Cracking Truffles

[mrose]

David , when I do the liquor filled I use an half phyramid , but any will do the trick , as Trishad said is the cristallization the important and tricky thing .

Check this ones

http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/c210023.2.html

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How do you do the crystalization process?

[Truffle Guy]

I think chocolate is a bit like golf....when everything works, it makes you feel very skilled and it is a joy....but much of the time we are hacking away.

I may have missed it on your thread but it sounds like you may be doing rolled truffles, is that right? If so, I wonder if maybe when you coat the truffles, which are 12-15 degrees cooler, they are softening up and that might cause cracking. Typically for me, cracking seems to occur most when there is too much disparity in temperature and the center is too cool.

I agree with using a frame and then coating with a thin layer of chocolate, it really works.

It also could be a humidity factor, that seems to really be a problem for me in early fall in Florida. I have a problem with my chocolate not properly setting in molds and not having the snap and release I like.

If the cracks are not too bad, you could touch them up with tempered chocolate and top with coconut, toasted sesame seeds etc. All is not lost. Remember you are your harshest critic and the taste is still the same. I'm sure people will be impressed and you will come through.

I also agree with Trishiad....150 may seem like a lot now but even in my kitchen at home, I can crank those out in a few hours of actual work (still need to allow time to have ganache set). Good luck

[David J.]

How do you do the crystalization process?

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It is a matter of mixing the liquor with a properly saturated sugar syrup so that it forms a sugar crystal surface after a bit of evaporation.

One formula says to use 50g of sugar per degree of alcohol.

i.e. for 1 litre of alcohol at 50 degrees:

50 x 50g = 2,500g of sugar + half that weight in water (1,250g), cooked together to 116 degrees C.

Now I am not sure if a degree is percent or proof, and that only gives the amount of sugar syrup to the percent/proof of your liquor, so I'm not sure how much of it you use. Perhaps it's a one to one mix, but perhaps not.

Edited to add that Kerry told me it is degree proof, so one question answered.

Wybauw states the end mixture should be 34 Baume or 65 Brix

... and that this is for one litre of alcohol, so I just answered my other question by re-reading the instructions...

Edited October 13, 2006 by David J. (log)

[David J.]

Wybauw has two formulas in his book, depending on whether you are using the crusting method for starch forming for hand dipping or molding as mentioned above, or molding without a sugar crust.

I'm looking to try my hand at both because I have a co-worker who requested they type without the sugar crust. That's why I am interested in a mold that I can fill through a small hole which can then be sealed up. I could probably use a cordial cup mold and drop a disk of chocolate on top with a bit more to seal it up, but I don't want to be limited to that.

If you don't go for the sugar crust the alcohol will erode the chocolate between three to four weeks so you can't leave them around long.

The trick is to start with the proper percentage of sugar so that you get some crystalization but have the process stop before the entire piece crystalizes solid.

[Kerry Beal]

I have one of the double sphere molds, after you make it a couple of times you pick up some tricks to get a thin shell.  You use chocolate at the high end of your working temperature, so it is a fluid as possible, a little less than half fill the round half, put the two sides together, band the crap out of it to distribute the chocolate, turn it around a couple of times as it cools. 

thanks kerry!  what do you do about the hole?  do you just let the chocolate come out while you're banging it around?

do you have one of those fancy filler/hole plugging plates?  which i can't find an example of right now, but i'm looking...

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Actually the hole isn't a hole. It is a shape on the top of the mold that comes to a round point down into the mold. So after you demold, you just push on the top of the little round piece and the hole falls into the sphere.

I just fill them then pipe some chocolate around the the hole until I fill it in.

Kerry,

I'm looking to make liquor filled chocolates, both hand dipped and molded.  Which molds have you found easiest to use for this?  Is the sphere mold referenced above a good one for the job?  I saw a bottle mold somewhere on the net, but it is made from a cheap thin plastic.  Does anyone produce a decent polycarbonate version?

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There are some very nice polycarbonate bottle molds, try chocolat-chocolat or JKV. I have a used one I bought on e-bay.

With the sphere mold if you wanted to you could just pour in the booze then seal the hole with piped chocolate. I've done that. I'm not sure if they keep for any length of time as they haven't lasted in this house.

The only 'proper' liquor chocolates I have tried, made with the sugar solution as mentioned, have been molded in starch or put in a cuvette and allowed to crystallize. I have put a disc of chocolate on top of the cuvette then run a bead of chocolate around the edge with a piping bag.

[David J.]

Actually the hole isn't a hole.  It is a shape on the top of the mold that comes to a round point down into the mold.  So after you demold, you just push on the top of the little round piece and the hole falls into the sphere. 

I just fill them then pipe some chocolate around the the hole until I fill it in. 

Is this the one?

http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/c210036p16408423.2.html

[Kerry Beal]

Actually the hole isn't a hole.  It is a shape on the top of the mold that comes to a round point down into the mold.  So after you demold, you just push on the top of the little round piece and the hole falls into the sphere. 

I just fill them then pipe some chocolate around the the hole until I fill it in. 

Is this the one?

http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/c210036p16408423.2.html

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Yup, that's the one.

[sote23]

I learned that ganache containing dark couverture chocolates are best left to sit for 24 hours before dipping/coating. I sometimes get cracks the day after finishing moulded chocolates when I pipe in the ganache filling, chill for about an hour, let come back to room temperature and then cap.  On the other hand, at school, where we let it sit the full 24 hours at room temperature there wasn't any problem.

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I've been refrigerating mine until I'm going to enrob them. I'm having trouble with cracking as well. I will try letting them sit out unrefrigerated awhile next time. It's ok if they sit out 24 hours?

Edited October 15, 2006 by sote23 (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I learned that ganache containing dark couverture chocolates are best left to sit for 24 hours before dipping/coating. I sometimes get cracks the day after finishing moulded chocolates when I pipe in the ganache filling, chill for about an hour, let come back to room temperature and then cap.  On the other hand, at school, where we let it sit the full 24 hours at room temperature there wasn't any problem.

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I've been refrigerating mine until I'm going to enrob them. I'm having trouble with cracking as well. I will try letting them sit out unrefrigerated awhile next time. It's ok if they sit out 24 hours?

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I never refrigerate my truffles. I make the ganache, pour it out in some sort of tray so it is about 1 truffle deep, scoop out the truffles in a day or so (depends how soft it is). I then let them sit until they crust enough to roll between my hands to smooth them. I usually then let them sit for about another day before dipping.

[sote23]

I never refrigerate my truffles.  I make the ganache, pour it out in some sort of tray so it is about 1 truffle deep, scoop out the truffles in a day or so (depends how soft it is).  I then let them sit until they crust enough to roll between my hands to smooth them.  I usually then let them sit for about another day before dipping.

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That's good to know. Is there any circumstance where you would refrigerate?

[Kerry Beal]

That's good to know. Is there any circumstance where you would refrigerate?

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Only if I am desperate to get them to set up really fast.

I used to make truffle mice that were formed from a glob of beaten ganache piped onto a tempered disc of chocolate then dipped with fork in my old sinsation. If I didn't refrigerate them I didn't have a chance, they were just too soft. When I gave up the sinsation and tempered everything by hand I just couldn't get these to dip without totally falling apart even if refrigerated, so I changed the recipe and now they dip just fine at room temperature.

[KKLL00b]

I used to enrobe truffles with a circular wand, but the ganache was so soft that the wand dug into the bottom of the truffle, making it difficult to slide off onto the cooling sheet. I got better results with a dipping fork, but there was still the indentation on the bottom of the truffle which became the top when I turned it onto the cooling sheet. I even tried 'prebottoming' by dabbing a bit of tempered chocloate on the cooling sheet then placing the coated round on the cooled dab, but I had a hard time getting the dab size so the truffle would not roll off. There were lots of leaks that needed patching so much time was wasted going back to remove the leaked ganache and dab tempered couverture over the leak.

I recently did a run of 400 truffles for an office United Way fundraiser and ended up 'hand enrobing' as follows:

1) Shape the ganache into 5/8" rounds and chill thoroughly.

2) Place the round in the palm of my left hand.

3) Dab tempered couverture on the fingertips of my right hand.

4) Roll the round with both hands and place on Silpat mat to set.

5) Repeat steps 2-4 if a thicker shell is desired.

Once you get going, you can really develop a nice rhythmn and it's MUCH FASTER than using a dipping wand or fork. It takes me about 15 - 20 seconds per round when I use the wand or fork. It takes about 5 seconds when I hand roll.

As I was doing the run of 400 truffles, I started to experiment with different techniques. I found that the finished texture of the couverture could be controlled by several factors:

a) Rolling on fingertips of both hands

b) Rolling in the palms of both hands

c) Rolling with fingertips of one hand and palm of the other hand.

Further variations could be obtained by controlling the amount of couverture dabbed onto the fingertips/palm, varying the speed and pressure when rolling, and using smooth or textured gloves when rolling. One neat 'finesse' move I discovered was that I could make a nice equitorial ridge of couverture if I let the round roll off of between the gap of my second and third fingers onto the cooling sheet. Think of George Gervin or Michael Jordan doing a 'finger roll' layup instead of a dunk when going to the basket.

The best part is that using this technique consumes much less couverture. I normally use about 1.5 pounds to coat 81 truffles with the wand/fork and it takes just under 40 minutes. Using the hand roll technique, I used less than one pound to coat all 400 truffles in less than 90 minutes with NO LEAKS and a very small foot with no need for trimming!!!

Although the wand/fork method produces a smoother finish, it takes more time, couverture, and patching on my part. I think I'm going to hand roll from now on as it's faster, uses much less couverture, does not leak, and results in an interesting texture that will become my style of presentation.

[alanamoana]

welcome KKLLOOb! sounds like you have a good technique that works well for you. you didn't get any cracking with the cold centers?

hope you got your power back on and that everything's okay after the quake!!

aloha,

alanamoana

[KKLL00b]

alanamoana,

When I dipped the truffles with a wand/fork, in addition to the leaks I would get some cracking on the truffles after about 30 minutes of cooling. I would try to patch them, but one night we were running late so I just left the cracked truffles to patch the following day. However the next evening when I went back to the kitchen to patch them, I guess they had a 'religous experience' overnight and 'healed themselves'. The cracks contracted so that the were unnoticeable unless you closely inspected the truffles.

I normally start by tempering the chocolate in a Chocovision tempering machine and while its running, I form the rounds. I put them in the freezer until the chocolate is tempered, about 15 - 20 minutes, then I bring out about 2 - 3 dozen truffles at a time to coat. The kitchen is air conditioned with an ambient temperature of 70 degrees F. Since I switched to hand rolling, I have had no cracks and maybe one or two 'leakers'. I think the very thin couverture is able to 'flex' more as the truffle cools to it does not crack like the thicker dipped coating. As an interesting aside that probably only Hawaii people could relate to is that if I use a very viscous (thick) couverture and roll with textured gloves, the truffles often end up looking like li hing mui. I'm thinking of making an ume (ooh-may) (Japanese pickled plum ganache with white chocolate, enrobing it it white couverture and garnishing with seedless li hing mui/li hing mui powder. I did a white chocolate li hing mui torte for my friend's daughter's birthday a few years ago and all of the kids loved it, but most of the adults thought there was a bit too much li hing mui. Guess I'll back off on the flavoring this time around.

We did not get our power back until 12:30am Monday morning. However friends that live near the Waiawa power plant got theirs back by 2:30pm Sunday afternoon. I've been experimenting with some sugar free/no sugar added deserts and made a batch of no sugar added lilikoi (passion fruit) mousse for my aunt's 100th birthday on Friday. I was going to bring the leftovers to the office on Monday, but the temp in the fridge got up to about 55 degrees F so I guess I'll have to dump the mousse; Guess I'll have to try again when I can harvest more lilikoi from the vines in my yard. There are several dozen flowers on the vines now so it's just a matter of time.

[alanamoana]

KKLLOOb,

thanks for the reply. i never thought of the li-hing mui/chocolate combo. i remember they sell li-hing powder at the costco in honolulu. sounds interesting. next time i'm in hawaii, i'll have to give you a call!

i had a hard time getting in touch with my mom because they only have one phone that isn't a cordless (electricity dependent) and she never turns on her cell phone!!! but everyone seems to be okay.

aloha,

alanamoana

Edited October 18, 2006 by alanamoana (log)

[merlicky]

I made some vanilla truffles (white chocolate, cream, vanilla bean, and butter). I let them sit out overnight and rolled them. They were still semi-soft, so I let them sit for another day.

I then tempered some Scharffen Berger 62% and dipped these along with some almond truffles and some orange truffles I made. The almond and orange truffles turned out fine. But, the vanilla, a day and a half after being dipped, started showing cracks in the coating.

The temper had a good shine and a very good snap to it.

Does tempered chocolate shrink a little when it hardens? If so, how do you avoid cracking? Also, why would my vanilla truffles crack, but not the others?

Thanks,

Mike.

[Kerry Beal]

I made some vanilla truffles (white chocolate, cream, vanilla bean, and butter).  I let them sit out overnight and rolled them.  They were still semi-soft, so I let them sit for another day.

I then tempered some Scharffen Berger 62% and dipped these along with some almond truffles and some orange truffles I made.  The almond and orange truffles turned out fine.  But, the vanilla, a day and a half after being dipped, started showing cracks in the coating.

The temper had a good shine and a very good snap to it.

Does tempered chocolate shrink a little when it hardens?  If so, how do you avoid cracking?  Also, why would my vanilla truffles crack, but not the others?

Thanks,

Mike.

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Mike,

Tempered chocolate does indeed shrink as it cools. If your centers are cool they will expand as they warm and when the coating shrinks you get cracks and center squirting out of the cracks. The softer the center the more this seems to occur.

Was your vanilla softer than the others? You might want to adjust the recipe with a bit more chocolate or cocoa butter to minimize the problem.

Edited November 5, 2007 by Kerry Beal (log)

[prairiegirl]

Mike,

I agree with Kerri. I have experienced the cracking in the past and I have firmed up my centres and I no longer have the problem. I would think that if the shell is too thin, and a soft center, then there is a lot of cracking.

[merlicky]

Again with the cracking...this time it is with my dark truffles. The vanilla and milk truffles have been corrected, but now anything I use with dark chocolate is cracking.

I am using about a 1:1 ratio of chocolate (E. Guittards 61%) to cream and I'm adding a little butter.

Any sugestions?

[alanamoana]

what is your room temperature like? if it is cold (you are in michigan, after all), your centers might just be causing thermal shock. ideally, i don't think the centers should be colder than 70F (but Kerry Beal might know better).

[Kerry Beal]

what is your room temperature like?  if it is cold (you are in michigan, after all), your centers might just be causing thermal shock.  ideally, i don't think the centers should be colder than 70F (but Kerry Beal might know better).

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I've got to agree that your centers might be cool relative to your dipping chocolate. Your chocolate of course will shrink as it hardens, and if your center is cool the center will expand.

I wonder if adding a bit of milk chocolate to your dipping chocolate will help the problem. Or dipping in chocolate that is at the low end of the working temperature.

[merlicky]

I let the truffles set in my basement, which is not really very warm. But, before dipping them I had them upstairs for a few hours and they were at room temperature…not sure exactly what that is, but we usually keep the house between 68-71 degrees.

The dark truffles were no different in temperature than the vanilla and milk truffles that didn’t crack. I used E. Guittard to coat the dark, Scharffen Berger 70% on the vanilla, and Lindt for the milk.

I really didn’t start noticing cracks until I started using the E. Guittard. When I first started making truffles I used Ghirardelli’s and had no problems with cracking. I have also used Scharffen Berger a few times and have not run into these problems. I like the taste of the E. Guittard in some of these recipes and don’t really want to change it.

I guess I could play with my ratio a little bit. Could it be the amount of butter that I am using (I used a little under 2 tbsp with about 6 oz. of chocolate)? I also let these sit for about 1.5 days, would it help if they sat a little longer before dipping?

Thanks.

[tammylc]

The E. Guittard probably has a higher percentage of cocoa butter than the other two you mention, and in my experience that leads to greater cracking. It's that cocoa butter that gives it its great workability, but then it does have a downside.

You could double coat - put some tempered chocolate in the palm of your hand and roll the chocolate in it to create a very thin layer. Let that sit, then dip again as usual. That will usually help with the cracking problem.

My solution was to move away from round truffles - I do slabbed ganache instead - those little squares are much less prone to cracking.

[Stuckey]

I learned that ganache containing dark couverture chocolates are best left to sit for 24 hours before dipping/coating. I sometimes get cracks the day after finishing moulded chocolates when I pipe in the ganache filling, chill for about an hour, let come back to room temperature and then cap.  On the other hand, at school, where we let it sit the full 24 hours at room temperature there wasn't any problem.

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I've been refrigerating mine until I'm going to enrob them. I'm having trouble with cracking as well. I will try letting them sit out unrefrigerated awhile next time. It's ok if they sit out 24 hours?

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I never refrigerate my truffles. I make the ganache, pour it out in some sort of tray so it is about 1 truffle deep, scoop out the truffles in a day or so (depends how soft it is). I then let them sit until they crust enough to roll between my hands to smooth them. I usually then let them sit for about another day before dipping.

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Would a batch of ganache that is still soft after 24 hours, having been left to set at room temperature, eventually set firm if given enough time i.e. one or two more days? If it has not set even after several days, would refrigerating it in order to firm it up to cut into pieces for dipping be detrimental at that stage?

[David J.]

Would a batch of ganache that is still soft after 24 hours, having been left to set at room temperature, eventually set firm if given enough time i.e. one or two more days? If it has not set even after several days, would refrigerating it in order to firm it up to cut into pieces for dipping be detrimental at that stage?

You don't want to dip refrigerated centers for two reasons:

1) The cooler temperature will knock the coating out of temper

2) The cooled center will later expand as it warms and crack the coating.

If you just want to fridge it so you can cut it, that should be fine as long as you let it come back to room temperature before dipping.

What was the formula you used for this batch of ganache?

Edited February 3, 2008 by David J. (log)