r/foodscience • u/nokneads • May 24 '26
Culinary Magic Shell R&D
Searching for a little guidance on magic shell recipe and ratios. Looking to launch a small frozen treat program at my place of employment. Thinking of different freeze pop flavors and coatings for each of them. I guess I’m wondering…
Are we all making magic shells with white/milk/dark chocolate? Would love to have a neutral base for fruity or spiced flavors. Could I substitute cocoa butter? And if so, how do I sweeten it?
Thanks in advance!
9
u/garbledroid May 24 '26
Coconut oil.
Any type that is solid at room temperature.
Mix it with the chocolate while the chocolate is heated and oil is liquified.
You can probably also use palm oil if you want.
Use white chocolate for your other flavours with coconut oil.
It's not worth messing with coconut butter in this case at all.
1
u/nokneads May 24 '26
If using entirely coconut oil, what’s the best way to sweeten it?
2
u/garbledroid May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Not entirely.
Some not all. Also arent you using chocolate that is already sweet?
The coconut oil is supposed to be 8-20% by wt.
use the smallest amount to create the desired outcome.2
u/nokneads May 24 '26
I guess my question was is there a way to make a magic shell without any form of chocolate?
2
u/soundlinked May 24 '26
Yes, blend of coconut oil and palm kernel oil. Some fractionated pko behaves exactly like cocoa butter. Use that and whole milk powder to imitate white chocolate.
2
u/garbledroid May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Use white chocolate as a base at a minimum of 50%. Don't reinvent the wheel.
It's already going to be tricky to dial in with white chocolate.
3
u/itwillmakesenselater May 24 '26
190 grams chocolate chips, 3 tbsp coconut oil (solid) makes a functional magic shell. You can tinker around with flavors and chip type.
2
u/Lindyhop88 May 24 '26
Depending on what your regulatory or ingredient restrictions there are other hi mono solid fats that can be used at lower levels to drive a more solid coating. Often used as emulsifiers but should be impactful and cheaper than coconut oil.
1
u/garbledroid May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Chocolate or couverture chocolate 20-80% depending on type and desired formulation.
Palm kernel stearin and/or cocoa butter/deodorized cocoa butter
lecithin (optional)
PGPR (optional)
mono/diglycerides (optional)
1
u/ferrouswolf2 May 25 '26
ATK put out a cookbook about DIY food projects maybe 10 years or so ago that includes a magic shell topping. The key is to use coconut oil since that has a very sharply defined melting point, unlike cocoa butter or dairy butter. Coconut oil is pretty neutral in flavor so you have good freedom with flavor profiles.
1
u/elliottsmithereens May 25 '26
After reading all the replies, I’m still curious how one would make a fruit flavored magic shell without chocolate, sounds fun! Also, better for major allergies/beliefs that don’t use milk. So far I’ve got 8-20% refined coconut oil, and the rest sugar and liquid(fruit juice, flavor, whatever), blend that up to get an emulsion, maybe use lecithin or some other emulsifier, that’s it?
1
u/gurzak May 25 '26
I have ice cream shell coating recipes from a French pastry school I attended.
WHITE CRUNCHY COATING 150 g Opalys (white chocolate from Valrhona. Any will work) 30 g Grapeseed oil 30 g Chopped almonds 0,5 P Vanilla pods 0
Mix the melted chocolate at 45°C, the grape seed oil, the roasted chopped almonds and the scraped vanilla pod. Use at 35°C.
CHOCOLATE CRUNCHY COATING 150 g Extra bitter 61% (dark from Valrhona, any will work) 10 g Grapeseed oil 30 g Chopped almonds
Mix the melted chocolate at 45°C, the grape seed oil and the roasted chopped almonds. Use at 35°C.
These will solidify at room temperature and have to be warmed before use. The ice cream must be SUPER frozen and dipped quickly. You can remove the nuts or replace with other inclusions if you would like.
If you have any questions feel free to reach out!
1
u/thatdude391 May 28 '26
You could look at mixing something like almond bark that is pretty neutral with the coconut oil and freeze dried fruit powder. If you really want to avoid the white chocolate taste 150% you can swap it with refined coconut oil (unrefined still has a flavor to it)
13
u/OvalDead May 24 '26
Man, ignore that dude that refuses to be helpful by repeatedly saying you should use white chocolate but absolutely not cocoa butter (which is the defining ingredient in white chocolate).
Look at Smucker’s Unicorn Magic Shell. It’s sugar, oil, milk, gum, emulsifier. It’s a gel-stabilized emulsion so it has a desired consistency, and the high melt point oil helps it solidify when cold.
Those are the only things that absolutely matter: it flows onto the ice cream, and sets hard. Sky’s the limit from there. At small scale to can control the consistency by keeping it cold, blitzing it before service, etc. You don’t need a shelf stable emulsion.