Molded and Filled Chocolates: Troubleshooting and Techniques

[gfron1]

Congrats!  You're getting there. 

 

A couple of comments. Yes, the shells are uneven. It could just be the lighting but that doesn't even look like white chocolate to me. What brand are you using? Be more patient as you dump the excess. I normally rap with my scraper a few times, scrape the surface, rap a second round, scrape, then look; sometimes I'll see that there's still plenty and will even do a third more aggressive rapping.

 

Second, that's a big air pocket above the ganache. Be sure you're letting it set up 8 hours or more. Why do you think that gap formed?

[chocofoodie]

Augh I responded yesterday but I must have forgotten to hit post or something.

 

So the white chocolate I'm using is Belcolade. I tempered it on the marble slab where I had tempered the milk chocolate the day before so maybe it mixed a bit.

 

I let the ganache set overnight. I didn't think it was a gap I thought the ganache was just so soft that it collapsed a bit when I cut it open for the picture.

 

I'm attaching pics of the latest ones. The shell is more even but after coating it twice it is still really thin. The chocolate just pours out. I'm going to try to leave it for a minute tomorrow. The other thing is that the shell has a nice snap to it and fell out effortlessly but before I piped in the filling there was some streaking on the inside. Also, when I test the temper, it doesn't set up within three minutes at room temperature but sets hard and streak free after a minute in the freezer.

 

I'd like to try a white vanilla filling in the dark chocolate tomorrow. Does anyone have a recipe they could share?

[chocofoodie]

I don't know why the second picture posted upside down!

[gfron1]

Again getting there. Nice thin shell - maybe too thin but I try to get mine that thin as well. I know when to dump by jiggling the mold...eventually you learn how much jiggle is the right amount.

And if it makes you feel any better, I had issues today and I knew it was because my temper was off. I saw the little unmelted chunk and ignored it...don't know why, but I did.

[pastrygirl]

 

I'm attaching pics of the latest ones. The shell is more even but after coating it twice it is still really thin. The chocolate just pours out. I'm going to try to leave it for a minute tomorrow. The other thing is that the shell has a nice snap to it and fell out effortlessly but before I piped in the filling there was some streaking on the inside. Also, when I test the temper, it doesn't set up within three minutes at room temperature but sets hard and streak free after a minute in the freezer.

 

 

 

I think you need to let it crystallize more.  Stir stir stir,  let it cool a bit, warm it back up if necessary.  You really want enough stable beta crystals so that it does set up in 3 minutes at room temp.  Anything will set up in the freezer, that is not a good indication!

[keychris]

Stir stir stir

If your arms aren't sore from stirring and you haven't got blisters on your hands, you haven't been stirring enough

[Jim D.]

If your arms aren't sore from stirring and you haven't got blisters on your hands, you haven't been stirring enough

I realize you were (mostly) kidding, Chris, but I thought that stirring could be the culprit in over-crystallization and chocolate too thick to use.  The OP hasn't had this problem...yet...but he or she will probably encounter it eventually.

[pastrygirl]

If your arms aren't sore from stirring and you haven't got blisters on your hands, you haven't been stirring enough

 

 

I realize you were (mostly) kidding, Chris, but I thought that stirring could be the culprit in over-crystallization and chocolate too thick to use.  The OP hasn't had this problem...yet...but he or she will probably encounter it eventually.

 

Yes, Jim, too much stirring can lead to over-crystallization, you have to find the happy medium.  When it gets too thick, just melt it out a little with a hair dryer/heat gun or add some melted and cooled but not tempered chocolate to dilute the crystallization.  Today I worked intermittently (remind me to get more than one heart shaped mold before next Valentine's day  ) with the same batch of 60% over the course of several hours.  In between batches, I put the cover on the melter (I have a 6kg mol d'art) and turn it up a degree or two.  When it sits for a while it does get a thick sludgy layer on top, but a minute with a hair dryer takes care of that.  As long as the whole amount doesn't go above 95F and you still have SOME beta crystals left, you're usually OK, but I still test a dab to make sure the temper is good.

 

I think a big part of the learning curve with chocolate is getting over all of the wishful thinking.  Thinking that because its 89F, it is in temper, or because you're in a hurry to get things done the temper is good enough, or that you are in control.  Silly chef, the chocolate is in control!  You have to understand how it works so you can guide it back into temper when it goes awry, but sometimes it just has a mind of its own, and as different chocolate have different personalities.  Valrhona Dulcey is nicer to work with at 90F and more difficult at 86 even though it is white chocolate.  

 

Warm it here, cool it there, put a fan or chill on it sometimes, stir a lot, try to multi-task while you're waiting for the seed to melt...   It's the same as cooking sugar - the more you stir, the more crystallization you get.  If you're making a wet caramel, don't stir at all.  Fudge and fondant are crystalline and are stirred intentionally.  Chocolate is crystalline too.  Stir, stir, stir.  But not too much.

Edited February 6, 2015 by pastrygirl (log)

[Jim D.]

I'm glad you wrote about the issues connected with chocolate because I had another one today.  I was using Valrhona Opalys (I have written about difficulties with it before) to close molds.  For the first two (I have 2 hearts--you definitely need to "get a heart," pardon the pun) the top went down without an issue.  By the third mold, I could "feel" the thickening as I moved the ladle through the chocolate.  I turned up the temp (on the Chocovision Delta) and it thinned out a little.  By the time I got to the last molds (numbers 5-7), it was too thick to use.  So I turned up the heat some more.  Once I completed all the molds, I decided to experiment, and this is the (to me) amazing result:  The Opalys thinned out enough only when I got the temp to 93F (remember, this is white chocolate!).  I checked and my thermometer read 93.1F.  I tested the temper, and in 4 minutes, the sample had completely set.  If I didn't like the taste of Opalys so much (for a white chocolate, that is), I would give up.  It gives a new meaning to your observation that the chocolate is on control.  What do you make of my observations?

[pastrygirl]

Jim, whatever works!  Do you always work with it that warm, or was it so over-crystallized that it needed to be warmer to be fluid?

[Jim D.]

No, I have never worked with it in actual production at that temp; I was just trying to see how far I needed to push it to get it workable.  I keep trying to find another white chocolate that isn't like Opalys but tastes as good, but no success so far.  I wish there were some way to get in touch directly with Valrhona and ask them if they have really tried this chocolate for molding, but of course there are only distributors to work with.  I may have to take a trip to Lyon to ask my questions.  If I go to the eGullet chocolate workshop this year, I may take a bag of Opalys for others to try!

[Kerry Beal]

I'm heading to Valhrona to escort the Ecole Chocolate Master's course in April.  I'll happily take along any questions.

[Jim D.]

I'm heading to Valhrona to escort the Ecole Chocolate Master's course in April.  I'll happily take along any questions.

That is a wonderful offer.  If you have the opportunity, please try to find out whether they have experienced the over-crystallization of Opalys in a short period of time.  I would estimate it occurs perhaps 15 minutes after the chocolate reaches Valrhona's recommended working temperature of 28/29C (82/84F).

[Meenap101]

I molded some chocolates today and this is the result I got, some of the colour was left behind in the mold, what went wrong?

[keychris]

More details on your process for the colour, please.

But IMO it's not in temper.

[Meenap101]

So I put the cocoa butter bottle in the microwave at 30 sec intervals until I can squeeze the bottle and I can feel the contains has soften a little, after this stage I microwave the bottle at 15 sec intervals, shaking the bottle each time. When some of the cocoa butter has become liquid I shake the bottle 45 secs - 1 min, then I use the cocoa butter.

[chocofoodie]

I'm glad you posted this problem! I am having the same problem. The thing is it doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes yes, other times it's fine. The other annoying thing is that in the same mold some will come out shiny and others dull! I can't understand what I'm doing wrong. I warm up the cocoa butter until it's liquid, shake it up, and use it to paint the molds. I let it set before I pour in the tempered chocolate.

[keychris]

Do either of you check the temperature of the cocoa butter before you use it? When you're applying it by hand (ie, not spraying), you need to have it in temper (that's why you're shaking it, to generate beta crystals), so if you're shaking it for a minute and it's still at, say 36C, it's definitely not ready and you need to let it cool to around 32C whilst shaking some more and then applying. You can get away with not doing this when spraying because of the enormous amount of movement the cocoa butter undergoes whilst passing through the gun and out the nozzle, this cools and generates enough beta crystals to temper it (having said that, I still cool my cocoa butter to 32C before spraying)

Edited February 23, 2015 by keychris (log)

[chocofoodie]

No I've never checked the temperature. Thanks for the tip! I'll try that next time!

[Kerry Beal]

That is a wonderful offer.  If you have the opportunity, please try to find out whether they have experienced the over-crystallization of Opalys in a short period of time.  I would estimate it occurs perhaps 15 minutes after the chocolate reaches Valrhona's recommended working temperature of 28/29C (82/84F).

Jim - here are my notes about tempering from Valrhona.

 

Tempering

 

 

-for shine, snap, texture, correct flavour

-resists melting in your hand

-if cocoa butter crystals are in the ‘correct’ orientation, light will be reflected in such

 a way that the chocolate is shiny

 

-keep bowl very clean with paper towel to top, heat gun to sides, and scraper to keep

 off excess chocolate

 

-all scrapings go into another bowl so they don’t cause over-crystallization

 

-first pour out a percentage into another vessel - some of which will be added back to

 increase the temperature after tabling

-pour out the melted chocolate onto the table, move around with a single

 scraper, thermometer in your other hand so you know the temperature of your mass

 all all times - the combination of a scraper and and offset will add too much air into the 

 chocolate

-clean the sides of the bowl with the heat gun and introduce the reserved warm 

 chocolate a bit at a time until the reheat working temperature is reached

 

                                Melt                   Table             Reheat

 

 

Dark                       55-58º C         27-28º C       31-32º C

Milk                        45-48º C         27-28º C       29-30º C

White/Dulcy         45-48º C         27-28º C       29-29º C

 

 

*never add cold table scrapings to the mass

 

*never let your table temperatures get below the recommended temperature

[pastryani]

Oooh I'm so glad this thread was started as I know I'll have a LOT to post here!  

 

I sprayed some molds with CB a few days ago, and then cast, filled, and covered them today.

Attached are images of my results:

 

 

 

 

1.  Corners:  The chocolate didn't reach the corners.  I have one of those small vibrating tables and I gave it a good amount of time on it (~1min).  The chocolate was also thinner because I threw in a little cocoa butter (knowing that I had corners to fill!), but still no dice.

 

2.  Cocoa butter finish:  The rectangles came out somewhat glossy, while the trianglular ones are splotchy with little circles (see close-up).  I did hit the molds with a couple of seconds with the heat gun because it was a bit chilly in my kitchen, but perhaps I gave it too much heat on the triangular mold?  Arrgghh soo frustrating!!  

 

Do you guys paint chocolate in your molds with a brush (prior to pouring chocolate in and then out) to ensure the corners are filled in?  

 

[pastrygirl]

17 hours ago, pastryani said:

Oooh I'm so glad this thread was started as I know I'll have a LOT to post here!  

 

I sprayed some molds with CB a few days ago, and then cast, filled, and covered them today.

Attached are images of my results:

 

 

 

 

1.  Corners:  The chocolate didn't reach the corners.  I have one of those small vibrating tables and I gave it a good amount of time on it (~1min).  The chocolate was also thinner because I threw in a little cocoa butter (knowing that I had corners to fill!), but still no dice.

 

2.  Cocoa butter finish:  The rectangles came out somewhat glossy, while the trianglular ones are splotchy with little circles (see close-up).  I did hit the molds with a couple of seconds with the heat gun because it was a bit chilly in my kitchen, but perhaps I gave it too much heat on the triangular mold?  Arrgghh soo frustrating!!  

 

Do you guys paint chocolate in your molds with a brush (prior to pouring chocolate in and then out) to ensure the corners are filled in?  

 

Did the cocoa butter not get into the corners, or did it get left there because of the bubbles?

[keychris]

I get the same thing, there will be cocoa butter in the corners of the mould still

[pastryani]

Edit:  Pastrygirl - the CB did get into the corners, but didn't stick to anything because of the bubbles.

Edited December 16, 2015 by pastryani (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Toothpick down into the corners - I've given up on some molds like these because I'm too lazy to work that hard to prevent bubbles.