Molds for chocolate bark?

[Gary Traffanstedt]

I'm making peppermint bark to start and plan to do a few others. Wanting an easy way to get a consistent size/weight so was thinking some nice polycarbonate moulds would be perfect but haven't found one that I like. If you look at Godiva barks they have a rectangular shape with break apart lines molded in. Ideally I'd love molds like this. Anyone seen a mold like this?

[pastrygirl]

How much bark are you making? The frustrating thing about polycarbonate bar molds is that you get so few units per mold, and have to either buy a lot of molds, which adds up, or do a lot of batches, which is tedious and time consuming. Since you are not filling and capping, maybe some inexpensive "hobby" molds would work?

I would also suggest looking for a fairly deep mold. I have these: http://www.dr.ca/35g-half-cocoa-bean-bar-chocolate-mould.html which I like well enough, but have found that when I add bits to a bar, they are more likely to break. I recently made bars with a sprinkle of chopped cocoa nib brittle in the middle, and an unusually high number broke while unmolding & wrapping (like 10 out of 144, not a huge deal, but annoying). Not sure what minimum depth of chocolate is needed to hold inclusions together, (probably depends on size of inclusions) but I'd guess something at least 12 or 15mm deep would be better than 10.

[Kerry Beal]

How about something like this?

[Gary Traffanstedt]

Thank you for the links! To be honest I have no idea how much I'll be making. Right now I'm only doing truffles but I've had several people ask if I'll be doing bark around the holidays so I thought I'd give it a try. With the truffles I'm using molds so I have to make the shells, then pipe the ganache, let that crystalize, then finally cap them. Not a difficult process at all but it's quite a while that the molds are tied up. With the bark it the molds would be turned over much quicker so I might get away with maybe 4 or so to see how well demand actually is. Then again, my truffle molds were back ordered so I'm still waiting for my second order of molds to arrive.

Anyway, thank you very much for the ideas. I'll let you know what I end up with and I'll post some picks once I have some bark made.

[pastrygirl]

Bark will go a lot faster than filled chocolates, but I'd still consider something like these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-OZ-CANDY-BAR-PIECES-mold-Chocolate-Candy-bars-ounce-/321206620335

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-1-2-x-2-1-4-Candy-Bar-Chocolate-Mold-2-cavity-3-oz-/251249129224

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BREAK-APART-CANDY-BAR-mold-Chocolate-Candy-bars-hershey-size-here-she-is-he-is-/221290432088

[Gary Traffanstedt]

What do you think of this mold: http://tomric.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=936

It yields a six ounce piece that I could slip into some holiday bag with maybe a ribbon or something. My only concern with the non poly-carbonate molds is that because of their flexibility I'm wondering how easy it will be to get the bars out without cracking them. Your link that has the three bars in a mold... I wonder what the weight is on each one. The mold I linked to here is only one bar per mold and obviously much more expensive. Having three to a mold would be quicker/cheaper/etc.

[Kerry Beal]

That would work for flavoured only barks I suppose - but not sure how you would incorporate nuts or anything into it.

Getting the bars out of the Tomric molds like these is not really the problem - it's getting the chocolate in and scraping the back because of the flexibility.

[Gary Traffanstedt]

Hadn't even thought about the flexibility making it harder to scrape. Excellent point. Maybe I really should just stick with pouring it out on wax paper in a pan and then busting it up into pieces after it sets. I was thinking the molds would make it quicker/easier for consistent weight and appearance which is why I'm doing molded truffles over hand dipping. But now I'm thinking this isn't the case. Pour my dark layer, let it set, then pour my peppermint layer, let that set, bust up and bag it. But then I have the issue of each bag being a different weight and I may end up with a lot of small pieces. Always something I guess.

[Kerry Beal]

I make a lot of bark - all I ever do it pour it out on parchment - spread it as thin as I can and pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to carry off that latent heat of crystallization. Then next day bust it up into strips and chunks and package in cello bags.

I put the cello bag on the scale - add pieces until I get to my target weight. I might break a piece in half if I'm adding too much.

[pastrygirl]

That would work for flavoured only barks I suppose - but not sure how you would incorporate nuts or anything into it.

Getting the bars out of the Tomric molds like these is not really the problem - it's getting the chocolate in and scraping the back because of the flexibility.

I was picturing piping chocolate into the hobby molds then adding the inclusions. You're right, they are not good for real chocolatiering.

[Kerry Beal]

Hobby molds have their uses though.

I have a whole bunch of the heavier Tomric ones (Tomric would call those professional, rather than hobby - but they are still flexible) - most of them for chocolate lollipops or bigger plaques of santas, bunnies etc. They tend to leave demolding marks and as you mention need to be filled with a piping bag so they don't need to be scraped - but they allow you a large variety of seasonal molds. Not something I would ever use if they needed to be filled!

And I picked them up at Tomric in the bargain bin - so didn't pay more than a buck or two for any of them.

[YetiChocolates]

I do the same as Kerry, spread my chocolate out on parchment, add my nuts, or peppermint, or bacon, etc, then let it set and then while still a little soft I cut it with a knife into fun shapes, then let cool completely, scale the amount I want per bag, then add to the bag. I can make a very large amount of bark in a short amount of time this way. Seems as though the bar method would be more time consuming and labor intensive IMHO.

[Matthew Kirshner]

Hadn't even thought about the flexibility making it harder to scrape. Excellent point. Maybe I really should just stick with pouring it out on wax paper in a pan and then busting it up into pieces after it sets. I was thinking the molds would make it quicker/easier for consistent weight and appearance which is why I'm doing molded truffles over hand dipping. But now I'm thinking this isn't the case. Pour my dark layer, let it set, then pour my peppermint layer, let that set, bust up and bag it. But then I have the issue of each bag being a different weight and I may end up with a lot of small pieces. Always something I guess.

I understand about wanting to have consistent appearance and size when you break the bark, I have the same issues when I make lavash for bagging, it can't always work out. For me I care more about the consistent taste then appearance for items such as bark, it's meant to be broken. Just my two cents.

[rajoress]

I make the 2 layer peppermint bark every year and spread it thin on a parchment lined sheet pan and when it's just set, score and then cut into diamonds. I always cut off the edges anyway - for quality control :-) Any diamond shapes that don't fit into my prescribed 1/2lb or lb boxes get cut in haf into triangles and I finish the boxes with these. But like the others, I portion mine out by weight.

I also have a ton of cheap plastic molds. I use pastry bags to fill then refrigerate for a few minutes to set then have no problem releasing. If they're too flexible I place on a quarter sheet pan or something to keep the chocolate level.

Good luck!