Custom Chocolate Pralines (Vegan)

This project was born as part of the demos during the LPL Grand Opening. There are two parts for making custom chocolate pralines:

(A) prototyping the mold (the digital part)

(B) manufacturing the pralines (the baking part)

(A) prototyping the mold (the digital part)

1. Designing the shape of the pralines in CAD software. There's a great guide on Vaquform on design principles for 3D-printed molds. I've used Tinkercad to design the pralines (linked here). Any other software would suffice, too.
2. Printing the STL. I've used PLA and was also considering the tips from Vaquforms design guides. Most important is having 'air holes' for any non-convex shape to avoid having trapped air.
3. Since you can only vacuum form a sheet once, it is necessary to print multiple molds. In my case, 20 mold could be fitted onto the sheet.
4. Use the Vaquform with a PETG (0.5 mmm) sheet. PETG is considered food-proof.

(B) Manufacturing the pralines (the baking part)

1. List of ingredients: vegan dark chocolate, banana, hazelnuts, ginger, Agave syrop
2. Cook the hazelnuts for about 15 minutes and blend them with the ginger, Agave syrop and bananas. The volume ratios I have used were about equal parts of syrop, bananas and hazelnut with a few slices of ginger.
3. Melt the chocolate in a pot that is partially immersed in hot water (to avoid burning)
4. Pour melted chocolate into the form, and freeze it briefly in a freezer. 
5. Add filling and close the pralines with a second layer of chocolate.
6. Freeze them a few minutes again, and then pop them out of the mold. Done.