Chocolate Truffles

[Kerry Beal]

Has anyone mentioned chocolat-chocolat as a source for molds?  They have an excellent selection, and I hear if you go to the store in Montreal they have even more.  Perhaps a road trip?  I am in Detroit if anyone is interested.   I have a friend who lives in Montreal, she's heavily involved in Canada's food network, and she comes from a very high end chocolate and pastry background.

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I've been to their site and love the stuff. However, it asks for your SSN or IRS number for US customers. I'm not sure I want to provide them with either of those things. Unfortunately, I'm a little too far for a road trip to Montreal....

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I emailed them about the request for SSN or IRS number when I ordered a book from them a few weeks ago. They responded

that it helps clear the order through customs but is not required. I omitted it and my order came through just fine. My advice is to leave that blank.

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Thanks for the tip. I guess it's time to do a little shopping!

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Ask them to send you the Chocolate World and Cabrellon cataloges with your order, and also some samples of packaging. They have the most amazing boxes and they view sending you samples as a good way to get you to order some. It's always worth checking out their clearance boxes too, the price is right and they are top quality.

The first time I went in to their showroom I got a lot of wonderful clearance boxes.

[Desiderio]

I dont know if anyone already mentioned but i put another link for molds.

I ordered from them as well, and average price per mold was 24$ included S&H.

http://www.bakedeco.com/dept.asp?id=347&pg=2

Just in case one more place where to look.

I ordered my last set of molds from a canadian company to check it out and even with the shipping ( I got the long one ) it cost me 22$ per mold.this is the site.

http://dr.ca/.

They have some interesting transfer sheets .

Edited June 25, 2006 by Desiderio (log)

[ruthie jewell]

Some great links, thanks. I just called Chef Rubber in Vegas to see about having a polycarbonate mold made for a client's logo; whoa the price! So I inquired about possibly doing a silcone cavity mold. Can I make a sidewall in the mold or would they require dipping? How about having a cutter made of her logo and doing some bright appliques from transfers on a truffle?

Suggestions and ideas welcome.

[Kerry Beal]

Some great links, thanks.  I just called Chef Rubber in Vegas to see about having a polycarbonate mold made for a client's logo; whoa the price!  So I inquired about possibly doing a silcone cavity mold.  Can I make a sidewall in the mold or would they require dipping?  How about having a cutter made of her logo and doing some bright appliques from transfers on a truffle?

Suggestions and ideas welcome.

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Custom molds are outrageous aren't they? How many items are you going to make, is it a one off or a whole bunch of items? You could make a mold from gelatin and sugar for just a couple of things. It might be a whole lot cheaper to have transfer sheets made up with the logo then use a magnetic mold. I think that PCB makes custom transfers in rounded shapes.

American Chocolate Designs also does custom transfers, still expensive, but a whole lot cheaper than custom molds.

What do you mean by a side wall in the mold?

[ruthie jewell]

Sidewalls formed when creating the outer shell in a molded chocolate.

This woman, a jewelry maker, has an event of over 100.

What kind of mold are you talking about making? Would it hold up to multi-use chocolate production and assist the shine of tempered chocolate?

What about a custom metal cutter to cut chocolate from painted acetate? That would be ideal to have an applique tile in her logo form. Then it could be attached somewhat tilted on a round mold or elongated egg mold. Perhaps a flat caraque with the logo slanted. hmmmm, would it be cool or lame?

[Kerry Beal]

Sidewalls formed when creating the outer shell in a molded chocolate. 

This woman, a jewelry maker, has an event of over 100. 

What kind of mold are you talking about making?  Would it hold up to multi-use chocolate production and assist the shine of tempered chocolate?

What about a custom metal cutter to cut chocolate from painted acetate?  That would be ideal to have an applique tile in her logo form.  Then it could be attached somewhat tilted on a round mold or elongated egg mold.  Perhaps a flat caraque with the logo slanted.  hmmmm, would it be cool or lame?

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Here is the link to the gelatin recipe for molding.

You will get nice shine depending on the smoothness of the item being duplicated, but I don't think it would hold up to 100 moldings (I might be wrong).

Essentially what you do is put some gelatin mixture in a container, place the object to be duplicated in it, cover with more gelatin, shake to remove bubbles. When solid, cut in half to release object, then mold chocolate in the halves. If you were trying to make a chocolate bar mold you could place your item face down in the gelatin, shake to remove bubbles, pull it out carefully when solid then use like a bar mold.

I like the idea of a metal cutter, the one thing I learned early, make sure you get it made backwards. You could paint your acetate, spread on the chocolate, punch with the cutter while still soft, and bend into a shape so that when you later release it it's not just a flat. Might make it easier to put on your rounded or egg shaped mold.

I had a rubber stamp made up with a logo backwards, painted it with coloured coco butter, stamped it onto acetate, then used the acetate in the bottom of a magnetic mold. A stencil might work better though to get the thickness and intensity of coloured cocoa butter on your acetate.

This afternoon I'm heading up to 'Coco Chocolates', a business started by one of my students, and we are going to talk to a potter who wants to explore the possibilites of making a clay mold to use for molding chocolate bars for her event. I'll let you know what we come up with.

[ruthie jewell]

Excellent information, thank you. I love the rubber stamp idea-ingenius! I really want to try the gelatin mold now. I'll be in touch.

Edited June 28, 2006 by ruthie jewell (log)

[David J.]

Some great links, thanks.  I just called Chef Rubber in Vegas to see about having a polycarbonate mold made for a client's logo; whoa the price!  So I inquired about possibly doing a silcone cavity mold.  Can I make a sidewall in the mold or would they require dipping?  How about having a cutter made of her logo and doing some bright appliques from transfers on a truffle?

Suggestions and ideas welcome.

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I have both the Silicone Plastique and the CopyFlexTMLiquid Silicone from Culinart, Inc. I have been using it to make stencils for molds rather than molds themselves so far, but it is easy to work with. If you have a positive of the logo it would be a snap to make a mold that will stand up to repeated use.

http://www.culinart.net/silicone.html

[Kerry Beal]

Excellent information, thank you.  I love the rubber stamp idea-ingenius!  I really want to try the gelatin mold now.  I'll be in touch.

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Ruthie,

The one problem I had with the rubber stamps was getting the image intense enough. I suspect if you add some white to the colour it will make it more opaque, or try the stencil.

[Kerry Beal]

Some great links, thanks.  I just called Chef Rubber in Vegas to see about having a polycarbonate mold made for a client's logo; whoa the price!  So I inquired about possibly doing a silcone cavity mold.  Can I make a sidewall in the mold or would they require dipping?  How about having a cutter made of her logo and doing some bright appliques from transfers on a truffle?

Suggestions and ideas welcome.

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I have both the Silicone Plastique and the CopyFlexTMLiquid Silicone from Culinart, Inc. I have been using it to make stencils for molds rather than molds themselves so far, but it is easy to work with. If you have a positive of the logo it would be a snap to make a mold that will stand up to repeated use.

http://www.culinart.net/silicone.html

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That looks neat, seems to be food safe too. I'll have to get me some.

[Desiderio]

Yes definatly need to get some to play with Thank you for the link )

[Kerry Beal]

Some great links, thanks.  I just called Chef Rubber in Vegas to see about having a polycarbonate mold made for a client's logo; whoa the price!  So I inquired about possibly doing a silcone cavity mold.  Can I make a sidewall in the mold or would they require dipping?  How about having a cutter made of her logo and doing some bright appliques from transfers on a truffle?

Suggestions and ideas welcome.

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I have both the Silicone Plastique and the CopyFlexTMLiquid Silicone from Culinart, Inc. I have been using it to make stencils for molds rather than molds themselves so far, but it is easy to work with. If you have a positive of the logo it would be a snap to make a mold that will stand up to repeated use.

http://www.culinart.net/silicone.html

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We seem a bit off the topic of truffles, however I picked up some Smooth-sil 940, a liquid food safe silicone from the Smooth-On company. I'll play with it while I'm in Manitoulin in the next 2 weeks and report back. I also ordered some of the Silicone Plastique to play with but It will take a couple of weeks to arrive.

[Kerry Beal]

I made a mold with the smooth-sil 940. I've posted the results in Confections! What did we make.

[jsmeeker]

I have a very generic question about chocolate truffles.

Is there a standard ratio of chocolate to cream? If I have a hunk of chocolate that weighs x, how much cream do I need. I'm looking to do simple hand rolled truffles that will be rolled/coated in cocoa powder.

[Kerry Beal]

I have a very generic question about chocolate truffles.

Is there a standard ratio of  chocolate to cream?  If I have a hunk of chocolate that weighs x, how much cream do I need. I'm looking to do simple hand rolled truffles that will be rolled/coated in cocoa powder.

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About 4:1 chocolate to cream for dark chocolate.

[jsmeeker]

I have a very generic question about chocolate truffles.

Is there a standard ratio of  chocolate to cream?  If I have a hunk of chocolate that weighs x, how much cream do I need. I'm looking to do simple hand rolled truffles that will be rolled/coated in cocoa powder.

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About 4:1 chocolate to cream for dark chocolate.

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Thanks. I have a 10 ounce chunk of Callebaut 635. Thank makes for 2.5 ounces of cream. I'll give it a try.

[tammylc]

4:1 chocolate to cream for dark chocolate would be way too stiff, IMO. I would recommend a 2:1 ratio.

[ejw50]

4:1 chocolate to cream for dark chocolate would be way too stiff, IMO. I would recommend a 2:1 ratio.

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I also think 2:1 is the classic for the centers. If yuo're going to eat them right away

you can go down to 1.6:1.

Edited January 29, 2009 by ejw50 (log)

[Kerry Beal]

My error was probably in talking about just the cream - there is also the butter, the booze, the glucose!

Edited January 29, 2009 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Baylee Chocolate Lady]

Suddenly I am having a problem with my dipped truffles. Some of the shells are cracking and some have little ribbons of ganache leaking out. We are trying everything we know to correct this but nothing is working so far. We are letting them rest after rolling them, doing a thin pre-dip, then doing the final fork dip. The storage room is kept at 62 degrees, My couverture is Callebaut. We are tempering it in a "Perfect" machine. Any suggestions? Please?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Try chilling the truffle balls before dipping - this often works for me when I get leaky dipped truffles.

[Kerry Beal]

Actually I find it worse if I chill the centers - they expand as they warm and the chocolate contracts as it cools worsening the 'worms'. Have you made any changes in your formula? Has the room always been that cool or was it previously warmer?

[Baylee Chocolate Lady]

We haven't changed anything. The temperature has been constant. We let the centers come to room temperature before dipping. The workroom is kept at 68 degrees. (Sorry I left that out.) Controlling humidity is a challenge but it has been staying at about 54%, not ideal but not too far off. The formula hasn't changed in years. I even buy the same brand of butter and cream, not only the same percentages.

[Kerry Beal]

Any change in the formulation of the Callebaut you are using?

[Baylee Chocolate Lady]

The worst leaking occured with the sugarfree truffles. But the cracking was worst with the Callebaut 811. I will try to call them to see if there has been any change in formulation. Thank you for helping.