I got a recipe from my sister for chocolate covered peanut butter balls. Think Reeces, but as little balls about acorn size. It calls for paraffin wax, ostensibly to make the chocolate have a waxy sheen and hold together well at room temp.
Long story short, my Interent research leaves me with mixed feelings. This lady, whom I know nothing about other than that her name is Peggy, says it’s no big deal, and that a particular kind of paraffin wax is routinely used in candy making. On the other hand, there’s this person, about whom I know nothing but who gives off the vibes of an expert, who says that the sky will fall if you eat paraffin wax.
I also found a couple of discussion sites that were pretty much dead-ends.
Thing is, looking back at around Christmas time, I had an awful lot of let’s say digestive distress that possibly could be contributed to almost anything, except that my diet was pretty restricted, and I ate lot of my sister’s chocolate peanut butter balls. I’m beginning to wonder if they caused the problem.
There are people who say to use shortening instead of wax, but disagree on the amount. And there are people who recommend this stuff, “couverture”. But it’s very expensive and, holy cow, just look what’s involved with using it. There are forty ways to screw it up.
Any of the Doper chefs, bakers, and candy makers have any advice about this? I didn’t know that chocolate melted at room temp anyway. Why can’t I just melt some chocolate and dip my balls in it?
I am hardly an expert, but we made peanut butter eggs in my youth and we added wax to the chocolate. I am told that it is to help to keep it from melting on very hot days.
I will answer after I compose myself. That last line was gold.
Paraffin wax is added to things to help retain moisture, give gloss, and, in the case of your chocolate balls, you already almost had your answer: chocolate melts at room temperature. Adding wax prevents this.
Paraffin wax is edible, however, depending on the type you get, some people have allergic reactions to certain ingredients. Could you ask your sister what the brand name of the wax was? You might be able to pinpoint what gave you so much trouble.
I’m sorry you had digestive distress. Buckeyes (generic name for the candy you described) are sooo delicious. Is t possible that you simply ate too many?
So, natural and synthetic paraffinic waxes are approved by the FDA along with a host of more bizarre and unpleasant sounding chemicals in that document. It is safe to eat in small amounts, and probably more safe than a dozen additives you eat every day.
That isn’t to say it can’t cause digestive distress, eat a bag of sugar free chocolate (with FDA approved sugar alcohols) and you’ll spend the rest of your night on the toilet.
Oh man, those are excellent. We call them Buckeyes around here (oh, I see Anastasaeon does as well). The recipe I use calls for 18 oz of chocolate and 1/2 bar of paraffin wax. When I make them, I usually end up using more like 1/4 of a bar of the wax. Not out of any fear of the wax, but I always like to maximize the chocolate level in a given serving. I personally find it a little too easy to overindulge on the Buckeyes, and have given myself about the same digestive distress as other occasions when I have loaded up on that much sugar and butter. Never seems to stop me the next time, though …
You don’t have to put in the wax; I don’t. However, if you leave out the wax, when you dip the chocolates you have to be a lot more careful. Cool the room down to about 60 degrees (work next to an open door/window). Melt the chocolate, and put a small amount in your dipping dish (I use an old electric fying pan). Stir it with your fingers until it’s cooler, and test readiness by putting dabs on your tray. When the chocolate sets up nicely within a couple of minutes, you can start dipping. Your time window won’t be large; that’s why I use a pan that lets me turn on a little heat for a few seconds, to warm it up again.
All this is a hassle, so it’s a lot easier to use the wax and not worry about cooling down your area.
It’s a recipe that my family has made for years and years. We use a tiny bit of paraffin wax, and I was told it’s to make the chocolate shinier and also a bit harder once it cools.
I didn’t make any this Christmas, and I am soooo craving them now. Thanks a LOT Liberal!
There’s something I still don’t understand. Maybe it’s a difference in recipes. The chocolate involved here is semi-sweet morsels. They’re in bags and they’re not melted as they sit on the counter at room temp. They’re perfectly solid. Why is it that if they’re wrapped around peanut butter balls, they suddenly start melting at room temp? Solid now. Melt later. Why?
And for a serious answer: Peanut butter = high fat content. I suspect the oils from the peanut butter will leech into the chocolate covering, thus allowing for lower melting temperatures. Which, I again suspect, is why wax is used. Not only for the outer layer to be shiny, but for the inner layer between peanut butter and chocolate to impede oil secretion.
Not near my “On food and cooking…” book, will look tonight.
As for the paraffin wax: I’d never heard of this until last month, when my mom and I got together to make Christmas cookies. We used a recipe that sounds similar to yours. I didn’t even notice that it called for paraffin wax at first, and didn’t buy any. My mom found a box of it in her basement that looked like it was older than me. I was worried, but she pointed out that it was just wax. It’s not like candles go bad, right? When I asked her why we would put wax in our chocolate, her answer was, “Because it helps it set better.” She also said it’s completely natural when making candy. And, for the record, nobody got sick from eating our chocolate salty balls.
Tempering. The chocolate you buy is tempered, that is the cocoa solids are in an orderly crystal structure. When you melt it, that structure is destroyed and the chocolate will be less stable unless you temper it again while cooling. Tempering is a fairly exact process of heating and cooling, not too easy for the home cook. I think that’s why they put the wax in, to give it the hard, glossy feel of tempered chocolate without the difficulty of tempering.
Yeah, what Cheesesteak said. My wife does Chrissie choccies using berries and various oils. Even using serious Belgian stuff, they need refrigeration or they ‘sweat’.
If you’re up for cooking with chocolate over a double boiler or carefuly with a microwave, be prepared to use wax or a product that needs to be pretty cool most of the time.
