HOW TO MOULD IN CORNSTARCH.
As you use the center cream for the inside of chocolate creams, you must have some method of moulding them on account of that cream being so soft and sticky. This is done in cornstarch, the same kind as you use for cooking purposes, as that does not stick to the candy in the least. Get the cheapest grade possible, as that answers the purpose. It should cost you from five to eight cents a box, and we would advise you to get four or five boxes at once, as it never spoils and may be used indefinitely, over and over again. When you are through with it, scoop it out into a large jar until you need it again.
Take a square, shallow pan, from one-half to one inch deep, or a pie pan will answer the purpose as well, and sift starch into it until you have enough in to fill it. Then with a smooth stick that extends over each side of the pan, smooth it off very even. By having the stick extend over edges of the pan, you will not pack the starch down, which is very necessary to avoid, as you cannot make your impressions perfect if your starch is packed in the least, and consequently this starch must be sifted into the pan and not scooped in. In smoothing it off, place your stick on the pan at one end and push it across, and in that manner you will not pack the starch in the least. Now take your stick with the style of moulds glued on you intend using, take hold of each end of it, and press the moulds down into the starch until the stick strikes the sides of the pan; carefully raise the stick and you will then find your impressions in the starch ready to be filled. Continue in this manner until you have the pan full of impressions, always remembering that every time you make a new row of impressions, you must, when pressing the moulds down in the starch, press away from the ones you just made, the least trifle, so you will not spoil them, as this cornstarch is very treacherous, and if you should happen to press the moulds the least bit toward the impressions previously made, you would cause them to cave in. By having the ends of your stick protrude over the edges of the pan as directed, you will thus get all the impressions the exact depth. You must be very careful and do not jar the table a particle or attempt to move the pan before filling the impressions with center cream, for if you do, you are liable to spoil them.
Take as much center cream as you wish, and put it into the double boiler with hot water underneath it, set on the fire and stir until it melts, and do not allow any water to get in with the cream. As soon as it is thin, color and flavor any way you wish, and let it remain on the stove until it gets good and hot. It must be hot or it will not harden in the starch, but remember the hotter you get it, the harder it will be after it is cool, and as you do not wish them to be too hard, be careful and not allow it to get too hot. The best way to test this, is to take some out upon your spoon and touch your tongue to it and if it is very warm it is ready to use. Now set off the stove, but do not take the inside boiler with the cream in it out of the water, as it must be kept warm. Dip a little out in a spoon and pour it into the impression. In doing this you will soon get an idea about how much to dip out each time in the spoon in order to fill the impression. If you have dipped out too much to fill it, as soon as it is full, quickly turn the spoon up, as you only want the impression level full. Continue in this manner until you fill them all. You must work rapidly, and will soon be able to drop the cream in the impressions without striking the edges and breaking them down. If you use a funnel to drop these centers, you must warm it a little over a fire, but do not get it hot, just warm; then take the handle of the funnel in your left hand, and with your right hand push the stick down into the end of the funnel, and have someone else pour the heated center cream into the funnel. Hold the end of the funnel over one of the impressions in the starch, and lift the stick with your right hand, allowing enough cream to run into the mould to fill it. Continue in this manner till all have been filled. If the cream becomes too thick to run out of the spoon, or funnel, readily, set it back on the stove a few moments, until the water under it boils again, then it will be thin enough to run out as before. If you made this cream correctly in the first place, it will never be necessary to add any water to it in order to have it run out of the spoon; but in case you misread your thermometer and cooked it a little too much, it may be so thick that it will require a few drops of water, but add very little. In from ten to twenty minutes, the centers will be hard enough to pick out of the starch and blow off. Very little of the starch will stick to them as you lift them out, but what does will blow off easily. You may do this with your mouth, or better still, if you have any kind of a small bellows in the house, put the centers in a pan as you take them from the starch, and when they are all taken out, squeeze the bellows on them several times, and they are perfectly clean. In blowing this starch off, we would advise you to take them outdoors and do it, as the starch makes quite a dust in the kitchen. They are now ready to coat with chocolate, and do this as directed in article on Chocolate Coating.
All chocolate creams are moulded in this manner, excepting Orientals. You may make these any shape or size centers that you have moulds for. These centers should be coated within several hours after being moulded.
If you wish chopped nuts of any kind in the centers, stir them in well, just before you commence dropping them in the starch, or you may if you wish, drop a large piece or a whole half of a nut in each impression, then pour the cream on top of it.
If you use a funnel, and wish to use nuts in the centers, do not add the nuts to the cream before being run in the starch, but simply drop them in the empty mould before hand, and run the cream on top, till it fills the mould.
If they do not harden in the starch, it is because of the water you added or else because you did not get the cream hot enough, and they may be picked out, blown off, and re-melted again without hurting the cream in the least. These centers will mellow up a great deal after being coated with chocolate, and are better after they stand a few days.
If you should have more cream melted up than you have impressions made for, you may flavor it highly with wintergreen or peppermint, and with a spoon, drop it out in wafers.
While it really does not come under this heading, we will say here that centers moulded in this manner and coated with bon-bon cream make a very nice cheap bon-bon, but are not to be compared with the ones made after the style we direct you to, in article on Bon-Bon Making. A great many confectioners never make bon-bons in any other manner than this, but you will see the others are much finer.
It is a failing of many persons to heat the center too hot so that it will run through the funnel more readily, but the result is a hard center that will never get soft, and nothing can be done to soften it after it is once hard. A chocolate center becomes soft within three or four days.