wannabechocolatier

Any updates?

If you're continuing your correspondence with them, could you ask if this has always been an issue, or just with recent batches or new manufacturing processes? I can't help but feel this is a more recent issue since if most of the cavities in a mold had hairline cracks in them, we'd have seen more discussion on it in the past.

I see, thank you. I was fooled by similar cocoa % in conjunction with so many people saying they use normal chocolate without issue

Is there a difference between the two products? Assuming same cocoa %, will they perform in chocolatines the same way? Is the baton thing just a gimmick?

I don't know what it is, but every mold I've ordered so far has had scratches in it. Both in the cavities and on the rest of the mold. Ordered the same molds from two different vendors, scratches everywhere on both. Chocolate World and Martellato molds from bakedeco and pastrychefsboutique. No idea what's going on.

Here's a site that conducted testing for lead and cadmium content among popular brands. Agostoni isn't on there, but hopefully it'll be helpful anyway: https://www.asyousow.org/environmental-health/toxic-enforcement/toxic-chocolate#chocolate-tables

Don't know anything about this, but might be helpful to mention the brand you were using to begin with.

If this is the case, then it'd be prevented by creating a shell first, as you would with bonbons, wouldn't it? Want to try that next and report back?

@jedovaty Didja run any tests?

It wouldn't bloom because cocoa butter is hydrophobic. There's no chocolate there yet, so no sugar bloom. The surface tension of the droplets cause that shape and after it sets and contracts, the miniscule amount of water evaporates. My theory, anyway.

I've bought Martellato and Chocolate World domestically from different vendors and they've all come with hairline scratches running into the cavities. They look like manufacturing defects. I ordered some bar molds from Alicake and while they weren't perfect, most were in better shape than the ones bought domestically. They were also packaged about a million times better. Any experiences/recommendations?

If that's the issue you could also try gently piping rather than dumping the chocolate in. Maybe start with the piping bag's tip in contact with the mold surface so that there's no 'drop' to begin with.

I've come back to this comment of yours after finding another one from you earlier describing issues with your badger 250 not spraying. Did you end up getting that figured out or was that particular gun just faulty?

Wow, how long had the pâte de fruit been sitting?

Asked a chocolatier about this, and they said it could be solved by either spraying a clear coat of cocoa butter first or experimenting with your environmental conditions, cooling process, and working temp. I asked about coating the cavity the same way you would for a bonbon shell and they said it would not work. Easy enough to try out and make sure, though.