How to create a chocolate velvet effect on hollow figures and pastries

Not only does a velvet chocolate coating turn your Yule logs, cakes, pastries or even your hollow figures into spectacular delights, it also helps keep your baked goods deliciously moist.

GOOD TO KNOW

The golden rules for preparing spray gun mixtures
In case you’re creating a chocolate and cocoa butter mixture: always choose chocolate with a three-drop fluidity.

Respect the chocolate/cocoa butter proportions: 60/40. It creates a very fluid mixture that passes through the spray gun nozzle with ease.

Heat the cocoa butter/chocolate or cocoa butter/colouring mixture to 50°C before pouring it into the spray gun container. Otherwise it may set and clog up the spray gun.

In case you’re creating a coloured cocoa butter mixture: always use fat-soluble colouring.

Always heat the spray gun in a chocolate melter or heating cabinet before pouring in the mixture. Otherwise the mixture may set and clog up the spray gun.

Always apply the spray gun mixture directly onto pastries frozen at -18°C. The resulting thermal shock is necessary to create the velvet effect.

Always store the spray gun in the heating cabinet after spraying as well.

Make sure to spray a thin layer: too thick a layer is inclined to peel off.

Needed:

• Chocolate with a basic three-drop fluidity
• Cocoa butter
• A scale
• A spatula
• A spray gun
• An empty chocolate melter, covered with a lid
• A thermometer
• A stick blender
• A sieve with a fine mesh (squeaky clean!)

Step 1
Measure out the ingredients: 60% chocolate to 40% cocoa butter.

Step 2
Melt both ingredients together in the microwave.

Step 3
Give the mixture a little stir halfway through to mix the ingredients well together.

Step 4
Place the mixture back into the microwave.

Step 5
Stir the mixture until it is smooth and homogeneous.

Step 6
Check the temperature: if the spray gun mixture is at 45°C, it is ready to be applied.

Step 7
Take the pre-heated spray gun out of the chocolate melter and immediately pour the mixture through a sieve into the spray gun container.

Step 8
Take your hollow figures (which you’ve kept at -18°C for 3 minutes) from the freezer and spray a thin layer of the chocolate mixture on while making a smooth upward and downward seesaw motion.

Step 9
Let your hollow figures set in a refrigerator at 8°C for 5 minutes.