Chocolate hedgehogs

And now for something completely different, how about a little chocolate?

Or maybe a LOT of chocolate!  Dani made a polymer clay hedgehog for me when she was home for Christmas, and I finally got around to ordering some food-grade silicone putty ( Easy Mold 1:1 RTV Silicone Putty) to make some molds.  PLEASE...do not use any mold-making material except for ones that specify food-grade.  And don't use your molds for anything except for food.  If you use them with another material, please retire them from food making.  Better safe than sorry!

So here's what I did:

1. Measure out the putty carefully by weight.  If you don't get the ratio right, the silicone will either fail to harden properly, or you'll find that it's grainy and won't take a good impression.  Mix it by hand quickly but thoroughly. 

2. Press your mold into the silicone, squeezing and rolling gently to get all the details and to avoid bubbles.  Create a flat part on the top, which will become the bottom when you are pouring chocolate.

3. Unmold your model.  It's really that easy - silicone doesn't stick to anything, so it should pop right out.  Your chocolate candies will pop right out too. 

Two chocolate hedgehogs sit next to the original model

4. Temper and pour your chocolate, adding fillings if you wish.  I did wish, and I added peanut butter truffle filling to the middle of each.  Here's a link to the post that has the info on tempering chocolate and also the recipe that I use for the peanut butter filling.  Yum :-)  

Easy Mold 1:1 RTV Silicone Putty Easy Mold Putty is a strong, flexible, food-grade mold-making material for plaster, concrete, wax, soap, low-melt metal, baking, chocolate, ice cubes, air-dry clay, and resins. It's excellent for picking up small details. The putty has a work time of 3 minutes and a cure time of 20 minutes. Easy Mold can be heated up to 400°F (204°C), is self-releasing , and will not shrink after curing.