If you are a new artisan chocolatier, small business owner who sells chocolates locally or online, or just a home candy enthusiast who wants to learn more about chocolate crafting, then these tips below are made for you!
Is your goal to flavor the chocolate directly or the candy center of your confection?
No matter if you are flavoring chocolate directly or chocolate mixtures, using concentrated flavors are preferred as they add very little additional liquid to your chocolate, candy centers and chocolate mixtures. Here’s our best tips depending on your application below.
Some of LorAnn’s most popular flavorings that are formulated for flavoring chocolate include: Royal Raspberry, Orange Brandy, Washington Cherry, Irish Cream, Creamy Hazelnut, and Kona Coffee. Other flavor flavors in chocolate by LorAnn customers include Peppermint Oil and Amaretto.
Almost all of LorAnn’s Super-Strength Flavors come in 1-dram (tsp) all the way to 5 gallons, so no matter size of your business, we have sizes available for both retail and foodservice and no minimum ordering commitments.
When Flavoring Chocolate Directly
Flavoring chocolate directly can be a challenge as flavors that contain water and/or alcohol will cause seizing or thickening. If flavoring real chocolate, use only oil soluble only for best results. Discover a list of LorAnn’s oil-soluble flavors here. Within this list you will also find LorAnn’s flavorings that work in flavoring chocolate directly but may cause some thickening. Add an emulsifier such as soy lecithin, cocoa butter, or oil to help thin/smooth the chocolate. The best time to add flavoring to your chocolate is after your chocolate has been properly tempered. For flavoring 1 lb. of chocolate we recommend using ¼ – ½ teaspoon of Super-Strength flavoring. For larger customers who are flavoring 10 lbs. of chocolate we recommend 2 ½ – 5 teaspoons of Super-Strength flavoring.
When Flavoring Chocolate Mixtures, Coatings, and Chocolate Centers
Chocolate mixtures such as ganache, fudges, fondants, icings, and chocolate centers found in truffles, are more forgiving and can easily be flavored with either oil-soluble or water-soluble flavors, including extracts and LorAnn’s Bakery Emulsions. Want to learn more about flavoring chocolate centers in truffles to sell or just make homemade? Check out our simple chocolate truffle recipe and best tips on our blog featuring our Valentine’s Day Truffles, one of our most popular recipes due to its simplicity and its deliciousness! When flavoring chocolate centers like truffles, add the flavoring in the final step of your chocolate crafting recipe. LorAnn’s Super-Strength flavors are highly concentrated, so you will want start small (use ½ – ½ teaspoon of flavoring for 1 lb. of chocolate) and add more depending on taste preference. For chocolate crafting, check out our 2-Piece Dipping Tool-Set to make coating your chocolates seamless and mess-free!
Trouble Shooting Tips For Chocolate Crafting
If you are having difficulty using a water-soluble flavor to flavor your chocolate confections directly here are some of our best trouble-shooting tips:
- Decrease the level of flavor being used (too much can cause chocolates to seize)
- Increase your mixing time or level of mixing if possible.
- Slightly increase the temperature of the application matrix when mixing in the flavor.
- Consider adding cocoa butter.
Soy Lecithin in chocolate
Adding this power-house ingredient will make your chocolate easier to work with when tempering and molding chocolate. The result is just like tempering chocolate with cocoa butter but cheaper, as we all know cocoa butter is more expensive and needs larger quantities for the same result! Replacing cocoa butter with LorAnn’s soy lecithin makes the entire process less expensive.
Just like soy lecithin acts as an emulsifier in baked goods, it also improves mixability in chocolates which can help improve the texture of buttery candies and chocolates, while protecting the flavor. Lecithin will also keep buttery candies fresher longer because it slows down the oxidation process of the fat.
Usage Guide: Remember when using soy lecithin, a little goes a long way. LorAnn recommends a usage of 0.25 – 0.50% of soy lecithin per total batch. Remember, too much lecithin can have the reverse effect and cause chocolate to thicken. Lecithin can also control sugar crystallization.
