Make your own chocolates

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 16

Make your own chocolates

Alison Hoist’s

Food Facts

Have you ever thought about making your own homemade chocolates? My children and I have spent some very happy and interesting wet, cold afternoons doing this. If you are strong-minded, and don’t eat them all as soon as they are made, you will find that the chocolates make excellent gifts. Chocolate-making can be a very complicated business, but this recipe and method is one I have worked out to suit beginners. If you think that the chocolate "dipping process sounds too messy, you can compromise and make the fillings alone. The fillings don’t stay creamy for more than a couple of days unless you cover them tightly, (when chocolate-dipped the fillings cannot dry out) but if your house is like mine, there’s not much chance that the filings will sit round for long! For the most interesting results, use a variety of essences to flavour the cream fillings. Try to have several of the following flavours: peppermint, essence almond essence ? butter-rum essence orange essence lemon essence raspberry essence strawberry essence vanilla (and coconut) When you make fruit flavoured fillings you need to add acid as well, to bring out the flavour. You can use citric or tartaric acid, but the powder or crystals must be dissolved before they are added. Fillings 2 cups icing sugar 25 g butter, melted */< cup condensed milk flavourings (see above) citric or tartaric acid Coatings ll)0g cooking chocolate 1 to 2 teaspoons solid vegetable fat (optional) Sift the icing sugar into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a small saucepan or frying pan. Stop heating it as soon as it has melted. (25 g is the same as 2 level measuring tablespoons of butter.) Tip the condensed milk into the pan with the. butter and stir until mixed.’ Do not heat it. Pour the mixture from the pot or pan into the icing -, sugar, and stir well to mix it, ’ thoroughly. Knead it .with • clean hands,: adding' more icing sugar if the mixture is too soft to handle. .

Do not add more icing sugar than you need, since the fillings are best if they are fairly soft.

Divide the mixture into three or four balls and make a dent in the top of each ball with your finger. Drop a few drops of food colouring and a few drops of essence into the depressions in each ball. Wash and dry your hands before vou start "to mix in the flavourings and colourings, otherwise you can mix flavours and spoil them. If you are using fruit flavours, dissolve ‘A teaspoon of citric or tartaric acid in *z teaspoon water, and mix a few drops of this with the colours and flavours. Taste small samples, and add’ext r - essence etc., until the fillings taste the way you like them. Form each coloured and flavoured ball into a cylinder, wrap each cylinder in plastic and put it in the refrigerator (or freezer) to set. When cold, remove the cylinder and cut it into slices.

To make the chocolate coating, break the chocolate into small pieces and stand the pieces in a small bowl in a-.larger container of hot water. The water should be hotter than bath temperature, but not boiling. Take care not to mix any jwater' with the chocolate. §tir’ chocolate gently as it melts, using a skewer. (I have found that Nestles cooking chocolate melts well "and can usually be used without the addition of any vegetable fat, such as Kremelta.) However, if you use other chocolate, or cannot get it to melt satisfactorily, add a very small amount of vegetable fat to thin it down to dipping consistency. Working quickly, drop a slice of the cold filling into the chocolate, then lift it out onto a piece of plastic (I use freeze and find bags, since these are made of patterned plastic which leaves a pattern on the bottom of the chocolates). It is easy to peel the plastic away when the chocolate has set.

For dipping, experiment to see what suits you best. We have used a wire-loop, bent at right angles, an old, bent fork, and a skewer, .with the filling impaled on the end. You can always patch the chocolate coating with drips of melted chocolate, or you can redip them after they have cooled. ’ '

: .The dipping..process is not difficult once .you get yourself organised arid, find what -works best for you. ->‘,G'ood< luck. : — chocolate making is fund Once you have mastered "this easy recipe, you can go on to all sorts of interesting fillings, limited only by your imagination.