Chocolate and Parafin

[celenes]

Hi All,

Can someone please educate me on the rationale behind using parafin wax when melting chocolate.

I have come across a recipe that I want to try out and it calls for melting chocolate with 1/4 of a parafin bar of wax. I have never done this before and I have seen other recipes but I never been willing to try them because of the wax factor.

Thanks in advance for the lesson.

[chefpeon]

My Lord.....what is the recipe?

It sounds to me like melting chocolate with paraffin wax would be a "cheater's" way to temper.

I can guarantee you, it won't taste very good.

[stscam]

Last year a local woman won a blue ribbon at our county fair with chocolate bon bons made with paraffin. People should know better. Scary.

Cheers,

[Pan]

I thought paraffin was carcinogenic if ingested. Is that an old wives' tale? And even if so, count me out on eating it!

[Sebastian]

Paraffin itself is not carcinogenic, but when burned, it does oxidize to a number of degredation products, some of which are carcinogenic. As for it's use in chocolate, there's really no reason for it, and while not harmful, will quite obviously affect texture (waxy - wax candles are often literally made from this stuff), as well as flavor release (if you can't melt the fat in your mouth, you don't release the flavor).

If you wanted ease of use, you should simply stick with a confectionery compound, which while not chocolate, certainly isn't wax..

[K8memphis]

It's been used forever to make the chocolate a little more tooth friendly and it helps it to not melt so fast. When we were in New Mexico we got our favorite candy bar, Caramello, and the chocolate was loaded with something to enhance the shelf life to make it last better in that climate. The melt factor was much much slower than the bars we get here in Tennessee.

Anyhoo - the product you can use that is without question made for ingestion is called paramount crystals. Add to chocolate so it is easier on the tooth in that you can bite it and it doesn't just crackle in pieces - for example to coat a piece of candy or cake - the cake is much softer so you want the chocolate softer. Stuff like that.

But parafin has been used forever for this purpose. Not that it is plan A. All candy bars have something in there & we've all been eating it.

[Sebastian]

It should also be noted that the moment you add it to chocolate, you've lost the legal right to call it chocolate. Not so important for you folks at home, but if you're selling it, it no longer meets the standard of identity for chocolate, not just in the US, but anywhere a SOI exists for chocolate, which is most of the world.

Paraffin won't make chocolate softer, per se, it'll make it somewhat more pliable (due to eutetic effects of mixed fats), and will substantially increase it's melting point. If you're looking to soften chocolate, milk fat works wonders. You can use non-lauric type fats (soy, cottonseed) or a natural lauric (coconut, say) - but if you go that route, you should either be freezing it (won't appear nice at room temp - freezing it allows for nice setup, and the softer oils will make it less likely to shatter upon biting it) or using it liquid (fountain) - but again, you've lost the ability to call it chocolate as those fats aren't permitted under the standard of identity for chocolate.

[naguere]

As a boy, liquid parrafin was used as a laxative, none digestible it smoothed everything out.

Would chocolate made with this ingredient have the same effect...

[Sebastian]

As a boy, liquid parrafin was used as a laxative, none digestible it smoothed everything out.

Would chocolate made with this ingredient have the same effect...

←

maltitol, lactitol, and mannitol are much more effective 8-)

[FistFullaRoux]

I'll buy the heat resistant version of things. My grandmother made the best peanut butter balls that were coated in chocolate with some wax for good measure. What I found was that it allowed you to put a thicker coat without making it too hard to bite into...

[bkeith]

My Lord.....what is the recipe?

It sounds to me like melting chocolate with paraffin wax would be a "cheater's" way to temper.

Exactly right. It's an old trick for working with chocolate without having to learn how to temper. Fairly common among recipes aimed at the home cook from 50 years or more ago. And since more people made jelly at home in those days, they usually had an open box of paraffin tucked away in the cupboard somewhere.

I can guarantee you, it won't taste very good.

Right again. Especially since the chocolate in question was almost always what was available at the supermarket -- Netsle chips or Bakers squares.

[BakerChick]

Celenes,

Maybe if you gave us this recipe you're talking about we could give you a good substitution for the paraffin. That way, none of us has to feel wierd about you serving it to your friends!

[Kapuliperson]

wow.. never heard of this before

[celenes]

O.k. basically the only portion of the recipe that uses the paraffin is the portion to dip the cookies in:

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1/4 of a paraffn wax bar

Chocolate Dip

Place the chocolate chips and paraffin in a small very heavy saucepan on the lowest temperature. Stir often-it will seem nothing is happening but don't turn the heat up. After awhile the chips and wax will start to melt and blend together, forming the traditional shiny choclate candy coating. Then of course, the recipe continues on how to dip the cookies etc.

I have also seen paraffin called for in buckeyes which is a novelty item here in Ohio being the Buckeye state in all.

I don't think I would ever use the wax because it scares me!!! It just sound like it would cause some kind of issue.

Thanks for all the feedback.

[bkeith]

O.k. basically the only portion of the recipe that uses the paraffin is the portion to dip the cookies in:

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1/4 of a paraffn wax bar

Chocolate Dip

Place the chocolate chips and paraffin in a small very heavy saucepan on the lowest temperature.  Stir often-it will seem nothing is happening but don't turn the heat up.  After awhile the chips and wax will start to melt and blend together, forming the traditional shiny choclate candy coating.  Then of course, the recipe continues on how to dip the cookies etc.

I have also seen paraffin called for in buckeyes which is a novelty item here in Ohio being the Buckeye state in all.

I don't think I would ever use the wax because it scares me!!! It just sound like it would cause some kind of issue. 

Thanks for all the feedback.

←

Well, tempered couverture would be my first choice. If you don't want to deal with tempering, then confectioner's coating.

If you want a slightly softer coating than straight chocolate, maybe use the method above, but substitue a teaspoon or two of vegetable oil for the paraffin.

[chefpeon]

Anyhoo - the product you can use that is without question made for ingestion is called paramount crystals.

Hey, I remember those! I used them a long time ago, and if I remember right, I think I was told that they were cocoa butter flakes......true?

[bkeith]

Anyhoo - the product you can use that is without question made for ingestion is called paramount crystals.

Hey, I remember those! I used them a long time ago, and if I remember right, I think I was told that they were cocoa butter flakes......true?

←

Not quite. Paramount crystals is to confectioner's coating what cocoa butter is to couverture. It's just flakes of hydrogenated or fractionated palm kernel oil or some such. The same form of fat that's in confectioner's coating so you can thin it. I'm not sure what would happen if you added it to couverture. I'd guess that you'd get a similar result to paraffin -- "cheater" tempering.