Melting down a Hersey's Bar

[jturn00]

I just received a giant (over 1lb) chocolate computer from hersey's as a gift from our it consultants. Not sure what percentage it is but can I melt it down and temper it to mold it into smaller more manageable chocolates? (In tempering I will be using the seed method, if I run out of milk chocolate can I use part dark?)

thanks,

Jeff

[Sebastian]

Sure on both accounts, but for the second, you need to make sure your dark chocolate is already in temper for it to work (actually, that's true for the first part too)

[CanadianBakin']

Could you just go at it with an ice pick and use it for chocolate chips?

[Trishiad]

hersheys bars don't really make the yummiest bonbons. i'm with CB, hack it up and make cookies. or a fondue?

[Irishgirl]

I thought for sure that milk and dark Chocolates temper out at different degrees. I would not recommend mixing them.

[Sebastian]

Milk chocolates with large amounts of milk fat typically require you to go to a lower temperature during tempering to account for the presence of the high number of short chain fatty acids in anhydrous milk fat. Many dark chocolates also have milk fat present at 3-5% levels as milk fat is a bloom inhibitor (the presence of it makes the process of tempering a little more difficult, but once you've achieved temper, it's harder to break temper). Adding dark chocolate seed to a milk chocolate won't complicate the process in any fashion whatsoever, and most folks probably won't even discern a color or flavor change as seed is used at such low levels. Almost all of the commercially available seed product (targeted to the RCI businesses) is semisweet chocolate seed, and is utilized for seeding both milk and dark product. As long as your seed is tempered, you can really use any type of seed you wish, even white chocolate (I've never, ever seen a white chocolate seed commercially available, but there's nothing stopping you from making your own.... don't really know why you'd want to tho 8-) )

[chiantiglace]

theres a simple fact, your not going to temper herseys chocolate. It's not coverture. Have you ever looked on the ingredients list of a herseys bar? If you bring your herseys chocolate to 113 degrees you'll probably get 1 of two things. One may be a broken oily mess, the other (more likely) will result in the mass becomming thick and pasty even before it gets to the tempering stages.

Trust me, you can taste the difference between a professionally made coverture milk chocolate and herseys. herseys is considerably grainy compared. The crystals won't form right. You can still melt it and use it for applicable recipes that call for melted chocolate, but as for using it as a sealed chocolate I would put that out of mind.

[Sebastian]

Certainly you can temper Hershey's chocolate. They do it, don't they?

I don't think anyone will argue that it's not a fine couverature - that's probably an understatement 8-) It will only oil out and separate if you hold it at 113 degrees for a few days w/o agitation (pretty much any chocolate will do this, by the way) - that said, if this does occur, it's simply a matter of agitating it to resuspend the solids in the oil.

If the chocolate thickens upon melting, that suggests it's a fairly old bar, and has picked up moisture. Again, any chocolate (especially while and milk) if old will absorb ambient moisture and thicken upon melting. Usually this can be resolved with the addition of a drop of fluid lecithin or adding add'l cocoa butter, but obviously best to work with fresh materials to avoid the whole mess altogether. Keep in mind that because it's not a fine couverature, if you're accustomed to working with fine coatings, this will appear thicker than you're used to (it is an economical kids everyday eating product, after all, meaning it's going to be relatively low in liquor and total cocoa butter, but fairly high in emulsifiers to help compensate). It will by no means be thick to the point of being unworkable, however - unless it's an old bar with moisture issues or has been improperly stored.

Now, if the hersheys chocolate in question is a nut bar, that's a whole 'nother story. The oils in the nuts will migrate into the chocolate, and trying to retemper that, while it *may* be possible depending on the age of the bar and the amount of nuts present, is likely going to be nigh impossible

[jturn00]

Thank you for all the good info. If the chocolate was for myself I would use it in another application or just plain throw it out since I really like only dark chocolate. Our office got a gift of a 1lb hershey's bar in the shape of a computer. There is no practicle way to eat it without a pick. I guess I could make cookies for the office but I would rather try out some of my new chocolate molds I got for christmas and melt it down. As I won't be eating the chocolate I really don't care about the quality of the chocolate. (my office mates will also eat anything).

The good information I got here will allow me to start on melting down the bar into mini hersey bars.

Thanks!

Jeff