User’s Manual

Welcome to the official guide to the new BilanciaLi 3.0 series product range, created by Andrea Rapanaro, author of the blog CucinaLi. This new series completely revamps the previous offering: the Home version has been replaced by the Basic, the Pro version by the Studio, and the Gold remains the top of the line, packed with new features.

Installation and System Requirements

BilanciaLi is a downloadable spreadsheet-based software and there is a one-time payment. The purchase includes the file for one year and access to support; although future updates and support end after the year, the software will continue to run on the user’s computer (backup is recommended).

Technical Requirements

• Supported software: Microsoft Office 2021 or higher versions, specifically Microsoft Excel
• Operating systems: Runs on PC (Windows) and Mac
• Not supported: Numbers (Apple), OpenOffice or other spreadsheet readers, as well as Office Cloud or Smartphone/Tablet versions

Downloading and First Startup

1. By downloading the program, you will get a ZIP file containing two separate language files: one in Italian and one in English.
2. Extract the files to your computer.
3. Windows users: to avoid security locks related to Excel macros, before opening the file right-click on it, go to “Properties” and select “Undo Lock”. Without this step, the file will not work properly.

Updates

Purchase of BilanciaLi Home and BilanciaLi Pro includes 1 year of free upgrades. How to upgrade to the latest version?

Upon purchase of the software you receive an account with associated instructions for accessing the private area via login.

From the private area you can always download the latest version of the software you have purchased, until the link expires (1 year after purchase).

To find out if an update is available, just check the updates page. There is a direct link in the Balance.

Configuration

Balancing Screen

The balancing screen is the real operational heart of the software. Regardless of the version purchased, the interface is designed to provide a logical workflow, from left to right.

Elements Common to All Versions

In every version of BilanciaLi you will always find these basic elements:

• Ingredients Grid: This is the area where the actual formulation takes place. Ingredients are grouped by logical categories (Dairy & Eggs, Neutrals & Bases, Sugars, Main Ingredients, etc.) for easy entry and reading.

• Step 1 – Select Profile: A drop-down menu located at the top center that allows you to choose the category of mixture you are working on (e.g., Ice Cream, Sorbet) to call up its parameters.

• Step 2 – Import and Quantity: A panel dedicated to loading preset or saved recipes. It allows you to select a base, define the desired total quantity (e.g., 1’000 g), and start loading via the “Import” button.

• Control Tables (top right): An analytical grid that compares your recipe values (Actual) with the ideal parameters (Minimum and Maximum) of the selected profile in real time, indicating with an “OK?” if the balance is correct.

• Ice Cream Data: A summary box showing the total weight of the mixture, the estimated weight of the ice cream (considering overrun), and the approximate calories per 100g.

Ice Cream Balancer – Basic Operation

The balancer (whatever version it is) allows you to balance your ice creams in essentially 2 ways:

1. Entering the ingredients manually
2. Using the quick start (accessing the balancer recipes).

Ice Cream Balancer – Manual Input

Enter ingredients one by one, selecting them from the drop-down menus. Available foods are automatically loaded from the ingredient table, which is fully extendable and editable.

Next to each ingredient enter the weight (in grams) and the balancer will calculate for you the % of weight of each ingredient’s total, its impact on sugars, fat, slng, other solids, and AFP.

Ice Cream Balancer – Starting Recipes

To make stracciatella I will start with a white base, choose the weight (800 g in the example below) and click “Import.” The balancer will load the balanced white base recipe for 800 grams of total mass. All I will have to do is add chopped chocolate in the lower part of the table (chopped foods) respecting the recommended doses (approx. 7.5%)

Click to enlarge the image.

Ice Cream Balancer – Control Chart

The balance table will tell you whether you need to add or remove sugars, fats, SLNG (nonfat milk solids = milk powder, protein), other solids, neutrals, total solids, SPP (sweetening power), AFP (antifreeze power), and (if you have added any) alcohol and chopped foods.

The “Minimum” and “Maximum” columns indicate the limit values of each component for the ice cream to be considered “balanced.” The minimum and maximum parameters are configurable for each profile.

The “Reference” column indicates the ideal value (the average of maximum and minimum) that each component should have, while “Actual” is the actual value of the component in your recipe.

The last column indicates “OK” if the component is balanced, or “Remove” or “Add” if changes to the recipe are needed. The table has red rows if the ice cream is not yet balanced.

In the example below we would need to remove fat and total solids and add sweetness. In this example there is an excess of cream and a low SP sugar (trehalose) was used.

Advanced balancing for each ingredient

In all versions it is possible to define minimums and maximums for each individual ingredient (configurable in the ingredient table) and display the indications in the balance.

Balancing the Neutrals

The minimum and maximum dose of each neutral is specified in the ingredient table. Since you can only enter one neutral per recipe, if you want to use several neutrals in combination (e.g., guar/carob/tara), you will need to define a new neutral in the ingredient table, indicating its parameters and choose it from the drop-down menu in the balancer.

This article explains well what neutrals are, how to create them at home, and how to balance them with a balancer.

Balancing Bases vs. % Liquids (Studio and Gold)

The Pro version offers a very useful function regarding the use of bases (mix of neutrals, milk powder and sugars). The famous bases-50, bases-100, bases-xx should in fact be balanced against the percentage of liquids (mainly milk/water) in the ice cream, and not against the total weight.

See below for how to indicate that a base should be balanced against the percentage of liquids.

Ice Cream Balancer – Ice Cream Data

Below the control chart, the balancer provides the following additional information

Mixture weight

The total weight of ice cream ingredients, excluding chopped foods, which are given in parentheses in the commentary next to it. The reason for this distinction is that chopped foods such as chocolate pieces, nuts, almonds, raisins,… are not considered in the total balance since they are not blended nor really blended with the rest.

Ice cream weight (equal volume)

An overrun can be set in the configuration table, which will be used to calculate the weight of the ice cream for the same volume of the mixture.

Indicative calorie calculation (per 100 g of ice cream)

The calorie calculation is approximate in that the calculation is done using the total % of fat, sugars, SLNG, other solids, and alcohol in the ice cream. The advantage of this calculation is that it remains fairly accurate, while not being necessary to indicate the calories of each individual food (even in the future should you add foods to the ingredient table).

Serving Temperature

In the Basic & Studio versions, the serving temperature is calculated based on the AFP of the ice cream using the formula: Serving Temperature = -1 * AFP / 2.

In the Gold version, on the other hand, the temperature is calculated more accurately, using the freezing curve of the mixture, which also takes into account the other solids in the recipe (not just the sugars).

This allows you to adapt the AFP of all your recipes to the temperature of the display case.

Food cost (Gold version only)

The gold version allows a cost to be set for each ingredient in the food management table. The set cost is used to calculate the food cost of the recipe.

Table of Ingredients – Common to all versions

The table of ingredients contains over 200 foods, but can be extended indefinitely by the user by simply filling in the boxes.

Configurable minimums and maximums

Any existing or user-entered food can be configured with a minimum % and a maximum % (on the blend). This allows the balancer to give guidance in your recipes by telling you whether the food is actually between the minimum and maximum configured in the balancer, allowing you to balance virtually anything.

Categories

The ingredients are divided into the following categories

• Food
• Dairy Products & Eggs
• Sugars
• Neutrals & Bases
• Fruits & Vegetables
• Spirits

Food

The ingredients in this list are all those that do not belong to the other categories. From chocolate to spices, the semi-finished products such as hazelnut paste, pistachio, etc.

For these ingredients, %sugars, %fats, %slng, %other solids, and AFP (expressed as % of sucrose’s AFP) must be indicated. The sum of the percentages of sugars, fats, slng and other solids from that of total solids; the rest is water.

You will notice that chocolate, cocoa and dried fruit pastes (hazelnut, pistachio, walnut, …) have a negative AFP. The calculations are based on formulas from Angelo Corvitto’s book (Ice Cream Without Secrets) and take into account the hardening caused by vegetable fats. If you are used to leaving the AFP a little higher when you make (e.g.) chocolate ice cream, do not do it with this balancer, but rely on the indicated serving temperature (in the Pro version). If you are not satisfied with the results you can still adapt and put the AFP at 0%as in many other balancers, however be aware that you will have to make recipes by eye because the hardening is effective 😉

Dairy Products & Eggs

Yolk, egg white, and dairy products (cream, milk, cheese, milk powder, …) belong to this category.

Sugars

For sugars, it is sufficient to indicate % solids, AFP and SP. The most common sugars are already in the balancer. Should you miss anything, the AFP calculator in the studio and gold versions allows you to calculate the AFP of any sugar based on its molecular weight.

Neutrals & Bases

The table of neutrals and bases needs a few more instructions and is slightly different in the two versions of BilanciaLi.

Because they are so different from each other, the neutrals require individual (generally very low) dosages, and it is therefore necessary to include the balance statements directly in the ingredient table.

In addition to %sugar, %fat, %slng, %other solids, a minimum and a maximum percentage value is given for each neutral, which will be used by the balancer to provide guidance to the user.

The percentage given is to be intended on the total weight of the mixture. For example: locust bean gum should be dosed between 0.45% and 0.65%, or 4.5 to 6.5 grams per kg of mixture.

Read this article to understand how to create mixes of neutrals and balance them with BilanciaLi.

In the Basic version, it is only possible to indicate dosages on the total weight of the mixture (but not on the basis of liquids)

The advantage of the Studio and Gold versions is that they can indicate minimum and maximum values with respect to the percentage of liquids in the ice cream. The function is used to support the bases, which typically need to be balanced on the liter of milk.

This article tells you what bases are and how to enter commercial base values into the balancer.

The balancer will allow you to be even more accurate, because as “liquids” it will count the exact amount of liquids in the ice cream (100% – total solids%) and not just milk or water.

There are only 3 bases with average values in the balancer. It will be up to the user to enter the correct values depending on the bases used, according to the supplier’s instructions.

The important thing is to indicate with an “x” that the base should be balanced on liquids.

When the user selects a balanced base over liquids, the balancer automatically indicates the percentage over total liquids. In the screenshot below, I used a 100 base to make a hazelnut ice cream.

• The 64g of base 100 is 6.5% of the total ice cream (shown next to the ingredient)

• In the control chart we can see that those 64g of base 100 represent 10.15 percent of the weight of the liquids in this mixture and are therefore within the configured parameters (between 9 and 11 percent)
• The balancer indicates with an asterisk that the base is balanced on liquids

Fruits & Vegetables

For fruits and vegetables there is a special table, in which % sugars, % other solids, and recommended serving size (as % of total) must be indicated. As explained in the balancing section, in ice cream and fruit sorbets this percentage is used to show warnings if the actual percentage is 10% higher or lower than the recommended dose.

Spirits

For spirits, it is sufficient to indicate sugars and alcohol degrees. The balancer will automatically calculate the impact on AFP and ice cream calories with these two parameters.

Food cost management (Gold)

In the Gold version you can configure the food cost directly in the food table. Simply enter the cost per kg in your currency for each ingredient. The balancer will then do the calculation in recipes where you use ingredients with an associated cost.

The food cost compares…

• In the balancing screen
• On the print screen (this function can be turned on or off from the configuration tab)

Important note: The food cost of a recipe is recalculated when you upload it. If you update the raw material cost, the recipe cost will be updated when you reload it. As for semi-finished products, if the raw material in them changes price, you will need to upload the semi-finished product, resave it, and finally the price of the recipe using that processed product will be updated when the recipe is uploaded.

Management of semi-finished products (Gold)

Semi-finished products are a special category of recipes. To add a sauce, preparation, or set of ingredients and use it as the only ingredient within a recipe, simply

1) Upload the “Semi-finished products” profile.

2) Add the recipe and save it

3) Go to an ice cream profile or where you want to use the semi-finished product.

4) The semi-finished product will appear in the drop-down menus of semi-finished products, to be used as a single ingredient

The “Semi-finished products” tab exists only as information, to see all saved semi-finished products, but nothing is allowed to be edited so as not to break the function. To update, add, remove semi-finished products, just do it like you do for ice cream and sorbets.

Important note: Avoid creating half-finished products to avoid strange behavior of the balancer.

How to put new foods into the balancer

It is perhaps one of the most common questions I am asked.

In this recipe you will find a video showing several examples and tricks with BilanciaLi for entering foods. In this case, we are going to balance a gourmet curry ice cream by entering all the ingredients of a homemade sauce to deduce the nutritional values of the sauce itself to balance it in ice cream at the end.

Here are a couple of other examples for incorporating plant proteins and a cashew nut paste.

Look at the label on the package and deduce fats, sugars, other solids. The AFP will be equal to the % of sugars (to simplify).

• Fat (10.1g) = 10.1%.
• Sugars (less than 0.1g) = 0%
• Other solids = 2.2g (fiber) + 80g (protein) + 2.7g (salt) = 85%.

Let’s include it in the food table

How to put cashew paste into the balancer?

The values on the back of the paste are as follows:

• Fat = 49g
• Carbohydrates 20g
  • Of which Sugars = 6.3g
• Protein = 18.6g
• Salt = 0.05g

We infer from this

• Fat = 49%.
• Sugars = 6.3%.
• Other solids = Remaining carbohydrates + Protein + Salt = approx. 32%.
• AFP = 6.3% – 1.4×49% = -62.3%

For the AFP, I used Angelo Corvitto’s formula (from the book “Ice Cream Without Secrets”), subtracting 1.4x the percentage of sugars from the percentage of vegetable fats. The resulting negative AFP is used to account for hardening due to vegetable fats.

Configuring Balancing Parameters

All parameters used by the balancer to indicate whether there is an excess or a deficiency in the balance are configurable in the “Configuration” tab of the Pro version.

The minimum and maximum values of each parameter can be configured separately.

There are 2 configurable profiles in the Basic version

• Ice cream
• Sorbet

There are 7 configurable profiles in the Studio version

• Ice cream
• Sorbet
• Granita
• Vegan Ice Cream
• Gastronomic Ice Cream

While in the Gold there are 12

• Ice cream
• Sorbet
• Granita
• Vegan Ice Cream
• Gastronomic Ice Cream
• Gastronomic Sorbet
• Fried Ice Cream
• Semi-finished products
• Pacojet Ice Cream
• Pacojet Sorbet
• 2 Blank Profiles

The profiles are already configured, but each user has different tastes and preferences and has the ability to change them as they prefer.

The “Restore Values” button allows you to restore the balancer’s standard values at any time.

The AFP Calculators (Studio & Gold)

How do you go about calculating the AFP of a fat paste, or a chocolate or sugar that is not available?

Let’s see how to do it for these 3 cases

Calculating the AFP of a new sugar

WHEREAS, the balancer already contains almost all the sugars you may need: Dextrose, Erythritol, Fructose, Glicirizine, Atomized Glucose 21 DE, Atomized Glucose 42 DE, Atomized Glucose 52 DE, Isoglucose, Lactose, Maltodextrin 5 DE, Maltodextrin 18 DE, Maltodextrin 20 DE, Maltose, Mannitol, Honey, Sucrose, Glucose syrup 30 DE, Glucose syrup 38 DE, Glucose syrup 42DE, Glucose syrup 62DE, Sorbitol, Stevia, Tagatose, Trehalose, Xylitol, Invert sugar.

The sugar AFP calculator takes the molecular weight of the new sugar as a parameter and calculates its AFP. The molecular weight of a sugar can be found by simply googling “Molecular weight “

Do the test with dextrose. Enter the weight you find on google (180) into the calculator and it will come out 190%.

Calculate the AFP of a semi-finished product (e.g., a cashew nut paste)

Simply enter the % sugar and % fat found on the package to get the AFP of your semi-finished product.

If my dough contains 6.3% sugar and 49% fat, this is the result we will get for its AFP (remember it is negative because it takes into account hardening due to vegetable fats).

Calculating the AFP of a chocolate-based paste

The last calculator needs 3 parameters: % cocoa butter, % dry cocoa, % sugar. Calculating the % cocoa butter and % dry cocoa of a chocolate bar is possible and I invite you to read this article by Dario Bressanini about it 😉 Then just enter them into the calculator to get the AFP of your chocolate.

However, the balancer already contains parameters for almost all types of chocolate you find on the market: Cocoa powder 11% Mat. Fat, Cocoa powder 22% Mat. Fat, Milk chocolate 35 percent, Milk chocolate 40 percent, White chocolate, Dark chocolate 55 percent, Dark chocolate 60 percent, Dark chocolate 65 percent, Dark chocolate 70 percent, Dark chocolate 80 percent, Cocoa mass 100 percent