white chocolate molding chocolate- - Page 2

I have purchased the candy melts from Hobby Loby and Walmart (Wilton), both did the same thing.  I almost gave up after about 30 min of kneading.  Then after all the "oil" dripped out of it (the red looked like a bleeding heart) it was perfect. I does make a HUGE difference if you even slightly burn the chocolate.  I felt I had better control by chopping disks in food processor then melting via double broiler.  The bathches that were not melted worked wonderfully, the others ended up in the garbage.  I melted several colors in small batches thinkin it would be easier than coloring white.  It was more work for the amount I needed.  I colored the white with AmeriColor gels and it worked fine.  I live in a down right hot humid place so my figures kept sagging I don't know if using less corn starch would make a difference or not.  I decided to mix the chocolate with a little gumpaste or fondant (depending on the color) which helped everything keep it's shape.  It worked well.

Great thread, learned 2 or 3 new things reading through here! (I also thought modeling and molding chocolates were the same!)

WOW that red made a HUGE mess! But your little people turned out SO great!! I used the chips and it worked beautifully; and I mixed the yellow disks, but haven't had a chance to play with the finished product yet. I hope it worked! :) I'm just trying to make a rubber duck, nothing as detailed as what you made. Maybe some day I'll work my way up to your level of awesomeness, Julisa!!

And I'm from Texas, too! :) Bout 45 miles East of Houston, so I know exactly what you mean when you say hot and humid!!!

I also put my white chocolate and mild chocolate on newsprint. It soaks up the excess fat, then I scape it off after 4 hours or more and put in plastic wrap. After that, I let my chocolate rest and mature for 24 hours. The choice of chocolate is a must to produce the right texture. I always buy the chocolate with cocoa butter, not kernal or palm oil. Good luck.

Bill

www.bakerybybill.com

So I am COMPLETELY new at this....but why aren't you supposed to use white chocolate chips? I've made the white modeling chocolate three times now with white chocolate chips and it turned out great...just curious?

LOVE the little people... down to the detailed creases on the guy's pants *cool*

my molding chocolate came smooth and with no lumps yay me!! BUT when i pull it out of the fridge and started working on it and it gets really sticky, i was getting all excited b/c i didnt get any lumps but couldnt mold the beautiful flowers i had in mind.  I use 10oz on melting chocolate and 1/3 of a cup of shortening did i put too much shortening, please help!!

What I find distasteful, both literally and figuratively, is some of the well known chocolate manufacturers like Ghirardelli substitute cheaper palm fats instead of cocoa butter in their white chips. The way they package them is deceptive so the consumer thinks they are buying real white chocolate, They are not, and it does not meet the FDA standard of identity for white chocolate. I'm a food science guy and fell for it, so I imagine most do. One taste however had me reaching for the ingredient statement and I was furious. I have not bought one of their products since then and probably never will.

If you plan on eating what you make, stick to real white chocolate.

i have follow everything in your recipe, but still not working :( second time i try.  i am using 10oz milk chocolate and 1/3 c. light corn syrup i follow everything, but when i take it out of the fridge and start kneading seems like is going great, but then i start rolling it to start making my flowers it gets so sticky and it sticks to the rolls my surface, what i am doing wrong?? pls help, my little sister communion is coming up and i need to figure this out,.... is driving me crazy!!

thanks for your post and your time.

Jei

Just read your concern, have you tried lightly dusting with cornstarch, don't go crazy or it will dry it out. I don't know the size of the fondant but if it is 1 LB (454g) ,add 2 tsp (10) (CMC) or gum tragacanth.

I sure hope this helps.

Here is a recipe for making White Chocolate it is from Chef Bo Friberg book,

1 1/2 oz (40g) coca butter

1 pound 5 ounces (595g) white chocolate

5 ounces (140g) light corn syrup

1/2 cup (120ml) simple syrup

 Cut the cocoa butter into small pieces, place them in a bowl over simmering water. Stirring constantly, just until melted. DO NOT over heat. Remove from the heat stir in the corn syrup and the simple syrup, mix until smooth.

Work the mixture into a smooth paste by forcing it against the with the back of a knife or the warmth of your hands. If you areworking with a large amount use a pasta machine, it can make this tedious part go faster, if not roll,roll away. Store the paste in a air tight container in a cool place. This will keep for 7 weeks, as it gets older it becomes harder to work.

Thank u for the recipe, i ll try this very soon :)

Hi Chefpeon, I just actually finished making some white chocolate roses and that happened to me, the part where there is a oily mixture separated from the chocolate, i didn't know that by mixing it more it will further worsen the situation, i thought that by mixing it more it will eventually come together. What do i do?is it already a total disaster? right now i just scooped the chocolate from the liquid and wrapped it up in plastic like there was nothing wrong, however there was some oily liquid that went with it.

Ahhhhhh... A much improved development cycle. :)

Thank you kindly Mark.

______________________

Search Engine Marketing

i first time heard this name (modeling chocolate)

OMG, those are so cute!  Love 'em, but would never take time to do it myself.  Thnx for info tho.

DD

Love the detailed explanation, thank you so very much....

one question, does the tinted or colored chocolate bleeds like if using black and red next to each other???

Not with modeling chocolate. Or fondant. Or gumpaste.

Yes.

Did you know that if your chocolate is too hot before you add the corn syrup, that you will have problems with the oily separation that people have been talking about.

Your chocolate should just be warm enough to be melted, NOT hot.

Scroll down on this page for making and troubleshooting modeling chocolate.

http://www.hungryhappenings.com/p/melting-chocolate-and-modeling.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cakes2eat 

Easy recipe to follow, what does it mean when the moulding chocolate crumbles and cracks, when you start working with it?

You have to knead it to get it smooth. It will be very crumbly at first. Warm it up in the micro in 10 second bursts to get it warm enough to knead. Don't overheat!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by chefpeon 

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by seaflour 

I am looking for a white chocolate molding choc. recipe- and also a good resource for powdered food coloring to add to it to make it colored-

thanks-

Chefpeon and Seaflour

thank you so much for this thread. Quite interesting! I have problems myself getting a white and dark chocolate recipe for molding flowers.

My problem is, I live in the caribbean, here we have a yearly temperature of about 30°C (86°F) or in August/Sept up to 91°F

I have found a recipe on the net (8oz white chocolate - to 1/4 cup light corn syrup) but it does'nt work for me.

As long as the dough is in the refregirator, its solid and OK. As soon as I put in on the counter to work with, it will melt in a few minutes.

Can you please give me any suggestions?
It would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! Yvy

As I posted to yvy0503, there are some places in the world where you just can't use modeling chocolate. Chocolate melts at body temperature, and when you're talking about trying to work with modeling chocolate above that temp it's damn near impossible. I have a pastry chef friend in Hawaii, and he doesn't use modeling chocolate there simply because it's just too warm and humid. He uses fondant that's formulated for the tropical temps, and gumpaste and pastillage, mostly, when he is decorating his cakes. I can work with modeling chocolate up here in the Pacific Northwest (USA) because our average temps don't go much above 60 for a good part of the year. In the summer working with modeling chocolate is more challenging, and I'm constantly bringing it in and out of the walk-in refrigerator to keep it cool as I work with it. Sometimes it's even too warm here for modeling chocolate, but that's rare. 

Thank you so much for posting about your failure.  I too had a crumbly, oily mess but when I saw that you and your wife made it work I kneaded for about 15 minutes and wound up with wonderful modeling chocolate.  Hooray!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letthemeatcake 

 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 posting about your failure.  I too had a crumbly, oily mess but when I saw that you and your wife made it work I kneaded for about 15 minutes and wound up with wonderful modeling chocolate.  Hooray!

 I have worked with everything but molding chocolate. I feel confident my first attempt will work with the info you provided. Thank you sooooo very much!!

Hi

I wanted to ask, do you have a recipe that uses glucose. Where I live we do not have corn syrup.