I can't get my chocolates out of their molds!

[princess-bubblegum]

Hello everyone! I've recently become smitten with the idea of making cupcakes topped with chocolates in various shapes. I bought a few holiday themed molds off of amazon and ebay. They're all made of plastic and aren't the sturdiest things. I was throwing a horror movie party this past weekend, and I wanted to use a mold to make brain-shaped chocolates. I melted some chocolate chips and poured them into the mold, and then froze them. Once they were solidified, I couldn't get them out of the mold at all without breaking the chocolates! I tried lining the mold with plastic wrap. I was able to get them out of the mold that way, but they didn't look like brains anymore. Any tips or insight would be greatly appreciated. I'm not the best baker in the world, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm doing something very obvious the wrong way. Could it be because my molds are cheap? I read reviews on them and people seemed to feel favorably about them. I'm just puzzled.

 

[OhioTom76]

I think you could have tried spraying the molds with cooking spray instead. Another thing you could have done was to briefly submerge the bottoms of the molds in hot water to soften the perimeter of the chocolates slightly. Or perhaps flip the molds over and hit them with a hair dryer for just a bit until they pop out.

 

[TheViper]

You should try lining it with wax paper and some olive oil. Though, I haven't made any molds yet. Don't take my suggestion as fact but as a probability to your problem.

 

[NThomas]

If you put you molds in the freezer after they have hardened the choclate will shrink away from the edges and allow you to remove the forms. Don't allow them to set in the frezzer wait until after the chocolate is solid and them place it in the freezer for a few minutes.You don't want your choclate frozen just chilled to a low tempature.

 

[Becky]

I agree with NThomas, you don't want to put your chocolate straight into the freezer to set. Tempering the chocolate may also help!

 

[MyDigitalpoint]

I spray cooking oil as OhioTom suggests and this technique gives chocolate a lustrous appearance without modifying the taste, just make sure to use plain oil because now some spry cooking oils come with butter, garlic and other flavors.

I also use silicon molds now, and this make much easier take chocolates out of the mold, but these are not very easy to find besides being somewhat costly. I received my set as a gift though.