Breaking the mold...

Posted Friday, February 23, 2007 9:35 PM

I've decided that I'm going to attempt some chocolate molds this weekend, which may be either favors or in the OOT bags or at a candy table. I had a few responses to my posts that inquired about melting and molding without tempering chocolate, but generally, the comments indicated that people were using candy melts. I'm not particularly fond of the candy melt flavor for chocolates, which doesn't taste chocolate enough for me. So... I went searching and I found some instruction on the Ghiradelli website (www.ghiradelli.com/bake/chocolate_dipping.aspx).

The microwave method involves placing chips in a microwave safe container and adding shortening (1 tablespoon per every 2 cups of chips). You heat in 30 second increments at half power, stirring each time, and repeating until the chips melt. Just spoon the chocolate into the mold and chill a couple of hours. I think I'll experiment with flash freezing first. The chocolate molds I ordered are very cute origami cranes: I found them at Aloha Molds (www.alohamolds.com) and was worried at first because they took a few weeks to arrive, but they look great!

They also have soap molds that look pretty cool, too! I also looked at these molds, which were possible fits with our overall style:

And if you had a beach wedding, these are cute:

 Ultimately, I'm not sure I'm up for soap making & molding... but the candy sounds right about my speed. :)