Working with Confectioner's Chocolate - lines on flipped side

Q: How do you make sure the front (visible) side of the chocolate is smooth without air holes. I made a cake this week and ended up having a lot of little air bubbles in some of my peices. Eventually I started pushing down on the chocolate from the back to try to prevent it (messy hands). How do you prevent this?

Q: Why do my chocolate decorations, when flipped, have air pockets or the texture of the piped lines?

A “Chocolate Method” decoration is supposed to be smooth and flat on the flipped and decorated side. If you see the texture of the piped chocolate or excessive air bubbles it may be caused by the chocolate not being in the desired liquid state while you were making the decoration.

If the chocolate is too cool as you pipe, it acts more like icing, keeping a linear shape. It does not flood into the area being filled or piped like a liquid would. I recommend having two pastry bags of each color chocolate. While you are working with one bag have the other bag warming on a heating pad or a sheet pan placed over a pot of barely simmering water. Switch bags often to insure you are always working with warm chocolate.

Chocolate is temperamental. It has to be kept slightly warmer than body temperature or it begins to set. I have found that the white chocolate is the perfect working temperature if it rests on a heating pad at high heat and the dark chocolate prefers a slightly hotter surface like a portable stove top or double boiler.

Humidity also affects the way chocolate melts. If your chocolate was exposed to excessive or prolonged humid conditions, you may have difficulty melting it, instead it will seize. If the seizing is not severe, you can counteract it by whisking a few drops of vegetable oil into the melted chocolate.

Another reason textural lines or air bubbles may appear in your chocolate designs is the size of the hole in the pastry cone. The larger the area you are trying to fill in the larger the hole in your pastry bag should be. Keep in mind you don’t want the hole to be so big that you are unable to control the flow of chocolate. If you try to fill in a larger area using a very small hole the first rows or lines of chocolate you piped may start to set before the other layers are in place. This creates a lacy effect with many holes. Try to work as quickly and efficiently as you can without sacrificing quality. To increase efficiency, have all of the chocolate and colored chocolates you will need to complete a design melted, poured into pastry cones, and ready to go. If you have to stop mid-design to melt chocolate this could affect the quality of your final design.