Gulf wax/paraffin in cooking?
A while back I asked a question about the frosting on a chocolate doughnut… if it was ganache or what have you. I was interested in dipping something in chocolate, but chocolate that set and didn’t get gooey if you stacked the items.
I found a recipe by accident for coating like the chocolate on the outside of a ding dong. Actually, the recipe was for homemade ding dongs. It called to mix Gulf wax (referred to within the instructions as paraffin) with your melting chocolate, and then dipping, and then letting it set.
Is this as disgusting as it sounds? Would I get that waxy coating in my mouth the same as you do for storebought snack cakes? Or is that the product of major industrialized pastry production, rather than the addition of the Gulf wax?
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7 Answers
I think it would matter as to how much wax your recipe calls for. My grandmother makes coconut balls every year for Christmas and uses Gulf Wax and they have never had a waxy coating.
where the heck can I get this stuff? I assume the cake/candy aisle of any craft store?
I buy mine at the grocery store – it’s in a canning section, if they have one. It’s the same stuff used to seal the jam your grandma canned.
(Granted, when I buy it, it’s for candlemaking.)
I think it’s the same stuff that they used to make fake “lips” and little tiny koolade bottles out of. We used to chew them up and spit them out. I suppose in small quantities you can eat it.
The paraffin is added to keep from having to temper the chocolate. Tempering is a series of manipulations that you have to put pure chocolate through in order to get it to crystallize into a crisp, glossy coating. It’s kind of challenging to get it right, so some recipes get around it by doing the paraffin thing.
There is definitely a taste and mouth-feel difference between pure chocolate and chocolate + paraffin. Both though will give you a crisp, not tender, coating.
There is no paraffin listed in the ingredients for Ding-Dongs, by the way. No chocolate either, for that matter.
Personally speaking, I would be inclined to use pure beeswax. Paraffin is a product of the petroleum industry.
Yes, I am aware that the powers that be have deemed it safe, etc. But still…
I just used the stuff today Made My treats look pretty and glossy. Not to mention it did not change the flavor at all, couldn’t even tell it was in there.
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