Chocolate Sphere Molds

[lapin d'or]

I am only making tiny numbers of chocolates and have just started using the truffle shells after doing a one day course at my local college.

The instructor showed us how to use the plastic packaging for the shells to make your own filling template.

The sheet that sits on top of the moulds when they come out of the box has a few holes in already and if you are very patient and have a pair of sharp scissors you can cut out a nice little circle in each dimple to make your piping hole.

When you come to pipe in your filling you just sit this back on top of the shells and it traps any drips/smudges so long as the holes are not too big. I got tired cutting holes and just made a 4x4 shell template but it can easily be moved across the tray so long as you haven't been too messy with the piping.

I managed to wash it out afterwards but not sure how long it will last before it cracks or splits.

Its a good way to get started anyway!

[markg109]

Hi All,

I'm hoping someone has some experience with these.I bought new 2 piece magnetic truffle molds from JB Prince. The instructions are as follows.

2- Piece Magnetic Truffle Molds

Two pieces (bottom & top) are held together by magnets. Pour chocolate into holes on top and let set. Put filling in with pastry bag and tube. Then seal. When ready, separate top & bottom pieces. Each mold is 11" x 7". Produces 1" diameter round smooth. Filling holes are 3/8" across. Made in Italy of food safe, rigid plastic.

Should I pour the chocolate into the two halfs of the molds seperately, and then join them together, or fill the molds completely and let the excess chocolate drain out of the hole at the top.

Thanks,

Mark

[Desiderio]

Check this.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=77246

[David J.]

Mark, is this the mold you have?

I haven't mastered it yet, but I have been experimenting and have had some success.

I have filled the mold with a pastry bag, though it takes long enough to do that the first cavity filled has about a minute more to set than the last. I have thought about filling the bottom half (without the holes) like a normal mold, scrape and put on the top. The problem with that is the surface is not smooth like a normal mold. Each cavity has a slightly raised ridge around it which catches any stiff scraper. The time delay can make a big difference in wall thickness from the first cavity to the last depending on the viscosity of the chocolate.

An alternative is to measure a small amount of chocolate into each cavity, slap on the top, put a cover over all the holes and spin the mold as you would one with no holes. Then while the chocolate is still a little fluid remove the cover put over a vibrating table and drain. That has the advantage of not having enough chocolate to create walls that are too thick, but you have to time it so you get hole cleared. I have used a drill bit to carefully open the holes in each cavity while the chocolate is just setting, but it's a bit messy.

I have thought of trying to build a multi-funnel top for the mold that would let me pour chocolate in quickly, probably with the mold on top of a vibrating table, but I haven't figured out how to do it easily yet. Perhaps soldering a bunch of brass tubing onto a brass sheet with holes drilled for the tubes. It's all a bit much work for me right now and I'm behind in my guitar cutter project so that comes first.

Something else you will notice is that surface tension on the chocolate will prevent it from just pouring nicely out of the holes. I found that I have to hold the mold inverted against a tray on top of a vibrating table to dislodge the exess chocolate.

I need more experiments to determine the proper viscosity to use and how long to let it sit in the mold. If it's too thin, the spheres will break in half when you open the mold. If they are too thick they aren't usable and they may not even drain at all.

My hope was to easily produce a large number of spheres so I could fill them with ganache for round truffles without having to roll messy balls of ganache. So far what I've used my few good results for are liquid filled liqour centers that don't have enough sugar to form a shell. I've used small disks with tempered chocolate as glue to seal them, then dipped the whole thing so it looks clean. They were a real hit.

[markg109]

Thanks Vanessa,

I really liked John's demonstration. He was using more conventional molds though. The question I have is when using a spherical mold will filling the mold, and then draining out the hole in the top cause too thick a coating.

I guess I could try filling them half way, putting the top half of the mold on, and letting it drain.

Mark

[markg109]

Thanks David,

Those are exactly the molds that I have. I plan on making some today and will take your advice. Il'l let you know how they come out.

Mark

Edited March 8, 2007 by markg109 (log)

[Desiderio]

Sorry Mark , wrong mold I guess

Any way I dont have this kind of mold and I have been contemplating to buy one for long time now.

I probably will fill the bottom part ( with no holes ) as a regular mold , slap the second part on top of it and turn it to drain the chocolate from the holes.

[David J.]

Thanks Vanessa,

I really liked John's demonstration. He was using more conventional molds though. The question I have is when using a spherical mold will filling the mold, and then draining out the hole in the top cause too thick a coating.

I guess I could try filling them half way, putting the top half of the mold on, and letting it drain.

Mark

←

You will want to use a soft spatula if you are going to pour chocolate over the top of the bottom half and scrape.

I would be interested in the type of chocolate and temperature you are pouring at to get some idea of the viscosity. I'd like to record the starting parameters to determine the best settings for the variables to arrive at thin but strong shells. How long you let it set before pouring out and the room temperature are important variables too.

[markg109]

David,

I see what you mean about it being hard to use an offset spatula. The little ridge on the bottom piece presents a problem.

I'm using El Rey Mijao 61% Dark, I let the shells sit for about 30 minutes before filling them. I allowed them to set for about an hour and tried de-molding them.

Only about half of them came out right, the others were in halfs. I probably didn't wait long enough to demold, room temp is 66 F.

Mark

Edited March 8, 2007 by markg109 (log)

[markg109]

Vanessa,

I tried that but the viscocity of the chocolate is to great for the size of the hole. You end up with a very thick shell.

Mark

[David J.]

David,

I see what you mean about it being hard to use an offset spatula. The little ridge on the bottom piece presents a problem.

I'm using El Rey Mijao 61% Dark, I let the shells sit for about 30 minutes before filling them. I allowed them to set for about an hour and tried de-molding them.

Only about half of them came out right, the others were in halfs. I probably didn't wait long enough to demold, room temp is 66 F.

Mark

←

How viscous was the chocolate when you put it in the mold?

Did you heat the mold at all before filling it? (some folks hit it with a short blast of hot air to improve the shine)

Did you let it sit at all before you drained it or did you just slap the top on and flip it over to drain right away?

Did you slap it around to get the excess chocolate out? Did you use a vibrating table to do it?

Were you filling the shells with ganache before pulling them from the mold? If so, how did you ensure that holes were open enough and the ganache didn't overflow up the stem of the hole? I have been demolding empty spheres in all my tests.

If the mold is new you will probably see improved results as it seasons with cocoa butter.

You might also want to refrigerate the mold for a time to ensure the chocolate shrinks sufficiently away from the mold.

[David J.]

Ok, I just dug up my original thread on this mold:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=96102&hl=

Check it out midway down for a discussion on filling and capping trays for premade shells.

[markg109]

David,

Thanks for the thread, that really helps. The El Rey that I use is quite fluid. I set my temperer to 89.6 F . I forgot to heat the molds though. I did spin them quite vigorously, as I'm yet to purchase a vibrating table. I think my shells were a little to thin. I think I might try filling them up 3/4 of the way, then letting them sit for a couple of minutes before emptying them out. In Peter Greweling's book he advocates letting the mold remain upright for upwards of 5 minutes. I think I can pipe 32 shells in that time, I hope. I did fill eight of them with ganache, two of them came out great, I had to sort of eyeball where I thought the top of the sphere was. I let the ganache settle and then topped it off. This will take some practice though. In the couple that came out good I let them set for a while before piping a small amount of more viscous chocolate into the opening. I don't know if it was luck or not but it worked, as I said I had problems with the rest. Most of them split in half, some looked like christmas ornaments with the little neck on the top.

Thanks Again,

Mark

Edited March 9, 2007 by markg109 (log)

[markg109]

After a second failed attempt. I think the ganache has to go in after the spheres are demolded, and then put a cap on.

Edited March 9, 2007 by markg109 (log)

[David J.]

After a second failed attempt. I think the ganache has to go in after the spheres are demolded, and then put a cap on.

←

That is how I have approached the mold so far and how I plan to use it. I want to churn out a lot of spheres to be used on some future day so I don't have to worry about having too much ganache for a mold.

I have gone two routes to deal with the "ornament ball" stem. The first is to let it occur and use a sharp modeling knife to trim it off. That works surprisingly well.

The second is to use a drill bit the size of the hole and screw it in and pull it out when the chocolate is still soft. Doing it by hand you can be carefull enough not to damage the mold, but it's messy as you have to clean the bit off after each cavity cleaning.

I'm considering a third method which uses short lengths of brass tubing to match the drain hole. Just let the chocolate drain through the tubes, then when it is starting to set, pull the tubes out and end up with a perfect hole. Of course you then have all those little tubes to clean. I think I'll stick with the knife method for now.

I think the key is to come up with a viscosity and set time that works reliably.

[alanamoana]

with all the labor expended making these, i wonder if it ends up being cheaper to just buy the already made ones?

i know they're pretty expensive and you can't control the type of chocolate used to make them, but which method ends up being more cost effective?

purchased, already made truffle shells with unknown chocolate?

or

handmade truffle shells with your high end chocolate?

i'm not questioning anyone's desire to know how to make these...this is more asking the opinion of the members of the board.

[markg109]

The reason why I'm trying to make them myself is i question the shelf life and the quaility of the chocolate they use in the premade shells. I do see your point though, it is quite time consuming, and they are a lot harder to master then conventional molds. Most of mine split in half, I agree with David I think this is due to too thin a shell.

Il'l need more experimentation with them.

Mark

[David J.]

with all the labor expended making these, i wonder if it ends up being cheaper to just buy the already made ones?

i know they're pretty expensive and you can't control the type of chocolate used to make them, but which method ends up being more cost effective?

purchased, already made truffle shells with unknown chocolate?

or

handmade truffle shells with your high end chocolate?

i'm not questioning anyone's desire to know how to make these...this is more asking the opinion of the members of the board.

←

If you are using shells to speed and standarize production, then buying premade shells is the answer. I believe one company uses pretty good chocolate, if not the highest, so it probably wouldn't be noticable by customers since you redip them anyway. If you order enough that same company will make them with the chocolate of your choice.

The speed with which you can fill and cap a tray of premade shells is an obvious draw if you are trying to increase production without increasing staff.

If you are out to have fun and learn as much as possible about chocolate, then making your own is the the way to go. Also if you only want a few shells for specialty truffles such as liquid centers it doesn't make sense to order a huge case of shells. I don't think it's for everyone due to the effort required to perfect results, but I might change my mind if I manage to get to the point of cranking them out quickly and easily. I've got a 6Kg melter so I could potentially produce them continuously with two or three molds.

[markg109]

David,

After you redip them how is it possible not to leave a little bit of a foot or tail where they are spherical?

[David J.]

David,

After you redip them how is it possible not to leave a little bit of a foot or tail where they are spherical?

←

I just leave the foot so it looks like a normal hand rolled truffle.

[Kerry Beal]

Took the opportunity to ask JP Wybauw about these molds while we were at the course in Chicago. He said to fill the bottom, put on the top, turn until the mold is coated, knock any extra chocolate out throught the hole in the top.

[David J.]

Took the opportunity to ask JP Wybauw about these molds while we were at the course in Chicago.  He said to fill the bottom, put on the top, turn until the mold is coated, knock any extra chocolate out throught the hole in the top.

←

Thanks for asking! Did he say how he would fill the bottom? With the ridges around each cavity you can't just run a scraper across the top to clean it.

[Kerry Beal]

Took the opportunity to ask JP Wybauw about these molds while we were at the course in Chicago.  He said to fill the bottom, put on the top, turn until the mold is coated, knock any extra chocolate out throught the hole in the top.

←

Thanks for asking! Did he say how he would fill the bottom? With the ridges around each cavity you can't just run a scraper across the top to clean it.

←

Ah, didn't realize there were ridges. I would think you would fill it with a doser on a tempering machine (if you had one of course). I'm going to suggest you just over fill, don't scrape, put the top on, then scrape the sides before you start turning.

[David J.]

Took the opportunity to ask JP Wybauw about these molds while we were at the course in Chicago.  He said to fill the bottom, put on the top, turn until the mold is coated, knock any extra chocolate out throught the hole in the top.

←

Thanks for asking! Did he say how he would fill the bottom? With the ridges around each cavity you can't just run a scraper across the top to clean it.

←

Ah, didn't realize there were ridges. I would think you would fill it with a doser on a tempering machine (if you had one of course). I'm going to suggest you just over fill, don't scrape, put the top on, then scrape the sides before you start turning.

←

I'll give that a try, but I think I'll use a flexible spatula to clean off as much extra chocolate as possible before placing the top half. I'm a little concerned about how much trouble it will be to clean off the face of the mold for a second go-around without having to flush it with hot water, but that would probably be the best bet for producing consistent shells so I will deal with it. It would keep the op from getting messy from overfill so maybe it will be a wash.

I'll have to cut a piece of something ridged to hold over top to close the holes while I turn it. I think that I'll try that this weekend.

[gap]

Took the opportunity to ask JP Wybauw about these molds while we were at the course in Chicago.  He said to fill the bottom, put on the top, turn until the mold is coated, knock any extra chocolate out throught the hole in the top.

←

Thanks for asking! Did he say how he would fill the bottom? With the ridges around each cavity you can't just run a scraper across the top to clean it.

←

Ah, didn't realize there were ridges. I would think you would fill it with a doser on a tempering machine (if you had one of course). I'm going to suggest you just over fill, don't scrape, put the top on, then scrape the sides before you start turning.

←

What about using a depositor that is slightly heated (not hot enough to knock the chocolate out of temper, but just enough to stop the chocolate from setting too quickly)