How to Make Chocolate Candies: Dipped, Rolled, and Filled Chocolates, Barks, Fruits, Fudge, and More

by Bill Collins

Overview

Whether you like your chocolate gooey and rich, creamy and smooth, or nutty and dark, this Storey BASICS® guide shows you how to make your favorite sweet treats right at home. Bill Collins provides illustrated step-by-step instructions for a variety of chocolate-making techniques, including tempering, thickening, sugar boiling, mold filling, piping, and more. You'll soon be showcasing your confectioner's skills in decadent chocolate-dipped fruits, indulgent nut barks, and fudges that melt in your mouth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612123585
Publisher:	Storey Publishing, LLC
Publication date:	05/01/2025
Series:	Storey Basics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	97
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Bill Collins is the author of Making & Using Caramel, How to Make Chocolate Candies, Knife Skills, and Making & Using Vinegar. A graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, he cooked at the old Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston and directed new product development at Harbor Sweets (Salem, Massachusetts) prior to establishing Chef Bill, Inc., in 2001. He has been a professional chef, a personal chef, a food industry consultant, and a cooking instructor, giving classes everywhere from community colleges to Whole Foods to Stonewall Kitchen. As Chef Bill, he has written newspaper columns on kitchen skills. He lives in Pelham, Massachusetts.

 

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Chocolate

Chocolate is something that transcends being just another food item. Yes, it tastes great, feels wonderful on the tongue, and often makes us involuntarily say "aaaah" after each bite. Other foods may make us do that, too, but there's nothing else that we give and receive that signifies love like chocolate. What other foods make such great gifts? Which ones have us set our mental alarm clocks to have a morsel each day? And which other edibles do we grab when we feel sad, and devour when we feel great? It always comes back to chocolate.

Although you can buy many outstanding and expensive chocolates, none will ever be as amazing as the ones that you make yourself. Your homemade chocolate candy will get a response that no store-bought confection can ever bring: "You made that for me? I can't wait to try it!" In this book you'll learn how to elicit that response with homemade chocolate fudge and bark, a variety of molded candies, three styles of truffles, and chocolate-covered nuts, potato chips, and more!

Giving homemade chocolate candy is very special. And making a confection that is every bit as wonderful as your gesture can be very simple. But you do have to follow a few rules to get a great result. There's an old saying that I made up: Making chocolate candy is simple. Messing it up is even simpler. The basic idea behind this is that chocolate is very sensitive to temperature, and you must keep it within a certain temperature range after you melt it. If you do, your chocolate will have a glossy look and a snappy texture. If you don't, then it will have a dull finish and a mushy consistency. Other ways your candy making can go astray include trying to speed up the melting process, using the wrong kind of chocolate, or skipping a step that may seem unnecessary. But if you do follow the simple, time-tested steps, then you'll soon be giving your friends and family chocolate candy that's both beautiful and delicious.

We'll get into all the details in the next chapter, but first, some background on chocolate will help you choose the right type for your candy-making needs.

Types of Chocolate

Here's a brief history of chocolate: the Aztecs discovered it, royalty tried to keep it for themselves, the masses revolted and started to consume it, and here we are today. Everything else is just a detail that can be found online.

But what's important to everyone are the two things that come from the cocoa pod. The cocoa pod? Okay, let's back up, but just for a moment. Cacao trees, which are grown near the equator, produce cocoa pods. First, the pod is harvested by hand, the way it's been done forever, and then it's cracked open and dried in the sun. The seeds inside the cocoa beans are then ground down. From the beans we get the chocolate liquor, which is not alcohol. From the chocolate liquor comes the cocoa butter, which makes up the fats and great texture, and the cocoa solids, from which we get cocoa powder. These are the primary components of chocolate. From all of this we get all of the types of chocolate that we know and love.

Dark chocolate. For many people, dark chocolate is the standard for great taste and elegance. It can range from being a bit sweet to having almost no sweetness at all. The higher the cacao percentage listed on the label, the less sweet the chocolate.

Milk chocolate. Unlike dark chocolate, milk chocolate contains milk or milk solids. It's lighter in color, and it usually has more sugar, which makes it sweeter than dark chocolate.

White chocolate. To some people, this technically isn't even chocolate, as it contains no cocoa powder. It has a different taste and texture from the other chocolates but is still quite popular for many treats and is often used as a decoration and design enhancement for other chocolate candies.

Semisweet and bittersweet chocolate. Usually sold as chocolate chips, this type of chocolate can be used for making fudge and ganache. Semisweet is slightly sweeter than bittersweet, although the sweetness varies from brand to brand. They can usually be used interchangeably.

Unsweetened or baker's chocolate. This type of chocolate contains 100 percent cacao, meaning that it has no sweetness at all. Unsweetened chocolate is almost always used in baking and rarely used in candy making.

Cocoa powder. Unsweetened chocolate in its dry form, cocoa powder is usually used in baking or for hot chocolate. It also has its place in candy making as a popular finishing touch to roll truffles in cocoa powder. The unsweetened powder is a nice counterpoint to the very sweet truffle, as well as having a pleasant mouthfeel.

Couverture. This very high-quality chocolate is used mostly for making molded candies and for coating ganache to make two of the truffle styles. It has more cocoa butter than other chocolates, which gives it a smoother and slightly thinner texture for pouring and molding. This means your candies will have more shine and snap than any other chocolates. It comes in dark, milk, and white chocolate. The name, couverture, is French for "cover."

Compound coatings. A number of companies sell chocolate wafers and other products that are made to melt easily and look good, no matter what you do to them. While these usually do contain real chocolate, it's best to avoid them because they also contain other ingredients, including oils, to ensure that they'll turn out candies with shine and snap. The problem is that compound coatings do not have the flavor of real chocolate, and that will be evident when you taste your chocolate candies.

What Is Good Chocolate?

At this point, you've decided to make chocolate candy. You might already know what you want to make. How do you decide what kind of chocolate to use?

Recipes, catalogs, and websites often refer to buying, using, and eating "good-quality chocolate." The most important thing involved in choosing good-quality chocolate is simply to find one that you like. This is one of the many fun parts of making chocolate candy. You can use one of many high-quality chocolates, including Callebaut, Valrhona, Ghirardelli, Scharffen Berger, L. A. Burdick, Merckens, Trader Joe's Belgian, Guittard, and so many others. Any of these will give you terrific results. If you have the time before you make the chocolates, this would be a great opportunity to do a taste test. Or better yet, you can become even more popular with your friends and family by inviting them over for a blind taste-testing party. If they didn't love you before, they certainly will now.

Deciding on a favorite can take years of experimentation, if not a lifetime. Like me, you may find that your favorite changes from year to year or maybe from week to week. Or even from bite to bite. And it might not be just a solid piece of chocolate. It might be an orange-scented truffle or a piece of dark bark with perfectly toasted almonds. That's the beauty of chocolate. You can love it all.

Many people also define the quality of dark chocolate by its percentage of cacao, which is often printed boldly on the label. This just means the percentage of ingredients in the chocolate that come solely from the cocoa bean. This percentage does not include sugar, or any other ingredients that make up the rest of the finished chocolate. The higher the percentage, the lower the amount of sugar. This means it is less sweet and, therefore, more bitter.

Does this mean that a dark chocolate with a 71 percent cacao tastes better, and is of a better quality, than one with 64 percent? The answer is a definite "maybe." As with so many products, the secret lies in the ingredients and your taste. The quality of the chocolate can be determined as far back as the harvesting of the cocoa beans. If they're harvested too soon, or too late, the resulting chocolate will be affected. And the manufacturing process can have an effect, too. A piece of chocolate with 64 percent cacao may taste better than one with 71 percent. So yes, the percentage is important, but it's only one part of the whole picture.

This brings us back again to the most important part of what makes a great piece of chocolate: personal taste. To many people, milk chocolate is the ultimate in great candy. To others, the slightly bitter taste of a 71-percentcacao piece of dark chocolate makes life complete. That's why chocolate is so much like wine. On any given day, you might like an expensive one, or one that costs much less. But it's one that you like, and that's all that really matters.

CHAPTER 2

Chocolate Candy–Making Basics

Making chocolate candy is simple, with uncomplicated steps to create the types and flavors that you'll love. But if it is so simple, why can chocolate candy sometimes turn out to be disappointing? The answer lies in a process called tempering, which gives chocolate its shininess and snap. The shininess is its bright, glossy finish, and the snap is the sound you hear, and the break you feel, when you bite into it or break it into pieces. Untempered chocolate has a dull finish, no snap when broken, and a disappointing flavor when it hits your tongue.

The idea behind tempering is to control the temperature so the chocolate gently melts and gently cools. This is because the composition of chocolate is actually rather complex; its structure is composed of various crystals and fats that respond differently to changing temperatures. We can see how susceptible chocolate is to changes in temperature when we put a piece of chocolate in our hands. In just a matter of moments, it starts to get soft, then melt. That's because our body's temperature is around 98 to 99°F. Chocolate melts at around 86 to 89°F, which accounts for our messy hands.

But the melting point of chocolate isn't the only temperature you need to know. The temperature you want to be aware of is 115°F for dark chocolate and 110°F for milk or white chocolate. You don't want your melted chocolate to rise above this maximum temperature. If it does, the chocolate can separate, and it won't give you the results that you want. Sometimes, separated chocolate can be saved, but it takes quick, decisive measures, often involving adding more chocolate, and sometimes a bit of vegetable oil. My advice is to start again, and make sure the chocolate's temperature remains sufficiently low. Those magic numbers are as follows:

* Dark chocolate: no warmer than 115°F and cool down to 89°F

* Milk chocolate: no warmer than 110°F and cool down to 86°F
The Double-Boiler Method

Tempering chocolate with the double-boiler method is best. A double boiler is two saucepans that snugly fit together, one atop the other. The bottom one holds the hot water, and the top one holds the food. It's used for gently melting chocolate or keeping a sauce such as hollandaise or béarnaise warm but not hot.

Few people actually own a double boiler. If you do, you probably inherited it from your grandmother or received it as a gift. But there's no need to rush out and buy one. What you do want, instead of a double boiler, is probably already in your kitchen cabinet: a saucepan and a stainless steel bowl. You can also use a glass bowl, but keep in mind that a glass bowl can break, and it will take longer to melt the chocolate because glass does not conduct heat as well as stainless. The bowl should sit easily on top of the saucepan, with as much of the bowl as possible resting inside the saucepan. This means that the wider the saucepan, the larger the area of the bowl that will be directly over, but not touching, the hot water.

I mentioned before that tempering is simple, and I meant it. Some candy and chocolate makers try to make tempering sound like a mysterious step that should only be attempted by culinary professionals. They're wrong. Just remember that using the double-boiler method doesn't mean that the water should be boiling: you don't want the water to be above 140°F.

Here are the steps to temper up to 1 ½ pounds of chocolate with the double-boiler method:

Step 1. Chop two-thirds of the chocolate into small pieces. Finely grate the remaining third of the chocolate; this is called the "seed chocolate." Set it aside.

Step 2. Heat 2 to 3 inches of water in a saucepan until the temperature reaches 140°F. Remove the saucepan from the heat and place a stainless steel bowl above the hot water. Add the chopped chocolate, but not the seed chocolate, to the bowl. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the surface of the water. (This can cause problems later with water dripping onto the chocolate, which can ruin the chocolate.)

Step 3. Stir the chocolate with a heat-resistant rubber spatula until all of the chocolate has melted and the temperature reaches 110 to 115°F (depending on the type of chocolate). You can take this time, while the chocolate is melting, to set up any remaining steps for your candy making. It will take about 12 to 15 minutes to melt the chocolate.

Step 4. In two or three batches, mix in the seed chocolate until it's combined and melted.

Step 5. Measure the temperature of the chocolate. When the temperature has cooled to 86 to 89°F (depending on the type of chocolate) your chocolate is tempered!

Tempering FAQs

Q: Are melting and tempering the same thing?

A: Melting is a part of tempering, but they're not the same thing. It may work just fine to simply melt the chocolate without worrying about tempering and proceed to make your candies. But if your temperatures are off by even a few degrees, then you run the risk of your chocolate being out of temper. But if your chocolate has lost its temper, you can almost always get it back. All you have to do is go through the tempering process again.

Q: What if I don't have a thermometer?

A: By using a thermometer, your chocolate is much more likely to turn out the way you want. But if you don't have a thermometer, you can still make chocolate candies, especially with a few tips. To get the water in your double boiler close to 140°F, turn your tap water as hot as possible, and use that. If you think that might be too cool, then briefly heat the water on the stove, but take it off before it boils.

When you are cooling the chocolate after it's melted, you can place a bit of the cooling chocolate over your upper lip. You can tell if it's close to the right temperature if the chocolate doesn't feel warm on your skin. Don't worry about the chocolate being too hot for your skin. The hot water in your kitchen is probably set at 120°F, which will be higher than the melted temperature of the chocolate. The upper lip is better to use than your fingertips, which will be calloused, and less sensitive to temperature.

The Seed-Blocking Method

A variation to the method of tempering chocolate is called seed blocking. It's very similar to the process explained in the step-by- step, but with one big difference: instead of grating a third of the chocolate for seed chocolate, just set aside 1/3 cup. Along with this, you'll also need a small block of good-quality chocolate. This can be as little as 4 ounces. After you combine the 1/3 cup with the melted chocolate, add the block. This will melt a bit while also continuing to lower the melted chocolate's temperature. Once the temperature is lowered to 86 or 89°F, remove the remaining block of chocolate. You're now ready to make your candy!

Q: Can I melt the chocolate in a saucepan or a microwave instead?

A: Avoid the temptation to use a saucepan placed directly on a burner on the stove, instead of the double-boiler method. It would seem that if you stood right by the stove and stirred the chocolate, then you could keep its temperature low enough to temper it. This might work. But it's almost impossible to carefully control the heat on most stoves. You are much more likely to burn the chocolate than simply melt it.

Although the microwave option is often faster than the double-boiler method, I find it has several flaws. First, I simply don't have the patience to stand next to the microwave and repeatedly open the door to stir the chocolate every 20 or 30 seconds. You lose all control of how it will melt. If you keep it in for even 10 seconds too long (even at the lowest setting) then you could easily raise the temperature of the chocolate too high and have to start the tempering process all over again. It also takes a lot of practice to know how effectively your microwave will melt the chocolate.

Q: What is seizing, and how do I avoid it?

A: Seizing is what happens when your chocolate suddenly turns from being smooth and flowing into a dull, dense paste. If this happens, it'll do more than lose both its shiny look and snappy texture. It will also gain a grainy texture and lose its ability to be tempered again. Quite often, it means that the chocolate is ruined and can't be used again. However, set it aside and let it cool. While it can no longer be used for making candy, it may be usable for baking, which does not require the chocolate to look and feel good. Taste it, and determine if its flavor and texture are still good enough to use.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "How to Make Chocolate Candies"
by .
Copyright © 2014 William Collins.
Excerpted by permission of Storey Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction to Chocolate
     Types of Chocolate * What Is Good Chocolate?

Chapter Two: Chocolate Candy-Making Basics
     Tempering FAQs * What Do You Need, Besides Chocolate? * Storing Chocolate

Chapter Three: Fudge and Bark
     Fudge Recipes * Bark Recipes

Chapter Four: Molded Chocolates
     Choosing Your Molds * Basic Steps for Molding Chocolate * Molded Chocolate Recipes

Chapter Five: Truffles
     Rolled Truffle Recipes * Dipped Truffle Recipes * Molded Truffle Recipes

Chapter Six: Dipped Chocolate Candies
     Chocolate-Covered Candies

 Metric Conversion Chart

 Acknowledgments

 Resources

 Index