Coconut Dream Chocolate Truffles & 10 Year Anniversary (20/4/02)

Want to make a gift ? Homemade chocolate truffles are delicious and very special.

You can find a pretty box, or they are very easy to make your own as I've done above. My box was made with a Crafters Companion Boxer Tool and just one A4 sheet of Kanban Card . The card I used was patterned on the one side. I kept the pattern on the inside for the box base, and then lined this with baking parchment for a softer look.

I can knock up boxes like this in just a couple of minutes and it can transform a gift into something that is a true delight to open.

For the ganche (centres) you will need :

8oz of milk chocolate (I use Callebaut or Belcolade Belgian Chocolate)

125ml double cream

Some dessicated coconut (about a handful)

A tablespoon of glucose or corn syrup

Malibu coconut liquer (optional)

2 or 3 knobs of butter

Gently toast the dessicated coconut until golden. 

Put the cream in a pan and bring just to boiling point. Take off the heat and pour over the chocolate. Stir to combine the two. Add the glucose and once the chocolate is melted, also a couple of knobs of butter. If you want to add alcohol, add about 25ml now along with the dessicated coconut.

The ganache will be quite runny. It needs to go into the fridge to firm up. It could take a few hours or even overnight.

Note - if you can, do wear some disposable gloves for the next stage - it's messy !

Once set, roll teaspoons of the ganache in your hands to form balls. Set these on a baking tray lined with a silicone mat and refrigerate again  for 15 mins or so to firm up once more.

You will need about 200g (guessing) of chocolate for dipping your truffles. I like to dip them and then place back on the silicone mat where they remain until hardened. These will set fairly quickly - but you can pop the tray in the fridge to speed setting if required. See this previous blog post for information on tempering chocolate.

Ten years ago on 20/4/02, I married my best friend. Steve and I married in a church wedding in Bothwell, Scotland.

Such happy and sad emotions. My Dad gave gave me away. The following day, I left Scotland and moved to my new home in Norfolk with Steve.

Newly married couple signing the registry

 

The bridesmaids - sheltering from the wind ! Alexandra, Hayley, Andrea and Kathryn.

It seems SO long ago now - but still so clear. Happy Days

Chocolate Tempering (and new mould designs !)

There is a knack to making chocolates and chocolate bars. That is, it you want to get the nice snap when you break it, and glossy finish with a smooth texture throughout.. 

Had I known a few simple things much earlier about tempering chocolate, I wouldn't have spent a fortune ruining the stuff !

Some of the many disasters include white mildewy type marks all over the surface (or in patches), crumbly interiors and dull finish.

If you look up chocolate tempering on the net, there are many web pages that tell you how to do this. They all use two classic methods. 

The one for best results includes pouring chocolate on to a piece of marble, scraping it back and forward to cool it and then back into a bowl before pouring into moulds.  I'll tell you now that this seemed like too messy and too much effort. I would also have needed to invest in a big lump of marble. There is so much "stuff" in my little kitchen at the moment that I have nowhere near enough storage space as it is. I therefore admit that this method was instantly put on the sideline....

The second method is called SEEDING. It seems to be the simplest and will give great results - as long as you get it right....

This is one of our new chocolate bar moulds. It's now a registered design and due to launch in about 4 weeks.

I've fallen in love with these chocolate bar moulds - which we have available in two different sizes. This one makes finished chocolate bars of 70g or thereabouts (depending on what fruit / nuts / sweets you decide to use for decoration - if any).

Here is the larger 3 cell chocolate bar mould which produces a chocolate bar with approximate weight of 100g (mine ranged from 95 to 120g depending if they had extra additions or not).

Simply wrap in cellophane and tie with ribbon - or make a pretty box / card sleeve - they make such a stunning  home made gift.

For moulding your chocolate and getting good results, there are a couple of things you need to buy.

First thing is good quality couverture chocolate. This has a higher cocoa butter content and can be re-tempered quite easily. I buy really nice Belgian chocolate sold under the names of Belcolade or Callebaut from www.chocolatefountainwarehouse.co.uk. It normally has about 1 year sell by date on it. The stuff I buy comes in callets.

Callets are like small drops rather than a big bar. The Belcolate callets are like giant chocolate buttons, whereas the Callebaut callets are teeny weeny ones in comparison.

For early practising, you will get astonishingly good results with supermarket basics dark chocolate - 100g bars from the likes of Sainsburys are about 42p. Don't bother trying to work with budget grade or commercial brand white chocolate. I've wasted a lot of money myself trying that..... It doesn't taste as nice - but it tempers quite nicely.

Secondly, you need a chocolate thermometer or laser thermometer. I've got a laser thermometer (cost about £15.00 with postage) and the temperature range is both high enough to use for candy making / sugar syrup for macarons and low enough for tempering chocolate. It's not at all fiddly, and the temperatures are really pretty accurate.

Lastly, get a glass bowl if you do not already own one. Using other bowls such as earthenware creates hotspots unlike the glass which transmits a much more even heat and can burn or overheat your chocolate.

To temper your chocolate by the seeding method, you first need to melt it. This can be done by zapping it in short 15 second bursts in the microwave or using a double boiler (glass bowl over simmering water). If using the double boiler method, be sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl and DON'T get a single drip of water in the chocolate or it will seize and become useless.

For the microwave method, simply stir every 15 seconds and remove when a little more than half melted. The residual heat in the bowl will continue to melt the rest of the chocolate. With the double boiler method, I prefer to pour boiling water into a pan and sit the bowl over the top. Leave it and wait until the chocolate melts. It is important not to let the temperature of your chocolate exceed 120deg F - so check the temperature regularly.

Once melted, you can begin the seeding process to cool the chocolate evenly to 80 deg F and then warm slightly until you reach moulding temperature. To do this, you need to add a little solid chocolate into the melted chocolate. It is important to stir constantly. It is best to use a silicone spatula as you can get all the chocolate away from the sides of the bowl.

Stir this until it melts in and add more if required. Check the temperature regularly. For plain / milk chocolate, it's ready to pour or dip (enrobing) truffles at about 85deg F. For white chocolate, you want a lower temperature of 80 to 83deg F.

I used to get ok results without a thermometer SOMETIMES. Success would be hit and miss. Sometimes the finished chocolates would BE perfect, but more often than not they would quickly develop a bloom (whitish covering) or go crumbly inside. These of course were entirely edible - but they didn't look nice and the texture was very wrong.

If you want super results every time, the pouring temperature of chocolate is crucial.... as is a chocolate thermometer (or laser thermometer) .

Incase you had not already guessed. this chocolate robot mould is another new registered design we'll be launching soon. The metallic effect on the chocolate robots was achieved by brushing a tiny bit of lustre dust (used for sugarcraft) inside the mould as suggested by a Facebook Fan. I think it was Ellie (sorry - I can't find the old chat post now !)

Sarah-Jane Nash, April 2012

Scottish Tablet - Seriously Yummy & Tooth Achingly Sweet !

If you have a sweet tooth - this stuff is going to send you to seventh heaven....

Tablet is like a very smooth and crumbly fudge. There is no chewiness to it and it should be smooth in texture and melt in your mouth. One piece is NEVER enough.

Although there are few ingredients, it's a bit of a hassle to make and requires a lot of stirring and is fairly time consuming. As it also involves boiling sugar, do take extreme care and keep little ones well out the way.

Whilst Oliver was sleeping this afternoon, I made a batch as a present for a friend.

Ingredients

2lb of granulated sugar

1 cup of water

125g butter (I used salted)

1 can of condensed milk

2 > 3 tsp vanilla extract

Put the water and butter in a large, heavy based pot. If you have a pressure cooker - the pot from that is ideal. Better too big a pot than too small !

Melt the butter into the water. Add the vanilla and sugar and slowly bring to a simmer stirring constantly. Do NOT put on a really hot heat - if you get it too hot too fast, your tablet will go all gritty.

Once all sugar is disolved, add the condensed milk and bring to the boil. Don't stop stirring this stuff.

The pot above was the largest one I have - apart from my pressure cooker pot - which I'll use the next time instead. This was very very near overflow !

Boil the mixture for approx 20 > 25 minutes until it becomes a butterscotch colour. When dropped into cold water, it will start to ball. Temperature should be soft ball stage.

In the picture above - it's almost ready to come off the heat. It bubbles like a volcano and needs constant stirring to keep the frothy bubbles under control.

Remove from the heat and beat with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick and sugary. This takes a long time - about 15 mins of constant stirring.... so don't get fed up with it too quickly !

Pour into a WELL BUTTERED TIN - or alternatively, a silicone lasagne mould works a dream and needs no greasing. This stuff can be a horror to get out of a tin, and silicone really does make a breeze of the job.

Leave to cool or several hours - preferably overnight.

Turn it out of the mould or tin (as pictured above) and slice into squares. It will be crumbly and break up a bit - but the rustic look is the sign o good tablet.

If it doesn't set, you've either not boiled it long enough or not beat it long enough (or both !) Better a little over done than under done. My dad reckons boil for 20 mins - I find it needs 25 mins - nearer 27mins this time as I had to remove from the heat a few times to prevent volvanic eruptions all over the cooker

After you have chopped it up, it's ready to put into a tupperware box to be kept in a cool, dry place - or gift boxed / bagged.

I've used my Top Score Board to make this card board gift box (see blog entry re massage bars for more info).

I've recently discovered vellum. Vellum is a glassine type material that is used by crafters for card making. However, it's also greaseproof and comes in lots of pretty colours or patterns. It's lovely for lining gift boxes for cakes, cookies and sweets. The vellum I've used has a pink foiled paisley pattern on it.

I blogged about some stunning butterfly Kanban card last month. Coudn't resist it and bought some. The butterflies on the card are in different hues of pink and varying sizes. It adds a lot of depth and looks really classy made into a gift box

This is it - all wrapped and ready to go....

Well - when I say ALL - only about half of what I made. There was a lot in this box too - it was a fair size !