Are Cella's chocolate cherries starch molded?

[Jenjcook]

I'm on a quest to make my father in law homemade chocolate covered cherries for Christmas, but here is the crux, he like Cellas, with the CLEAR center, not cordials like queen Anne's with the milky white liquified fondant centers. I can't seem to figure out how they do it, but tonight I was looking at the picture of starch molded sugar crusted alcohol pralines in Notter's "the art of the chocolatier" and I'm wondering if it isnt done by some kind of process closer to that. Any thoughts?

[curls]

The liquid on fondant cherries can be clear, you just need to wait for all the fondant to liquify. Have you tried adding invertase to your fondant before dipping your fondant cherries in chocolate? The invertase will speed up the fondant conversion process. Grewling has two fondant cherry recipes (one for molded cherries and one for dipped).

[minas6907]

I cant say I eat too many cherry cordials, I'm much more interested in their construction then consuming them (although I really dont have anything against them). If the cordials were starch molded, as in the way outlined in chocolates and confections or in Notters text, they would have a distinguishable, though thin, sugar crust. I dont think many cordials have this. This would be the way you'd make it by hand in a kitchen, but when it comes to commercially made confections, I suspect something different is being done, truthfully, something I havent really figured out yet.

I say this because recently I purchased a 64 piece (from Costco) box of Anthon Berg brand liquor cordials. They certainly were delicious, but I was equally interested in their makeup. The cordials didnt have a sugar crust on the inside of the piece. On about 1 in 4 pieces had sugar bloom, some more severe then others, but it may not have been sugar bloom from the chocolate, it almost looked like during the process some of the liquor syrup spilled on the side and crystallized. Its sort of hard to explain, but I'm going to take pictures the next time I pick up a box. All in all, I was interested in how they cap their chocolates, and wasn't really able to come to a conclusion. There was no sugar crust, and no sign of doing the whole cocoa butter being floated in fondant. So my assumption is that something else is happening during the manufacturing, and I'm quite curious as to what it is.

As for an answer to your question, I know what you mean, though, about the clear syrup vs the milky white. My guess is that it has to do with the formulation of their candies. Its hard to say exactly how they are made, some pictures I googled of Cella's cherry cordials looked like they were dipped, others clearly looked like they were molded in a polycarbonate. And my guess also is that if you compare the ingredients list on both company's cherry cordials, you'll find almost identical ingredients. Overall, for a company that size, I would say they are not starch molded. They could easily be molded in polycarbonates, then enrobed to give it that old time look, I've definitly seen that done, it can be totally automated. It seems like on a automated line, the delicate cordials would not hold up. As far as I know, I believe that gummies and jelly beans are among the few candies that still go through the starch molded process. Cherry cordials would be starch molded by a confectionery that is producing on a much smaller scale then Cella's.