Thursday, June 9, 2016

TUTORIAL DIY Chocolate Candies Using Silicone Molds WhysperFairy.com

A wonderful customer of mine wrote up a tutorial on how she makes her chocolates using my WhysperFairy.com Silicone Molds from my Etsy Store! 

She is a chocolate artist and has graciously shared her secrets to making Gorgeous Chocolates!  

Here are a few pictures!!  Tutorial is at the bottom of the page. :)





WORKING WITH CHOCOLATE

I use Wilton or Merckens chocolate candy melts in the moulds to make the chocolate decorations for my chocolates. (Michaels or Hobby Lobby) You can add a bit of the white or off white to the darker colours to get different shades or mix the colours as you see fit.

MELTING THE CHOCOLATE

I use the microwave on power level 5 or 6. Depending on how much chocolate I'm melting at once, I microwave the dish for 1 or 1 1/2 min and then give it a stir. I return the dish and continue to melt and stir the chocolate every 10 or 15 seconds until almost all the chocolate is melted. I do not wait until all the chocolate is melted. I remove it from the microwave when some of the melts are still slightly formed and stir until they melt. If using a double boiler to melt the chocolate, be sure not to get any water in the chocolate or it will seize. Do not overcook the chocolate or it will scorch and need to be thrown out.

FILLING THE MOULDS WITH CHOCOLATE

I buy cheap paint brushes from the dollar store and use them to carefully paint the inside of the moulds. I start with a light coat as the first coat is the most important. I expand the mould as much as I can with my left hand to try to open it up to reach the tiny openings and try to get the tip of the paint brush into the deep crevices of the mould. When you have very thick moulds or when the silicone is a very hard type or when there is a very thin edge of silicone around the image, it's hard to spread the mould open as much as you would like but do your best. There are some moulds that do not ever work well with chocolate as the crevices are too deep and you can't get the chocolate in or they just break when you try to release the chocolate from the moulds. Over time you get to know which type not to buy. Continue filling the mould with the melted chocolate until it is full. Use a sharp knife to level off the top. Then, tap the mould quite firmly over and over on your counter top until the bubbles rise to the top and pop. If you can't get them all to pop, prick them with a needle or toothpick. If it's a thick mould, you really don't have to worry too much about bubbles at the bottom as you won't see them. The important step is your first coat. In addition, watch out for paint brush bristles that break off and stay in the chocolate. You can fish them out with a needle or toothpick.

For leaves, I almost always use WhysperFairy moulds. Julie has been kind enough to make some for me that are quite shallow. This allows me to set them under flowers and have them sit flat. The thicker leavers raise the side of the flowers too much and don't look as nice especially when the flowers and leaves are large. THANK YOU JULIE !!!!

To keep the chocolate melted, I set my dish on a small electric coffee warmer on low. You can also set the dish or dishes in a small slow cooker with a bit of water in the bottom. Again, keep the setting on low. I bought a warmer from Michaels that is used for spreading a scent in the home but it did not work as it does not have a low setting and it kept the chocolate too hot.


SETTING THE CHOCOLATE

I set the moulds in the fridge or freezer for a short time to help the chocolate set. The time will depend on how deep the moulds are. If you end up leaving them in too long and they freeze, let them thaw on the counter before trying to release the chocolate as you will ruin your moulds.

RELEASING THE CHOCOLATE FROMM THE MOULDS

Carefully loosen the edges of the chocolate all around the mold a bit at a time. Don't try to go too deep on your first round. Go around again going a bit deeper releasing more of the sides of the moulds. Then try to push straight up from the center bottom of the mold sending the chocolate piece up part ways out of the mould. Go gently. When enough of the chocolate is peaking out of the top of the mould, try grabbing it on both sides and gently lift it straight up trying not to break the small thin petals or delicate pieces of the moulded piece.

Each mould works a bit differently and over time you get to know what works for each. It does get easier!! However, no matter how careful you try to be, you sometimes break some of the small petals or delicate edges. I then use a toothpick and a small amount of melted chocolate to build up the broken bits and repair anything that looks off. It might need more than one go. Let the first application dry and add a bit more until it's the height you want. If you have a larger piece that broke, gently take it out of the mould and glue it in place with some melted chocolate. I use a pair of cheap magnifier glasses from the dollar store to get a good look at what might need fixing!

THE BASE CHOCOLATES

For the actual chocolates, I shop around for good reduced price chocolates year round. You get good bargains when you buy out of season just after holidays ( eg. hearts after Valentines, small round, square or rectangle bars wrapped in Halloween, Easter or Christmas paper. Just remove the holiday wraps and decorate. I sometimes re-wrap them in paper of a colour or design to suit the occasion I am working on and decorate the top with a chocolate flower or other design that suits my theme. You can cover a few pieces with squares of coloured foil to match your display and add colour. Cutting out shapes of matching paper and adding greetings such as Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Happy Retirement etc and using these on a few chocolates add a nice touch. You can also make paper flowers or buy some ready made at craft stores to add variety to you plates.

I am always on the lookout for chocolates in different shapes (Marshall’s, Winners, Lindt chocolate outlets, grocery stores, pharmacies etc.) I keep a collection of round, square, rectangle etc. In different sizes. Russell Stover chocolates, small Hershey bars, after 8's, Andes covered mints or small bars from Costco etc. can also be used. I store them in coolers in a cold room or freeze them in containers until I need them. If you freeze them, let them thaw in the containers before removing them to keep condensation on the container not the chocolate.

You can of course melt your own chocolate and use moulds to make the bases for decorating. I do not really like using candy melts for the entire product as the taste isn't great. It's OK for a child's party but for wedding and fancy affairs, I prefer using better chocolates for the bases. If you melt good chocolate you need to temper it to keep the bloom (white film) from forming on the chocolate It's very time consuming. (see you tube videos on how to temper chocolate) I looked into buying a tempering machine for home use but they are very expensive and some of the reviews weren't great. I am not a professional and only make the chocolates for family and friends and I can but a lot of chocolates for the price of a tempering machine so for now I’m not investing in one!

You can also use cookies as a base instead. I also make peanut butter cups, coconut cups and ginger cups etc. as bases especially when I'm completely covering the top with a flower or other design. I'll add a few recipes for these at the end. To add a bit of variety, I sometimes attach chocolate curls, coconut or pieces of ginger with melted chocolate to these so that not all the chocolates on the plate are flowers.

You can embellish your chocolates with dragees, non perils, sugar pearls, luster dust, sanding sugar (make your own by adding a few drops of gel food colouring to coarse sugar, white non perils or sugar pearls in a baggie and manipulating it until it's the colour you want. (much cheaper than buying them) Don't use too much colour or the sugar will be wet) if it does seem too wet, let it air dry before storing it. There are you tube videos on how to make sparkling sanding sugar as well.
You can paint the leaves silver or gold etc. if needed by adding a bit of vodka to edible luster dusts and brushing it on with a paint brush. There are many you tube videos to show you how.

RECIPES

PEANUT BUTTER CUPS

Melt chocolate melts and paint bottom and sides of foil candy cups. 
Let chocolate set.
Meanwhile make peanut butter filling:
16 oz. Peanut butter
2 lb. Icing sugar
4 to 6 tablespoons melted butter
Mix ingredients together and fill chocolate coated cups leaving room for chocolate layer over top. 
Fill cup with melted chocolate and let set.

GIN
GER CUPS

Melt 4 x 100grams chopped Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars in the microwave at power level 5 or 6. Do not overcook. Remove and stir until smooth
Coarsely chop 1 cup crystallized chocolate. Mix most of this in the melted chocolate saving some to decorate the tops. 
Pour into tiny foil candy cups and decorate the tops with the leftover ginger pieces.
Let set

COCONUT CUPS

Do the same as above using flaked coconut instead of the ginger. You can grind the coconut a bit finer to mix with the chocolate and decorate with bigger flakes on the top

I'll attach a few pictures that might help illustrate some of what I've been writing about.

If you have specific questions, you can email me your question and phone number and I'll call back and try to help. My email is tnewbery@eastlink.ca

Hope this helps to get you started. 
I would love to see some of your work as well. PLEASE send pictures, ideas and tips. We can learn from each other!!!

Enjoy your adventures in chocolate!!!!

Filled chocolate cordial cups

I buy these little chocolate cordial cups at winners in the fall and fill them with a mixture of melted mars bars and whipping cream and top that with melted chocolate and decorate. I'll attach a few options for ideas to share. You can use them for any occasion and they are always a hit. Terry

Mars Bar Filling Recipe

Melt 4 x 52 gram mars bars with a scant 1/2 cup whipping cream in the microwave on power level 5 or 6. Stir to combine and cool on the fridge. Spoon into cordial cups leaving a bit of room at the top. It's best if it isn't too runny as it will be messy when you bite into it. A thick caramel like filling is best .Close top with melted chocolate. I use a little squeeze bottle with a plain writing icing tip to fill the top. Decorate





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