I planned on Wednesday night to produce the third piece for this year's assortment. I did not plan to engage in battle with the chocolate I was using. As Ella Fitzgerald sang in "But Not for Me," it all began so well...
I had two brand new molds prepared for shelling with dark chocolate. I used the direct tempering method and tested the temper with a piece of parchment. Seeing the chocolate begin to solidify after two minutes, I decided to proceed. I filled, tapped, inverted, tapped, and scraped -- and was particularly pleased with how cleanly I had completed the task. But after the molds took a short rest in the refrigerator, I discovered something very strange: the chocolate in one tray was in perfect temper, shiny and set, while the chocolate in the other was covered in speckles -- a clear indication that it was not in temper. Strangely, though, the seemingly untempered shells could easily be released from the mold when normally they would stick.
Somehow, the chocolate was both tempered and not tempered at the same time.
Not only was I utterly baffled by the situation, but I became very annoyed with myself. As tempting as it was to proceed, I knew that I had to backtrack and re-shell the offending mold. If not, I would be reluctant to use those pieces in an assortment or to serve them to guests.
Before proceeding, I paused to reflect on what had gone wrong. I was using the same chocolate, the same tools, the same method. Logically, I should have achieved the same results. And then it hit me: I was using a different microwave to melt the chocolate. And that microwave is more powerful than my old one (which is enjoying early retirement in Newfoundland now).
I cursed. Aloud. And pulled each of the 21 shells from the mold. Then I tempered a new batch of chocolate and repeated the shelling procedure.
This little misstep was, thankfully, easily resolved because the issue was discovered before the chocolates had been filled. If it had been discovered after they were filled, then I would have had 21 "seconds" on my hands. While I'm sure no one would complain about having to help "dispose" of chocolate (especially since it would taste exactly the same), it would have been unfortunate given the exorbitant price of chocolate these days thanks to climate disasters, tariffs, and other factors. While I saved the chocolate, I lost about an hour of my Wednesday evening if you count the time spent troubleshooting, tempering, cooling, and verifying.
I'm happy to say that the rest of the process went as expected. Actually, better than expected. I think this was the best capping job I've done to date! And I attribute that to a new tool -- a spatula from Temu of all places. I saw it online about a month ago while trying to find something to add to my cart so that I met the minimum order threshold for free shipping. It was only about $3 so I didn't have high expectations, but I did think having a second spatula could be helpful when working on two molds at once. WELL! This thing is incredible! It's more flexible than the other one I have and that somehow makes it easier to complete the capping process. Maybe it's the angle? Maybe it's better control? Whatever it is, I am going to have to get another the next time I place an order.
That's three flavours down and one more to go before this year's assortment is unveiled!
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