How to Make Chocolate Hearts With a Silicone Mold, Step by Step

Short answer: temper your chocolate, spread it into a silicone heart mat such as Pavoni's Pavodecor Hearts (2 mm deep), scrape it level, let it crystallise at 16–18°C (61–64°F), then flex the silicone to release thin, even chocolate hearts. For glossy filled heart bonbons, use a rigid Pavoni Tritan heart praline mould instead; for heart-shaped mousse desserts, freeze them in a Pavoflex heart mould and finish with a velvet spray. Below: which mould for which heart, the temperatures and each step.

Which heart mould for which chocolate heart

Pick the mould by the heart you want to make: silicone mats for thin decorations, rigid praline moulds for shiny bonbons, deep silicone moulds for desserts.

You want to make	Pavoni mould	Size (Pavoni)	Price
Thin heart decorations for single portions	Pavodecor Hearts 2 PR008S	15 hearts, Ø 50 × 2 mm	$40.50 CAD
Long heart strips for éclairs and bars	Pavodecor Hearts 3 PR009S	10 strips, 120 × 27 × 2 mm	$40.50 CAD
Glossy filled heart bonbons	Iconic Heart PC55FR (Tritan)	21 cavities, 29 × 30 × 16 mm, about 10 g	$39.95 CAD
Bonbons that assemble into whole hearts	Heart Design PC50FR by Davide Comaschi (Tritan)	15 cavities in 3 shapes that form 5 whole hearts, about 13 g	$39.95 CAD
Heart mousse portions and tartlet inserts	Heart Pavoflex PX3206S by Gianluca Fusto	8 cavities, 65 × 60 × 21 mm, about 46 ml	$40.50 CAD
A whole heart entremet	Lovely KE060S by Antonio Bachour	200 × 126 × 50 mm, about 1,000 ml	$46.99 CAD

View all Pavoni chocolate moulds →

Why temper the chocolate, even in silicone

Silicone releases the heart because it bends; tempering decides whether the heart is glossy, snaps and keeps. KREA Swiss explains that tempering steers cocoa butter into its stable crystal form (Beta-5), which gives a smooth texture, a glossy surface, a clean snap, a longer shelf life with far less risk of bloom, and melting at body temperature. Badly tempered chocolate stays soft or blooms, sometimes weeks later. Lonchampt and Hartel add that well-tempered chocolate contracts as it crystallises, which helps it come out of the mould.

Use the working temperatures of your couverture. Bassan, the Canadian maker of the Sur del Lago 71% we stock, lists silicone moulds among compatible moulds and gives this method:

Stage	Bassan Sur del Lago 71%
Melt	50°C (122°F) maximum
Temper (working temperature)	30–32°C (86–90°F)
Crystallise after moulding	16–18°C (61–64°F)
Workroom and storage	16–20°C (61–68°F), below 50% relative humidity
Use after tempering	Within 4 hours

New to tempering? Our guide to tempering chocolate walks through the methods. If you make hearts every week, the Pavoni MiniTemper $3,350.00 CAD stores your temperature curves in five programmable presets, each with melt, crystallise and harden stages.

Step by step: thin chocolate hearts for decorating

A Pavodecor mat makes flat hearts 2 mm thick in one pass. Pavoni designs the mats for chocolate or pâte à cigarette, and they were designed in collaboration with Frank Haasnoot to decorate éclairs, single portions and entremets.

1. Prepare the mat. Make sure it is clean and completely dry, and lay it flat on a tray.
2. Colour first (optional). For red or pink hearts, brush coloured cocoa butter into the cavities and let it set before adding chocolate (see the colour section below).
3. Fill. Pour tempered chocolate over the mat and spread it into the cavities with a palette knife.
4. Scrape. Scrape the surface clean so chocolate stays only inside the hearts; this gives clean edges.
5. Crystallise. Leave the tray at 16–18°C (61–64°F), Bassan's crystallisation range, until the chocolate is fully set.
6. Release. Peel the mat back gently, or flex it, and lift the hearts. Handle them by the edges to avoid fingerprints.

Use them on mousse cakes, entremets and éclairs; PR009S strips are sized for éclairs.

Glossy heart bonbons: use a rigid mould

For a filled heart bonbon with a mirror shine, choose a rigid praline mould. Pavoni's heart praline moulds PC55FR and PC50FR are made of BPA-free Tritan and are described by Pavoni as giving a brilliant gloss finish. The method is shell moulding: fill with tempered chocolate, empty to leave a shell, let it set, pipe the filling, seal and demould.

For the full method, follow our step-by-step guide to shiny chocolate bonbons and our guide to moulding chocolate.

Heart desserts in silicone moulds

Deep Pavoflex and Pavocake moulds are made for mousses, entremets and baked portions. Pavoni's set-up for the PX3206S: pour the filling or batter, tap to remove bubbles, freeze (mousse, semifreddo) or bake up to 250°C (482°F), let it set fully, then unmould and finish. Pavoni pairs the PX3206S with its XF14 heart tart ring (75 × 70 × 20 mm) for heart tartlets with a matching insert.

• View the XF14 heart tart ring → $23.50 CAD

To give a frozen heart a velvet finish, use a Dolce Velluto cocoa butter spray: Pavoni makes it to be applied on cold surfaces.

• View the red velvet spray DV1SB → from $56.99 CAD
• View the pink velvet spray DV4SB → from $56.99 CAD

Our guide to using silicone moulds for pastry and chocolate covers more shapes and techniques.

Colour and finish your hearts

Red, pink and gold are the classic heart finishes, and each has a Pavoni product made for it.

• Coloured cocoa butter: Pavoni's Chocolart colours are ready to use for colouring chocolate in mass, on the surface and in moulds (200 g, E171 free). Red LB10SB $79.99 CAD · Pink LB09SB $79.99 CAD
• Gold: Pavoni's Brilliant gold powder M01SB $56.99 CAD can be brushed on dry or dissolved in food-grade alcohol and painted on.

View all coloured cocoa butters →

Caring for the moulds and storing the hearts

The PX3206S and KE060S moulds are 100% platinum food-grade silicone, dishwasher safe and rated from -40°C to +250°C (-40°F to 482°F). For the PX3206S, Pavoni's storage advice is to keep it flat in a cool, dry place, with nothing heavy stacked on top, away from sharp objects, and to clean it before first use.

Store finished chocolate hearts the way Bassan advises for its chocolate: sealed, at 16–20°C (61–68°F), below 50% relative humidity, away from sunlight and strong odours, and without temperature swings, which cause bloom.

How AI can help your production

Ask an AI assistant to work out how much chocolate you need for a Valentine's order: give it the number of hearts, the mould sizes in the table above and your waste allowance. Ask it to turn the steps above into a one-page procedure with a temperature log for each batch, and to plan a production calendar so decorations, bonbons and desserts are ready on time.

AI organises the information; tasting and the final decision stay with your chef.

Pavoni heart moulds at Zucchero Canada

We are an authorized distributor of Pavoni Italia, and every product in this article is Pavoni except the couverture. Each mould has its job: Pavodecor mats for decorations, Tritan praline moulds for glossy bonbons, Pavoflex and Pavocake for desserts. Pair them with Bassan Sur del Lago 71% couverture, made in Canada from Venezuelan cacao: $273.00 CAD for a 5 kg bag.

View Pavoflex silicone moulds →

Preparing Valentine's Day production for a shop, hotel or caterer? Contact us for volume orders, or call 587-774-8873 (toll free 877-741-8251).

Pavocake moulds | Decorative silicone mats | Pavoni chocolate moulds | Silicone moulds guide | How to temper chocolate

This article is for information only. Every business is different: draw your own conclusions based on your own expectations, budget and goals, and talk to qualified experts before you decide or invest.

Sources: Pavoni Italia, Food Equipment catalogue 2026 (Pavodecor PR008–PR009, Pavoflex PX3206, Pavocake KE060, XF14 band, Heart Design PC50 and Iconic PC55 praline moulds, Dolce Velluto sprays, Chocolart colours) and Pavoni product data; Bassan Chocolate, Sur del Lago 71% product and technical data; KREA Swiss Knowledge, "Tempering, what it really is and where it goes wrong"; P. Lonchampt and R. W. Hartel, "Fat bloom in chocolate and compound coatings", Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 106 (2004).