3D Apple
Chocolate Making Project

By Bob Sherman

This is an intermediate level 3D chocolate project which may be made with or without mold painting. It makes a great teacher gift. The illustrations below show it painted, but this could easily be made using all milk or dark chocolate. Or using red chocolate - colored chocolates are white chocolate flavor.

Most of the items you may need can be ordered directly from this page for your convenience.

PLEASE NOTE!! - Although chocolate making is relatively safe for the entire family to participate, adult supervision is required.

Chocolate
I prefer to use chocolate wafers designed for home molding chocolate. My preferred brand is Merckens which works well with all chocolate molding projects without tempering, and tastes great.

Melting Chocolate
For a small project like this either melting method may be used, but I prefer a double boiler for ease on control.

Double Boiler

1. Place chocolate in the pot.
2. Heat until creamy.
3. For best results, chocolate should be poured at 88 to 90 degrees F. Under no circumstances should chocolate ever be poured hotter than 160 degrees F. because this will destroy the mold.

A microwave may also be used but care must be taken not to overheat the chocolate.

1. Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.
2. Heat for 30 seconds. Note: When heating small amounts of chocolate, reduce this to 10 second increments.
3. Remove and stir.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the chocolate is creamy.
5. For best results, chocolate should be poured at 88 to 90 degrees F. Under no circumstances should chocolate ever be poured hotter than 160 degrees F. because this will destroy the mold.

1. Use scissors to cut the four sections of the mold apart.	2. Melt some red chocolate. Note if you are not painting the mold, skip steps 2 through 5.
3. Use a pastry brush to apply a thin layer of red to both halves of the apple mold. The first coat will be streaky, just make sure there are no air bubbles.	4. Set aside to harden.
5. Apply a second, thicker coat of red and set aside to cool. Holding the mold up to a light will show up any thin spots. I left some areas thin on this project to illustrate what happens if this step is skipped.	6. Melt a small amount of green chocolate and paint the leaf area on one half of the leaf mold only. Note: The leaf and stem are extremely fragile and difficult to make without breaking - you may want to consider using a paper leaf or making one with a decorating bag and icing.
7. Use milk chocolate to paint the stem. Place in the refrigerator until it de molds easily.	8. Fill the bottom half of the apple with milk chocolate.
9. Align the top half and clamp the mold halves together.	10. Rotate the mold so the entire inside surface gets covered with chocolate. Repeat this every minute or so for about ten minutes. This process is a bit faster when placed in a refrigerator, but it is easy to lose track of the time and if you forget to rotate it you will need to start over.
11. Remove the leaf half from the mold when ready.	12. Paint the other half of the leaf mold with green and milk chocolate. I ran short of melted green so filled in the center with milk chocolate where it wouldn't show on the finished piece.
13. Immediately place the finished half from step 11 into the mold cavity. This creates a solid molded 3d piece. Place in a refrigerator until it de molds easily.	14. The apple after mold removal. Note how the milk chocolate is showing through the thin areas in the red. I like this look since it adds visual interest, however if you don't like this style avoid thin spots in the red.
15. The completed leaf and stem assembly.	16. The stem is attached with a dab of chocolate.
17. To make this gift worthy all that remains is a nice package such as our cello bags and twist ties.

Support Free Projects
You can help ensure the continued availabilty and production of free chocolate projects by telling your friends about them. The more popular they are the more we can produce so tell your friends, mention them on message boards, link to them from your web site, etc... More information is available here.

Disclaimer: The information presented here is accurate to the best of my knowledge and common chocolate molding practices as of the time of this writing - May 2006. The author and the publisher accept no liability for the use or misuse of any of the information presented in this article. This articles is presented for informational purposes and is used at your own risk.

Author: Bob Sherman

Publisher: Bobby's Craft Boutique Inc.

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