getting all crumbly on me grrrrrr?

could you have possibly gotten water in the mixture? maybe try to re-heat it and add some shortening and a bit more corn syrup HTH

Mine does the samething and I can not figure out why. I evantually give up and through it away. And I haven't gotten water in mine. Maybe someone should do a tutorial for people like me.

Just like Peachshortcake said, I would try more corn syrup and shortening. sounds like it's a bit dry.

i just attended a modeling chocolate project class tonight. i've never worked with modeling chocolate before and we found that you can kneed it too much, and it will start to practically crumble and get grainy looking. at that point, you just need to set that piece down and let it cool. get another piece to work with in the meantime. is this what you're experiencing?

nope, just as soon as I break a poece off to start kneading it , its A crumbling mess..........I did add some corn syrup and that helped, but maybe I need a better recipe???whats the best one? Also is it suppose to get as hard as Mt Vesuvius?

we used 1 lb of Guittard's A'Peels chocolate with 1/3 cup corn syrup

When I first started making modeling chocolate I had trouble with it, not getting hard enough, wilting when I tried to sculpt with it. I tried refrigerating it, but it just sweats and gets gooey. I found a recipe and love it! I use plain chocolate chips, white chips are great too

8 oz chocolate pieces
1/4 c plus 1T corn syrup
Melt chips in double boiler, remove from heat, stir in corn syrup until it comes together and pulls away from the sides of bowl/pan. Place in a gallon zip bag and let sit at least overnight, the longer the better. You want it to harden, yes like Mt Vesuvius .

- Take a small chunk, about walnut or egg size and knead it until softened (it will crumble at first) Once soft, Set it aside. Take another chunk and repeat until you have as much as you'll need for your project. Knead all the little balls together but just until it comes together, do not over knead or it ill begin to ooze oil and be useless.
It should be smooth and roll out smoothly. If you need to roll it out, dust it with a little cornstarch to keep it from sticking, if you have a silicone mat that works best to roll out on. I try to always have some made so I can let it rest long enough to be useful. (I have come back a month later and it is rock hard, but it works like a dream once i work with it)

HTH
Diana

Thanks Diana, well then I guess its doing what it is suppose too I just don't like the crumbling part....I will give it another shot. Thanks so much

Thanks for the tips!

it should not be crumbly. something has gone wrong if it is fresh made (sometimes older MC can become drier and crumbly).

you may have burned the chocolate (did you use a dble boiler? it is very easy to burn in a microwave).

did you age for 24 hours before using? very important.

did you remove the chocolate from the dlbe boiler and stir in the corn syrup until the chocolate leaves the sides of the pan and follows the spoon around the pan?

bring to room temp before starting kneading (avoid using the microwave...to easy to turn your mc into a melty mess).

knead small pieces first then combine if you want a larger mass.

was your chocolate old?

lastly, you may not have added enough corn syrup to start with, but i suspect it is one of the above reasons.

diane

I don't use the microwave to make chocolate..always on stove.......but I thoink I may have put the cornsyrup in on the stove yet, not sure on that....I stired it until it came away from the sides into a ball. It looked wonderful, but then it gets hard as a rock....this last time it was crumbly....I have no idea how long the chocolate was on the shelf when I bought it. Thanks for all the tips

Hmm
How long after you made it did it get rock hard?
When I make it it is petty soft and once I put it in the bag it spreads out, too soft to work with, but once I let it rest overnight it gets pretty hard.
In my experience it needs to get pretty hard in order to hold it's shape once you've finished your creation.

It kind of reminds me of oil based clays, how it is so hard but softens up after working with it. (Except the crumbly part ).

This is true, but even crumbly modeling chocolate can be worked into a soft ball so I guess it depends if your modeling chocolate from the store was old it should still get to a workable state. Or if your fresh made modeling chocolate was crumbly. Chocolate can burn or if water drips from a double boiler into it this will make it seize up.
HTH

I t was fresh made, and it gets rock hard fairly soon I never timed it maybe I am not making it with right amt of corn syrup??

You can now buy Mike McCarey's modelling chocolate at flour confections online store. They are located in Canada and Lisa is super nice! I believe it is 14.95 for a 1 lb bag. Lisa just hosted a modelling chocolate class with Mike, and also carries his 2 dvd's and the feather veiner he created for the Sesame Street challenge. Her shipping is reasonable. They are offering a 5% discount on your order if you enter promo code EASTER before 11:59 tomorrow night. I use satin ice dark chocolate as modelling chocolate and it works well. For white MC, I follow Carrie Biggers' recipe from her DVD and have not had any problems!

Ive had the same problem with it. Every time I make it, fresh, it is a crumbly mess. I can add more corn syrup and it still a crumbly mess. I try to knead it and it crumbles in my hands. Im at the point that Im wasting more chocolate on it than I want to and just prefer to buy it! I was going to buy a tub of it from pastry chef dot com but its fricken expensive! I will try the above recipe one last time and then I give up and buying Mikes!!

madge,
what is your recipe and what kind of chocolate did you use?
did you let your chocolate age for 24 hours?
did you let it come to room temp before trying to knead?
we'll figure out what went wrong and then you will love working with MC .

diane

I tried the recipe this morning after posting and left it on the table in a ziploc. I just went to it and it kneaded out great and no crumbles! So use the 1/3 cup of corn syrup and the 1 lb of chocolate recipe and it works great!

It all depends on the chocolate as to how much corn syrup or glucose syrup is added to make modelling chocolate.

The purer the chocolate [unsweetened vs bittersweet vs dark vs cooking] with less additives [% cocoa mass] in bars [block vs squares vs buttons/chips vs mini chips/morsels] then the lesser amount of syrup is required ..

Milk chocolate needs more syrup. And white "chocolate" needs the most ..

Most corn syrups these days, eg Karo, have other additives [fructose and cane syrups] that can interfer with the chemistry of the recipe.

Experimentation is required ..

milk and white chocolates have more fat in them than semi-sweet and therefore they should have less corn syrup added (at least that is my experience and what i have also read from my books )

diane

What do you guys use to make the chocolate different colors? Any other way than using candy melts?

I just use regular gel color

if i am adding color when still liquid, i use oil-based candy colors to keep the chocolate from seizing.

if i am kneading in color after the chocolate has set and aged, i use regular old americolor gels. if i want a really dark color though, i would start with dark candy colors and add color to that instead of starting with white chocolate and adding tons of color (sometimes the chocolate consistency can changed by too much color).

diane

I know I'm a little late on this subject, but I just made my very first batch of modeling chocolate tonight and so far, so good! I used a simple recipe I found online which called for 10ounces of chocolate and 1/3 cup of light corn syrup. I couldn't find a good chocolate at the grocery store I was at, but had used Almond Bark's vanilla bakers chocolate(I'm not real sure that it is chocolate, to be honest) before to make chocolate lollypops for Christmas one year with a good turnout, so I opted for this. I used half of the package which is 12 instead of 10ounces, microwaved at 30 second intervals until smooth and melted, then added the corn syrup. Both batches seemed to separate slightly, kind of like there was water in with the mix, but after I layed it out on a saran wrapped baking sheet and let sit for 2 hours or so, the "water" hardened in a whiter, thinner substance. The only thing I am now concerned with us that my second batch seems a bit more crumbly or grainier than the first, but is firmer as well. Is this normal? And after it sits for 24hours, will it have the same consistency that I'm looking for?

Thanks, and my apologises for gramstical errors, no computer at home, I'm using my blackberry and T9

~Toe