Hello friends,

I own a small chocolate company which has been slowly growing over the last 4 years. I mainly sell wholesale to small gourmet shops, and am really looking to expand out of my city and to a more national basis. With that in mind, I really need for this business to become profitable. My sales doubled in 2010 and I did see a profit (for the first time) but I have yet to pay myself (or any employees). In other words, I need to start making money.

My biggest selling item are my truffles- they make up about 25% of my total sales. I have been doing everything by hand- making the ganache (though I have started using a food processor to help with this), scooping (#100 ice cream type scoop), rolling, dipping, everything. I can personally scoop, roll & dip about 200 truffles/hour. However, I have problems with consistency of size, as well as shelf life (I typically get a very thing shell). I am considering using premade shells, but I have always been opposed to them in the past. They seem like a copout to me, a shortcut, etc.

I got some samples from my local distributor (who does sell the Valrhona shells, though these were not V's) and tried it with one ganache, and I don't really notice a difference. Obviously if the shells made a difference in taste or texture, I wouldn't consider them.

So my question is, does using premade shells make me a bad person? I've never been one to take the easy way out just to make a buck, but to be honest, if I don't start making money soon, I won't be making chocolates at all for much longer!

updated by @chocolate-luv: 04/15/15 23:17:31

Nothing wrong with it at all. I know many top chocolatiers that use the V shells. Do it and make some money!

Truffle shells are standard in the industry and are designed thin so you dont really notice them, and they should not be impacting flavor, but more used as a tool for your production. Although I would not suggest using bad chocolate truffle shells, I think spending the money on expensive truffle shells is not worth it, again as you likely will not taste the impact of the truffle shell in the finished product.

Qzina sells a truffle shell made in Germany, with Callebaut Chocolate, made by Keller. We stock these in Chicago, well priced, that should increase your profit vs more expensive truffle shells. Keller is probably the biggest producer in the world of truffle shells, top quality. They also have a number of shells in unique shapes by special order. We import direct from Keller in full containers and are very competitively priced.

Also Truffle shells allow you to manufacture very soft fillings, which is not possible without them. We also can get you liquor shells, smaller hole in the top, designed for liquid filling. There are also filling machines, and plates available for truffle shell trays that dramatically speed up your production, and make covering or topping the shells easy, consistent, and fast.

IF your production gets very high in volume, you should then consider the only machine that can truly deposit thin shell one shot, truffle shell and filling in one shot, the Avema Depositor. We have many customers who for example, have the round truffle shell molds, and fill the chocolate and filling into the round ball shape, in one shot, still maintaining a thin shell and liquid filling. That machine however is around 100K. But just for future reference.

Hi,

Have you thought about Chocoflex by Laghi, from Pavoni.it? Is an alternative to the already made shells, it gives you consistency in weight and shape.

I have used the shells for long time, nothing wrong or bad about that.

but if you wish to do everything from scratch, you could either trying piping, let dry and then hand roll (you could easily pipe about 200/300 every 15 min.) but you may have problem with size consistency. I decided to switch to Pavoflex mainly because the cost of shells is too high where i live.

regards

Nino

Have you ever walked into a chocolate shop and seen perfectly round (except for a flat bottom) truffles? They were done either using a one-shot machine or by filling shells.

You identified the key issue for you - if there was any negative impact on taste or texture you would not use them. As there is not, then why not? A long time ago I learned that it was important to understand what I was "willing to fall on my sword" for when it came to production. Yeah, I know I could make my own puff pastry, but, there are so many good ones that are frozen, by using those I could concentrate on what really set my work apart and allowed me to increase production (or reduce the number of hours I spent in the kitchen).

One of the most famous chocolate companies in Chicago (whose name also starts with a V and is not Valrhona though the name is French) used shells from the very beginning - although they may be doing them on one-shot machines now for production and shelf-life reasons.

The only problem that I see is representing them as one thing (100% hand-made) if they are not.

BTW - just because you start using shells doesn't mean there is no longer room for a 100% hand-made product - a real truffe nature au chocolat.

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/

Thanks everyone. I know lots of people use shells- Vosges for sure, and I'm pretty good at spotting them so I can pick them out when I see them. As of now, they would still be hand-filled with handmade ganache, and hand dipped as well. I think I just needed to hear that it's okay to use the shells!

Since your main concern is consistency in size, I'd suggest you buy a guitar. Different arms will produce different size squares, and from that point you only need to roll them into truffles. The end result will be size uniformity, you'll save yourself the cost of having to always purchase premade shells, and then in good conscience you can continue to say your truffles are handmade.

I have a guitar, I used to do hand-dipped ganache but recently stopped. I find that even with the guitar there to cut consistent shapes, spreading the ganache can be problematic. I personally have never been good at spreading things evenly!

CL,

Premade truffle shells are the way to go, as you need to make extremely high volumes to justify doing it yourself.

And with truffles, the sweet, creamy center is what counts the most!

Good luck,

John R.

For anyone interested in learning a tiny bit more about one-shot, try this page on the A w ema web site.

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/

Thanks for the advice, everyone. It's hard for me to go from completely hand made EVERYTHING to using shells, but my research has shown they are extremely common. I even ordered some truffles from a French guy in the states, and he was using them. So I figure, if it's good enough for a French guy, it's good enough for me!

My next question is: what's the best way to fill/cap the shells? When I was making molded chocolates (where I made the shells myself) I would let the fillings set overnight before capping. Is this recommended for truffles too? I've read that people cap them right after filling, but my concern would be that the filling would contract as it sets, leaving a gap for air, which could result in mold.

ok, first of all: yes, fill the truffle shells almost to the top and let them rest over night before cap them.

by the next day they should have shrunk enough to leave enough space to close them.

Pre-made truffle shells are very expensive.

Now, here is a way to make truffles (shells) as cheap as it can be, without having to buy a spinner.

Chocolate World in Belgium are selling a filling machine called "Easy Fill" which I have used for many years.

Not cheap, but a far cry away from a one shot machine/spinner.

And now the trick:

they are selling a 2pc truffle mould (magnet/series 2000) which you can use to make either only truffle shells or in "2 shot" way, the entire truffle with filling.

I have the moulds, but still have to find the time to use them.

You can of course also fill the moulds by hand but the easy fill machine will make it much faster and more equal in weight.

Make sure to get the machine for truffles as there are 2 types.

Check-out their website.

Hi - I've purchased the 32 impression round truffle molds from JB Prince. They are about $50 each. It's a 2-piece magnetic mold. You fill the bottom sphere up, place the top part on (a half-sphere w/hole), and if you are doing it old school, hit the table a few times on each side of the mold to make sure it covers the whole thing, (but I would suggest the vibrating table), then place it upside down on a cooling rack so the extra chocolate drips out of the hole. Put parchment paper underneath to capture the extra chocolate to use again. With 10 molds I can make about 320 molds at a time. The investment is about $500.

The thing is this - I'm tired! And it is an investment of time. I have to use the same molds for my white, milk and dark chocolate, so it's kind of a 1-2 day investment if you need them ASAP.

I spoke with my chocolate distributor and he said he can get them pre-made for me from Callebaut, but he thinks they are made with "covering" chocolate, which I do not want to use. I'm waiting to hear back to confirm.

So my question is - would anyone know of a company that sells the pre-made shells made out of pure, good old fashioned, cocoa butter only, couverture chocolate?

Thanks!

Patty Medina

medinachocolatier.com

Hi Patty,

Callebaut is an excellent company whose "covering" chocolate IS "couverture" chocolate. "Couverture" is the French word for "covering." Who knew?

Good luck in your quest for making the best chocolate! And have fun!

Mary Franceus

Does anyone know who sells filling and sealing trays that match the Keller made truffles? I've read that there is variation in truffle hole openings and trays have to be matched to truffle shells.

Jim -

Richard Foley mentioned that Qzina was selling the Keller shells. I would start there. Qzina also has operations in Canada if I recall correctly.

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/

Jim;

The person at Qzina I would start with is Tamara Fusick. Great service. Her contact information is below:

Tamara Fusick

Gourmet Account Manager

Calgary & Southern Alberta

Qzina Specialty Foods, Inc

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF INSPIRATION

FOR CHOCOLATE, DESSERT AND PASTRY PROFESSIONALS.

www.qzina.com

12547-129th st.

Edmonton, Alberta

Cell: 403-585-3488

Toll Free: 800-563-4315

Telephone: 780-447-4499

Fax: 780-447-2499

I spoke with Tamara who said she was going to refer me to a company in Montreal (she was headed into a meeting), which I'm guessing was Chocolat Chocolat. I contacted them and they don't sell them, but it raises another question regarding the advantage of using them. BTW, Albert Uster sells metal trays for their truffle shells (looks like at least $400 for filling and sealing trays, excluding shipping) and Pastry Chef has a plastic one ($60) for their truffles (Dobla brand), which are a different brand than that sold by Qzina, which has an office in Vancouver where I live.

The only other reference on the net that I found was a comment by someone who suggested that the trays were difficult to use. However, the book I have says they are major time savers. So other than locating trays that match the Keller brand, I was curious to know whether people who make truffles with premade hollow shells use trays or why they don't use them.

I wrote the above post before having tried filling the shells, but I just did so and I know why a filling tray would be used! It is not easy to fill a truffle completely without an air pocket. The tray would presumably allow you to force filling into the shell with the weight of the tray holding the shell in place, allowing you to fill it without air and to clean excess filling from the top of the tray rather than the sides of the truffle shell. I am sure that with practice it is doable, but after this experience I would definitely like to find a filling tray that matches the Keller brand.

For those interested, I ended up emailing Keller directly and they have a tray for their truffle shells and they are shipping to Qzina for me.