How long would cream filled chocolates keep for?

by Mandi
(England)

I have a question about the shelf life of homemade chocolate. How long would cream filled chocolates keep for?

I'm looking in to making my friends and family cream filled chocolates for Christmas, with each of them choosing their own flavouring and chocolate (dark/milk/white).


The only issue I'm having is the filling, I work in a gift shop and we sell handmade Belgium chocolate (by Van Coillie) and the rep for them said some chocolates are preserved with a tiny bit of alcohol.


What I'm asking is, I've found a recipe for creme filling that calls for butter, icing powder and a tiny bit of milk and optional flavourings/colourings, but I don't know how long this recipe keeps for? Would anybody know?


I'm also considering the idea of using fresh cream and flavourings - I know that alcohol and sugar are natural preservatives but I don't know how well they would work to preserve the cream and how long it would keep for or how much alcohol/sugar should be used, does anyone have any experience with this?


I've looked at the Basic Fondant recipe and Uncooked Cream Fondant recipe on here, but I don't know how long these would last either?


Sorry there are a lot of questions in this, but I want to make these chocolates something special and I don't want to go giving my friends and family food poisoning for Christmas! So any help would be great.


Thanks,
Mandi

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Hi Mandi,

It's tough to answer a question about how long cream filled chocolates would keep for because there are so many variables to consider.


I understand your concern about not wanting to give your family food poisoning :) but I don't really think that would be a likely outcome.


Cream filled chocolates are usually pretty safe if they are kept at a stable cool room temperature and not exposed to a lot of light (particularly white chocolate).


The main tip I would suggest is to be sure that you thoroughly cover the fillings so that there are no cracks in the chocolate where air can get to the centers.


If you go to the trouble of tempering the chocolate, you'll have an even better and more stable result.


Using fondant in your centers is certainly an option. Of course, there are things to consider with that too. For example, if you use fondant around cherries to make chocolate covered cherries, as they set, the fondant undergoes a change to create more of a liquid center. It's supposed to do that and doesn't indicate that the fondant has gone "off" or anything like that.


I honestly think your cream filled chocolates would be perfectly fine between now and Christmas as it's only a month away, but perhaps others who have made cream filled chocolate candy for Christmas gifts (in advance) can give you some more specific pointers and timescales.


Hope they turn out great. I'm sure your family will love them.

Blessings,
Angie from chocolate-candy-mall.com


P.S. Here's an interesting article about chocolate shelf life by a quality control consultant from Blommer candy that may give you further insight.