Jim D.

Andrea, I can't take a lot of credit for the white stripes. It's just white chocolate piped from a bag with a very narrow opening. I place all the domes on parchment and then move back and forth making lines over the whole batch. They don't all look that neat, I must confess. I have seen some pieces (on eGullet, I think) with a single very neat stripe extending over the cavity, but from what I have read, that entails using adhesive to block out part of the cavity, spraying the stripe, removing the adhesive, then spraying the whole cavity a contrasting color. Aside from the technique involved, I have never been able to find food-safe adhesive. Your pieces, by the way, are beautiful.

A photo of the chocolates I made for Valentine's Day. Some of the dipped ones leave something to be desired in technique. Coconut continues to be a problem--it's difficult to find a recipe that remains moist but still can be cut neatly. Where applicable, I have included the source of the recipe in parentheses. Row 1: passion fruit, molded in white chocolate (Greweling); layers of crispy gianduja and black currant, dipped in milk chocolate (Wybauw); strawberry cream, molded in white (Kerry Beal of eGullet); peppermint cream, molded in dark chocolate (Notter). Row 2: coconut cream, dipped in dark chocolate, topped with chocolate-covered almond (combination of several recipes); crème brûlée, molded in dark; chocolate chip cookie truffle, dipped in dark, topped with cocoa nibs; dark cherry with kirschwasser, molded in white (Greweling). Row 3: dark caramel with sea salt, molded in milk (Notter); caramelized pineapple, molded in milk (Wybauw); layers of dulce de leche and coffee, molded in milk (Greweling); pistachio and hazelnut praline dipped in dark, topped with toasted pistachios (Wybauw).

That is a wonderful offer. If you have the opportunity, please try to find out whether they have experienced the over-crystallization of Opalys in a short period of time. I would estimate it occurs perhaps 15 minutes after the chocolate reaches Valrhona's recommended working temperature of 28/29C (82/84F).

No, I have never worked with it in actual production at that temp; I was just trying to see how far I needed to push it to get it workable. I keep trying to find another white chocolate that isn't like Opalys but tastes as good, but no success so far. I wish there were some way to get in touch directly with Valrhona and ask them if they have really tried this chocolate for molding, but of course there are only distributors to work with. I may have to take a trip to Lyon to ask my questions. If I go to the eGullet chocolate workshop this year, I may take a bag of Opalys for others to try!

I'm glad you wrote about the issues connected with chocolate because I had another one today. I was using Valrhona Opalys (I have written about difficulties with it before) to close molds. For the first two (I have 2 hearts--you definitely need to "get a heart," pardon the pun) the top went down without an issue. By the third mold, I could "feel" the thickening as I moved the ladle through the chocolate. I turned up the temp (on the Chocovision Delta) and it thinned out a little. By the time I got to the last molds (numbers 5-7), it was too thick to use. So I turned up the heat some more. Once I completed all the molds, I decided to experiment, and this is the (to me) amazing result: The Opalys thinned out enough only when I got the temp to 93F (remember, this is white chocolate!). I checked and my thermometer read 93.1F. I tested the temper, and in 4 minutes, the sample had completely set. If I didn't like the taste of Opalys so much (for a white chocolate, that is), I would give up. It gives a new meaning to your observation that the chocolate is on control. What do you make of my observations?

I realize you were (mostly) kidding, Chris, but I thought that stirring could be the culprit in over-crystallization and chocolate too thick to use. The OP hasn't had this problem...yet...but he or she will probably encounter it eventually.

Mick, I have had the same issue using a wooden peel with high-hydration dough--on New Year's Eve with multiple guests standing around the kitchen, watching the disaster unfold (whoever thought of open kitchens should be taken out and shot). So I have learned (from pizzamaking.com) to put a piece of parchment under the dough, cut to the size of the pizza to prevent burning the paper in the oven, then slip pizza with parchment onto the stone. I wait 2 minutes until the dough has firmed, then reach in with tongs and yank out the paper. I know it's cheating, but it works.

I used to coat cavities with cocoa butter but have stopped as I have never detected any difference in the unmolding process. The idea was that it would lubricate the molds and make release easier; some people also said it increased the shine of the chocolates. Those molds in the picture look good. You do a much better scraping job than I usually manage. Did you refrigerate them for a little while right after you emptied them (and waited a few minutes for crystallization to start)? Good luck with this batch.

I strongly suggest using the technique of melting more chocolate and having it ready. There are two methods: (1) Restarting the tempering process from the beginning but using already heated chocolate. As long as you don't burn it, you don't have to worry about its temp. (2) The other method for "stretching" the filling of molds in a batch tempering machine is to melt chocolate separately and then bring it down to roughly the temp of the chocolate in the machine (90F for dark, for instance). Then you can add a small amount of this supplemental chocolate at a time (I think Chocovision suggests 1/3 of what is in the bowl so as not to throw the chocolate out of temper). Actually Chocovision recommends this method for its smaller machines. My experience suggests always testing the temper after you have gone through one of these procedures. And if you can afford the Delta machine, I recommend it as it removes all these issues. Another bit of your procedure caught my eye: you empty the molds (partially at least) onto marble. That will really cool down the chocolate.

I have had the same experience with the Rev2--namely, having to add chocolate to have enough for multiple molds (it's why I gave in and bought the larger Rev Delta). I think (I'm not an expert in the finer points of crystallization of chocolate) that if you empty the molds back into the machine (given the small size of the Rev2 bowl, how do you do that without making a total mess?), you are probably OK with temper. But if, for example, you empty the molds onto parchment, by the time you get the dumped chocolate back into the machine, it may well be out of temper (it has been cooling as a fairly deep pool of chocolate, not an ideal situation). Often you can see this: if you let a large pool of chocolate cool on parchment, it will set with lots of swirls and off-colors, a sure sign that it is not in temper. What I did when I used the Rev2 for multiple molds was--after the machine has been emptied for the first batch--to reset the machine and start the tempering process from scratch. If you scoop the old chocolate into the machine before it has set, the still-warm chocolate will cause the Rev2 to cycle through the tempering more quickly, so it's not as bad as it sounds. You could also use the system of melting extra chocolate in the microwave or over water and get it to whatever melting point you want (up to around 120F max). Reset the Rev2 and pour this new chocolate into the bowl, and because it is so warm, the tempering process will proceed rather quickly.

I hadn't considered an overly warm ganache in my questions. Most recipes I have seen tell you to cool it down. For dark chocolate shells, Ewald Notter says 88F. , Peter Greweling gives 77F. So you probably just melted the shell. And I would recommend always testing the temper. It's a nuisance, but it's a fairly certain guide (assuming all else is well, such as the room temp--as gfron1 said).

I was just going to ask how you clean your molds. I do it more or less the way you do. There are as many opinions on how to clean molds (or even whether to clean them) as there are people making chocolates. Do you do any polishing? Before use I take a soft cloth or a very soft paper towel and polish the cavities. Inevitably, in spite of my best efforts, I come up with some leftover chocolate (or colored cocoa butter) that theoretically can interfere with the finished product. I say "theoretically" because no one knows for sure what causes chocolate to stick--there can only be educated guesses or assumptions. Since you are not using colored cocoa butter in the pieces in your images, that eliminates one possible factor in the sticking. Another possibility: After filling and then emptying the cavities, do you put the molds in the refrigerator once the chocolate has begun to set? This is meant to release the "latent heat of crystallization," and it made a big difference after I started doing it. Many times (though not always) you can try removing some of the shells from the mold and determine whether they are going to release later after they have been filled. Another possibility: Have you checked the temperatures of the chocolate at various stages in the Rev2 to make sure they are accurate? Do you always test the temper before you start using the chocolate? Another question: Have you had any chocolates turn out OK? If so, do you have any idea what you did differently? I question whether the issue is the complexity of the mold design. I have a pyramid with all sorts of decorations and it looks as if a chocolate would never come out of it, but in many uses I have never had it fail. I also have a fluted oval similar to yours, and I don't think that it has ever failed to release. But I have had my share of colossal failures. I sometimes use Chocovision temperers. Once, when the chocolate was thickening up and a shot of heat didn't fix the problem, I added melted, untempered chocolate to the machine. It must have been warmer than my thermometer indicated and so heated the batch too much or I added more than the amount recommended and so overwhelmed the tempered chocolate. In any event I neglected to recheck the temper and blithely went on my way filling molds. Let me just say that no amount of time in the freezer or banging on the counter allowed one single chocolate to come out of that mold. There are past threads on this forum with discussions of this issue with lots of suggestions, though not, of course, definitive answers.

I have used the freezer for stubborn molds (as much as a half-hour, occasionally even more) and then tried again to unmold (while the chocolates are still cold and presumably contracted from the mold). Unless I have really messed up the temper, all the pieces have eventually released. Most experts advise against using the freezer, but I have found it works and have never had any condensation on the chocolates or other ill effects.

This is mostly about the difference between "wet" and "dry" caramel. As far as I can tell, both end up at the same place, but I prefer a slightly wet ("sandy") caramel. I find it easier to control how dark I want the caramel to be, and I also like to be able to get rid of the sugar crystals as completely as possible--by washing down the sides of the pan (though others don't use this technique). There was a previous discussion of this issue that you might find useful.

Chris, Do you always spray white behind colored cocoa butter when you are using dark chocolate? I tried it once, and it seems necessary to spray a full covering of the color or the white makes it look washed out. Of course some colors cover the dark chocolate by themselves, and it's not always possible to tell how it's going to turn out until one tries it. Sometimes, of course, one wants the effect of a color blending into the couverture's natural color. I notice that Chocotransfersheets labels some of their colors "opaque," which is helpful. Jim

Ecole Chocolat has a recipe for white chocolate truffles with a cranberry filling that might interest you, using a combination of cooked and dried cranberries. I made them but piped the ganache into molds rather than make truffles, and people liked them a lot. The tartness of the berries cuts the sweetness of the white chocolate nicely.

That's why I posted, as pjm333 seems to have the technique down, and I'm always looking for tips! I think I will try the squares to top off dipped chocolates, where gravity--or the curvature of a cake--would not be an issue.

pjm333: Could you tell us what the squares on top of the pudding are and how they are made? Thanks.

With many thanks to those who gave advice on this project, here is the result. Not perfect, but I ran out of time before I could trim the tiles a little more (alas, the cake was not the same height all the way around). Scoring the tiles before they had totally dried and then using a heated knife for further trimming worked beautifully. Thanks again for the help.

This is an insight that I have been learning. Sometimes I give friends some "seconds," pieces that taste fine but that I would not feel confident putting in a box. Inevitably the recipients say, "What's wrong with them?"

Kerry, also helpful ideas. How thick should I try to get the tiles? I want to stand them up against the sides of the cake. In other words, is thinner or thicker easier to deal with?

Very helpful ideas. I'll give them a try. Thanks.

I am making Rose Levy Beranbaum's La Brioche cake. She calls for decorating the sides of the cake with chopped, toasted hazelnuts, which are fantastic. But one of the guests doesn't like nuts (you can't pick your relatives, I guess), so I came up with the idea of making thin rectangular pieces of chocolate spread on a transfer sheet. They will be placed against the butter cream frosting, each being approximately the width of the slices of the cake to be cut (so there is no need to cut through the chocolate when the cake is served). I experimented today, using Ewald Notter's directions in his book (he refers to the pieces as plaques). He says to use tempered chocolate, spread it on the transfer sheet, wait for it to set, then use an X-acto knife to cut it in pieces of the correct size. I left everything in place and cut through the transfer sheet and the chocolate and did not have any shattering. But after I removed the transfer sheet and tried to trim the pieces a bit, they shattered a lot. And there was some curling of the chocolate as it dried, which is worrisome. Any ideas on how to improve this process and guard against the curling and the shattering issues? Thanks for any help.