How do i melt/temper chocolate properly?
Place the chocolate in a dry bowl, and place the bowl on top of a pot of very hot water. The steam from the water heats the bottom of the bowl and melts the chocolate. The important thing is not to stir the chocolate too much and make sure it DOESN'T get wet. If you get either of those bits wrong then it'll look like the chocolate has sugary bits in it, and it's ruined. You just need to be patient.
How to get my chocolate to re-harden?
making truffles is like making candies. the chocolate needs to be tempered like how sugar needs to be cooked to a certain temperature for decoration. the chocolate has different molecules that melts at different temperatures, tempering it destroys the molecules that you don't want and only keeps what you want for making truffles. temper it correctly and the chocolate will only melt in your mouth not on your hands. its all about the melting point of the chocolate.
What kind of chocolate do I use for a mold?
butter and flower the mold in that order, than melt 2 Gardelli chocolate bars with 1 stick of butter and pour the melted chocolate into the mold. To melt the chocolate and the butter, get a medium sized pot and fill it with water, use a glass or metal bowl and place it on top of the pot filled with water, set the stove top to a medium or high set heat (whatever you are comfortable with) and let the water heat up/boil. when placing the chocolate in the bowl make sure to chop up the chocolate bars first and cut the stick of butter into medium sized squares (this will help the butter and the chocolate melt together and blend a lot faster). This will not only work, but it will be tastey! "semi dark chocolate is the best Gardelli chocolate to use, unless you like milk chocolate, than go with that instead. :)
Why doesn't white chocolate melt?
first you have to make sure that you actually have white chocolate and not the fake stuff. look at the label and see if there is cocoa butter, without cocoa butter: you are using the fake stuff which is vegetable oil based. Vegetable oil coatings (normally they come in little buttons), will not melt if they have lost too much of the oil (are old), real white chocolate will get clumpy/crumbly very fast if it is subject to too much heat, in this case you have burned it and it is ruined. If all you do is melt and never temper the chocolate then most likely you are using the fake stuff since real chocolate requires tempering in order to behave correctly. You can learn about tempering at http://www.candylandcrafts.com/tempering... Many people think they are using real chocolate when they buy the buttons at the local craft store, almost all the buttons sold are the fake stuff, it is made so people can just melt and make. For professionals calling a substance that lacks cocoa butter chocolate is actually a violation of FDA regs. For real chocolate the product will be ruined if the temperature gets above 120, in reality there is no need to go above 110. So if your water is boiling you will ruin your chocolate, it is much safer to use a microwave on defrost for very short periods, stirring every 20 seconds. Direct heat (saucepan), and boiling water in a double boiler, or heating on "high" in the micriwave, are the quickest ways to ruin real chocolate. If someone does not know how to temper then they have not worked with real chocolate (or what they make does not look right or feel right when finished). Tempering sets he cocoa butter crystals, creates the gloss and makes sure it does not make a mess in your hands when you pick it up.
Why is there no vegan "milk" chocolate?
There are a couple of 'problem areas' with making a vegan milk chocolate. From a technical standpoint it's very hard to get the chocolate to temper correctly (which effects the texture. If you'd like detailed information ask the question with my friends at the first link. You'll find that the Terra chocolates are either much darker than something like a Nestle or Hershey bar or that they do in fact contain dairy ingredients! The really serious problem is that (at least in the US) it's illegal! The USDA has *very* strict standards as to what you can put into chocolate and to 'do an end run' through the FDA requires listing as a "dietetic" food which requires expensive safety testing. The USDA now allows vegan chocolate to be sold *only* if you license and use their food additive "NuTrim". Search the second link if you're interested. I first tried to gain approval to sell vegan "Not Milk"(TM) in the late '70s and was turned down. In the '80s when we tried; we also distributed samples of our product and were arrested for "Distributing Adulterated Food Products". In the '90s they cracked a little bit and said we could sell the stuff but only if the front label stated in large print "IMITATION ARTIFICIALLY FLAVORED CHOCOLATE SUBSTITUTE" and on the back label listed WARNING: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS ARTIFICIAL DAIRY INGREDIENTS". I've been kicked out of several congresscritters offices also