Coffee-Hazelnut Chocolates

So I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to chocolate. I'm not much of a chocolate eater in the first place...I'll take a few pieces of dark chocolate if it's convenient, but I don't crave it. M&Ms...I usually never eat more than one b/c it's just too much for me. Then again, I'm more of a dark chocolate type of gal, rather than the sweeter milk chocolate.

However, it's the challenge of chocolate that really piques my interest. The whole process of tempering it just so...and keeping it in temper...*swoon* I really love trying to master anything that's tempermental. I've been reading up a lot on chocolate lately and it really blows my mind how many crazy things can be done with it. Whew. AMAZING. Anyway, one challenge I really wanted to try was the art of hand-dipped chocolates. I won't say that I was particularly successful at this, b/c hand dipped chocolates are true artisan treats and mine are lumpy. I had a tough time making the coffee ganache smooth, which had a role in the lopsidedness of some of the pieces. I also let Lemon-zest slice up the pieces and she looked like she struggled. I'm not even sure I let it set long enough b/c some of the pieces actually fell apart during chopping. Sigh.

This is a two-textured dipped center. Coffee ganache vs. a hazelnut milk chocolate praline. The texture is pretty interesting. Chewing on the praline is almost like chewing on raw sugar (ever eaten a sugar cube before?). I'm not sure if I'm in love with it or not, but that might be the non-milk chocolate loving part of me. If I make this again, I'll probably keep the milk chocolate in the praline, but dip it into dark chocolate.

Anyway, this recipe comes from the book, Making Artisan Chocolates by Andrew Shotts. Considering how expensive cookbooks can cost, this one is very reasonable at under $20. It's got a lot of recipes, and some good information...like the temperatures for tempering different brands of chocolate and a section on pairing chocolates with wine and...BEER. Not enough pictures, but the pictures he does have are really good. He taints the pictures though when you see his face b/c he looks so grumpy. It might be his "serious" face, but he looks like you shouldn't try messing with him when he's in chocolate mode! If you're looking for a good chocolate book that isn't a huge investment, this is a pretty good one. However, I have a different suggestion if you're trying to go $50+. Experiments from that to come...

Making Artisan Chocolates

(hehe, you can see my teethmarks.)

Coffee-Hazelnut Chocolates
Yields 42 pieces


For hazelnut praline:
98 g whole hazelnuts, skin on, toasted
196 g granulated sugar
21 g water

For milk chocolate praline:
91 g 38% milk chocolate, melted and cooled to 90 degrees
196 g hazelnut praline, room temperature
7 g cocoa butter, melted and cooled to 90 degrees

For coffee ganache:
119 oz 64% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
98 g heavy cream
21 g freshly ground coffee, preferably Italian
7 g light corn syrup
21 g salted butter, cubed, soft, but not melted
2 tbsp coffee-flavored liqueur

For foot:
147 g 38% milk chocolate, melted

Dipping chocolate:
2 lbs 38% milk chocolate, tempered
42 whole hazelnuts, skin removed, toasted

1) Hazelnut Praline: Place the toasted hazelnuts on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat. Cook sugar and water in saucepan over high heat until smoking dark amber caramel. Do not stir. Pour over hazelnuts. Let cool before breaking into pieces to place in food processor. Grind to a pasty liquid consistency.

2) Milk Chocolate Praline Layer: Combine chocolate and hazelnut praline. Add cocoa butter and stir until incorporated. Pour into pan that has been lined with plastic wrap and smoothed to remove wrinkles. Spread evenly and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Remove.

3) Coffee Ganache: Place chocolate in medium-size bowl and set aside. Combine heavy cream and ground coffee in a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat. Stir until mixture comes to a simmer, then remove and cover for 10 minutes. Then strain the cream through a fine-mesh slive into a clean bowl, measuring out 102 g. If necessary, add fresh cream to reach the required amount. Pour into a saucepan, add corn syrup and place over medium-high heat. Bring to a rapid boil, remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate. Let sit for 2 minutes and stir to combine. Once ganache has reached 95 degrees, stir in butter and coffee-flavoured liquer. Pour ganache into pan over praline layer, spreading evenly. Place in freezer for 30 minutes.

4) Adding a foot (makes it easier for dipping): Pick up both sides of plastic wrap to remove ganache from pan. Flip over onto a baking sheet, praline layer side up. Peel plastic off praline. Heat chocolate until completely melted and spread a thin layer over chocolate ganache. Put in freezer for 2 hours to set.

5) Cutting the filling: Remove the layers from the freezer and gently flip onto a parchment paper-lined cuttingboard so the foot is face down. Using a sharp, nonserrated knife, trim all four edges. Cut into squares and separate onto parchment paper. Allow squares to sit overnight at room temperature to dry.

6) Dipping: Place onto the middle of a dipping fork (large dinner fork will do) and completely submerge into tempered chocolate before pulling out. Repeat as necessary. Gently tap the handle of the fork and scrape the bottom of the fork against the side of the bowl to help remove excess chocolate. Transfer onto a clean sheet of parchment paper to set.

7) Decorating: Tap the end of a 908 Ateco pastry tip in the middle of the top of the dipped square, then place a toasted hazelnut in the center. (which I didn't do)


Obviously I love torture b/c this whole process took me FOREVER.

(p.s. I think I also made my best set of macarons yet today. I'm going to try again over the weekend and will post!!)

xoxo,
lemonie