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Bringing shine back to chocolate?


qtrican

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I am a novice when it comes to molding chocolate. I posted this question on Cake Central and no one could help me with an answer. It was suggested I try this site. I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I have to ask. Is there any way to re-shine chocolate that has dulled after being removed from a mold? I recently made some chocolates that needed a little bit of cleaning up around the edges. I was holding the chocolate, wearing cotton gloves, and when I was done the chocolate had a matte finish like I had touched them with my bare hands. Is there any way to re-shine them or is it a lost cause and I should start over?

Thanks!!

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I am a novice when it comes to molding chocolate. I posted this question on Cake Central and no one could help me with an answer. It was suggested I try this site. I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I have to ask. Is there any way to re-shine chocolate that has dulled after being removed from a mold? I recently made some chocolates that needed a little bit of cleaning up around the edges. I was holding the chocolate, wearing cotton gloves, and when I was done the chocolate had a matte finish like I had touched them with my bare hands. Is there any way to re-shine them or is it a lost cause and I should start over?

Thanks!!

When you are making sculptures if you need to shine up a spot - you dip a cloth like the cloth you would use to polish your molds in ice water and polish the surface of the chocolate. Not sure if that would work on individual pieces.

Also if you have a demolding spot on the surface of a bar for example - brushing it with a badger hair brush will make the entire surface look the same - but that same isn't shiny!

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  • 2 weeks later...

You can try polishing them with a makeup brush or also a sheepskin (the wool part) by passing on it very fast. I may or may not depending on how deep the melting has gone. If you have time to spend you can spay them with a 30degree velvet mix and polish them. Or put an element of decoration on that part like a many daisy out of plastic chocolate.

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Last resort:

Nougat laquer, aka choco-lac. Comes in a spray can, made of lac (aka laquer, aka bug guts and secretions with the body parts and twigs filtered out, dissolved in alcohol). Will disqualify you from any competition you enter in, and it tastes nasty. But it is edible.

Woodworkers have been using the same thing, albeit with denatured alcohol (poison added to pure alcohol) for a couple of hundred years now

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You can try polishing them with a makeup brush or also a sheepskin (the wool part) by passing on it very fast. I may or may not depending on how deep the melting has gone. If you have time to spend you can spay them with a 30degree velvet mix and polish them. Or put an element of decoration on that part like a many daisy out of plastic chocolate.

You can try polishing them with a makeup brush or also a sheepskin (the wool part) by passing on it very fast. I may or may not depending on how deep the melting has gone. If you have time to spend you can spay them with a 30degree velvet mix and polish them. Or put an element of decoration on that part like a many daisy out of plastic chocolate.

This is interesting - you mean you velvet them and then polish after velveting? Do you have a picture of that?

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Not a freezer one, a room temperature one at 30 degrees the cocoa butter in the velvet is still tempered. You use that technique to polish big pieces for showpieces for example. To polish well you use a brush type makeup or lamb. I used it last on a sculpted piece.

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When you are making sculptures if you need to shine up a spot - you dip a cloth like the cloth you would use to polish your molds in ice water and polish the surface of the chocolate. Not sure if that would work on individual pieces.

Also if you have a demolding spot on the surface of a bar for example - brushing it with a badger hair brush will make the entire surface look the same - but that same isn't shiny!

If I may, this technique has a very short life-spend. The water will corrupt the chocolate and bloom it quickly. I am just saying I don't want to criticize a good idea.

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