer Fancy Food Show and learned about how his modern equipment is helping him to scale up and create even more impressive confections.

Imagine cutting a flawlessly beautiful name out of chocolate, with minimal effort. Or picture a slab of chocolate that becomes a series of completely uniform, identical shapes – with the touch of a button. Water jet machines have transformed the previously labor-intensive process of cutting designs into chocolate, creating a low-labor, precision process. Likewise, a Swiss depositor and high-speed enrobers are bringing André’s Confiserie Suisse into a new era.

Waterjet Cutting Pump

The Waterjet in action photo credit Shani Fine

In 2020 Kansas City-based André’s Confiserie Suisse acquired a water jet machine, after fulfilling a gargantuan 2019 Williams-Sonoma order. It required extremely time-consuming handcrafting that the new machine streamlines. René Bollier, the owner and grandson of company founder, André Bollier is a pastry chef and chocolatier and had previously worked with these machines in Switzerland.

Much to Bollier’s surprise and delight, Baxter Springs, Kan. manufacturer KMT Waterjet Cutting Systems could provide the necessary pump. The primary machine came from Xilix Systems, LLC, near Austin, TX.

Better yet, Baxter Springs was only two and a half hours away from Kansas City. That meant Bollier could test the equipment there before making his purchase. KMT could also address any major repair needs that might arise in the future.

What is a Waterjet?

Chocolate alligators photo credit Shandi Fine

Bollier explains that the water jet machine features a proprietary computer program that sends information about a target design to the machine. The pump then sends pressure into a small-diameter nozzle with a diamond head. This produces an extremely fine stream of water which, in turn, creates superb edge quality on any chocolate it cuts.

Water jet cut chocolates photo credit Lisa Waterman Gray

When operating, the water jet and the confection tray move independently, which makes cutting chocolate decorations faster and more precise. At André’s, many items are cut while frozen too, helping to ensure the cleanest cut possible.

“We used to use hard plastic molds, and it was very labor intensive,” Bollier explains. “But the water jet can run at variable speeds – based on a scale from 1 to 100 and on how we program it per product. The water jet can cut any two-dimensional image, logo, or lettering that we upload or create."

S shaped chocolates photo credit Lisa Waterman Gray

He adds, "The biggest learning curve we’ve had is setting up the computer program for a new product and making sure to create minimal residual moisture in the chocolate. Now we can easily do an ‘S’ pattern [honoring] Scherenschnitte. It’s a Swiss art form with an Old World feel and a pattern that’s on most of our packaging.”

Just how many pieces the water jet machinery cuts and how quickly is very dependent on what you are cutting, but Bollier shares, “We can cut 2500 individual batons an hour, but due to how hard the chocolate is we have to run the machine very slowly. A 16" x 24" pastry sheet can be cut into 120 heart pastries in 4 minutes.”

Depositor

The water jet machine isn’t the only equipment which has streamlined chocolate production at André’s. The Knobel ‘One-Shot’ machine features individual hoppers that house ganache and melted chocolate. This allows them to create truffles with high precision and accuracy while using a fully automated system.

André’s purchased the original Knobel One-Shot in the 1990s and Bollier purchased the current machine about three years ago. “All of the ingredients must be the perfect viscosity and temperature,” he says. “Our One-Shot can deposit 15,000 chocolate truffles an hour and make 10,000 dark chocolate mint leaves in that same amount of time.”

Enrobers

Another relatively recent purchase, two enrober machines with cooling tunnels create exquisite chocolates that have a uniform outer finish. They reduce the need to incorporate more laborious hand tempering, and significantly shrink the amount of chocolate waste generated. Using such machines also reduces cooling time and energy usage.

“The enrober speed is defined by how large of a confection you are enrobing,” Bollier says. “We can run 7000 pieces of candied orange through our dark chocolate enrober each hour. Since we hand decorate each truffle as they come out of the enrober we average 4,000 of these confections an hour.

“The precision these machines can achieve, in many aspects, enables a smaller chocolate company like André's to achieve maximum efficiencies. It therefore enables us to better meet customer demand as we implement a strategic company growth plan.”