World Chocolate Day!
Tempered caramelised white chocolates
Celebrate world chocolate day on Wednesday 7th July with Head Chef, Jess at the Devonshire Fell’s caramelised white chocolates. Perfect for those who are looking to master some pastry skills, looking to impress or just quite simply need their chocolate fix?
You will need:
Sous vide wand (water bath)
Coco butter raw (food grade) 50g
Chocolate powder colouring 1g each colour
Dark coverture chocolate 200g
Milk coverture chocolate 200g
White coverture chocolate 200g
Piping bags
Polycarbonate moulds
Caramelised white coverture chocolate
Draining rack
Gastro tray
Pallet knife
Blow torch
Your choice of cavity flavour
Method:
Step one - Coco butter silk
24 hours, sous vide 33 degrees Celsius. When finished the silk should have the appearance of mayonnaise. Roll this up into parchment paper and set in the fridge.
Step two - Coco butter colours
To make the chocolate colourful you can mix 1 gram of food grade chocolate colouring powder into the coco butter silk, use a ratio of 1:4, (4 parts coco butter silk). Heat the mixture to 33 Degrees Celsius to keep the coco butter in temper and paint the chocolate moulds. Work quickly as the colours will set quickly! Leave to cool and set at room temperature. Scrape off any access colour with a palette knife.
Step three - Chocolate tempering
This easy method, is less wasteful and more accurate! Dark, milk and white all have different tempering heats. Pick your favourite, Chef Jess's personal preference is caramelised white chocolate, which you can buy
Step four
Take the coco butter silk which should now be set and grate 2g of coco butter silk and set aside,(We will be mixing this with the chocolate once it is at its cooled stage, it works on a ratio of 1 part coco butter to 100 parts chocolate (1:100).
Step five
To do a full tray of chocolates. I would recommend 200g of your chosen chocolate. Place this into a pipping bag and tie of the end tightly with a piece of string. Water and chocolate do not mix so ensure no water gets into the chocolate ever! Set your water bath or sous vide wand to the melting temperature, so let’s say 45 Degrees Celsius for our caramelised white chocolate. The chocolate should melt fairly quickly, I would recommend leaving it in the water bath at this temperature for 15 minutes. Whilst the chocolate is in the bath it’s important to agitate it. So give the bag a tickle every few minutes and move the chocolate around.
Step six
Now we need to bring the temperature down to the cooling phase, (you can speed up this process by adding cubes of ice to the water bath). So for caramelised white it’s about 26 degrees celsius. So again, we leave this in the bath for 15 minutes and agitate.
Step seven - the tricky bit
Take the piping bag out of the water and dry with a tea towel, dry it completely. Undo the end of the bag and add the 2 grams of coco butter silk we made the day before. Reseal the bag with a very tight knot. Again water and chocolate are mortal enemies, be sure not to mix. Once this is done return the bag to the bath and heat the water to 29 degrees celsius. Agitate and leave it there for 15 minutes, you can now leave the chocolate in temper for as long as you want and it will pour out perfectly.
Step eight - turning your chocolate into moulds
Make sure you have your rack set up, chocolate sets quickly! Get your coloured chocolate moulds ready. Take the chocolate out of the water bath, and pour into the moulds, lift over the rack and tap the sides to knock any air out. Then turn the mould over and continue to tap to pour out any excess chocolate. Then leave aside to cool. You can cool this in the fridge, but I like it to cool at room temp.
Step nine
Scrape off any excess chocolate from the moulds then fill the cavity with your favourite flavour, I have chosen salted peanut butter. Once the cavity is filled go over the chocolates with a blow torch before sealing them with some more tempered chocolate. This will help them seal together.
Enjoy!!
Caramelised chocolate, simple roast white chocolate in the over on 180 degrees until golden, stir occasionally to keep it roasting evenly. When it’s a golden caramel colour take it out of the over and beat it as it cools it’s should be nice and smooth. If you find it is not smooth, place it over a bain marie then pass it through a sieve.