Archive for: Chocolate
Once you have mastered the process of tempering chocolate, you are going to want to be able to do something with all of it. One of the simplest options for your tempered chocolate is using it to dip strawberries, homemade marshmallows or other goodies that you already have around the house that could use a layer of chocolate. The next simplest option is to make Chocolate Mendiants. Mendiants are a traditional French confection made with a disc of chocolate topped with dried fruits and nuts. They’re typically very colorful and they are so versatile that they never get boring.
Mendiants can be made with white, milk or dark chocolate and any combination of topping elements. Whole nuts, such as almonds and hazelnuts, are traditionally the “anchor” of a mendiant and other nuts and dried fruits are added for color and flavor. The key to a good mendiant is to experiment with flavors that you like, but to try to chose combinations that look as good as they taste so that the candies are visually appealing, too. Whole
You can customize the treats to your own tastes, but you’ll get the best results by mixing up a variety of colors, flavors and textures. For a little inspiration, a few of my favorite combinations include:
- Almonds, pistachios and dried apricots
- Almonds, pistachios and cacao nibs (pictured)
- Walnuts, pistachios and cranberries
- Pecans, cherries and gingersnap cookie pieces
- Macadamia nuts, dried pineapple and coconut shreds
You will want to line your work surface with parchment paper so that it is easy to move your mendiants after they have set up. I prefer to put my parchment on baking sheets, so that the mendiants are easy to move around if I need more space, but you can just as easily place the parchment sheets on a table or countertop. Make sure that your toppings are close by; the chocolate sets up quickly once it is piped and you want those toppings to be easy to reach for! I recommend piping a few circles of chocolate at a time, then adding the toppings before piping another row. The chocolate will spread slightly, but you can put these fairly close together and fit a lot of chocolates onto one sheet of parchment.
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Tempered chocolate is very glossy, has a firm finish and melts smoothly at around body temperature. Simply melting the chocolate before you use it to dip berries, truffles or other goodies does not temper it. The process of tempering involves raising and lowering the temperature of the chocolate to encourage strong, organized crystallization of the cocoa butter so that the finished chocolate will have that glossy look, a sharp snap and will be resistant to chocolate bloom. In short, tempering chocolate makes it last longer and look better, and if you are serious about using chocolate in your kitchen, it is good to know how to do it.
There are several ways to temper chocolate and this method is known as seeding. It is very simple and it is very easy to do at home, both with small and large quantities of chocolate. For this demonstration, I am working with dark chocolate. Milk and white chocolates also need to be tempered and can be tempered in the exact same way as this dark chocolate, but the tempering process happens at a slightly lower temperature.
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Imagine that you pull an unopened bar of your favorite chocolate out of the pantry, eager to take a bite, only to discover a whitish film discoloring the surface of your treat. This is a common occurrence and brings up many questions. What is the white layer? Is the chocolate still safe to eat? Can I still bake with it?
The whitish layer is what is known as “chocolate bloom.” There are two types of chocolate bloom: fat bloom and sugar bloom. The chocolate bar in the photo above shows only a very slight bloom: the dusty areas of what should be a shiny milk chocolate bar are patches of cocoa butter. Chocolate bloom can also look quite dramatic and the whole bar will be discolored.
Fat bloom is by far the most common type of bloom. It is usually caused when the chocolate is exposed to high temperatures – such as being left in your car on a sunny day – and then allowed to re-set. A warm environment will cause the cocoa butter to melt and separate from the rest of the ingredients in your chocolate, then rise to the surface of the bar creating an off-white “bloom.” Fat bloom can also be the result of improperly tempered chocolate. The best way to avoid fat bloom is by storing your chocolates in a cool place, preferably one where the temperature is consistent.
The second type of bloom is sugar bloom. This can be seen in chocolates that have a speckled appearance, rather than an even layer of white on their surface. It is caused by an excess of moisture that actually causes the sugar in the chocolate to crystallize. This is less common than fat bloom and can usually be avoided by storing your chocolates in a cool, dry place.
Chocolate that has bloomed is still safe to eat and still safe to bake with. It may not have the “snap” and silky-smooth texture of well-tempered chocolate, but the flavor will be just fine. I prefer to bake with chocolate that has bloomed because once you melt it down, it returns to its original condition and texture and you will never be able to tell that your cake, cookies or brownies started with a bar of bloomed chocolate.
Tempering is a word that means improving the consistency, durability or hardness of a substance by heating and cooling it. Many substances, including metals, are tempered but the most important one might be chocolate. Tempered chocolate is very glossy, has a firm finish and melts smoothly at around body temperature. It is chocolate at its very best, and tempered chocolate is what most good quality chocolate candies, candy bars and bon bons are made out of.
Tempering is done by melting solid chocolate to a temperature high enough that the crystals in the cocoa butter (yes, there are tiny crystals in your chocolate) break down. This temperature is between 110-120F. Once the chocolate is fully melted, it must be cooled to about 82F, a temperature at which crystals will start to form again so that the chocolate can eventually re-solidify. The chocolate’s temperature is then raised back to about 90F, where it is very fluid and can be poured into chocolate molds and used for other applications. All chocolate – white, milk and dark - can be tempered.
The crystals that start to form when the chocolate is cool (Beta 5 crystals, if you want to get specific) are stable crystals contained in the cocoa butter of chocolate. They provide the necessary structure for the chocolate to become shiny, smooth and have a good “snap” when it is set. Chocolate that has not been tempered or that has been improperly tempered will look flat or discolored. It will lack the sharp “snap” of tempered chocolate and will typically not be as smooth as it melts.
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Macarons are one of my favorite treats to make for special occasions, and they should be one of yours, too. These little french cookies are made with thin meringue shells that have a crisp and chewy texture and they are sandwiched together with flavorful fillings. They’re small, sweet and beautiful to look at. The cookies have a reputation of being difficult to make, largely because the almond-based meringues are delicate when compared to other cookies. That being said, the cookies are not as difficult to make as they might look and with a little patience you can easily make them at home.
Chocolate macarons are one of my favorite flavors. Chocolate shells go with a wide variety of fillings, including Nutella and chocolate ganache, and they can also be paired with a simple buttercream like I’ve used here. The finished cookies have a deep chocolate color and a lovely crisp-chewy texture to them.
The macarons are completely gluten free and start with a paste made with almond flour, cocoa powder and confectioners’ sugar. I make an Italian meringue – a cooked meringue that has a hot sugar syrup poured into beaten egg whites to cook and stabilize them – and fold it into the chocolate paste. This gives the cookies a lot of stability and creates enough bubbles in the batter to make the cookies puff up nicely when they bake. The cookies should be piped onto parchment paper or a silpat in small circles and allowed to set for about 30 minutes before baking. This set-up time allows the surface of the macaron to set and form a kind of “skin” that gives the macarons their signature smooth look.
I’ve given the quantities for this recipe in volume and by weight. I really recommend weighing the ingredients out if you have a kitchen scale because you’re going to get the best results that way. If you don’t have a scale, just be sure not to pack the ingredients down tightly (just as you shouldn’t pack flour down when you measure it) when you measure them because your cookies will be a little on the dense side if you do
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