Chocolate Buttons
The basic ingredients of chocolate are: cocoa solids, cocoa butter,
skim milk solids, full cream milk solids, sugar, emulsifiers and
flavors.
The mixture of cocoa with a butter other than cocoa butter is called
compound chocolate. Taste and texture will vary with the quality of the
ingredients and the percentage of each used.
Commercially these ingredients are cooked and mixed for ten to twenty
hours making home production of chocolate extremely difficult.
Buttons Used for Moulding
Compound buttons are excellent for melting and remolding. These are
made of chocolate ingredients with Palm Kernel oil substituted for cocoa
butter.
White Buttons
These have the same ingredients as the milk and dark buttons used for
molding but contain no cocoa solids.
Coloured Buttons
These are made by mixing white buttons with oil based food colors.
Flavored Chocolate or Buttons
Oil based flavors can be added to the buttons to give a distinctive
taste.
Life of Buttons
Button life will depend upon the conditions under which they are
stored. Ideally this would be with a temperature range between 15-20°
Celsius, humidity between 60-65% with little or no sunlight. Under these
conditions a life of five years is not unreasonable. Practically, two to
three years' storage will be possible if buttons are stored in the
pantry in an air tight container. The greater the variation of
temperature, humidity or exposure to sunlight, the shorter the life of
the buttons.
Advantages of Buttons over Chocolate:
- Generally cheaper than chocolate.
- Buttons are easier to melt and remold.
- Buttons can be melted at a broader temperature range.
- Buttons do not require "tempering" in order to achieve a shiny
finish.
- Buttons will not turn white in hot temperature.
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