peter freakin' cottontail

[Trishiad]

so, I gave in and decided to get on the novelty candy bandwagon for Easter. "I'll give our friends an alternative to Dove bunnies and peeps", I thought. I decided to make Easter basket kits with peanut butter ganache filled critters, vanilla bean marshmallows, strawberry-lemonade pate de fruits, and 4 oz. solid bunnies.

I ordered these cutie bunny molds from Tomric. These are made by Tomric, they're less expensive than the imported ones I usually buy and a little less sturdy but still way cute!

I temper my chocolate (white, then dark, then milk, all with the same results), I warm the mold, fill, tap, scrape. Here's the problem: these bleeping bunnies won't mold properly. they bloom, they crack, they don't set all the way at the cheeks and then look fuzzy. The chocolate is tempered and is working just fine on the other things just not the bunnies. I tried the fridge and then the counter, the fridge and then the freezer, just the counter, and finally a rack in front of a fan. It's only 70 degrees in the house (california) so there shouldn't be a big problem. The final fan method is working the best but not producing the glossiest rabbits. They are just passable, yuck.

any ideas?

[chiantiglace]

you molds probably aren't 100% clean. You'd be surprised at how just a little residue that you may not be able to see can screw up your molds. Try soaking them in bleach water and then finish washing them out.

[lemon curd]

I work with chocolate molds several days a week and assuming you are tempering properly here's a few suggestions that I hope will help.

1. Just warm the mold enough to take the cool edge off. My guess is that if it is 70 deg you may not need to warm your molds at all. The cheeks not setting could well be because the molds have been overwarmed.

2. Make sure the molds are well polished before you use them to get rid of any residual cocoa butter. This will help with making sure you don't get dull or mat patches on the final product. At work we have special polishing clothes, but at home most people use cotton balls to do this.

3. After filling the mold and tapping to get rid of air bubbles let the filled mold sit out just until the chocolate sets around the edges (we usually do this in a slightly air conditioned environment but my guess is that your fan set-up would work well for this). Then put the filled mold into the fridge until the chocolate releases from the mold.

4. I don't have experience with cracking but Jean Pierre Wybauw in Fine Chocolate Great Experience, says this can be avoided by

a. making sure the chocolate is slightly solidified before placing it in cooling.

b. ensure the proper cooling temperature.

c. if you are using double molds, removing the clamps before the chocolate gets too solid.

Good luck and I look forward to reading suggestions from others.

Edited March 20, 2005 by lemon curd (log)

[Trishiad]

The molds were spotless and polished with unbleached cotton quilters batting (I don't like the potential for cotton ball threads to be left behind). Lemoncurd, I think you may be right about the mold warming. These molds are thinner than I'm used to and I may be overheating them.

One my way to bed last night I dumped some chocolate in without warming them just as a last ditch effort. The chocolate was over crystallized by then but I thought, "screw it, let's just see what happens.". I left them on a rack all night and this morning 2 of 10 are good.

Today I start again. Unfortunately, it's morning and the kitchen temp is only 63 so the variables aren't the same. Don't worry, I lit the pilot and turned on the heater to bring the room temp up into the 67 to 71 zone.

Somehow I manage to do quite a lot of very lovely things with chocolate. You'd think I could make a simple Easter bunny!! Keep those fingers crossed because I need another 30 bunnies still.

[Wendy DeBord]

I'm sorry I can't site a reference for this, but I do recall reading that even the best professionals struggle with molded rabbits. If I'm remembering correctly it had to do with the vast size difference between how long it takes the ears to set and the body, which is huge in comparision. I think, this issue of molding rabbits is more complex then it appears on the surface. It's just not the same as other shaped molds.

Unfortunately, I don't recall where I read that and more details, sorry. I think your on the right track though, working with warming your molds and the temp. they are setting in.

[Trishiad]

30 milk chocolate bunnies completed. This time I did not warm the molds and just waited and waited and waited. They look pretty good, although the ears are glossier than the deepest part of the body. The cracking I mentioned was the ears falling off as the face remained stuck in the mold because, as Wendy mentioned, the ears set so much faster than the body.

rascal e. rabbits I call them.

Now on to the Dark ones....

[bkeith]

30 milk chocolate bunnies completed.  This time I did not warm the molds and just waited and waited and waited.  They look pretty good, although the ears are glossier than the deepest part of the body.  The cracking I mentioned was the ears falling off as the face remained stuck in the mold because, as Wendy mentioned, the ears set so much faster than the body.

rascal e. rabbits I call them.

Now on to the Dark ones....

←

Just kinda thinking out loud here, but I wonder if you'd have better luck doing them in stages. Since the problem seems to be coming from the difference in how long it takes the ears to set vs the body, would it make sense to fill and empy the mold a few times, making a successively thicker shell, letting it set between pourings, then filling the cavity to form your solid bunny?

I have no empirical evidence that this would improve, destroy, or make no difference in your success rate, but since you've been struggling, it might be worth giving it a whirl. At the very least, I'd expect a more even shine over the whole piece since the outer shell would set at about the same rate over the whole bunny.

My two cents.

[Trishiad]

Bkeith, I tried that too. The second layer of chocolate breaks the temper of the first layer.