Chocolate selection Pack 1

After making a few batches of the original choc truffles I got rather excited about making more chocolates that maybe, just maybe, looked like those chocolates you can purchase in ye olde shoppes. So after snooping around on the net I decided to buy some little silicon moulds and play with a few ideas and flavours.

I chose these individual moulds because I wanted to play with a lot of shapes for as little money as possible. A tray mould would be easier if you wanted to line each mould with hard chocolate first for eg making truffle or caramel centres, but these work very well for making hard chocs. I tried a truffle mix in these with a view to freezing and then peeling off the moulds but even then the mix was too flexible to come out with out being misshapen.
The hazelnut truffles I did try, then, with a swift bit of manipulation, became truffle balls.
      When using these moulds, even though they peel back off of the chocolate, it's still a good idea to give them a bit of non-stick help. I did this by means of putting all the moulds in a 9" x 9" tin, tilting it, and giving them a light spray of Cake Release Spray, then dabbing any excess off with kitchen towel. Not sure if the solid chocs would come out ok without spray, but better safe than sorry.
      So, the 3 new flavours I tried (In the top photo - The Snowball in the middle was a Damson Gin Liqueur truffle rolled in grated white chocolate, and the plain chocolate one is a naked Hazelnut Crunch.) were the following:

Hazelnut crunch:

• 200g Dark choc (around 50% cocoa)
• 200g Dark choc (70%+ cocoa)
• 150g Double cream
• 2 tbsp Roasted hazelnut bits.
• 2 tbsp Nutella (Or similar spread)
• 20g crushed Coco-Pops (About a variety pack size)
• 100g crushed crunchy cereals eg Rice Krispies, Coco-pops, Honey Nut loops

Preparation:

1. Chop the 200g 50% chocolate into small pieces.
2. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it starts to bubble at the sides.
3. Add the chocolate to the cream. Leave for a few minutes then stir gently for a while until thoroughly mixed. 
4. Add the Nutella and mix thoroughly.
5. Add the Hazelnut bits and 20g Coco-pops and mix together thoroughly.
6. Pour the mix into a shallow bowl and chill in the fridge for at least an hour
7. Line a tray with baking paper, and spoon out marble sized lumps of truffle mix rolling each one into a rough ball shape.
8. Place the tray of rough truffle balls back in the fridge for for at least 30 mins.
9. Just before they're ready melt 200g 70%+cocoa  chocolate either in a bowl over simmering water or in the microwave, heating 30 secs at a time.
10. Break up the cereals. I put mine in a deep tupperware and squished with the end of a rolling pin. and place in a shallow bowl
11. Take the truffles out of the fridge and roll each one into a neater ball. If they get too messy whilst doing this then put back in the fridge for 5 mins.
12. Chuck a truffle ball into the melted chocolate then fish out with a fork, forks or cocktail sticks, hold for about 10 secs while the the excess drips off, then chuck it into the crushed cereals, and cover with cereal. Leave that one and do another ball in the melted choc, when that's in the cereal roll the first ball around in the cereal. Then do another ball into the chocolate and into the cereal. By this time the first ball should be cool enough so the choc doesn't run anymore and will be solid to handle. Place it on a tray. Continue like this, with 2 or 3 truffles in the cereal all the time until finished.(It's simpler than I make it sound lol) 
13. Any left over melted choc can be poured onto some baking paper to cool, then broken up and eaten kept to be melted another day.

White Chocolate Peppermint Crunch:

These nice solid chocolates I made in the prep'd moulds and they came out lovely loike :)

• 200g white chocolate
• 1 tsp Peppermint extract
• 1 heaped tablespoon Granulated sugar.
• Melted dark chocolate for decoration.

Preparation:

1. Melt the chocolate
2. Add the peppermint extract (As much as you want to your taste) and stir in thoroughly
3. Add the sugar and stir in gently
4. Teaspoon the chocolate into the Prep'd moulds
5. Leave to cool completely
6. When cool, put in the fridge for 15 mins
7. Melt the dark chocolate
8. Remove from moulds onto a piece of baking paper
9. Either drizzle the melted dark chocolate from a spoon tip over the chocolates, or use a fine tip nozzle and piping bag to do more detailed and controlled decoration. (I used spoon for mine)
10. Eat.

Dark Chocolate Orange Crunch:

Another easy chocolate to make with the moulds using as strong a dark chocolate as you like and incorporating the rather posh, exclusive ingredient of crushed Frosties to add a crunch :) (I'm a classy geeza!) As you can see from the photos the decoration is, well, frankly, bloody atrocious! lol I experimented with my first baking paper piping bag, and instead of being sensible and sliding in a fine nozzle that I had, I just snipped the end to make a little hole, but, well, it didn't work well and it looks like a drunk T-Rex trying to balance on a Pilates ball did the piping. Ah well, they taste ace. You need:

• 200g Dark chocolate.
• 1 tsp Orange extract (Or to taste)
• Variety pack of Frosties, crushed, or blitzed in processor. (About 17g)
• Melted white chocolate and food colouring (Orange, or Red & Yellow)

Preparation:

1. Melt the chocolate.
2. Add Orange extract and stir in thoroughly.
3. Add Frosties and mix in gently.
4. Spoon into prep'd moulds.
5. Leave to cool completely.
6. Place in fridge for 15 mins then remove from moulds onto baking paper.
7. Melt small amount of white chocolate and stir in food colouring to the colour you want.
8. Drizzle or pipe ex-white chocolate to decorate.
9. Cool and eat.

Some tunes for the chocolate!

One of the best Oasis tracks - Oasis - Some might say (Fact - The original title was Some might say that chocolates are bad for us but I say they aren't! alright?)

Oh, ok, another one of the best tracks, Oasis - Live Forever from the awesome live DVD Familiar to Millions, and if you want to feel bloody old it was recorded July 21st 2000! (Fact - The original title for the song was 'If you want to live forever eat lots of chocolate!'

...and finally, I'm going for another rather spiffing tune from that era, the wonderfully catchy Ash - Burn Baby Burn. (Fact - The original title for this song was 'Be careful to melt your chocolate slowly or you might burn it, and baby, you really don't want to burn it. )

Ah, more organic blogginess, after having a snoopy through Elpiniki's Greek tradition blog (See comments) I was reminded of this absolute dance classic from La Rissa - I do both Jay and Jane. I had no idea La Rissa was a Greek county! Education is fun kids! This version is taken from 2001 Club Nation album.