Week 42 Chocolate box

Chocolate! It is not only intimidating, it is temperamental too. There are so many things that you need to look out for when tempering chocolate. Temperature, timing, dust, humidity and I think luck too. The correctly tempered chocolate has a beautiful shine and a nice snap when you break it. Some would describe chocolate to be like women. Beautiful, snappy and temperamental at times. 

Moulded chocolate

Last week, we tried tempering with the tabling method where we cooled the chocolate down on a marble slab and the addition method where chocolate blocks were added to melted chocolate. This week we tried the direct method which is also the easiest method. First the chocolate is melted over a bain marie to 45˚C - 50˚C. The water should be about 60˚C-70˚C and make sure no moisture goes into the chocolate. Then the chocolate is placed in the fridge to cool down. The chocolate has to be stirred occasionally to even out the temperature. 

Once the chocolate cools down to 27˚C-29˚C, it is reheated to 30˚C-31˚C and now it is ready to be used. I think I might have picked the hardest mould to try on. There are so many edges and corners. It was hard to polish and to brush in the chocolate to make sure you don't miss any corners. 

Nice shine 

Next we made a ganache with malibu for chocolate truffles. Then piped into little balls and left to set on a baking sheet. 

Little ganache balls

 The next item was Orange sticks, first the orange skin is blanched 6 times to remove away the bitterness from the oil on the skin. Yes 6 times! Then it is cooked in sugar syrup for almost an hour. Then it is placed on a rack to cool overnight. 

Orange peel

Brusseler nut Croquant is the next one the list. I don't even know how to read that name. It is made of marzipan and caramel. I don't normally like marzipan but this is actually not too bad. Firstly we cook the sugar then added in warm cream to make caramel. Then it is poured over the marzipan and slivered almonds were added in as well. Then it is kneaded to combine. We left it to cool and then rolled them into long sausages about 1.5cm wide, over cornflour. Then we left it to crust overnight. 

Brusseler Nut Croquant

So that was Thursday, now Friday morning we continue. We tempered more couverture chocolate and dipped half the orange peel into the chocolate and placed it on the baking sheet to set.

Enrobing the orange sticks

The piped truffles were ready to be rolled into balls. Now will be the time when it is good to have cold hands, because you don't want the truffles to melt and be sticky. Then these balls are coated with tempered chocolate. With gloves on, I dapped some chocolate on my palm and rolled the truffles to coat it. It is such a messy job but it was quite fun. Then we dropped the ball into whatever coating we wanted. So we had crushed roasted slivered almonds, roasted desiccated coconut, dutch processed cocoa powder and another was just rough edgy look with the couverture chocolate itself. I like the almond topping the most. 

Rolled truffles

With the marzipan filling, we used the chocolate dipping fork and dipped it in the tempered chocolate. Rolled it to coat and gently tap to drip away excess chocolate. Then gently place on baking paper. Notice there is a lot of gently involved in this? Well chocolate is a very delicate work so got to be gentle. Besides being gently, speed is important too. You got to be quick otherwise the chocolate will set before you can put any topping on it.  

Brusseler Nut Croquant with almond topping

Our trainer showed us the effect of using compound chocolate in moulds and you can see the shine is different to the couverture chocolate. 

Moulds made with compound chocolate

 Chocolate box was the highlight of the day. It was very interesting to make. We had to make a triangular box out of chocolate. We had 2 acetate sheet where we poured white compound chocolate and dark compound chocolate on to make a marble effect. The other acetate is placed on top and air is pushed out from the centre and also to flatten it. Then a rolling pin was used to roll it even. I had too little chocolate on the sheet and it was rather thin. That was a bit dangerous because it means it might crack easily when I have to cut it. I like to live dangerously!! haha.... not really. 

Marbled chocolate sheets

 Then it was chilled in the fridge to set for a short while. Once it is set, it comes away from the acetate a little, that is an indication that it is ready. Then we peel off the acetate slowly and gently, making sure not to break it. Then let it come to room temperature before cutting into it. If you cut when it is still cold, it will crack easily. Now, since my chocolate is so thin, I was extremely careful when I cut the chocolate. It took me quite a while but I didn't break any. Yay! 

Triangle template

Now it is time to assemble the box. We melted some of the marbled chocolate and got milk chocolate. We used that to glue the sides of the box on the base. Because we used compound chocolate, it sets really fast. Now that it is glued together, we are supposed to pipe some beads around the box. It is harder than it looks. The chocolate consistency has to be just right. Either it was too runny or it set inside the piping bag. Haha... I am blaming all my tools when in actual fact, it is all about practise and more practise. 

My triangular box 

Can you tell which piping line is done by my trainer?

Chocolate goodies 

It only fits 3 chocolates! 

Now time to present our chocolate box. Well my chocolate box was rather thin and the corner broke after presenting it. I blame the plate. hahaha....

Chocolate assortment

We were given wrappers and ribbons to wrap our chocolate box to take home. I ate so much chocolates this week. But you know what they say about chocolate, it is a food that makes you happy. So I must be very happy now. 

Life is like a box of chocolate, hopefully it doesn't crack as easily as my chocolate box though. 

Coconut topping, rough edges and cocoa powder truffles