How to Use Paramount Crystals

They may melt and reharden into a block if stored in temperature extremes, but it can be broken off or cut up into smaller pieces easily. Every confectioner will have their own ratio, but a standard guide is to work in a tablespoon into your batch of melted chocolate and see how it performs for you, adding a tablespoon at a time - roughly 1/4 cup per pound - until you get the consistency you need. You can always add more when needed - but too much makes your chocolate too thin.

Paramount Crystals vs. Cocoa Butter vs. Shortening

Paramount crystals are used the same way as shortening and cocoa butter in keeping chocolate fluid and keeping it smooth - with three main advantages.

1. The first is the consistency. The palm oil in paramount crystals keeps it hard when cold, unlike standard shortening which stays soft when cold - so it won't change the end consistency of the chocolate when used correctly.
2. The second is flavor. Paramount crystals virtually have no flavor, while shortening and cocoa butter will have a slight inherent flavor. Paramount crystals are flavor free.
3. The third is cost. Cocoa butter remains hard at room temperature like paramount crystals, but cocoa butter is expensive. You wouldn't want to waste your cocoa butter in standard or cheap chocolate wafers, so if you have the real stuff, keep the cocoa butter with 'real' chocolate tempering. It really does work wonders there.

This article was first published on pastrysampler.com on January 8, 2011. It was updated on September 30, 2020.

"Chocolate molding" by daniel_ge is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0.