Molded and Filled Chocolates: Troubleshooting and Techniques

[keychris]

It really is all about practice and technique!

I'll address your points slightly randomly, as that's how my brain works

Cocoa butter:

Tempering cocoa butter is so ridiculously easy. I usually work with colours in 50-75g batches. I put the cocoa butter in a small (1 cup) plastic measuring cup and melt it to 45C (I have a dehydrator, so I just put it in there the night before I plan to work). Then take it out and stir it until it reaches 31-32C and it's tempered and ready to use. This will only take 5 minutes or so as the volume you're using is so small. Downside is, you have to work fast once it's ready, unless you have it kept warm. When you're finished, either leave it in the container to solidify, or pour it out in a thin layer over some clingwrap or nonstick baking paper, then store in ziplock bags (I do the latter). A side point: be so careful heating your cocoa butter in the microwave, it is incredibly easy to overheat and cause it to burn.

Thickening chocolate:

Chocolate will thicken naturally, as you've mentioned, even when held at the working temperature. This thickening is a multiplication of the beta crystals that are the "good" crystals that cause your chocolate to contract away from the mold. By adding pure cocoa butter, you do increase the fluidity however, you do increase the number of beta crystals that will end up being formed too! You can regularly zap it with a heat gun or hair drier, just a few seconds, to remelt the crystals that are forming at the cooler surface of the chocolate. If you're getting your chocolate thickening too much between adding it to the mold and scraping it clean, you've got far too many beta crystals in there - it's overcrystallised. You only need 1-2% of the liquid chocolate to be in the beta crystal state at working temperature for the chocolate to be "in temper". So it's easy to overcrystallise, too! Don't stress out about watching that thermometer though - heat the chocolate for a few seconds with a heat gun / hair drier, take a test. Rely on the test, not the thermometer - in the more advanced classes I've attended, the teacher doesn't allow the students to use a thermometer, it's all done by touch and test. Practice makes perfect!

Scraping:

Work one mold at a time. Don't fill 6 molds and scrape them after the sixth. Of course the chocolate will be thickening, if you do that (and I realise you never said you DID do that ). Always work clean - if you've got chocolate on your scraper, use a spatula or another scraper to clean it off. I hold the mold over the bowl, scrape the mold, wipe the scraper over the side of the bowl to get the bulk of the chocolate back into the bowl, then rescrape the top and then the sides, cleaning the scraper back into the bowl after every stroke.

Scraping the cooling chocolate back into your bowl does cool your bowl chocolate down and thicken it, as you're adding more beta crystals back into the bowl. So after each mold, you might need to just wave the heat gun over the bowl for a few seconds, whilst stirring. If you don't want to scrape back into your working chocolate, scrape into a second bowl, or even on the side of the bench, if it's clean

Demolding:

Sometimes the darned things just stick. You have a whole mold except two come out easily. Sounds like you're on top of this, but just to say it for the sake of saying it - make sure chocolate is in temper If the molds are quite cool before you add the chocolate - warm them up with the heat gun, not so they're hot, just so they're not cold. Otherwise the chocolate that hits the mold first will likely stick to it and you'll have a hard time getting them out, even if the chocolate was in temper!

I'll just add - it's *really* hard to do things without the right equipment - I spent 5 months after my first class without a melt tank, just doing it all on the bench and with the microwave, and keeping chocolate in temper without something to hold it at the working temperature is practically impossible. So if you don't have a melt tank (if you're starting out, I can understand why you wouldn't as they are damned expensive, here in Australia at least), don't get discouraged, you just have to work fast and in small batches! I literally would only get 2 or 3 molds done before the chocolate had cooled too far for even the hair drier to help!

HTH

Chris

[DianaM]

Hi Jim D.,

All your questions have been very thoroughly addressed above by people much more skilled than me, but I just had one nagging question in reference to your bonbons-stuck-in-the-moulds issue. Do you wash your moulds between moulding sessions? I am asking because I had some issues with bonbons sticking when my moulds were brand new, but in time, they got "primed" meaning that now they have a very thin cocoa butter residue that makes unmoulding much easier. When I get stuff stuck in the moulds, and I have to wash them, I again get some sticking.

This is a bit of a controversy, as some people wash their moulds all the time, and still have no sticking issues, but for myself, I found that just cleaning moulds with a heat gun works best. Derrick Pho (Curls links to his video above) said to never wash moulds. Once I started following his advice, I no longer had that issue.

[pastrygirl]

Lacking a heat gun, I scrape the build-up off my scraper between every few molds. If you try to keep the blade vertical (or perpendicular to the mold) that helps too, because then you are only scraping the edge against the mold, and not dragging all the excess built-up chocolate through your bottoms.

Thanks for the perpendicular suggestion. I think that may help. Could you estimate how clean your molds are when you finish scraping? I've seen videos where the molds are almost as clean as they were before use, others where there is some thin covering of chocolate.

Pretty clean? I try to scrape as well as possible to get nice sharp bottom edges, except sometimes when I overfill the molds and try to compensate for extra-thin bottoms by not scraping very well.

I don't generally refrigerate molds unless the kitchen is particularly warm, I'm in a big hurry, or doing thicker bars (really fun when all 3 conditions apply ). I do wash my molds because, I don't know, I'm an OCD Virgo and it just seems wrong not to? I keep trying to tell myself I don't need to, but I won't listen....maybe someday!

Kerry is right, it's just chocolate. My co-workers have never failed to make a plate of rejects disappear in lightening time, you have to scorch it or do something really unfortunate before most people will turn their nose up at chocolate, and only French guys and chocolatiers look at the bottoms. If you have a lot of "seconds", often you can melt the whole things down with a little extra liquid and recycle them as filling for the next batch, so all is not lost. Chocolate can be extremely frustrating, but when you get the batches with the showroom finish it is so rewarding. I have days when I feel like a pro and days when I feel like a beginner. Hang in there!

[Jim D.]

Hi Jim D.,

All your questions have been very thoroughly addressed above by people much more skilled than me, but I just had one nagging question in reference to your bonbons-stuck-in-the-moulds issue. Do you wash your moulds between moulding sessions? I am asking because I had some issues with bonbons sticking when my moulds were brand new, but in time, they got "primed" meaning that now they have a very thin cocoa butter residue that makes unmoulding much easier. When I get stuff stuck in the moulds, and I have to wash them, I again get some sticking.

This is a bit of a controversy, as some people wash their moulds all the time, and still have no sticking issues, but for myself, I found that just cleaning moulds with a heat gun works best. Derrick Pho (Curls links to his video above) said to never wash moulds. Once I started following his advice, I no longer had that issue.

Yes, I have read about that argument over whether or not to wash. I must confess that I can't yet clean enough of the chocolate off (in the process of making the chocolates) and must wash them. I use hot water, usually no soap. I did plan to try a version of what you describe, however, the next time I do some work, namely, "greasing" the molds with a little melted cocoa butter. A number of people recommend this. Just to make the whole situation more ridiculous: Today I unmolded some plain chocolates (no decoration, but a fairly intricate mold), and they came out without a hitch. As far as I know, I did nothing different from yesterday, when a batch were the most difficult I have ever unmolded. Go figure! Thanks for your suggestions.

[Jim D.]

It really is all about practice and technique!

I'll address your points slightly randomly, as that's how my brain works

Chris,

Thanks for all your suggestions. I appreciated the insight that adding cocoa butter might be causing my chocolate to thicken sooner. I just watched the video of Greweling making rabbits. Unless it was a video timing trick, he seems to be using the same bowl of quite fluid chocolate the whole time. Mine starts thickening as soon as it hits the mold, sticking to the scraper immediately. Maybe I should return to using the Callebaut without adding cocoa butter to see what happens. But I am getting very nice and thin shells at present.

I do work on one mold at a time, but your idea about heating the molds is also worth trying. Sometimes my chocolate acts as if you had dropped a frozen truffle center into it (which I actually did, with the result being probably the thickest truffle coating the world has ever seen).

Jim

[Jim D.]

Pastrygirl,

Thanks for the encouragement. Since I promised my sister three different chocolates for her party next week, I have no choice but to press on. And if there is an undertaking that brings out one's OCD tendencies more than chocolatiering, I don't want to know what it is. I guess what bothers me the most is that when something unusual happens with chocolate, you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is some reason for it, but there are so many variables and so many unknowns that it is sometimes impossible to figure it out. I have done a lot of computer programming, and in that field, unusual things go wrong, but you can be confident that if you work hard enough, you will figure it out. With chocolate, maybe yes, maybe no.

Jim

[Kerry Beal]

Nothing makes your chocolate making skill go south faster than a deadline!

[Beth Wilson]

Nothing makes your chocolate making skill go south faster than a deadline!

You can say that again! I also find it happens when you have an audience!

[pastrygirl]

Yeah, the chocolate is in control, there is no pretending otherwise. I think the immediate thickening must be due to over-crystallization. I get better results when my seed is mostly melted at 95, much more frustrating results when I still have significant unmelted seed at 92 and am trying frantically to melt it out and stirring a lot, inducing even more crystallization. Nothing like tempering several pounds of chocolate to do big production, filling 3 molds, then having to re-temper. A drafty room doesn't seem to help either.

[keychris]

I'm definitely with pastrygirl on this one - sounds like overcrystallization. How much seed are you adding to your 45C chocolate? (I assume you're not tabling )

Can you describe your tempering technique? If you're seeding, there's absolutely no need to do the 45-27-32 temperature profile, simply add the seed and stir until it reaches working temp (I know a lot of people on here don't do the stirring, but it works for me, and I am quite OCD about things when they work )

cheers

Chris

[Jim D.]

I'm definitely with pastrygirl on this one - sounds like overcrystallization. How much seed are you adding to your 45C chocolate? (I assume you're not tabling )

Can you describe your tempering technique? If you're seeding, there's absolutely no need to do the 45-27-32 temperature profile, simply add the seed and stir until it reaches working temp (I know a lot of people on here don't do the stirring, but it works for me, and I am quite OCD about things when they work )

cheers

Chris

Most of the time I am using a Chocovison machine for tempering. I followed Peter Greweling's suggestion for adding cocoa butter to thin out chocolate that is too viscous--so I don't think the mere addition of cocoa butter should make the choc. tend toward overcrystallization. The machine calls for putting in the seed choc. after all the choc. has melted; it lowers the temp. to 90 degrees F., then tells you to take out the seed, then continues to lower the temp depending on the type of choc. I would estimate that only a few ounces of seed melt. The machine allows for the possibility of raising the final working temp of the choc., and I plan to try getting dark choc. up to 90 degrees F. (Callebaut recommends higher working temps on the extra bittersweet package). Yesterday I tempered some dark choc. by hand, using the partial melting procedure that Greweling also mentions--removing the choc. from over the hot water before all was melted, then stirring to melt the rest. I did, however, find one glitch in tempering choc. by hand: by the time you test the choc. for tempering, its temp has lowered. In any case, that batch of choc. was like the machine-tempered choc. The viscosity is fine when I am spreading it on the mold; it's just that it coats the scraper rather rapidly and becomes firm so that it's practically impossible to clean off as quickly as one has to operate. I don't know what is causing this problem, though I agree it sounds like overcrystallization. It's certainly not that it is sitting too long in the machine because I make one mold at a time, and as soon as the choc. is ready, I pour it into the mold. As a temporary solution to the utensil mess, I am going to have several scrapers ready. And Pastrygirl's suggestion that the scraper be positioned perpendicular to the mold (although not what most people say) seemed to help. Also helpful was the idea I found somewhere of scraping half of the mold, then reversing it and scraping the other half; in that way you don't drag the choc. across so many cavities.

[Kerry Beal]

After it's been in temper for a while - dark chocolate can go as high as 34.5º C (94 in american).

[Chocolot]

How cold is your room?

[Jim D.]

How cold is your room?

It's about 70 degrees F.

[Chocolot]

How long does it take your test strip to set up? When I bottom mine, I like to have my chocolate a bit warmer than usual. If your molds are not "clean" when you bottom them, they will bump and drag all over the place. I like my molds to be very clean and free of chocolate when I go to close. I put a lot of chocolate on the tray, slant it over the bowl, and do as Derrick does in the video--slide off half and then drag the top half over the same shells. I then clean off the sides of the molds. If they look a little rough, I tap them on the counter to level the chocolate. I use two scrapers, cleaning one with the other constantly.

As has been said previously, chocolate is always in charge. It lets you have success sometimes, but not always. I guess that is what keeps us interested. If it was easy, there is no challenge and anyone can do it:-)

[Jim D.]

How long does it take your test strip to set up? When I bottom mine, I like to have my chocolate a bit warmer than usual. If your molds are not "clean" when you bottom them, they will bump and drag all over the place. I like my molds to be very clean and free of chocolate when I go to close. I put a lot of chocolate on the tray, slant it over the bowl, and do as Derrick does in the video--slide off half and then drag the top half over the same shells. I then clean off the sides of the molds. If they look a little rough, I tap them on the counter to level the chocolate. I use two scrapers, cleaning one with the other constantly.

As has been said previously, chocolate is always in charge. It lets you have success sometimes, but not always. I guess that is what keeps us interested. If it was easy, there is no challenge and anyone can do it:-)

With dark choc., the test firms up in ca. 2 minutes (starts to look "right" in about a minute, getting that matte look as opposed to untempered, which stays shiny and liquid); with milk, it takes several minutes, maybe as much as 4-5. In your procedure, about how long does it take before your choc. gets too thick to work with? I realize that you are undoubtedly much quicker than I am. I have to reach a balance between continuing to clean off the mold on one hand and, on the other hand, having the choc. get thick enough to become a hindrance to further cleaning (in other words, it makes more of a mess than is worth the effort).

Jim

[Chocolot]

I'm fortunate to have tempering melters to work with. I up the temp on the tank, and just scrape back into the pot. I can do it all day. I don't see why it is such a problem to get it scraped off. It should only take a few seconds, certainly not enough time to cause problems. You should plan on coming to the gathering in Niagara on the Lake in April:-)

[Jim D.]

I'm fortunate to have tempering melters to work with. I up the temp on the tank, and just scrape back into the pot. I can do it all day. I don't see why it is such a problem to get it scraped off. It should only take a few seconds, certainly not enough time to cause problems. You should plan on coming to the gathering in Niagara on the Lake in April:-)

I guess I don't yet have your skill (or your equipment). The problem occurs more in the second scraping--that is, after the mold is filled, tapped, turned upside down, emptied, then turned right side up. By then the chocolate has begun to harden and the mess tends to occur. That procedure certainly takes more than a few seconds.

[Kerry Beal]

I tap and scrape with my straight spatula while the mold is still upside down over the bowl. Then turn it back over and give it the final scrape with the drywall knife.

[Chocolot]

OK, I thought your problem was more when you were closing. I do like Kerry, fill, rattle on the counter, dump and tap. Scrap while still inverted. Place on counter and scrape the top again and clean sides. It truly takes less than a minute. I clean off spatula with other spatula between each mold.

[ElainaA]

Something I learned from Notter's Art of the Chocolatier and have found very helpful is to use a small triangular spatula to clean around the edges of the cavities. I got mine at J.B Prince.

[Jim D.]

Something I learned from Notter's Art of the Chocolatier and have found very helpful is to use a small triangular spatula to clean around the edges of the cavities. I got mine at J.B Prince.

Thanks for that tip. That area is a real problem for me.

[Jim D.]

OK, I thought your problem was more when you were closing. I do like Kerry, fill, rattle on the counter, dump and tap. Scrap while still inverted. Place on counter and scrape the top again and clean sides. It truly takes less than a minute. I clean off spatula with other spatula between each mold.

You are right that closing is a larger problem for me. Today I did some more work, and the filling of molds is going better. I tempered by hand and got the temp higher than in the past, so that helped. Closing is still an issue--rough edges, not always a pretty sight on the bottom of the chocolate. One interesting insight, however: I did the Notter mint praline with a chocolate "cracker" on the bottom. It's a fantastic recipe, but it's quite a production, especially since the crackers have to be just the right size to fit in the mold. Having that cracker on the bottom made closing even worse than usual since the cavities were probably more full than they should have been. But after the scraper took too much chocolate off the bottoms and left holes, I added another layer to patch what I had done (my language was not very polite at that point), then gave up, and put the mold in the refrigerator. Twenty minutes later, most of the chocolates popped out of the mold without any effort (the rest came out with a few bangs). So having extra chocolate on the bottom doesn't keep the pralines from unmolding. It does make a terrible mess.

[pastrygirl]

The confection came out fine, but today I managed to snap EIGHT guitar wires at once. Awesome!

[Kerry Beal]

The confection came out fine, but today I managed to snap EIGHT guitar wires at once. Awesome!

Ouch!