I'm interested to hear replies, too. My health department expects everything to be sanitized in a dishwasher, with temperature sensitive stickers to prove that the water got up to 160F. But I also keep reading that you should never wash molds, etc.
Thanks much. I have his "at home" book, but I will take a look at the pro one.
Hello,
I'm new here. For a quick background, I'm an amateur dabbling in confections, mostly molded filled chocolates (truffles, bon-bons). Scientist/engineer by day, chocolatier by night. I work out of my home, with no fancy tempering or enrobing machines. Everything is made by hand, small batch, etc.
I am looking for advice for making a soft caramel filling for use with polycarbonate molds - by this I mean something I can pipe into a chocolate shell. I have made soft caramel (sugar + corn syrup + cream and related recipes) many times, but I find cutting and hand-dipping them all to be somewhat painful with mixed results. I have lots of molds, including magnetic ones for transfer sheets,and would love to make chocolate covered caramels in them.
So... any tips? Should I just cook to a lower temperature so that the caramel is fluid at room temperature (or something cool enough to not melt the chocolate shells)? Adjust ratios of corn syrup or cream? I am looking for a "chewy" caramel, not a caramel-flavored white chocolate ganache (unless that is really the only way).
(I did look through the archives, but everything seemed to suggest using the molds to form the caramels, before taking them out and dipping them.)
Any help is much appreciated!
-m
