This tutorial will show you how to make cocoa butter heart shapes on your polycarbonate chocolate moulds which you have seen in my Raspberry Vanilla Chocolate Bonbons post.
Material requirements
Polycarbonate chocolate mould
Cotton pads
94% (or higher) alcohol
Craft tape or food safe cake tape (it is important that the tape you choose does not leave any residue/glue on the mould)
Scissors
Small heart puncher
Brush
Toothpick
Chocolate melting machine
Gold cocoa butter
White cocoa butter
2 small cups or lids, preferably metal (for the cocoa butter)
Before you start, make sure you got all the required material ready. For this tutorial and the bonbons in my recipe I used the lens mould CW1847. The flatter the surface, the better this technique will work.
First, prepare the cocoa butter, since it will take some time to melt. Put about 2-3 teaspoons of pre-coloured cocoa butter (gold and white) each separately in a lid and place into the chocolate melting machine. Set the temperature of your chocolate melting machine to 31°C. This is a comfortable way to melt small amounts of cocoa butter. I prefer metal lids because it melts the cocoa butter faster in my opinion, but you can also use plastic lids for example. The picture below shows the already melted cocoa butter.
Now, prepare the mould. Make sure your chocolate mould is clean. Dip the cotton pads into the alcohol and polish the cavities of your mould. You should have no water or grease spots on your mould. The alcohol will evaporate very quickly so your mould will be dry and ready to use after the polishing.
Next, grab the tape, puncher and scissors. Cut a strip of the tape and stick it onto a smooth surface (e.g. your table). Cut two more strips which have the same size as the first one and layer them on the first strip. Now you should have three layers of tape on top of each other. The layering of the tape will ensure a clean cut of the puncher, because of the thickness and stability. If you try to use the puncher on only one tape layer, it may rip it apart.
Use the puncher to cut the heart shape into the tape. Make sure you leave enough space between the holes. Cut the tape in the middle of the spaces between the holes and separate the three layers of tape into one.
Place one strip of tape with a heart hole in the middle of your cavity. First, press the edges of the heart onto the mould and then the rest of the tape.
It's important that the heart shape sits perfectly, don't worry about the wrinkles on the side, they won't have an impact. Use the back end of your brush to go around the edges of the heart and firmly press down the tape to the mould. This step is the most important one, because if the edges aren't firmly attached to the mould and there are still air bubbles, the cocoa butter will flow between the tape and the mould, which will distort your image.
Try not to touch the polished cavities with your fingers directly, otherwise you will have fingerprints which will be visible on the finished bonbon. You could use gloves if necessary for this step. Also, make sure the end of your brush does not scratch the mould.
When you have prepared each cavity with the tape, you are ready for the cocoa butter. Brush the first layer of the gold cocoa butter onto the hearts. Let it sit for a couple of minutes until the first layer of cocoa butter has crystallised and then put on a second layer.
As soon as the second layer has crystallised as well and you can't see the mould through the gold cocoa butter, you are ready to paint on the white cocoa butter. The white cocoa butter blocks out any colour from the chocolate, which may weaken the colour effect of your cocoa butter. This mostly concerns dark and coloured chocolate. If you would mould these bonbons with white chocolate you don't need the white cocoa butter layer.
When the white cocoa butter layer has crystallised as well, you are ready to gently peel of the tape from the mould. Some cocoa butter will fall off the tape into the mould. You can tap or blow these pieces out. Do not try to wipe it out with the finger because you could damage the heart shape.
You may have had some small leakage of the cocoa butter around the shape, as shown in the picture below (heart in the middle).
You can carefully scratch this excess cocoa butter off with a toothpick.
At the end you will have perfect cocoa butter hearts which are ready to be moulded with chocolate.