I am making candy melt flower lollipops for a cake. Here's the prob, and I have run into this before. They stick to the miod and do not come out shiny and smooth. I have used this mold in the past with success, but a couple times I have had this problem. I clean the mold with water, dry real well. I melt the candy melts per directions on the package. The melts take awhile to set up and when it does harden it has a bubbly apperance. I have tried hardening them in the fridge and out . I tap the mold to get air bubbles out, there are no air bubbles in the finished product, but it has a "rough, bubble-like" consistancy to it. Any suggestions why they are turning out like this???

Try putting the mold in the freezer, the fridge doesn't cool them as much.

What type of chocolate are you using?

I am using wilton candy melts and coloring them with the wilton oil based candy colors.

I've taken several chocolate classes and been told to NEVER wash the molds--just "polish" the cavities in them with cotton balls. This allows the remaining oils to condition the mold, keeping it non-stick, and to also yield nice shiny candies every time.

As to the rubbery consistency of the candy melts, if you're starting with white melts and adding oil colors to get very dark shades, you may be getting too much oil in the product (especially if you're also adding paramount crystals or crisco) and then it can't set up properly. You may want to mix some milk chocolate color with the white and then add the oil colors if you need very dark colors.

HTH
Rae

Thank you! So if maybe in the past (I've had the molds for a couple years) I washed the mold with soap, is the mold ruined? I'm wondering if I should just go buy another instead of attempting another batch.

No, I don't think it's ruined.

I'd wipe it with a bit of white Crisco, getting it into all of the nooks and crannies, let it sit for awhile, and then wipe out the Crisco with a soft tissue or cotton balls. That should put the finish back in balance pretty well--it's a cheap fix before buying more molds.

Rae

I wash my molds with soap all the time and have never had a problem.
The oils make the chocolate shinier but they don't need greased.

Actually, the oil has little to do with the shine of the chocolate. The crisco I'm suggesting will re-condition the mold cavities so that the release is easier.

Chocolate "picks up" the shine of whatever it's applied to. A good example is to pipe a disk of chocolate or melts onto several different surfaces: white paper, wax paper, saran wrap, an acetate report cover. White paper yields a completely dull face on the chocolate, wax paper is a little shinier, saran is even better--if you can keep it completley wrinkle free, and the shiniest will come from the acetate because it has the highest shine of all of the material surfaces (it's the least porous of the materials).

Simple rule of thumb is that the shinier the inside of your mold, the shinier the face of the chocolates that you mold in it and also the cleaner, easier release of the chocolate from the mold. If you wash molds with soap, you may leave behind water spots or soap residues that will dull the chocolate finish and "grab" the chocolate as you try to release it.

Rae

thank you Blakescakes! I do see water spots on the mold. I will try the crisco!

Timing is everything. I just finished making some chocolate molds and experienced the same problem! Thanks for the solution Blakescakes!

The crisco trick worked! But the candy melts still have the wierd consisitency. I've come to the conclusion that my candy colors are old. So hopefully now I can finish these dang things!

I wash all my molds (& I have over 700 of them) in very soapy water. I have done this since 1978 with no problem at all.
If you use oil based & not candy food colors, just add some crisco type shortening or oil to the choc. & mix really well.

It was the candy colors-they had gone bad. I've had them for several years. I bought new ones, and VIOLA!

I have used the molds a lot and a lot of the buttons. I had the one bad experience where the buttons were old. They were Merkens. Perhaps that is your problem. Now, I vacuum pack the buttons and keep them in the freezer. They last forever. Could be your candy is old.

Is there any chance that the candy just got to hot when melting? I had some problems today with a candy I was trying to melt. It got hot enough to melt the squeeze bottle, but the candy never quite got soft enough to squirt into the mold.