Molded Chocolates

Day 5 devoted to the art of molded chocolate. This was one of my favorite aspects of chocolate work. I became fascinated by molded chocolates after I saw the pastry cook in charge of the chocolate program at Blackbird restaurant make some Lavender infused Chocolates cast with an iridescent purple hue. It allows you to be creative with flavor combos and the aesthetics of shape and color. Chef Webb showed us how to make two types of molded chocolates: pumpkin-caramel and passion fruit toucans. The pumpkin caramel ganache and passion fruit ganache were first made then allowed to sit at room temperature.

The process of making molded chocolates cannot be done with shortcuts and requires patience and skill. But the end process can be very rewarding. The most important first step I thought was the buffing of the chocolate molds with cocoa butter. This is what gives the chocolates that brilliant shine on the exterior. Chef advised us to buff our molds for at least a good 20 minutes. Another tip worth noting is to make sure you do not fill the molds with too much ganache; fill about 3/4 the way up.

Passion fruit ganache centers coated in white chocolate

 I tried to choose rounded molds thinking it would be easier to work with than angular ones. The shine on my toucans were okay, but I thought they could be shinier. In terms of the color, I should have stuck with just two really bright colors such as red and yellow. Three is a bit much. The pumpkin chocolates were cast into walnut shaped molds. The shine on these were pretty okay, but the shell was too thing. I also thought the bronze and silver cocoa colors on the shell was more appropriate and appealing. I was also relieved that there were no major air bubbles inside.

Pumpkin ganache center coated in dark chocolate

The most challenging aspect of molded chocolates to me is gauging how thick or thing the shell will be, making sure the molds are properly buffed enough, and foreseeing what the coloring will look like on the completed chocolate.