How do you make chocolate hard like a shell on fruit?

Magic Shell only works on things that are cold like ice cream anyway, so even if you froze some fruit and put Magic Shell on, it would melt as the fruit thawed.

There is chocolate sold for home chocolate "crafts" at many craft-supply stores. It looks sort of like giant flattened chocolate chips and comes in different flavors (milk chocolate, dark chocolate, mint, peanut butter etc.) and often in lots of different colors of "white" chocolate so people can pour the melted colors into molds and make a pink flower with a green leaf and stem, etc.

The good news is, you don't need that stuff! It's expensive and a pain to find and not the best-tasting chocolate either. Here is a website so you can see the stuff I'm talking about: http://buychocolatemolds.com/realchocolate.htm As you'll notice $10/lb seems to be their cheapest chocolate and that doesn't include shipping of course.

Any chocolate that's hard when you buy it at room temperature can be melted and then will turn back hard (solid) once it cools! So you can probably use whatever "gourmet" brand is your favorite, so long as it's a pure chocolate bar and doesn't have nuts or a filling in it.

The trick is in getting the chocolate to melt without separating or burning. Some brands/varieties you can actually melt in the microwave, in a microwave-safe bowl or mug (a mug has a handle for safe handling) so long as you only microwave it for 20 seconds or so at a time in between checking and maybe stirring it.

Traditionally -- before microwaves -- chocolate was melted using the "double boiler" or "bain marie" (that's French for double boiler) method. You heat plain water in a pan on the stove, then put either a bowl or another pan on top of the first pan so that the chocolate is heated indirectly and melts slowly.

Once you have your melted chocolate, just dip whatever fruits you like in it. It will take time for the chocolate to harden! You can either just lay the dipped fruit on waxed paper, or carefully prop each piece chocolate-side-up on a baking rack or something like an empty egg carton if you don't want one side of the chocolate coating to get flattened.

You can do multi-layered dips if you want -- dark and white or milk and dark or even three layers. You'll have to experiment to see whether letting the first layer harden before dipping the next works better for you, or whether you want to do the second dip before letting the first harden, as there are proponents of both methods.

Here's a video of one of Food Network's chefs demonstrating the double-boiler method and making it look easy: http://www.hulu.com/watch/48781/food-network-origi...

As you can see she also gets around the "what do I do with this thing covered in hot melted chocolate now?" problem by rolling her goodies in sprinkles. You could use fancier sprinkles, or something like chopped nuts or shredded coconut, if you wanted to do that.

Here's a similar video on YouTube if you can't use the first site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCWgoRoyck

My favorite brands of chocolate, for eating and cooking, that come in a "plain" variety without filling or anything else in it, are Droste, Ghirardelli, Lindt and Perugina. You could also use something like Dove or Newman's Own, or another organic brand like Green & Black, especially if you're using organic fruit. Just remember it should be just chocolate in the bar (or chips, or bite-sized pieces). You can use as dark or as milky a chocolate as you want, and most of those brands do sell white chocolate also in case you want to use that.

Finally, here's a video of a gutsy woman melting chocolate for dipping fruit on the stove without using a double boiler. Confession time: I have used this method myself (the non-stick pan is key) but don't anymore because... sometimes it works and sometimes you just ruin your chocolate. Which is why I don't recommend it.

(PS Don't let Culinary Skeptic scare you. You don't have to temper chocolate for what you want to do, so long as you use the right kind of chocolate and a slow-heating method, either a double boiler or the microwave method. Thousands of people with no culinary training do it every day. I did leave out two important points about the double-boiler method though, which other posters mentioned: don't let the simmering water touch the bottom of the bowl the chocolate is in, and don't let any water get in the chocolate as it's melting or as you're working with it. This means to be careful of escaping steam from the bottom of the double boiler, and also to make sure your fruit has been blotted dry before dipping.)

Sites where you can order Droste, Ghirardelli, Lindt and Perugina:

http://www.bluedelft.com/drostepastilles.html

http://shop.ghirardelli.com/

http://www.lindtusa.com/category-exec/category_id/...

http://usachocolate.com/perugina-chocolate-bars-c-...

I've always just used chocolate chips from the grocery store. They have different qualities of chocolate there.

The key is melting the chocolate. You need to create or use a double boiler. If you don't have one, it's fairly simple to create.

Large sauce pan filled 1/2 way with water, bring to a slow simmer. Place a large metal mixing bowl on top, pour your chocolate in. The chocolate will slowly melt. You want to keep stirring until the chocolate is smooth. If you melt the chocolate too fast or burn it, it won't work, or taste very good.

Once you've melted your chocolate, have a pan nearby with wax paper or parchment paper, to place your chocolate covered fruit. Place the fruit in the fridge for about an hour to harden.

If the chocolate sits at room temp for too long, it will begin to get soft and melt.

Hope you enjoy your fruit!

www.GourmetForOne.net

Check out http://www.verybestbaking.com/ that is a site that has plenty of recipes Nestle chocolate chips can be used. Search for the recipe I know there is a fruit dipped one.

Word of caution some of these can not be done a head of time the fresh fruits have a tendency to go mushy. Dried fruits are fine to do a head. Love chocolate dipped dried apricots, dried pineapple, chocolate dipped candied ginger is amazing.

Many of the stores carry a chocolate for coating. It is pretty easy to melt down. Melt some down and save some out, when the chocolate has melted pull off the double boiler and add the unmelted chocolate. This will bring down the temperature a bit. This is a fairly easy method of tempering the chocolate. The result is a glossier chocolate coating that sets up properly.

Good luck.

Making chocolate that hardens to a snap involves a process called "tempering". It's pretty complicated and even professional cooks screw it up.

First of all, you have to use real chocolate. By "real chocolate" I mean that the fat in it is 100% cocoa butter. A lot of consumer chocolate (Hershey's etc) substitute hydrogenated fats, tropical fats or others as a cost saving measure. Won't work, has to be real cocoa butter.

The idea of tempering is based on the fact that the fat in chocolate (the cocoa butter) is very complex. It's comprised of several fats that each have different melting/ hardening points. When these fats cool, they form crystals. If those crystals are all in alignment when they cool, the chocolate will be very glossy and will snap when broken. If not, it will be dull and soft.

Again, it's a fairly complicated process, and nobody could teach you how to do it in a Yahoo answers response. It involves melting a portion of chocolate to a certain temperature, then slowly cooling it on a marble slab while constantly scraping and stirring it. As it cools, un-melted cool tempered chocolate is mixed in (all quality chocolate comes from the factory already tempered, so it's a matter of chopping chocolate that has never been melted, or using chocolate that you've already tempered).

This tempered chocolate has all of it's crystals aligned and formed properly, and it "teaches" the chocolate that is cooling and forming it's own crystals how to form. It sort of provides a template- as the cooling cocoa butter forms it's own crystals, it builds them on the ones that already exist in the cool chocolate that you're stirring in, and the ones that it builds are copies of the ones in the cool chocolate.

Temperatures have to be very precise, timing has to be very precise, and a lot of experience screwing it up will teach you what to look for and how to do it.

Apprenticing with a professional pastry chef or taking a very good course are probably the only way to become proficient at it.

Your best option at home, is to buy some good chocolate (Callebaut, Valrhona, etc), and melt it VERY carefully. If you just melt it until it is barely soft, you might keep it's temper. If you go a few degrees too warm and it will fail. Melt it over a double boiler with WARM, not boiling or even simmering water. It will take at least 15 minutes for it to melt, stirring constantly, probably longer. Don't get any water (or steam, etc) in it, that will screw it up as well (fat hates water).

Good luck...

The answer from SLS was near perfect. the only thing I want to add is a little secret. Make sure that the water level does not touch the bottom of the bowl the chocolate is in. That is a sure fire way to burn the chocolate. Also, if you have any melted chocolate left after dipping the fruit. Once the chocolate is set ,stick a fork in the melted chocolate and let it drizzle decoratively over the fruit , it will make them look a little fancier.

Dont really know what you are trying to do, make a shell over the ice cream with fruits? If you want to just make a chocolate shell and put your ice cream into it, get some form of dish, like shell, and melt the chocolate and pour it into the dish, it will set, then you can put your icecream into the chocolate shell and whatever you want.

All you need is a bag of chocolate chips, or 12 ounces good chocolate, chopped and one cup of ultra pasteurized whipping cream. Just pour the cream into a saucepan, and bring it to a hard simmer, shut off and add the chocolate. Just let sit for about 10 minutes, then stir the chocolate into the cream and dissolve it. It will harden as it sets. If it starts to get hard before your done, just reheat till it's soft again.

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

How do you make chocolate hard like a shell on fruit?

I want to make fancy dipped fruit where the chocolate actually hardens on the fruit. No crappy chocolate like Magic Shell. Please show me a website for gourmet hardening chocolate...good quality chocolate.

Thanks!

I'ms orry I dont have a website for thsi but I nno how to do it ..I remeber making chocolate ona pencil for somethign i did inschool when I was younger adn so i just did it and then put it it in teh frexer it works very well!

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/avB9w

use chocolate chips use coconut oil put it in the microwave check on it about every 30 sec. do till COMPLETELY melted TADA