Chocolate issues

bakergirl · #1 04-12-2005, 08:11 PM

Lately I have been playing around with trying to make chocolate covered foods. My fiance loves chocolate covered peanut butter graham crackers. So, I tried making them by spreading peanut butter on graham crackers, and then freezing them for a few hours so that when I dipped them into ganache, the peanut butter would not immediately melt into the chocolate. Well, taste wise they turned out well, but the graham cracker did not stay crunchy. It was almost soft. I am wondering if it was freezing the crackers that caused the non-crispness or if it had something to do with the natural oils in the chocolate. (Later I tried pouring a little bit of ganache over crispix cereal, and the chocolate covered cereal tasted stale the next day. So, if anyone has any ideas as to why it did this and what I should do next time with the chocolate, just let me know! Thanks!!!

momoreg · #2 04-12-2005, 08:47 PM

Ganache contains liquid cream. If you use straight chocolate instead of ganache, your graham crackers will stay crispy

bakergirl · #3 04-12-2005, 08:53 PM

Thanks for the info!

panini · #4 04-13-2005, 12:04 PM

Bakergirl,
If your chocolateis melting your peanutbutter, it is likely to be too hot.

100folds · #5 04-13-2005, 01:20 PM

Your graham crackers are getting soft because they are being frozen. When you feeze something it adds moisture to your food and when it comes to your graham crackers, it is like adding a droplet of water to each. Freeze your peanut butter seperatley, add the balls of peanutbutter to your graham crackers and then, when making the granache add less cream. That would be the only reason that it is not hardening properly. The ratio is 1 oz: 1 T, chocolate: cream. Also, be careful to use coverture chocolate. It has already been tempered and you don't have to worry so much about adding the cream. Most chocolate is but the best tells you it is.
Good luck
100 folds

bakergirl · #6 04-13-2005, 04:34 PM

Thanks for all of the advice! I am fairly new to this website, and I absolutely love it!!

cookieguy · #7 05-10-2005, 08:46 AM

What happened to your product is the concept called "water activity" or Aw. Water migration is something R&D staffs of commercial bakeries deal with all the time. This is a three part system you have. Moisture will migrate from the high to the low. The graham cracker (in the package) as a moisture content of about 2% (the minute you unwrap it starts to pull moisture from the air.) Peanut Butter has a moisture content about the same. The ganache is much higher in moisture, possibly 10%. As our other friend said, use pure chocolate or chocolate compound coating (which is another story.)

bkchocolate · #8 05-11-2005, 09:18 AM

I have a further question along these lines. When dipping something into tempered chocolate, if done properly, the coating should be smooth, shiny and hard. It should break with a snap. This I have mastered, but my problem is as follows:

How do you cover something in chocolate when you want the outer portion to be firm to the touch, yet also will "give" to your teeth, i.e., not snap. Something like a commercial candy bar, like a Snickers bar, that outer layer, your teeth will just go through without snapping of chocolate. Someone told me commercial candy makers add oil to their chocolate to get this feel, but they add so much other crap, it could be anything. I'm a purist, but there are times when we need a softer exterior.

Any help greatly appreciated!

BKchocolate

cookieguy · #9 05-11-2005, 11:21 AM

There are two issues here. All chocolates are not created equal and migration. The typical snap we see in very high quality pure chocolate may not be present in candy bar coatings. I haven't read a Snickers bar label recently; I don't know if they claim pure chocolate or not. Chocolate has a standard of identity - Code of Federal Regulations 21 part 163.130. However there is wide latitute in how the basic ingredients are combined as far as %. The fat content (cocoa butter) can vary widely. There are minimums on milk solids (for milk chocolate). Many candy bar coatings, especially in the US, tend to be "milky." But even dark chocolate can have milk fat added. Sugars affect the chocolate; less or no dextrose will give a softer chocolate. There are other ingredients such as emulsifiers also. The other issue is migration. Water migrates but so does oil. If oil moves from fillings to the shell softening will take place. I'm willing to bet two things: the Snickers shell is formulated to have less snap and oil is migrating from the filling. The migration happens during storage after wrapping. I sure the coating has more snap when just packaged; you get it weeks or months later. You could try to ask your chocolate supplier for something more suitable but I doubt they will have anything. The big candy companies have their own processing plants and do their own thing. I know this doesn't really help you; maybe someone else has something more practical to help in your situation.

bkchocolate · #10 05-11-2005, 02:05 PM

Yes, I think you're correct, and yes, it doesn't really help me immediately to figure out a way to get a softer shell on my chocolates -- but it's fabulous to have somebody explain chemically why things are the way they are. So I thank you for that. I may put a new thread on here asking about the softer coatings in case someone's missed it buried in this thread. There's got to be a way to achieve this without compromising my quality with a bunch of crap.