Moulding Chocolate

Moulding chocolates involves preparing the mould, decorating the mould (if desired), moulding the chocolates (either as solids or chocolate shells for filling) and then unmoulding what you've created! If you've tempered the chocolate correctly, it will shrink and fall easily from the mould, will be very shiney where the chocolate was in contact with the mould and have a 'snap' when broken. If you don't get the shrink, the shine and the snap, it is the tempering process that you need to perfect. 

Preparing the mould

Moulds made from polycarbonate (a hard plastic material) produce the best results. They should be at room temperature (15-20°C); if needed, warm with a hairdryer or heat gun for a few seconds. The inside of the mould is then polished with a cotton wool ball so that the chocolate will come in contact with a shiny surface, without fingerprints or traces of dried chocolate.

Decorating the mould

Before filling with chocolate, an effective way of decorating the mould is to drizzle or pipe a few lines of chocolate into the mould, allow a few minutes to set and then fill the mould with a contrasting colour chocolate. A more advanced method is to spray the mould with cocoa butter and colouring.

Making solid chocolates

1. To fill the mould, spoon enough tempered chocolate over the entire mould to completely fill all the cavities. Hold the mould horizontally but at a very slight angle so that excess chocolate will pour over two edges only (and you can keep at least two sides of the mould clean!). 
2. With the mould still held horizontally, scrape off the excess chocolate from the top and sides of the mould.
3. Knock out any air bubbles by dropping the mould several times onto your work bench. If you are using a clear plastic mould (some polycarbonate moulds are clear and others are white plastic), you can carefully lift the mould above your head and look under it to check that no air bubbles remain. If they do, bang the mould on the bench a few more times.
4. You can now scrape the mould again, removing any excess chocolate on the top surface or the sides of the mould.
5. The chocolate in the filled mould now needs to cool; place it in the refrigerator for 5-10 mins until the chocolate reaches about 5 degrees. Leave the chocolate in a cool place (12°C at 40% humidity is best) and allow at least 20 mins (or it can be left for an hour or more), giving the chocolate time to shrink away from the mould.

Making shells for filled chocolates

To make the chocolate shells for filled chocolates, you need to fill the mould and turn it upside down so that most (but not all) the chocolate flows out again.

  Follow steps 1-4 above ... then:

1. Hold the mould (filled with chocolate!) upside down over a bowl or clean work surface, knocking the edges of the mould with a spatula so that chocolate streams out of the cavities leaving a thin chocolate shell.
2. With the mould still being held upside down and perfectly horizontal (to get an even thickness to all sides of the shell), scrape under the mould again.
3. The mould can now be placed on your work bench and scraped clean (if needed). If the shell looks too thin, the mould can be placed upside down on greaseproof paper for about 5 mins.
4. Put the mould in the refrigerator for 5-10 mins to rapidly cool the chocolate to approximately 5°C and then leave in a cool place until ready for filling (see chocolate fillings).

Unmoulding your chocolates!

If you are using a clear mould, you should be able to see whether the chocolate has sufficiently shrunk away from the mould. If it appears stuck, this may be the result of ineffective tempering or may be rectified by putting the filled mould in the freezer for a few minutes.

Give the mould a slight twist and turn it upside down onto a clean surface. If necessary, give the mould a sharp rap to loosen the chocolates. If you can't remove the chocolate from the mould, the chocolate was not correctly tempered, usually because it was under-crystallised (see tempering chocolate).