Hand-dipping soft things

[nduran]

I have a ganache and a soft caramel that I want to marry in layers, cut into squares and hand-dip in tempered chocolate. The individual components are both absolutely perfect in terms of achieving both the taste and texture that I am looking for, but unfortunately, they are proving very difficult to cut and dip due to their softness.

I can manage cutting the ganache as any little breaks or tears are easily patted back together and smoothed over, but the caramel I simply cannot work with. If I make it as soft as I want it to be, it clings to the knife regardless of what I smear onto the blade, and being in the soft ball realm, it tends to run off the sides of the ganache block at room temperature if it sits out too long. Even when frozen, it's a mess.

I could make a firmer caramel of course, but then the final product would be difficult to bite into and would likely hurt a few teeth. The softness I'm aiming for is similar to that found in many of See's non-molded offerings, so I'm positive it must be possible. Is there anything short of a $3,000 guitar cutter or liquid nitrogen I can use to make this stuff behave long enough to get it dipped?

[Kerry Beal]

I have a ganache and a soft caramel that I want to marry in layers, cut into squares and hand-dip in tempered chocolate. The individual components are both absolutely perfect in terms of achieving both the taste and texture that I am looking for, but unfortunately, they are proving very difficult to cut and dip due to their softness.

I can manage cutting the ganache as any little breaks or tears are easily patted back together and smoothed over, but the caramel I simply cannot work with. If I make it as soft as I want it to be, it clings to the knife regardless of what I smear onto the blade, and being in the soft ball realm, it tends to run off the sides of the ganache block at room temperature if it sits out too long. Even when frozen, it's a mess.

I could make a firmer caramel of course, but then the final product would be difficult to bite into and would likely hurt a few teeth. The softness I'm aiming for is similar to that found in many of See's non-molded offerings, so I'm positive it must be possible. Is there anything short of a $3,000 guitar cutter or liquid nitrogen I can use to make this stuff behave long enough to get it dipped?

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Welcome to eG. A pleasure to have another chocolatier on board.

I purchased some pectin that requires calcium to set and it allowed me to make a soft caramel layer for a chocolate like that.

Click here for a link to this recipe.

My experiments in using this same pectin to prevent the spread in chewy caramels is still ongoing. I made too small a batch last time so it came out more like macintosh toffee, so I wasn't able to test my theory.

[nduran]

I purchased some pectin that requires calcium to set and it allowed me to make a soft caramel layer for a chocolate like that.

Interesting. I had considered giving gelatin, agar or tapioca a try, but had overlooked pectin. I'm afraid I'm quite unfamiliar with the various types available, however. Is it safe to assume that "X58" is a fairly specific and important designation I'm going to have to hunt for?

Edited March 2, 2007 by nduran (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I purchased some pectin that requires calcium to set and it allowed me to make a soft caramel layer for a chocolate like that.

Interesting. I had considered giving gelatin, agar or tapioca a try, but had overlooked pectin. I'm afraid I'm quite unfamiliar with the various types available, however. Is it safe to assume that "X58" is a fairly specific and important designation I'm going to have to hunt for?

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Yes you will have to search for it. I found it in Toronto at Qualifirst Foods . I can't recall where the american sources are. The brand I have is packed for them so the brand name probably isn't helpful.

[Genny]

Full disclosure: I don't know a think about the technical requirements of the task but....could you freeze or semi-freeze the caramel before enrobing?

[nduran]

Full disclosure: I don't know a think about the technical requirements of the task but....could you freeze or semi-freeze the caramel before enrobing?

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Already tried and failed. Last sentence, second paragraph

[Genny]

Whoops! Sorry for reading too fast. Re-read again. Since everything is so soft, is there a reason you want to do as dipped instead of molded?

[nduran]

Whoops!  Sorry for reading too fast.  Re-read again.  Since everything is so soft, is there a reason you want to do as dipped instead of molded?

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Yep, because I don't want it to be quite as soft as is necessary for piping, I want as thin of a shell as is possible, and also because I don't have any molds handy (or places to store them for that matter).

[escry]

Hi nduran

I second Kerry, try a low ester pectin (such as X58). This sets up in the presence of calcium, ie from the cream, milk and / or butter in the caramel and does not require the high (67 Brix) soluable solids of a normal high ester pectin.

The one thing I have noticed with all pectins is that they vary considerably from producer to producer. So if at first you don't succeed, try again and then try someone else's pectin. I have had most success with a pectin from Degussa.

I want as thin of a shell as is possible

Here's a way out suggestion - try spraying each individual candy with a strong (probably about 5%) agar solution before dipping. I keep meaning to try this with a lemon foam, but have yet to get round to it.

It will probably be an unmitigated disaster ... but you never know

Best of luck.

[Baggy]

I don’t know if this will help but I’ve come across (but not used) methylcellulose. Unlike most gels that liquefy when heated, it’s a gel that is solid when hot and liquid when cold. Again from memory it is used to get the liquid centres in chocolates – which sound pretty much similar to what you’re trying to do.

With gels set with calcium chloride, do you have a problem with them setting too firm as I understand it’s not possible to control/stop the reaction with the gelling agent once its started?

[nduran]

I don’t know if this will help but I’ve come across (but not used) methylcellulose.  Unlike most gels that liquefy when heated, it’s a gel that is solid when hot and liquid when cold.  Again from memory it is used to get the liquid centres in chocolates – which sound pretty much similar to what you’re trying to do.

That definitely sounds interesting and I may use that info for something else, but in this case if the caramel were "hot" it would liquefy the ganache.

Tried tapioca flour--it worked, but the result had a subtle starchy/grainy texture that I didn't care for. May try again with different proportions and cooking methods. Gelatin didn't seem to have much effect. Tried regular old grocery store pectin, too since the caramel's got some citrusy acid in it, but that altered the flavor in so undesirable a manner that I threw the batch out before I even bothered waiting for it to set.

[nduran]

Tried agar and didn't care for the taste. Re-tried gelatin and finally got a mixture that would hold together well enough when frozen if I also adopted a fairly unconventional knife technique: Using a very small, dull kitchen knife I ordinarily reserve for opening the styrofoam seals on plastic bottles, I score the caramel deeply to create a little gap for the blade to slide (if the knife was sharp the gap would be little more than a hairline and would close up on itself almost instantly). Then with a series of angled downward stabbing motions I cut through the ganache, half inch by half inch, wiping the blade frequently in between stabs. This spastic motion ironically yields cleaner cuts than I was able to obtain with my 8" Global razor blade.