Enrobing
Passing centres under a curtain of tempered chocolate on a belt. The industrial alternative to shell moulding.
An enrobing line carries prepared centres on a mesh belt through a falling curtain of tempered chocolate, coating them on all sides, with an air knife blowing off excess and a cooling tunnel setting the coating.
It suits centres firm enough to handle — set ganache, caramel, marzipan, biscuit — and it produces the characteristic foot where coating spread at the base. Very soft fillings cannot be enrobed and must be shell moulded instead, which is the practical division between the two techniques.
What it does
Coats prepared centres by passing them under a chocolate curtain, with excess removed by air and the coating set in a cooling tunnel.
Why it matters
It is how most commercially coated confectionery is made, and it determines which fillings are possible — a filling must be firm enough to survive the belt.
- Typical temperature
- 10–18°C
- Why the range is wide
- The cooling tunnel temperature is the parameter that matters. Too cold and the coating cracks or blooms; too warm and it never sets properly.
When it goes wrong
Cracking, from a cooling tunnel that is too cold or a centre that was chilled before coating.
Related
Defines
- Enrobed chocolatePassing centres under a curtain of tempered chocolate on a belt. The industrial alternative to shell moulding.
- Chocolate batonsExtruded to a fixed rectangular section on industrial equipment, which is why they are a bakery supply rather than a retail product.
Compared in
- Shell moulding vs enrobingSet against Shell moulding, with the practical consequence of each difference.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- The Science of Chocolate — Royal Society of Chemistry(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)