Adventures in Chocolate

So it's  always a good time to celebrate Chocolate at Allen & Petersen, I thought it would be 'fun' to make my own Passion Fruit Bon Bons! We just got all the needed supplies into the kitchen store- Belgian chocolate callets, chocolate molds, luster dust, etc. So I geared up and dove in. Please note, I am a novice. I have no experience, no training, and truthfully, no skills. In fact, I am more qualified to be a Mouseketeer than a chocolatier- and I had no idea what an adventure it was about to be! It began with the chocolate melting.

I used a double boiler method with a glass bowl over hot water and followed the steps to temper the chocolate. In retrospect, I would have been more aware of the process because my one pound of melted chocolate suddenly became two as I tried to lower the temperature of the chocolate in the bowl by adding unmelted callets. With all that chocolate ready to go, I suddenly realized that it would have been a good idea to purchase more than one mold- it turns out it's not like making cookies where once one batch is out of the oven another can go in, etc. There's more time involved in each 'batch' as the chocolate cools.

I had prepared the mold by washing it and allowing it to thoroughly dry, then brushing each cavity with a lovely pink luster dust.  Next I filled each with a healthy scoop of chocolate- again, a little too much chocolate.

Next time I would start with less, maybe even use a drizzle spoon, because the next step is to turn the mold over and shake the excess chocolate on to a sheet of wax paper or silicone mat, leaving a nice fill-able shell.

However, with too much excess my edges became a little messy, which affected the finished product and made my Bon Bons a little wobbly on their bottoms. Next came the filling. I had made a lovely Passion Fruit Ganache with fresh pulp I brought back from my Aunt's garden in Hawaii- yummy!

I thought it would be a good idea to pipe it into the cooled shells, but once again, I over filled and so some of my Bon Bons were more like Bon Balls once I added a 'cap' of chocolate to seal in the filling. Here again, the edges were overflowing, so once the chocolate cooled and the Bon Bons popped out, their edges needed quite a bit of trimming. So really, temperance is just as important as the tempering!

I just used a super sharp knife blade to trim them up, and nestled each one into a pretty cupcake liner that I had turned inside out. I love how the luster dust shines on the top, in fact that would be the one thing I would use more of next time.

Into the boxes they go! Just right for gifting. Now the only question is what to do with the rest of that chocolate?....

Want to learn more about chocolate? Keep an eye on our Cooking Demo Schedule for the Chocolate Workshop, Fondue Family Fun and other delicious opportunities for your own adventures in and with CHOCOLATE!

#chocolate #MothersDay