Molded Chocolates

When I was a girl I used to play the piano. I remembered my grandmother sitting on the lounge listening to me practice my piece... I had to. I cannot get out of it until I get the rhythm right. The movement of my fingers should be graceful and curled, not stiff and straight. It also makes a difference to press the key longer or its opposite as my instructor tells me " staccato!" meaning short hopping sounds. My back straight with a little sway that goes with the beat of the music. The foot, pressed on the pedal to indicate an emphasis on a note and released to proceed to the normal tune. All these details just to get the right sound creating music.

Chocolate making is very much similar I reckon. Everything has to be in rhythm. I was tasked to work on molded chocolate most of the time this week. Chocolate molds comes in myriad of shapes and sizes. We use polycarbonate ones at work. These were the molds that we carefully polished the last time I posted. We are always careful not to scratch it because a little nick won't release the chocolates correctly.

Molded chocolates are one of the simpler procedures in chocolate making.Like playing piano, It has to be in rythm. Left hand firmly grasping the chocolate molds, Four fingers at the bottom, thumb on top. Right hand holding the scraper, four fingers on one side thumb on the other. Press the pedal to stop the chocolate machine from churning out chocolate, release the pedal then count one... two... filling the mold with just the right amount of chocolate. Too much and chocolate will start dripping all over your hands firstly feeling like silk then a few seconds later becoming sticky like glue then seconds more, hard. Hmmm... Won't be able to work with chocolate dipped hands you see. The cleaner your hands are, the better. It is then rattled to remove bubbles on the surface of the praline and give it a perfectly shiny surface. Not too long though, you don't want a really thick shell encasing your smooth ganache. Then tip off excess chocolates, take out too much and the shell will be too weak. Once the molds are banged on the table to release, the weak shells will crack. Scrape the top of the mold of its excess. Once, at most twice. Too much and it will be damaged. Have to be confident, sure and precise with every movement. All equipments ready within arms reach, not to mention, chocolates properly tempered. Everything has to be in rhythm.