Chocolate & Candy g
Chocolate Mold Fill Calculator
Making solid bars or filled bonbons? See how much chocolate to temper, how much ends up in the molds, and for bonbons, how much ganache filling to make.
How to use it
- Choose solid pieces or filled shells and your mold, or enter its cavities and size.
- Enter how many molds you'll fill.
- Temper the amount shown; for bonbons, use the link to make the filling.
How it works
Solid pieces use the cavity's full weight of chocolate. Shells about 1.5 mm thick use roughly 38% of that and the caps about 14%; the filling takes about half the cavity, leaving room for the cap.
You need more tempered chocolate than the molds hold: shells are filled to the top and poured out, and small batches lose their temper fast, so the tool adds a working margin with a sensible minimum.
Assumptions and limits
- Chocolate weighs about 1.27 g per mL and ganache about 1.2.
- Shell thickness varies with temperature and technique.
Tips
- Polish polycarbonate molds with cotton before using for the best shine.
- Let shells set 10 minutes before filling, and fillings set overnight before capping.
- Tap the mold firmly to release air bubbles after filling.
Recipes to try it with
Questions
How much chocolate do I need for a bonbon mold?
For a 24-cavity mold of 10 g pieces, temper at least 500 g; the shells and caps use about 120 g.
How much filling per bonbon?
About half the cavity, roughly 4 to 5 g of ganache in a 10 g mold.
Can I use chocolate chips for molds?
They'll work for solid pieces, but bars or couverture melt more fluidly and give thinner, shinier shells.
Why won't my chocolates release from the mold?
The chocolate likely wasn't tempered, or the mold was too warm. Tempered chocolate shrinks as it sets and pops out.