Modelling Chocolate

After a few weeks of playing with chocolate in preparation for Easter, I'm back to reading Ewald Notter's The Art of the Chocolatier. I've made it to the third section, which focuses on chocolate showpieces. 

The idea of chocolate showpieces really wasn't on my radar before doing the professional chocolatier program in 2018. It also wasn't part of the curriculum, but one of the instructors had done some training and so it was referenced as something we might pursue as advanced study. Five years later, though, the landscape has changed. Show chocolate has become more and more popular, thanks to social media like Instagram and Tiktok, and reality television series like Great Chocolate Showdown and School of Chocolate. 

In his section on chocolate showpieces, Notter includes a chapter on chocolate décor, including chocolate cigarettes. During my program, I made them once -- not because they were part of the curriculum, but because a colleague asked me if I had ever made them before and so I looked up the technique and gave it a go. The resulting white and dark chocolate "zebra" cigarettes weren't perfect, but they impressed me and her. Notter's book outlines many other options for décor and accessories, including chocolate curls, nests, and spiral cones, to name only a few. I've added some to my list of techniques to try during this year of chocolate.

In the same section on chocolate showpieces, he has a chapter on modelling chocolate, which he notes isn't widely used any more in confectionary work. He doesn't explain why that is the case, but I suppose techniques come in and out of fashion through time. And while Notter may be right that modelling chocolate made with real chocolate and used by professional confectioners is less common, it seems to me that modelling "chocolate" made with colourful candy melts is more common among amateurs as a alternative to fondant, gum paste, and the like (which often doesn't taste very good). It shows up on many cake decorating competitions as a medium for toppers and characters, and it's promoted widely on YouTube baking channels.

And while I have never made real modelling chocolate, I have indeed made the fake, candy-melt kind. 

As I recall, it didn't go well. I wanted black modelling chocolate to decorate a Halloween gingerbread house with a tree and giant spider. The recipe provided by Wilton called for candy melts and corn syrup. I followed it, but for whatever reason, the fat seemed to separate out from the clay and created a whitish film over the black candy mass. Once it cooled and set, I was able to knead it thoroughly and the fat seemed to reincorporate into the mixture, improving its appearance. But I found it incredibly difficult to work with.

The more I kneaded it and worked with it, the softer the candy clay became, eventually having the consistency of chewing gum. I had imagined being able to mold it around a wire or plastic straw form to create the tree trunk and limbs, but as it got softer and softer (presumably from the heat of my hands), it became harder and harder to get it to stick to the base. Eventually I maneuvered it into place, but I was disappointed with the end result. I had always understood modelling chocolate (or candy clay) to be more firm and stable than fondant, but that certainly wasn't the case for me. 

That said, it would be interesting to know how modelling chocolate made with real couverture would perform. Would it suffer from the same issues resulting from hot hands melting chocolate crystals? Or would it be more stable as a result of the proportions of sugar, glucose, and chocolate? Notter provides a few recipes in his book, as well as instructions for how to use it, like forming roses and rolled shapes. 

I guess there's only one way to find out -- and that's to add real modelling chocolate to the growing list of chocolate techniques to try!