Making Chocolate Pralines

Preparing the molds1.Start with polycarbon chocolate molds, professional ones not the ones at the craft store

The mold must be CLEAN. Wash before using if necessary. Buff with a lint free towelPlace in a warm place until needed. Molds need to 80 degrees

Preparing the molds

2.Temper chocolate, invert mold so cavities are facing up.3.Fill with tempered chocolate. Using the handle of a bench scrapper rap all sides of the mold to bring bubbles to the top and pop4. Invert mold, pour excess chocolate back into the bowl of tempered chocolate.

Filling the Molds5.Use your bench scraper to clean off the mold of excess chocolate.6.Invert onto a parchment lined sheet pan and place in either a cooling cabinet or refrigerator7.Have you filling prepared. It must be liquid yet it can’t be warm. If it is to warm it will take the chocolate out of temper and it will not come out of the molds

Finishing the pralines

8.Fill 7/8 full, allow filling to “crust over” The ratio for pralines is 60:40 filling to chocolate

9.Spread a thin layer of chocolate over the top of the mold to seal the pralines

10. Scrape off excess, and return to cooling cabinet or refrigerator to set thoroughly

Finally

10. If chocolate was, tempered correctly and the pralines made correctly the will pop right out of the molds

Adding color to molds

11. Do Steps 1-4. You add tempered colored cocoa butter into the molds. It can be painted on with a brush (86 degrees) or finger paint the molds using a clean glove (89 degrees). A very thin layer is all that is needed. Multiple colors can be used, just allow the first color to set of briefly before adding the next. This won’t take long since the layer of color is so thin

Adding Color to Molds

• Hint- colors will stand out better if you do Step 5 with a thin layer tempered white chocolate behind them. Fill, tap and dump quickly to achieve this You let this set and repeat Step 5 with a layer of tempered dark chocolate, fill tap and dump quickly. You can also color white chocolate. You must use color that especially made for coloring chocolate. These are fat soluble or fat based. Water based colors will cause your chocolate to seize

• Continue on with Steps 6-11

Summary

The 11 steps in order

Temperature and condition of molds

Temperature(s) of TEMPERED colored cocoa butter