[Meenie]

I have quite a few soap molds and they were marked that they could be used as candy/chocolate molds also. Can you use chocolate chips in a mold? I thought that chocolate in this size would be cute Christmas gifts.
Thanks, Meenie

[Stewey]

Yes you can. However, you must temper the chocolate first. You'll need a double boiler (or a good fitting bowl and pot) and a very good thermometer. You can use the old fashioned candy thermometers, but I prefer the digital kind.

Once the chocolate is properly tempered you can place it in the molds, and once it is chilled they should pop right out. If the chocolate is not properly tempered, the chocolate will stick to the molds, break, or come out looking dusty white on the surface.

Tempering may sound burdensome, but really, its not that bad. I don't have my notes in front of me, but you can probably find the correct tempering procedures on this site or on the internet. Please note that dark chocolate requires different temperatures than milk chocolate. Other than that you are set to go! Good luck

[aguynamedrobert]

If it is completely real chocolate then you will need to temper it but many times when you buy chocolate chips at the store it is either chocolate that has the cocoa butter replaced with vegetable fats(so you don't have to temper)...or most common...it has waxes added to it to increase the melting point by a large margin...so really...most chocolate chips wouldn't work for doing the molds...but some will...you just need to check the label and see if there is any extra things in there besides the regular...
Cacao beans(cocoa)(chocolate), cocoa butter, sugar, lecithin, vanilla...

Have a good one,
Robert
www.chocolateguild.com/vb

[felixe the dog]

Also, being chocolate chips, the product is usually created to withstand baking without losing the chip shape, this is from a higher cocoa solid/lower cocoa butter content.

With this in mind you may have an issue with the viscosity of the melted chocolate chips, and it may not work as well for moulded chocolates.
If this is the case then buy some couverture for the moulds and make a ganache for a filling for the centre of your pralines.

Merry Christmas

[cakerookie]

Go here this will help I think

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/index.html

Chocolate is one of the finickest substances I believe I have ever encountered and if you are inexperienced it can be a nightmare. Thats the reason I don't mess with it and leave it to the pros. Good Luck!

Rgds Rook

[aguynamedrobert]

Chocolate can be difficult but if you just give yourself a little time and learn some of the basics of working with chocolate then you will be happy you did. You will be able to create things that others wouldn't even know where to start. Just ask all the questions you can and start the trial and error process...go for it

Robert
www.chocolateguild.com

[foodpump]

One thing to remember about molds, they are complete negatives of the object you are casting. This means if there are any scratches on the mold, they will show up as scars, fingerprints on the mold will show up too, and if the mold is not perfectly clean, chocolate will adhere to it, making removal difficult.

Best thing to polish molds are those facial puffs women like to use for makeup, second best thing is coffee filters, both are soft with no rough fibres to scratch the mold.