white chocolate molding chocolate-

There's a lot of recipes around for modeling chocolate, but here's mine:
A NOTE: all brands of white chocolate are DIFFERENT. You may need to adjust the amount of corn syrup you add depending on what chocolate you use and your personal preference. My recipe works perfectly with Guittard White Satin Ribbon, which unfortunately, isn't that easy to find. Do NOT use white chocolate chips!!! Pistoles or disks are fine. Or chop up a bar.

Modeling Chocolate:
3 lbs white chocolate (broken into small pieces, if not already)
1 1/3 cup light corn syrup

Put chocolate into large round plastic microwave safe bowl.
Melt in short time increments of about 2 minutes and stir very well between each increment. White chocolate burns VERY EASILY. If your microwave has adjustable power levels and you have a high wattage microwave, you might want to use 50% power. I do, because I have one of those microwaves. You want to just melt the chocolate with no graininess or lumps. Make sure you stir it well to let any residual heat melt the chocolate, rather than keep sticking it back in the micro. That's a sure way to burn it. If you notice that your white chocolate starts feel thicker, then you've already burned it. I cannot stress how careful you need to be when melting white chocolate. Microwave a little at a time and stir stir stir.

When it's all perfectly melted, stick your corn syrup in the micro for about 1 minute to warm it.

Now, using a rubber spatula so you can scrape the sides of the bowl, pour the warm corn syrup all at once into your melted white chocolate, Stir quickly, using a folding motion, scrape the sides of the bowl. Your goal is to incorporate the corn syrup COMPLETELY into the white chocolate without it becoming too oily and separated. You will notice that as you stir, the chocolate will seize into a thick gooey mass and will clean the sides of the bowl. Look closely to make sure you don't have any streaks of unincorporated chocolate.....this unincorporated chocolate will become lumpy grains later, and you don't want that.
The mass will seem a little oily, that's OK. But the more you stir, the oilier it gets, and you don't want oil dripping off it either. It's a delicate balance.

Line a cookie sheet with at least 1 inch sides, or a rectangular pyrex dish with plastic wrap, so the wrap hangs over the sides. Pour your white chocolate mass into the dish or cookie sheet and press it down with a spatula to flatten it out all the way to the sides of the sheet or dish. Bring up the sides of the plastic wrap to completely cover your brick of modeling chocolate. Place the whole thing in the fridge for a couple hours.

After it's set, bring it out to come to room temp. When it's room temperature, break up the modeling chocolate in easy to handle pieces. The pieces will look very rough. Now you have to knead it smooth. Depending on the ambient temperature of the room and the strength in your hands, you may have to stick the pieces in the microwave to warm up for a few seconds so they are kneadable. Be careful not to overwarm the pieces, because the warmth of your hands will do the rest of that work for you. This is the moment of truth when you'll know how well you stirred it. If you have a lot of lumps and grains, then you know you didn't stir well enough, or perhaps burned the chocolate a little. Most of the time you can knead or roll them out, or if they're really big you can pick them out. But, if you did it right, this shouldn't be a problem. Once kneaded, the chocolate is ready for use. You can color it with any type of coloring....I prefer concentrated gels or powders. Liquid is not recommended, just because it makes the chocolate too slack without coloring it completely enough. However if you desire a light pastel, liquid is ok.

When working with modeling chocolate and especially when you are doing ribbons and such, I highly recommend using a manual pasta machine. The evenness and thinness of rolling is invaluable. At about 40 bucks a pop, it's a reasonable investment. I have one that I use JUST for modeling chocolate and nothing else.

When working with modeling chocolate, dust with cornstarch....not flour or powdered sugar. Always take care to brush off excess cornstarch with a soft brush when your pieces are done.

There are lots of places on the web that sell powdered color. You can google it, or go to Sugarcraft.com or Country Kitchens.

Thank you for the nice recipe:smiles:

Thank you sooo very much for this recipe and your clear instructions on handling. It worked perfectly! I am an amateur baker and I am preparing a wedding cake for my friend's wedding this summer. I need to make calla lilies and have had little luck with gum paste, so I just made one out of this modelling chocolate. Can you recommend a good medium to stick the pieces together (stem, blossom and stamen)? Or if you have any advice on working with gum paste I would appreciate it as well.

Making calla lillies with gumpaste shouldn't be hard....what difficulty have you had?

When I use modeling chocolate, water is a great way to stick the pieces together......that's all I ever use. Sometimes if your hands are warm (like mine) the chocolate gets heated up enough that the pieces stick together on their own without the water. But water really does the trick.

When using gum paste, egg white is the best way to stick pieces together.

My first attemp with gum paste, I found the medium to be very grainy and maybe because it was a store bought kind. I also believe I didn't knead it long enough the first time. I tried again today after my last post and it came out much better, but I still prefer the look and handling of the modelling chocolate. Will the modelling chocolate ever harden like the gum paste or will it remain malleable? And how long will the unrolled modelling chocolate keep and is a ziploc-type bag appropriate for storing it?

Modeling chocolate doesn't really "harden".....it sort of dries. If you keep it out at room temp (room temp meaning about 60 degrees avg.) then it will dry and keep it's shape. Even so, at high temps like 80 and above, you risk the chocolate drooping depending on how dry it's gotten. If you wrap the modeling chocolate well in saran wrap and then keep it in a ziploc bag, it will last a very long time. For even longer term storage, you can freeze it.

Thank you for your advice. It is much appreciated. I took a look at your website and your cakes are wonderful!! Maybe someday I will produce work good enough to post here for you to see.

I tried your recipe but it doesn't seem to be working for me. I stirred it as much and as fast as I could and then kneaded the ball of chocolate to make sure it was fully mixed. Now that it's out of the fridge and to room temp. I can knead it but if I tried to separate the ball of chocolate it crumbles into small pieces... is there a way I can fix that?

Are you kneading it til its smooth and sort of elastic? When the chocolate comes to room temp, you knead it til it's workable. Don't knead it before you put it in the fridge, otherwise you can overmix it. You know it's overmixed when you see oil kind of leaking out of it. You don't want the fat to separate out. That's what causes the crumbling.

At least, this is my best guess to your problem.

Modeling Chocolate

Hi,

I am trying to make modeling chocolate (white). I have the candy melts from Wilton and am using a recipe from epicurious (7oz chocolate and 1 1/2 - 2 T Corn Syrup). I've tried one batch already without success, it was not really pliable when I let it come back to room temp. It just broke and crumbled, even when working with tiny pieces. I used the method stated above by heating the corn syrup (my recipe doesn't say to heat it up). I think I heated the syrup too much and it got to the hard crack stage. This time I didn't heat it up at all. I'm waiting for it to set to see what happens. Any advice? Am I using the wrong kind of chocolate? How long to you mix it? (I did it until it was just combined and sort of shiny)

My plan is to use this to cover rice cereal peolple that I've carved out, it's for a cake. I am making a 'scene' from a tv show for a friends' birthday. Can I just put the rooled out chocolate over the cereal or do I need to use water, icing, etc to adhere it? Should I use fondant or gum paste instead? This is my first time doing sculptures on a cake and there are a bunch to do. Please help!!!

First, I would not use Wilton Candy melts! I had a friend use these and his modeling chocolate did not work either. Use REAL white chocolate. Yes, I know it's expensive.

When you heat the corn syrup, you only heat it til it's gently warm.....You're not trying to cook it. 30 seconds in the micro will do.

When you mix the chocolate and corn syrup together, you only mix it til it forms a sort of ball in the bowl and it cleans the sides. Don't mix it to the point where oil is leaking out of it......then you've overmixed it.

When the modeling chocolate is set up and you've brought it back to room temp, it will kind of "break and crumble". This is why you need to knead it.
It should be workable and smooth and elastic after you have kneaded it. If you can't knead it to that point, then you know you overmixed the chocolate in the first place. If the chocolate is too cold to knead, then pop it in the micro for 10 second bursts, til it gets soft enough to knead.

If I were making sculptures for the top of a cake, I would just sculpt my figures out of modeling chocolate, fondant, or gumpaste (depending on my preference and the size of the project. I wouldn't cover cereal figures with any of those mediums, because it's too complicated, and I would be afraid the bumps in the cereal would show through.

Re:white chocolate molding chocolate

Guittard Molding/Melting Chocolate - Great for Fondue and Chocolate Fountains.Chocolate For Fondue. Candy Making Chocolate. Couverture Chocolate. Molding.Havens candies creates custom chocolate molds for your corporate gift and events.molds hundreds of shapes year-round in milk, dark and white chocolate.

Modeling chocolate and what you call "Molding" chocolate are not the same thing. Modeling chocolate is white chocolate mixed with corn syrup, to make a soft pliable modeling medium. "Molding" chocolate is either pure white chocolate or a white chocolate made with vegetable solids in addition to, or instead of, cocoa butter.

There's a lot of "molding chocolates" out there that do not not work well in making modeling chocolate. You find out mostly by trial and error. If one brand doesn't work, try another.

Thanks as well for your recipe. I mean, I would've search the web for recipes but yours is just fantastic!

Thanks chefpeon for your recipe and detailed instructions!  It worked beautifully!

Is there a way to make the modeling chocolate shiny?  I'm wanting to shape it into an Olympic medal, but I want it to be silver not gray.

Any suggestions?

To make something metallic, you would use luster dust, which you can get here:
www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/mini.aspx

To use luster dust as paint, simply mix it with a little lemon extract (or vodka) to the consistency you want.

When you say that if you wrap it up then put it in a ziploc bag that it will  last a long time is that at room temp? And how long is a long time? I made mine today to see if i could do it without screwing up :) but i don't need for another couple weeks (I wanted time to come up with a plan B)

 I am having a problem achieving true metallic state with the luster dusts. I tend to get streaking with the dust (when used with alcohol) am I doing something wrong or do I need a different product?

 So I have read the recipe for modeling chocolate here. My wife and I bought the "Guittard White" chocolate. The we followed the directions EXACTLY. We thought it was a complete failure. 
 After heating it, adding the ingredient (light corn syrup) we stirred it just enough, so it cleaned the sides of the bowl and turned into a "dough type consistency". We then poured it into a dish and left it for 2 hours, etc.

Now at this point, We pulled a chunk of and started to knead it. As we did so it was slightly oily but after about 2 min it formed a nice ball. Next is where we thought we went completely wrong. After it turned into a smooth ball, we kneaded it a little more and it started to crumble again and got very gritty and come apart. I lost started to loose my temper at this point. It became VERY OILY!... to the point it was dripping off my hands and making a huge mess. We both got frustrated and decided to give up. After looking online we couldn't find anyone who had this problem "after" the initial mixing.
Looking around at everyone else, they had this nice moldable chocolate.

So tonight we drug it out again. We thought well it cant get much worse lets see what it does. So we started to knead it again... and again it got SUPER OILY (disgustingly so). We pushed on kneading it as it was dripping oil, falling apart, sticking to our fingers, and really grainy... Something shocking happened next! It started to to firm up and smooth out (all of a sudden). We kept kneading it (about 10 min total now) and it went to a ultra smooth, very pliable, elastic state! It worked awesome, the dough was now almost identical to a fondant feel (only smoother, and more moldable, with no cracking)!

So if any of you out there run into this situation. I hope this helps. No one bothered to mention it might/would do that. It was sheer luck we decided to go on. Now we are so excited to be using the molding chocolate now. It's great!

Special Thanks to "Chefpeon" and everyone else on here! This recipe does work! We never made it before and it turned out wonderful!        

Thank you so much for this wonderful, valuable info and the recipe

oh,i like DIY.some guys here gave me enough info to do it myself,i will try it.

Thank you very much for your online class in modeling chocolate.  Can't wait to try your reciepe.

Edited by jillsusan - 6/19/10 at 7:46pm

You may be making you 'paint' too thin by using too much alchohol or-depending on the color and other factors-it may be that you need to let it dry and do a few coats to get the effect you're going for

Hi, new to this.  I am making a cake for my daughter and have made the modelling chocolate, however, as I work with it, it quickly warms up.  I used the choc. discs and corn syrup recipe.   Wondering if this has to set for a long time to dry, I am making a singer with a mic, and as I get on arm on, the other starts sliding down, and I am literally softening the whole thing.  Please help.  Thanks

Can anyone help, I think i posted before, but computer went down, so sorry if this is a repeat.  How do I keep the modelling chocolate from melting as I work with it?

Are you in a hot climate? If so, modeling chocolate can be a bitch to work with if that's the case. You need a relatively cool room. You also need a "hands off" approach when modeling with it. If you're warm handed like I am, the chocolate gets softer the more you handle it. In the summer I am constantly moving my chocolate in and out of the walk-in cooler to keep it at the right working temp. In warm and humid climates, sometimes it's just better to use fondant or gumpaste instead.

Does modeling chocolate keep well in the refrigerator after it is on a cake? I'm looking for an alternative to fondant for a cake I'm making (b/c  fondant gets all sticky in the fridge).  The cake is going to have cream cheese icing on it so i need to keep it in the fridge but i don't want to wait until the last min. to put the ribbon around the bottom of the tiers.  Any suggestions?

Modeling chocolate also gets sticky under refrigeration, but unless you live in super humid environment, it shouldn't be a big deal. I've refrigerated cakes with modeling chocolate on them and the worst that happens is that it will sweat a little. Leave it at room temp for a while and it eventually dries out. (Unless you live in a humid environment). To minimize sweating, you can wrap the cake in a large plastic bag in the fridge (if you have room).

I've purchased some white chocolate chips (I'll have to double check the brand) from Walmart and some yellow chocolate candy disks from Hobby Lobby. Would either of these work with this recipe? If not, what would be your suggested chocolate medium, and where would be a good store to purchase it? I'll probably attempt to make this tonight or Saturday as I need it for NEXT Saturday, and I want to have time to work it out if I do it wrong the first time. Is this something that can be rolled out like fondant and completely cover a cake, or is that not recommended?