Chocolate panning isa temperature-dependent method in which the coating solutions are melted under the influence of heat and hardened again by the removal of this heat. Several layers of warm melted coating are applied to the centres and solidified again by cooling. Chocolate panning is probably no longer the correct name for this process. Although chocolate is still the predominant coating medium today, compound and yoghurt coatings are fast gaining popularity.
Soft coatings are produced with the albsorption and desorption of moisture. A liquid is applied and allowed to fllow over the centre before it is dried out using absorbing solids. The liquidshould have adequate bonding prop-erties to hold all the solid particles (usually a sugar) in place. Frequently, multiple layers of powder will be reqluired to completely dry out the whole wet layer as far as the centre material is concerned. Relatively thick layers can be applied to the centres and so the product rapidly gains weight, which makes this technique particularly useful in the confectionery industry.
Depending upon the amount and type of the powder used, soft coatings harden over time to almost the same hardness levels as hard coatings. Sugar eggs and jellybeans are just two of the more well-known products made utilizing this method.
Hard coating is a method, where thesolids are dissolved in their respective solvent. In confectionery, water is predominantly used for this task.Any type of sugar can be dissolved in water toa concentration close to its saturation point at the usage temperature. The higher the solids content in the liquid, normally the shorter will be the drying time. Care should be taken not to over-dry and cause cracking, or to dry too quickly because of encapsulating moisture that will later migrate throtugh the sweet and damage the finish of the product. Hard coating is also knovvn as warm coating or French coating. The name French coating goes back toa time when this type of process was mostly carried out in France. Warm ceoating is a process where the pan was heated with steam coils or by an opengas-flame placed under the pan. Today most hard coatings are carried out aat lower temperatures to prevent the centres from deforming or melting