Jim D.

I would still classify myself as a beginner at making molded chocolates (have been working a couple of months off and on) but thought I would be brave enough to show what I made for Christmas. I decided I should, at this point in the game, mostly stick to recipes from experts, and I have given the source of each recipe used. Almost all come from one of the following: Greweling's Chocolates and Confections, Shotts's Making Artisan Chocolates, Notter's The Art of the Chocolatier. I included some notes on what went right and wrong. In general, I thought the ganaches were fairly successful, but my molding technique still needs a lot of practice (I'm trusting that the camera does sometimes lie, or at least deceive). Clockwise from top, beginning with chocolate with blue trim: Dark chocolate with milk chocolate and rum ganache (from Eddy Van Damme's blog). I expected more of a whipped filling (like a Milky Way), probably would not do this again. White chocolate with banana rum caramel (a Wybauw recipe from Callebaut website), but I added the rum and a little lemon juice to cut the sweetness. A strong banana flavor, one of my favorites. (far right of photo) Milk chocolate with Earl Grey tea ganache (Greweling recipe). Subtle flavor, but it's definitely Earl Grey. Bittersweet chocolate with mint ganache (Notter recipe). Excellent flavor, a favorite with friends, has a nice crunch from a chocolate "cracker" that forms the bottom, but a difficult chocolate to make (not to mention preparing the crackers). (at bottom of photo) Milk chocolate with pumpkin caramel ganache (Greweling recipe). A big favorite with friends, it's the spices of a pumpkin pie that make it so tasty. Bittersweet chocolate with salted caramel filling (Shotts recipe). I didn't have the salt he calls for but used Sicilian sea salt; I found it a bit too salty, but others loved it. (far left of photo) Bittersweet chocolate with pear ganache (I first tried Greweling's recipe but thought it tasted too little of pear, so took a basic butter ganache recipe and used reduced pear purée and pear eau-de-vie). It's still too subtle--only when people are told what it is do they taste a hint of pear. I found a pear paste from New Zealand that I plan to try next for the ever-elusive pear flavor. Bittersweet chocolate with raspberry ganache and rosewater (Shotts recipe). I labored mightily over this one, but it is impossible to taste the raspberry purée (there is a lot of it) over the bittersweet chocolate in the ganache. I kept adding rosewater and now you can taste it--it is a great addition, in my opinion. Next time I will perhaps use white chocolate for the ganache or try a butter ganache with raspberry jam and eau-de-vie (I still have nearly a full bottle of eau-de-vie, so I have to keep trying). (middle of photo) White chocolate with passion fruit ganache (Greweling recipe). One of my favorites; the tang of the passion fruit is a great contrast to the sweetness of the chocolate. Many thanks to all on this forum who have answered so many of my questions and offered so many suggestions. I couldn't have done it without them. Jim D.

Don't know if you are still looking at this thread, but I am curious about the chocolates with the orange stripes. Do you mind telling how you made that design? It is very attractive, as is the whole assortment.

Jim, look for milk chocolate in the 40% cacao mass range. They tend to taste much better than regular ones. Personally, I highly recommend Cacao Barry's single origin from Ghana, it has a great milky and caramel flavour and is a dream to work with. Not cheap, though. And if ever you are looking for a not-too-sweet white chocolate, try Opalys from Valrhona. I recently tasted it at a Valrhona demo, and it's truly the best white choc I've had (and by the way, I am normally averse to milk and white). Thanks very much for those suggestions. I will give them a try.

Again I want to thank all those who have responded to my questions about technique, and I write to update you on the latest attempt, a success. At the urging of my niece, we made salted caramel from Andrew Shotts's book, and I piped it into dark chocolate shells and left it overnight. Today I decided it was time to try the acetate method for closing the shells. The local art supply store was closed, but, not to be deterred, I thought of good old Staples and went there to purchase transparency film (for overhead projectors). (I hope I am not poisoning people with the acetate; I'm assuming the best.) The smallest box held 100 sheets, but I was determined, saying to myself, "This had better work or I will have 99 pieces of acetate to get rid of." Long story short, it worked! It was, as others have said, messy, but not as messy as my previous efforts with a scraper. As can be seen in the photo, the bottoms came out as smooth as one could ever want. The process does leave some choc. on top of the mold between cavities, but not a lot (I scraped the length of the mold on top of the acetate maybe 7-8 times as firmly as I could). The resulting bottoms were thicker than usual, but I think that is because (again, as someone has said) you can pipe more filling in the chocolates with this method since you don't have to worry about scraping out filling. Here is what they look like: bottom and top. I must say the moment of peeling off the acetate is a great experience. Jim

Hi Jim, you're always going to be in some kind of trouble if the filling goes above the edge - either poor capping or filling mixed in with your chocolate - ideally it should be 3 mm below the rim of the shell (but honestly - who's measuring?). As already stated, you need a firm scraper (I use one of these http://shop.rockidan...plastskaft.html), warm chocolate and friends willing to eat the misfits. And then you need to watch the angle of the scraper - you want to keep it fairly vertical, but at a sligt angle towards the direction you are scraping, and be quite firm. It really is hard to explain, and quite easy to understand once you've seen it demonstrated.... Best of luck Thanks for those helpful tips. Is that scraper 35 cm--13+ inches wide? Or is my conversion off? That's very wide, would certainly cover any mold.

Could you recommend a "less sweet" milk chocolate? I am currently using Callebaut's, and it is sweet, but I don't have a lot with which to compare it. I could, of course, mix milk and dark--as many ganache recipes specify.

Many thanks to those who responded to my question on scrapers. Very helpful. At the moment I am using a Wilton spatula (useful part is 8" long, and it's probably too flexible) and a 6" drywall tool I got at Lowe's (it's beginning to discolor after only a short time and doesn't look all that sturdy). Most of my molds are about 7" wide, so something in the 7-8" range would, I think, be really helpful. I appreciate the quick replies to my question.

Very helpful photos. When I saw the picture with the filled cavities, I said to myself, "Aha, some of them are filled right up to the rim --and one appears to be a little above the rim--these will never work." But then you have a clean swipe, no filling showing, no ragged covering. A perfectly clean mold. I am in awe. I will keep trying, and I do very much appreciate your effort in taking these pictures. One question on equipment: Are your scrapers flexible or fairly rigid? I'm guessing that a flexible blade (such as I have) may tend to pick up and drag filling more easily. Probably grasping at straws. Jim

Yes, he is the person I have been dealing with. I asked him if people at Chocovision had tried the machine recently (thinking it might be a "bad batch" of control cards since no other explanation makes any sense), and he said he himself had used the machine last weekend and the temperature feature worked. He concluded by asking, "What do you suggest we do?" I am non-plussed by the situation. I don't want to go through the hassle (and expense) of shipping another Rev 2 back to them, and certainly I can use the machine as it is, but if there is a feature, it ought to work. I guess if I owned the company, I would get my engineers to work on the issue (since obviously I have no motive to make this story up).

For small batches of chocolate I use a Chocovision Revolation 2 tempering machine. I have been pleased with it, but am having one problem and am wondering if anybody else has experienced this. There is a feature by which, once the chocolate has reached the default tempering point (which for dark choc. is somewhere in the upper-80 F. range--I don't recall the exact figure right now), the user can press and hold down a button that will raise the temp. I do this to get my dark to 90 degrees so that it flows better. Once the user releases the button, however, the display is supposed to return to the actual temp. of the chocolate, and will then rise as the temp. gets to 90. What my machine does is to change the displayed temp. as I hold the button until 90 is shown (correct behavior), and then it stays at 90 (does not return to the actual temp.). This may seem a small matter, but it is impossible to tell the actual temp. of the chocolate without using a thermometer--which more or less defeats the purpose of an automatic tempering machine. I have gotten a new control card for the machine, and that did not fix the problem. Then I got a new machine, and the same thing happens. It seems very unlikely that I just happened to get three bad control cards in a row, and Chocovision is at a loss as to what to do. So I am wondering if anyone else using this machine has noticed this behavior--or has noticed the machine operating correctly as far as raising the temp. goes. Thanks for any help.

There's very little left between the rows, if you've applied the acetate correctly. Here's some pics: This one has the acetate on - you scrape down firmly and it forces all of the chocolate out. You can see it's slightly thicker at this end, my technique isn't quite perfect And I leave a lot of mess on the sides and away comes the acetate. these are from a little photo tutorial I put together on my facebook page: https://www.facebook...01914679&type=3 As an extra point: you can see some of the filling in the second picture - the chocolate was setting up as I took the photo before I put the acetate on and it did exactly what I described earlier - pushed into the filling and pushed it out. Chris Very help, esp. the photos. The bottoms are very nice. I'll also take a look at the Facebook tutorial. Do you have a suggestion as to where I could find the appropriate kind of acetate? Thanks for your help. Jim

agree with PastryGirl - you just have to work faster When I cap the molds, I usually have the acetate on the mold ASAP after the chocolate goes over, tap it a couple of times then acetate. It's more important (to me) to get the bottoms looking beautiful and have maybe one or two that aren't perfect than to have the chocolate thickening - if you have thickening chocolate and try to put acetate over it, the chocolate will force your filling out of the shells (that's the voice of experience ) acetate method is awesome, but will be just as frustrating to start with It leaves a beautiful shiny base though and is well worth it. Chris I'm interested in the acetate method and have read the thread and watched the video. But I am still puzzled as to how one deals with the chocolate between the rows of cavities--how do you get it off the mold if you are waiting until the choc. has set up to remove the acetate?

Could you explain a little more what you mean by "beauty coats"? I have the same goal in mind, but they don't end up being beautiful. When I add any choc. later, it just creates bumps and lumps.

Thanks for your idea. I saw that thread and was intrigued. I will have to get some acetate sheets. What happens with the chocolate that is smeared between the rows of cavities--how do you get that off the mold? Meanwhile I had a thought about my technique and am inclined to believe it is too much filling in the cavities. There isn't enough chocolate covering and so the too-thin layer tends to get scraped off. Otherwise it doesn't make any sense--the cavities are perfectly level with the rest of the mold, so should not be getting scraped below that level.

Continuing with my issues over closing chocolates. I have now made 8 different pralines. My technique for casting and filling the molds is improving, but closing remains a big problem. I am including an embarrassing photo showing the issues all too clearly: As can be seen, even the chocolates that turn out without "feet" have rough bottoms. And I don't know what is going wrong. It's (1) the consistency of the chocolate, or (2) the tools I am using, or (3) the filling of the molds--overfilled or underfilled, or (4) something else. I apply a full layer of chocolate to the entire mold and use a small spatula to make sure all cavities are covered, waiting a bit for the choc. to settle into the cavities.. I then take a drywall scraper or a long flat spatula and attempt to clean off the top of the mold (at this point I am not worrying about the sides). Sometimes I get a good sweep of the scraper and the tops look fairly good, then a closer look reveals little nicks in the chocolates or actual holes in the covering. So I repair the holes with a fresh bit of choc., but by then the choc. is beginning to set, so I conclude that saving the pralines is more important than getting a smooth bottom. Thus the results in the photo. I should add that trimming off the feet is not a big deal, and the chocolates turn out looking fine--except for those ugly bottoms. I am also having success with unmolding. After I started "greasing" the molds with a little melted cocoa butter, I haven't had a single problem. It takes only a few minutes and makes all the difference in the world. Any suggestions for the closing issue would be most welcome.

You are right that closing is a larger problem for me. Today I did some more work, and the filling of molds is going better. I tempered by hand and got the temp higher than in the past, so that helped. Closing is still an issue--rough edges, not always a pretty sight on the bottom of the chocolate. One interesting insight, however: I did the Notter mint praline with a chocolate "cracker" on the bottom. It's a fantastic recipe, but it's quite a production, especially since the crackers have to be just the right size to fit in the mold. Having that cracker on the bottom made closing even worse than usual since the cavities were probably more full than they should have been. But after the scraper took too much chocolate off the bottoms and left holes, I added another layer to patch what I had done (my language was not very polite at that point), then gave up, and put the mold in the refrigerator. Twenty minutes later, most of the chocolates popped out of the mold without any effort (the rest came out with a few bangs). So having extra chocolate on the bottom doesn't keep the pralines from unmolding. It does make a terrible mess.

Thanks for that tip. That area is a real problem for me.

I guess I don't yet have your skill (or your equipment). The problem occurs more in the second scraping--that is, after the mold is filled, tapped, turned upside down, emptied, then turned right side up. By then the chocolate has begun to harden and the mess tends to occur. That procedure certainly takes more than a few seconds.

With dark choc., the test firms up in ca. 2 minutes (starts to look "right" in about a minute, getting that matte look as opposed to untempered, which stays shiny and liquid); with milk, it takes several minutes, maybe as much as 4-5. In your procedure, about how long does it take before your choc. gets too thick to work with? I realize that you are undoubtedly much quicker than I am. I have to reach a balance between continuing to clean off the mold on one hand and, on the other hand, having the choc. get thick enough to become a hindrance to further cleaning (in other words, it makes more of a mess than is worth the effort). Jim

It's about 70 degrees F.

Most of the time I am using a Chocovison machine for tempering. I followed Peter Greweling's suggestion for adding cocoa butter to thin out chocolate that is too viscous--so I don't think the mere addition of cocoa butter should make the choc. tend toward overcrystallization. The machine calls for putting in the seed choc. after all the choc. has melted; it lowers the temp. to 90 degrees F., then tells you to take out the seed, then continues to lower the temp depending on the type of choc. I would estimate that only a few ounces of seed melt. The machine allows for the possibility of raising the final working temp of the choc., and I plan to try getting dark choc. up to 90 degrees F. (Callebaut recommends higher working temps on the extra bittersweet package). Yesterday I tempered some dark choc. by hand, using the partial melting procedure that Greweling also mentions--removing the choc. from over the hot water before all was melted, then stirring to melt the rest. I did, however, find one glitch in tempering choc. by hand: by the time you test the choc. for tempering, its temp has lowered. In any case, that batch of choc. was like the machine-tempered choc. The viscosity is fine when I am spreading it on the mold; it's just that it coats the scraper rather rapidly and becomes firm so that it's practically impossible to clean off as quickly as one has to operate. I don't know what is causing this problem, though I agree it sounds like overcrystallization. It's certainly not that it is sitting too long in the machine because I make one mold at a time, and as soon as the choc. is ready, I pour it into the mold. As a temporary solution to the utensil mess, I am going to have several scrapers ready. And Pastrygirl's suggestion that the scraper be positioned perpendicular to the mold (although not what most people say) seemed to help. Also helpful was the idea I found somewhere of scraping half of the mold, then reversing it and scraping the other half; in that way you don't drag the choc. across so many cavities.

Pastrygirl, Thanks for the encouragement. Since I promised my sister three different chocolates for her party next week, I have no choice but to press on. And if there is an undertaking that brings out one's OCD tendencies more than chocolatiering, I don't want to know what it is. I guess what bothers me the most is that when something unusual happens with chocolate, you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is some reason for it, but there are so many variables and so many unknowns that it is sometimes impossible to figure it out. I have done a lot of computer programming, and in that field, unusual things go wrong, but you can be confident that if you work hard enough, you will figure it out. With chocolate, maybe yes, maybe no. Jim

Chris, Thanks for all your suggestions. I appreciated the insight that adding cocoa butter might be causing my chocolate to thicken sooner. I just watched the video of Greweling making rabbits. Unless it was a video timing trick, he seems to be using the same bowl of quite fluid chocolate the whole time. Mine starts thickening as soon as it hits the mold, sticking to the scraper immediately. Maybe I should return to using the Callebaut without adding cocoa butter to see what happens. But I am getting very nice and thin shells at present. I do work on one mold at a time, but your idea about heating the molds is also worth trying. Sometimes my chocolate acts as if you had dropped a frozen truffle center into it (which I actually did, with the result being probably the thickest truffle coating the world has ever seen). Jim

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.