Paramount Crystals And Melting Chocolate - Please Tell Me
Decorating By Katskakes Updated 5 Apr 2007 , 3:30pm by Katskakes
what you know?!
I have tried using crisco to melt chocolate melts to make it smoother. It works really great.
I heard paramount crystals can be used for this too. i bought a small bag at nycake. It looks like little flakes of crisco, is this right? (I know crisco is not hard, but if it was - then got shaved. that's how they look.) sorry if that doesn't make sense.
So how much do you add?
thanks,
Kat
No the paramount crystals are not crisco, they are some type of shortening. In many chocolate wafers you purchase there is already some present.
The only problem I have ever seen with Crisco is that your chocolate will not harden up as well afterwards.
Before paramount crystals I used to use plain parafin in very small "sliver" amounts.
You should not have to use the paramount unless the wafers you are using have been open for more than 2 months. In my experience anyway.
My chocolate instructor told me to use paramount in chocolate wafers that are older than 6 months and up to 1 year. After that just get rid of them.
I usually purchase my wafers by season and color, so Red, Green before Christmas and they are used up by Valentine, St. Patricks and for sure Easter.
I found a few web sites that talk about them:
https://www.fancyflours.com/paramount-crystals.html
http://www.sweetc.com/ingrednt.htm
http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/candies/chocolate.htm
Good Luck
I don't know a whole lot about this subject but bobwonderbuns was nice enough to teach me about paramount crystals and I will never make chocolate without them again. I made the six shooter for my cowboy cake in my photos with chocolate with them in it. They seem to really help the chocolate flow and keep from getting clumpy and the finished product was nice and shiny. I didn't have any trouble with the chocolate not hardening. I highly recommend trying them out!
HTH,
HeatherMari
Thanks all!
like i said i tried the crisco. Honestly it really worked great, i was just wondering the difference between the both. anytime i do chocolates or covered stuff i put them in the freeze to harden. So never noticed if it takes longer. (unless they are strawberries, they go in the fridge).
They do seem a heck lot shinnier and it is much smoother, makes it easier and faster to pour.
TY
Here is a listing of the ingredients in Paramount Crystals
http://www.barryfarm.com/nutri_info/candy_making/paramount.htm
As far as I have heard, the difference between using Crisco and paramount crystals is that Crisco will alter the flavor of the chocolate, which paramount crystals will not. The local cake expert/shop owner said about 1 tablespoon for pound of chocolate, and that you don't need to worry about overdoing it since it doesn't alter the taste.
My understanding of the basic difference between crisco and paramount crystals is that crisco stays soft at room temp and the crystals stay hard.
The palm oil in paramounts helps with hardening in the finished chocolate, as well helping the finished chocolate resisting melting. When melted themselves and added to the chocolate, the paramounts make the chocolate temporarily easier to pour, but when they harden, it's actually harder than the stuff you started with.
Crisco uses soybean oil, an oil that stays softer at room temp and helps the chocolate stay viscous longer so that you can pour it easily and perhaps not have to reheat it constantly. It actually yields a softer chocolate that doesn't "crack". It's great when coating something, like strawberries, that you don't want all of the coating to come off in one bite.
Another option--much more expensive--is to add melted cocoa butter (generally only to real chocolate). Melt the cocoa butter to the temper point of the chocolate you're using, temper the chocolate, and add enough of cocoa butter to just the point where the chocolate pours easily. Too much and you'll have a runny mess.
I use paramount in candy melts almost all of the time, crisco in both melts and real chocolate when coating things, and cocoa butter in real chocolates when making molds or truffles.
HTH
Rae
I always eyeball the amount of paramount crystals I add but once I did actually measure it and I started off with 1/4 Cup of paramount crystals (they really should be called flakes!) per 1 bag of candy melts (either 14 or 16 oz, depending on what brand you buy) and I work my way up to 1/2 Cup. I like it runnier (1/2 Cup worth) but it's really a personal preference. Hope that helps some! 
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