cookies with wax?!?!

Hi!

A friend recently gave me a recipe for cookies with peanut butter, corn flakes & chocolate, and one of the ingredients in the recipe was WAX. Now it surprised me at first, having never used that in cooking and having never eaten wax, but i was wondering if it's something any of you had encountered and if so, what kind of wax should is recommended and where to buy it? I know there's paraffin on sale at the grocery store, but is that ok to be used for cooking??

Thanks in advance :)

btw, this is a serious post... for any who would think i'm kidding (like some friends who i asked the same questions) :)

Reply to
Leph28
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Unfortunately, you aren't kidding. The classic recipe for "buckeyes" (peanut butter centers dipped in chocolate) also includes wax. The specific wax used in these recipes is paraffin wax that is sold along side canning supplies in grocery and discount stores. The most common brand in my area is "Gulf Wax." It is sold in one pound packages that consist of 4 slabs of wax.

As far as I can tell, the wax is added to prevent blooming of the chocolate and perhaps to make it more fluid when melted. I'm sure someone here can be more informative. The question, in my opinion, is whether this is the best approach to the problem. In very small quantities, it is probably harmless but I don't think that the wax is intended to be eaten, and I always wonder how pure a product like paraffin can be. That is, are there trace amounts of nasty things like benzene?

To be safe, I would suggest that you try using a more natural product. Specifically, a hydrogenated palm oil shortening would do the same thing. Yes, I know that hydrogenated tropical oils aren't healthy, but I think they would be a better choice than a petroleum based product. You can purchase shortenings specifically designed for chocolate work at cake and candy supply houses. Here is a link to the Sugarcraft page where you can find "Paramount Crystal Flakes" to use instead of paraffin.

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Reply to
Vox Humana

I know many years ago, when I was first working chocolate, some recipes did put a small percentage of paraffin wax into the melting chocolate, it's suppose to firm up the chocolate I believe, I didn't like the idea so never used it. Chocolate is tricky stuff to work with I find....... qahtan

Reply to
qahtan

Yes. I think that if you don't want to use a shortening designed for chocolate, it would be better to use compound coating. Wax would be my choice of last resort.

Reply to
Vox Humana

Carnauba wax is an ingredient in most candies these days, and is made from the leaves of the carnauba palm, so, your suggestion seems pretty much on base.

Locust bean gum too - it's no nastier than carob . . . . . .

Reply to
Eric Jorgensen

Chocolate does not contain wax. I have made real chocolate in pilot plant scale ( up to 50 kg total batch weight)using the Macintyre refiner / conch and the ingredients used are chocolate liquor sugar,,cocoa butter, lecithin and polyglycerol polyricinoleate(PGPR) and vanilla powder. In some formulation I add sorbitan mono and tri stearate as anti-blooming agents.In particular in compound coatings. In the same machinery I have formulated and made various chocolate related products such as milk.soy, sugar free, coatings, praline paste etc. I could never remember that there is the so called wax added to it. BTW, the cocoa butter is really hard like rock, is this what you call as wax.? On the other hand.... I had also experienced making panned confectionery goods related to M&M candies,jelly beans, dragees etc and indeed one of the ingredients used in the end to make the finished product glossy is a glazing agent containing and emulsion of beeswax and carnauba wax. But those things are approved for food use. As far as I can remember I have never heard that paraffin wax is part of the chocolate manufacture. IF we have to look into the physical chemistry of chocolates, the incorporation of incompantible fat may even promote fat bloom, that is why you cannot add cocoa butter incompatible fat such as hardened palm kernel oil(HPKO) that is used in chocolate compound manufacture.;rather use a compatible cocoa butter alternative(CBE) that exhibits similar triglyceride pattern as the cocoa butter so that it will maintain the desired fat polymorphism of cocoa butter .Therefore chocolate will come out satisfactorily.

Now to make it more fluid during spinning of easter egg and bunny molds( chocolate will spread evenly) what is added is a minute amounts of a liquid emulsifier which I mentioned above as PGPR. That will technically improved the Caissons yield value and plastic viscosity of the finished chocolates.Or in short improved the fluidity of the chocolate so that it will spread evenly on the molds to maintain consistency in large scale molded chocolates manufacture. Roy

Reply to
rbasan7

"Vox Humana" wrote in news:_B6td.42760$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.columbus.rr.com:

Wax is sometimes specified in homemade chocolate candies to make the chocolate firmer and less susceptible to melting.

A fair number of cheaper commercials chocolate candies also contain wax for the same reason.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

That sounds odd Wayne..... if what you mean is 'tropicalizing' the chocolates to be stable to abnormal storage temperatures that is common with tropical climate, then what is to be added there is not pure wax.... but some kind of higher melting point fat that contains cocoa butter compatible triglycerides . Indeed those chocoalates that contains such higher melting point fat had a somewaht waxy mouthfeel.but still edible. And what you mean as cheaper chocolates are not real chocolates but are made from compounds or coatings which does not contain cocoa butter but cocoa butter alternative.fat that is made by combining cocoa liqour, cocoabutter alternative fat( usually lauric fats), sugar, vanillin and lecithin and even sorbitan mono and tristearate.It is milled and refined like chocoalte but in a shorter duration. Beside a true wax has a different chemical constitution than normal triglycerides used in confectionery manufacture. Roy .

Reply to
Roy

"Roy" wrote in news:1102395769.412489.47830 @c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

On the whole, Roy, you're probably right. Although I can't quote the product (I've forgotten), I remember seeing wax on the ingredient list of some inexpensive chocolates.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

Sorry.......

but cocoa butter alternative.fat I think I made an error here..... the 10/12 cocoa powder used as the base for such compound formulations also contains that amount of cocoa butter in the prefix. But that is the maximum limit of the amount of cocoa butter present that will not affect the quality of the end product- compound coatings.

etc... Darn..... Another error.....what is used is actually cocoa powder(10/12 type) instead of cocoa /chocolate liqour. Roy

Reply to
Roy

Maybe you should forget all about this recipe and make some thing else. :-))) qahtan

Reply to
qahtan

Yes. But the OP wanted to add wax to chocolate as is the practice of many home candy makers. I wasn't suggesting that you could buy real chocolate or even chocolate (compound) coatings that already contained wax.

After thinking about it, I remembered that cocoa butter would be a good substitute for the paraffin wax. Again, I would look at a cake and candy supply house for a substitute.

Reply to
Vox Humana

Of, maybe give it a try without the wax.

Reply to
Vox Humana

Hardened fat flakes such as hydrogenated palm or cottonseed oil are high melting point fat( similar to wax) and if you add it to your recipe you will come up also with a waxy mouthfeel and taste. But I will never think about adding petroleum derived high melting point hydrocarbons as a food additive if there is an altnernative for such. Anyway there is a so called wax coating such as applied in fruits but the desired material for such application is the so called acetylated monoglyceride which confer the same protection as wax.And this special monoglyceride is well recognized food additive. Going back to the OP problem of adding wax to cookies,

It his prerogative if he wants to...but its a bit odd.

goods) its not advisable to do so. He wants something to simulate the wax effect then let him try the paramount crystal flakes which is more edible to think about than plain paraffin wax. But if he only wants to understand about the so called wax in chocolates; well some chocolate morsels that are panned and appears glossy really contain wax....as I mentioned earlier.....carnauba or beeswax..... but that is plant and animal derived so more appealing to think about.

If he plan to add M&M in his cookies to make it colorful then indeed there is wax in it! Roy

Reply to
Roy

(Please NOTE: My correct e-mail address is in my Signature) On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 05:13:29 GMT, during the rec.food.baking Community News Flash Wayne Boatwright reported:

That will teach you to buy crap chocolate!

Reply to
Davida Chazan - The Chocolate Lady

Davida Chazan - The Chocolate Lady wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Oh, I didn't buy the crap. I just read the label.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

You might also try "tempering" the chocolate. It is something that helps keep the chocolate from melting in one's hand, among other things.

A chocolate newsgroup will be able to tell you how to do this, if you wish. It involves careful heating to a certain temp and holding at that temp for several minutes.

No additives. And it is the professional way to do it.

Reply to
Alan Moorman

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