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collapsed chocolate shells?

akonsu

By akonsu
in Pastry & Baking

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akonsu

akonsu

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hello, several weeks after I moulded some ganache filled chocolates, their shells collapsed. I have attached a photo that demonstrates the problem. I am not sure why this happened. My guess is that this is because the ganache filling dried and shrank thus either making the candy hollow or maybe the internal pressure got lower, I do not know... What did I do wrong? How to prevent this? Keep them in an air tight container (which I did not)? Or in a fridge (which I did not either)?

 

Thanks!

konstantin

 

DSCN4857.JPG

Edited by akonsu (log)
keychris

keychris

Posted
Posted

Yeah it's caused by evaporation from the filling. Not sure how to prevent other than changing the filling to have less water?

Nickos

Nickos

Posted
Posted

You have to let the filling rest for 12 hours and then close the mould.

 

so; make the shell, fill with a filling of your choice and let them set overnight and close the next day.

  • Like 1
keychris

keychris

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Nickos said:

You have to let the filling rest for 12 hours and then close the mould.

 

so; make the shell, fill with a filling of your choice and let them set overnight and close the next day.

 

that definitely helps but you still can get evaporation even if you do this (I do this for all my fillings and some still shrink over time)

Kerry Beal

Kerry Beal

Posted
Posted
Just now, keychris said:

 

that definitely helps but you still can get evaporation even if you do this (I do this for all my fillings and some still shrink over time)

For sure - but only certain fillings in certain molds give me this issue. I tend to back off very quickly. Can't recall the last time I let something sit overnight!

  • Like 2

the Chocolate Doctor
www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

www.eztemper.com

 

Confectionary Course • Confectionary Course Q&A
eGullet foodblog 2006 • eGullet Foodblog 2012

keychris

keychris

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

For sure - but only certain fillings in certain molds give me this issue. I tend to back off very quickly. Can't recall the last time I let something sit overnight!

but you have an eztemper 😛

Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I tend to back off very quickly. Can't recall the last time I let something sit overnight!


I don't think I've let ganache sit overnight since the arrival of the EZtemper. I've also never had a shell collapse... knock on wood.

  • Like 1

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

  • 1 month later...
DJ Silverchild

DJ Silverchild

Posted
Posted

I'm having the exact same problem and I know it's a combination of the shells being too thin and the filling drying out. It only became an issue when I switched to molds with small cavities and reformulated my ganache.  My espresso went from a 22 gram cavity to 9. and the best flavor balance is 5 grams of chocolate and 4 grams of filling.  The sides and bottom are fine, the top caves.  How long it takes to cave depends on the filling. 

 

I also wonder if the original poster and I are making fillings that just aren't meant for molded truffles.  Some of what I'm doing is altering a firm ganache, and I recently retooled my recipe to see if I could get a longer shelf life (and it worked, my AW value was about 6.8) but my new formula is definitely drying out and I need to reformulate it again..  I'll try more glucose but I didn't like the flavor when I did that. Would invert sugar be better? My rule of thumb has been glucose in molded truffles, invert sugar in any that gets enrobed or dipped.  I definitely won't use sorbitol. 

Kerry Beal

Kerry Beal

Posted
Posted
On 5/17/2019 at 10:00 AM, DJ Silverchild said:

I'm having the exact same problem and I know it's a combination of the shells being too thin and the filling drying out. It only became an issue when I switched to molds with small cavities and reformulated my ganache.  My espresso went from a 22 gram cavity to 9. and the best flavor balance is 5 grams of chocolate and 4 grams of filling.  The sides and bottom are fine, the top caves.  How long it takes to cave depends on the filling. 

 

I also wonder if the original poster and I are making fillings that just aren't meant for molded truffles.  Some of what I'm doing is altering a firm ganache, and I recently retooled my recipe to see if I could get a longer shelf life (and it worked, my AW value was about 6.8) but my new formula is definitely drying out and I need to reformulate it again..  I'll try more glucose but I didn't like the flavor when I did that. Would invert sugar be better? My rule of thumb has been glucose in molded truffles, invert sugar in any that gets enrobed or dipped.  I definitely won't use sorbitol. 

How about a combination of invert and glucose. Glucose about 50% of the free water and invert 5-7% of free water (I've also seen 2-3% of total weight of recipe).

the Chocolate Doctor
www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

www.eztemper.com

 

Confectionary Course • Confectionary Course Q&A
eGullet foodblog 2006 • eGullet Foodblog 2012

DJ Silverchild

DJ Silverchild

Posted
Posted

Fascinating. I did recently rework my ganache formula to get a better shelf life and it worked in that I got an AW value under 7 but now I have these problems.  I lowered the glucose from 8.81% to 5.8% of the total recipe.  For the entire recipe, free water changed from 20.45% water and 29.05% sugar to 21.73% water 26.48% sugar.
I just made a batch using the old formula and it came together much much better. I'll try it in shells next week.
 

Should glucose be 50% of the free water? 

 

Thank you Kerry!

Kerry Beal

Kerry Beal

Posted
Posted
On 5/23/2019 at 4:45 PM, DJ Silverchild said:

Fascinating. I did recently rework my ganache formula to get a better shelf life and it worked in that I got an AW value under 7 but now I have these problems.  I lowered the glucose from 8.81% to 5.8% of the total recipe.  For the entire recipe, free water changed from 20.45% water and 29.05% sugar to 21.73% water 26.48% sugar.
I just made a batch using the old formula and it came together much much better. I'll try it in shells next week.
 

Should glucose be 50% of the free water? 

 

Thank you Kerry!

yes - up to 50% of free water

the Chocolate Doctor
www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

www.eztemper.com

 

Confectionary Course • Confectionary Course Q&A
eGullet foodblog 2006 • eGullet Foodblog 2012

Jim D.

Jim D.

Posted
Posted
On 5/23/2019 at 4:45 PM, DJ Silverchild said:

Fascinating. I did recently rework my ganache formula to get a better shelf life and it worked in that I got an AW value under 7 but now I have these problems.  I lowered the glucose from 8.81% to 5.8% of the total recipe.  For the entire recipe, free water changed from 20.45% water and 29.05% sugar to 21.73% water 26.48% sugar.
I just made a batch using the old formula and it came together much much better. I'll try it in shells next week.
 

Should glucose be 50% of the free water? 

 

Thank you Kerry!

I have to ask:  The only scale I have seen for Aw readings is between 0 (for something completely solid) to 1 (for complete water). Is there a different scale that results in a reading of 7?

www.santiagochocolates.com

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