Jim D.

Never having tried bacon in a chocolate, I must ask what texture the bacon has. Flabby (like undercooked bacon)? I would think crispy bits might make for an unpleasant experience--bacon can get very crispy. If I recall correctly, in previous chocolate-with-bacon discussions on eG, it was concluded that using the bacon fat is the best way to achieve the desired result.

As has already been suggested in this thread, you must have oil-based colorants when working with chocolate. Water and cocoa butter don't mix (unless, of course, you are deliberately making an emulsion with them). I don't know what country you are in, but look for "oil-based" before you buy, regardless of whether it is pre-mixed colors or powder that you will mix with plain cocoa butter yourself. You also wrote about backing colors with white. Unfortunately, that is required with some colors, and you really know which ones only by experimenting. It often depends on how much titanium dioxide has been mixed in (since it blocks all colors). Most red cocoa butter, for instance, turns dark red/brownish when dark chocolate is behind it. But yellows, orange, light blue are usually OK without a white layer. I have found, however, that even colors that block most other colors (orange, for instance) show up brighter when there is a layer of white. You can experiment by melting the colored cocoa butter, spreading a little of it on a transparent surface (a piece of clear plastic, for example), letting it set, then spreading some melted chocolate on top of part of the colored area. When you turn the plastic upside down, you will see how the cocoa butter will show up with and without chocolate behind it.

I suppose buying your own cow would be too much trouble?

Yes, similar, but it has more white chocolate (and no plain cocoa butter). I also add some dark rum.

Sorry, didn't see this earlier. Wybauw has a banana and passion fruit caramel that (in my most recent measurement) ends up at .50 Aw. He uses cream plus banana and passion fruit in the caramel. The problem with it is that it is impossible to cook it to a usual caramel temp because it splatters so much and the banana tends to burn. So he calls for adding some white chocolate at the end, which eventually thickens the mixture. The butter tends to separate, but I mix the whole thing in a food processor, and it comes out beautifully and is delicious.

With your expertise in all things baking, you will master this--but perhaps best at a slower time of year! As you already know, you will find all the help you need on eG on tempering chocolate. Chocolate always has its surprises, but once you "get" tempering, it will not seem so mysterious.

You could get colored tissue paper, which might look a bit better. As you said you include a pad, which I do as well, I assume people will realize the extra paper is for protective reasons only and probably throw it away.

I have had the same issue, so I add waxed paper (or similar flexible paper or bubble wrap will work) between the top of the chocolates and the pad. Chocolates are sturdier than they look, so I make sure I fill up the space as much as possible so that there is as little wiggle room for them as possible.

That should work. If we really want to see what effect time has on Aw, I could take several samples just after the filling has been made, then put on the lids (yes, the tiny little cups come with tiny little lids) and test them over a period of days. An after-Christmas project.

As Kerry pointed out, the machine cannot read the sample until the it and the sample are approximately the same temperature. It makes sense to me that the sample should be measured when it has crystallized, but, for a filling that eventually firms up quite a lot, it's very difficult to get it into the little cup if you wait, especially since the entire bottom of the cup is supposed to be covered for best results but there isn't supposed to be any of the sample at the top edge of the cup--in other words, the "target" area is quite restricted. I have no scientific evidence about this, but it seems to me that the filling would be at its most "watery" (and therefore have its highest Aw reading) when it is just made. I'll experiment and see if I can get more information.

I was thinking of you but didn't want to reveal your inmost secrets on eG.

Most people use an immersion blender to mix the cocoa butter with colorant. That's what I have done. It takes more effort than it might seem to get them mixed, so I'm wondering if the gentle action of the Chocovision bowl turning would accomplish that. Some people also strain the mixture afterward to get out any remaining lumps. If you use this method, be sure and have a deep container to prevent coloring your kitchen walls.

So you didn't try the seed method? It's so much less messy. Or perhaps you enjoy playing with chocolate? 😄

I agree with what Kerry wrote. I can't imagine a situation where you would need enough colored cocoa butter (of a single color) to use a Chocovision machine (recall that the machine needs extra to make sure the thermometer is covered at all times). You can just follow one of the usual methods of tempering chocolate: (1) raise the temp, then cool the c.b. down, then up again or (2) raise the temp, cool the c.b. down to around 93F/34C, then add seed (you could use fresh cocoa butter for that), then lower temp to 86F/30C, then test the c.b., you will have tempered c.b. Just don't let the temp go down too low or up too high while using it or it will go out of temper.

These are not pro tips, just the way I temper a small amount of chocolate (standard procedure, I think). Here I'm speaking of dark chocolate (temps are, of course, a little different for milk or white). If I am using "used" chocolate, I melt it to over 43C to melt out all the crystals. Then I add some more chocolate (whether it's more used chocolate or new from the bag doesn't matter as any Type V crystals are going to be melted out--the purpose of this step is to cool down the chocolate as quickly as possible). When it is in the 35C area, I add the seed. It's easier if you have a block, but callets/pistoles/fèvres from the bag work. I stir as the seed is melting to distribute its Type V crystals throughout the bowl. When the contents of the bowl cool to the 31.5 - 32 range, I remove the seed. I stir for another minute or so, then test the chocolate for temper. If your chocolate is all "new" from the bag, then you don't have to go all the way to 43. You just heat it up to its working temp (31.5 to 32 for dark), being careful not to get it too far above that or if you do go above 34, make sure there is enough unmelted chocolate to act as seed. This method is a bit more tedious but quicker.

Why not try using seed? Since it rarely (if ever) fails, at least it would restore your confidence. And it's so much less messy than tabling.

Which tempering method are you using?

I have now edited my earlier post with the images to include this dome. A cynical viewer might think CW has used the same image for all its domes! Perhaps they need to add a new category, something along the lines of "difficulty of unmolding."

Now I am more puzzled than ever. On the top row below are the two molds I use, CW 1157 (18g, 29.7mm diameter x 25mm tall) and CW 1433 (15g, 29mm x 25mm). On the bottom row is CW 2207 (14g, 29mm x 21mm), which @pastrygirl and @Kerry Beal use, and CW 2116 (14g, 29mm x 23mm), which @gfron1uses: To me the shapes look the same. But perhaps the 4mm less tall of the third one makes a difference?

But which one do you use?

I just remembered that @gfron1 uses domes that look deep (I don't know the weight). Perhaps he could weigh in on any unmolding difficulties he has had with them. I think @pastrygirl uses them as well.

I remember that story vividly; I'll bet that mic picked up some choice language. In fact, I often think of the incident when I am banging molds on the counter (thankfully I'm not doing this at a show!--and thankfully polycarbonate and granite both withstand great abuse). I think it was you who recommended the domes that are a little more flattened out, such as CW 2207:

A tip that might be of use to others: For a soft, sticky ganache or other filling that needs to be flattened out after being piped or even moved around in the shell a bit, you can dip a paintbrush (stiff bristles work best) in melted cocoa butter and uses it to move the filling as you wish. The brush does the moving, the cocoa butter keeps it from sticking. I discovered this when I was following Greweling's suggestion of creating a cocoa butter layer between two fillings that might experience moisture migration in the shell. So I was brushing on a layer of cocoa butter over a pâte de fruit and found that a substance that resisted everything else (gloved finger, plastic wrap, etc.) would flatten out with this trick. Today I used it on the stickiest thing I have ever piped into a mold, dulce de leche, and again, it worked. It helps with those annoying times when you notice that a few cavities need just a bit more filling, but the usual leveling techniques (tapping on the counter) are too late to work.

They definitely are not always soft, but don't usually set up as firmly as a dark- or milk-based ganache. I think balancing the ganache is the key. For that I use a formula calculating amount of cocoa butter, fat, water, etc. When I have my Christmas chocolates more under control, I'll run your recipe through it and see what it says. It is based on Melissa Coppel's and Ramon Morato's formulas, but is annoying to the degree that it requires you know amounts of the categories in each product you use, and, as we know, labels often don't provide all that info.

@Rajala, I am more puzzled by the fact that you were using a hemisphere. My followup post to my previous one was going to be that I have trouble with domes, almost never with any other shape. But I mean domes, not hemispheres. I was going to say that I almost never have trouble with hemispheres falling out of the mold without an issue; in fact, any "flattened round" cavity does not often give me trouble (such as the ones called quenelles, the cocoa pods, the flattened domes). Nor do molds with some design to them (ones I call "grooved domes," the CW pyramids, squares with designs--all give no problems). There was a thread on eG some years ago from @lebowits discussing his problems with shelling domes, but I don't recall there was ever a definitive answer. Since I do all the things mentioned above in this thread (stirring the pot between shellings, testing the chocolate, etc.), I'm wondering if geometry plays a role as well. But then I know many chocolatiers use nothing but domes. My other idea about the cause is overtempering. In a recent thread, someone was saying his/her chocolate (in a Chocovision machine) got overtempered quickly. That person has not replied to my response, but I was going to ask how to know so definitively. One can tell from the "feel" of the chocolate that it's getting too viscous, and the chocolate in the molds changes its look more quickly, but aside from a temper testing machine, I don't know how to judge. I read somewhere (probably eG) that overtempered chocolate does not release well from molds. I don't know if that is true, but it might be a clue.