I always keep baking chocolate tuck away in my pantry for when time calls for some serious chocolate making like a tea party! I prefer Ghirardelli chocolate products. Believe me they are worth the buck. Hersey and local brand chocolate has too much wax in my opinion. Food grade wax is usually added to chocolate to cut down the cost at most companies in the US. It also makes chocolate easier to work with but it does a lot of damage to the flavor of chocolate in my opinion. There are a few tricks to working with chocolate without adding wax.
A little background about chocolate, cocoa solids and cocoa butter are separated from a processed cocoa bean. These substances are combined in different ways to give us the different kinds of chocolate: milk, dark, and white.
White chocolate contains only sugar and cocoa butter, not cocoa solids. This is why its melting temperature is much lower than other type of chocolate. White chocolate is very easily scorched if you don't keep an eye on it.
The other two products use both cocoa solids and cocoa butter. There are other variances in chocolate type listed below occur by varying the temperature and time at which the beans are roasted before grinding.
Unsweetened chocolate is made of pure chocolate solids mixed with cocoa butter. It's also called baking chocolate or bitter chocolate. The flavor of this chocolate is strong, but it's not usually eaten on its own. Instead, unsweetened chocolate is used for making cookies, brownies, cakes and similar foods.
Dark chocolate is made from cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar. Usually dark chocolate has the cocoa solid concentration of 65% or more. This is my personal favorite. Besides tasting great it has some health benefits as well.
Milk chocolate is made similarly to dark chocolate, but it uses less cocoa and adds milk powder.
Semi-sweet chocolate is used mostly for cooking (such as in chocolate chip cookies). It's a low sugar type of dark chocolate.
Bittersweet chocolate is similar to semi-sweet chocolate, but uses more cocoa butter and less sugar. It's interchangeable in baking, but higher cocoa percentages usually indicate a less sweet chocolate.
Couverture is French for covering and refers to any chocolate with a high cocoa butter content. These chocolates contain high cocoa percentages as well as a high total fat content. Great for dipping! The price can be rather steep ($20/lbs) but you are still not paying $5/truffle. Couverture comes as tempered or untempered. You can find out on the package. Read below about the necessity of tempering your coating chocolate.
Cocoa powder is made by removing almost all of the cocoa butter from chocolate liquor and allowing the solids to dry. They're then ground. There are two main types of cocoa powder - natural, which is more acidic, and dutch process.
Compound chocolate refers to cocoa combined with vegetable fats like palm oil and wax. Not a true chocolate. This is what chocolate coating is. Very easy to work with but you sacrifice the taste of real chocolate. Most Hersey and local brand chocolate chips are compound chocolate. And believe me, the low price just isn't worth the taste. (Information from www.isnare.com)
So after a little back ground on chocolate. Let's get you started on your chocolatier-ship.
Truffles
To begin, you need to make a ganache, which is a mixture of melted semi-sweet chocolate and cream. The ratio should be 8oz of chocolate to 6 tbsp. of cream. And you can add any flavor you want. Add a little Creme De Menthe for a minty flavor, kirsche for cherry, amaretto for almond... the list goes on. This is why I like making my own truffles so much, there are so many choices! A table spoon of butter can be added to help the ganache stay tender.
Ganache can be used as a glaze over pound cake too, skip the butter for the glaze. The other thing you can do with ganache is adding 2 tbsp. of corn syrup and you got yourself a to-die-for chocolate sauce to top a sundae.
Let the ganache sit at room temperature until set or refridgerate a few minutes but not too long or it will be impossible to scoop it out. After the ganache is set, use a #60 scoop or any side you want to scoop out the chocolate. Drop the little scoops of chocolate onto a baking pan lined with wax paper.
You can either coat your truffles in cocoa powder, confectioner sugar, or melted dark, milk, or white chocolate, or one of each.
With a double boiler, melt in chunks around 8oz of couverture or any kind of chocolate that suit you taste. I use a double boiler because the heat is more gentle and you can monitor it a lot better to prevent scorching. Especially with couverture and white chocolate, since its cocoa butter content is so high, the melting point is much lower than regular chocolate, it scorched a lot more easily. You can also melt the chocolate in the microwave and stir every 5 minutes.
Tempering chocolate is very important for coating chocolate. The tempering process ensures that the cocoa butter in chocolate hardens in a uniform crystal structure. Chocolate that is tempered has a smooth texture, a glossy shine and a pleasant “snap” when bitten or broken. Chocolate that is not tempered might be cloudy, gray, lumpy, and sticky at room temperature.
Melt 2/3 of your chocolate first, cook on the double boiler until the temperature reaches 115 degrees or 110 for couverture and white chocolate. Then take off heat, stir in the remaining chocolate. When the temperature reaches 84 degree, put it back on the double boiler until it is 88-89 degree. Your chocolate is now properly tempered.
Dip your ganache balls in the tempered chocolate. The best dipping tool is your hand! Wear gloves for a neater clean up. But be ready to be covered in chocolate, quite a messy process. Put your dipped truffles back on the wax paper.
Melt some more dark or white chocolate for decoration.
Another chocolate product that I love to make is chocolate cups. They will dazzle your guests if the chocolate truffles don't. Mix 4 oz of chocolate chips with 1 tbsp. of shortening. Using a pastry brush, paint the chocolate onto mini muffin tinfoil. The paper ones are to filmsy. Pay close attention to the edge. The cup will break if the chocolate is too thin around the edge. Then put them into a mini muffin pan and refrigerate until set.
When the chocolate is dry, use a pair of tweezers to peel off the tin foils. And you got yourself some pretty little chocolate cups
These cups can be filled with your favorite dessert mousse like white chocolate mousse, chocolate mousse... I like a cherry mousse with a maraschino cherry on top.
Cherry mousse
Heat 1 cup cherry preserve with 1 tsp unflavored gelatin and 1 tbsp. maraschino cherry juice over low heat until the preserve and the gelatin are melted, about 10 minutes. Then whip 1/4 cup of whip cream until stiff. Fold the whip cream into the cooled cherry mixture. Refridgerate until set.
After the cherry mousse is set, scoop it into the chocolate cup using a #60 scoop. Top the cup with a maraschino cherry. Chill until ready to serve. They are best served chilled.
I don't quite have a picture of the finished product. I will post it once I get some! They are not only pretty but also taste amazing!
Making chocolate takes a lot of time and practice. Don't give up after your first time. Trials and errors are a chocolatier's best friends. Soon you will packaging these for your friends and family with ease.
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