How many chocolate shells in 1 kilo?

[TokyoJ]

I'm trying a simple experiment.

 

Would anyone have an idea how many, reasonably thick, average size bonbon shells 1 kg will produce?

 

Thank you.

[Jim D.]

This is a really, really difficult calculation, and any figures can be only approximate.  Knowing the advertised weight of a cavity is helpful.  According to whom you consult, that figure was arrived at by the mold manufacturer by filling it with dark or milk chocolate and weighing it.  So you could simply multiply that figure by the number of cavities in a given mold to arrive at the amount of chocolate needed to fill it.  But that does not allow for a couple of other issues:  If you ladle chocolate onto a mold, there will be chocolate used that does not flow into the cavities but stays on the other areas of the top.  And how much you need depends on whether you are pouring the excess onto parchment (thus not reusing it) or back into the bowl (thus reducing the total amount being used because you are reusing it).

 

I arrived at best guesses in the program I use to tell me how much chocolate I need to melt for a given batch.  Both examples do not take into account emptying the mold back into the bowl.  Best guess #1:  For a mold in which each cavity holds 13g of chocolate and there are 18 cavities, I use about 360g of chocolate.  Guess #2:  For a mold in which each cavity holds 18g of chocolate and there are 28 cavities, I use about 500g of chocolate.  So, using example #1, you could fill about 3 of those 18-cavity molds.

 

But it is far more usual to dump back into the bowl, so, using example #1:  If you scrape the mold and dump the mold back into the bowl (after the shell has formed), the 360g used to fill the mold would be closer to 250g, and chocolate required would be reduced accordingly, and thus you would get 4 molds worth of shells formed from a kilo.

[Saltychoc]

As Jim said the issue really is being able to fill the mold and get a shell. I also melt more chocolate than I will need and pour the excess onto parchment or into bar molds at the end. You also have to account for any waste - chocolate that missed the melter, left on the mold, etc. Also - reasonably thick shells? What does this mean to you? I make very thin shells and try to use about 100-110g for the 32pc 2295 cw mold. But like Jim said, you need enough chocolate to fill the cavities so at 14g a cavity I would start to run out of chocolate after 5ish molds.

 

You best bet is to weigh an empty mold that you use frequently, melt 1kg of chocolate, then shell it as you normally would, weigh the mold after it has set, and weigh the remaining chocolate. Otherwise it's just a guessing game as you may like a thicker or thinner shell than others.

 

Guessing for capping is much easier - especially if you pipe that chocolate.

[pastrygirl]

200-250?

 

Depends on the mold. Agreed that you need to temper way more chocolate than you'll actually use, but for costing purposes it would be good to know the shell vs filling. 

 

I had some CW2295 rejects in my fridge and broke a few apart.  8 dark choc shells + bottoms = 38g (avg 4.75),  8 white choc ganache centers = 60 g (avg 7.5)  The shells are pretty thin but the bottoms are a little thick on this batch so 4 grams with a thinner bottom?

 

 

 

[TokyoJ]

THANK YOU everyone.

It is greatly appreciated.Waste is definitely something I focus on. 

I'll give it a go and report back.

 

cheers everyone.

TokyoJ