Chocolate colors

Wildly dotted chocolates, shiny silver chocolate bars, Easter bunnies with colorful flowers between their paws or a chocolate Santa Claus with a beautiful red coat - all these treats are easy to make with the colors specially designed for chocolate. The various chocolate colors differ from other paste, powder and liquid colors in that they spread well in high-fat masses. If you want to buy chocolate colors, you should consider in advance exactly what you want to use them for. We offer a large selection of different colors in various forms. You are guaranteed to find the right chocolate colorant for making your desired creation online or in the store.

Why do we need special chocolate colors for couverture and chocolate?

Chocolate is rich in cocoa butter and therefore needs lipophilic, i.e. fat-loving, colorants. Most conventional food colorings are water-based and therefore unsuitable. If couverture comes into contact with water and is mixed with it, it clumps together and can no longer be used for pure chocolate products. In small quantities, such as those used for coloring, the couverture would probably not yet form lumps, but the consistency would already be negatively affected. Furthermore, the pigments in water-based powders or gels would not spread well and would hardly add any coloring power. Colored cocoa butter or colored couverture is always used to paint molds before they are poured. However, other water-soluble powder paints and glitter with alcohol or gloss varnish can also be used for subsequent painting. You don't have to use a specific powder for this, but there are types that work better than others. You can find out more about this under the corresponding powders. All kinds of mica and powders can also be used for powdering and dusting. Only if the couverture is expected to mix with the color or bond over the surface while still liquid, a special fat-soluble food coloring must be used.

How is cocoa butter chocolate coloring used?

Colored cocoa butter is easy to use and therefore also helps beginners to achieve great results. It is already pre-tempered and can therefore be used straight away. To do this, place the very well-sealed bottle in a warm water bath or melt it very carefully in the microwave. It must not be heated above 45 degrees, otherwise it will no longer be tempered and can therefore no longer be used for shiny chocolate products. The mold can be prepared during the melting process. It should be clean and dry. Then take a fine handkerchief or some non-fibrous absorbent cotton and polish the indentations with it. The polished surfaces should not be touched afterwards, neither from the inside nor from the outside. Otherwise a fingerprint will be visible on the praline, chocolate bar or figurine. Once the mold is polished, it can be painted. Mix the cocoa butter again and then start to apply it. You can paint it on with a brush and create flowers, for example, or the eyes of chocolate bunnies and Sami lice. Make sure that the outermost layer, in this case the pupil, is painted on first. Once it is slightly drawn on, the white of the eye can be painted over it. The cocoa butter can also be sprayed by running your finger over the brush and letting the bristles spring forward slightly. You can also use a chocolate airbrush, here a little cocoa butter is filled into the appropriate funnel and sprayed over the praline, figure or bar shape. Short sprays create fine splashes, longer sprays can also achieve an opaque coating. For a special effect, you can put on a rubber glove, hold a finger in the cocoa butter and run it over the mold. This creates a beautiful wide and slightly translucent color stripe.

Then prepare one or two pieces of kitchen paper and pull the mold over them once so that any excess paint splashes around the edges are removed. The mold can then be filled with tempered couverture. Depending on the couverture chosen, the colors will be brighter or slightly weaker. For a particularly intense result, we recommend using white chocolate as a base. For pralines, hollow figures and filled chocolate bars, the polycarbonate mold is emptied again after one to two minutes, leaving a thin layer of chocolate behind. Remove any excess couverture with a spatula or metal horn and place the mold in the refrigerator for a few minutes. It can then be filled with a melt-in-the-mouth ganache and sealed with couverture. Chill everything again before unmolding, then the chocolate will release easily from the mould. If the chocolate has been tempered correctly and worked cleanly, the surface will shine beautifully and colored dots, lines or areas will adorn your work.

How is powder coloring for liquid chocolate used correctly?

With powder paints, white couverture is used directly to allow the pigments to develop their full strength. The powder is fat-soluble and is therefore optimally distributed in the couverture, giving it a beautiful color. For an even result when coloring chocolate, the powder should only be mixed with a small amount of couverture first. Only when the color is completely dissolved and no dark streaks or dots are visible is the mixture returned and mixed with the rest. If the coloring is a little too pale for your taste, you can remove some of it and repeat the process. If there is a somewhat grainy-looking part in the large mass, you can use a blender. However, make sure not to mix in any air. The dyed couverture can be used as usual for icing and painting, coating cake pops or creating decorations. Instead of coloring everything, you can also mix several cups with different colors and use them like cocoa butter to make up molds. The powder paint is not only suitable for coloring chocolate, but also for other fatty masses such as buttercream or similar.

How to use fat-soluble paste paint correctly?

The fat-soluble paste color is used in a similar way to the corresponding powder color for coloring white couverture. As an oil-based colorant, it is also suitable for cake batter, meringue, fondant, buttercream and much more. The pastes have a very strong coloring power, so only add a little at a time. Then mix with a rubber scraper or spatula and leave to stand for a few minutes. The color will become much more intense over this short time, so always wait a little before adding more color. One advantage of paste paints, apart from their particularly good mixability and color strength, is their resistance to fading. The pigments hardly lighten at all, even if they are exposed to strong light for a long time, so the products made with them are also suitable for display. The colored couverture can be used as usual, just like the powder colors.