Home-Molded Cinnamon Almond Milk Chocolates
I don't think I've mentioned it before here on my blog, but I've happily agreed to make the wedding favors for my brother's late-May wedding . . . homemade chocolates . . . two per guest for somewhere between 100 and 125 people. I figured that a need to make about 250 chocolates would be the perfect excuse to rationalize buying the tempering machine that I've wanted for some time now. It wasn't just about the machine, though. I love my brother and his bride-to-be and wanted to give them something special—something from my heart—for the occasion. Everyone who knows me knows the food I make comes from my heart. I'm really into this shit. And I'm a perfectionist. So when my soon-to-be sister-in-law mentioned a few months ago that she had tried some truffles made by a caterer she was considering have make her wedding favors . . . and that they sucked . . . I offered to make them and promised they wouldn't suck. (As a bit of background, I made one of my sister's wedding cake a few years ago under similar circumstances . . . from the heart.)
The wedding's now less than two months away, so I decided a couple of weeks ago that it was time to get the ball rolling. I ordered a tempering machine, began discussing flavor options, packaging, etc. with my brother and his bride-to-be, ordered some chocolate and . . . Wednesday evening . . . began playing with the tempering machine that had been delivered Monday. I wasn't in the mood to make a ganache Wednesday night, but I did want to play with my new toy, so I decided I'd temper some chocolate, flavor it, mix in some nuts, mold it and see what happened. Foodrockzfan suggested I try cinnamon and almonds with milk chocolate . . . a flavor combo she had tried at one of our local chocolate shops a few weeks ago. The chocolates tasted good, but I learned that using nut chunks in a mold form as small as the one I was using is not a good idea—the nut pieces stuck out of the bottom of the mold, made the bottoms of the chocolates rough and uneven and created air bubbles in the mold (see those little holes in the chocolates pictured above? air!). Obviously, I still have some kinks to work out in my chocolate molding.
BUT . . . and this is a huge BUT . . . the Callebaut 31.7% milk chocolate I used was tempered perfectly by my new machine. Notice the light reflecting off the shiny tops? That's a perfect temper. Compare it to the dusty, mottled look of these not-perfectly-tempered chocolates I made in December. My new tempering machine ROCKZ! (I think this is the first time I've thrown down an all CAPS "rockz" on my blog. Can you tell I'm excited about this project?) Stay tuned for hundreds of prototype molded chocolates in the coming weeks.
I think it's a nice thing that you're going the extra mile for your brother and sister-in-law. Sounds like you're on your way to some sort of side business! (Also, it sure beats the mixing bowls on the registry!)
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I may need to launch a side business just to recoupe the money I spent on the tempering machine!
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I'm jealous of your tempering machine. Too bad I only really want it and not need it...they are a bit too expensive to splurge on.
The chocolates look delicious, love the flavour combo.
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Let me know if you need any last-minute help so that I have an excuse to get a chocolate tempering machine rush delivered, too. I've made a good many truffles thus far, as well as plenty of other chocolate creations, and getting the chocolate properly tempered is just sort of hit or miss. It works sometimes, and other times I think I've done exactly the same thing, but it doesn't work.
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Thanks for your generous offer. I'll do my best to run behind schedule and screw things up so I need the emergency assistance that would necessitate your purchase of a tempering machine! I've been playing with chocolate for a few years and have had about the same experience as you . . . sometimes my hand tempering has worked and I thought "Aha. I've figured it out." Only to do the same thing again and fail. There are so many variables . . . humidity and temp of the room . . . etc. At any rate, maybe you have some advice for me. One of the requested flavors is a red wine ganache enrobed in dark chocolate. I've experienced first hand the difficulty of playing with watery ingredients (e.g., rosewater) and chocolate . . . producing grainy, nasty ganache. I've had good luck with liquors, but I'm worried about the comparatively more watery wine. I'm planning on reducing a bottle of wine to about a cup to concentrate its flavors and then giving it a go in a white chocolate ganache . . . using it very sparingly . . . maybe a tablespoon per pound of chocolate. Any suggestions or thoughts on how this will work or how I might do it better? Thanks!
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I've made port wine truffles before. I reduced the port until it was syrupy, and added it to the cream before adding to the chocolate. The main problem I've always run into when mixing wine and chocolate is that wine typically isn't a strong enough flavor to really come through in truffles. Even very high-end professional red wine truffles just taste vaguely wine-y. Port is a bit better, if only because it seems to concentrate more when it reduces. In any case, I think that a tablespoon per pound will get lost. I say use as much as you need, but add some corn syrup (or invert sugar, or honey, or dextrose, or chemical stabilizer) to keep the ganache from getting grainy.
Either way, I think your best bet is to make sure the white chocolate gets dyed red, and then people's subjective perceptions will be that it tastes like delicious wine, even if it is actually quite subtle. You could use some red food coloring with a little bit of blue, or reduce the wine with some beet chunks in it (then strain).
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Thanks . . . this is very helpful. I've just reduced 4 cups of Bordeaux and 4 Tbs of light corn syrup to a half-cup and am gonna try that for starters. And I think you're 110% right about the color to aid subjective perceptions. That's exactly why I'm going with a white chocolate ganache . . . so it'll be pinkish-red. I bought some red wine truffles this morning from Artfully Chocolate / Kingsbury Confections and, as has been your experience with wine truffles, the wine doesn't really come through in the ACKC version. It doesn't help that they use a dark chocolate for the ganache. At any rate, I'll give it a go and send some prototypes to my brother and his bride-to-be to see what they think. Thanks, again, for the advice.
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Whoa... these look great! I'm impressed. Still have never made chocolates- it kind of scares me?? Why is that? And you are a real sweetie for making 250 (YOU'RE CRAZY!!) as a present for your brother's wedding. We made all the favors ourselves for our wedding and I was like a crazed maniac the week before my wedding making things. Hats off to you!
amy @ https://www.weareneverfull.com
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The photo makes me hungry! LOL I envy you for making these yummy chocolates. Your brother must be proud of you.
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