Enrobing – Step by Step

Enrobing is a simple method and, as a chocolatier, one that I use frequently to finish my chocolates and confections. Also referred to as “dipping”, enrobing is simply the act of covering an item in chocolate.

The beauty of enrobing is that you don’t need to make the chocolate from scratch in order to enrobe — you can use pre bought chocolate, such as your favourite chocolate bar ( raw or cooked ) or you can use cacao paste.

Recently, I have really taken to using cacao paste/mass/ liquor to enrobing my confections as it’s easy, fast and there’s no sugar added to it at all.

Cacao paste ( also referred to as cacao mass or cacao liquor ) is 100% cacao and that’s all!

When you are enrobing something sweet, you don’t need to have sweet chocolate around it — the sweetness of the enrobed confection is generally enough to shine through the bitterness of the 100% cacao and, in fact, the bitterness adds a lovely layer of flavour and complexity to the finished product.

Here’s a quick video I made that shows all the steps to easily and quickly enrobing.

If you prefer written instruction, below you will find a step by step process of general enrobing. If you have any questions or problems, please leave a comment below and we’ll troubleshoot the issues to get you successful in enrobing.

Using pre-made chocolate

• Whether you’re using cacao paste or a pre made chocolate bar, chop up into small pieces ––the smaller they are, the faster they will melt. Pop 1/2 of the pieces into a stainless steel mixing bowl.

• Fill a sauce pot about 1 inch with water.

• Put the bowl of chocolate on top; the bowl should not touch the water or it can burn the chocolate.

• Bring water to a simmer and stir the chocolate constantly, over a low simmer, until it has melted evenly.

• Once the chocolate is melted, remove from the bowl from on top of the pot and add the remaining 1/2 of the chocolate you chopped up.

• Stir that chocolate through until it’s all melted.

• Learn how to temper chocolate.

• Have any garnish you’d like to use to decorate the chocolate in a ramekin or something easy to grab from.

• The confection shouldn’t be straight out of the freezer–– if it’s been frozen, allow it to come to cool room temp before enrobing. If they are coming right from the fridge, let them sit at room temp for 10-15 mins before enrobing.

• Set yourself up so that the confection is set to your left (reverse if you are left-handed). Put a fork and your bowl of melted chocolate in front of you, and a tray lined with greaseproof or a teflex lined dehydrator tray is set to your right.

• Drop one confection into the bowl of chocolate.

• Use your fork to push it into the chocolate and then fish it out––avoid dragging it up the side of the bowl.

• Tap the fork on the side of the bowl and swipe the bottom of the fork along the edge of the bowl to remove excess chocolate.

• For aesthetic reasons, take your time to ensure you have removed as much excess as possible, otherwise you will end up with a puddle under your finished confection.

• If you want to coat the confection in something, like desiccated coconut, drop it into the bowl of coconut and coat fully.

• Lift the chocolate out of the crumb, shake off the excess and place on the empty tray to your right.

• If you simply want to sprinkle some garnish on top of the item, do so after dipping and placing on the prepared tray.

• As the chocolate cools, it’ll thicken, simply give it a tiny bit of heat on the double boiler again as before, just to loosen it up.

• Once all chocolates are enrobed and garnished, set the tray in the fridge for about 5 minutes and then allow to set the remainder of the way at room temp.