Jim D.

Yes, I have read about that argument over whether or not to wash. I must confess that I can't yet clean enough of the chocolate off (in the process of making the chocolates) and must wash them. I use hot water, usually no soap. I did plan to try a version of what you describe, however, the next time I do some work, namely, "greasing" the molds with a little melted cocoa butter. A number of people recommend this. Just to make the whole situation more ridiculous: Today I unmolded some plain chocolates (no decoration, but a fairly intricate mold), and they came out without a hitch. As far as I know, I did nothing different from yesterday, when a batch were the most difficult I have ever unmolded. Go figure! Thanks for your suggestions.

Thanks for the perpendicular suggestion. I think that may help. Could you estimate how clean your molds are when you finish scraping? I've seen videos where the molds are almost as clean as they were before use (as in: ), others where there is some thin covering of chocolate.

Thanks for those tips. I knew you would have some good ideas. Responses to the two paragraphs above: So you put the molds with the choc. shells in the refrigerator before you fill them? I had thought that shells and filling were supposed to be at room temp. Greweling even calls for warming the shells a bit before filling them--so that the bottoms will stick to the sides, he says. For the cocoa butter: Using the microwave I partially melted the CB in the plastic bottle, then shook it (as many people advise), then poured out the melted portion into a small plastic cup, which I use to store it. When I am ready to use it, I melt the CB gently over warm water and use it to decorate. I think it is still in temper as it begins to harden quite soon. I got a heating pad to keep it fluid, and I am sure the heating pad is not warm enough to take the CB out of temper (it's barely warm enough to keep it fluid). After last night's bad experience with unmolding, I am now fairly sure that the CB decoration is not the issue since I had the worst experience yet with unmolding undecorated chocolates. Again, they all eventually came out, but I think it's fair to say I have now given polycarbonate molds the ultimate test of sturdiness. And yes, I did clean the molds and polish them with a cotton cloth before I began. I think next I am going to try using a little CB to polish them before starting. I must say this process is very discouraging. There are so many variables and a lot of guesswork involved. Jim

Thanks you very much for that information. It really helps.

I am a beginner at molding chocolates (have made about 10 batches) and have some questions on technique. I realize that practice is required, and I think I am getting a bit better at the process, but am still having some issues and so seeking advice from those with more experience. I apologize for the length of the questions and will appreciate any help at this busy time of year for confectioners. I find cleaning off the mold (both when initially filling the mold and especially when capping the chocolates) a problem. I have a long flat spatula as well as a broad scraper (a drywall tool actually), and with one of those I can usually get most of the chocolate off the top and sides of the mold, but find that as time passes, the chocolate thickens (a sign that it is tempered, I suppose) and sticks to the scraper, which therefore removes less chocolate, tending to make a mess of the mold that I had mostly cleaned off. So I placed a heavy pot nearby and scraped the blade on the edge of that, but still the chocolate built up too much on the blade. If I stop to put down the scraper and clean it off, the chocolate hardens too rapidly in the mold. So do others have any technique for cleaning off the blade quickly and thoroughly? I have watched several videos that show experts doing this, and they appear to have no trouble at all. I have added cocoa butter (around 7%) to the chocolate (Callebaut, which I know tends to be rather viscous), and that helps keep the chocolate liquid longer, but still have the problem. I should add that I have succeeded in making some nice and thin shells (the cocoa butter helped with that), but with the chocolate left on the top of the mold, I am getting "feet" on the pralines (which does not bother me too much, since I have a little knife that trims them off easily, but sometimes they make unmolding difficult). Leveling the bottoms of the chocolates is the most difficult part of the job. As I try to scrape the extra chocolate off the mold, the blade drags chocolate with it, making the bottoms rough in texture. If I keep trying to smooth them, the situation gets worse since some of the filling can be dragged out of the cavities. I end up patching the places where the chocolate is gone, and that makes it worse. I left the chocolate on the mold in one case, and the bottoms were smoother, but unmolding was a nightmare. I am wondering if the chocolate is too thin and I need to wait a few minutes. The problem is that there isn't a lot of time to think and try different techniques as the couverture is hardening quickly. Which brings me to the unmolding issue. I have read many threads on this forum and elsewhere about this problem and realize that it is quite common. When I don't do any decorating of the mold with cocoa butter, the pralines often release without a problem, but the batches where I used cocoa butter were a different story: some chocolates came out of the molds with no difficulty, others required much effort. All of them did finally come out without any damage, but what a job it was! I am fairly certain the chocolate is in temper. I leave the molds at room temp. for about 15 minutes, then put them in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes. If they stick after repeated refrigeration, I put them in the freezer for a few minutes and that often helps. Eventually I get them all out, but it is a major issue. The last problem has to do with decorating the molds. I like the simple look of lines of cocoa butter (or chocolate) crisscrossing the praline. I watched a video from a British source named Keylink (excellent series of videos on every aspect of chocolate making), and the instructor just waved a cone of cocoa butter over the mold and all went well. When I did it, the cocoa butter came out sporadically with some good lines, others interrupted by little blobs and spaces with no cocoa butter. Considering that the cavities have sides, I think making lines is a challenge, but it is one that others have conquered. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? As I said earlier, I will be very grateful for any suggestions. Jim D.

I have been using some recipes in Ewald Notter's book and have come across a puzzle. In two recipes (key lime pralines, page 178, and mint pralines, page 186) he uses what he calls a "cracker," more like a cookie, made of chocolate and feuilletine, which eventually becomes the base of the praline. This part of both recipes calls for chocolate, cocoa butter, feuilletine (or corn flakes as a substitute), and butter. But he never mentions adding the butter. Instead he calls for adding the cocoa butter twice. I would assume the second mention is meant to be the butter, but at that point in the recipe he specifically says "Add the liquid cocoa butter..." after he has called for adding it previously. Has anyone tried either of these recipes or have a suggestion as to what was intended? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks. That sounds delicious. I like raspberry and kirsch together very much. I see that you use both fondant and chocolate.

I just tried some lemon juice in the pear fondant. It improved things, but more of it, and the mixture starts tasting of lemon. When you have some time, could you let me know some of the fondant fillings you use? Greweling has a mint one that looks interesting, but not too much else.

I thought I would provide an update on today's experiments: I made the Greweling pear ganache with white chocolate. The pear flavor comes through much better, but it is still weak. So my next thought is to decrease the amount of chocolate and add an equivalent amount of butter (which this recipe does not include at all), on the theory that both choc. and butter will cause the ganache to thicken, but butter has a much more neutral flavor. I also plan to increase the amounts of pear purée and eau-de-vie slightly. The other plan was to try fondant, so I made some fondant (Greweling recipe). Although I removed it from the heat at exactly the prescribed temp, it got a bit too firm. Anyhow I melted it and added pear purée and eau-de-vie. I'm waiting to see how much it thickens as it cools--I was just guessing at amounts. The pear flavor is certainly stronger, but, as I assumed, fondant is really sweet. Maybe some lemon juice would help with that? If I stick with the white choc. ganache, I would be interested in knowing if others on the forum think substituting butter for some choc. will work. And, by the way, today I came across a thread on this same pear ganache in which some of the same problems came up. I hope we don't have to conclude that pears are just too delicate to be used in chocolates!

Do you know where I might find the Geerts book? Amazon says it is out of print, and I could find no other reference to it.

I was thinking of using white chocolate. Today I tried a Greweling recipe for pear ganache (had a container of pear purée and a bottle of pear eau-de-vie); the chocolate was milk. There was absolutely no hint of a pear flavor in the final product. I will give it a try with white choc.--I didn't buy the purée and the brandy to have them disappear. How do you think this would work with fondant?

I am fairly new to chocolate work and have been spending a lot of time looking at possible fillings. I have Greweling's Chocolates and Confections, Shotts's Making Artisan Chocolates, and Notter's The Art of the Chocolatier, have made a list of all the fillings that seem interesting, and have now experimented with some of them. Obviously ganache is the standard type of filling, and some of the options have been delicious (Greweling's pumpkin caramel is the winner so far). But I am feeling some limitations of the medium--the chocolate, especially if it is milk or dark, tends to overwhelm the flavoring. Notter's "Tropical" praline, for example, has banana, passion fruit, mango, lime and lemon juice, but the combination of milk and dark chocolate (in my opinion) nearly overwhelms all those tropical flavors. Tasters didn't know there was banana until I told them. I found a banana/caramel recipe from the Callebaut site (from a link from this forum) that uses white chocolate, and that works better to let the flavors through (I added a few drops of lemon juice to counteract some of the sweetness). So, as far as I can tell, there are two "vehicles" for praline flavor--ganache and fondant--and the authors I have consulted so far don't give a lot of space to fondant. I made it once years ago, and my memory is that it is very, very sweet. So does it make a good filling for chocolates? Can practically any flavor be added? My impression of regular (non-gourmet) chocolates that people buy in boxes (such as Godiva) is that they use a lot of fondant; they are often a color other than chocolate and I can't think of any other way that type of filling is made. I'm not entirely sure what my question is, except to ask whether I am correct in assuming that the choices for fillings are ganache and fondant (maybe caramel is a third?). Do many people on this forum use fondant for this purpose?

Thanks very much for that information. You do appear to know just about everything--at least in the realm of chocolate! I do plan to get both a regular dome and a flattened one. It appears that the simpler molds are much better for decorating than the otherwise more interesting ones. Jim

Thanks for that info. The problem is that when I contacted Tomric today with a rather long list of the molds in which I am interested, they did not have a single one of them in stock. Unfortunately I need these for Christmas, so their 3-4 week delivery time won't work. Among other molds, I am looking for a simple dome, and it's surprising how difficult it is to find. Prince doesn't carry one at all (just a flattened dome). I found one at Chef Rubber, but they don't say if their molds are polycarbonate or not, so I have inquired about that. Jim

I was concerned about how to tell the difference in the types of molds carried by Tomric, but I just learned from Lois in their office that all the ones with an "I" in the item number are imported polycarbonate ones. So they have a huge selection. The 3-4 week availability applies to the molds they don't happen to have in stock, so they really shouldn't say all the molds take that long to arrive. But it is a big advantage that they provide the volume/weight of the individual cavity, something that J.B. Prince does not. Thank you for your help in this process. Jim

Kerry, In trying to determine the size of molds I want, I was browsing through the "Chocolates with that showroom finish" thread and came across some of your chocolates (page 14). If you have the time, could you let me know what molds you used for those? That would give me an idea of what I am looking for. Thanks.

I was once again looking through the "Chocolates with that showroom finish" thread and came across some of your chocolates (page 19). If you have the time, could you let me know what molds you used for those? That would give me an idea of what I am looking for. Thanks.

I am in Staunton, Virginia (moved back to the family home after 50 years in Boston--so quite an adjustment). After renovating the house, I needed something to do, thus chocolate. Welcome Jim D.! Staunton seems like a wonderful area; I went to their Hot Glass Festival this year; great glassblowing studio and gallery. I was at that festival also, took some Boston visitors to it (one of them bought some beautiful and huge blown martini glasses). I hated this town when I was growing up; it has recently acquired cachet--there is even a chocolate shop here (is that the ultimate sign that a community has arrived?). Getting ingredients for cooking remains a challenge. Jim

I am in Staunton, Virginia (moved back to the family home after 50 years in Boston--so quite an adjustment). After renovating the house, I needed something to do, thus chocolate.

Thanks for that tip. I have enough trouble scraping molds clean, so I don't want to make the situation worse.

I have now looked through all the Tomric molds. The site doesn't say what kind of molds they are; I'm assuming polycarbonate. I am put off a bit by the statement (given for every mold I looked at) "call for availability 3-4 weeks"--so all their molds take that long to get? I am also assuming the last dimension given is the depth of the mold. The weight given really varies a lot, and in that case I am assuming "weight" is "capacity." Pastrygirl prefers molds with close to 15g capacity, but I didn't find a lot that were that large. Not to complain too much about these mold sites, but somebody should design a website that pictures each mold next to a recognizable object that will provide perspective on the mold's true size.

I guess I didn't notice that in using the word "form" J.B. Prince was providing the measurements of the individual cavity; It could, I think, be clearer--which dimension is which, for instance. I would find it more useful if vendors gave the volume of the individual cavities since that is what really matters.

I have just begun to make molded chocolates (and just joined this forum). The first batches turned out OK (not spectacular but OK). I have a few technique questions that I will post separately, but one of my concerns is very basic: the significant difference in size of the cavities in the molds I purchased. I got 6 polycarbonate molds from J.B. Prince. In the images online, all the resulting bonbons appear to be more or less the same size, but when the molds arrived, the cavities varied from a one-bite size to two (or more) bites. The small cavities are very difficult to work with and (in my opinion) don't hold enough filling (vs. chocolate shell). I notice that many people on this forum use molds with what appear to be larger cavities. Is there a site to purchase polycarb molds that provides dimensions or capacity of the cavities? This would seem to be a basic consideration since boxing chocolates with greatly varying sizes looks a bit odd. And the molds are too expensive for me to make any more mistakes. Any help would be appreciated.