My daughter and I are doing our first candy molds and are having a blast with it! After I put the candy melts in and do a little jiggle to smooth it out and tap to get rid of the bubbles, they look completely smooth and beautiful. After I put them in the refrigerator to harden though, the backs are all bumpy. I don't mind this for the little ones taht I have done so far, but I'm going to make some greeting card type ones to go in the front of our christmas baskets and I would prefer if they had a nice smooth back..especially after spending so much time painting the molds. Are there any tricks to getting an nice smooth back? Thanks soooooooo much for your help!

I'm new to chocolate molding myself. Just spent all afternoon yesterday making 30 snowman pops (see thread on this site), 30 smore pops, 30 turtle pretzal rods, 1 doz Santa Nutterbutters and 1 doz reindeer Nutterbutters. Whew! What a blast, but what a mess!

Anyway, I read somewhere (Baking911.com?) that putting chocolate in the freezer rather than the fridge works better since the freezer is a drier cold than the fridge. Plus it cools the chocolate faster so hopefully you won't get bubbles (maybe they're caused by the edges cooling before the inside?? don't know....)

Have fun!

ME2

Easy - just keep tapping until the backs are smooth. If they don't smooth out, your chocolate is too thick.

hmm i did a lot of choc. work and unless in a real time pinch i would just not put it in the fridge or freezer. let it set up out side, it will set up if the choc is in a good temper. but if in a hurry then go with the freezer for a really short time. this is to avoid blooming.

I always put my molds in the freezer to mold. I don't have a problem with this.

I don't understand how the backs can become bumpy after you've tapped them smooth....? Anyway, you can smooth out the backs by heating them. If you have a gas cooktop, place a cookie sheet on the burner and heat the cookie sheet for 5 SECONDS. Swipe your chocolate piece across the cookie sheet. This should get rid of any bumps.

Sounds like your chocolate is too thick. Tapping out the air bubbles and giving the mold a little jiggle should be more than enough to ensure a smooth coat IF the chocolate is thin enough. If not, add paramount crystals pinch by pinch to the melted chocolate. This will smooth out the consistency and make it shiny too, which is beautiful in the end result. Good luck!!