Chocolate modeling paste

[kthull]

Hi all. My next area of exploration is to be white chocolate roses.

Any tips for a newbie? I have plenty of diagrams, formulas, etc., but thought I'd ask the experts for some real world advice.

Thanks!

[momoreg]

The important thing to keep in mind is not to over-handle it. The oils will separate out of it, and it will eventually become crumbly. Over all, modeling chocolate is fairly easy to work with, and can be mixed 1:1 with fondant for a slightly different effect.

[m brown]

m,
rolled fondant or fondant icing.
I love using a pasta machine to roll out the plastique!

[kthull]

Thanks for the tip momoreg. Now I have a question about formulas. Most I've seen are primarily white chocolate and corn syrup. But Friberg's formula is cocoa butter, white chocolate, corn syrup and simple syrup.

Any advantages to either? I imagine Friberg's allows for more tweaking of the paste consistency.

Thanks!

[momoreg]

I've only used the classic chocolate and corn syrup formula. If you do try both formulas, I'd like to hear what differences you notice.

[Isa]

Momo has a very good point, be sure to keep your chocolate paste, fairly cold, or the heat could slightly melt your roses, I learned that the hard way. Would be best to only work with a small amount and to refrigerate the leaves as you go.

[Spoons]

Here is what we used:

White Modeling Chocolate
13 oz. white couverture
3 oz. cocoa butter
4 oz. corn syrup,must weigh it
1/4 cup corn starch

melt chocolate over bain marie, stir til all lumps dissolve. Stir chocolate and corn syrup until almost mixed. Do not over stir.
When you see streaks of corn syrup, stop.
Then stir in corn starch.
Wrap in plastic wrap.
Knead when needed.

corn starch is great for a hot kitchen, used for modeling. adds more body.

[W.DeBord]

I use just chocolate and cornsyrup and I haven't yet had any melting or shape lose. Works fine everytime. The only time it seperates (for me) is if you warm it too much in the micro. (Also don't over mix it when making it. Just barely mix together and let set)

Also, I like the purchased stuff for modeling when your not going to eat the item. They last forever (practically) in the bucket and are a bit firmer for shaping.

There's a huge difference in taste between homemade and the bucket stuff.

[BeImagination]

Hi, I have been making chocolate roses for many years and the easiest recipe is one I found in a Wilton Cake book in the 80's.

It is 8oz. of chocolate melts (those flat wafers - any colour will work, melted
and I can't remember if it is 1/4 Cup or 1/3 cup of warm corn syrup.

Stir it together and it is like magic... it becomes a moldable clay, chill to set. Works well at room temp. as long as the room isn't overly hot. You can make all kinds of things with it, not just roses. Great fun!

Tina

[Anna W.]

I don't know how warm your hands are but if they are hot you could run into problems. Mine are thermo nuclear and I can not make intricate things like roses- too much handling. I can make white chocolate cigarettes and shapes but I still need to fill a cake pan with ice (or use those frozen kid pops that come in a tube and you can reuse them), cover with a sheet pan and work on the sheet pan. Using ice to cool down your hands from time to time will help also.

[chrose]

I have made thousands of Roses (The Chocolate Rose) and after years of experimenting, I personally found for me the way to go is with Cocoa Barrys Chocolate Plastique. Granted it doesn't have the pure chocolate taste, but it does have Essence of Bitter Almond which gives it a Marzipan quality in taste. Some people like it, some don't but the product will hold forever. I have a Rose right now on my shelf that has been sitting there for 2 years and looks brand new. If you touch it, it has a pocelain like quality to it. It is semi fragile, but that's because it is totally dry.
5 seconds in the nuke is enough to get it to a pliable stage. It takes color great. I, like Anna W. have thermo nuclear hands also. So I use latex gloves and 10x sugar as a flour substitute to prevent sticking and I have no problem. You can't "glue" the pieces together with heat like with other products, but with a little extra manipulation in the right places they will stick enough to work.
I just got tired of making my own and found for bulk work, and even persoanl playing, this was the most economical and practical.

[kthull]

Well, I finally got the time tonight to play around with my chocolate modeling paste. The first batch of white didn't turn out. It was all crumbly...guessing I overmixed it as you all had warned. The second batch, this one dark, took forever to firm up, so I had my doubts. But when I checked tonight (about four days after mixing it), it was nice and solid so I had to give it a go.

Not bad for my first rose.

One question though. The whole batch has "bubbles" running through it. I use quotes because they aren't actual cavities as one would expect a bubble to make, but it's riddled with spots.

Should I have waited longer before wrapping it up? Or is something else the cause?

[Anna W.]

any possibility it might be bloom? Did you knead it thouroughly after it rested? These are the only two causes I can think of.

[kthull]

Maybe, but it doesn't look like bloom I've seen before. And it's inside and out, like spots. Also, it didn't go away when I kneaded it to loosen it up, or while rolling it out for the petals.

[momoreg]

Were they hard, as in pieces of fat that separated out?