Liquid caramel-filled Easter eggs

[Droo]

I want to make a liquid caramel filled small easter eggs - I'll be using polycarbonate moulds. Any thoughts on how I can assemble these without having the caramel run out?

[pastrygirl]

Are you using 3-D molds or flat sided half eggs?  If 3-D, I have no idea but would love to know!  Making a hollow piece then trying to fill it seems risky and tedious (make hole, fill, plug hole) but I don't know how else you would do it.

[Droo]

Flat sided half egg moulds - ideally i'd like to do it without having chocolate in the middle when sticking the two halves together.

 

I was thinking similar things with a 3d mould and decided it was too hard so went for the half sided egg mould

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Perhaps the key lies in freezing each half of the chocolates once the caramel has been piped in, then assembling them once it's if not solidly frozen at least sluggish enough that it won't run out.  Either that, or if you don't want to risk the temper of your shells, make small balls of frozen caramel and install those instead of using liquid.

[pastrygirl]

Except sugar doesn't freeze easily, but maybe you could get it frozen enough to be thick enough to work with?  I wonder if inverts se works on caramel...

[pastryani]

I think you could get the caramel nice and thick in the freezer.  I haven't tried freezing caramel to the point of solid, but assuming it actually froze like an ice cube, what mold would you use?  It would have to be slightly smaller than your pc egg mold.  And then wouldn't the solid caramel throw off the temper of the chocolate?  

 

I'd like to know how to do this to as my double molded chocs with fillings don't ever seem to stick together and almost always leak. 

 

 

[gfron1]

I had a mistaken batch of ganache once that just wouldn't set up. So, I pulled out my airbrush and airbrushed the crap out of the open bottoms. That gave me enough firmness to then back off the bonbon.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

7 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

Except sugar doesn't freeze easily, but maybe you could get it frozen enough to be thick enough to work with?  I wonder if inverts se works on caramel...

 

I've never been able to get caramel to freeze right solid, but I've gotten it slow enough that it was easy to do a two-piece hollow moulding containing it….

[pastrygirl]

I did a little searching and I think invertase could really be worth a try.  If its what they use for Cadbury Creme eggs and fat doesn't have an effect it should work, shouldn't it?  Make a gooey but not runny caramel, add invertase, fill & seal eggs, wait a week?   https://books.google.com/books?id=zp8oBgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA434&ots=IBaWGBEBlY&dq=effect%20of%20fat%20on%20invertase&pg=PA434#v=onepage&q=effect%20of%20fat%20on%20invertase&f=true

[Bakerchic]

• This is how several candies are made.  Junior mints and cherry cordials, for example.  They make a hard sugar center, surround it in chocolate, inject it with the invertase, which liquefies the sugar.  In theory, you should be able to make a very firm caramel ball and it would still work. 

[Kerry Beal]

The commercial ones are likely one shot deposited. 

 

Don't know if invertase works as well in caramel as in fondant.

 

Typically double sided molds are made by filling both sides fuller than for molds you are backing off - then a thin layer of warm chocolate on one side and slap the two sides together quickly. Not going to work well for a liquid caramel though.

 

I'd probably make both sides separately - then either put the sides together with a bit of chocolate between or just package two together. 

 

 

[Droo]

hmm, its a pity my thoughts were confirmed... I might have to reevaluate what filling I'll use - honeycomb will be nice. Now Easter is close I'll have to visit our local chocolate shop and see how their make theirs. 

[keychris]

invertase works by breaking the bond in sucrose between glucose and fructose - when you caramelise sugar you change the molecular structure of the sugar and will possibly make it unrecognisable to the enzyme. However, you're not fully caramelising all the sucrose, so you may still get some effect, but it won't be as pronounced as when you use it in fondant.

[pastrygirl]

Interesting point, keychris!

[Droo]

I asked an exec pastry chef of a 5 star hotel in my city how do it - he said create the two half shells, join them together, melt a small hole and then use one of those alcohol based filling nozzles to deposit the liquid caramel, then reseal with tempered chocolate using a cornet. I'll give it a go over the next week or two once I get my hand on the nozzle.

[Tri2Cook]

All that egg half joining seems like a lot of trouble to me but I like seeing the results when others do it. It's too late for this year but I want to get some molds to just do half eggs with flat backs for next year. So far, I'm having a hard time finding them. The egg molds I can find at chocolat-chocolat are all the double molds with clips, I assume for making full 3D eggs, and pretty expensive to buy just to use as half eggs.

[curls]

@Tri2Cook Chocolate World makes a few half egg molds. I have their 2006 mold. Can be used as a single or a double mold. You should be able to get them at Tomric or Chocolat Chocolat.

 

And definitely check around on prices... I'm seeing big price differences on Chocolate World molds between the different vendors. I was lucky enough to buy my egg molds used.  :-)

[Tri2Cook]

55 minutes ago, curls said:

@Tri2Cook Chocolate World makes a few half egg molds. I have their 2006 mold. Can be used as a single or a double mold. You should be able to get them at Tomric or Chocolat Chocolat.

 

And definitely check around on prices... I'm seeing big price differences on Chocolate World molds between the different vendors. I was lucky enough to buy my egg molds used.  :-)

Thanks! I'll take a peek at the Chocolate World site. Sometimes it's easier to find the mold there then search Chocolat-Chocolat by number. C-C and dr.ca are pretty much my best options for where I live. The exchange is too bad right now to order from the US. Ordering directly from the Chocolate World site is competitive with any Canadian options even with exchange and shipping but I'm guessing the duties would bump it up quite a bit so I like to check within Canada first. Not really a hurry, I won't be able to use them for this Easter no matter where I get them.

[Droo]

From memory, I am pretty sure chocolat chocolat have the half egg moulds I have - again mine are chocolate world as well.