Hairline cracks on dipped chocolates

[Prabha]

Hi! I'm a newbie to confectionery. I've been lurking on this board for a few weeks and I've learned a lot, thanks to all of you. This is my first time posting! I hope you can help me with my little problem.

I made a half recipe of Greweling's Rasberry Bites butter ganache. I poured it into a 8X8 pan and it set up nicely. Then I realized that it only made a very thin layer, so my chocolates would turn out very thin. So I had a bright idea - I made a half recipe of the Peanut Butter Gianduja (also Greweling) and layered that on top. That also set up nicely, actually somewhat harder than expected. Anyway, I managed to cut the ganache (bottom coated) and dip the squares in dark chocolate. They looked nice for a while, but after a few hours, hairline cracks have appeared along the corners on many of them. Also, droplets of sugary stuff are leaking out in places - looks like raspberry jam.

I had the window open for a while (50F outside) because it was too warm in the kitchen. Temp. inside never got below 65F. Could this have caused the cracking? Thanks a lot for your help!

Prabha

[Kerry Beal]

Was the filling at room temperature when you dipped?

One thought might be the difference in textures between the two different ganaches might be creating stresses in the filling which causes the cracking.

[Prabha]

Thanks Kerry. My filling was at room temp. I did leave the ganache to set overnight, and the gianduja set up pretty hard, which made it difficult to cut. So the pieces were not nice squares. Could that have been an issue?

The differences in the two ganaches might have been the problem. But since Greweling has his PBJ recipe with the gianduja and a jelly, I didn't think that would be a problem. Also, I did notice that my chocolate shells are pretty thin. How to make them thicker?

P

[Kerry Beal]

Thanks Kerry. My filling was at room temp. I did leave the ganache to set overnight, and the gianduja set up pretty hard, which made it difficult to cut. So the pieces were not nice squares. Could that have been an issue?

The differences in the two ganaches might have been the problem. But since Greweling has his PBJ recipe with the gianduja and a jelly, I didn't think that would be a problem. Also, I did notice that my chocolate shells are pretty thin. How to make them thicker?

P

The texture of a butter ganache vs a stiff gianduja may be more disparate than with a jelly - but I'm not sure if that is the issue at all.

If your shells are too thin - try dipping in tempered but cooler chocolate than you did this time.

[Prabha]

Will try using cooler chocolate. Thanks again.