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Tips & Tricks for Making Homemade Chocolates

BY:

Rachel


Learn tips and tricks on how to make your own professional-looking chocolates at home. Get the inside scoop on how to make homemade chocoates.

tips and tricks for making Delicious Homemade chocolates dipped and molded chocolates | Kitchen Cents

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TIPS & TRICKS FOR MAKING HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES:

There are so many tips and tricks related to homemade chocolates. I’m going to share a few with you to help your homemade chocolate experience go a little more smoothly.

You know? The type of tips and tricks I wish I know before starting the homemade chocolates adventure.

These inside secrets will give you the inside scoop I wish I knew before making homemade chocolates myself. My goal is to provide information that will help you avoid issues and troubleshoot problems that may arrise when making homemade chocolates.

Learn from my experience and mistakes to make your homemade chocolates that much easier to make.

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HAND-DIPPED VS MOLDED CHOCOLATES:

Hand-dipping chocolates are created by dipping a candy center into melted chocolate, coating completely then set aside to harden.

Molded chocolates are created by coating a chocolate mold with a thin layer of melted chocolate, let it harden then add the center and chocolate to seal it in.

For years and years, we only hand-dipped our chocolates. About 5 years ago my Aunt Deena (Ryan’s aunt) introduced me to molding chocolates. She, also, makes a LARGE number of chocolates each year to gift to friends and family.

Now, we do a mixture of hand-dipped and molded chocolates. Using the hand-dipping and molding methods, our edible gift, a box of chocolates and candies, look rustic and professional.

From my experience, hand-dipping chocolates are faster to produce BUT molded chocolates tend to look more “professional” especially if this is your first experience with homemade chocolates.

If you are a homemade chocolate making newbie, molding chocolates might be just as difficult as hand-dipping but look prettier when you’re done.

WHAT TYPE OF MOLD SHOULD I USE TO MAKE HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES:

Have you ever been in a specialty kitchen store with all those fun chocolate sucker and candy molds? Those are the type of molds you want to use to mold chocolates. We love molds that make one to two-biters, a chocolate you can eat in one to two bites. You can find a few of our favorite molds HERE.

You can make molded chocolates using silicone molds but we prefer the hard clear plastic style. Silicone can act as an insulator and can slow down the cooling process. The clear plastic style molds offer a beautiful shine to the finished chocolates.

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HOW TO PREPARE AND CARE FOR CHOCOLATE MOLDS:

Following these instructions can save you time, money and your sanity, trust me!

If not cared for properly, it may make your next batch of molded chocolate bloom. Chocolate bloom is when chocolate begins to turn white as the crystals change. This can be caused by water or moisture in the air, incorrectly tempered chocolate, or working chocolate too much as it cools. Continue reading below for ideas on how to troubleshoot chocolate bloom.

HOW TO PREPARE CHOCOLATE MOLDS (SEASONING A CHOCOLATE MOLD):
  1. Wash mold with mild dish soap and hot water after purchasing.
  2. Dry thoroughly.
  3. Coat each mold indent with a thin coat of vegetable or canola oil. This is how we “season” the mold. If the mold has fine details or sharp corners, use a q-tip to thoroughly coat.
  4. Using a paper towel, whip out any excess oil.
  5. Coat each mold with chocolate (you can fill them up or just coat them depending on how much chocolate you want to “waste.” You won’t want to use the first chocolates you mold after seasoning because any oil residue will come off on the first batch.
  6. Chill chocolate-coated mold in the freezer. Wait until chocolate is hard and very cold. When the chocolate is cold enough, the chocolate will release easily.
  7. Knock the chocolate out of the mold onto a cookie sheet or the counter. To do this tap the mold flat side down until the chocolate releases.
  8. At this point, the mold is seasoned and ready to go.
CARING FOR AND CLEANING CANDY MOLDS:

When caring for and cleaning candy and chocolate molds, only use lukewarm water.

When you clean the molds, rinse with lukewarm water.

PRO TIP #1: DON’T use hot water or soap on seasoned molds. If soap or hot water are used on a seasoned mold you will need to re-season the mold. The thin layer of oil left on the mold allows the chocolates to release easily and gain a beautiful sheen when chilled and removed from the mold. If you wash away that very thin oil layer the chocolates will have a hard time releasing or gaining shine when completed.

This information pertains to the clear plastic style candy and chocolate molds like these ones HERE.

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HOW TO USE A CANDY CHOCOLATE MOLD TO MAKE HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES:

First, fill each mold 1/3 full with melted, tempered chocolate. Using a food-grade paintbrush, spread chocolate up the sides of each mold.

PRO TIP #2: Once coated with chocolate, hold the mold up to a light to find any holes in the chocolate (have the light shine on the bottom of the mold). If there are any thin spots of chocolate (light will shine through if it’s too thin), touch them up using the paintbrush. Do this until no light is shining through. If this step is skipped the probability of the center oozing out is very high.

Then, place the chocolate-coated mold in the freezer to set. It should only take 5-10 minutes to harden.

Second, fill with the desired filling (we do raspberry cream, orange cream, lemon cream, almond joy {almond coconut}, Nutella, peanut butter, and more). Fill almost to the “top” (about 1mm from the top) leaving room to seal with chocolate.

Third, add enough chocolate to cover the filling and seal the bottom of the chocolate. Pop the filled mold back into the freezer until set (another 5-10 minutes).

Finally, remove the mold from the freezer and carefully tip over and tap on a cookie sheet or clean surface. The chocolates may fall right not or need to be gently tapped to help them release.

When coating the molds, work as quickly and cleanly as possible. If you continue working the chocolate as it cools it may cause “blooming.” Blooming is when chocolate turns a white color due to sugar crystals forming. It still tastes good but it doesn’t look as pretty or professional.

PRO TIP #3: Water WILL cause blooming. Also, inaccurate tempering and handling the chocolate too much as it is cooling can be a cause of blooming.

TROUBLESHOOTING CHOCOLATE BLOOM:

In our 2020 chocolate making we wasted an entire evening troubleshooting chocolate bloom when molding our chocolates. We thought it may have been the chocolate we were using or the molds. After changing the chocolate and re-seasoning the molds we figured out it was the moisture in the air outside.

We live in Utah (we are in the dead of winter right now). The moisture in the air began settling. We had set up an open-sided tent on the porch to help speed up the process of setting the molded chocolates. Low and behold, that was the cause of the chocolate blooming. The moisture in the air.

We ended up going the traditional route and chilling the chocolate-filled molds in the freezer.

HAND-DIPPING CHOCOLATES:

Hand-dipping chocolates really just mean you are going to coat each center or chocolate by hand, individually. We have used the chocolate-in-hand method and fork-with-bowl-of-chocolate method.

Always make sure your hands are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before working with food. But especially make sure they are DRY!

PRO TIP #4: Make sure hands are thoroughly dried before hand-dipping or touching chocolate. Water is a guaranteed way to make chocolate bloom.

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CHOCOLATE-IN-HAND METHOD:

This can be done by covering your hand in chocolate, placing the center in your palm, and coating it with the chocolate. Once coated you would carefully place the covered chocolate on a cooking sheet. This method can be very fast but messy. It also takes some practice to make them look nice and not dribble chocolate globs everywhere.

If you’ve ever been in a candy shop with hand-dipped chocolates you may have noticed the consistent, pretty designs they put on the top of each chocolate. Usually, each flavor will have a different design. This is achieved with LOTS of practice. I have yet to master the perfect swirl on each of my hand-dipped Peppermint Patties.

FORK-WITH-BOWL-OF-CHOCOLATE METHOD:

Just as the heading suggests, for this method of hand-dipping, you use a fork to dip each center into the chocolate. Once the center is fully coated, tap the excess chocolate off and gentle push or slide the covered chocolate onto your cooling sheet.

This method is far less mess but much slower. It will also give your chocolates a very smooth top as there won’t be a “tail” of chocolate making a track as you drop the chocolate on the cooling sheet. The “tail,” or area you are last contacting the chocolate will be at the bottom of the chocolate.

FINISHED CHOCOLATES:

Once the chocolates are dipped or molded we “cup” them into paper cup liners. This adds a pop of color to the box and gives each chocolate a finished look.

Placing the finished, cupped chocolates on a chocolate platter or in a white candy box with a bow adds the final touches to the perfect edible gift.

To add the ultimate touch to a box or platter of chocolates, you can include a key or legend. My sister-in-law is the graphic designer behind our beautiful legend cards every year.

tips and tricks for making Delicious Homemade chocolates dipped and molded chocolates | Kitchen Cents

CANDY CENTERS AND FILLINGS:

My favorite part about homemade chocolates is the flavors are endless. Some of our favorite flavors include:

All the cream flavors we make come from one base recipe. This makes centers easy to make and efficient. Basically we can make one batch of fondant centers, split, and flavor as we wish. We can make one recipe and have 7 different flavors.

WHAT KIND OF CHOCOLATE DO I NEED TO USE FOR HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES?

There are several types of chocolates; compound and couverture chocolate. Both of these kinds of chocolate are delicious but each have their pros and cons.

COUVERTURE VS COMPOUND CHOCOLATE

Couverture chocolate is made up of cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. It must be tempered correctly (heated then cooled a specific way). When tempered correctly couverture chocolate will offer a beautiful shine and crisp snap. It’s almost always more expensive as the ingredients that make up couverture chocolate offer a smoother, richer, more high-quality product.

Compound chocolate is usually made up of cocoa powder and oils. These ingredients make compound chocolate easier to work with, less expensive but also makes it a lesser chocolate. Don’t get me wrong, compound chocolate still tastes good but it’s typically not as smooth or flavorful as Couverture chocolate.

My family chooses to use compound chocolate as it is easier (less likely to bloom due to tempering issues) and a whole lot cheaper. To give you an idea, we spent around $200 on about 88 pounds of chocolate in 2020. For us to purchase a low-end couverture chocolate, it would have cost over $350.

Tips and Tricks for Making Homemade Chocolates | Kitchen Cents

HAVE A QUESTION OR TROUBLESHOOTING A PROBLEM?

If you have a question or are troubleshooting a problem regarding making homemade chocolates, drop it in the comments below. I will do my best to answer it and the information will be there for other readers.

3 thoughts on “Tips & Tricks for Making Homemade Chocolates”

  1. I love ur website recipes r easy to follow and DELICIOUS
    I’ve made a few goodies and they were a hit?
    Now I am gonna attempt to make filled chocolate candies for
    Valentine’s Day for my hubby and my Mom and Dad(he turned 80 on February 3rd)
    My question is can u use melting wafers on the molds I’m not sure where to buy chocolate u mentioned

    Becareful Stay Safe during these crazy times
    Thank u so much and Happy Valentine’s Day
    Cindy Z

    Reply
    • Hi Cindy! Thank you for your kind words. Yes, you can use melting wafers on the molds. You can also use chocolate chips. If you read the ingredients of chocolate chips you can see if they are “real chocolate” that will need to be tempered or if they are compound chocolate. Real chocolate is made with cocoa solids or cocoa butter. Compound chocolate will have oil in place of the cocoa butter/solid. We use compound… yes it’s considered lower quality but it is much cheaper, easier to work with, and still tastes delicious. Melting wafers will be a type of compound chocolate. Good luck and Happy Valentine’s!

      Reply

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