Ugh, all this time I thought these were chocolate molds (mostly because thats what everyone else called them).. I mean, I knew the metal ones were chocolate, I just never understood these and found it kind of odd and gross people would pour chocolate into them.. But now that I know what they are Im hungry and want to use them! (and of course all the ones I love are $250+ ) I found one today in a thrift store, except this one is a dark brown wax. It has been used, more than once (maybe more like 500x ), but its still cute. Its a fancy man in a fancy carriage getting pulled by his fancy horse. Im reckoning the wax ones were made because they could be mass produced due to the easy stamping of the wax vs carving carving of the wood(?) My question is.. How can you tell if one is vintage vs antique (wax or wood)? Whats the best way to clean these for use?
The proper working ones that I'm used to are wood; I can't see wax lasting for more than a few cookies before it fell apart. I used to make Springerle every year, but used Grandpa's professional mold; that one was metal affixed to a wood base like a printing block. The cookies are mixed and rolled out, and the designs are stamped into the tops with the mold. The cookies are then cut apart and put on cookie sheets (on parchment for preference) to dry overnight. Then they're baked; that way the designs set up and look really clear and sharp when baked. This blog page has a good shot of one of the metal ones. I'm guessing they're a lot rarer. http://www.annelwatson.com/cookiemolds/magazine_2011-05.html
Here's pictures of the one I picked up. From the youtube video on how to make them I dont see why it wouldn't last for a good while. While it is still wax it's pretty hard it would take some Force to break it in half.. But idk, maybe it is pure decorative. I thought maybe that was the case because they all have little rope hangers on them but I guess since because they are wax you would want to hang them up instead of piling them on top where they would get scratched and dented But that's just me hypothesizing with no true knowledge of these items
I think I'm confused! I always thought the WAX ones were made in or from the WOOD ones, and were purely decorative. Are you saying that the WAX ones were actually used in making cookies?
This one's inverted so I don't know how they could have been made from the wood ones... I don't know if the wax ones were traditionally used, but this one looks like a sure was
The wax would be nonstick or close to it, and that's a plus in the cookie world. Some kinds of lebkuchen are molded too, and a lot of those recipes are fat free. You'd need a nonstick mold for those, so wax would fit the bill.
