How to mold chocolate candies or suckers

Here's how...

MELTING:

Confectionery Coatings
1. Double Boiler Method - Place wafers into a wide mouth jar or small pot. Place jar into water bath (approx. 1" deep water). Using stove or electric fry pan, turn heat to simmer. DO NOT ALLOW WATER TO BOIL! Stir coating occasionally, until uniformly melted. Be careful NOT to get any water into the coating. Moisture in the coating will cause it to become thick and difficult to work.
2. Microwave Method - Place candy wafers in a microwave-safe container. Microwave for 30 seconds at half power. Stir coating. Carefully repeat this process until candy is completely melted and appears soft and smooth. DO NOT OVERHEAT! Overheating will cause coating to thicken and become unusable.

Real Chocolate
Chocolate, due to the cocoa butter, requires more painstaking preparation. When chocolate is melted and then cooled, the cocoa butter may recrystallize in two different forms, called alpha and beta. The alpha form is unstable and will rise to the surface of the chocolate, resulting in unattractive, grayish-white streaks (called "bloom"). To get the desired beta form requires careful melting and conditioning by the process called "tempering". Briefly, tempering is accomplished by carefully melting most of the chocolate to be used, then adding a small amount of grated or chopped solid chocolate in order to "seed" the mixture with beta crystals. Most books or videos on working with chocolate should explain this process in greater detail.

Flavors or colors may be added at this point, if desired. To flavor, you must use an oil-based flavor (LorAnn). To color, do not use liquid food color as it contains water; instead, use powdered food color or oil-based candy colors. Flavors (extracts) or colors containing water will thicken the coating.

MOLDING:

Spoon or pour the melted chocolate or coating into dry molds. If using a sucker mold, place sucker stick in place before pouring in the coating. Tap the mold gently to remove any entrapped air bubbles. Scrape excess chocolate away with our candy scraper/leveler. Place mold in freezer for a few minutes until the coating has set. To release the candy from the mold, invert the mold and flex or tap the back of the mold.