Dipping soft centers in chocolate

[jedovaty]

Hi:

 

I'm making some homemade peanut butter cups, but shaping them like bon bons instead.  I don't have bon bon molds, so instead I'm dipping the peanut butter centers into tempered chocolate.  As the chocolate coating sets, it contracts and my soft peanut butter center squirts out a little.  Is there a way to prevent this, or do I need to do a second dipping?  I've tried with both frozen and room temp centers (although peanut butter with a little vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar doesn't seem to freeze at all).

[Kerry Beal]

Cold centers are going to be worse than warm centers. They will expand as they warm and the chocolate will contract as cools and you will get more filling squirting out.

 

What is the recipe of your filling? Perhaps we can make it a little firmer for the purposes of dipping.

 

 

[jedovaty]

Thanks, Kerry.  I just eyeballed it until I got a peanut butter that was workable and met my tastes.  I'd say about 1/2 cup PB, 1/3-1/4c powdered sugar, a 1/2t vanilla paste, pinch of salt.  The PB was pretty oily, and hard to work with, probably should have used more powdered sugar or added some starch.

[Kerry Beal]

4 hours ago, jedovaty said:

Thanks, Kerry.  I just eyeballed it until I got a peanut butter that was workable and met my tastes.  I'd say about 1/2 cup PB, 1/3-1/4c powdered sugar, a 1/2t vanilla paste, pinch of salt.  The PB was pretty oily, and hard to work with, probably should have used more powdered sugar or added some starch.

Or peanut butter powder. 

 

Here's my recipe for a center like that - 

 

500 gram peanut butter
250 gram fondant
2 tbsp molasses
1 tsp kosher salt
Mix peanut butter with molasses and salt. Just mix in peanut butter - too much and it will get crumbly.

[cmflick]

Do you think your recipe for a peanut butter center would work with cookie butter, aka Biscoff, as well?  I've tried using Biscoff to make a filling with chocolate and it always breaks.  Too much oil, I think.

[Kerry Beal]

Try tempering it.

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, cmflick said:

Do you think your recipe for a peanut butter center would work with cookie butter, aka Biscoff, as well?  I've tried using Biscoff to make a filling with chocolate and it always breaks.  Too much oil, I think.

 

Is there water too or just chocolate and cookie butter?  You should be able to add up to an equal amount of fat-based substance (nut butter for example) to chocolate and still have it firm up when tempered. Too much fat isn’t really a problem unless you add water and need it all to emulsify. 

 

OP might also want to explore using cocoa butter or milk or white Chocolate to firm up the filling. Plus, it should end up less sweet than adding copious powdered sugar. 

[Kerry Beal]

8 hours ago, cmflick said:

Do you think your recipe for a peanut butter center would work with cookie butter, aka Biscoff, as well?  I've tried using Biscoff to make a filling with chocolate and it always breaks.  Too much oil, I think.

Guess i should have read more carefully - that would be awfully sweet. But warm the cookie butter, add to melted chocolate and temper.

 

Can't find the recipe I used to make a filling with cookie butter before - but it was simply a combination of cookie butter and milk chocolate.

 

 

[jedovaty]

On 10/19/2017 at 7:19 AM, pastrygirl said:

OP might also want to explore using cocoa butter or milk or white Chocolate to firm up the filling. Plus, it should end up less sweet than adding copious powdered sugar. 

Oh, this is a good idea, thank you.  I'll pour off the peanut oil if I'm using purchased peanut butter, and replace with cacao butter I have on hand.  I wasn't looking forward to using more powdered sugar, it's already so sweet and has that weird texture from the starch.